Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Influencing the Choice of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies by Households: A Case of Mpolonjeni Area Development Programme (ADP) in Swaziland

The increased involvement of food relief agencies nearly on an annual basis is a clear indication that agricultural production continues to decline as a result of climate change. In order to mitigate the negative effect of climate change, households engage on adaptation strategies. The extent to which these impacts are felt depends mostly on the level of adaptation in response to climate change. The main objectives of the study were to identify the adaptation strategies employed by households and to analyse factors influencing the choice of adaptation strategies by households using personal interviews. The study used data from a random sample of 350 households. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression model were used to analyse the data. The results showed that adaptation strategies employed were; drought tolerant varieties, switching crops, irrigation, crop rotation, mulching, minimum tillage, early planting, late planting and intercropping. The results showed that the choice of adaptation strategies by households was significantly (p <0.05) influenced by; age of household head, occupation of household head, being a member of a social group, land category, access to credit, access to extension services and training, high incidences of crop pest and disease, high input prices, high food prices, perceptions of households towards climate change. Moreover, the analysis showed that perceptions of households towards climate change significantly influence all adaptation strategies. However, sex and education level of the household head were insignificant in influencing household choice when adapting to climate change. It is recommended that there is need to educate households about the negative impact of climate change on cropping systems. The study also recommends that agriculture extension services should be strengthened, agriculture financial institutions should accommodate subsistence farmers on communal land and rural micro-finance institutions should be developed, in order to facilitate farmers to choose effective adaptation strategies.
Distinct mechanisms of immunosuppression as a consequence of major surgery

Altered host defense mechanisms after major surgery or trauma are considered important for the development of infectious complications and sepsis. In the present study, we demonstrate that major surgery results in a severe defect of T-lymphocyte proliferation and cytokine secretion in response to coligation of the antigen receptor complex and CD28. During the early postoperative course, reduced cytokine secretion was observed for interleukin-2 (IL-2), gamma interferon, and tumor necrosis factor alpha, which are associated with the Th1 phenotype of helper T lymphocytes, and for IL-4, the index cytokine of Th2 cells. During the late postoperative course, T-cell cytokine secretion increased to normal levels. Production of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 was altered, with different kinetics being selectively elevated during the late postoperative course. In contrast, the capacity of peripheral blood monocytes to present bacterial superantigens and to stimulate T-cell proliferation was normal or enhanced after surgery despite a significant loss of cell surface HLA-DR molecules. Thus, the level of major histocompatibility complex class II protein expression does not appear to predict the antigen-presenting capacity of monocytes obtained from surgical patients with uneventful postoperative recovery. Secretion of IL-1beta and IL-10 by endotoxin-stimulated peripheral blood monocytes was increased at different time points after surgery. Major surgery therefore results in a distinct pattern of immune defects with a predominant defect in the T-cell response to T-cell receptor- and CD28 coreceptor-mediated signals rather than an impaired monocyte antigen-presenting capacity. Suppression of T-cell effector functions during the early phase of the postoperative course may define a state of impaired defense against pathogens and increased susceptibility to infection and septic complications.
Signal Transduction of Fertilization in Frog Eggs and Anti-Apoptotic Mechanism in Human Cancer Cells: Common and Specific Functions of Membrane Microdomains

Membrane microdomains or lipid/membrane rafts are distinct areas on the plasma membranes, where a specific subset of lipids (e.g. cholesterol, sphingolipids) and proteins (e.g. glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, growth factor receptor/kinases) are getting together and functioning for several aspects of cellular functions. Our recent investigation has revealed that fertilization of African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, requires cholesterol-dependent nature of egg membrane microdomains. Moreover, fertilization of Xenopus eggs involves proteolytic cleavage of the extracellular part and subsequent phosphorylation of a cytoplasmic tyrosine residue of uroplakin III, an egg membrane microdomain-associated protein. Protease activity toward uroplakin III seems to be derived from fertilizing sperm, while phosphorylation of uroplakin III seems to be catalyzed by the egg tyrosine kinase Src, whose activation is required for cytoplasmic rearrangement of fertilized eggs; so-called ‘egg activation’. Therefore, it is assumed that uroplakin III serves an integral part of signal transduction in fertilization of Xenopus. Our more recent study on human cancer cells has revealed that a similar but distinct scheme of signal transduction operates in anti-apoptotic growth of cells. Namely, in human bladder carcinoma cells, cooperation of uroplakin III and Src, both of which localize to the membrane microdomains, allows cells to escape from apoptotic cell death and proliferate under culture conditions deprived of serum. In this review, I briefly introduce about biology of fertilization and cancer, and then present and discuss our experimental data on general importance and specific features of membrane microdomains in Xenopus fertilization and anti-apoptosis in human bladder carcinoma cells.
A Real World Evaluation of Encounter Gossip

