Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Distributions and Compound-Specific Stable Carbon Isotopic Compositions of Plant Wax n-Alkanes in Marine Aerosols along a North–South Transect in the Arctic–Northwest Pacific Region

A geographical source of n-alkanes in marine aerosols was assessed along a North–South transect in the Arctic–Northwest Pacific region. Marine aerosol samples were collected during the ARA08 cruise with the R/V Araon between 28 August and 28 September 2017. We investigated molecular distributions of n-alkanes (homologous series of C16 to C34) and compound-specific stable carbon isotopes (δ13C) of n-C27, n-C29, and n-C31. Unresolved complex mixtures (UCM) showed a latitudinal trend from the Arctic Ocean to the northwest Pacific Ocean, highlighting an increasing influence of the plume of polluted air exported from East Asian countries. The anthropogenic input was further evidenced by high U/R ratios (>5) and low CPI17–23 (0.6–1.4). The occurrence of high molecular weight (HMW) n-alkanes with high CPI27–31 (>3) indicated the biogenic input of terrestrial higher plant leaf waxes in all studied samples. The δ13C of HMW n-alkanes was influenced by both the relative contributions from the C3/C4 plant sources and from fossil fuel combustions. The back-trajectory analyses provided evidence that changes in molecular distributions and δ13C of n-alkanes were due to the long-range atmospheric transport of anthropogenic and biogenic organic materials from North American and East Asian countries to the Arctic Ocean and the remote northwest Pacific Ocean, respectively.
The use of tiletamine hydrochloride and zolazepam hydrochloride for sedation of the mountain brushtail possun Trichosurus caninus Ogilby (Phalangeridae: Marsupialia)

SUMMARY A combination of tiletamine hydrochloride and zolazepam hydrochloride in a 1:1 ratio by weight was used successfully to sedate mountain brushtail possums, Trichosurus caninus, in the field. A standard total dose of 50 to 60 mg provided adequate sedation for the completion of a range of handling procedures. We describe the induction time, dose rate and side-effects associated with the use of tiletamine and zolazepam in T caninus.
Study and Susceptibility Status of Bedbug Cimex hemipterus (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) in IPB Darmaga Campus Area and Its Surrounding

Bed bugs infestation in the 1970s was considered disappeared, but since 2000s, re-emergence of bed bugs were reported from all over the world. The study of bed bugs infestation was carried in campus area of IPB University, Darmaga and its surrounding from October 2014 to February 2015. The study was aimed to determine bed bugs distribution and the degree of infestations, the biological aspect of bed bugs and their resistance to household insecticides. The bed bugs survey and collection were conducted in two types of residential areas i.e housing and temporary shelter. Housing divided into two types i.e complexes residential and densely populated, whereas temporary shelter were divided into four types i.e dormitories, boarding school, boarding house and guest house. Moreover, resistance of bed bugs were studied against three groups insecticides including organophosphate (malathion 5%), pyrethroid (deltamethrin 0.05%), and carbamate (propoxur 0.1%) by WHO method. The result showed that 64 rooms of the 244 observed rooms in all types of residential were infested by bed bugs. The only bedbug species found was tropical bedbug, Cimex hemipterus . The highest infestation found in student dormitory was 25.41%, while lowest was 0.41% and no bedbug infestation was found in other type residential. The mortality of bed bugs against malathion were the highest (87.50%) and the shortest LT50 (0.14 days). Furthermore, the mortality to deltamethrin was 21.43% with LT50 9.12 days, whereas in propoxur showed the lowest mortality (10%) and the longest LT50 (12.88 days). It showed that the bed bugs population in student dormitories in the Darmaga Campus area were resistant to three types of insecticides, especially to propoxur.
Behavior of prey links midwater and demersal piscivorous reef fishes

Pelagic and demersal guilds of piscivorous fishes are linked by a variety of biological and physical processes that mediate interactions with common prey species. Understanding the behaviors of predators and prey can provide insight into the conditions that make such linkages possible. Here we report on the behaviors of mid-water piscivorous fishes and the responses of prey that produce feeding opportunities for demersal piscivorous fishes associated with "live bottom" ledge habitats off the coast of Georgia (northwest Atlantic Ocean). Prey taxa reduced nearest neighbor distances and retreated towards the seafloor during predatory attacks by mid-water fishes. Demersal fishes subsequently attacked and consumed prey in these ephemeral high density patches. No predation by demersal fishes was observed when prey species were at background densities. If the predator-prey interactions of demersal piscivorous fishes are commonly mediated by the predatory behavior of midwater piscivorous fishes and their prey, such indirect facilitative behaviors may be important in terms of the population processes (e.g., prey consumption and growth rates) of these demersal fishes.
Decentralised federated learning with adaptive partial gradient aggregation

