Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inverse relationship between understory light and foliar nitrogen along productivity gradients of boreal forests

The constraints of light and N on sapling growth in forest understories can covary with site productivity, but this reciprocal relationship is not always recognized when describing stand dynamics. To facilitate this, we examined light availability and foliar N status of understory subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt. ) along natural productivity gradients of old-growth boreal forests in British Columbia, Canada. Understory light declined with soil fertility, from a high of 30% of full sun on poor sites to as low as 15% on very rich sites. In contrast, understory foliar N concentration (N%) of subalpine fir increased with soil fertility (ranging from 9.3 to 14.2 g·kg–1) and paralleled asymptotic stand height, despite growing in the shade. Trends in foliar N% of the understory were comparable with overstory subalpine fir, and both increased in foliar N% with soil fertility more so than lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud.). Foliar N per unit leaf area of the suppressed understory was fairl.
Usefulness of Proximal Coronary Wave Speed for Wave Intensity Analysis in Diseased Coronary Vessels

Background: Wave speed is needed to separate net wave intensity into forward and backward traveling components. However, wave speed in diseased coronary arteries cannot be assessed from hemodynamic measurements obtained distal to a stenosis. Wave speed inherently depends on arterial wall properties which should be similar proximal and distal to a stenosis. Our hypothesis is that proximal wave speed can be used to separate net wave intensity obtained distal to a stenosis. Methods: We assessed coronary wave speed using the sum-of-squares single-point technique (SPc) based on simultaneous intracoronary pressure and flow velocity measurements in human coronary arteries. SPc at resting flow was determined in diseased coronary vessels of 12 patients both proximal and distal to the stenosis. In seven of these vessels, distal measurements were additionally obtained after revascularization by stent placement. SPc was also assessed at two axial locations in 14 reference vessels without a stenosis. Results: (1) No difference in SPc was present between proximal and distal locations in the reference vessels. (2) In diseased vessels with a focal stenosis, SPc at the distal location was paradoxically larger than SPc proximal to the stenosis (28.4 ± 3.7 m/s vs. 18.3 ± 1.8 m/s, p < 0.02), despite the lower distending pressure downstream of the stenosis. The corresponding separated wave energy tended to be underestimated when derived from SPc at the distal compared with the proximal location. (3) After successful revascularization, SPc at the distal location no longer differed from SPc at the proximal location prior to revascularization (21.9 ± 2.0 m/s vs. 20.8 ± 1.9 m/s, p = 0.48). Accordingly, no significant difference in separated wave energy was observed for forward or backward waves. Conclusion: In diseased coronary vessels, SPc assessed from distal hemodynamic signals is erroneously elevated. Our findings suggest that proximal wave speed can be used to separate wave intensity profiles obtained downstream of a stenosis. This approach may extend the application of wave intensity analysis to diseased coronary vessels.
Foraging while breeding: alternative mating strategies by male Weddell seals?

1. In terrestrially breeding phocid seals males are significantly larger than females with their large size conferring advantage in male–male competition, and increasing their ability to fast during the breeding season, prolonging tenure and hence mating opportunities. 2. For aquatically breeding seals, the opportunity to feed during the breeding season may offset the need for large size and the ability to fast. 3. Individual differences in male breeding success, behaviour and mass changes for Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) at Turtle Rock, McMurdo Sound (77.727S, 166.85E) during 1997, 1998 and 1999 were recorded. 4. Males were tracked under the ice through each breeding season using an acoustic array (n=15). Mass changes were measured for 30 males, all of which were successfully genotyped and were aged between 6 and 20 years (mean 13.7). 5. Territory use was dynamic, with some males spending most of the time either at or near the surface, others diving deep and others switching from regular diving to near surface behaviour. 6. Rate of mass loss varied more than three-fold (mean 2.1 ± 0.53 kg day−1, range 0.0 to 4.1) as did mass-specific loss (mean 0.53 ± 0.23). 7. Maximum dive depth for the individuals also varied dramatically (10 to 518 m) and was inversely related to the rate of mass-specific loss, suggesting that the deep diving males may offset the costs of breeding by foraging. 8. Males that stayed near the surface successfully sired pups as did males that continued to dive. Both strategies therefore seemed to be equally successful. 9. Foraging during the breeding season may be a male strategy that may potentially prolong tenure, but appears to be facultative rather than obligative. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Seasonal variations in the morphology of the coccolithophore Calcidiscus leptoporus off Bermuda (N. Atlantic)

