Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Attachment Security and the Strength of Commercial Relationships: A Longitudinal Study

This research applies attachment theory to a pivotal question in relationship marketing: Which consumers have a propensity to build strong relationships with companies/brands, and why? Using data from a longitudinal field study in the automotive services category, we first show that secure personal attachment drives stronger commercial relationships, as measured by dealer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. Building upon recent theory supporting domain-specific instantiations of generalized attachment orientations, we then provide evidence of improved diagnostic and predictive value from an attachment construct specific to the commercial (versus personal) relationship context. Two dimensions of secure consumer attachment —embrace of vulnerability and drive for closeness—are empirically derived; these facets drive different relationship marketing responses. The effects of secure consumer attachment are persistent over time, and manifest despite controls for other traits known to drive relationship behaviors. Our result patterns parallel those found in interpersonal relationship settings and support the application and extension of attachment theory in marketing. The research offers further validation of the contention that commercial relationships behave in similar ways to personal relationships, thereby reinforcing the legitimacy of inquiries that seek to develop relationship theories in consumer marketing research.
Deep Representation Learning for Trajectory Similarity Computation

Trajectory similarity computation is fundamental functionality with many applications such as animal migration pattern studies and vehicle trajectory mining to identify popular routes and similar drivers. While a trajectory is a continuous curve in some spatial domain, e.g., 2D Euclidean space, trajectories are often represented by point sequences. Existing approaches that compute similarity based on point matching suffer from the problem that they treat two different point sequences differently even when the sequences represent the same trajectory. This is particularly a problem when the point sequences are non-uniform, have low sampling rates, and have noisy points. We propose the first deep learning approach to learning representations of trajectories that is robust to low data quality, thus supporting accurate and efficient trajectory similarity computation and search. Experiments show that our method is capable of higher accuracy and is at least one order of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art methods for k-nearest trajectory search.
A Genomic and Proteomic Approach to Identify and Quantify the Expressed Bacillus thuringiensis Proteins in the Supernatant and Parasporal Crystal

The combined analysis of genomic and proteomic data allowed us to determine which cry and vip genes are present in a Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) isolate and which ones are being expressed. Nine Bt isolates were selected from Spanish collections of Bt based on their vip1 and vip2 gene content. As a first step, nine isolates were analyzed by PCR to select those Bt isolates that contained genes with the lowest similarity to already described vip1 and vip2 genes (isolates E-SE10.2 and O-V84.2). Two selected isolates were subjected to a combined genomic and proteomic analysis. The results showed that the Bt isolate E-SE10.2 codifies for two new vegetative proteins, Vip2Ac-like_1 and Sip1Aa-like_1, that do not show expression differences at 24 h vs. 48 h and are expressed in a low amount. The Bt isolate O-V84.2 codifies for three new vegetative proteins, Vip4Aa-like_1, Vip4Aa-like_2, and Vip2Ac-like_2, that are marginally expressed. The Vip4Aa-like_1 protein was two-fold more abundant at 24 h vs. 48 h, while the Vip4Aa-like_2 was detected only at 24 h. For Vip2Ac-like_2, no differences in expression were found at 24 h vs. 48 h. Moreover, the parasporal crystal of the E-SE10.2 isolate contains a single type of crystal protein, Cry23Aa-like, while the parasporal crystal from O-V84.2 contains three kinds of crystal proteins: 7.0–9.8% weight of Cry45Aa-like proteins, 35–37% weight of Cry32-like proteins and 2.8–4.3% weight of Cry73-like protein.
Dissociation of spontaneous seizures and brainstem seizure thresholds in mice exposed to eight flurothyl‐induced generalized seizures

C57BL/6J mice exposed to eight flurothyl‐induced generalized clonic seizures exhibit a change in seizure phenotype following a 28‐day incubation period and subsequent flurothyl rechallenge. Mice now develop a complex seizure semiology originating in the forebrain and propagating into the brainstem seizure network (a forebrain→brainstem seizure). In contrast, this phenotype change does not occur in seizure‐sensitive DBA/2J mice. The underlying mechanism was the focus of this study.
Amantadine Did Not Positively Impact Cognition in Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury: A Multi-Site, Randomized, Controlled Trial

