Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Climatic Change and Drought-Flood Regional Responses in Sichuan

Based on temperature and rainfall data from 1961-2012 collected from 40 meteorological sites in Sichuan, climate change characteristics and drought-flood regional responses of the Western Sichuan Plateau, Southwest Mountains and Sichuan Basin were analyzed using linear regression, inverse distance weighted spatial interpolation, the Z index and Morlet wavelet. We found that the temperature warming rate was 0.17℃/10a in the last 52 years in Sichuan. Precipitation shows a decreasing trend at the rate of 9.03 mm/10a; a climatic warming and drying trend was apparent. The temperature rose and precipitation increased in the Western Sichuan Plateau where a climatic warming and wetting trend was apparent. The temperature rose and precipitation decreased in the Southwest Mountains and Sichuan Basin where a climatic warming and drying trend was apparent. Drought and flood disasters of the three regions had different responses to climate change. There was a drought to waterlogging trend in response to a warming and wet climate in the Western Sichuan Plateau, the frequency of droughts and floods was low, and the cycle of droughts and floods was long,it was drought before 1900;the frequency and intensity of droughts and floods was serious and more waterlogging occurred after 1990. The warming and drying climate resulted in exacerbated drought in the Southwest Mountains and Sichuan Basin where the drought trend is obvious. The trend was waterlogging before 2000 and drought after 2000 for the Southwest Mountains of Sichuan. Drought and flood disasters were frequent before 1990, waterlogging was significantly reduced after 1990 in Sichuan Basin,and the intensity and frequency of drought was strengthened.
Race Matters:

We examine how the racial self-identifications of Latinos affect orientations towards the political system, specifically partisanship, ideology, issue positions, and the sense of commonality Latinos feel towards African-Americans and whites. Our central contention is that racial identities matter in Latino orientations to the political system. While Latinos may, in fact, occupy a “middle” position between whites and blacks, this masks substantial and significant political variation among those claiming a Latino or Hispanic identity, variation which can be attributed, at least in part, to variation in racial identification. We find that racial identity among Latinos appears to significantly influence both their policy views—at least when the policy has a clear racial aspect in the broader population—and their perceptions of other racial and ethnic groups in the US. Afro-Latinos are significantly more supportive of government sponsored health care, and significantly less supportive of the death penalty, than Latinos identifying as white. Moreover, when assessing their “commonality” with non-Hispanic blacks and whites, Afro-Latinos feel significantly closer to African-Americans whereas white Latinos feel significantly closer to whites. By contrast, when we examine broader indicators of political orientation—including partisanship and ideology—the results are far less striking. While there are modest differences occasionally approaching significance, it is not the case that Afroand whiteLatinos were polarized on these measures. We discuss what we see as the important implications of racially driven political diversity among Latinos.
Lidar-Based Rock-Fall Hazard Characterization of Cliffs

Rock falls from cliffs and other steep slopes present numerous challenges for detailed geological characterization. In steep terrain, rock-fall source areas are both dangerous and difficult to access, severely limiting the ability to make detailed structural and volumetric measurements necessary for hazard assessment. Airborne and terrestrial lidar survey methods can provide high-resolution data needed for volumetric, structural, and deformation analyses of rock falls, potentially making these analyses straightforward and routine. However, specific methods to collect, process, and analyze lidar data of steep cliffs are needed to maximize analytical accuracy and efficiency. This paper presents observations showing how lidar data sets should be collected, filtered, registered, and georeferenced to tailor their use in rock fall characterization. Additional observations concerning surface model construction, volumetric calculations, and deformation analysis are also provided.
Review of the relationship between tumor receptor subtypes and preference for visceral and/or serosal metastasis in breast cancer patients

