Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced mid-to-late winter predictability of the storm track variability in the North Pacific as a contrast with the North Atlantic

The storm tracks are a major driver of regional extreme weather events. Using the daily output of reanalysis and a latest generation ensemble seasonal forecasting system, this study examines the interannual variability and predictability of the boreal winter storm tracks in the North Pacific and North Atlantic. In both basins, the leading mode of storm track variability describes a latitudinal shifting of the climatological storm tracks. The shifting mode is closely connected with the extratropical large-scale teleconnection patterns (i.e. Pacific-North America teleconnection and North Atlantic Oscillation). The main predictability source for the shifting mode of the North Pacific storm tracks are the ENSO-related sea surface temperature anomalies. Assessment of the seasonal prediction skill further shows that the shifting mode of the North Pacific storm tracks is in general better predicted than that of the North Atlantic storm tracks likely due to stronger ENSO effects. Our analyses also find that, through the modulations of ENSO and the subtropical jet, the shifting mode of the North Pacific storm tracks exhibit a mid-to-late winter predictability enhancement. During El Niño phases, the North Pacific subtropical jet shifts equatorward and becomes strongest in mid-to-late winter, which dominates the upper-level flow and guides the storm track most equatorward. We argue that the intensification and equatorward shift of the North Pacific subtropical jet in mid-to-late winter of El Niño years provide the main reason for the increased mid-to-late winter predictability for the storm tracks. The results imply that good representation of the background subtropical jet in models is important for winter climate prediction of storm tracks.
Efficacy and safety of Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B with High Baseline Viral Load

Background: Chronic hepatitis B virus infection is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate was licensed for the treatment of hepatitis B virus infection. So, the current study aimed to Evaluate efficacy and outcome of Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate in patients with Chronic Hepatitis B with High Baseline Viral Load. Patients and methods:One hundred Chronic HBV patients attend Outpatient Clinic of HBV treatment unit, Qena fever hospital, Qena, Egyptwere enrolled in this study and treated with Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (300mg/day) for 24 weeks. Patients categorized into two groups: Group A: included 50 chronic HBV patients with Low Viral load < 1 million/ml and Group B: included 50 chronic HBV patients with High Viral load ≥ 1 million/ml.virological and biochemical response, as well as safety outcomes were assessed after 24 weeks of treatment. Results:The mean age of patients was 38.4 years and 33.9 years in Group A and Group B respectively. Number of males was 32 (64%) and 36 (72%) in Group A and Group B respectively. HBeAg was positive in 20 % and 36 % in Group A and Group B respectively. The rates of complete virological suppression were 88% in group A and 72% in group B. All patients achevied normalization of ALT. No severe adverse events were reported during the present study. No elevations in creatinine level were detected. Conclusion: Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate is an efficacious, safe and well-tolerated treatment in an Egyptian patient.
Effective collaborative learning from Chinese students’ perspective: a qualitative study in a teacher-training course

ABSTRACT This paper examines undergraduate students’ perceptions of when and how active learning and engagement were supported by group-based collaborative learning. Collaborative learning is a prevalent constructivist approach that has been promoted for its capability of assisting students’ shared knowledge construction. Existing research has, nonetheless, pointed towards social-cultural barriers to students’ participation in collaborative learning, particularly in Eastern societies. This study explored students’ perceptions of collaborative learning in group tasks during a 12-week course. Interviews revealed key themes regarding students’ perspectives on what effective and meaningful collaborative work in classrooms meant to them, and how and why collaborative work motivated and engaged them. Survey findings, which helped to triangulate interview findings, showed that students’ experiences of collaborative learning were supported by key elements of constructivist learning environments. Implications are derived for effective pedagogical design and theorization of collaborative learning in higher education.
Dynamic Necking of a Near α Titanium alloy at High Strain Rates: Experiments and Modelling

The tensile behaviour of near α Ti3Al2.5V alloy, conceived for applications in aerospace and automotive engineering, is characterized from quasi-static to high strain rates. The material presents noticeable strain rate sensitivity. The dynamic true strain rate in the necking cross-section reaches values up to one order of magnitude higher than the nominal strain rate. It is also observed that beyond necking the true stress-strain curves present limited rate dependence in the dynamic loading regime. The experimental results at various strain rates and temperatures are used to determine the material parameters of a suitable constitutive model for finite element simulations of the dynamic tensile tests. The model predicts the experimentally macroscopic force-time response, true stress-strain response and effective strain rate evolution with good agreement.
A DIVERGENT PATTERN OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVENUES AND SPENDING IN ELECTION YEAR - A CASE OF INDONESIA