Abstract Despite limited evidence to support the use of amantadine to enhance cognitive function after traumatic brain injury (TBI), the clinical use for this purpose is highly prevalent and is often based on inferred belief systems. The aim of this study was to assess effect of amantadine on cognition among individuals with a history of TBI and behavioral disturbance using a parallel-group, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of amantadine 100 mg twice-daily versus placebo for 60 days. Included in the study were 119 individuals with two or more neuropsychological measures greater than 1 standard deviation below normative means from a larger study of 168 individuals with chronic TBI (>6 months post-injury) and irritability. Cognitive function was measured at treatment days 0, 28, and 60 with a battery of neuropsychological tests. Composite indices were generated: General Cognitive Index (included all measures), a Learning Memory Index (learning/memory measures), and Attention/Processing Speed Index (attention and executive function measures). Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed statistically significant between-group differences favoring the placebo group at day 28 for General Cognitive Index (p = 0.002) and Learning Memory Index (p = 0.001), but not Attention/Processing Speed Index (p = 0.25), whereas no statistically significant between-group differences were found at day 60. There were no statistically significant between-group differences on adverse events. Cognitive function in individuals with chronic TBI is not improved by amantadine 100 mg twice-daily. In the first 28 days of use, amantadine may impede cognitive processing. However, the effect size was small and mean scores for both groups were generally within expectations for persons with history of complicated mild-to-severe TBI, suggesting that changes observed across assessments may not have functional significance. The use of amantadine to enhance cognitive function is not supported by these findings.
Team Manager’s Implementation, High Performance Work Systems Intensity, and Performance: A Multilevel Investigation

Recently, capturing within-organization variability during the implementation of high performance work systems (HPWS) has received considerable attention; however, the source of such variability has rarely been considered. If the utilization of HPWS is positively related to performance outcomes, examining factors contributing to an effective implementation may yield significant theoretical and practical implications. For this purpose, this study extends the extant HPWS literature in two ways. First, we attempt to conceptualize team-level HPWS intensity and identify antecedents of variance across teams. Specifically, we regard the visible role of team managers in the process of HPWS implementation as a primary interpretive filter that makes team members perceive differences in HPWS intensity, which in turn affects team performance. Second, we posit that if human resources (HR) policies are viewed as an exchange agreement between the organization and its employees, then a team manager more actively enforcing espoused HR practices may positively influence the sense of human resource management (HRM)–induced psychological contract fulfillment of team members, which in turn influences individual in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Our hypotheses are tested with data from 183 matched responses from 51 teams, and the results generally support both the team-level and multilevel hypotheses. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our study.
A farm-level precision land management framework based on integer programming

Farmland management involves several planning and decision making tasks including seed selection and irrigation management. A farm-level precision farmland management model based on mixed integer linear programming is proposed in this study. Optimal decisions are designed for pre-season planning of crops and irrigation water allocation. The model captures the effect of size and shape of decision scale as well as special irrigation patterns. The authors illustrate the model with a case study on a farm in the state of California in the U.S. and show the model can capture the impact of precision farm management on profitability. The results show that threefold increase of annual net profit for farmers could be achieved by carefully choosing irrigation and seed selection. Although farmers could increase profits by applying precision management to seed or irrigation alone, profit increase is more significant if farmers apply precision management on seed and irrigation simultaneously. The proposed model can also serve as a risk analysis tool for farmers facing seasonal irrigation water limits as well as a quantitative tool to explore the impact of precision agriculture.
Discovery of Genuine Functional Dependencies from Relational Data with Missing Values