Calcidiscus leptoporus is a cosmopolitan coccolithophore species with one of the longest fossil records. A previous morphometric study on coccoliths of C. leptoporus, carried out on a global set of Holocene sediment samples, indicated that temperature might be a significant, factor influencing the size distribution of C. leptoporus. In the present study, C. leptoporus morphological variations and dynamics are studied in samples from Hydrostation S time series, near Bermuda, over a 3year interval (1991 to 1994) with monthly sampling, Calcidiscus leptoporus was present all year round in very low abundances but displayed strong variations through the time-series, both in absolute abundances (maximum 551 cells/l and minimum <10 cells/l) and in morphology. No significant correlation between environmental parameters and C. leptoporus abundances was found. The seasonal dynamics of C. leptoporus, therefore, appears to be the consequence of plankton community interactions and, possibly, of life-cyle. The morphological study of C. leptoporus shows a sharp decrease in size and variability occurring during the spring-summer transition at the onset of water stratification. Our results give no conclusive evidence as to whether C. leptoporus at Hydrostation S consists of an assemblage of different species or ecophenotypes. However, we provide evidence for significant morphological plasticity linked to seasonality and possibly temperature. More importantly, our results show a trend between temperature and morphology opposite to the study of Knappertsbusch et al. (Knappertsbusch et al., 1997) based on Holocene sediments. These results emphasize the necessity of plankton studies in order to interpret patterns observed in sediments.
Towards the use of Situation Hierarchies for supporting Decision Making: A Formal Lattice-Based Approach

Monitoring is a critical task to manage modern applications using cyber-physical systems such as in healthcare, environmental monitoring, water and energy distribution or Industry 4.0. Its main goal is the optimization of the equipment use, the prediction or avoidance of failures, and the change in the operating modes of the system according to both the system goals and its current condition. The abnormal situations that could lead to failures can have different levels of severity, and can be nested in different ways. In this context, this paper proposes a method to build a lattice, ordering those situations depending on the constraints they rely on. This lattice represents a road-map of all the situations that can be reached from a given one, desirable or undesirable. This helps in decision support, by allowing the identification of the actions that can be taken to correct the abnormality avoiding in this way the interruption of the system processes.
Capitalizing on a TREC Track to Build a Tweet Summarization Dataset

Today there is a lack of standard collection for automatic tweet summarization evaluation. The construction of such a large dataset is very tedious. In this paper, we check whether the dataset proposed for the TREC Incident Streams track, which was not created for automatic summary generation, could be used in this way. Indeed, when filtering the TREC Incident Streams (IS) dataset with the assessors’ annotations, it appears to respect the citeria identified in the literature related to automatic summarization. For this, we studied the TREC IS dataset and then proposed a subset summarizing each event, based on the assessors’ annotations. This subset is evaluated according to the criteria previously mentioned. Several widely used state-of-the-art models for automatic text summarization, adapted to tweet summarization, were finally tested on the proposed dataset. The code, the annotations and the results are provided on our Github.
A karyological review of the orders Asparagales and Liliales (Monocotyledonae)