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the difference in budgeted own-source revenues and social expenditures between districts headed by incumbent candidates and non-incumbent candidates in the Indonesian head of district elections in 2015. The difference between both budgets indicates the use of public money by incumbent candidates to win the election. Methodology: This study focuses on local governments/districts in Indonesia. Using the Slovin formula, 226 observations were analysed. The sample was classified into two groups, namely 75 districts with incumbent candidates (or 66.4%) and 38 districts with non-incumbent candidates (or 33.6%). Data was compiled from the official district's budget for 2014 and 2015 (the election year) and analysed using pair t-test and independent t-test. Main Findings: This study revealed that in the budgets of incumbent candidates, own-source revenue and grant expenditures are statistically higher in the election year as compared to the pre-election year, except for the social aid fund. Additionally, local owned revenues, grant and social aid expenditures in the budgets of districts with incumbents were statistically higher than districts where there were no incumbent candidates in the general election. Applications of this study: The results of this study confirm a strong indication of the public money used by incumbent candidates for their political interest. Thus, the regulation of local government budgets, especially in the election year should be amended and tightened up. Novelty/Originality of this study: Studies on how public money is exploited by incumbent candidates are still scanty, especially in developing countries where a direct vote election system is adopted.
Interaction Between Saflufenacil and Other Oxidative Stress Promoting Herbicides to Control Wild Poinsettia

ABSTRACT: Synergism is a desired result in the interaction between herbicides because it provides many benefits, among which the reduction of doses and the increment of control efficiency, and because it positively signals for the joint application of herbicides. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of the association of saflufenacil with other herbicides that promote oxidative stress on the development of Euphorbia heterophylla as well as to analyze if the resulting interactions are antagonistic, additive or synergistic. The experiment was conducted in pots, in a greenhouse, using a completely randomized design with four replications. Treatments consisted of saflufenacil (0, 1,2, 2,32, 4,47, 8,63, 16,65 g ha-1) alone and associated with clomazone (288 and 504 g ha-1), metribuzin (105.6 and 206.4 g ha-1) and paraquat (20 and 40 g ha-1), as well as these herbicides applied alone at the same doses described above. Twenty-one days after the application (DAA), the shoot dry matter (SDM) of plants was evaluated in each experimental unit. The Limpel-Colby method was used to calculate the expected response of the herbicide interaction. All combinations of saflufenacil with clomazone, metribuzin and paraquat were considered synergistic. Among the treatments associated with saflufenacil, those including metribuzin at the dose of 105.6 g ha-1 were the ones that provided the most promising results, which stood out for the greater reductions of wild poinsettia shoot dry matter, compared to the application of saflufenacil alone.
Reducing the amount of mineral phosphorus and potassium fertilizers by using its natural sources for Red Globe grapevines

This investigation was conducted during three successive seasons of 2016, 2017 and 2018 in a private vineyard located at Samaloute district, Minia Governorate, Egypt on Red Globe grapevines to study the possibility of reducing the amount of mineral phosphorus and potassium fertilizers by using natural rocks, combined with organic manure (FYM), bio-fertilizers (BF) and elemental sulphur (S). The chosen vines were nine years old, grown in a clay loam soil, spaced at 1.75 x 3 m apart, irrigated under surface irrigation system, and spur-pruned, trellised by Gable supporting system and trained to quadrilateral cordon system. The results revealed the possibility of using 50 % natural rocks of P and K + FYM + BF + S as a partial substitute of mineral phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Application of 50 % mineral P and K + 50 % natural rocks of P and K + FYM + BF + S exhibited the most suitable management combination for achieving the best yield with its components, physical properties of clusters, improved physical and chemical berry characteristics, vegetative growth, leaf chlorophyll and mineral content of Red Globe grapevines. The treatment also improved the soil properties.
Control Theory and Cancer Chemotherapy: How They Interact

Control theory arises in most modern real-life applications, not least in biological and medical applications. In particular, in biological and medical contexts, the role of control theory began to take shape in the early 1980s when the first works appeared on the application of control theory in models of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics for antitumor therapies. Forty years after those first works, the theory of control continues to be considered a mathematical analysis tool of extreme importance and usefulness, but the challenges it must overcome in order to manage the complexity of biological processes are in fact not yet overcome. In this article, we introduce the reader to the basic ideas of control theory, its aims and its mathematical formalization, and we review its use in cell phase-specific models for cancer chemotherapy. We discuss strengths and limitations of the control theory approach to the analysis pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics models, and we will see that most of them are strongly related to data availability and mathematical form of the model. We propose some future research directions that could prove useful in overcoming the these limitations and we indicate the crucial steps preliminary to a useful and informative application of control theory to cancer chemotherapy modeling.
Uncertainty‐assisted deep vision structural health monitoring

