Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supramolecular assembly and nanoscale morphologies for organic photovoltaic devices

Organic photovoltaics is a field of rapidly growing activity in both research and industry. Flexibility, light-weight, and low-cost render this technique an appealing alternative to silicon based devices for solar energy power conversion. Recently, several donor-acceptor systems have been investigated as active materials for organic photovoltaic devices and it has been shown that the morphology of these heterojunction systems has a severe impact on the device performance. This work focuses on the correlation of nanoscale morphologies of organic donor-acceptor systems with resulting spectroscopic and electronic properties of organic photovoltaic devices. Discotic molecules are used in the active layer of the devices exhibiting a number of properties highly desired for the application in organic photovoltaic devices: The planar core shape of this class of materials allows an assembly to 1-D molecular wires showing anisotropic and exceptionally high charge carrier mobility.It is the aim to establish supramolecular assemblies of the discotic molecules and to realize nanoscale interface morphologies between donor and acceptor compounds in order to optimize the photovoltaic performance of the resulting devices. The impact of residue modifications attached to the disc shaped molecules on morphology, current generation and recombination is analyzed and design rules for these solution processable small molecule blend mixtures are derived. Vacuum sublimation is discussed as an alternative processing route facilitating the fabrication of devices with mixed but also bi-layered active material stacking. Using a dye sensitization method the exciton harvesting and photovoltaic performance can be significantly increased in these thin film devices. A highly ordered nanoscale morphology at the donor-acceptor interface, demonstrated using a template assisted imprinting approach, offers high potential towards photovoltaic devices with interdigitated interfaces and superior power conversion efficiency.
Health of Gullah Families in South Carolina With Type 2 Diabetes

Purpose The purpose of this study was to describe diabetes self-management practices and service utilization among Gullah families in South Carolina. Methods Data were obtained from 1276 persons with type 2 diabetes through interviews using the Family Health History Questionnaire. This was a primary analysis of a project conducted in conjunction with a parent study (Project SuGar) which focused on the molecular aspects of diabetes. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Results Diabetes self-management behaviors were not consistent with recommendations from the American Diabetes Association. Over half (55.6%) reported exercising, but only 27.7% reported self-glucose monitoring. Service utilization was poor, less than half, (41.1%) reported referral to a diabetic class/diet, 32.8% reported making yearly visits to the ophthalmologist, 22.3% reported visiting the dentist, and only 12.8% reported visiting the podiatrist. Conclusions Although some self-management behaviors were identified, Gullah family members remain at risk for preventable diabetes complications. Education must reflect behaviors and beliefs valued by Gullah individuals. Culturally appropriate educational programs may increase use of health care services aimed at decreasing preventable complications of type 2 diabetes in the Gullah population.
Experimental and observational studies find contrasting responses of soil nutrients to climate change

Manipulative experiments and observations along environmental gradients, the two most common approaches to evaluate the impacts of climate change on nutrient cycling, are generally assumed to produce similar results, but this assumption has rarely been tested. We did so by conducting a meta-analysis and found that soil nutrients responded differentially to drivers of climate change depending on the approach considered. Soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations generally decreased with water addition in manipulative experiments but increased with annual precipitation along environmental gradients. Different patterns were also observed between warming experiments and temperature gradients. Our findings provide evidence of inconsistent results and suggest that manipulative experiments may be better predictors of the causal impacts of short-term (months to years) climate change on soil nutrients but environmental gradients may provide better information for long-term correlations (centuries to millennia) between these nutrients and climatic features. Ecosystem models should consequently incorporate both experimental and observational data to properly assess the impacts of climate change on nutrient cycling. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.23255. 001
Bridging the Digital Divide: Use of Public Internet Kiosks in Mauritius

Subsidized ICT access is often provided in less-developed regions of the world to bridge the digital divide. While such efforts can be helpful, their effectiveness depends on targeted users' willingness to utilize the ICT provided. To better understand the phenomenon from users' perspective, this study examines the factors influencing individual's intention and behavior of using public internet kiosks in Mauritius. Having witnessed rapid growth in ICT recently, Mauritius is an appropriate context for this study. Findings indicate that self efficacy, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control are significant in explaining ICT use. Although these factors have been studied in the developed world, their perception and assessment in the developing world differ and deserve more attention. This study adds to the limited empirical research in this part of the world. Implications for research and suggestions for encouraging ICT use in such regions are discussed.
Characterization and Comparative Analysis of Olfactory Receptor Co-Receptor Orco Orthologs Among Five Mirid Bug Species