Functional dependencies (FDs) play an important role in maintaining data quality. They can be used to enforce data consistency and to guide repairs over a database. In this work, we investigate the problem of missing values and its impact on FD discovery. When using existing FD discovery algorithms, some genuine FDs could not be detected precisely due to missing values or some non-genuine FDs can be discovered even though they are caused by missing values with a certain NULL semantics. We define a notion of genuineness and propose algorithms to compute the genuineness score of a discovered FD. This can be used to identify the genuine FDs among the set of all valid dependencies that hold on the data. We evaluate the quality of our method over various real-world and semi-synthetic datasets with extensive experiments. The results show that our method performs well for relatively large FD sets and is able to accurately capture genuine FDs.
Anticancer properties of the abietane diterpene 6,7-dehydroroyleanone obtained by optimized extraction.

AIM 6,7-dehydroroyleanone (DHR) is a cytotoxic abietane present in the essential oil of Plectranthus madagascariensis. METHODS/RESULTS Different extraction parameters were tested, and its extraction optimization was accomplished with a Clevenger apparatus-based hydrodistillation. After isolation, its effect on microtubules, P-glycoprotein and caspases was assessed on several cell lines and the compound was coupled with hybrid nanoparticles. The results show that DHR does not interfere with microtubule formation, but evades the resistance mechanisms of P-glycoprotein. Strong activation of caspases-3 and -9 indicates that DHR is able to induce apoptosis by triggering the intrinsic cell death pathway. Moreover, the assembly of DHR with hybrid nanoparticles was able to potentiate the effect of DHR in cancer cells. CONCLUSION DHR seems to be a promising starting material with anticancer properties to further be explored.
Steinernema khuongi n. sp. (Panagrolaimomorpha, Steinernematidae), a new entomopathogenic nematode species from Florida, USA

Abstract In this study, molecular (ribosomal sequence data), morphological and cross-hybridization properties were used to identify a new Steinernema sp. from Florida, USA. Molecular and morphological data provided evidence for placing the novel species into Clade V, or the ‘glaseri-group’ of Steinernema spp. Within this clade, analysis of sequence data of the rDNA genes, 28S and internal transcribed spacer (ITS), depicted the novel species as a distinctive entity and closely related to S. glaseri and S. cubanum. Additionally, cross-hybridization assays showed that the new species is unable to interbreed with either of the latter two species, reinforcing its uniqueness from a biological species concept standpoint. Key morphological diagnostic characters for S. khuongi n. sp. include the mean morphometric features of the third-stage infective juveniles: total body length (average: 1066 μm), tail length (average: 65 μm), location of the excretory pore (average: 80.5 μm) and the values of c (average: 16.4), D% (average: 60.5), E% (average: 126) and H% (average: 46.6). Additionally, males can be differentiated from S. glaseri and S. cubanum by the values of several ratios: D% (average: 68), E% (average: 323) and SW% (average: 120). The natural distribution of this species in Florida encompasses both natural areas and citrus groves, primarily in shallow groundwater ecoregions designated as ‘flatwoods’. The morphological, molecular, phylogenetic and ecological data associated with this nematode support its identity as a new species in the S. glaseri-group.
Evaluation of Breeding Substrates for Cocoa Pollinator, Forcipomyia spp. and Subsequent Implications for Yield in a Tropical Cocoa Production System

