Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ASSESMENT OF MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF CAUSE OF DEATH (MCCD) IN VADODARA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, GUJARAT, INDIA -

Background: Death certificates are an important source of population-based mortality statistics . This information derived from death certificates has many important uses right from development of public health programs to allocation of health care resources. There is no adequate training received by the physicians for filling up of death certificates correctly. The resulting inaccuracies in completion of this information undermines the quality of the data derived from death certificates. Aim & Objective: To assess the completeness of Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) and the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of health personnel involved in registration system. Methods: A total of 1947 consecutive death certificates issued by community physicians were collected from 12 administrative wards of 4 zones of Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) during June 2012 to November 2013. Different variables like personal information of deceased, information regarding sequence of the death event (medical part) and medico-legal portion were assessed for its completeness. Simultaneously, knowledge, attitude and practices of Registration of birth and death (RBD) staff related to filling up of the MCCD forms was assessed in different wards of VMC. Results: Out of 1947 MCCD forms only 21 (1.1%) MCCD certificates in the study were completely filled, while 1877 (97%) were notably incomplete, 4 (0.2%) slightly incomplete and 45 (2.3%) grossly incomplete. On assessing KAP of RBD staff, none of them had been imparted the training related to registration system. Almost 87% of them were dissatisfied with the completeness of MCCD-form 4A filled up by private practitioners. Majority of them (68.8%) felt that they were overburdened due to paucity of staff. Conclusion: In conclusion, the combined effort of physicians and RBD staff is required to improve the quality of diagnostic information in death certificates. Thus, more accurate cause-of-death statistics derived from death certificates will lead to better health planning.
Evolution: The Modern Synthesis

This classic work by Julian Huxley, first published in 1942, captured and synthesized all that was then known about evolutionary biology and gave a name to the Modern Synthesis, the conceptual structure underlying the field for most of the twentieth century. Many considered Huxley's book a popularization of the ideas then emerging in evolutionary biology, but in fact Evolution: The Modern Synthesis is a work of serious scholarship that is also accessible to the general educated public. It is a book in the intellectual tradition of Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley--Julian Huxley's grandfather, known for his energetic championing of Darwin's ideas. A contemporary reviewer called Evolution: The Modern Synthesis "the outstanding evolutionary treatise of the decade, perhaps the century. " This definitive edition brings one of the most important and successful scientific books of the twentieth century back into print. It includes the entire text of the 1942 edition, Huxley's introduction to the 1963 second edition (which demonstrates his continuing command of the field), and the introduction to the 1974 third edition, written by nine experts (many of them Huxley's associates) from different areas of evolutionary biology.
The use of fish in ecological assessments

Abstract Fish provide powerful tools for assessing aquatic environments. Three attributes are especially significant: the sensitivity of fish to most forms of human disturbance, their usefulness at all levels of biological organization and the favourable benefit-to-cost ratio offish assessment programmes. Fish can be used as indicators over wide temporal and spatial ranges. Because they cover all trophic levels of consumer ecology, fish can effectively integrate the whole range of ecological processes in waterways. Fish have been used in many different roles for assessing river health and monitoring responses to remedial management. Three of these applications appear to have particular value for management of Australian rivers: (i) automated systems monitoring fish ventilation can provide sensitive, broad-spectrum and continuous sensing of water quality to protect receiving waters or water-supply intakes; (ii) programmes collecting routine data on commercial or recreational fisheries can be designed and analysed so as to isolate confounding effects due to fishery-specific factors and, hence, used to detect and monitor environmental change on large scales; (iii) the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) can be modified to suit Australian conditions and fish communities to meet the important need for a predictive model of aquatic environmental quality. The IBI is a quantitative biological tool with a strong ecological foundation that integrates attributes from several levels of ecosystem organization. Examples of the use of IBI elsewhere suggest its robustness, flexibility and sensitivity can cope effectively with the low diversity of the Australian fish fauna and the dominance of ecological generalists. A provisional structure is suggested for a test of the IBI in four riverine regions of New South Wales.
Designing sorghum as a dedicated bioenergy feedstock

The increasing cost of energy and finite oil and gas reserves has created a need to develop alternative fuels from renewable sources. Currently, the development of a renewable transportation fuel is ethanol based. Ethanol production is now sugar/starch based, but use of these carbohydrates is limited; they are also required as a food and feed source. The need to generate a large and sustainable supply of biomass to make biofuels generation from lignocellulose profitable will require the development of crops grown specifically for bioenergy production. There will be several different species used as dedicated bioenergy crops, and for several reasons; it is expected that sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) will be one of these species. Sorghum is a highly productive, drought‐tolerant species with a history of improvement and production of lignocellulose, sugar and starch. Given this history and the existing genetic improvement infrastructure available for the species, it is logical to expect that sorghum hybrids for dedicated bioenergy production can be developed in the near‐term future and will be grown and used for bioenergy production. © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Impact of clearcutting and slash burning on ectomycorrhizal associations of Douglas-fir seedlings

