Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survival, Treatment Patterns, and Identifying Predictors of Receipt of Adjuvant Therapy and Survival for Curative-intent Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: A Population-based Analysis

Introduction: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in North America. Methods: This study was conducted as a retrospective observational cohort trial of patients undergoing resection of PC in the province of Ontario, Canada between 2005-2010. The study involved linkage of administrative datasets, and abstraction of resection specimen pathology reports. Overall survival (OS) and receipt of adjuvant treatment were the primary outcomes in this study. Adjuvant treatment was classified as chemotherapy (CT) or chemoradiation therapy (CRT). Results: While adjuvant CT or CRT were not associated with improved OS, those with nodenegative disease benefited from adjuvant CT. Histopathologic factors were the strongest prognostic factors. Substantial variation in the likelihood of receiving adjuvant treatment between different institutions treating PC was identified. Residential instability, material deprivation, rurality, and median income were associated with receipt of surgery among PC patients. Conclusions: Outcomes following resection are primarily determined by tumour biology.
The reproductive biology of Corophium volutator and C. arenarium (Crustacea: Amphipoda)

The life-cycles of Corophium volutator (Pallas) and C. arenarium Crawford in the Dovey Estuary are based on two generations per year. Reproduction is well established by April and although the overwintering generation dies during the summer, reproduction continues until October as a result of the breeding of summer-generation animals. The mean brood size of C. volutator is greater than that of C. arenarium and both species show high levels of egg loss from the brood pouch. Hatching and moulting of the embryonic cuticle take place simultaneously and the initial rupture of the egg membranes is made by spines on the cuticle of the telson of the future free-living animal. These spines persist throughout post-embryonic life. Adult females of both species show a semi-lunar breeding rhythmicity and, associated with this, adult males show a rhythmic pattern of crawling behaviour. As the tide ebbs during the rising spring tide period, adult males emerge from the sediment and crawl across the mud surface in search of burrows occupied by adult females. It is concluded that copulation takes place in the burrow and not in the water column.
Apoptosis: an indicator of radiosensitivity in vitro ?

The mechanisms by which ionizing radiation kills cells was a topic of great interest to Dr Alper, and one suspects that she would have delighted in 'clarifying' the role of apoptosis. Indeed, clarification seems necessary in view of the abundance of often conflicting data currently emerging. However, given some simplifying assumptions, important patterns can be discerned. The following comments are thus framed in the context of haematopoietic cell lines, which generally undergo rapid apoptosis (within hours) following irradiation, in contrast to cells of non-haematopoietic origin, which are more likely to be characterized by delayed apoptosis (within days). Tolerance for DNA damage appears to be reduced in cells capable of rapid apoptosis, and those cells are sensitized to ionizing radiation when the apoptotic response mechanisms are fully functional. This rapid apoptotic response shows minor sensitivity to cell cycle position or radiation dose rate. Different considerations apply, however, for the delayed response. Delayed apoptosis appears to be triggered by chromosome damage, and evidence implicating delayed apoptosis as a modifier of cellular radiosensitivity is much less convincing at present.
The Miena cider gum, Eucalyptus gunnii subsp. divaricata (Myrtaceae): a taxon in rapid decline

The new combination Eucalyptus gunnii subsp. divaricata (McAulay & Brett) B.M. Potts comb. & stat. nov. is introduced for the Miena form of the Tasmanian cider gum Eucalyptus gunnii Hook.f. , once described as a separate species, E. divaricata McAulay & Brett. This subspecies occurs on the Central Plateau of Tasmania, where it intergrades clinally with E. gunnii subsp. gunnii and E. archeri. Core populations of this subspecies are among the most frost-resistant of E. gunnii sens. lat. , have juvenile foliage of interest for floriculture and have been exploited historically for their sweet sap. However, high mortality of trees in the last decade, coupled with only rare seedling recruitment and poor seed crops, is threatening the long-term survival of this taxon in the wild. E. gunnii subsp. divaricata qualifies as Endangered under Commonwealth and Tasmanian legislation.
Use of sheep grazing in the restoration of semi-natural meadows in northern Finland