In this study, we investigated the molecular phenotype–cancer relationship that may favor the main metastatic tendencies of cancer by comparing the association of receptor subtypes with the presence of metastasis, serosal metastasis, and/or visceral metastases in patients diagnosed with breast cancer. In this study, we retrospectively evaluated 853 patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer and followed up at our hospital between 2017 and 2022. The probability of metastasis in the most common tumor group, the non-special type of invasive carcinoma was significantly higher than that in other tumor groups. We formed our groups according to estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and Ki67 status. In addition, when we compared the receptor groups, no significant difference was found between the receptor groups (Table 1). When the entire breast cancer cohort was considered, the association of serosal metastasis was statistically significantly higher in the ER and/or PR (+) and, HER2 (−) receptor subgroup than in all other receptor groups (P < .006), and the association of visceral metastasis/visceral + serosal metastasis with the ER and/or PR (+) and, HER2 (−) receptor subgroup was significantly higher than that in all other receptor groups (P < .001) (Table 2). In this study, we aimed to investigate the possible relationship between molecular markers of the primary tumor and the preference for serosal and visceral metastases over distant metastases in a large cohort of patients to contribute to the improvement of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, a heterogeneous disease group. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to statistically investigate the association between receptor subgroups and visceral, serosal, and serosal + visceral metastases as a group and to reach some conclusions.
Neuroanatomy of post-stroke depression: the association between symptom clusters and lesion location

Abstract Post-stroke depression affects about 30% of stroke patients and often hampers functional recovery. The diagnosis of depression encompasses heterogeneous symptoms at emotional, motivational, cognitive, behavioural or somatic levels. Evidence indicates that depression is caused by disruption of bio-aminergic fibre tracts between prefrontal and limbic or striatal brain regions comprising different functional networks. Voxel-based lesion–symptom mapping studies reported discrepant findings regarding the association between infarct locations and depression. Inconsistencies may be due to the usage of sum scores, thereby mixing different symptoms of depression. In this cross-sectional study, we used multivariate support vector regression for lesion–symptom mapping to identify regions significantly involved in distinct depressive symptom domains and global depression. MRI lesion data were included from 200 patients with acute first-ever ischaemic stroke (mean 0.9 ± 1.5 days of post-stroke). The Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating interview assessed depression severity in five symptom domains encompassing motivational, emotional and cognitive symptoms deficits, anxiety and somatic symptoms and was examined 8.4 days of post-stroke (±4.3). We found that global depression severity, irrespective of individual symptom domains, was primarily linked to right hemispheric lesions in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. In contrast, when considering distinct symptom domains individually, the analyses yielded much more sensitive results in regions where the correlations with the global depression score yielded no effects. Accordingly, motivational deficits were associated with lesions in orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, pre- and post-central gyri and basal ganglia, including putamen and pallidum. Lesions affecting the dorsal thalamus, anterior insula and somatosensory cortex were significantly associated with emotional symptoms such as sadness. Damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was associated with concentration deficits, cognitive symptoms of guilt and self-reproach. Furthermore, somatic symptoms, including loss of appetite and sleep disturbances, were linked to the insula, parietal operculum and amygdala lesions. Likewise, anxiety was associated with lesions impacting the central operculum, insula and inferior frontal gyrus. Interestingly, symptoms of anxiety were exclusively left hemispheric, whereas the lesion–symptom associations of the other domains were lateralized to the right hemisphere. In conclusion, this large-scale study shows that in acute stroke patients, differential post-stroke depression symptom domains are associated with specific structural correlates. Our findings extend existing concepts on the neural underpinnings of depressive symptoms, indicating that differential lesion patterns lead to distinct depressive symptoms in the first weeks of post-stroke. These findings may facilitate the development of personalized treatments to improve post-stroke rehabilitation.
Host-stranger relations in Rome, Tel Aviv, Paris and Amsterdam. A comparison of local policies toward labour migrants

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The determination of acetabular parameters in a Turkish population sample: CT-based retrospective analysis of side and gender differences

Determination of the acetabular morphology and orientation is important for the total hip arthroplasty applications. In general, preoperative planning for these patients is done on true hip X-rays in orthopedics clinics. But those evaluations may not represent the acetabular architecture in detail, because of 2 dimensional images. The aim of this study is to determine the acetabular morphology of a healthy Turkish adult population sample through examination of acetabular parameters on 3-dimensional computed tomography (CT)-based images according to side and gender. A retrospective evaluation was made of acetabulum CT scans taken for various reasons in a healthy Turkish population sample. The examination parameters were defined as measurements of the acetabular anteversion angle, acetabular abduction angle, lateral center edge angle, acetabular width, acetabular depth, sagittal acetabular angle, and medial wall thickness values. The CT scans including the bone structure were examined of a total of 252 hips of 126 patients. The acetabular index was calculated as depth/width × 100. Lateral center edge angle of < 20° with medial wall thickness > 5 mm was accepted as a criterion of dysplasia of the acetabulum. Evaluation was made of the acetabular CT scans of 73 females and 53 males with a mean age of 44.64 ± 12.31 (19–68) years. A statistically significant difference was determined between the sides in respect of acetabular anteversion angle (P = .007) and between the genders in respect of acetabular depth and acetabular width (P = .001, P = .001). The prevalence of dysplasia was determined to be 1.6% for the whole study group, as 1.9% in males and 1.4% in females. In the current study sample there were parametric differences between sides and genders in terms of acetabulum morphology and orientation. Further studies of larger series will be able to provide a better representation of the Turkish population.
Reconciling public opinion and water quality criteria in South Africa