Federated learning aims to collaboratively train a machine learning model with possibly geo-distributed workers, which is inherently communication constrained. To achieve communication efficiency, the conventional federated learning algorithms allow the worker to decrease the communication frequency by training the model locally for multiple times. Conventional federated learning architecture, inherited from the parameter server design, relies on highly centralised topologies and large nodes-to-server bandwidths, and convergence property relies on the stochastic gradient descent training in local, which usually causes the large end-to-end training latency in real-world federated learning scenarios. Thus, in this study, the authors propose the adaptive partial gradient aggregation method, a gradient partial level decentralised federated learning, to tackle this problem. In FedPGA, they propose a partial gradient exchange mechanism that makes full use of node-to-node bandwidth for speeding up the communication time. Besides, an adaptive model updating method further reduces the convergence rate by adaptive increasing the step size of the stable direction of gradient descent. The experimental results on various datasets demonstrate that the training time is reduced up to 14 × compared to baselines without accuracy degrade.
Proteomic Analysis of Human Neuronal Cells Treated with the Gulf War Agent Pyridostigmine Bromide

Gulf War Illness (GWI) is characterized by a wide array of symptomology, which is possibly linked to the prophylactic treatment with pyridostigmine bromide (PB) against neurotoxins. It is now hypothesized that the pathological origin of this multi-symptom illness lies within the central nervous system and is caused by irregular activation of neuronal signaling pathways. To investigate this possibility, a proteomic-based approach was applied to characterize cellular responses of neuronal cells to PB exposure. Protein extracts from cultured neuroblastoma cells treated with 700nM PB for 10 days, as well as extracts from control cells were separated using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Twenty two differentially-expressed proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS). Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) software was then used to determine the biological functions and canonical pathways associated with the PB-responsive proteins.
Effect of an Exopolysaccharide-Producing Strain of Streptococcus Thermophilus on the Yield and Texture of Mexican Manchego-Type Cheese

An exopolysaccharide-producing strain of Streptococcus thermophilus was evaluated in the production of Mexican manchego-type cheese. This ropy strain improved water and fat retention, and significantly increased cheese yield. Furthermore, the ropy strain cheese retained more moisture than control cheese during ripening, suggesting that exopolysaccharide strongly bound water within the protein matrix of the cheese. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that exopolysaccharide bound to the protein matrix of the cheese, producing a dense network that helped to increase water and fat retention and leading to a more open structure of the cheese that gave a softer product, as confirmed by instrumental texture profile analysis and sensory evaluation. Comparison of scanning electron microscopy micrographs of the different sections of the cheese showed higher concentration of exopolysaccharide in the centre than in the outer sections, indicating that exopolysaccharide production continued during ripening and that the environment at the centre of the cheese (moisture and/or oxygen concentration) favoured exopolysaccharide production. Instrumental texture profile analysis also demonstrated that the ropy strain cheese was more cohesive and less elastic than the control; in contrast, exopolysaccharide did not affect chewiness. The changes in texture could be correlated to composition: hardness increased as water and fat decreased, while springiness decreased with increasing fat. The interactions of exopolysaccharide with the cheese protein matrix had an affect on the increase in cohesiveness of the ropy strain cheese.
Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Mid-Atlantic Populations of Brook Trout: The Zone of Contact for Major Historical Lineages

Abstract We tested the hypotheses that brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis in the mid-Atlantic range are transitional in phylogenetic assemblage structure and that this structure provides evidence for historic, formative geomorphological events in this region. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction fragment length polymorphisms were examined in brook trout from Maryland. Population genetic structure and intraspecific divergence were determined and compared with the results of previous work throughout the mid-Atlantic range of brook trout. A total of 29 mtDNA haplotypes was analyzed, including 15 previously undetected in brook trout. Phylogenetic analysis revealed three major assemblages in Maryland, two east and one west of the Ohio River−Chesapeake Bay drainage divide. Analysis of molecular variance indicated that drainage basins within the two major drainages were the major units of population division. These results suggest that brook trout populations in the mid-Atlantic should be managed as major assemb.
Weighted Quantile Regression Forests for Bimodal Distribution Modeling: A Loss Given Default Case

Due to various regulations (e.g., the Basel III Accord), banks need to keep a specified amount of capital to reduce the impact of their insolvency. This equity can be calculated using, e.g., the Internal Rating Approach, enabling institutions to develop their own statistical models. In this regard, one of the most important parameters is the loss given default, whose correct estimation may lead to a healthier and riskless allocation of the capital. Unfortunately, since the loss given default distribution is a bimodal application of the modeling methods (e.g., ordinary least squares or regression trees), aiming at predicting the mean value is not enough. Bimodality means that a distribution has two modes and has a large proportion of observations with large distances from the middle of the distribution; therefore, to overcome this fact, more advanced methods are required. To this end, to model the entire loss given default distribution, in this article we present the weighted quantile Regression Forest algorithm, which is an ensemble technique. We evaluate our methodology over a dataset collected by one of the biggest Polish banks. Through our research, we show that weighted quantile Regression Forests outperform “single” state-of-the-art models in terms of their accuracy and the stability.
ECOLOGICAL SCALING: MAMMALS AND BIRDS