The effect of clear-cutting, with and without slash burning, on ectomycorrhizal formation of Douglas-fir seedlings (Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii) was studied in field and greenhouse bioassays. Twelve ectomycorrhizal types were found in three western Cascade Mountain sites on seedlings planted in soils exchanged among burned and unburned portions of clear-cuts and undisturbed forest. Rhizopogon sp. and an unidentified brown type consistently formed at least two-thirds of the ectomycorrhizal root tips. Regardless of soil origin, more ectomycorrhizae formed in clear-cuts than in undisturbed forest (primarily due to more brown mycorrhizae). Soil origin did not affect total numbers of ectomycorrhizae; however, more different types formed in undisturbed forest soils than in clear-cut soils, irrespective of aboveground environment. More nonmycorrhizal tips occurred in clear-cut soils. Seedlings grown in the same soils formed the same proportions of Rhizopogon and brown types in field and gr.
Estimates of bacterial and phytoplankton mortality caused by viral lysis and microzooplankton grazing in a shallow eutrophic lake

1. Since viral lysis and zooplankton grazing differ in their impact on the aquatic food web, it is important to assess the relative importance of both mortality factors. In this study, an adapted version of the dilution technique was applied to simultaneously estimate the impact of both viral lysis and zooplankton grazing on the mortality of heterotrophic bacteria, eukaryotic algae, unicellular cyanobacteria, prochlorophytes and especially filamentous cyanobacteria in a shallow eutrophic lake. 2. Four dilution experiments were performed in December 2004, January 2005, and March and April 2006. Viral and heterotrophic bacterial abundances were obtained by epifluorescence microscopy and abundances of different phytoplankton groups by flow cytometry and light microscopy. 3. Viral lysis was identified as the main mortality cause during the December 2004 and January 2005 experiments, apparently removing between 84% and 97% of the potential filamentous cyanobacterial production and up to 101% of the potential heterotrophic bacterial production. Microzooplankton grazing was estimated to remove between 90% and 99% of the potential unicellular cyanobacterial production and up to 46% of the potential heterotrophic bacterial production during the spring 2006 experiments. 4. In some cases, no significant impact of viral lysis or zooplankton grazing was detected. Contrary to expectations, the apparent growth rate of filamentous cyanobacteria was even sometimes observed to decrease significantly upon dilution of microzooplankton. 5. The dilution technique can give valuable insight into the impact of zooplankton grazing and viral lysis on the mortality of different plankton groups but require some caveats require special care to be taken when comparing and interpreting results.
Effects of environmental factors and agricultural techniques on antioxidantcontent of tomatoes

Antioxidants are believed to be important in the prevention of diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Lycopene is one of the main antioxidants to be found in fresh tomatoes and processed tomato products. The lycopene content also accounts for the redness of the fruit, which is one of the main qualities for which industry and consumers now look. Other carotenes (such as β-carotene), vitamin C, vitamin E and various phenolic compounds are also thought to be health-promoting factors with antioxidant properties. Since the antioxidant content of tomatoes may depend on genetic factors, the choice of variety cultivated may affect the results at harvest. To be able to control the antioxidant content of tomatoes at the field level when growing a given variety, it is necessary to know the effects of both environmental factors and the agricultural techniques used. Temperatures below 12 °C strongly inhibit lycopene biosynthesis and temperatures above 32 °C stop this process altogether. The effects of the temperature on the synthesis of other antioxidants have not yet been properly assessed. The effects of light have been studied more thoroughly, apart from those on vitamin E. The effects of water availability, mineral nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium) and plant growth regulators have been studied, but results are sometimes contradictory and the data often incomplete. During the ripening period, lycopene content of tomatoes increases sharply from the pink stage onwards, but no sufficient attempts have been made so far to assess the changes in the other antioxidants present in the fruit. This paper reviews the present state of the art. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry
Adjuvant Trends for the New Millennium1

