Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of fertiliser phosphorus and nitrogen on the concentrations of oil and protein in grain and the grain yield of canola (Brassica napus L.) grown in south-western Australia

The effect of fertiliser phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) on seed (grain) yield and concentration of oil and protein in grain of canola (oil-seed rape; Brassica napus L.) was measured in two field experiments undertaken at eight sites from 1993–2005 in south-western Australia, on soils deficient in P and N. Six rates of P (0–40 kg P/ha as single superphosphate) and four rates of N (0–138 kg N/ha as urea) were applied. Significant grain yield increases (responses) to applied P occurred in both experiments and these responses increased as rates of applied N increased. For grain production, the P × N interaction was significant in all eight years and locations of the two experiments. Application of P had no effect on concentration of oil and protein in grain. Application of N always decreased the concentration of oil and increased the concentration of protein in grain. For canola grain production in the region, responses to applied N always occur whereas responses to applied P are rare, but if soil P testing indicates likely P deficiency, both P and N fertiliser need to be applied.
Algorithmic analysis of human dna replication timing from discrete microarray data

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contains the genetic information fundamental to all known living organisms. Effective replication of the DNA is essential for the viability of new cells which are birthed from existing cells. Each portion of the DNA must be copied exactly once during the replication phase of the cell cycle. In humans, this is accomplished through a complex pattern of replication origins and terminations along the chromosomes. This work develops algorithms for analysis of DNA replication and its timing, utilizing the recent technology of genome tiling microarrays. Genome tiling microarrays allow for the simultaneous interrogation of the entire genome from a single biological experiment, leading to a profound increase in the volume of data available for analysis. We develop algorithms to accurately and efficiently characterize DNA replication timing from a general framework of microarray experiments performed in the lab. Our algorithms computationally reconstruct the replication pattern from discrete pools of DNA collected during the replication phase and hybridized to genome tiling microarrays. We identify putative origins of replication in the genome and compare them across a variety of experimental techniques used in the lab. The interaction between origins of replication and replication timing is investigated through construction of DNA replication timing profiles from given sets of replication origins. Resistance of the methods to noise inherent in the use of tiling microarray technology is examined through testing with randomized, negative control data. The validity of the methods is confirmed through testing with structured, positive control data. In each of these scenarios the algorithms behaved correctly, thus confirming their efficacy of the proposed methodology on real biological data. We explore the efficiency of our algorithms when scaled up to whole genome data, and report on metrics used to quantify the computational resources required to analyze the entire human genome.
The role of virtual try-on technology in online purchase decision from consumers' aspect

Purpose Online shopping has continued to grow in popularity, and the advance of internet technology has enhanced customers’ experiences. One technology online retailers have been using to increase sales is virtual try-on (VTO). The purpose of this paper is to investigate how such technology affects online consumers’ purchase decision process towards purchase intention, especially from an integration of utilitarian, hedonic and risk perspectives, by using advanced partial least square (PLS) approaches. Design/methodology/approach This study applied a web-based survey approach for data collection from online apparel retailing websites. The survey instrument was developed by adapting previously validated measurement items. The valid data collected were analysed using PLS with multi-group analyses. Advanced PLS techniques such as examination of discriminant validity using heterotrait-monotrait ratio, tests of out-of-sample prediction performance, and measurement invariance of composite models were applied. Findings The results of examining the proposed model reveal that customers’ attitude towards VTO technology can affect their intention to purchase a garment online, which is affected by perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived privacy risk. Perceived ease of use is found to affect perceived usefulness and perceived helpfulness. The results also show no significant differences among age groups and genders in terms of the role of VTO technology in the full decision process towards online purchase intention. Originality/value This study enhances the understanding of the roles that VTO technology plays in consumers’ online purchase intention by providing an integrative view of its utilitarian value, hedonic value and risk. This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying advanced PLS techniques to investigate online consumer behaviour, particularly in the field of VTO application in online retailing. Implications for online retailers and designers of VTO technology are also derived from the findings.
Layer-based thermal migration of an ionic liquid nano-droplet on a graphene surface: a molecular dynamics study

ABSTRACT The migration behaviour of an ionic liquid (IL) nano-droplet on a graphene surface under temperature gradients was studied using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([EMIM][BF4]) was used in the study. The migration of the IL nano-droplet from the hot end to the cold end of the graphene surface was observed under all temperature gradients considered in the current work. The migration was found to be faster under higher temperature gradients. Detailed analysis reveals that, instead of rolling like a ball, the IL nano-droplet migrates via a layer-based motion, in which the molecules have limited displacement in the direction perpendicular to the graphene surface. The migration of the IL nano-droplet was also found to be coupled with spreading on the graphene surface. The spatial organisation of the cations and anions within the IL nano-droplet was also analysed. It was found that the ions forming the IL nano-droplet organised themselves in layers parallel to the graphene surface, and the angles of cation rings on different layers also tend to be specific. The cation closest to the graphene surface tends to align with their rings parallel to the surface, while those away from the surface are more disordered.
Neurocognitive impairments and prefrontal brain functioning in individuals at risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder : a first step in search for potential biomarkers

