Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Habitats as Complex Odour Environments: How Does Plant Diversity Affect Herbivore and Parasitoid Orientation?

Plant diversity is known to affect success of host location by pest insects, but its effect on olfactory orientation of non-pest insect species has hardly been addressed. First, we tested in laboratory experiments the hypothesis that non-host plants, which increase odour complexity in habitats, affect the host location ability of herbivores and parasitoids. Furthermore, we recorded field data of plant diversity in addition to herbivore and parasitoid abundance at 77 grassland sites in three different regions in Germany in order to elucidate whether our laboratory results reflect the field situation. As a model system we used the herb Plantago lanceolata, the herbivorous weevil Mecinus pascuorum, and its larval parasitoid Mesopolobus incultus. The laboratory bioassays revealed that both the herbivorous weevil and its larval parasitoid can locate their host plant and host via olfactory cues even in the presence of non-host odour. In a newly established two-circle olfactometer, the weeviĺs capability to detect host plant odour was not affected by odours from non-host plants. However, addition of non-host plant odours to host plant odour enhanced the weeviĺs foraging activity. The parasitoid was attracted by a combination of host plant and host volatiles in both the absence and presence of non-host plant volatiles in a Y-tube olfactometer. In dual choice tests the parasitoid preferred the blend of host plant and host volatiles over its combination with non-host plant volatiles. In the field, no indication was found that high plant diversity disturbs host (plant) location by the weevil and its parasitoid. In contrast, plant diversity was positively correlated with weevil abundance, whereas parasitoid abundance was independent of plant diversity. Therefore, we conclude that weevils and parasitoids showed the sensory capacity to successfully cope with complex vegetation odours when searching for hosts.
Predicting the Long-Term Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy Scale-Up on Population Incidence of Tuberculosis

Objective To investigate the impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on long-term population-level tuberculosis disease (TB) incidence in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods We used a mathematical model to consider the effect of different assumptions about life expectancy and TB risk during long-term ART under alternative scenarios for trends in population HIV incidence and ART coverage. Results All the scenarios we explored predicted that the widespread introduction of ART would initially reduce population-level TB incidence. However, many modelled scenarios projected a rebound in population-level TB incidence after around 20 years. This rebound was predicted to exceed the TB incidence present before ART scale-up if decreases in HIV incidence during the same period were not sufficiently rapid or if the protective effect of ART on TB was not sustained. Nevertheless, most scenarios predicted a reduction in the cumulative TB incidence when accompanied by a relative decline in HIV incidence of more than 10% each year. Conclusions Despite short-term benefits of ART scale-up on population TB incidence in sub-Saharan Africa, longer-term projections raise the possibility of a rebound in TB incidence. This highlights the importance of sustaining good adherence and immunologic response to ART and, crucially, the need for effective HIV preventive interventions, including early widespread implementation of ART.
Experimental validation of the effects of microvasculature pigment packaging on in vivo diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) uses the steady‐state diffuse reflectance measured from the tissue surface to determine absorption and scattering properties of sampled tissue. Many inverse models used to determine absorber properties have assumed a homogeneous distribution of blood. However, blood in tissue is confined to blood vessels that occupy a small fraction of the overall volume. This simplified assumption can lead to large errors when measuring optical properties. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of confining absorbers to small volumes, such as the microvasculature, on in vivo DRS.
Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of ZrC Reinforced (Zr‐Ti)‐Al‐Ni‐Cu Glassy Composites by an In Situ Reaction

[*] Prof. Q. Jiang, T. Liu, P. Shen, Dr. F. Qiu Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials, Ministry of Education and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University No. 5988 Renmin Street, 130025 Changchun, P.R. China E-mail: jqc@jlu.edu. cn Prof. T. Zhang Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Beijing, P.R. China [**] This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 program) (no. 2007CB613900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 50531030), and project 985 – Automotive Engineering of Jilin University.
Industrial Scale Isolation, Structural and Spectroscopic Characterization of Epiisopiloturine from Pilocarpus microphyllus Stapf Leaves: A Promising Alkaloid against Schistosomiasis

