Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of cultural beliefs on smallholders’ response to climate change: the case of Bamenda Highlands, Cameroon

ABSTRACT Farmers’ perceptions and responses to climate change vary across Africa. This paper investigates the impacts of cultural beliefs on smallholders’ perceptions and responses to climate change and the implicit gender relations. A field visit was conducted in the Oku community, Bamenda Highlands, Cameroon in 2015 using open-ended questions. Witchcraft and ancestral retribution were the predominant beliefs associated with the causes of climate change and adaptation strategies. Therefore, the cultural dimension should be considered when planning climate change awareness programmes and during the design of adaptation policies.
The determinants of small-scale irrigation practice and its contribution on household farm income: The case of Arba Minch Zuria Woreda, Southern Ethiopia

This study was conducted at Arba Minch Zuria Woreda. The area lacks in-depth studies to identify the determinant factors that influence the use of irrigation water. In the study area it is also not well known to what extent the households using irrigation water were better-off than those who depend on rain-fed agriculture. Therefore, the study was focused on assessing the determinants of small-scale irrigation practice and its contribution on household farm income. The total population in the selected three villages stratified in to two strata (irrigation user and non-user). Then systematic sampling method was employed to select the respondents’ household from the population frames of two strata. The descriptive statistics and the binary logistic regression analysis were used for analyzing quantitative data. The results show that sex of respondents’; household size engaged in the agricultural labor force and number of contact of respondents with agricultural development agents per month had significant positive effect on the use of irrigation water at 1% significance level. While education level and attendance on irrigation related training had significant positive effect on the use of irrigation water at 10% significance level. On the other hand, farm distance from the river and the main irrigation canal had significant negative effect on the use of irrigation water at 1% significance level. Out of the total Irrigation user respondents’ household (98.2) have harvested perennial crops more than two times and grown annual crops two times per year from the same farm. While out of the total irrigation non-user respondents’ household depended on only rain fed agriculture (90.7%) have grown annual crops only one time per year from the same farm. Consequently, the independent sample test result showed that the irrigation user respondents’ household obtained significantly larger mean annual gross farm income than irrigation non-user respondents’ household at 1% significance level. Key Words: Irrigation, income, t-test and logistic.
Trawl fishing impacts on the status of seabed fauna in diverse regions of the globe

Bottom trawl fishing is a controversial activity. It yields about a quarter of the world's wild seafood, but also has impacts on the marine environment. Recent advances have quantified and improved understanding of large-scale impacts of trawling on the seabed. However, such information needs to be coupled with distributions of benthic invertebrates (benthos) to assess whether these populations are being sustained under current trawling regimes. This study collated data from 13 diverse regions of the globe spanning four continents. Within each region, we combined trawl intensity distributions and predicted abundance distributions of benthos groups with impact and recovery parameters for taxonomic classes in a risk assessment model to estimate benthos status. The exposure of 220 predicted benthos-group distributions to trawling intensity (as swept area ratio) ranged between 0% and 210% (mean = 37%) of abundance. However, benthos status, an indicator of the depleted abundance under chronic trawling pressure as a proportion of untrawled state, ranged between 0.86 and 1 (mean = 0.99), with 78% of benthos groups > 0.95. Mean benthos status was lowest in regions of Europe and Africa, and for taxonomic classes Bivalvia and Gastropoda. Our results demonstrate that while spatial overlap studies can help infer general patterns of potential risk, actual risks cannot be evaluated without using an assessment model that incorporates trawl impact and recovery metrics. These quantitative outputs are essential for sustainability assessments, and together with reference points and thresholds, can help managers ensure use of the marine environment is sustainable under the ecosystem approach to management.
Effects of the Oncoprotein PAX3-FOXO1 on Modulation of Exosomes Function and Protein Content: Implications on Oxidative Stress Protection and Enhanced Plasticity

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a highly malignant soft tissue sarcoma classified into two major histologic subtypes: embryonal (ERMS) and alveolar (ARMS). ARMS subtype is clinically more aggressive, and characterized by an oncogenic fusion protein PAX3-FOXO1 (P3F) that drives oncogenic cellular properties. To understand the role of the fusion oncoprotein in paracrine signaling, we focused on secreted exosomes, which have been demonstrated to contribute to metastasis in multiple tumor types. Advanced Proteomics-bioinformatics analysis of the protein cargo of exosomes isolated from C2C12 myoblasts transduced with P3F fusion gene revealed 52 deregulated proteins compared to control cells, with 26 enriched and 26 depleted proteins. Using both PANTHER gene classification and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software, we found that the main biological processes in which the 52 deregulated proteins are involved, include “catalytic activity,” “binding,” “metabolic process,” and “cellular process. ” The pathways engaging the 26 enriched proteins include the “14-3-3 mediated signaling,” “cell cycle,” and “ERK5, VEGF, IGF1,and p70S6K signaling. ” Furthermore, the main nodes in which deregulated exosome proteins and miRNAs intersected revealed pathways conferring protection from stress and promoting plasticity. Based on the bioinformatics analysis and the altered exosome proteome profile, we performed biochemical functional analysis to study the diverse properties of these exosomes where angiogenesis, stemness, and anti-oxidative stress properties were validated using different platforms. P3F-modulated exosomes activated ERK, 4-EBP1, and MMP-2 in recipient cells, and enhanced angiogenesis and stemness. In addition, P3F led to lower cellular reactive oxygen species levels and enhanced resistance against oxidative stress; and treatment of stromal cells with P3F-modulated exosomes also conferred protection against exogenous oxidative stress. Our findings highlight the role of P3F fusion protein in modulating exosome cargo to confer a protective effect on recipient cells against oxidative stress and to promote plasticity and survival, potentially contributing to the known aggressive phenotype of the fusion gene-positive subtype of RMS.
Supplementary analysis for lifestyle and wellbeing: Exploring behavioral and demographic covariates in a large US sample