Summary Early recognition of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder has been a popular and important research topic in the last years. Even though the early symptoms of these disorders may emerge in adolescence, the disorders themselves usually remain un- or misdiagnosed for up to several years. Research has shown that this delay in treatment or a wrong treatment all together may have a negative impact on the course of a disorder. Therefore, several early recognition programs aim at identifying individuals at risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder before the disorders beome fully manifest. The early recognition programs are mostly based on assessment of various constellations of psychopathological symptoms. However, many of these symptoms, as well as other risk factors, are simultaneously predictive for many psychiatric disorders, making the early recognition processes difficult. Therefore, objectively measureable biological markers indicating the presence, absence or stage of a disorder are being searched for. Despite the intense research, no biomarker with sufficient sensitivity and specificity has been found until now. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the frontal brain functioning in the individuals at risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and through that contribute to the early recognition research. The data used in this dissertation were gathered within the framework of the Zurich Program for Sustainable Development of Mental Health Services (Zurcher Impulsprogramm zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung der Psychiatrie, ZInEP), subprojects 2 and 6. Subproject 2 (Early Recognition) aimed to identify individuals at risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Additionally to psychopathology assessment, neuropsychological testing has been conducted to find cognitive dysfunctions in the at-risk individuals. Subproject 6 aimed to identify neurophysiological abnormalities, which can be used as potential biomarkers for the at-risk state of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The studies presented in this work used the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure the brain activation during two neuropsychological tasks. This method is particularly fitting for the early recognition research because it is relatively insensitive to movement and it is well suited for restless participants who may have problems during long monotonous i studies. Furthermore, it is inexpensive and easy to apply, which could facilitate investigating large study populations as well as transition to the clinical practice in the future. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been chosen as the region of interest in both studies presented here. Previous research has reported cognitive deficits as well as related deficits in PFC functioning in manifest schizophrenia and bipolar patients. Study 1 assessed emotional interference measured by the emotional Stroop task, whereas Study 2 used a well-established semantic…
Impact of Verticillium longisporum on Yield and Morphology of Winter Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus) in Relation to Systemic Spread in the Plant

The impact of Verticillium longisporum on single plant and whole plot yield of oilseed rape (OSR) was studied in field experiments with natural infection or artificial soil infestation. Disease incidence (DI) and disease severity (DS) correlated with the amount of inoculum provided at four different levels by addition of infested rapeseed straw to the soil. DI and DS were higher in 2003, a year with higher average soil and air temperatures, than in 2004, at similar levels of added inoculum. Maximum DI and DS levels achieved with artificial soil infestation were 54.3% and 0.57 (rating scale from 0 to 2), respectively, which was insufficient to induce significant yield reduction in whole plots. In contrast, a significant decrease in yield was recorded on single naturally infected plants removed from the field at growth stage (GS) 83 to 85. Yield losses of single plants accounted for 20 to more than 80% at DS levels above 5 (scale 0 to 9). The systemic spread of V. longisporum was significantly delayed in plants in the field with substantial colonization of the shoots not occurring before maturity stages. However, fungal systemic spread into the shoots was faster in 2003, consistent with the visual disease assessment in the field. Conversely, the pathogen systemically spread after 28 days in plants (susceptible cultivar 'Falcon') in the greenhouse. Root dip inoculation with conidia suspension induced earlier and more severe disease symptoms than microsclerotia added to the soil. In contrast to the field, intense stunting was recorded on inoculated plants in the greenhouse. The susceptible cultivar, 'Falcon', showed higher DS, stronger reduction in root and shoot lengths and a faster fungal spread in the plant tissue than the moderate susceptible cultivar, 'Talent'. Climatic conditions appear to be responsible for the strong delay in fungal invasion of plants in the field. This may prevent the plants from stunting and mitigate the overall yield effects of the disease. This study indicates a significant yield damage potential of V. longisporum in areas with DI above 60% and conditions accelerating the systemic pathogen spread in the plants.
Using Siamese capsule networks for remote sensing scene classification