Karyology of the Asparagales and Liliales is reviewed with references to their morphology, embryology, DNA analyses, and other aspects. Asparagaceae, Ruscaceae, Dracenaceae, and Nolinaceae may share a common ancestor with x = 10, and Tecophilaeaceae, Cyanastraceae, and Ixioliriaceae with x = 12. Tricyrtis (Uvulariaceae) is karyologically similar to Tulipa, Gagea (Liliaceae) and Smilax (Smilacaceae); Clintonia (Uvulariaceae) to Medeola (Liliaceae); Prosartes and Streptopus (Uvulariaceae) to Calochortus (Calochortaceae); Scoliopus (Trilliaceae) to the Medeola-Clintonia group or Calochortus-Prosartes-Streptopus group. The original chromosome size of the Asparagales and Liliales may be estimated as small. Die karyologischen Verhaltnisse der Asparagales und Liliales werden dargestellt und in Beziehung zu Morphologie und Embryologie, zu DNA-Analysen und anderen Aspekten gesetzt. Fur die Asparagaceen, Ruscaceen, Dracaenaceen und Nolinaceen wird eine gemeinsame Ahnform mit x = 10, fur die Tecophilaeaceen, Cyanastraceen und Ixioliriaceen mit x = 12 angenommen. Grose karyologische Ahnlichkeiten bestehen zwischen Tricyrtis (Uvulariaceen), Tulipa, Gagea (Liliaceen) und Smilax (Smilacaceen), zwischen Clintonia (Uvulariaceen) und Medeola (Liliaceen), zwischen Prosartes und Streptopus (Uvulariaceen) sowie Calochortus (Calochortaceen), zwischen Scoliopus (Trilliaceen) und der Medeola-Clintonia-Gruppe oder der Calochortus-Prosartes-Streptopus-Gruppe. Die ursprungliche Chromosomengrose der Asparagales und Liliales wird als klein eingeschatzt.
Evaluation of Conversational Agents for Aerospace Domain

The use of conversational agents within the aerospace industry offers quick and concise answers to complex situations. The aerospace domain is characterized by products and systems that are built over decades of engineering to reach high levels of performance within complex environments. Current development in conversational agents can leverage the latest retrieval and language model to refine the system’s question-answering capabilities. However, evaluating the added-value of such a system in the context of industrial applications such as pilots in a cockpit is complex. This paper describes how a conversational agent is implemented and evaluated, with particular references to how state-of-the-art technologies can be adapted to the domain specificity. Preliminary findings of a controlled user experiment suggest that user perception of the usefulness of the system in completing the search task and the system’s responses to the relevance of the topic are good predictors of user search performance. User satisfaction with the system’s responses may not be a good predictor of user search performance.
Winter warming events damage sub‐Arctic vegetation: consistent evidence from an experimental manipulation and a natural event

1. The Arctic is experiencing considerable change in climate, particularly in winter, and a greater frequency of extreme climatic events is expected. However, the impacts of winter climate change and extreme events have received far less attention than the impacts of season‐long summer warming. Here we report findings from observations following a natural event and from experimental studies to show that short (<10 days) extreme winter warming events can cause major damage to sub‐Arctic plant communities at landscape scales.
Fibula Mass; Unusual Presentation of Stress Fracture with Pseudarthrosis: A Case Report

Stress fracture is a common diagnosis of pain in the lower extremity in the lack of obvious trauma history. Nowadays, with better recognition of its pathophysiology and advanced diagnostic facilities, it is more convenient to distinguish stress fracture. But in some cases, it is troublesome to differentiate stress fracture from serious conditions such as neoplasm. The current case report described an unusual case of proximal fibula stress fracture presenting with mass and local tenderness without history of trauma or vigorous activity.
Molecular and Biotechnological Approaches in the Diagnosis of Leprosy