A definition of a "clean water lake" was compiled from the responses of over 3 000 recreational users of inland waters in the greater Pretoria and Cape Town areas to an open-ended question requiring respondents to define such lake. Visually aesthetic characteristics were found to be the most commonly cited means of determining the pollution status of a lake; namely, the absence of scums and excessive quantities of algae, clear water with low turbidity, and an abundance of wildlife. These characteristics were equated to common limnological variables such as chlorophyll a and Secchi disc transparency and a scale of values acceptable to the public created by reference to the survey and to the literature where necessary. These values were found to correspond to values used by water management authorities and limnologists to define lake trophic state.
The effects of fire intensity on the regeneration of mixed forest tree species in the Clear Hill/Mount Wedge area

Surveys of the regeneration of eucalypts, rainforest tree species and Acacia species have been carried out in clearfelled mixed forest coupes in the Clear Hill/Mount Wedge area, five to eight years after regeneration burns. For most species, including eucalypts, stocking rates were not significantly different between mudstone and quartzite. Eucalypt regeneration was taller and more vigorous on mudstone sites. Eucalypts appear to regenerate to adequate stocking levels on many sites with low intensity burns, though the proportion of understocked areas requiring remedial treatment is greater tlwn on comparable sites which have had hotter burns. On sites with high fire intensities, eucalypt stocking rates are appropriate for future pulpwood production but thinning may be required if sawlog production is the main priority. Rainforest and Acacia species regenerate more successfully in the absence of fire or following low intensity burns than they do following high intensity burns. The regeneration of understoreys containing the range of mixed forest tree species may be desirable for ecological, aesthetic and commercial reasons.
Cryopreservation of Oocytes

For a long time, the cryopreservation of gametes and embryos remained a major hurdle for the clinicians and scientists in terms of success. However, recent technical advancement in the field of cryobiology has opened up various options for freezing gametes and embryos at different developmental stages. The tendency of the IVF world to switch over to naturalcycle IVF and to elective single-embryo transfer has put cryotechnology in the forefront of research. Still, the intricacies of the cold-induced changes in human gametes and embryos that could affect the intracellular and developmental processes need to be known. The transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomic platforms hold promise for elucidating these complex processes during cryopreservation processes.
A method of resolving earthquake rupture directivity with relative centroid location and it′s application to the 2008 Yingjiang M_S6.0 earthquake

Rupture directivity of an earthquake is essential for studying seismic hazard and understanding seismogenic processes. However,point source approximation with centroidmoment tensor(CMT)or fault plane solution only provides two nodal planes instead of specifying the physical rupture plane. We developed a technique to determine the rupture plane via measuring the spatial difference between centroid location and hypocenter.The technique involves the waveform time shift difference of main shock and smaller events with similar focal mechanism,which calibrates time shift of main shock for velocity heterogeneity and location error.We use relative location method to acquire exact relative hypocenter locations of smaller events and main shock with onset arrival of P waves and use waveform inversion to acquire waveform time shift to resolve relative centroid locations.Azimuthal variations of waveform time shift differences reveal the main shock rupture directivity.We apply the approach to the 2008 Yingjiang MS6.0 earthquake,the result is consistent with spatial distribution of relocated aftershocks using hypoDD and analysis result derived from an empirical Green′s function approach.It might be an effective technique to study rupture directivity of strike slip earthquake with magnitude~6,yet further studies are necessary to verify its applicability.
Book Reviews