Abstract: Adjuvants have proven very useful materials when added to a herbicide formulation or added to the spray tank to improve herbicidal activity of application characteristics. Adjuvants are so closely linked to the agrochemical markets that an understanding of the trends occurring in those markets is critical to understanding trends occurring in the adjuvant markets. The worldwide crop protection market is estimated to be about $31 billion. Herbicides are estimated to represent about 50% of the total, with insecticides (25%), fungicides (20%), and other (5%) making up the balance. The U.S. crop protection market is estimated to be in the $7 to 8 billion range. Herbicides are estimated to represent about 70% of the total, with insecticides (17%), fungicides (9%), and other (4%) making up the balance.
Rodents as carriers of tick-borne zoonotic diseases and their ecological impact

Rodents as pests are known to be reservoirs of tick-borne zoonotic infection of viral, bacterial and protozoan origin and are important hosts of the immature stages of Ixodes ticks. A total 493 rodents were live-trapped in different habitat in two biogeographical regions Lithuania and Norway. The ecological impact of different species of rodents in particular habitats was evaluated according to their infestation with ticks and presence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. and Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection. Results of the present study demonstrate that although the infestation rate varied between rodent species it was dependent on sampling location and not correlated with infection prevalence in rodents. We observed that mice in Lithuania were more frequently infested with ticks than voles, but, the higher prevalence of B. burgdorferi s.l. infection was detected in voles, than in mice. The overall prevalence of infection in Lithuania was higher than in Norway. In Norway, prevalence of infection in A. flavicollis and M. glareolus was not significantly different. The present study confirmed evidence that the rodent impact on maintenance of Lyme borreliosis depends on biogeographical region and habitat type, and that the zoonotic reservoirs of B. afzelii are M. arvalis, M. glareolus, and A. flavicollis in Lithuania, and A. flavicollis, A. sylvaticus and M. glareolus in Norway. In our present study A. phagocytophilum was not detected in any of the rodents.
Diet of Ctenotus xenopleura (Reptilia: Scincidae) in the southern Goldfields of Western Australia

The diet of Ctenotus xenopleura, a species found in spinifex grasslands in the southern Goldfields of Western Australia, consisted primarily of termites. The high proportion of termites was consistent over different sampling periods, and was higher than observed for most other Ctenotus species. It is not clear whether this high proportion of termites is the result of specialised foraging for termites by C. xenopleura.
Interannual variations in atmospheric forcing determine trajectories of hypolimnetic soluble reactive phosphorus supply in a eutrophic lake

We tested the hypotheses that variability in soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) loading from the hypolimnion to the epilimnion of a small, eutrophic, temperate zone lake is significant at both interannual and subannual scales, and that this variability is influenced by changes in lake thermal structure. We calculated weekly hypolimnetic fluxes of SRP, during the stratified periods of 2008 and 2009 in Esthwaite Water, U.K., and compared them with the SRP fluxes from external sources. As a result of variations in the supply of SRP from the hypolimnion, which differed by c. 80% between years, we found a 30% difference in overall SRP loading to the epilimnion between the 2 years. Despite similarities in mean summer meteorological conditions, relatively subtle differences in weather conditions during the midsummer of only 0.7 m s−1 in wind speed and 8 W m−2 in solar radiation between the 2 years resulted in two diverging trajectories of hypolimnetic SRP loading. In the first year, there was a high thermal lake stability of 102 J m−2 on average, and a relatively shallow epilimnion until the late summer, giving rise to prolonged deep-water anoxia and a large accumulation of SRP that was mixed into the surface waters at the end of the summer. In contrast, 30% lower thermal stability and 20% deeper epilimnetic mixing in the second year resulted in the arrest and early decline of deep-water anoxia and SRP accumulation, leading to lower SRP fluxes to the epilimnion. Understanding this meteorologically driven variability in SRP supply is crucial for predicting nutrient loading in lakes. It is likely to become especially relevant to lakes around the globe for which the importance of internal loading is predicted to increase due to the effects of climate change.
Patterns of Island Occupancy Explained by Colonization and Extinction Rates in Shrews