Leprosy is a worldwide health problem, which needs the development of new and inno- vative strategies to be controlled. Early diagnosis of leprosy is an important contribution to reducing the incidence of the disease; thus, the development of biotechnology plat- forms, which include the mapping of antigens with potential to be used in immunodiagnostic and molecular methods for the detection of Mycobacterium leprae , is an important tool to confirm the clinic al diagnostic. Molecular biology and biotechnological methods have been used to assist in the diagnosis of this disease, each one with its advantages and drawbacks. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is the used method for leprosy diagnosis, and it allows the detection of infection-related antigens. Alternatively, due to their versatility to perform the same functions as the protein and non-protein natural antigens, mimetic peptides are considered an important tool. On the other hand, lateral flow assay (LFA) and optical and electrochemical biosensors are rapid and por - table methods, capable of performing diagnosis in the field without sample preparation. This chapter presents such techniques, their uses in the diagnosis and detection of M. leprae, as well as the potential for the development of new techniques and strategies that can help to control and understand mycobacteriosis.
Patterns of tobacco use, quit attempts, readiness to quit and self-efficacy among smokers with anxiety or depression: Findings among six countries of the EUREST-PLUS ITC Europe Surveys

INTRODUCTION We compared smoking behaviors, past quit attempts, readiness to quit and beliefs about quitting among current cigarette smokers with probable anxiety or depression (PAD) to those without PAD, from six European Union (EU) Member States (MS). METHODS A nationally representative cross-sectional sample of 6011 adult cigarette smokers from six EU MS (Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Spain) was randomly selected through a multistage cluster sampling design in 2016. Respondents were classified as having PAD based on self-reported current diagnosis or treatment for anxiety or depression, or a positive screen for major depression, according to a validated two-item instrument. Sociodemographic characteristics, patterns of tobacco use, past quitting, readiness to quit, self-efficacy and beliefs about quitting were assessed for patients with and without PAD. Logistic regression was used to examine predictors of PAD. All analyses were conducted using the complex samples package of SPSS. RESULTS Among smokers sampled, 21.0% (95% CI: 19.3–22.9) were identified as having PAD. Logistic regression analyses controlling for socioeconomic variables and cigarettes smoked per day found smokers with PAD were more likely to have made an attempt to quit smoking in the past (AOR=1.48; 95% CI: 1.25–1.74), made a quit attempt in the last 12 months (AOR=1.75; 95% CI: 1.45–2.11), and report lower self-efficacy with quitting (AOR=1.83; 95% CI: 1.44–2.32) compared to smokers without PAD. Additionally, it was found that individuals with PAD were more likely to report having received advice to quit from a doctor or health professional and having used quitline support as part of their last quit attempt. CONCLUSIONS Smokers with PAD report a greater interest in quitting in the future and more frequent failed quit attempts than smokers without PAD; however, the high rates of untreated anxiety or depression, nicotine dependence, low confidence in the ability to quit, infrequent use of cessation methods, as well as socioeconomic factors may make quitting difficult.
Evolution of Escape Behavior Diversity

Predators which form search images or learn to predict prey escape behavior should be hindered by diverse prey morphologies and escape behaviors. Thus, among conspecific prey populations, escape tactic diversities should vary positively with predation pressure and escape tactics should diverge among similar sympatric species that share predators. Escape behaviors were quantified for whiptail lizards at sites with only one species (Cnemidophorus tigris) scattered over the western North American deserts and for an assemblage of five species of sympatric whiptails in southwestern Texas. Relative predation pressure was estimated by frequency of broken tails. Several factors confound use of this index; however, percent broken tails is correlated with actual density of potential whiptail predators seen at sites. Escape-behavior diversity is positively correlated with percent of tails broken at single-species sites and is also correlated with three estimates of predator abundance, although not significantly. These results also fit another hypothesis, namely, that lizards become wary after being attacked by a predator. However, lizards with broken tails are not more wary than unharmed lizards. Sympatric whiptail species differ significantly in escape behavior. Escape behaviors are more divergent than if each species evolved its escape tactics independently of others in a random fashion. Behaviors of each whiptail species are described; syntopic species frequently differ greatly in escape behaviors. However, differences among species in escape behaviors may be related to differences in microhabitat selection, a possibility that is difficult to discount. Cnemidophorus tigris in southwestern Texas has a reduced frequency of broken tails compared with populations at more westerly sites where this species occurs without congeners but with presumed similar predation pressures, perhaps as a result of the protection offered by the assemblage of species with diverse escape behaviors.
Survival behaviour of swamp wallabies during prescribed burning and wildfire.

