Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimating the Spatial Distribution and Future Conservation Requirements of the Spotted Seal in the North Pacific

Simple Summary To understand the impact of climate change on marine mammals, we focused on the spotted seal population in the North Pacific. This ice-breeding species exhibits distinct variations across different regions. Our study aimed to quantify their ecological niches and conduct a conservation gap analysis. We found clear niche divergence among three populations and observed habitat contraction driven by climate change, potentially leading to breeding habitat loss in certain areas. Unfortunately, existing marine protected areas do not adequately cover most spotted seal habitats. By incorporating local adaptation into species distribution modeling, our research provides valuable insights for designing effective conservation policies to protect the different geographical populations of spotted seals in the face of climate change. This study highlights the importance of considering local adaptation in conservation and management strategies for marine mammal species. Abstract Local adaptation has been increasingly involved in the designation of species conservation strategies to response to climate change. Marine mammals, as apex predators, are climatechange sensitive, and their spatial distribution and conservation requirements are critically significant for designing protection strategies. In this study, we focused on an ice-breeding marine mammal, the spotted seal (Phoca largha), which exhibits distinct morphological and genetic variations across its range. Our objectives were to quantify the ecological niches of three spotted seal populations, construct the species-level model and population-level models that represent different regions in the Bering population (BDPS), Okhotsk population (ODPS) and southern population (SDPS), and conduct a conservation gap analysis. Our findings unequivocally demonstrated a clear niche divergence among the three populations. We predicted habitat contraction for the BDPS and ODPS driven by climate change; in particular, the spotted seals inhabiting Liaodong Bay may face breeding habitat loss. However, most spotted seal habitats are not represented in existing marine protected areas. Drawing upon these outcomes, we propose appropriate conservation policies to effectively protect the habitat of the different geographical populations of spotted seals. Our research addresses the importance of incorporating local adaptation into species distribution modeling to inform conservation and management strategies.
Blackcurrant Anthocyanins Improve Blood Lipids and Biomarkers of Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Healthy Women in Menopause Transition without Changing Body Composition

Recent cell and animal studies suggest the potential of blackcurrants (BCs; Ribes nigrum) as a dietary agent that may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by improving dyslipidemia, oxidative stress, and inflammation. This study aimed to examine the effects of BC anthocyanin (ACN) extract supplementation on biomarkers of CVD risk in healthy adult women in menopause transition. The effects of BC ACN supplementation on body composition, fasting blood lipids and biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress were evaluated using anthropometric measures and blood samples collected from a pilot randomized controlled clinical trial in peri- and early postmenopausal women. Thirty-eight eligible peri- and early postmenopausal women aged 45–60 completed the entire trial, in which they were randomly assigned into one of three treatment groups: placebo (control group), 392 mg/day (low BC group), or 784 mg/day (high BC group) for six months. The significance of differences in outcomes was tested using repeated-measures ANOVA. Overall, following six-month BC consumption, significantly decreased triglyceride (TG) levels were observed between treatment groups (p < 0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. Plasma interleukin-1β (IL-1β) was significantly reduced in a dose and time dependent manner (p < 0.05). Significant decreases in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) levels were also observed between treatment groups (p < 0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. Six-month change in oxidized LDL was inversely correlated with changes in catalase (CAT) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) (p < 0.05), while C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) change was positively correlated with changes in TG and IL-1β (p < 0.01). Together, these findings suggest that daily BC consumption for six months effectively improved dyslipidemia, inflammation, and lipid peroxidation, thus potentially mitigating the risk of postmenopausal CVD development in study participants. Future studies with larger sample sizes and at-risk populations are warranted to confirm these findings.
ANÁLISE DO COEFICIENTE E O DESEMPENHO DO IRRIGÂMETRO E A INFLUÊNCIA DOS ELEMENTOS DO CLIMA NA ESTIMATIVA DA EVAPOTRANSPIRAÇÃO

At the Federal University of Vicosa, in Vicosa, MG, has developed a device evapopluviometric called Irrigameter, which allows measuring evapotranspiration, providing the right time to irrigate and the time of operation of an irrigation system or the speed of movement. In this research, the objectives were: (a) determine the Irrigameter coefficient (KI), monthly, in the highest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 cm of water level in evaporimeter (b) assess the performance of Irrigameter to estimate evapotranspiration under conditions of Alto Paranaiba-MG, in August 2008 to May of 2009, and (c) examine the effects of monthly meteorological variables in the interactions of the reference evapotranspiration estimated by Irrigameter operating with different heights of the level of water in evaporimeter. The experiment was mounted in a completely randomized design with six treatments and three replications. The levels of water in evaporimeter to estimate the evapotranspiration of reference were: 4.1, 4.0, 3.6, 3.8, 3.3, 3.0, 2.5, 3.3, 3, 0 and 2.9 cm for the months of August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April and May, respectively. For the path analysis, the climatic factors that had high correlation with the estimate of the evapotranspiration of Irrigameter were the relative humidity for the months of August and January, minimum temperature and relative humidity for the month of September, maximum temperature and relative humidity, for the month of October and minimum temperature for the month of May.
Tumor Testing and Genetic Analysis to Identify Lynch Syndrome Patients in an Italian Colorectal Cancer Cohort