This is the first study reporting patterns of island occupancy in a guild of mammals with detailed information on the processes affecting these patterns: dispersal, colonization, and extinction. We surveyed the presence of three species of shrews, Sorex araneus, S. caecutiens, and S. minutus, on 108 islands in three lakes in Finland. A significant compensatory effect between island area and isolation was detected in one species, but most islands were so little isolated (< 1 km) that isolation played no great role in this study. The position and the slope of the incidence function varied greatly among the species. Fitting the model J = 1/(1 / y/Ax) to the observed incidence functions, and assuming that the annual extinction probability is 1 on islands of A = 0.5 ha, yielded quantitative predictions of the rates of colonization and extinction in the three species. Observed rates agreed remarkably well with the predicted ones (median difference 20%). Overwater dispersal rate and/or ability was lowest in the smallest species (S. minutus), probably because of its short starvation time and slow swimming rate. Unexpectedly, this species had the highest colonization ability (rate of successful colonization conditional on arriving at an island). There were no significant differences between the species in colonization rate, but interspecific differences in extinction rate were highly significant and negatively correlated with body size. We suggest that these differences are due to increasing importance of environmental stochasticity with decreasing body size in shrews. This hypothesis is supported by larger coefficients of variation of abundance in small than in large species on the mainland.
Texto para discussão nº 22: asset and liability management in developing countries- a balance sheet approach

This paper presents a discussion on the usage of a Balance Sheet Approach applied to developing countries. As an initial stage to conduct proper asset and liability management it discusses how this analytical tool could be used to increase the level of awareness from the debt managers’ point of view. The conclusion is that, although gathering the data is often difficult, the rationale behind it is rather straightforward, which could be useful to help the authorities to mitigate public debt risks while formulating policies. JEL Codes: E61, G11, H63
Species diversity and functional diversity relationship varies with disturbance intensity

The relationship between species diversity and functional diversity is a fundamental topic in conservation ecology but its direct evaluation in naturally heterogeneous systems and its relationship with disturbance intensity is limited. We examined the relationship between taxonomy-based species diversity (in terms of richness and evenness) and trait-based functional diversity of riparian and upland vegetation and determined if the slopes of this relationship vary with disturbance intensity. We used data from riparian and upland plant communities subjected to three categorical disturbance intensities (low = uncut mature forests, intermediate = riparian buffers around clearcuts and riparian buffers around clearcuts + soil scarification, and high = clearcuts and clearcuts + soil scarification) along 24 small streams of boreal forests in northwestern Ontario, Canada. For all disturbance intensities and habitat types (riparian vs. upland), the relationships between species diversity and functional diversity were positive and non-zero, but the slopes of these relationships varied significantly with disturbance intensities. In species richness vs. functional richness relationship, the slopes were steep at low and high disturbances and relatively less steep at moderate disturbance; however, patterns were less clear in species evenness vs. functional evenness relationship. Differential distributions of species richness per trait were, in part, associated with this variation in slope. In richness (opposite for evenness), less steep slopes were associated with relatively uniform distribution of species richness per trait compared to non-uniform distribution at steep slopes, where competitive (low disturbance) and disturbance-tolerant (high disturbance) traits dominated. Our results confirm that species diversity is a good indicator of ecosystem stability but it depends on ecosystem disturbance history. More importantly, this study suggests that different components of species diversity (e.g., richness and evenness) and the distribution of species richness per trait together can summarize the stability of an ecosystem more accurately than prediction made from species diversity alone.
Oxidized Low Density Lipoprotein Inhibits Interleukin-12 Production in Lipopolysaccharide-activated Mouse Macrophages via Direct Interactions between Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor-γ and Nuclear Factor-κB*

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increases the production of interleukin-12 (IL-12) from mouse macrophages via a κB site within the IL-12 p40 promoter. In this study, we found that oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) inhibited this LPS-stimulated production of IL-12 in a dose-dependent manner while native LDL did not. OxLDL inhibited p40 promoter activation in monocytic RAW264.7 cells transiently transfected with p40 promoter/reporter constructs, and the repressive effect mapped to a region in the p40 promoter containing a binding site for nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) (p40-κB). Activation of macrophages by LPS in the presence of oxLDL resulted in markedly reduced binding to the κB site, as demonstrated by the electrophoretic mobility shift assays. In contrast, native LDL did not inhibit the IL-12 p40 promoter activation and NF-κB binding to the κB sites, suggesting that oxidative modification of LDL was crucial for the inhibition of NF-κB-mediated IL-12 production. 9-Hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid, a major oxidized lipid component of oxLDL, significantly inhibited IL-12 production in LPS-stimulated mouse macrophages and also suppressed NF-κB-mediated activation in IL-12 p40 promoter. The NF-κB components p50 and p65 directly bound peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) in vitro. In cotransfections of CV-1 and HeLa cells, PPAR-γ inhibited the NF-κB transactivation in an oxLDL-dependent manner. From these results, we propose that oxLDL-mediated suppression of the IL-12 production from LPS-activated mouse macrophages may, at least in part, involve both inhibition of the NF-κB-DNA interactions and physical interactions between NF-κB and PPAR-γ.