Context.Prescribed(orcontrolled)burningisfrequentlyadvocatedasameansofreducingfuelloadsinperi-urbanforests to minimise the risk of high-intensity wildfires. An important consideration in prescribed burns is the impact on native wildlife. Aims. An opportunity arose to follow the movements of radio-collared peri-urban swamp wallabies during a prescribed burn and after an unexpected wildfire in the same location a short time later. Movement data was used to assess the relative impactsoftheprescribedburnandwildfireonmortality,emigrationandhabitatuse;thebehaviouralresponsesandmethods of avoidance used by swamp wallabies in response to an oncoming fire front; and the management implications for wildlife that inhabit fire-prone habitats in proximity to human settlement where wildfire mitigation is necessary. Methods. Here we report on the movements of radio-collared swamp wallabies, Wallabia bicolor, before, during and after a prescribed fire and after a wildfire on the same site 6 months later. Key results. No radio-collared swamp wallabies were killed during the prescribed burn and only one wallaby was observedtoemigratefromtheareapost-fire.Thiscontrastedtothewildfirewhereonewallabydiedduringorjustafterthe fire and another perished in the post-fire environment a few months later. The wildfire also increased emigration post-fire. Conclusions. We demonstrate that wallabies can avoid fire fronts and that this avoidance behaviour may be more successful during cooler fires. The prescribed burn provided a suitable habitat for wallabies but did not result in a shift in habitat preference. Implications. Mitigation of the impact of prescribed burns on swamp wallabies may be achieved by allowing sufficient time for habitat complexity to re-establish between burns.
A Scoping Review of Multiple-modality Exercise and Cognition in Older Adults: Limitations and Future Directions

Abstract The effects of multiple-modality exercise (MME) on brain health warrants further elucidation. Our objectives were to report and discuss the current evidence regarding the influence of MME on cognition and neuroimaging outcomes in older adults without dementia. We searched the literature for studies investigating the effects of MME on measures of cognition, brain structure, and function in individuals 55 years or older without dementia. We include 33 eligible studies. Our findings suggested that MME improved global cognition, executive functioning, processing speed, and memory. MME also improved white and gray matter and hippocampal volumes. These findings were evident largely when compared with no-treatment control groups but not when compared with active (e.g., health education) or competing treatment groups (e.g., cognitive training). MME may improve brain health in older adults without dementia; however, because of possible confounding factors, more research is warranted.
Assessing potential of biochar for increasing water‐holding capacity of sandy soils

Increasing the water‐holding capacity of sandy soils will help improve efficiency of water use in agricultural production, and may be critical for providing enough energy and food for an increasing global population. We hypothesized that addition of biochar will increase the water‐holding capacity of a sandy loam soil, and that the depth of biochar incorporation will influence the rate of biochar surface oxidation in the amended soils. Hardwood fast pyrolysis biochar was mixed with soil (0%, 3%, and 6% w/w) and placed into columns in either the bottom 11.4 cm or the top 11.4 cm to simulate deep banding in rows (DBR) and uniform topsoil mixing (UTM) applications, respectively. Four sets of 18 columns were incubated at 30 °C and 80% RH. Every 7 days, 150 mL of 0.001 M calcium chloride solution was added to the columns to produce leaching. Sets of columns were harvested after 1, 15, 29, and 91 days. Addition of biochar increased the gravity‐drained water content 23% relative to the control. Bulk density of the control soils increased with incubation time (from 1.41 to 1.45 g cm−3), whereas bulk density of biochar‐treated soils was up to 9% less than the control and remained constant throughout the incubation period. Biochar did not affect the CEC of the soil. The results suggest that biochar added to sandy loam soil increases water‐holding capacity and might increase water available for crop use.