Abstract The biodiversity of species-rich semi-natural meadows is declining across Europe due to ceased management. In this study we aimed to find out how successfully the local species richness of an overgrown semi-natural mesic meadow could be restored by sheep grazing after a long period of abandonment. The cover of vascular plant species in grazed plots and ungrazed exclosures was studied for five years and the responses of different functional plant groups were followed (herbs vs grasses, tall vs short species, species differing in flowering time, species representing different Grime's CSR strategies and species indicative of rich vs poor soil). Grazing increased species number by nearly 30%. On grazed plots the litter cover practically disappeared, favouring small herbs such as Rhinanthus minor, Ranunculus acris, Trifolium pratense and the grass Agrostis capillaris. Grazing decreased the cover of the late flowering tall herb Epilobium angustifolium but had no effect on the abundance of the early flowering tall herbs Anthriscus sylvestris or Geranium sylvaticum. We suggest that to succeed in restoration it is useful to determine the responses of different functional plant groups to grazing. Grassland managers need this information to optimize the methods and timing of management used in restoration. Additional management practices, such as mowing, may be needed in mesic meadows to decrease the dominance of tall species. The availability of propagules seemed to restrict further increase of species richness in our study area. Abbreviations: GRI = Grazing response index; NMDS = Non-metric MultiDimensional Scaling. Nomenclature: Hämet-Ahti et al. (1998).
Probing Study on Facilities of Competitive Sports in District Jail, Lucknow (India)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate organizational structure, administrative frame-work andfacilities of Sports in District Jail of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India. The sample of the present study wasdrawn randomly from the jail administrators, prisoners and physical educator(s) of District Jail of Lucknow.The size of the sample was 55 comprising 50 prisoners and 5 administrators. No physical educator(s) wasfound in the jail. Questionnaire taken for the study was developed by the researchers in a pilot study. Itincludes five sub-scales (a) Organizational Structure, (b) Administrative Frame-work, (c) Facilities ofSports, (d) Preference of Sports, and (e) Achievements in Sports. The percentile method was used in theanalysis of the results. The data indicates that some of the inmate information's intended to continue theirsports involvement following their release whereas some of the administrators recorded their responses toÂ prescribe the Government of India for the proper sports facilities in their jail. Many of the inmates wouldrather watch sports events on television rather than participate in one themselves. Keywords: Organization; Facilities; Prisoners; Administrators; District Jail, Lucknow.
The Impact of Macroeconomic Indicators on Stock Prices in Nigeria

This study set out to investigate the impact of macroeconomic indicators on stock prices in Nigeria. Since none of the previous writers in this area looked at the study at the individual firm's level, the research work is therefore unique as it uses a different methodology to consider it at the micro level. Secondary data on stock prices of selected firms and six macroeconomic variables between 1985:1 and 2009:4 were used for the analysis. The macroeconomic indicators used in the research work are: money supply (BRDM), interest rate (INTR), exchange rate (ECHR), inflation rate (INF), oil price (OIL) and gross domestic product (GDP). The pooled or panel model was used to examine the impact of macroeconomic variables on stock prices of the selected firms in Nigeria. This model was considered appropriate for its ability to combine both time series and cross-sectional data. Â The empirical findings of the study revealed that macro economic variables have varying significant impact on stock prices of individual firms in Nigeria. Apart from inflation rate and money supply, all the other macroeconomic variables have significant impacts on stock prices in Nigeria The study therefore concluded with empirical evidences that trends in macroeconomic variables can be used to predict movement of stock prices to a great extent in Nigeria. Keywords: Macroeconomic Indicators, Stock Market, Pooled or Panel Model,
Effets d'un gradient de lumière sur la croissance en hauteur et la morphologie de la cime du sapin baumier régénéré naturellement

This study characterized the height growth and crown form of 14-year-old balsam fir regenerated naturally under a light gradient varying from 3 to 83% of photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD). After 14 years, total height growth was correlated with percent PPFD (R2 = 0.766; p < 0.001). From 3 to 25% of PPFD, balsam firs went from a suppressed stage with an umbrella type crown shape to a full grown stage with a cone type crown shape. This morphological change was caused by a greater increase in leader length compared to the mean nodal branches length. The number of nodal and internodal branches increased with PPFD. Balsam fir crown morphology showed a strong plasticity with a light gradient going from 3 to 83% of PPFD.
Effects of photoperiod and temperature on testes, renal epithelium, and pituitary gonadotropic cells of the threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus L.