A comparative study was carried out to determine the most suitable substrate for breeding of midges (Forcipomyia spp.) and the implications for pollination and yield in a typical cocoa production system in the forest ecological zone of Ghana. For the field experiment, the typically available substrates in cocoa farms which were used as the treatments under cocoa trees were: 1) rotten cocoa leaf litter; 2) rotten cocoa pod husks; and 3) rotten banana pseudostem. The untreated cocoa trees served as control. The experiment was set up in a randomized complete block design with three replications. For the laboratory experiment, the design was completely randomized design with four replications. The objective was to determine which substrate best supported breeding of the midges. The rotten banana pseudostem substrate recorded the highest population (7680) of Forcipomyia spp. after 56 days of observation. The cocoa pod husk and cocoa leaf litter recorded populations of 5226 and 1920, respectively. Similar observations were recorded in the level of pollination of the cocoa trees treated with rotten banana pseudostem (95.78%), cocoa pod husks (89.05%) and cocoa leaf litter (68.42%). Application of all substrates to the cocoa tree resulted in a 77% mean reduction in flower abortion as compared to the control. Fruit abortion, on the other hand, was significantly greater in trees treated with rotten banana pseudostem (73.7%) and rotten cocoa pod husks (71.3%) than in trees treated with rotten cocoa leaf litter (54.3%). Application of banana substrate explained 88% of the variation in cherelle production (fruit set) whereas cocoa pod husks and cocoa leaf litter accounted for 71% and 94%, respectively, of the variation in cherelle production. The study concluded that although cocoa leaf litter resulted in average increases in midges population and subsequently not too high levels of pollination, there was a significantly higher number of set fruits retained which implied high cocoa pod yields. Consequently, in accordance with the observed trend cocoa leaf litter should be considered as the most appropriate substrate for midges activity in cocoa for high yields.
Evolution of differential maternal age effects on male and female offspring development and longevity

Summary 1. Maternal age effects on life-history traits, including longevity, are widespread and can be seen as a manifestation of ageing. However, little is known about how maternal life span may influence the maternal age effect. At a given chronological age, a long-lived parent may be at a younger biological age than a short-lived parent and thus has a less severe parental age effect. However, earlier work using experimentally evolved short- and long-lived lines did not support this hypothesis. 2. We scored developmental time and longevity of 14 995 individual seed beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus derived from replicate short-lived and long-lived lines created via artificial selection on male life span. 3. Offspring from older mothers had shorter life span, which is consistent with most of the literature. 4. We found support for the hypothesis that detrimental maternal age effects evolve to be weaker under selection for long life span. However, this finding was only apparent in males, suggesting that maternal age affects male and female offspring differently. 5. These results suggest that sex-dependent parental age effects should be incorporated in the studies of longevity and ageing evolution and that selection on one sex can cause evolution of parental age effects in the other sex.
Complete mitochondrial genome of Argentine shortfin squid (Illex argentines)

Abstract In this study, we determined the complete mitochondrial genome of the Illex argentinus. The genome was 20,278 bp in length and contained 18 protein-coding genes, 23 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and 3 main non-coding regions. The composition and order of genes were different to some other invertebrates. The overall base composition of I. argentinus was A 39.23%, C 17.50%, T 33.71% and G 9.56%, with a highly A + T bias of 72.94%. All of the three control regions (CR) contained termination-associated sequences and conserved sequence blocks. This mitogenome sequence data would play an important role in the taxonomic resolution and phylogeography of the Ommastrephidae.
Production and Bioactivity-Guided Isolation of Antioxidants with α-Glucosidase Inhibitory and Anti-NO Properties from Marine Chitinous Materials

Natural and bioactive products have been of great interest due to their benefit as health foods and drugs to prevent various diseases. The aim of this study is to efficiently reuse marine chitinous materials (CMs), abundant and low-cost fishery by-products, for the bio-synthesis, isolation, and identification of antioxidant compounds possessing some other beneficial bioactivities. Paenibacillus sp. was used to convert CMs to antioxidants. Among various tested CMs, squid pen powder (SPP) gave the best results when used as the sole carbon/nitrogen source. Fermented SPP (FSPP) had comparable antioxidant activity (IC50 = 124 µg/mL) to that of α-tocopherol (IC50 = 30 µg/mL). The antioxidant productivity increased 1.83-fold after culture optimization. The use of multiple techniques, including Diaion, silica, and preparative HPLC columns coupled with a bioassay resulted in the isolation of two major antioxidants characterized as exopolysaccharides and homogentisic acid. These isolated compounds showed great maximum activity and low IC50 values (96%, 30 µg/mL and 99%, 5.4 µg/mL, respectively) which were comparable to that of α-tocopherol (95%, 24 µg/mL). The crude sample, fractions, and isolated compounds also demonstrated α-glucosidase inhibition and anti–inflammatory activity. Notably, homogentisic acid was found as a non-sugar-based moiety α-glucosidase inhibitor which show much higher inhibition (IC50 = 215 µg/mL) than that of acarbose (IC50 = 1324 µg/mL) and also possessed acceptable anti–inflammatory activity (IC50 = 9.8 µg/mL). The results highlighted the value of using seafood processing by-products, like squid pens, for the production of several compounds possessing multi-benefit bioactivities and no cytotoxicity.
Analyzing Multilevel Factors Underlying Adolescent Smoking Behaviors: The Roles of Friendship Network, Family Relations, and School Environment.

