Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FEEDING BEHAVIOR AND MAJOR PREY SPECIES OF THE SEA OTTER, ENHYDRA LUTRIS, IN MONTAGUE STRAIT, PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA

Food habits and feeding behavior ofsea otters were studied in Prince William Sound, Alaska, from May through August 1971. Otters fed primarily on clams, crabs, and sea stars: Saxidomus gigantea, Telmessus cheiragonus, and Evasterias tr08chelii, respectively, were the most important prey species identified in the major groups. Mean times for feeding dives were 67 s for females (mean waterdepth = 9.6 m) and 59 s for males (mean water depth = 11.9 m). Clams were dug from the bottom and opened with the aid of stones. Sea urchins and fishes were not identified as dietary components. The sea otter, Enhydra lutris, hunted to near ex­ tinction by 1911 in Alaska, is steadily reoccupying its former range. Several areas are being repopu­ lated naturally (Kenyon 1969), while others have been restocked with otters translocated from Am­ chitka Island in the Aleutians or from south cen­ tral Alaska (Burris and McKnight 1973). In some areas of the Aleutian Islands, sea otters have be­ come so abundant that an experimental harvest has been conducted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Populations in Prince William Sound have become large enough to permit cap­ ture of a small number of animals for restocking areas of former abundance. Large gaps still exist in our knowledge of the biology and life history of the sea otter. Past studies have dealt primarily with populations along the California coast and off Amchitka Is­ land. No intensive study of sea otters in Prince William Sound has been completed, and the only available information from that area concerns re­ stocking activities and population counts (Pitcher and Vania 2 ). The lack of information on the biol­ ogy of the sea otter in Prince William Sound and the impending development of oil reserves along the Alaska coast motivated this study.
Study on pressure drop of oil-water vary mass dispersed flow in horizontal wellbore

The Oil-water dispersed variable mass flow in the horizontal well was studied theoretically and experimentally.The key is Moody Friction coefficient and oil-water flow pattern.On the base of principle of quality conservation and momentum conservation,a mathematical model of pressure drop was developed considering influx.An experiment for measuring oil-water two phase flow was conducted in a horizontal pipe loop by using oil and water as working fluids. The pressure drop was obtained under different water cut and injection ratio.The experimental results show that the critical water fraction for phase inversion is 40% at which point the pressure drop in the pipe is largest.It is in agreement with the model proposed by Brinkman and Roscoe.The mean relative deviation is 13.6% between the pressure drop calculations and the experimental values.
Deforestation and climate impact in the Pantanal of Nhecolândia

The Pantanal is a region of distinct landscapes and fauna of great importance being considered by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve. The Pantanal of Nhecolândia is regarded as the region that suffered most deforestation among other Pantanal regions. The Nhecolândia is one of the regions of Brazil with high meat production, leading the farmers to continuously deforest large areas of trees and “cordilheiras” to increase the pasture for livestock. Studies related to a geographical character of an area has been supported by the geographic information systems and remote sensing, especially when it comes to map the changes in land use and occupation. Using the available tools of the highest existing technologies in our planet, this book aimed at seeking a relationship between deforestation in the Pantanal region of Nhecolândia with a climate impact caused by this activity through statistical techniques applications looking for a correlation between the variables provided by the Brazilian Institute of Meteorology and the techniques of geographic information systems along with the science of remote sensing.
Efficacy of second-generation antipsychotics in patients at ultra-high risk and those with first-episode or multi-episode schizophrenia

Aim The aim of this study was to examine the speed of response, doses, and safety of treatment with second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) in patients at ultra-high risk (UHR) compared to those with schizophrenia. Methods A 12-week open-label, prospective study of SGAs was performed in UHR patients and those with first-episode schizophrenia (FES) and multi-episode schizophrenia (MES). The subjects were 14–30 years old and were recruited at Zikei Hospital, Okayama, Japan from December 1, 2006 to December 1, 2011. Treatment was carried out in a natural setting in an open-label format, but clinical evaluation was performed blind. The clinical rating scales include the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and the Clinical Global Impression-Severity scale (CGI-S). Results UHR (n = 17), FES (n = 23), and MES (n = 21) patients all showed significant improvements on the GAF, PANSS, and CGI-S. However, the UHR patients showed significantly greater improvement on the GAF at weeks 4, 8, and 12 compared to the other groups, and a significantly lower modal dose of SGAs (chlorpromazine equivalent: 183 [201.1] mg/day, mean [SD]) was needed for improvement in the UHR group. Each group was also prescribed anticholinergic agents during the study period and the UHR group had significantly fewer extrapyramidal symptoms (only 6%) compared with the FES group. Conclusion Our findings suggest that UHR patients have a better response to SGAs compared to patients with schizophrenia, and that these drugs can be given safely by minimizing the dosage of SGAs and using anticholinergic agents.
Survival Model Predictive Accuracy and ROC Curves