Sticklebacks were submitted to photoregimes of 8 h L:16 h D or16 h L:8 h D at temperatures of 20 or 9 °C in winter. The long photoperiod stimulated renal hypertrophy at both temperatures. At 16 h L:8 h D at 20 °C, breeding colours and breeding behaviour also appeared. The kidney was least stimulated and the 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase reactions in the Leydig cells were weakest in the 8 h L:16 h D, 20 °C group. A vigourous spermatogenesis occurred only in this group. The extension of dilated granulated endoplasmic reticulum in the gonadotropic cells was stronger after treatment with long than with short photoperiods, and most obvious at 16 h L:8 h D, 20 °C. The results point to a close correlation between the activity of the gonadotropic cells and steroidogenesis. Spermatogenesis, on the other hand, did not appear to demand very active gonadotropic cells.
Transient post-exercise hyper-perspiration of forehead area

Information about sweating responses during exercise recovery is insufficient and mostly controversial. In the present study, particular attention is given to sweating behavior at forehead area immediately after exercise. Simultaneous changes of some underlying factors are also addressed. Eight healthy young males (27.4±0.8 years old) volunteered for the study. They performed a constant work rate exercise (60 rpm at 50% of individual work load for VO2 peak) for 30 min. Sweating from the forehead area was measured by the weight gain of a covered filter paper disk. Simultaneous variations in tympanic temperature, heart rate and mean arterial pressure were obtained. Plasma concentrations for sodium, vasopressin, adrenalin and noradrenalin were also determined. Sweating rate increased up to the first sample taken immediately after exercise cessation (P < 0.05). All other variables measured increased during exercise and with exception of noradrenalin, which was maintained high. Other variables, on the whole, decreased during recovery period. At exercise, off-transient coincident with overshoot in sweating rate, tympanic temperature, noradrenalin and vasopressin were subject to a non significant elevation. These results suggest that, sweating from forehead area is still subject to increase at exercise off-transient. The effects of relevant factors studied here are contradictory and could not justify the increase seen in sweating at off-transient. More studies are required to elucidate the causative factor(s).
ANALYTIC REGULARITY AND POLYNOMIAL APPROXIMATION OF PARAMETRIC AND STOCHASTIC ELLIPTIC PDE'S

Parametric partial differential equations are commonly used to model physical systems. They also arise when Wiener chaos expansions are used as an alternative to Monte Carlo when solving stochastic elliptic problems. This paper considers a model class of second order, linear, parametric, elliptic PDE's in a bounded domain D with coefficients depending on possibly countably many parameters. It shows that the dependence of the solution on the parameters in the diffusion coefficient is analytically smooth. This analyticity is then exploited to prove that under very weak assumptions on the diffusion coefficients, the entire family of solutions to such equations can be simultaneously approximated by multivariate polynomials (in the parameters) with coefficients taking values in the Hilbert space of weak solutions of the elliptic problem with a controlled number of terms N. The convergence rate in terms of N does not depend on the number of parameters in V which may be countable, therefore breaking the curse of dimensionality. The discretization of the coefficients from a family of continuous, piecewise linear finite element functions in D is shown to yield finite dimensional approximations whose convergence rate in terms of the overall number Ndof of degrees of freedom is the minimum of the convergence rates afforded by the best N-term sequence approximations in the parameter space and the rate of finite element approximations in D for a single instance of the parametric problem.
Multiple drivers of plant diversity in forest ecosystems

Aim Theoretical and empirical studies have shown that climate is a major determinant of species richness, yet the importance of climate relative to local site conditions remains unclear in forest ecosystems across large regions. Furthermore, little is known about how climate and local site conditions affect species evenness and understorey plant diversity. Location Canadian forest (42°37′ to 68°14′ N; 53°25′ to 134°46′ W; 4 to 2170 m elevation). Methods Using national, broad-scale forest inventory data, we tested the influence of growing degree days (GDD), climate moisture index (CMI), soil drainage class (SDC) and stand age (SA) on plant diversity across Canada’s forests. Diversity was assessed on variable plot sizes from 125 to 500 m 2 for canopy tree and total plant species, and from 100 to 400 m 2 for understorey plants. Results Our models accounted for 47, 30 and 49% of total variation in canopy tree species richness, Simpson’s dominance index and total plant species richness, respectively. After accounting for the effects of plot size and management history, canopy richness increased with GDD and CMI and peaked at intermediate SDC and SA. Simpson’s dominance index decreased with increasing GDD and CMI and was lowest at intermediate SDC and SA. Total species richness was most strongly related to SDC and was highest on imperfectly drained soils. Climatic controls on species richness of understorey strata were generally weaker than those on canopy richness. Main conclusions Our results for canopy richness along a mainly longitudinal gradient demonstrate the positive effects of energy on tree species diversity and show evidence for the effects of local site conditions and secondary succession on diversity. Furthermore, our results show that the extent of the influence of climate and local site conditions on plant species diversity can strongly differ between vegetation strata.
Mobile Social Data Learning for User-Centric Location Prediction With Application in Mobile Edge Service Migration