BACKGROUND This study investigates the extent to which friendship network, family relations, and school context are related to adolescent cigarette smoking. Friendship network is measured in terms of delinquent peers; family relations in terms of parental supervision; and school environment in terms of objective (eg, antismoking policy) and subjective (eg, school attachment) characteristics. METHODS Findings are based on the secondary analysis of the health behavior in school-aged children, 2009-2010. Two-level hierarchical generalized linear models are estimated using hierarchical linear modeling 7. RESULTS At the student level, ties to delinquent friends is significantly related to higher odds of smoking, while greater parental supervision is associated with lower odds. At the school level, antismoking policy and curriculum independently lower smoking behavior. Better within-class peer relations, greater school attachment, and higher academic performance are also negatively related to smoking. Last, the positive association between delinquent friends and smoking is weaker in schools with a formally enacted antismoking policy. However, this association is stronger in schools with better peer relations. CONCLUSIONS Adolescent smoking behavior is embedded in a broader ecological setting. This research reveals that a proper understanding of it requires comprehensive analysis that incorporates factors measured at individual (student) and contextual (school) levels.
Restoring Land and Mind: The Benefits of an Outdoor Walk on Mood Are Enhanced in a Naturalized Landfill Area Relative to Its Neighboring Urban Area

Abstract Although landfills are being converted into green spaces, little is known about how such areas affect mood, cognition, and physiology. Using a within-subject experimental design (n = 31 men), we found that walking through a naturalized landfill improved mood more than did walking through an adjacent urban area. Both walks improved energy and attentional control and decreased concentrations of cortisol (a marker of stress). One's sense of connectedness with nature moderated the effects of the walks on mood: For men reporting high nature connectedness, mood improved after both walks. For men reporting low nature connectedness, positive mood increased after the naturalized landfill walk and decreased after the urban walk. Follow-up analyses indicated that differential perceptual attentiveness to subtle natural or green features may explain this moderation. Thus, naturalized landfills may enhance the benefits of walking on mood, and nature connectedness may buffer against the harmful effects of urban.
Analyzing Farm Management Skills in Poultry Production Enterprises in Iran

The main purpose of this study was to analyze managerial skills of poultry production operators in Soumeh Sara Township in Guilan province, Iran, which used a descriptive-analytical design. The population of this study consisted of whole industrial poultry production enterprises of Soumeh Sara Township (N=117) and out of them, 50 operators had been selected as statistical sample through simple random sampling. The instrument used to achieve objectives of the study was a questionnaire by reliability 0.92. Findings reveal that among the studied management skills marketing skill had been placed the least ranking means. In addition, poultry production operators had the best ability in technical skills. The average of ability rate of poultry production operators in technical area was 4.08 which indicated the high to very high ability rate of respondents in this area. According to the results, it is necessary to improve the marketing and farm management skills of farm operators through extension and participation in training activities. (Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari, Mohammad Sadegh Saburi and Fatholah Keshavarz. Analyzing Farm Management Skills in Poultry Production Enterprises in Iran. Life Science Journal. 2011; 8(1):61-67) (ISSN: 1097-8135).