Simple Summary Lynch syndrome (LS) is an inherited genetic condition caused by germline mutations in DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes. It is associated with a predisposition to different types of cancer, including colorectal cancer (CRC). CRC is the fourth most common cancer worldwide. The screening algorithm for the selection of LS patients is based on the identification of CRC specimens that have MMR loss/high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) and are wild-type for BRAFV600. The aim of this retrospective study was to clinically and molecularly characterize CRC patients with these features. We used a comprehensive approach including tumor testing for the assessment of MSI status, clinical evaluation of patients and their families, and genetic analysis to identify variants in MMR and other cancer-related genes. The clinical and molecular characterization of these patients highlights the importance of personalized medicine to provide tailored genetic counseling, management, and surveillance to families with LS and hereditary cancer. Abstract Lynch syndrome (LS) is an inherited cancer susceptibility syndrome caused by germline mutations in a DNA mismatch repair (MMR) gene or in the EPCAM gene. LS is associated with an increased lifetime risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) and other malignancies. The screening algorithm for LS patient selection is based on the identification of CRC specimens that have MMR loss/high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) and are wild-type for BRAFV600. Here, we sought to clinically and molecularly characterize patients with these features. From 2017 to 2023, 841 CRC patients were evaluated for MSI and BRAFV600E mutation status, 100 of which showed MSI-H. Of these, 70 were wild-type for BRAFV600. Among these 70 patients, 30 were genetically tested for germline variants in hereditary cancer predisposition syndrome genes. This analysis showed that 19 of these 30 patients (63.3%) harbored a germline pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant in MMR genes, 2 (6.7%) harbored a variant of unknown significance (VUS) in MMR genes, 3 (10%) harbored a VUS in other cancer-related genes, and 6 (20%) were negative to genetic testing. These findings highlight the importance of personalized medicine for tailored genetic counseling, management, and surveillance of families with LS and other hereditary cancer syndromes.
Psychological factors associated with vaccination hesitancy: an observational study of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in a later phase of the pandemic in Italy

Introduction Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 has been used to reduce the severity of COVID-19 disease and the incidence of new cases. However, a significant proportion of people have shown vaccination hesitancy. Methods This study explored psychological factors related to vaccination hesitancy in a sample of Italian COVID-19 patients (N = 54), hospitalized during 2021, after vaccines had been made available and while the vaccination campaign was on-going. Consecutive patients, aged 18 or older, admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of COVID-19 were assessed with a set of standardized measures. Results In our sample, 48.1% was not vaccinated and 7.4% died within 6months after hospitalization, with a preponderance of deaths among non-vaccinated patients. Non-vaccinated participants had higher resilience scores at the CD-RISC-10 scale than vaccinated ones (33.6 ± 5.50 vs 28.6 ± 6.61; t40.2=+ 2.94, p = 0.005). No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups for any other measures. Discussion Higher levels of resilience among non-vaccinated patients may reflect greater identity worth and self-esteem, in turn resulting in a decrease in vaccination likelihood. This finding may have important public health implications, as it indicates that specific psychological aspects, such as resilience, may result in vaccination hesitancy, with implications for hospitalization rates, and thus healthcare costs, as well as loss of lives.
Crustal structure in the central South Island, New Zealand, from the Lake Pukaki seismic experiment

Abstract The crustal structure of the central South Island, New Zealand, has been investigated using explosion seismology measurements. A series of 114 shots were fired in Lake Pukaki and recorded in three modes: on a 120 channel, 6 km long, seismic reflection array rolled along a 27 km profile on the eastern margin of Lake Pukaki; on a Reftek seismograph array consisting of 40 units spread over a 52 km long line, partially coincident with the reflection profile; and wide angle reflections from the lower crust recorded on permanent stations of the New Zealand Seismograph Network that were located between 80 and 120 km from the shots. The data show that the greywacke‐schist forming the mid‐upper crust of the Pacific plate is c. 25 km thick near the east coast and thickens as a crustal root to >35 km beneath the Southern Alps. A strong reflection was recorded from a depth of 25 km and is interpreted to be from the base of the greywacke‐schist crust overlying an old oceanic crust. Below 6 km depth the compre.
Named Entity Recognition Utilized to Enhance Text Classification While Preserving Privacy

