Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Photo-Identification of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Tralee Bay and Brandon Bay, Co. Kerry: A Case for SAC Boundary Extension

Abstract:The Lower River Shannon is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) with bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) as a qualifying interest, and is one of only two SACs for this species in Ireland. Bottlenose dolphins in the Shannon Estuary are present year-round and genetically discrete from other populations in Ireland. They have regularly been reported from Tralee Bay and Brandon Bay, Co. Kerry, adjacent to the Lower River Shannon SAC boundary. In order to determine the provenance of these dolphins, photo-identification data collected between 2008 and 2016 from both bays were used to identify individuals and match them to existing bottlenose dolphin catalogues in Ireland. Bottlenose dolphins were observed on over 90% of the 13 trips carried out, with photo-identification data collected on 11 of these trips. A total of 70 individual dolphins were identified, of which 67 have been regularly recorded within the Lower River Shannon SAC, confirming them to be from this population. Shannon dolphins represented an average of 98% of dolphins photographed during each survey. Of the estimated 108 individual adult dolphins extant in the Shannon population, 62% were identified in Brandon Bay and/or Tralee Bay during the study period. A discovery curve of individuals identified did not reach a plateau, suggesting that not all dolphins occurring in these bays were photographed during the study. Results suggest that these areas are of high importance to the Shannon dolphin population and support the need to extend the current boundary of the Lower River Shannon SAC to include Brandon Bay and Tralee Bay.
Water, climate change and small towns

This thesis examines the interrelationship between “water, climate change and small towns”. The research question is framed in three parts: 1) can climate change be integrated into existing planning frameworks? 2) can small towns build resilient strategies against projected climate change impacts? and, 3) is adaptation to climate change an economic issue? It is evident that very little synergy exists between the different sectors dealing with water access. A holistic view of access and the impact of climate change does not exist in the sustainable development, urban planning and water resources management sectors. It is therefore proposed that the successful delivery of accessible water services lies with the integration of the urban planning, water resources management and climate change adaptation responses. In order to achieve this, a planning framework is
MUC1 and MUC16: critical for immune modulation in cancer therapeutics

The Mucin (MUC) family, a range of highly glycosylated macromolecules, is ubiquitously expressed in mammalian epithelial cells. Such molecules are pivotal in establishing protective mucosal barriers, serving as defenses against pathogenic assaults. Intriguingly, the aberrant expression of specific MUC proteins, notably Mucin 1 (MUC1) and Mucin 16 (MUC16), within tumor cells, is intimately associated with oncogenesis, proliferation, and metastasis. This association involves various mechanisms, including cellular proliferation, viability, apoptosis resistance, chemotherapeutic resilience, metabolic shifts, and immune surveillance evasion. Due to their distinctive biological roles and structural features in oncology, MUC proteins have attracted considerable attention as prospective targets and biomarkers in cancer therapy. The current review offers an exhaustive exploration of the roles of MUC1 and MUC16 in the context of cancer biomarkers, elucidating their critical contributions to the mechanisms of cellular signal transduction, regulation of immune responses, and the modulation of the tumor microenvironment. Additionally, the article evaluates the latest advances in therapeutic strategies targeting these mucins, focusing on innovations in immunotherapies and targeted drugs, aiming to enhance customization and accuracy in cancer treatments.
Persistent organic pollutants, bisphenol A, phthalates and respiratory and immune health in childhood