This paper presents an industrial scale process for extraction, purification, and isolation of epiisopiloturine (EPI) (2(3H)-Furanone,dihydro-3-(hydroxyphenylmethyl)-4-[(1-methyl-1H-imidazol-4-yl)methyl]-, [3S-[3a(R*),4b]]), which is an alkaloid from jaborandi leaves (Pilocarpus microphyllus Stapf). Additionally for the first time a set of structural and spectroscopic techniques were used to characterize this alkaloid. EPI has shown schistomicidal activity against adults and young forms, as well as the reduction of the egg laying adult worms and low toxicity to mammalian cells (in vitro). At first, the extraction of EPI was done with toluene and methylene chloride to obtain a solution that was alkalinized with ammonium carbonate. The remaining solution was treated in sequence by acidification, filtration and alkalinization. These industrial procedures are necessary in order to remove impurities and subsequent application of the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The HPLC was employed also to remove other alkaloids, to obtain EPI purity higher than 98%. The viability of the method was confirmed through HPLC and electrospray mass spectrometry, that yielded a pseudo molecular ion of m/z equal to 287.1 Da. EPI structure was characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in deuterated methanol/chloroform solution, vibrational spectroscopy and mass coupled thermal analyses. EPI molecule presents a parallel alignment of the benzene and the methyl imidazol ring separated by an interplanar spacing of 3.758 Å indicating a π-π bond interaction. The imidazole alkaloid melts at 225°C and decomposes above 230°C under air. EPI structure was used in theoretical Density Functional Theory calculations, considering the single crystal XRD data in order to simulate the NMR, infrared and Raman spectra of the molecule, and performs the signals attribution.
Reductions in Cardiovascular, Cerebrovascular, and Respiratory Mortality following the National Irish Smoking Ban: Interrupted Time-Series Analysis

Background Previous studies have shown decreases in cardiovascular mortality following the implementation of comprehensive smoking bans. It is not known whether cerebrovascular or respiratory mortality decreases post-ban. On March 29, 2004, the Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to implement a national workplace smoking ban. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of this policy on all-cause and cause-specific, non-trauma mortality. Methods A time-series epidemiologic assessment was conducted, utilizing Poisson regression to examine weekly age and gender-standardized rates for 215,878 non-trauma deaths in the Irish population, ages ≥35 years. The study period was from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2007, with a post-ban follow-up of 3.75 years. All models were adjusted for time trend, season, influenza, and smoking prevalence. Results Following ban implementation, an immediate 13% decrease in all-cause mortality (RR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.76–0.99), a 26% reduction in ischemic heart disease (IHD) (RR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.63–0.88), a 32% reduction in stroke (RR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.54–0.85), and a 38% reduction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (RR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.46–0.83) mortality was observed. Post-ban reductions in IHD, stroke, and COPD mortalities were seen in ages ≥65 years, but not in ages 35–64 years. COPD mortality reductions were found only in females (RR: 0.47; 95% CI: 0.32–0.70). Post-ban annual trend reductions were not detected for any smoking-related causes of death. Unadjusted estimates indicate that 3,726 (95% CI: 2,305–4,629) smoking-related deaths were likely prevented post-ban. Mortality decreases were primarily due to reductions in passive smoking. Conclusions The national Irish smoking ban was associated with immediate reductions in early mortality. Importantly, post-ban risk differences did not change with a longer follow-up period. This study corroborates previous evidence for cardiovascular causes, and is the first to demonstrate reductions in cerebrovascular and respiratory causes.
F0, voice quality, and Danish stød revisited

Danish stød is a syllable prosody, hitherto described as a kind of creaky voice with tonal side effects. One such is the well established, though not ubiquitous, abrupt lowering of F0 towards the end of the syllable. Eli Fischer-Jørgensen found, in the 1970s and 1980s, a difference also in the beginning of stressed syllables: F0 is higher in the beginning of syllables with stød. Confirming her findings 40 years later was straightforward in read word lists and as a clear trend in non-scripted monologues. In dialogues, however, the modest effect of stød on onset F0 is overshadowed by the greater variation in overall frequency range. Higher F0 onset is present also in unstressed syllables with stød, though of lesser magnitude. The results support a characterization of Danish stød as compressed, rather than creaky voice. They also demonstrate the viability of controlled speech materials for investigations of finer prosodic detail.
Interactive effects of oxygen, carbon dioxide and flow on photosynthesis and respiration in the scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis

ABSTRACT Rates of dark respiration and net photosynthesis were measured for six replicate clonal fragments of the stony coral Galaxea fascicularis (Linnaeus 1767), which were incubated under 12 different combinations of dissolved oxygen (20%, 100% and 150% saturation), dissolved carbon dioxide (9.5 and 19.1 µmol l−1) and water flow (1–1.6 versus 4–13 cm s−1) in a repeated measures design. Dark respiration was enhanced by increased flow and increased oxygen saturation in an interactive way, which relates to improved oxygen influx into the coral tissue. Oxygen saturation did not influence net photosynthesis: neither hypoxia nor hyperoxia affected net photosynthesis, irrespective of flow and pH, which suggests that hyperoxia does not induce high rates of photorespiration in this coral. Flow and pH had a synergistic effect on net photosynthesis: at high flow, a decrease in pH stimulated net photosynthesis by 14%. These results indicate that for this individual of G. fascicularis, increased uptake of carbon dioxide rather than increased efflux of oxygen explains the beneficial effect of water flow on photosynthesis. Rates of net photosynthesis measured in this study are among the highest ever recorded for scleractinian corals and confirm a strong scope for growth. Summary: A multifactorial experiment reveals no effect of oxygen on coral photosynthesis and an increase in coral photosynthesis under high flow and a doubled concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide.
Multichannel Retailing And Its Implications On Consumer Shopping Behavior