Encounter Gossip is a family of message propagation protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks. The coverage of propagation (the fraction of nodes that receive the message) can be made arbitrarily close to 1 at the cost of increased bandwidth overhead. This paper evaluates the performance of Encounter Gossip in a real world scenario: an office block complex. The mobility trace of the experiment is examined and used as the input for further simulations. © 2008 University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Printed and published by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Computing Science, Claremont Tower, Claremont Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, England. Bibliographical details COOPER, D. E. , EZHILCHELVAN, P., MITRANI, I. A Real World Evaluation of Encounter Gossip [By] D. E. Cooper. , P. Ezhilchelvan. , I. Mitrani. Newcastle upon Tyne: University of Newcastle upon Tyne: Computing Science, 2008. (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Computing Science, Technical Report Series, No. CS-TR-1090)
Two strains of roof rats as effective models for assessing new-object reaction

Wild animals generally avoid even small and harmless novel objects and/or familiar objects moved to a novel position, which is termed “new-object reaction”. Although new-object reaction appears to be a biologically important characteristic for animals, little progress has been made in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying new-object reaction. One reason might be the lack of effective experimental animals. Two strains of roof rats (Sj and Og strains) were established from wild roof rats caught in Shinjuku, Tokyo and one of the Ogasawara Islands, respectively, by a Japanese pest control company. Based on the rat caregivers’ informal observations, we conducted behavioral and anatomical tests to assess the validity of Sj and Og strains for the analyses of new-object reaction. In Experiment 1, the Sj strain showed reduced food consumption compared with the Og strain when food was provided in a novel way, suggesting that the Sj strain had a stronger avoidance of novel objects compared with the Og strain. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the basolateral complex of the amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in experimental Sj rats had a larger percentage area compared with that of experimental Og rats, indicating these nuclei might be involved in the difference observed in avoidance of novel objects between the strains. Taken together, the present study suggests that Sj and Og strains are effective experimental animals for assessing new-object reaction.
Distributed k-means algorithm

In this paper we provide a fully distributed implementation of the k-means clustering algorithm, intended for wireless sensor networks where each agent is endowed with a possibly high-dimensional observation (e.g., position, humidity, temperature, etc.) The proposed algorithm, by means of one-hop communication, partitions the agents into measure-dependent groups that have small in-group and large out-group "distances". Since the partitions may not have a relation with the topology of the network--members of the same clusters may not be spatially close--the algorithm is provided with a mechanism to compute the clusters'centroids even when the clusters are disconnected in several sub-clusters.The results of the proposed distributed algorithm coincide, in terms of minimization of the objective function, with the centralized k-means algorithm. Some numerical examples illustrate the capabilities of the proposed solution.
Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry into the Nature and Implications of Expertise

Expertise has been around since the dawn of civilisation, but until recently the creation of experts was able to go on without anyone having to understand it, or pay any attention to its social impact. Today, as societies compete to produce more and better experts, the need grows to understand expertise - what lies behind expert performance, how it is acquired, and what keeps people functioning like experts. The authors examine the nature of expert knowledge, both the part that shows and the much larger part that is hidden, and offer an explanation of how it comes about. Hard work, practice, and experience are not enough to make an expert. The expert is recognised by an ability to solve nonroutine problems in a given domain. The expert's secret is their willingness to work at the edge of their competence and to keep reconstructing their skills at higher levels. Expertlike tendencies have been found in some university students, and even some schoolchildren function more like experts than like the other students in their classes. Yet schooling often undermines the development of expertise. Bereiter and Scardamalia describe a kind of classroom culture, the "knowledge-building community" which supports expertlike learning, and extend these ideas to the picture of an "expert society", in which expertise is normal rather than exceptional. Expertise is an expression of the uniquely human potential to go beyond the competencies given us by nature.
Color reconnection and flow-like patterns in pp collisions