Esta tesis fue escrita en el Centro de Investigacion en Epidemiologia Ambiental (CREAL) y supervisada por la profesora Martine Vrijheid. La obra consiste en la compilacion de cinco publicaciones cientificas co-escritas por la estudiante de doctorado de acuerdo con los procedimientos del programa de doctorado Biomedicina del Departamento de Ciencias Experimentales y de la Salud de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra. El trabajo consiste en una parte introductoria, en la que se detallan los objetivos de la tesis, una parte metodologica, la presentacion de los resultados, la discusion y las conclusiones. Los compuestos organicos persistentes (COPs), el bisfenol A (BPA) y los ftalatos podrian estar relacionados con un incremento del riesgo de padecer infecciones respiratorias y sintomas relacionados con alergia en infantes y ninos. Estos efectos podrian perdurar, como minimo, hasta la adolescencia. Las citoquinas y los marcadores de inflamacion pueden aportar informacion de los mecanismos que hay detras de estas asociaciones. En la presente tesis se han utilizado datos de la cohorte de nacimiento "Infancia y Medioambiente" (INMA) y de seis cohortes de nacimiento Europeas. La tesis tambien incluye una revision sistematica. Los resultados de este trabajo, que incluye cinco publicaciones cientificas, sugieren que la exposicion prenatal a COPs afecta a los sistemas inmunitario y respiratorio de los infantes y ninos, que estos efectos se dan incluso en exposiciones relativamente bajas y que pueden perdurar hasta la adolescencia. Los mecanismos biologicos que podrian explicar los efectos observados no se han podido desvelar en el presente trabajo. Aun asi, hemos aportado informacion sobre un posible biomarcador (interleuquina 10) de los efectos inmunotoxicos cronicos de los COPs. Los resultados tambien muestran efectos potenciales de la exposicion prenatal a BPA y ftalatos sobre el desarrollo y funcionamiento de los sistemas inmunitario y respiratorio de los infantes y ninos. En la presente tesis se remarcan las principales limitaciones de los estudios existentes en este campo y se proponen recomendaciones de mejora para futuros estudios. Mientras tanto, se recomienda revisar la legislacion actual para reducir el uso de aquellos compuestos que todavia estan en el mercado y que se utilizan ampliamente. La presente tesis ha contribuido a: 1) la comprension de los efectos a largo plazo sobre la salud inmune y respiratoria de la exposicion prenatal a COPs, 2) la comprension de los mecanismos detras de este tipo de efectos, 3) la comprension los efectos en la salud inmune y respiratoria de la exposicion prenatal a BPA y ftalatos, y 4) destacar las principales limitaciones de los estudios existentes en la materia y a proveer recomendaciones para la investigacion en el futuro. Para la realizacion de la presente tesis se han consultado mas de 270 referencias, la mayoria de ambito internacional.
The Role of Emotions in Drinking Recycled Water

As global freshwater supplies shrink, recycled drinking water (RDW) has become an increasingly important source of water supply. However, RDW remains an underinvested resource despite being a safe and reliable source of water. The dominant hypothesis is that RDW has been rejected on emotional grounds of disgust, a visceral psychological reaction known as the “yuck” factor. This paper investigates the role of emotions in technical decision-making and applies it to RDW implementation. It tests two specific hypotheses. First, that negative emotions affect the policy process through a negative “goal definition” of the problem, making it unattractive to stakeholders. Second, the emotional quality of policies can be manipulated by policy entrepreneurs. These hypotheses are tested on two cases of RDW—one failed and the other successful. It finds that narratives in the former are relatively low in emotional intensity, with themes such as sustainability and governance, whereas the second case displays narratives charged with anger, social injustice, and disgust. This emphasizes the role of narratives, especially when visceral reactions such as disgust and anger interact with larger social and political discourses. Finally, we offer policy implications on how understanding the role of emotions can help in the implementation of RDW.
Sediment flux and source in northern Yellow Sea by (210)Pb technique