Summary The predictive accuracy of a survival model can be summarized using extensions of the proportion of variation explained by the model, or R2, commonly used for continuous response models, or using extensions of sensitivity and specificity, which are commonly used for binary response models. In this article we propose new time‐dependent accuracy summaries based on time‐specific versions of sensitivity and specificity calculated over risk sets. We connect the accuracy summaries to a previously proposed global concordance measure, which is a variant of Kendall's tau. In addition, we show how standard Cox regression output can be used to obtain estimates of time‐dependent sensitivity and specificity, and time‐dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Semiparametric estimation methods appropriate for both proportional and nonproportional hazards data are introduced, evaluated in simulations, and illustrated using two familiar survival data sets.
Automated detection of extradural and subdural hematoma for contrast-enhanced CT images in emergency medical care

We have been developing the CAD scheme for head and abdominal injuries for emergency medical care. In this work, we have developed an automated method to detect typical head injuries, rupture or strokes of brain. Extradural and subdural hematoma region were detected by comparing technique after the brain areas were registered using warping. We employ 5 normal and 15 stroke cases to estimate the performance after creating the brain model with 50 normal cases. Some of the hematoma regions were detected correctly in all of the stroke cases with no false positive findings on normal cases.
Geographic variations in spring and autumn phenology of white ash in a common garden

Geographic variations in plant phenology are known to be affected by climatic differences over space, but the role of adaptation variability of plant populations is less well understood. In this study, I examined the geographic variations in spring and autumn phenology of white ash (Fraxinus americana L.) in a common garden and related observations over a 2-year period (2013 and 2014) to climatic and geographic factors of their provenances. Spring leaf-out of trees with northern provenances occurred later in 2013, but slightly earlier in 2014, than those with southern provenances. This difference was potentially caused by the counterbalancing effect of chilling and forcing in response to interannual temperature fluctuations. In both years, leaf senescence of white ash occurred significantly earlier for trees with northern than southern provenances, reflecting strong adaptation to a photoperiod gradient. The growing season length for white ash, therefore, is constrained by spring and fall phenology through different environmental cues. Spring phenology exerted a greater influence on the interannual variability of growing season length. Identifying these detailed adaptive patterns facilitates a better understanding of phenological change over space and allows development of genotype-sensitive phenological models to predict the ecological impact of climate change.
ATF3 functions as a novel tumor suppressor with prognostic significance in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

ATF3 was a transcription factor involved in the progression of certain cancers. Here, we sought to explore the expression and biological function of ATF3 in esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCC). The prognostic significance of ATF3 expression was evaluated in 150 ESCC samples and 21 normal squamous cell epithelium tissues. Results showed that ATF3 was down-regulated in ESCC lesions compared with paired non-cancerous tissues and low tumorous ATF3 expression significantly correlated with shorter overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Cox regression analysis confirmed that ATF3 expression was an independent prognostic factor. Experimentally, forced expression of ATF3 led to decreased growth and invasion properties of ESCC cells in vitro and in vivo, whereas knockdown of ATF3 did the opposite. Furthermore, ATF3 upregulated the expression of MDM2 by increasing the nuclear translocation of P53 and formed an ATF3/MDM2/MMP-2 complex that facilitated MMP-2 degradation, which subsequently led to inhibition of cell invasion. Finally, we showed that Cisplatin could restrain the invasion of ESCC cells by inducing the expression of ATF3 via P53 signaling. Combined, our findings highlight a suppressed role for ATF3 in ESCC and targeting ATF3 might be a potential therapeutic strategy.
The Design and Implementation of the Wave Transactional Filesystem

This paper introduces the Wave Transactional Filesystem (WTF), a novel, transactional, POSIX-compatible filesystem based on a new file slicing API that enables efficient file transformations. WTF provides transactional access to a distributed filesystem, eliminating the possibility of inconsistencies across multiple files. Further, the file slicing API enables applications to construct files from the contents of other files without having to rewrite or relocate data. Combined, these enable a new class of high-performance applications. Experiments show that WTF can qualitatively outperform the industry-standard HDFS distributed filesystem, up to a factor of four in a sorting benchmark, by reducing I/O costs. Microbenchmarks indicate that the new features of WTF impose only a modest overhead on top of the POSIX-compatible API.
Identification of a small subpopulation of candidate leukemia initiating cells in the side population (SP) of patients with acute myeloid leukemia