Data collected at the LHC are confronted with the possible existence of flow in pp collisions. Here we present a study inside the framework of PYTHIA 8, showing that it contains implicit flow-like effects coming from multiple hard subcollisions and color string formation between initial and final partons from independent hard scatterings: color reconnection. We present studies with strange hadron observables in pp collisions at 7 TeV. Studies have been done both for minimum bias and multiplicity intervals in events with and without color reconnection to isolate the flow-like effect.
Outpatient burn management and unnecessary referrals.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to determine the profile of burn patients presented in our polyclinic and evaluate the current status in comparison to the treatment methods of past series. METHODS Burn patients presented in the polyclinic in a one-year period were included into this prospective study. The records of all patients were examined in respect of gender, age, burn percentage, burn location, cause of burn, degree of burn, dressing material, number of dressings, type of treatment, place of trauma, and month of trauma. RESULTS From a total of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five patients presented, management was completed in the polyclinic for one thousand five hundred and eleven cases with a mean age of 27.9 years, with a female: male ratio of 0.88. While most patients were in the 18-64 age group, hot liquid burn was the leading cause in all age groups (p<0.05, p<0.001). Of the total patients, 89.6% were injured at home (p<0.001). The extremities were determined as the body area most often burned (p<0.001). While a single dressing was applied to 446 patients (29.5%), in 64.9% of cases polyclinic follow-up was terminated after the first 3 dressings. The mean number of dressings was greater in patients with deep dermal burns (mean 14.5, median 14, p<0.001). CONCLUSION A higher incidence of burns was found due to increasing urban populations compared to previous years. Currently, the majority of patients are referred to a healthcare facilty near their residences for follow-up after a few dressings. Unneccessary presentation at specialist centres increases the workload of these centres and creates a burden of wasted time and transport expense for the patients. The application of current burn treatment principles in primary and secondary health facilities will reduce the workload of reference centres.
Optogenetic Release of ACh Induces Rhythmic Bursts of Perisomatic IPSCs in Hippocampus

Acetylcholine (ACh) influences a vast array of phenomena in cortical systems. It alters many ionic conductances and neuronal firing behavior, often by regulating membrane potential oscillations in populations of cells. Synaptic inhibition has crucial roles in many forms of oscillation, and cholinergic mechanisms regulate both oscillations and synaptic inhibition. In vitro investigations using bath-application of cholinergic receptor agonists, or bulk tissue electrical stimulation to release endogenous ACh, have led to insights into cholinergic function, but questions remain because of the relative lack of selectivity of these forms of stimulation. To investigate the effects of selective release of ACh on interneurons and oscillations, we used an optogenetic approach in which the light-sensitive non-selective cation channel, Channelrhodopsin2 (ChR2), was virally delivered to cholinergic projection neurons in the medial septum/diagonal band of Broca (MS/DBB) of adult mice expressing Cre-recombinase under the control of the choline-acetyltransferase (ChAT) promoter. Acute hippocampal slices obtained from these animals weeks later revealed ChR2 expression in cholinergic axons. Brief trains of blue light pulses delivered to untreated slices initiated bursts of ACh-evoked, inhibitory post-synaptic currents (L-IPSCs) in CA1 pyramidal cells that lasted for 10's of seconds after the light stimulation ceased. L-IPSC occurred more reliably in slices treated with eserine and a very low concentration of 4-AP, which were therefore used in most experiments. The rhythmic, L-IPSCs were driven primarily by muscarinic ACh receptors (mAChRs), and could be suppressed by endocannabinoid release from pyramidal cells. Finally, low-frequency oscillations (LFOs) of local field potentials (LFPs) were significantly cross-correlated with the L-IPSCs, and reversal of the LFPs near s. pyramidale confirmed that the LFPs were driven by perisomatic inhibition. This optogenetic approach may be a useful complementary technique in future investigations of endogenous ACh effects.
Millimeter-Wave Radiation From Misaligned $ \hbox{Tl}_{2}\hbox{Ba}_{2}\hbox{CaCu}_{2}\hbox{O}_{8}$ Thin-Film Intrinsic Josephson Junctions

We have measured the current-voltage characteristics of misaligned Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8 thin-film intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) embedded in a quasi-optical resonator at 78.5 K. The substrate is regarded as a dielectric resonator to improve high-frequency electromagnetic coupling between the IJJs. The experimental result is fitted well with the electromagnetic simulation. Radiation power larger than 10 pW has been detected at 75.6 GHz. Moreover, the phenomenon of jump voltage is explored, and a possible explanation is discussed.
Non-photorealistic rendering in context: an observational study

Pen-and-ink line drawing techniques are frequently used to depict form, tone, and texture in artistic, technical, and scientific illustration. In non-photorealistic rendering (NPR), considerable progress has been made towards reproducing traditional pen-and-ink techniques for rendering 3D objects. However, formal evaluation and validation of these NPR images remain an important open research problem. In this paper we present an observational study with three groups of users to examine their understanding and assessment of hand-drawn pen-and-ink illustrations of objects in comparison with NPR renditions of the same 3D objects. The results show that people perceive differences between those two types of illustration but that those that look computer-generated are still highly valued as scientific illustrations.
Refining Functional Behavioral Assessment: Analyzing the Separate and Combined Effects of Hypothesized Controlling Variables During Ongoing Classroom Routines