Recent development in Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques has encouraged NLP-based application in various field including business, legal and health. An important process for all NLP projects is text preprocessing which is a process that modifies text data before using them in a machine learning model. Usually text preprocessing process includes cleaning, filtering, removing and replacing some texts to increase model accuracy, robustness, reduce data size or preserve privacy. Named entities recognizer (NER) is an NLP tool which finds Named Entities in text such as: names, organization, addresses, numbers and date. In this work, we create a preproccessing approach that uses NER to find named entities and, then, replace them with their type i.e. location, person or organization name to improve accuracy and preserve privacy instead of removing them or letting them become noise to our data. Experiments for text classification task using our approach have been conducted on several datasets some of which were collected in-house. Experiments indicate that using this approach enhances classifier accuracy and reduces feature representation’s dimensionality while, also, preserve privacy.
Detection of urban fugitive dust emission sources from optical satellite remote sensing images

Urban fugitive dust emission is an open pollution source that enters the atmosphere because of the dust on the ground being lifted by the wind or human activities. Dust pollution is a major contributor to atmospheric particulate matter, making it a focus for pollution control and environmental surveillance stakeholders. The identification and monitoring of dust sources hold profound practical implications. The use of remote sensing detection method facilitates extensive coverage, high accuracy, and non-invasive monitoring of urban fugitive dust emission sources. This approach enables timely alerts about potential air pollution threats, allowing swift interventions to alleviate adverse consequences. This paper mainly studies the semantic segmentation of fugitive dust sources from remote sensing images, employing advanced deep learning algorithms. In this paper, we selected Wuhai City in China as the experimental area and created Wuhai Dust Sources Dataset. This dataset, established through high-resolution satellite remote sensing data from Gaofen-1 satellite, contains 2,648 images, capturing 707 distinct dust sources. This work evaluates four different deep learning models utilising FCN and U-Net architectures as backbones in conjunction with a variety of feature extraction convolutional neural networks. The experimental results exhibit promising detection outcomes for all four models. Among these, the U-Net combined with VGG feature extraction network has the best performance, achieving an MIoU at 81% and a Mean Precision at 92%.
Mapping Quantitative Observer Metamerism of Displays

Observer metamerism (OM) is the name given to the variability between the color matches that individual observers consider accurate. The standard color imaging approach, which uses color-matching functions of a single representative observer, does not accurately represent every individual observer’s perceptual properties. This paper investigates OM in color displays and proposes a quantitative assessment of the OM distribution across the chromaticity diagram. An OM metric is calculated from a database of individual LMS cone fundamentals and the spectral power distributions of the display’s primaries. Additionally, a visualization method is suggested to map the distribution of OM across the display’s color gamut. Through numerical assessment of OM using two distinct publicly available sets of individual observers’ functions, the influence of the selected dataset on the intensity and distribution of OM has been underscored. The case study of digital cinema has been investigated, specifically the transition from xenon-arc to laser projectors. The resulting heatmaps represent the “topography” of OM for both types of projectors. The paper also presents color difference values, showing that achromatic highlights could be particularly prone to disagreements between observers in laser-based cinema theaters. Overall, this study provides valuable resources for display manufacturers and researchers, offering insights into observer metamerism and facilitating the development of improved display technologies.
Chia Oil Microencapsulation Using Tannic Acid and Soy Protein Isolate as Wall Materials

The use of proteins to produce oil-containing microcapsules has been previously analyzed; however, their chemical modification, in order to improve their performance as wall materials, is a strategy that has not been widely developed yet. This study aimed to analyze the chemical modification of the proteins through cross-linking reactions with tannic acid and to evaluate their performance as wall materials to the microencapsulation of oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. The cross-linking reaction of isolated soy protein and tannic acid was carried out at pH 10–11 and 60 °C. Subsequently, emulsions were made with a high-speed homogenizer and microcapsules were obtained by spray drying. Microcapsules were characterized by particle size, morphology (SEM), total pore area and % porosity (mercury intrusion methodology), superficial properties (contact angle), and size distribution of oil droplets (by laser diffraction). Additionally, encapsulation efficiency was determined as a function of total and surface oil. Oil chemical stability and quality were studied by Rancimat, hydroperoxide values, and fatty acid profiles. In addition, a storage test was performed for 180 days, and released oil and polyphenols were determined by in vitro gastric digestion. Moreover, the fatty acid composition of the oil and the total polyphenol content and antioxidant capacity of polyphenols were analyzed. The results showed that spray-dried microcapsules had an encapsulation efficiency between 54 and 78%. The oxidative stability exhibited a positive correlation between the amount of polyphenols used and the induction time, with a maximum of 27 h. The storage assay showed that the peroxide value was lower for those cross-linked microcapsules concerning control after 180 days. After the storage time, the omega-3 content was reduced by 49% for soy protein samples, while cross-linked microcapsules maintained the initial concentration. The in-vitro digestion assay showed a decrease in the amount of oil released from the cross-linked microcapsules and an increase in the amount of polyphenols and a higher antioxidant capacity for all samples (for example, 238.10 mgGAE/g and 554.22 mg TE/g for undigested microcapsules with TA 40% versus 322.09 mgGAE/g and 663.61 mg TE/g for digested samples). The microcapsules showed a high degree of protection of the encapsulated oil, providing a high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAS) and polyphenols even in prolonged storage times.
Study of thulium-167 cyclotron production: a potential medically-relevant radionuclide