Recently, location prediction has attracted considerable research effort because of the popularity of location-based services, such as mobile advertising and recommendations. With the unprecedented proliferation of mobile social networks, such as WeChat and Twitter, we are able to use location service to bridge the online and offline worlds, which is of great significance to many smart city applications. Different from existing studies, in this paper, we promote a user-centric location prediction approach by leveraging a user’s local mobile social information without involving other users’ location privacy. We propose a factor graph learning model that integrates not only user’s social and network information but also the correlations between a user’s locations into a unified framework. Furthermore, we use ReliefF algorithm to select user-specific significant features for location prediction and define the measure of location entropy to study the similarity between location, network status, and social behavior. To show the benefit of precise location prediction, we further apply it to personalized service migration in mobile edge computing (MEC) and accordingly propose prediction-based amortizing algorithm and lazy migration algorithm that can well balance the tradeoff between migration cost and nonmigration latency in a cost-efficient manner. We conduct extensive experiments using a real-world data trace, which shows that our model performs much better in location prediction compared with several classic methods and the MEC service quality can be significantly enhanced by leveraging the location prediction.
Detection of Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli from fecal samples of captive animals at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa

Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens and Salmonella spp. are enterotoxic, ubiquitously distributed bacteria. Diseases caused by these pathogens are well recognized in humans, livestock, companion and zoo animals and can result in morbidity, mortality, and significant economic losses. The aim of the study was to identify and simultaneously amplify enterotoxigenic E. coli; Salmonella spp. and C. perfringens using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Bacterial DNA was isolated from faeces of captive animals, birds (n=17), primates (n=6) and antelopes (n=26) using the Zymo Research Faecal DNA kit. The overall frequency of bacterial isolation was 8%. This low frequency could have resulted from the highly standardized management carried out at the zoo as well as other factors such as lack of contact with other animals and spatial buffers. Key words: Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, multiplex PCR
ATRIBUTOS FÍSICO-HIDRICOS E CARBONO ORGÂNICO DE UM ARGISSOLO APÓS 23 ANOS DE DIFERENTES MANEJOS

Due to continued machinery, soil mobilization has caused considerable changes in both soil bulk density (physical attributes) and organic C content, risking crop yield reduction and negative environ- mental effects. In this context, this work aimed at assessing changes in both physical attributes and in organic C content of a Argissolo Vermelho-Amarelo surface horizon, subjected to no-tillage (NT) and conventional till- age with disk plow (DP), heavy harrow (HG), and disc plow plus harrow (DP+HG) for 23 years. A natural forest fragment (NF) was used as reference area. A randomized-block design with 8 x 12 m plots and four rep- lications was used. Soil samples were collected at 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, and 20-40 cm depths in order to assess soil density, total organic carbon content, porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and aggregate stability. Results showed that continued cultivation increases soil physical degradation, as evidenced by both macro porosity and total porosity reduction, aggregate stability , saturated hydraulic conductivity, total organic carbon, and soil den- sity increase. The NT was found to best contribute to soil physical properties improvement and total organic carbon recovery in 0-5 cm surface layer.
Host range and geographic distribution of Armillaria root rot pathogens in the Canadian prairie provinces

A survey to identify Armillaria root rot pathogens, their host range, and geographic distribution was conducted in the Canadian prairie provinces. Collections of basidiocarps and isolates from the wood of gymptomatic or dead trees were made. Armillaria species were identified by interfertility testing and by the L-DOPA method. Three Armillaria species, A. ostoyae (Romagn.) Herink, A. sinapina Berube & Dessureault, and A. calvescens Berube & Dessureault, were identified. Armillariaostoyae was the most common species in both the subalpine and boreal forests and was found on a wide variety of coniferous and deciduous host species. Armillariasinapina was in both the boreal and subalpine forests but occurred primarily on deciduous host species. Armillariacalvescens was rare and was found only in the boreal forest on both coniferous and deciduous host species.