Abstract This article presents results from an investigation using functional assessment strategies in a general education classroom for an early adolescent diagnosed with ADHD/ODD. In the first phase of the assessment, data were collected from teacher interviews, student interviews, and direct observations to generate hypotheses regarding the association between classroom environmental conditions and the occurrence of disruptive behavior. The hypotheses were then evaluated in the context of regularly occurring classroom activities. Based on the data obtained through the functional assessment procedure, a classroom intervention was designed, implemented, and evaluated. Results indicated the intervention was successful in decreasing the participant's disruptive behavior. Further, the teacher and student reported high acceptability for the assessment and intervention. Project findings are discussed in terms of bridging the gap between research and practice, conducting a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) within applied settings, and the use of FBA for behaviors that are potentially under the control of multiple maintaining functions.
A Curated Database of Rodent Uterotrophic Bioactivity

Background: Novel in vitro methods are being developed to identify chemicals that may interfere with estrogen receptor (ER) signaling, but the results are difficult to put into biological context because of reliance on reference chemicals established using results from other in vitro assays and because of the lack of high-quality in vivo reference data. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-validated rodent uterotrophic bioassay is considered the “gold standard” for identifying potential ER agonists. Objectives: We performed a comprehensive literature review to identify and evaluate data from uterotrophic studies and to analyze study variability. Methods: We reviewed 670 articles with results from 2,615 uterotrophic bioassays using 235 unique chemicals. Study descriptors, such as species/strain, route of administration, dosing regimen, lowest effect level, and test outcome, were captured in a database of uterotrophic results. Studies were assessed for adherence to six criteria that were based on uterotrophic regulatory test guidelines. Studies meeting all six criteria (458 bioassays on 118 unique chemicals) were considered guideline-like (GL) and were subsequently analyzed. Results: The immature rat model was used for 76% of the GL studies. Active outcomes were more prevalent across rat models (74% active) than across mouse models (36% active). Of the 70 chemicals with at least two GL studies, 18 (26%) had discordant outcomes and were classified as both active and inactive. Many discordant results were attributable to differences in study design (e.g., injection vs. oral dosing). Conclusions: This uterotrophic database provides a valuable resource for understanding in vivo outcome variability and for evaluating the performance of in vitro assays that measure estrogenic activity. Citation: Kleinstreuer NC, Ceger PC, Allen DG, Strickland J, Chang X, Hamm JT, Casey WM. 2016. A curated database of rodent uterotrophic bioactivity. Environ Health Perspect 124:556–562; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1510183
Gender differences in implicit gender self-categorization lead to stronger gender self-stereotyping by women than by men

It was hypothesized that, in natural group contexts, low-status in-group membership would be highly accessible, whereas membership to high-status groups would not. Therefore, gender group membership was predicted to be more accessible for women than for men. It was further hypothesized that the high accessibility of gender group membership would lead to stronger self-stereotyping for women than for men. To measure the accessibility of gender group membership, participants performed a Gender Self-Categorization Implicit Association Test (Studies 1 and 2), measuring the strength of automatic associations between the self and the gender in-group. Participants also performed a Self-Stereotyping Implicit Association Test (Study 2), assessing the strength of automatic associations between the self and the stereotypical traits of the in-group. As expected, implicit gender self-categorization and implicit gender self-stereotyping were stronger for women than for men. Importantly, implicit gender self-categorization mediated the relation between gender and self-stereotyping. Therefore, implicit gender self-categorization was the mechanism underlying stronger implicit self-stereotyping by women. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. According to self-categorization theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher & Wetherell, 1987), the perception of the self is partially based on salient self-categories, and the ascription of in-group stereotypical characteristics to the self is defined as self-stereotyping (Biernat, Vescio, & Green, 1996; Guimond, Chatard, Martinot, Crisp, & Redersdorff, 2006; Hogg & Turner, 1987; Pickett, Bonner, & Coleman, 2002; Simon & Hamilton, 1994). Past research on self-stereotyping in minority–majority group contexts has demonstrated that people belonging to numerical or low-status minorities are more likely than majority-group members to self-stereotype (Latrofa, Vaes, Cadinu, & Carnaghi, 2010; Latrofa, Vaes, Pastore, & Cadinu, 2009; Spears, Doosje, & Ellemers, 1997). However, it is not clear why low-status group members self-stereotype more strongly than high-status group members. In the present paper, we address this question considering gender as the unbalancedstatusgroupcontext.Womenwereconsideredtobeoflowstatus because, in contemporary society, gender inequality is still present (Barreto, Ellemers, Cihangir, & Stroebe, 2009) and because women perceive their gender to have lower social status and fewer opportunities for individual mobility than men (Crawford