Comscore networks recently reported that online non-travel retail spending surpassed the $100 billion mark to reach $102.1 billion in 2006 (www.comscore.com). This represents a 24% increase over 2005 totals. Such a rapid growth in online retailing is forcing retailers to struggle with multi-channel options and channel integration issues. This is a departure of over a hundred years of practice followed by most big retailers, who have previously offered their customers only two channels for shopping: in-store or mail-order from catalogues. With the advent of the Internet, however, retail companies that traditionally offered only one or two channels could use online sales channels as a third option, which could respond to new opportunities and challenges (Jette, 2005). Several studies have already underscored the importance of such multichannel marketing practices. According to the Wall Street Journal, customers who use three different channels spend four times as much as customers using only one of the three channels (Shankar and Winer, 2005). The Aberdeen Group found that 44.7% of retailers surveyed use three channels, while 50.5% of retailers use at least two channels in their multi-channel strategies (Aberdeen group, 2004). A separate study conducted by J.C. Penney (http://www.jcwg.com/downloads/ACCM-Session1.pdf accessed August 25, 2007) finds that customers who use all three channels (store, catalog, and website) spend an average of $887 per year, significantly higher than spent by customers who use only websites ($157), physical stores ($195) or catalogues ($201). Further, this study also reports that sales from J.C. Penney customers who used all three channels grew by 30% annually, and sales from those using at least two of those channels grew by 46% annually. In addition, over 60% of retailers claim that their transactions with multi-channel customers are more profitable than those with customers who use only
Costs of immunity and their role in the range expansion of the house sparrow in Kenya

ABSTRACT There are at least two reasons to study traits that mediate successful range expansions. First, dispersers will found new populations and thus impact the distribution and evolution of species. Second, organisms moving into new areas will influence the fate of resident communities, directly competing with or indirectly affecting residents by spreading non-native or spilling-back native parasites. The success of invaders in new areas is likely mediated by a counterbalancing of costly traits. In new areas where threats are comparatively rare, individuals that grow rapidly and breed prolifically should be at an advantage. High investment in defenses should thus be disfavored. In the present study, we compared the energetic, nutritional and collateral damage costs of an inflammatory response among Kenyan house sparrow (Passer domesticus) populations of different ages, asking whether costs were related to traits of individuals from three different capture sites. Kenya is among the world's most recent range expansions for this species, and we recently found that the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), leukocyte receptors that instigate inflammatory responses when bound to microbial elements, was related to the range expansion across the country. Here, we found (contrary to our expectations) that energetic and nutritional costs of inflammation were higher, but damage costs were lower, in range-edge compared with core birds. Moreover, at the individual level, TLR-4 expression was negatively related to commodity costs (energy and a critical amino acid) of inflammation. Our data thus suggest that costs of inflammation, perhaps mediated by TLR expression, might mitigate successful range expansions. Summary: Costs of inflammation, partly mediated by Toll-like receptor expression, are related to range expansion in house sparrows invading Kenya.
Enabling Adaptive Process-Aware Information Systems with ADEPT2

In dynamic environments it must be possible to quickly implement new business processes, to enable ad-hoc deviations from the defined business processes on-demand (e.g., by dynamically adding, deleting or moving process activities), and to support dynamic process evolution (i.e., to propagate process schema changes to already running process instances). These fundamental requirements must be met without affecting process consistency and robustness of the process-aware information system. In this chapter we describe how these challenges have been addressed in the ADEPT2 process management system. Our overall vision is to provide a next generation technology for the support of dynamic processes, which enables full process lifecycle management and which can be applied to a variety of application domains.
Prevalence and Associated Symptoms of Helicobacter pylori Infection among Schoolchildren in Kassala State, East of Sudan