Since HIV and AIDS first made headlines in the early 1980s political scientists in South Africa and elsewhere have been remarkably reticent to view the pandemic as a topic for serious study. There are several possible explanations for this: the associated behavioural aspects may seem to fit more comfortably with epidemiology, anthropology or sociology; in this country the local epidemic’s nexus with culture, race and gendered realities made it too much of a political hot potato to start with; and the main discourse until recently seemed to be driven mainly by ‘numbers’ epistemic communities such as economics, demographics or actuarial science, who are most concerned with conclusions regarding sectoral or aggregate impact analyses. However, at the turn of the millennium this changed dramatically: the United Nations Security Council declared AIDS a global security threat, passed resolutions to that effect, and since then a sweeping narrative has been constructed to securitise the pandemic. Enter political science. Emboldened by the context and funding opportunities created in the wake of 9/11, AIDS took its place alongside analyses of other health threats, terrorism and weak states as the key longerterm threats to global stability. The tacit and increasingly explicit premise has been that the pandemic would in itself become a vector for state fragility. This master narrative has concluded that AIDS will ‘reverse Max Weber’, erode states’ monopoly on violence, undo economic development gains and emasculate government capacity to such an extent that it would be only a matter of time until states with mature epidemics implode altogether. In this book, Alex de Waal does what few have done before him: he moves beyond the assumed polemic, separates ideologically infused doom-saying from the available empirical evidence and bases his conclusions on what we actually know about the impact of AIDS. What he finds is surprising and deeply counter-intuitive: for now there simply is no evidence to suggest that AIDS by itself is causing political crises. These is not simply fringe-talk—note the two qualifiers in the sentence above: ‘for now’ indicates that we are only 25 years into the AIDS pandemic, which is a long-wave event that will probably take around 130 years to fully manifest. The second qualifier, ‘AIDS by itself’, emphasises the exceedingly complex nature of this pandemic: it is nigh impossible to separate AIDS from other socio-political factors as an independent variable when drawing conclusions about long-term impact. We simply do not yet have a sufficient understanding of the dynamics associated with the pandemic to draw definite conclusions about what AIDS by itself is or is not doing within broader global and domestic political contexts. De Waal thus warns that the pandemic is even more insidious and complex than Politikon, (April 2007), 34(1), 99–104
Impact of sanitary measures on exports of fishery products from India: the case of Kerala

This study provides an overview of fish and fishery products exports from India as a whole before focusing on the fish and fishery products sector in Kerala. The food safety and other technical requirements facing Indian exporters of fish and fishery products are then reviewed. The remainder of the study explores experiences with food safety controls, in particular across Kerala's major export markets, examining the efforts made by the Indian government and the impact on the processing sector as a whole and the preprocessing sector in particular. Finally, the remaining challenges faced by the fish and fishery products sector in Kerala as well as India as a whole are assessed in the context of the manner in which both the government and exporters have responded to changes in food safety and other requirements in major export markets.
Serum neurofilament light and MRI predictors of cognitive decline in patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis: Analysis from the MS-STAT randomised controlled trial

Background: Cognitive impairment affects 50%–75% of people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (PwSPMS). Improving our ability to predict cognitive decline may facilitate earlier intervention. Objective: The main aim of this study was to assess the relationship between longitudinal changes in cognition and baseline serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) in PwSPMS. In a multi-modal analysis, MRI variables were additionally included to determine if sNfL has predictive utility beyond that already established through MRI. Methods: Participants from the MS-STAT trial underwent a detailed neuropsychological test battery at baseline, 12 and 24 months. Linear mixed models were used to assess the relationships between cognition, sNfL, T2 lesion volume (T2LV) and normalised regional brain volumes. Results: Median age and Expanded Disability Status Score (EDSS) were 51 and 6.0. Each doubling of baseline sNfL was associated with a 0.010 [0.003–0.017] point per month faster decline in WASI Full Scale IQ Z-score (p = 0.008), independent of T2LV and normalised regional volumes. In contrast, lower baseline volume of the transverse temporal gyrus was associated with poorer current cognitive performance (0.362 [0.026–0.698] point reduction per mL, p = 0.035), but not change in cognition. The results were supported by secondary analyses on individual cognitive components. Conclusion: Elevated sNfL is associated with faster cognitive decline, independent of T2LV and regional normalised volumes.