Sedimentation of fine-grained deposits on coastal zones and continental shelves are im- portant because of the association with chemical pollutants, and the implication to the impact on biologi- cal processes, the stratigraphic correlations, and changes in sedimentary environments. The Yellow Sea continental shelf receives large quantities of sediment from the Huanghe (Yellow) River. Unfortunately, little attention has been yet paid to the sedimentation on the shallow shelf and its features, and the vertical sediment flux in the area is poorly understood. In this study, nine cores were collected in northern Yellow Sea by the R/V Science 1 in September, 1998 and 1999 to examine the sedimentation rate, sediment flux and the provenance with 210Pb analysis. The 210Pb activity profiles showed that the vertical sediment flux ranged from 0.06 to 1.18 g/cm2·a in the region. In central part of the area, there was a patch of fine-grained mud, with the flux below 0.33 g/cm2·a. Most profiles were featured in two-segment model. Differences in the profiles reflected spatial and temporal variations in hydrodynamic and sedimentary processes. In order to determine the provenance and sedimentary setting in the area, the geochemistry of Ca, Fe, Sr, Cu, Ti and Rb in 11 surficial sediment samples were studied, which showed that in the central northern Yellow Sea, the mud deposit was from multi-source but mainly from the Huanghe River.
The Role of an Endodontist in Victim Identification: A Narrative Review on Forensic Endodontics

This narrative review highlights the role of endodontists and the significance of various dental tools in forensic dentistry. An online search was conducted in peer-reviewed journals, including MEDLINE (Ovid), PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases, to retrieve studies regarding “the role of an endodontist in victim identification using different tools”. The searches used controlled vocabulary and free-text terms. Articles written in English and published from 1923 to 2023 were selected. An essential stage in forensic dentistry is dental identification of the dead person and is regarded as an initial step for both judicial and humanitarian purposes if fingerprint records are missing or the remains have undergone significant changes. Endodontists should be aware of all available dental tools that aid in identification. The four fundamental tools for identification are dental radiographs, hard and soft dental structures, and dental materials. Dental radiographs provide a substantial nondestructive record for estimating age and sex. Moreover, maxillofacial hard and soft structures provide important tools for individual identification as they are considered the strongest structures in the human body and can withstand severe chemical and temperature changes. In addition, endodontic and restorative materials can be identified under different conditions and serve as excellent forensic identification measures.
Mechanistic Insights about Sorafenib-, Valproic Acid- and Metformin-Induced Cell Death in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the main causes of death by cancer worldwide, representing about 80–90% of all liver cancers. Treatments available for advanced HCC include atezolizumab, bevacizumab, sorafenib, among others. Atezolizumab and bevacizumab are immunological options recently incorporated into first-line treatments, along with sorafenib, for which great treatment achievements have been reached. However, sorafenib resistance is developed in most patients, and therapeutical combinations targeting cancer hallmark mechanisms and intracellular signaling have been proposed. In this review, we compiled evidence of the mechanisms of cell death caused by sorafenib administered alone or in combination with valproic acid and metformin and discussed them from a molecular perspective.
Isoperimetric Numbers of Randomly Perturbed Intersection Graphs

Social networks describe social interactions between people, which are often modeled by intersection graphs. In this paper, we propose an intersection graph model that is induced by adding a sparse random bipartite graph to a given bipartite graph. Under some mild conditions, we show that the vertex–isoperimetric number and the edge–isoperimetric number of the randomly perturbed intersection graph on n vertices are Ω ( 1 / ln n ) asymptomatically almost surely. Numerical simulations for small graphs extracted from two real-world social networks, namely, the board interlocking network and the scientific collaboration network, were performed. It was revealed that the effect of increasing isoperimetric numbers (i.e., expansion properties) on randomly perturbed intersection graphs is presumably independent of the order of the network.
On the Usefulness of Automatically Generated Microservice Architectures