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Characterization of the uup Locus and Its Role in Transposon Excisions and Tandem Repeat Deletions inEscherichia coli

ABSTRACT Null mutations in the Escherichia coli uup locus (at 21.8 min) serve to increase the frequency of RecA-independent precise excision of transposable elements such as Tn10 and to reduce the plaque size of bacteriophage Mu (Uup−phenotype). By the combined approaches of physical mapping of the mutations, complementation analyses, and protein overexpression from cloned gene fragments, we have demonstrated in this study that the Uup− phenotype is the consequence of the absence of expression of the downstream gene (uup) of a two-gene operon, caused either directly by insertions in uup or indirectly by the polar effect of insertions in the upstream gene (ycbY). The promoter for uup was mapped upstream of ycbY by primer extension analysis on cellular RNA, and assays of reporter gene expression indicated that it is a moderately active, constitutive promoter. The uup mutations were also shown to increase, in a RecA-independent manner, the frequencies of nearly precise excision of Tn10 derivatives and of the deletion of one copy of a chromosomal tandem repeat, suggesting the existence of a shared step or intermediate in the pathways of these latter events and that of precise excision. Finally, we found that mutations that increase the frequency of precise excision of Tn10 are divisible into two categories, depending upon whether they did (uup, ssb, polA, and topA) or did not (mutHLS, dam, and uvrD) also increase precise excision frequency of the mini-Tn10 derivatives. It is suggested that the differential response of mini-Tn10 and Tn10 to the second category of mutations is related to the presence, respectively, of perfect and of imperfect terminal inverted repeats in them.
Short communication Divergent selection for reproduction affects dag score, breech wrinkle score and crutching time in Merinos

Merino lines that were divergently selected from the same base population from 1986 to 2009 for their ability to rear multiples were assessed for dag score in autumn and spring, breech wrinkle score, and crutching time. Animals in the Low (L) line had higher dag and breech wrinkle scores and took longer to be crutched than High (H) line contemporaries. Expressed relative to H line least squares means, means of L line individuals were respectively 54%, 65%, 42% and 40% higher for autumn dag score, spring dag score, breech fold score, and crutching time. Gender effects for dag score were inconclusive, as ewe hoggets were more daggy than rams in autumn, with an opposite trend in spring. Shearer (n = 6) also affected crutching times, with an almost twofold difference in mean crutching time from the quickest shearer (27.7 ± 3.1 seconds) to the slowest shearer (49.4 ± 3.7 seconds). The inclusion of dag score and breech wrinkle score as linear covariates in an analysis on crutching time eliminated the effect of selection line. It thus seems that the quicker crutching times of H line animals may be related to line differences for dag score and, to a lesser extent, for breech wrinkle score. ________________________________________________________________________________
Distribution and Seasonal Change of Net Primary Productivity in China from April, 1992 to March, 1993

It is significant to estimate terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) accurately not only for global change research, but also for natural resources management to achieve sustainable development. The estimation of NPP by climate data is only a potential NPP rather than true NPP. But remote sensing data can describe large scale distribution of plant resources better. So, 1 km AVHRR NDVI data was used adopted here to estimate the distribution of NPP in China. First, the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) by vegetation is derived from NDVI data using the linear relationship between FPAR and vegetation index. The incident PAR was estimated by climate data. Then NPP was calculated with absorbed PAR and energy efficiency e * g . In order to estimate NPP more accurate, the effects of temperaturely, soil water content and plant respiration were also considered in the model. The model can be described as below:NPP=e  g×f 1(T)×f 2(β)×FPAR×PAR-Rin which f 1(T) and f 2(β) mean the temperature and soil water content effects on photosynthesis, R means plant respiration including maintenance respiration and growth respiration. Monthly and annual net primary productivity in China was computed by monthly 1km AVHRR NDVI data, climate data between April, 1992 and March, 1993, vegetation type map and soil texture map. The results gained were compared with ground-observation and Miami model results. It shows that the results using remote sensing data are closer to truth. Total annual NPP in China is 2 645×10 9tC. The distribution of NPP in China is mainly effected by precipitation and has the trend of decreasing from south east to north west. Finally, the seasonal change of NPP was investigated on the basis of monthly NPP.
Electronic Food Grain Identifier for Visually Challenged People