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of H. pylori infections among schoolchildren and investigate the associations between H. pylori seropositivity and existence of gastrointestinal symptoms. Methods. A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted during a period from January to December 2012 at Kassala state, east of Sudan. Schoolchildren from different primary schools were enrolled in the study. Sociodemographic characteristics and gastrointestinal symptoms were recorded from each child. A rapid immunochromatographic test was performed for the detection of H. pylori IgG antibodies. Data on patient demographic characteristics, clinical diagnosis, and findings of H. pylori infection were analyzed by simple descriptive statistics. Results. Among 431 schoolchildren, H. pylori seropositivity was found to be 21.8%. The majority of children (79; 84%) had BMI below the normal range. The most frequent symptoms associated with H. pylori infections were nausea (25.5%), followed by gastric pain (24.5%) and heart pain (20.2%). There were statistically significant differences in H. pylori seropositivity between boys and girls (p = 0.003). Conclusions. The prevalence of H. pylori infection among schoolchildren in Kassala city has been documented. Although the majority of the disease was associated with several gastrointestinal symptoms, the role of infection in the etiology of abdominal symptoms needs further investigations.
Who Follows eHealth Interventions as Recommended? A Study of Participants' Personal Characteristics From the Experimental Arm of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Computer-tailored eHealth interventions to improve health behavior have been demonstrated to be effective and cost-effective if they are used as recommended. However, different subgroups may use the Internet differently, which might also affect intervention use and effectiveness. To date, there is little research available depicting whether adherence to intervention recommendations differs according to personal characteristics. Objective The aim was to assess which personal characteristics are associated with using an eHealth intervention as recommended. Methods A randomized controlled trial was conducted among a sample of the adult Dutch population (N=1638) testing an intervention aimed at improving 5 healthy lifestyle behaviors: increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, increasing physical activity, reducing alcohol intake, and promoting smoking cessation. Participants were asked to participate in those specific online modules for which they did not meet the national guideline(s) for the respective behavior(s). Participants who started with fewer than the recommended number of modules of the intervention were defined as users who did not follow the intervention recommendation. Results The fewer modules recommended to participants, the better participants adhered to the intervention modules. Following the intervention recommendation increased when participants were older (χ2 1=39.8, P<.001), female (χ2 1=15.8, P<.001), unemployed (χ2 1=7.9, P=.003), ill (χ2 1=4.5, P=.02), or in a relationship (χ2 1=7.8, P=.003). No significant relevant differences were found between groups with different levels of education, incomes, or quality of life. Conclusion Our findings indicate that eHealth interventions were used differently by subgroups. The more frequent as-recommended intervention use by unemployed, older, and ill participants may be an indication that these eHealth interventions are attractive to people with a greater need for health care information. Further research is necessary to make intervention use more attractive for people with unhealthy lifestyle patterns.
Evaluation on Mechanical Properties of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene

Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) has been used in aerospace and expensive automobile applications, because of its light weight, high strength and rigidity, design flexibility, long material life, etc. However, CFRP is not used for a general-purpose material yet. CFRP has the issues of capital importance to cost reduction and recycling. Thus, we have examined to develop a low cost CFRP with easy recycling. In this paper, we propose a resolution to improve the flexural and impact properties of CFRPP by the use of a carbon fiber-polypropylene (i-PP) matrix system. As a result, we found that the CFRPP in our study is about 750 MPa of the flexural strength, about 89 GPa of the flexural modulus and about 115 kJ/m2 of the izod impact strength, in particular UD8 improved 1.5, 1.1 and 1.1 times in the strength, modulus and impact strength, repectively compared with UD4. CFRPP is one of promising material to make the structure light.
Residual stand damage from cut-to-length thinning of second-growth timber in the Cascade range of western Oregon.

Residual stand damage was measured on 25 percent of an area that had been thinned with a cut-to-length logging system. Total damage (scar area) per acre was less than in any similar study in the Pacific Northwest, although 39.8 percent of the residual trees sustained some damage. Only 0.8 percent of the trees, however, sustained major damage. Western hemlock was more susceptible to damage than Douglas-fir. Most of the damage occurred within 15 feet (4.57 m) of a trail centerline and originated within 3 feet (0.91 m) of the groundline. Early summer logging may have resulted in a higher level of damaged trees than might occur during other seasons (.)
Localised JAK/STAT Pathway Activation Is Required for Drosophila Wing Hinge Development

Extensive morphogenetic remodelling takes place during metamorphosis from a larval to an adult insect body plan. These changes are particularly intricate in the generation of the dipteran wing hinge, a complex structure that is derived from an apparently simple region of the wing imaginal disc. Using the characterisation of original outstretched alleles of the unpaired locus as a starting point, we demonstrate the role of JAK/STAT pathway signalling in the process of wing hinge development. We show that differences in JAK/STAT signalling within the proximal most of three lateral folds present in the wing imaginal disc is required for fold morphology and the subsequent differentiation of the first and second auxiliary sclerites as well as the posterior notal wing process. Changes in these domains are consistent with the established fate map of the wing disc. We show that outstretched wing posture phenotypes arise from the loss of a region of Unpaired expression in the proximal wing fold and demonstrate that this results in a decrease in JAK/STAT pathway activity. Finally we show that reduction of JAK/STAT pathway activity within the proximal wing fold is sufficient to phenocopy the outstretched phenotype. Taken together, we suggest that localised Unpaired expression and hence JAK/STAT pathway activity, is required for the morphogenesis of the adult wing hinge, providing new insights into the link between signal transduction pathways, patterning and development.