The modernization of monolithic legacy systems with microservices has been a trend in recent years. As part of this modernization, identifying microservice candidates starting from legacy code is challenging, as maintainers may consider many criteria simultaneously. Multi-objective search-based approaches represent a promising state-of-the-art solution to support this decision-making process. However, the rationale to adopt each microservice candidate automatically identified by these approaches is poorly investigated in industrial cases. Furthermore, studies with these approaches have not carefully investigated how maintainers reason and make decisions when designing microservice architectures from legacy systems. To address this gap, we conducted an on-site case study with maintainers of an industrial legacy system to investigate the usefulness of automatically generated microservice architectures. We analyze design decisions pointed out by the maintainers when reasoning about microservice candidates using several criteria at the same time. Our study is the first to assess a search-based approach involving actual maintainers conceiving microservice architectures in an industrial setting. Therefore, firstly, we considered individual evaluation of microservice candidates to understand the rationale for identifying a service. Secondly, we conducted a focus group study with maintainers with the goal of investigating design decisions at an architectural level. The results show that: (i) the automated approach is able to identify useful microservices; (ii) the criteria observed by previous studies are, in fact, considered by maintainers; and (iii) the maintainer profiles, i.e., the preferred granularity for microservice, highly affect design decisions. Finally, we observed the maintainers needed little effort in adjusting the automatically identified microservices to make them adoptable. In addition to indicating a promising potential of search-based approaches to generate microservice architectures, our findings highlight the need for: (i) interactive and/or customizable approaches that enable maintainers to include their preferences during the search process, and (ii) flexible or automated selection of criteria that fits the scenario in which the modernization is taking place.
A Study of the Characteristics of the Synoptic Situations and Meteorological Conditions in PM10 Air Pollution Episodes of Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games Period

Using the air pollution and meteorological data in Beijing,weather charts from Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA) and NCEP reanalysis data,the characteristics of the air pollution of Particulate Matter with particle size below 10 μm(PM10) in Beijing and its cause of formation during the 2008 Olympic Games period(from July to September) are analyzed,types of synoptic situations are classified according to being or not helpful to dispersion of pollutants,and typical synoptic situations and meteorological conditions in PM10 air pollution episodes are studied.The results are that:1) There were eight days with PM10 air pollution in Beijing during the whole period,including a persistent PM10 air pollution.But no PM10 air pollution occurred during the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games,which mainly resulted from more rainfall in August and September of 2008.2) Synoptic situations not helpful to pollutants dispersion(e.g.south wind with low speed,high air temperature and relative humidity,and persistent vertical inversion in low layer) were frequent,but they did not cause typical PM10 air pollution by a possible reason of the pollution control measures.3) Most PM10 air pollutions were related with northwestward-moving typhoon or tropical cyclone,which would block synoptic system influencing North China to move eastward.
Comparing Hospital Performance with Competing Risk Quality Indicators through Inverse Probability Weighting and the Fine and Gray Model

Comparing Hospital Performance with Competing Risk Quality Indicators through Inverse Probability Weighting and the Fine and Gray Model Thai-Son Tang Master of Science Department of Public Health Sciences University of Toronto 2018 Quality-of-care comparisons have been a growing interest for government and healthcare stakeholders to identify specific areas of improvement among healthcare institutions. Causal inference methods can be adapted to obtain fairer comparisons between institutions and provide better evidence of quality-of-care. Two methods that can be used to adjust for differences in patient case-mix between providers are direct standardization using an outcome regression model and inverse probability weighting via the propensity score. Assuming the models are correctly specified, both generate unbiased estimators of expected quality-of-care outcomes. For competing risk time-to-event outcomes, the semiparametric Fine-and-Gray model can be used, while the nonparametric cumulative incidence estimator can be modified to accommodate inverse probability weights. We formulate potential cumulative incidence estimators based on these two methods and assess their performance through simulation studies. Furthermore, we apply both methods to rank and identify outliers for Ontario hospitals by their 5-year second cancer cumulative incidence.
M$^{3}$SA: Multimodal Sentiment Analysis Based on Multi-Scale Feature Extraction and Multi-Task Learning