ABSTRACT The convolutional neural network (CNN) is widely used for image classification because of its powerful feature extraction capability. The key challenge of CNN in remote sensing (RS) scene classification is that the size of data set is small and images in each category vary greatly in position and angle, while the spatial information will be lost in the pooling layers of CNN. Consequently, how to extract accurate and effective features is very important. To this end, we present a Siamese capsule network to address these issues. Firstly, we introduce capsules to extract the spatial information of the features so as to learn equivariant representations. Secondly, to improve the classification accuracy of the model on small data sets, the proposed model utilizes the structure of the Siamese network as embedded verification. Finally, the features learned through Capsule networks are regularized by a metric learning term to improve the robustness of our model. The effectiveness of the model on three benchmark RS data sets is verified by different experiments. Experimental results demonstrate that the comprehensive performance of the proposed method surpasses other existing methods.
Dispersion of Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894) in the rural zone of north Paraná State

Seventy-two tyres were placed in four transects (Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western), every 5 km, from the Londrina city limits to the rural areas, to verify the dispersion of Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus vectors. Mosquito larvae were collected fortnightly from August 1998 to August 1999. Data were organized according to the average number of larvae collected for each species in each collection site. A total of 62,517 mosquito larvae were collected and distributed into the following species: Aedes albopictus (21.71%); Ae. aegypti (5.54%); Ae. terrens (0.53%); Ae. fluviatilis (0.36%); Anopheles argyritarsi (0.01%); Culex quinquefasciatus (48.37%); Cx. mollis (8.88%); Cx. eduardoi (8.65%); Cx. corniger (0.61%); Cx. bigoti (0.24%); Cx. grupo coronator (0.12%); Limatus durhanii (4.61%) e Toxorhynchites sp. (0.32%). There was a drastic decrease in the Ae. aegypti population from the city limits to the rural area (x1= 21.72 ± 4.71; x2=0.00) and an increase in the population of Ae. albopictus (x1 = 15.64 ± 2.73; x2 = 38.37 ± 8.87). Aedes aegypti was not present in the collection sites located 30 km away from the urban area; however, Ae. albopictus was found in all the sites. Although the frequency rate for the Aedes aegypti was low, both species were dispersed in the rural area studied. The redimensioning of these vectors control areas is recommended since rural areas can function as reservoirs for these species.
Finite Element Analysis of the Jaipur Foot: Implications for Design Improvement

Volume 3 ABSTRACT Introduction: The Jaipur Foot is a low-cost prosthetic limb developed by Dr. P.K. Sethi and implemented in clinics across India and the world. Although the device is well-suited formany geographic and socioeconomic areas, it suffers from an inconsistent lifespan. Methods: The purpose of this study was to use finite element analysis to parametrically simulate the Jaipur Foot to determine potential improvements to the prosthesis’ design. The resulting model used varied material properties and internal boundary conditions through two stages of the gait cycle to predict the effects on the likelihood of device failure. Further analysis investigating the effect on device mechanics by the change in material properties due to vulcanization was also completed. Results: Results suggested that the interface between microcellular rubber blocks is a concern for failure, which agrees with epidemiological studies of the prosthesis. Data further indicated changes in material property to result in substantial alterations to the stresses experienced within the prosthesis. Conclusions: Future work could use this model for alternative designs of the Jaipur Foot. (J Prosthet Orthot. 2019;31:181–188)
Genetic control of diameter and bark percentage in spotted gum (Corymbia spp.): can we breed eucalypts with more wood and less bark?

This study aimed to estimate the genetic parameters of diameter at breast height over bark (DBHOB), bark percentage (Bark%) and the correlation between DBHOB and Bark% for Corymbia spp. Three independent trials were evaluated during this study: C. variegata (CV) and mixed spotted gum species (CMSG) were progeny trials measured at 4-years of age, and mixed Corymbia species (CSPP) from different seed sources measured at 3-years of age. The CV and CMSG mainly comprised of C. variegata, while the CSPP consisted of C. torelliana, C. maculata and C. citriodora progenies. There were significant differences between the progenies for the two traits evaluated in the three trials. The narrow sense heritability found for CMSG and CV were 0.55 and 0.42, respectively, for Bark% and 0.24 DBHOB in both trials. In CSPP, we found 0.21 for DBHOB, and a lower narrow-sense heritability for Bark% (0.19), since in this trial a significant part of the genetic variation is due to differences between seed sources. Genetic correlations (ranging from -0.18 to -0.47) between DBHOB and Bark% were indicated, i.e. as DBHOB increases, bark proportion decreases. We concluded that both traits, especially Bark%, are under significant genetic control in the Corymbia genus, making them good candidates for breeding programmes. This study provides valuable information about the genetic control of Bark%, which will be useful in further studies with other species, and the growth potential of the Corymbia genus as well. Future studies could ascertain the growth potential of Corymbia species, genetic control of bark in other important commercial species, determine the effect of bark thickness along the length of the stem (bark taper), and bark volume as a proportion of overall stem volume.
Induction of apoptosis in non‐small cell lung carcinoma A549 cells by PGD2 metabolite, 15d‐PGJ2