Computer vision leveraging deep learning has achieved significant success in the last decade. Despite the promising performance of the existing deep vision inspection models, the extent of models’ reliability remains unknown. Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a crucial task for the safety and sustainability of structures, and thus, prediction mistakes can have fatal outcomes. In this paper, we use Bayesian inference for deep vision SHM models where uncertainty can be quantified using the Monte Carlo dropout sampling. Three independent case studies for cracks, local damage identification, and bridge component detection are investigated using Bayesian inference. Aside from better prediction results, the two uncertainty metrics, variations in softmax probability and entropy, are shown to have good correlations with misclassifications. However, modifying the decision or triggering human intervention can be challenging based on raw uncertainty outputs. Therefore, the concept of surrogate models is proposed to develop the models for uncertainty‐assisted segmentation and prediction quality tagging. The former refines the segmentation mask and the latter is used to trigger human interventions. The proposed framework can be applied to future deep vision SHM frameworks to incorporate model uncertainty in the inspection processes.
The Importance of Positive Word-of-Mouth (PWOM) in Leisure Services Consumption by Third Age

Purpose – The present study aimed to identify why positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) is important in leisure services consumption by third age. Design / methodology / approach – Using qualitative and exploratory approach, interviews and audio diaries, content analysis for data processing, the study investigated consumers age group between 60 and 70 years in Brazil. Findings – Major results indicated that factors generated by PWOM such as safety, engagement, relief, knowledge acquirement, social network, confidence, positive expectation and enthusiasm appeared to be strong and are fundamental for the third age consumers purchase decision process. It was also found a significant nexus between PWOM relevance and the fact that they were sent by close people in regards to receiver . Originality / value – This paper contributes to the prior literature with a better understanding of factors generated by PWOM on third age consumers . Firms and governments can help their senior customers simplify choices and motivate consumer decisions as well as engaging them in relationship management and directive service .
Flattening the Illiquidity Curve: Retail Trading During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract This article studies the impact of retail investors on stock liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in spring 2020. Retail trading exhibits a sharp increase, especially among stocks with high COVID-19–related media coverage. Retail trading attenuated the rise in illiquidity by roughly 40% but less so for high-media-attention stocks. Causality is addressed using the staggered implementation of the stay-at-home advisory across U.S. states. The results highlight that ample free time and access to financial markets facilitated by fintech innovations to trading platforms are significant determinants of retail-investor stock market participation.
Killing from the inside: Intracellular role of T3SS in the fate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa within macrophages revealed by mgtC and oprF mutants

While considered solely an extracellular pathogen, increasing evidence indicates that Pseudomonas aeruginosa encounters intracellular environment in diverse mammalian cell types, including macrophages. In the present study, we have deciphered the intramacrophage fate of wild-type P. aeruginosa PAO1 strain by live and electron microscopy. P. aeruginosa first resided in phagosomal vacuoles and subsequently could be detected in the cytoplasm, indicating phagosomal escape of the pathogen, a finding also supported by vacuolar rupture assay. The intracellular bacteria could eventually induce cell lysis. Two bacterial factors, MgtC and OprF, recently identified to be important for survival of P. aeruginosa in macrophages, were found to be involved in bacterial escape from the phagosome as well as cell lysis caused by intracellular bacteria. Strikingly, type III secretion system (T3SS) genes of P. aeruginosa were down-regulated within macrophages in both mgtC and oprF mutants. Concordantly, cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP) level was increased in both mutants, providing a clue for negative regulation of T3SS inside macrophages. Consistent with the phenotypes and gene expression pattern of mgtC and oprF mutants, a T3SS mutant (ΔpscN) exhibited defect in phagosomal escape and macrophage lysis driven by internalized bacteria. Importantly, these effects appeared to be largely dependent on the ExoS effector, in contrast with the known T3SS-dependent, but ExoS independent, cytotoxicity caused by extracellular P. aeruginosa towards macrophages. Hence, our work highlights T3SS and ExoS, whose expression is modulated by MgtC and OprF, as key players in the intramacrophage life of P. aeruginosa, allowing internalized bacteria to evade macrophages. Author summary The ability of professional phagocytes to ingest and kill microorganisms is central to host defense and Pseudomonas aeruginosa has developed mechanisms to avoid being killed by phagocytes. While considered an extracellular pathogen, P. aeruginosa has been reported to be engulfed by macrophages in animal models. Here, we visualized the fate of P. aeruginosa within cultured macrophages, revealing macrophage lysis driven by intracellular P. aeruginosa. Two bacterial factors, MgtC and OprF, recently discovered to be involved in the intramacrophage survival of P. aeruginosa, appeared to play role in this cytotoxicity caused by intracellular bacteria. We provided evidence that type III secretion system (T3SS) gene expression is lowered intracellularly in mgtC and oprF mutants. We further showed that intramacrophage P. aeruginosa uses its T3SS, specifically the ExoS effector, to promote phagosomal escape and cell lysis. We thus describe a transient intramacrophage stage of P. aeruginosa that could contribute to bacterial dissemination.
Earnings informativeness and trading frequency: Evidence from African markets