The phytophagous mirid bugs of Apolygus lucorum, Lygus pratensis as well as three Adelphocoris spp. , including Adelphocoris lineolatus, A. suturalis, and A. fasciaticollis are major pests of multiple agricultural crops in China, which have distinct geographical distribution and occurrence ranges. Like many insect species, these bugs heavily rely on olfactory cues to search preferred host plants, thereby investigation on functional co-evolution and divergence of olfactory genes seems to be necessary and is of great interest. In the odorant detection pathway, olfactory receptor co-receptor (Orco) plays critical role in the perception of odors. In this study, we identified the full-length cDNA sequences encoding three putative Orcos (AsutOrco, AfasOrco, and LpraOrco) in bug species of A. suturalis, A. fasciaticollis, and L. pratensis based on homology cloning method. Next, sequence alignment, membrane topology and gene structure analysis showed that these three Orco orthologs together with previously reported AlinOrco and AlucOrco shared high amino acid identities and similar topology structure, but had different gene structure especially at the length and insertion sites of introns. Furthermore, the evolutional estimation on the ratios of non-synonymous to synonymous (Ka/Ks) revealed that Orco genes were under strong purifying selection, but the degrees of variation were significant different between genera. The results of quantitative real-time PCR experiments showed that these five Orco genes had a similar antennae-biased tissue expression pattern. Taking these data together, it is thought that Orco genes in the mirid species could share conserved olfaction roles but had different evolution rates. These findings would lay a foundation to further investigate the molecular mechanisms of evolutionary interactions between mirid bugs and their host plants, which might in turn contribute to the development of pest management strategy for mirid bugs.
Sex and dieting modify the association between emotional eating and weight status.

BACKGROUND Unlike other psychological correlates of weight status, emotional eating (EmE) has received relatively limited attention in the literature. OBJECTIVES We aimed to examine the association between the EmE score and weight status and the influence of sex and dieting on this association. DESIGN A total of 8580 men and 27,061 women aged ≥18 y who participated in the NutriNet-Santé cohort study were selected in this cross-sectional analysis. Self-reported weight and height, EmE scores of the revised 21-item version of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, and dieting status data were collected. The relation between EmE and weight status was estimated by using multiple linear and logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Interactions of EmE with sex and dieting history were assessed. RESULTS Median EmE scores were greater in women than in men and in former or current dieters than in subjects without a history of dieting. Strong associations appeared between the EmE score and weight status in most categories of sex × dieting status. The strongest associations between EmE and weight status were observed in women, particularly in never dieters [body mass index slope (95% CI): 2.61 (2.43, 2.78); overweight OR (95% CI): 5.06 (4.24, 6.05)]. CONCLUSIONS These observations support the existence of an association between EmE and weight status. The effect modification of sex and dieting on the EmE score and on the association of the EmE score with weight status should be taken into account in obesity prevention.
Trend Analysis and Forecast of Precipitation, Reference Evapotranspiration, and Rainfall Deficit in the Blackland Prairie of Eastern Mississippi

AbstractTrend analysis and estimation of monthly and annual precipitation, reference evapotranspiration ETo, and rainfall deficit are essential for water-resources management and cropping-system design. Rainfall, ETo, and water-deficit patterns and trends at Macon in eastern Mississippi for a 120-yr period (1894–2014) were analyzed for annual, seasonal, and monthly periods. The analysis showed historical average annual rainfall, ETo, and dryness index (DI) in the location to be 1307 mm, 1210 mm, and 0.97, respectively. Monthly rainfall and ETo ranged from 72 to 118 mm and from 94 to 146 mm, respectively, between May and October, resulting in a monthly rain deficit from 22 to 62 mm. Annual rainfall showed an increasing trend of 1.17 mm yr−1 while annual ETo exhibited a decreasing trend of −0.51 mm yr−1, resulting in an annual DI reduction of 0.001 per year. Seasonal trends were found for rainfall in autumn (1.06 mm yr−1), ETo in summer (−0.29 mm yr−1) and autumn (−0.18 mm yr−1), and DI in autumn (−0.006).
Relationship of socioeconomic markers to daily life ischemia and blood pressure reactivity in coronary artery disease patients

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is an important predictor of clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Purpose: We hypothesized that a selected sample of low SES cardiac patients would display heightened cardiovascular stress responses in the laboratory and increased daily life ischemia compared to otherwise comparable higher SES patients.Methods: Eighty-two patients (M age=61.8±9.4 years; 71 men, 11 women) with a known history of CAD engaged in a stressful mental arithmetic task while blood pressure (BP) measures were collected. Myocardial ischemia was subsequently assessed via 48-hr ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring in a subgroup of 51 patients. SES was defined by participants’ residential block groups, which were linked to Census Bureau data about their neighborhood, including per capita income, percentage of the population below poverty, educational level, as well as self-report of number of years of education.Results: Contrary to expectation, high SES participants in the study displayed higher diastolic BP (p<.01) and systolic BP (p<.001) responses to mental stress in the laboratory.Conclusions: Participants with daily life ischemia came from wealthier neighborhoods using indexes of poverty (p<.01), income (p<.02), and education (p<.04) compared to patients without ambulatory ischemia. This relationship was not accounted for by age, sex, race, body mass index, marital status, or measures of disease severity.
Ectopic expression of Pax4 in pancreatic δ cells results in β-like cell neogenesis