Introduction: Targeted Radionuclide Therapy is used for the treatment of tumors in nuclear medicine, while sparing healthy tissues. Its application to cancer treatment is expanding. In particular, Auger-electron emitters potentially exhibit high efficacy in treating either small metastases or single tumor cells due to their short range in tissue. The aim of this paper is to study the feasibility of a large-scale production of thulium-167, an Auger-electron emitter radionuclide, in view of eventual systematic preclinical studies. Methods: Proton-irradiated enriched erbium-167 and erbium-168 oxides were used to measure the production cross sections of thulium-165, thulium-166, thulium-167, and thulium-168 utilizing an 18-MeV medical cyclotron equipped with a Beam Transport Line (BTL) at the Bern medical cyclotron laboratory. The comparison between the experimental and the TENDL 2021 theoretical cross-section results were in good agreement. Additional experiments were performed to assess the production yields of thulium radioisotopes in the BTL. Thulium-167 production yield was also measured irradiating five different target materials (167 Er 2 O 3, 168 Er 2 O 3, nat Tm 2 O 3, nat Yb 2 O 3, 171 Yb 2 O 3) with proton beams up to 63 MeV at the Injector II cyclotron of Paul Scherrer Institute. Results and Discussion: Our experiments showed that an 8-h irradiation of enriched ytterbium-171 oxide produced about 420 MBq of thulium-167 with a radionuclidic purity of 99.95% after 5 days of cooling time with a proton beam of about 53 MeV. Larger activities of thulium-167 can be achieved using enriched erbium-168 oxide with a 23-MeV proton beam, obtaining about 1 GBq after 8-h irradiation with a radionuclidic purity of < 99.5% 5 days post end of bombardment.
Finding environmental discourse in historical newspapers: a topic model workflow for query disambiguation

Digitized historical newspapers are a treasure trove of information for our understanding of the past. As one popular application, the frequencies of query matches can be used to understand the prevalence of some discourse in a historical era. This requires the construction good queries: broad enough to capture diverse contexts and narrow enough to exclude irrelevant ones. For historical research in digital humanities, targeted queries that emphasize precision have been advised. In this paper, we develop an alternative approach, by using broad queries to cast a wider net and then using topic models built on the match contexts to filter out irrelevant matches. Specifically, we look for contexts discussing environmental issues throughout the 20th century using a corpus of two Australian newspapers. We report on a comparison of iteratively constructed narrow and broad queries and their precision and recall, and find our approach to discover roughly 7-10x more matches with a comparable level of accuracy. This combined approach can work well for focussed research projects where deliberate query construction and qualitative feedback on the results is feasible.
Displacement as a response to non-local allomorphy: Evidence from Tiwa

The strong tendency for the trigger and target of allomorphy to appear local to one another is often modeled via locality constraints on allomorph selection at the point of exponence in realizational theories of morphology. We present a case study of Tiwa (Tibeto-Burman; India) verbal morphology in which non-adjacency of allomorphy trigger and target is tolerated at the point of expo-nence. However, post-exponence displacement later occurs to bring about surface adjacency between the trigger and target of allomorphy through either inversion or doubling of the allomorphy trigger. This process of displacement late in the post-syntax provides evidence that the locality bias in allomorphy cannot be modeled solely via constraints on exponent selection. Instead, a bias toward surface locality operates at various stages in the grammar. We offer an analysis of the Tiwa displacement patterns couched in Optimality Theo-retic Distributed Morphology in which constraint interaction allows for either morph inversion or doubling to emerge as a response to non-locality of the allo-morphy trigger and target. We explore other possible responses to non-locality in allomorphy and discuss how locality-driven displacement can interact with other linearization principles as a possible pathway to multiple exponence.