We investigate the informativeness of earnings announcements in African stock markets and examine whether, conditional on the level of synchronicity and liquidity of stocks, market reactions are influenced by earnings characteristics. Normalized volatility indicates that earnings announcements are informative across the sample. The results are driven by less frequently traded stocks and informativeness manifests more clearly at announcement and in the post‐announcement window. There is little evidence of leakage. Informativeness is also present for highly traded stocks, notably after announcement. Cross‐sectional tests provide evidence of an effect of both earnings fundamentals and investor behaviour on stock returns around earnings announcements.
Do Able Bank Managers Exhibit Specific Attributes? An Empirical Analysis of Their Investment Efficiency

We analyze the association between managerial ability in banks and three different typologies of investments that demand significant resources: capital, research and development (R&D), and acquisition expenditures. We also analyze whether managerial ability is related to increased (reduced) investment in banks prone to underinvestment (overinvestment). The sample for analysis is composed of 877 observations of banks in nine countries over the period 2004–2010. We find evidence that more able bank managers select and implement investment projects more efficiently and confirm the upper echelon theory and resource-based view, which suggests that managers’ characteristics affect financial decisions. The findings are robust to alternative measures of investment efficiency. The evidence confirms that, after controlling for bank and country-specific institutional factors, managers’ abilities influence investment efficiency in banks in a significant way. This paper is a response to the calls for a further exploration of the roles that individual managers play in financial decisions and is the first empirical study to investigate this association in the international financial industry.
Assessment of parental knowledge, attitude and practice towards antibiotic use in children

Objective to assess the impact of pharmacist assisted counselling in improving Parental Knowledge, Attitude and Practice [KAP] towards antibiotic use in children. A Prospective, Educational Interventional Study was conducted in 200 subjects, from the randomly chosen communities in Bangalore. The investigators did door to door visit. The primary demographics data of parents and their children were collected using standard Case Report Form (CRF), and the baseline towards antibiotic use in Children was obtained from parents using validated Questionnaire. In the presence of both parents, only one was supposed to answer the Questionnaire. Pharmacist assisted parent centred interventional counselling was provided with the help of Patient Information Leaflet1s (PIL). Follow-up and post interventional KAP assessment were done after two months from the baseline measurement. The changes in parental KAP towards antibiotics use in children were being assessed by comparing the Pretest and Posttest responses using statistical analysis. The knowledge of parents towards antibiotic use in children was medium to good in the baseline KAP assessment; however, in the majority of the participating parents it was not satisfactory in attitude and practice domains. A statistically significant improvement was seen in the KAP of parents towards antibiotic use in children after the pharmacist assisted interventional counselling. Thus, Investigators could bring excellent changes in the knowledge part; whereas the result for changes in the Attitude and Practice was good to medium respectively.
Keep customers coming back: Enhancing value and satisfaction in a mobile shopping application context

Abstract Mobile shopping applications have become a popular channel to reach the omnipresent consumer of today. However, the market space has become highly competitive and as a consequence, cultivating repurchase behavior has become pivotal to retain market share and boost sustainability. While the literature regarding initial purchase via a mobile shopping application is well developed, knowledge of how to foster repurchase behavior in this context is still scarce. In order to address the gap in extant literature, this research drew on the perceived value theory as well as technology acceptance and continued usage literature to conceptualize how repurchase intentions can be elicited. An online survey was administered to a total of 245 consumers who had previously shopped via a mobile shopping application, using a non-probability convenience sampling approach. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test cause–effect relationships in the model. The results verify the importance of primarily designing an entertaining and easy-to-use mobile shopping experience, followed by integrating atmospherics of trust and informative content. The amalgamation of these atmospherics lead to a value-infused end-user experience, enhancing user satisfaction. Lastly, the findings confirm that the satisfaction derived from the use of a mobile shopping application is a crucial determinant of repurchase intent. In summation, this study provides novel insights in terms of the context-specific nature of perceived value and its relation to satisfaction. Furthermore, the scarcity of research regarding the facilitation of repurchase behavior in a mobile shopping application context, is addressed.