The recent demonstration that pancreatic &agr; cells can be continuously regenerated and converted into &bgr;-like cells upon ectopic expression of Pax4 opened new avenues of research in the endocrine cell differentiation and diabetes fields. To determine whether such plasticity was also shared by &dgr; cells, we generated and characterized transgenic animals that express Pax4 specifically in somatostatin-expressing cells. We demonstrate that the ectopic expression of Pax4 in &dgr; cells is sufficient to induce their conversion into functional &bgr;-like cells. Importantly, this conversion induces compensatory mechanisms involving the reactivation of endocrine developmental processes that result in dramatic &bgr;-like cell hyperplasia. Importantly, these &bgr;-like cells are functional and can partly reverse the consequences of chemically induced diabetes.
Getting to Know Each Other: The Role of Social Dialogue in Recovery from Errors in Social Robots

This work explores the extent to which social dialogue can mitigate (or exacerbate) the loss of trust caused when robots make conversational errors. Our study uses a NAO robot programmed to persuade users to agree with its rankings on two tasks. We perform two manipulations: (1) The timing of conversational errors – the robot exhibited errors either in the first task, the second task, or neither; (2) The presence of social dialogue – between the two tasks, users either engaged in a social dialogue with the robot or completed a control task. We found that the timing of the errors matters: replicating previous research, conversational errors reduce the robot’s influence in the second task, but not on the first task. Social dialogue interacts with the timing of errors, acting as an intensifier: social dialogue helps the robot recover from prior errors, and actually boosts subsequent influence; but social dialogue backfires if it is followed by errors, because it extends the period of good performance, creating a stronger contrast effect with the subsequent errors. The design of social robots should therefore be more careful to avoid errors after periods of good performance than early on in a dialogue.
Functional MRI of Handwriting Tasks: A Study of Healthy Young Adults Interacting with a Novel Touch-Sensitive Tablet

Handwriting is a complex human activity that engages a blend of cognitive and visual motor skills. Current understanding of the neural correlates of handwriting has largely come from lesion studies of patients with impaired handwriting. Task-based fMRI studies would be useful to supplement this work. To address concerns over ecological validity, previously we developed a fMRI-compatible, computerized tablet system for writing and drawing including visual feedback of hand position and an augmented reality display. The purpose of the present work is to use the tablet system in proof-of-concept to characterize brain activity associated with clinically relevant handwriting tasks, originally developed to characterize handwriting impairments in Alzheimer’s disease patients. As a prelude to undertaking fMRI studies of patients, imaging was performed of twelve young healthy subjects who copied sentences, phone numbers, and grocery lists using the fMRI-compatible tablet. Activation maps for all handwriting tasks consisted of a distributed network of regions in reasonable agreement with previous studies of handwriting performance. In addition, differences in brain activity were observed between the test subcomponents consistent with different demands of neural processing for successful task performance, as identified by investigating three quantitative behavioral metrics (writing speed, stylus contact force and stylus in air time). This study provides baseline behavioral and brain activity results for fMRI studies that adopt this handwriting test to characterize patients with brain impairments.
Maternal vitamin D status in pregnancy is associated with adiposity in the offspring: findings from the Southampton Women's Survey.

BACKGROUND Low vitamin D status has been linked to adiposity, but little is known of the effects of low status in pregnancy on offspring body composition. OBJECTIVE The objective was to determine how maternal vitamin D status relates to lean and fat mass of the offspring. DESIGN The offspring of 977 pregnant women, who had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] measured at 34 wk gestation, were followed up within 3 wk of birth and at 4 and 6 y of age for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry assessment of lean and fat mass. RESULTS The median maternal serum 25(OH)D concentration was 62 nmol/L (IQR: 43-89 nmol/L); 35% of the women studied had values <50 nmol/L. Lower vitamin D status was associated with lower fat mass in the offspring at birth but with greater fat mass at ages 4 and 6 y. It was not associated with lean mass at any of the ages studied. The opposing associations seen between maternal 25(OH)D (SDs) and fat mass (SDs) in the offspring at birth and at age 6 y were robust to adjustment for a range of confounding factors, including maternal BMI and weight gain in pregnancy [β (95% CI): 0.08 (0.02, 0.15) and -0.10 (-0.17, -0.02), respectively]. The key independent predictors of higher maternal vitamin D status were season of assessment and use of vitamin D supplements. CONCLUSIONS Lower maternal vitamin D status may be linked to programmed differences in offspring fat mass. The findings require replication but add to a growing evidence base for a role of vitamin D in the origins of adiposity.
Binding by Random Bursts: A Computational Model of Cognitive Control