This paper presents the study of identification and classification of different food grains using different colour models, the purpose is evaluation of both software and hardware colour identification tools which is used to assist complete blind and colour-blind people in their daily activities. Blind people face a number of challenges to interact with their environments because so much information is encoded visually. Texture and colour features are the important features used in the classification of different objects. The local features like Haralick features are computed from co-occurrence matrix as texture features and global features from cumulative histogram are computed along with colour features. The experiment was carried out for different classes of food grains. Minimum distance classifier is used to identify and classify the different types of food grains using local and global features. The non-uniformity of RGB colour space is eliminated by L*a*b, HSV, HSI and YCbCr colour space. The correct classification result achieved for different colour models is quite good.
Alcohol Consumption as a Self-handicapping Strategy

Two experiments evaluated the self-handicapping hypothesis that alcohol consumption varies directly with individuals' uncertainty of their ability to perform successfully. In a 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design, Experiment 1 manipulated (a) difficulty of an initial intellectual test (insolvable or solvable), (b) feedback regarding test performance (success or none), and (c) instructions regarding the difficulty of a retest (identical to or harder than the initial test). Ninety-six male normal drinkers then received access to an alcoholic beverage (self-handicapping option) and to study materials (performance-enchancing option). The experiment terminated before the retest. Results indicated that when a performance-enhancing option is available, subjects generally do not use alcohol to self-handicap. Experiment 2 omitted the study option and manipulated the test difficulty and retest instruction variables in a 2 X 2 factorial design. All 32 subjects received success feedback. Results showed that subjects use alcohol to self-handicap when denied access to a performance-enhancing option. With important qualifications, these data support the self-handicapping hypothesis of human drinking behavior. Inconsistent support for tension-reduction models of drinking behavior (cf. Cappell, 1975), which propose that persons consume alcohol to alleviate negative affect, has fostered alternative hypotheses that emphasize cognitive and contextual factors as determinants of human alcohol consumption 1978) used concepts derived from attribu-tion theory and proposed that persons may use alcohol as a "self-handicapping strat-egy" in situations involving performance demands commonly believed to be disrupted by alcohol: If individuals are unsure of their The first experiment was based on a doctoral disser-tation submitted to Vanderbilt University by Jalie A. ability to perform successfully, excessive alcohol consumption may provide them with a plausible external justification for potential failure. This strategy would protect self-esteem by allowing failure to be attributed to the disruptive effects of alcohol, rather than to a lack of personal competence. Conversely , success achieved after excessive alcohol intake may enhance self-esteem by strengthening attributions about personal competence, since the success would have occurred despite the handicap of performing under alcohol's impairing effects. Jones and Berglas (1978) suggested two types of circumstances as especially conducive to self-handicapping behaviors (e.g., alcohol use, lack of studying, accentuation of a physical problem) and held that both types should simultaneously reduce performance facilitating behaviors (e.g., intensive studying or physical preparation). First, self-handicapping strategies should be more readily adopted when individuals believe that past successes on tasks similar to those impending may have been due to nonability factors such …
The Evolution of a More Rigorous Approach to Benefit Transfer: Benefit Function Transfer

The desire for economic values of recreation for unstudied recreation resources dates back to the water resource development benefit-cost analyses of the early 1960s. Rather than simply applying existing estimates of benefits per trip to the study site, a fairly rigorous approach was developed by a number of economists. This approach involves application of travel cost demand equations and contingent valuation benefit functions from existing sites to the new site. In this way the spatial market of the new site (i.e., its differing own price, substitute prices and population distribution) is accounted for in the new estimate of total recreation benefits. The assumptions of benefit transfer from recreation sites in one state to another state for the same recreation activity is empirically tested. The equality of demand coefficients for ocean sport salmon fishing in Oregon versus Washington and for freshwater steelhead fishing in Oregon versus Idaho is rejected. Thus transfer of either demand equations or average benefits per trip are likely to be in error. Using the Oregon steelhead equation, benefit transfers to rivers within the state are shown to be accurate to within 5–15%.
Summarization from a Deeper Perspective

With product reviews growing in depth and becoming more numerous, it is growing challenge to acquire a comprehensive understanding of their contents, for both customers and product manufacturers. We built a system that automatically summarizes a large collection of product reviews to generate a concise summary. Importantly, our system not only extracts the review sentiments but also the underlying justification for their opinion. We solve this problem through a novel application of clustering and validate our approach through an empirical study, obtaining good performance as judged by -measure (the harmonic mean of purity and inverse purity).