The effort necessary to measure the differences in lifetime reproductive success in nature has already been described convincingly (20). All impregnations, births, and deaths that occur throughout the entire turnover of a wild population must be recorded. This process is both necessary and fascinating, but it is slow. The individual recognition and continuous surveillance necessary to accom­ plish this task are difficult, if not impossible, to attain with small animals; they require extremely long projects for large, conspicuous, and long-lived ones. In the interim, as our species is "rivet-popping on Spaceship earth" (27), we need to have a general pattern that we can use for comparative and predictive purposes (25). Has each life history evolved uniquely with random details that must all be described de novo, or is there a ground plan with "design constants" for an entire class or other major taxon (32, 60)? Body size is the predominant influence on an animal's requirements and opportunities for resource exploitation, thus providing a simple and powerful basis for revealing major patterns in life histories and population structure. The size-dependence of some variable (Y) has been expressed routinely as an exponential function of body mass (M. in kg) in the allometric equation:
Digestion des glucides cytoplasmiques de la féverole par le veau préruminant

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Digestion des glucides cytoplasmiques de la féverole par le veau préruminant J. M. Besle, B. Lassalas, P. Thivend
Amount and distribution of biochemical‐genetic variation among wild populations and a hatchery stock of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., from north‐east Ireland

Tissue samples from a total of 617 Atlantic salmon from seven locations in north-east Ireland were electrophoretically examined for genetic variation at 28 enzyme loci. Patterns of allelic variation at eight polymorphic loci indicated the existence of genetic differentiation within, as well as among, river systems. This suggests the presence of localized genetically differentiated populations of salmon in N. Ireland. Temporal variation in allelic frequencies was tested among three year classes of wild R. Bush salmon and found to be insignificant compared to the spatial variation. Examination of equivalent year classes of R. Bush hatchery-reared salmon displayed significant temporal variation at five loci, and significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at two loci. Heterozygosity was not reduced in the Bush hatchery population (mean 4.3%) compared to the wild populations sampled (range, 2.9-5.4%; mean, 4.2%). These results are discussed in relation to management of wild populations and maintenance of hatchery stocks.
STUDIES EST BACTERIOSIS. XXIV: STUDIES ON A BACTERIUM ASSOCIATED WITH LEAFY GALLS, FASCIATIONS AND “CAULIFLOWER” DISEASE OF VARIOUS PLANTS. PART ILL FURTHER ISOLATIONS, INOCULATION EXPERIMENTS AND CULTURAL STUDIES1

Summary 1 Bact. fascians (Tilford), the causal agent of fasciation of sweet peas, leafy galls, etc., has been isolated from abnormal growths on plants of twenty-five different genera belonging to sixteen families, including both Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons. 2 All these strains of Bact. fascians were inoculated on to sweet pea seedlings which, in the majority of cases, became severely fasciated. 3 Characteristic galls have been produced on chrysanthemums, carnations, Schizanthus sp. , Nicotiana sp. , Heuchera sanguinea, petunia, Asparagus sprengeri, Pisum sativum, Phaseolus vulgaris and Vicia Faba by inoculation with various strains of Bact. fascians. No distinct biological variations among the strains could be detected. 4 Inoculation of gladiolus, tomato and potato gave negative results. 5 The galls are invariably produced in the region of bud tissue. In young growths the bacteria are mainly confined to the exterior of the galls. 6 The organism may be carried on the seeds of Schizanthus. 7 A study of the physiological reactions of forty strains of Bact. fascians has failed to disclose any means by which virulent and a virulent strains can be distinguished in culture.
Transmission of a Viral Disease (AIDS) Detected by a Modified ELISA Reaction: A Laboratory Simulation.

The following is a description of a laboratory exercise simulating the spread of an infectious agent among students in a classroom. The exercise was developed at the University of Arizona during a summer research project with a high school teacher working in a laboratory that studies cancer and AIDS immunology. The use of a modified Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA; Engvall & Perlman 1971) provides students with experience using an authentic diagnostic tool for detecting human infections. ELISA tests are used routinely in medical diagnostics and research laboratories (Emmons et al. 1995). An ELISA uses an antibody covalently linked to a readily assayed enzyme to detect the specific antigen of interest. AIDS (Gallo 1991; Stine 1996) is an example of a disease which is initially diagnosed by an ELISA. A repeated positive ELISA test for HIV infection would be followed up with a Western Blot, an immunoassay that provides more detailed information, to confirm the presence of an infectious agent. The simulated ELISA reaction has been significantly modified to be safe, to be rapidly performed (with results in 15-20 minutes), and to use concen-
Nonlinear vibration of thick multi-scale composite doubly curved shells