A neural synchrony model of cognitive control is proposed. It construes cognitive control as a higher-level action to synchronize lower-level brain areas. Here, a controller prefrontal area (medial frontal cortex) can synchronize two cortical processing areas. The synchrony is achieved by a random theta frequency-locked neural burst sent to both areas. The choice of areas that receive this burst is determined by lateral frontal cortex. As a result of this synchrony, communication between the two areas becomes more efficient. The model is tested on the classical Stroop cognitive control task, and its operation is explored in several simulations. Both reactive and proactive controls are implemented via theta power modulation. Increasing theta power improves behavioral performance; furthermore, via theta–gamma phase–amplitude coupling, theta also increases gamma frequency power and synchrony in posterior processing areas. Thus, the model solves a central computational problem for cognitive control (how to allow rapid communication between arbitrary brain areas), while making rich contact with behavioral and neurophysiological data.
The Social Values Development of Preschoolers: An Investigation of the Joint Impact Hypothesis

We investigated the role of sociocultural (between-groups) and individual (within-group) factors on the development of preschoolers’ resource-allocation preferences. We tested claims of the joint impact hypothesis of social values development that social−emotional understanding skills would predict the transition from simpler (individualistic allocations) to more complex (cooperative, competitive allocations) social values and that cultural background would determine which values emerged. American children ages 37–67 months from Spanish-speaking Latino (n = 134), English-speaking Latino (n = 50), and English-speaking Caucasian (n = 98) backgrounds twice completed a resource-allocation task and a social−emotional understanding assessment, separated by 6 months. Contrary to predictions, results revealed that for no group were complex choice allocations more common at Time 2 than at Time 1. Moreover, for the Caucasian group, social−emotional understanding did not predict time-dependent choice allocation behavior. For Latinos, however, results revealed differential social values development according to language background. For Spanish-speaking Latinos, higher social−emotional understanding scores predicted emergent cooperative choices, and for English-speaking Latinos, higher scores predicted emergent competitive choices. Findings are consistent with differential socialization wherein social−emotional understanding skills facilitate the development of culturally mainstream values for more acculturated Latinos and ethnic cultural values for less acculturated Latinos.
Nutrient-sensing nuclear receptors PPAR&agr; and FXR control liver energy balance

The nuclear receptors PPAR&agr; (encoded by NR1C1) and farnesoid X receptor (FXR, encoded by NR1H4) are activated in the liver in the fasted and fed state, respectively. PPAR&agr; activation induces fatty acid oxidation, while FXR controls bile acid homeostasis, but both nuclear receptors also regulate numerous other metabolic pathways relevant to liver energy balance. Here we review evidence that they function coordinately to control key nutrient pathways, including fatty acid oxidation and gluconeogenesis in the fasted state and lipogenesis and glycolysis in the fed state. We have also recently reported that these receptors have mutually antagonistic impacts on autophagy, which is induced by PPAR&agr; but suppressed by FXR. Secretion of multiple blood proteins is a major drain on liver energy and nutrient resources, and we present preliminary evidence that the liver secretome may be directly suppressed by PPAR&agr;, but induced by FXR. Finally, previous studies demonstrated a striking deficiency in bile acid levels in malnourished mice that is consistent with results in malnourished children. We present evidence that hepatic targets of PPAR&agr; and FXR are dysregulated in chronic undernutrition. We conclude that PPAR&agr; and FXR function coordinately to integrate liver energy balance.
Alterations in Heart Rate and Atria to Ventricular Conductivity in Third Trimester Pregnancy: A Comparative Study

The cardiovascular system undergoes physiological changes during pregnancy. These physiological changes in the heart can be understood by simple procedures like electrocardiography. With the objective of formulating basis of alterations in heart rate and impulse conductivity from atria to ventricles during pregnancy, the study was carried out in Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal between calendar year 2012 and 2013 by comparing electrocardiograms between pregnant and non-pregnant participants. The total number of participants in this study was 120: 50% was third trimester pregnant women as cases and the other 50% was non-pregnant women as controls. The statistically significant increase in heart rate and highly significant decrease in PR interval in electrocardiograms of cases conclude that the alterations in cardiac function do occur in pregnancies which all try to meet the growing demands of developing fetus. Thus, these changes neither should be misinterpreted as of pathological origin nor the latter one if present should be misdiagnosed by any health care providers.