Sentiment analysis plays an indispensable part in human-computer interaction. Multimodal sentiment analysis can overcome the shortcomings of unimodal sentiment analysis by fusing multimodal data. However, how to extracte improved feature representations and how to execute effective modality fusion are two crucial problems in multimodal sentiment analysis. Traditional work uses simple sub-models for feature extraction, and they ignore features of different scales and fuse different modalities of data equally, making it easier to incorporate extraneous information and affect analysis accuracy. In this paper, we propose a Multimodal Sentiment Analysis model based on Multi-scale feature extraction and Multi-task learning (M$^{3}$SA). First, we propose a multi-scale feature extraction method that models the outputs of different hidden layers with the method of channel attention. Second, a multimodal fusion strategy based on the key modality is proposed, which utilizes the attention mechanism to raise the proportion of the key modality and mines the relationship between the key modality and other modalities. Finally, we use the multi-task learning approach to train the proposed model, ensuring that the model can learn better feature representations. Experimental results on two publicly available multimodal sentiment analysis datasets demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and that the proposed model outperforms baselines.
The relationship of fat and muscle measurements with emphysema and bronchial wall thickening in smokers

Introduction Differences in body composition in patients with COPD may have important prognostic value and may provide opportunities for patient-specific management. We investigated the relation of thoracic fat and muscle with computed tomography (CT)-measured emphysema and bronchial wall thickening. Methods Low-dose baseline chest CT scans from 1031 male lung cancer screening participants from one site were quantified for emphysema, bronchial wall thickening, subcutaneous fat, visceral fat and skeletal muscle. Body composition measurements were performed by segmenting the first slice above the aortic arch using Hounsfield unit thresholds with region growing and manual corrections. COPD presence and severity were evaluated with pre-bronchodilator spirometry testing. Results Participants had a median age of 61.5 years (58.6–65.6, 25th–75th percentile) and median number of 38.0 pack-years (28.0–49.5); 549 (53.2%) were current smokers. Overall, 396 (38.4%) had COPD (256 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 1, 140 GOLD 2–3). Participants with COPD had less subcutaneous fat, visceral fat and skeletal muscle (p<0.001 for all). With increasing GOLD stages, subcutaneous (p=0.005) and visceral fat values (p=0.004) were higher, and skeletal muscle was lower (p=0.004). With increasing severity of CT-derived emphysema, subcutaneous fat, visceral fat and skeletal muscle values were lower (p<0.001 for all). With increasing CT-derived bronchial wall thickness, subcutaneous and visceral fat values were higher (p<0.001 for both), without difference in skeletal muscle. All statistical relationships remained when adjusted for age, pack-years and smoking status. Conclusion COPD presence and emphysema severity are associated with smaller amounts of thoracic fat and muscle, whereas bronchial wall thickening is associated with fat accumulation.
The potential for deep groundwater use by Acacia papyrocarpa (Western myall) in a water‐limited environment

Knowledge regarding the use of groundwater by plants has implications for successful mine rehabilitation and revegetation programs in water‐limited environments. In this study, we combined several approaches to investigate water sources used by Acacia papyrocarpa (Western myall) in the far west of South Australia, including stable isotopes, water potential, groundwater and soil chemistry, and root mapping techniques. Plant δ18O signatures and water potentials were compared against a range of possible sources: rainwater, surface soil water (≤1 m depth), and deep groundwater (>20 m depth). Our aim was to determine whether groundwater contributed to the mix of waters used by A. papyrocarpa.
A Systematic Review of the Literature

Diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions, and a good self-management regimen is needed in order to control the disease and prevent complications. In the last few years, the number of health information technologies has increased, and while there are many smartphone applications for diabetic patients, their effectiveness is still unclear. This systematic review aims to outline structure and characteristics that can make an application for diabetes management effective and safe and improve usability and the chances of success for a mobile health service. Applications found in the literature have been analyzed to evaluate the different features. Findings of the review suggest that patients seem to be more attracted by tools that are helpful in everyday management of diabetes, and that allow them to save time and increase safety. The personalization of the application is essential to obtain success in promoting use, and applications should be based upon patients' predisposition to use technological tools that will ensure better outcomes.