ABSTRACT: In this paper, the large amplitude vibration of moderately thick three-phase multi-scale composite doubly curved shells is investigated. The epoxy resin is enriched by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the E-glass fibers are embedded in the reinforcement matrix. The effective materials properties are predicted by combination of Halpin-Tsai relation and micromechanics approach. The von Kármán geometric nonlinearities terms and first-shear deformation theory are employed to obtain the governing equations. Galerkine’s method is used to reduce the coupled governing equations to an ordinary nonlinear differential equation. The first-order analytical approximate and periodic solution is derived by homotopy perturbation method (HPM). The results include the effect of CNTs weight percentage, CNTs aspect ratio and vibration amplitude on nonlinear frequency of multi-scale composite doubly curved shells.
Motives for Alcohol and Marijuana Use as Predictors of Use and Problem Use Among Young Adult College Students

This study examined (a) differences between alcohol-only users and alcohol–marijuana co-users and (b) motives for use in relation to alcohol and marijuana use and problem use. Spring 2016 data among 1,870 past 4-month alcohol users (63.6% female, 69.1% White) from seven Georgia colleges/universities were analyzed cross-sectionally and with regard to problem use measured 4 months later. Correlates of co-use (n = 345; vs. alcohol-only use, n = 1,525) included greater alcohol and marijuana use frequency, problem drinking and marijuana use, and alcohol use motives (p’s < .05). Controlling for covariates, alcohol use frequency correlated with greater marijuana use frequency and Coping and Self-enhancement alcohol use motives, but lower Conformity alcohol use motives (p’s < .001); greater Coping and Self-enhancement alcohol use motives (p’s < .01) predicted problem alcohol use. Marijuana use frequency correlated with greater Coping and Expansion marijuana use motives (p’s < .05); greater Expansion marijuana use motives (p = .005) predicted problem marijuana use. College-based substance use interventions should target Coping and Self-enhancement alcohol use motives and Expansion marijuana use motives.
‘Sitting on a wobbly chair’: mental health and wellbeing among newcomer pupils in Northern Irish schools

ABSTRACT Schools in Northern Ireland (NI) have become increasingly diverse with the numbers of newly arrived migrant pupils more than doubling over the past decade. While studies have shown an increasingly high prevalence of mental health difficulties among young people in NI generally, there is a paucity of research with at risk groups, including members of ethnic minority communities. This paper draws on data from a study commissioned by The Education Authority (NI) that investigated the mental health needs of newcomer pupils in schools in NI according to newcomer pupils themselves, as well as school staff and youth workers who support them, and to make recommendations for future development. Participant views and lived experiences were explored through questionnaires, online surveys, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. Results suggest that, while many newcomer pupils have adapted well and display average levels of emotional well-being, many have experienced a range of adversities that may negatively impact mental health. Recommendations are made that relate to the emergent themes: to consider pre-existing stress and trauma (especially among refugees); respect socio-cultural differences and perspectives; foster relationships and collaboration; and empower and support schools.
Wood Anatomy, Stem Anatomy, and Cambial Activity of Barbeuia (Caryophyllales)

Liquid-preserved material of mature sterns of Barbeuia madagascariensis Steud. permiUed analysis of meristematic activities. The species has successive cambia, each producing secondary xylem and phloem; outside of these vascular strands is a nondiffuse lateral meristem, probably functionally a single cell in thickness, which produces radial files of secondary cortex to the outside and conjunctive tissue and vascular cambia to the inside. The secondary xylem of Barbeuia has dimorphism in vessel diameter, reminiscent of vessel dimorphism in other lianas, such as Agdestis. Diffuse parenchyma and tracheids, found in Barbeuia, also occur in Stegnosperma and Agdestis but not other Phytolaccaceae s.l. , and are traditionally considered primitive features. Wood anatomy and lateral meristem activity of Barbeuia are distinctive enough to support segregation of the genus from Phytolaccaceae s. s.
Normalization of Active Appearance Models for Fish Species Identification

In recent years, automatic visual coral reef monitoring has been proposed to solve the demerits of manual monitoring techniques. This paper proposes a novel method to reduce the computational cost of the standard Active Appearance Model (AAM) for automatic fish species identification by using an original multiclass AAM. The main novelty is the normalization of species-specific AAMs using techniques tailored to meet with fish species identification. Shape models associated to species-specific AAMs are automatically normalized by means of linear interpolations and manual correspondences between shapes of different species. It leads to a Unified Active Appearance Model built from species that present characteristic texture patterns. Experiments are carried out on images of fish of four different families. The technique provides correct classification rates up to 92% on 5 species and 84.5% on 12 species and is more than 4 times faster than the standard AAM on 12 species.