PGD2 (prostaglandin D2) is a mediator in various pathophysiological processes, including inflammation and tumorigenesis. PGD2 can be converted into active metabolites and is known to activate two distinct receptors, DP (PGD2 receptor) and CRTH2/DP2 (chemoattractant receptor‐homologous molecule expressed on Th2 cells). In the past, PGD2 was thought to be involved principally in the process of inflammation. However, in recent years, several studies have shown that PGD2 has anti‐proliferative ability against tumorigenesis and can induce cellular apoptosis via activation of the caspase‐dependent pathway in human colorectal cancer cells, leukaemia cells and eosinophils. In the lung, where PGD2 is highly released when sensitized mast cells are challenged with allergen, the mechanism of PGD2‐induced apoptosis is unclear. In the present study, A549 cells, a type of NSCLC (non‐small cell lung carcinoma), were treated with PGD2 under various conditions, including while blocking DP and CRTH2/DP2 with the selective antagonists BWA868C and ramatroban respectively. We report here that PGD2 induces A549 cell death through the intrinsic apoptotic pathway, although the process does not appear to involve either DP or CRTH2/DP2. Similar results were also found with H2199 cells, another type of NSCLC. We found that PGD2 metabolites induce apoptosis effectively and that 15d‐PGJ2 (15‐deoxy‐Δ12,14‐prostaglandin J2) is a likely candidate for the principal apoptotic inducer in PGD2‐induced apoptosis in NSCLC A549 cells.
NUCLEAR HORMONE RECEPTORS AND EVOLUTION

The nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily includes, in addition to ligandactivated transcription factors, members called orphan receptors, for which no ligand has yet been identified. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the nuclear receptor superfamily can be split into six subfamilies. Interestingly, there appears to be no relationship between the position of a given liganded receptor in the tree and the chemical nature of its ligand. For example, RAR and RXR, which both recognize retinoids, belong to two different subfamilies, suggesting an independence between the evolutionary history of the receptors and their ligand binding abilities. A PCR screen for the presence of NR genes in several phyla of early- and nonmetazoan organisms suggests that NR are specific to metazoans and also reveals that the NR genes in Hydra or Anemonia appear to be limited to homologues of orphan receptors. Taken together these data suggest that the first members of the superfamily were probably orphan receptors that later on gained the ability to bind a ligand. Finally, we observed that SmFTZ-F1 and SmRXR are expressed at different levels along the life cycle of the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni . This suggests that these receptors may play a role in the control of the development of this organism.
Understanding the intention of Chinese parents to enroll their children in early enrichment programs – A social media perspective

ABSTRACT Early learning centers are springing up rapidly in China. However, parents are confronted with high prices and difficulty in assessing the effectiveness of early enrichment programs (EEPs). This study was driven by this phenomenon and aimed to investigate parental decision-making processes of buying EEPs from a social media perspective. We sampled 271 Chinese parents and analyzed data by partial least squares based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that social media use intensity positively predicted injunctive norms and descriptive norms. The mediating analysis confirms that injunctive norms and descriptive norms are internalized into parental attitude to EEPs with varying degrees. This evidence serves as a new interpretation of the contrasting effect sizes of injunctive norms vs. descriptive norms on parental intention. The data however does not confirm that better-educated parents are less influenced by social norms in EEPs decision-making. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the paper.
The Turkish state’s responses to existential COVID-19 crisis

ABSTRACT This article focuses on how the Turkish state has been responding to limit the public health effects of COVID-19 pandemic to date. It aims to explain and understand the introduction, implementation and effect of health policy instrument mixes. It argues that although ‘presidentialisation’ of executive, and ‘presidential bureaucracy’ under presidential system of government are critical to introduce policies and implement their instrument mixes without delay or being vetoed or watered down which would otherwise occur in the parliamentary system of government, these features of impositional and exclusive policy style pose risks of policy design and implementation failures when the policy problems are poorly diagnosed, their policy solutions are wrong and/or complementary policy instrument mixes implemented ineffectively. However, a temporal, albeit temporary divergence from a dominant administrative tradition and policy style is most likely when a policy issue is esoteric (i.e. technical, scientific and expert-led) and framed as an existential crisis under high uncertainty that require scientific, expert-led, inclusive, early, quick and decisive responses to pressing policy problems.