Using data from a nationally representative sample of 46,179 US adults from the Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing Index, we investigate covariates of four subjective mental wellbeing dimensions spanning evaluative (life satisfaction), positive affective (happiness), negative affective (worry), and eudaimonic wellbeing. Negative covariates were generally more strongly correlated with the four dimensions than positive covariates, with depression, poor health, and loneliness being the greatest negative correlates and excellent health and older age being the greatest positive correlates. We reproduce previous evidence for a “midlife crisis” around age 50 across the four wellbeing dimensions. Notably, although salutogenic behaviors (diet, exercise, socializing) correlated with greater wellbeing, there were diminishing benefits beyond thresholds of about four hours a day spent socializing, four days per week of consuming fruits and vegetables, and four days per week of exercising. Findings suggest that wellbeing is easier lost than gained, underscore the influence that relatively malleable lifestyle factors have on wellbeing, and stress the importance of multidimensional measurement for public policy.
Exploring factors related to access to general education contexts for students with intellectual disability: a survey of district special education administrators in one state

ABSTRACT There is wide variability in settings where students with intellectual disability are taught and a dearth of research related to district special education administrators, their roles and responsibilities, and their perceptions of barriers to and policies and practices that promote access to general education environments for these students. This study was designed to collect information to identify trends related to differences between districts that included no students with intellectual disabilities and those that were more inclusive. Data were collected via an online survey. We conducted descriptive analyses to identify trends among the districts and chi-square analyses to compare two types of districts. We found that there is very little diversity among administrators, who were primarily White women. We found that less inclusive districts spent more time engaged in due process and litigation activities than inclusive districts, and administrators identified external factors as barriers to more inclusive practice. We discuss administrator responsibilities in the context of student outcomes in the state and implications for policy implementation.
Holstein-Friesian milk performance in organic farming in North Spain: Comparison with other systems and breeds

Organic systems are highly dependent on the environment and require animals well adapted to local conditions. In Spain, organic dairy farmers are not satisfied with the productive performance of their herds and ask for technical advice to obtain suitable animals for organic systems. The milk productive performance (milk yield, nutritional composition, and somatic cell count) of Holstein-Friesian cows in organic farming in North Spain compared with conventional farms has been analysed. When breed diversity was present in the same organic farm, Holstein-Friesian milk performance was compared with other breeds and/or crosses. Holstein-Friesian cows in organic farming produce slightly less milk than grazing conventional cows, but milk was similar in composition and somatic cell count across systems. The limited data from organic farms where breed diversity exists indicate that Holstein-Friesian cows produce numerically more milk than other breeds and crosses but with statistically lower protein content. Considering that in Spain organic milk production is mostly used for liquid milk consumption and that the payment system is based only on milk volume, Holstein-Friesian cows would better fit the farmer interests than other breeds or crosses. However, in addition to productive performance, reproductive efficiency, animal health and consumer’s preferences should be fully considered when selecting a breed for organic production. If Holstein-Friesian was the selected breed, efforts should be made to identify cows within the breed that are best adapted to organic conditions. New productive, reproductive, nutritional and economic studies would be needed to develop a genetic merit index for organic systems.
Rare colour aberrations and anomalies of amphibians and reptiles recorded in Poland

We describe several cases of rare colour forms or anomalies among herpetofauna from Poland. In amphibians, we observed erythrism in Pelobates fuscus , potentially fixed brown colour in Hyla arborea , yellow dorsal spots in Bombina variegata and P. fuscus , Bufo bufo with irises depigmentation and possible partial axanthism, Rana temporaria with black left eye and two juvenile individuals of B. bufo and Bufotes viridis with dark spots. In reptiles, we noted melanism in Zootoca vivipara and Natrix natrix and one hypomelanistic individual of Zamenis longissimus .
City context and subjective career success: How does creative workers’ need for recognition filter city identity?

How do creative workers draw on their city context as they interpret their subjective career success over time? This article aims to answer this question with a qualitative study of 140 creative workers in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The results illuminate how subjective career success stems from a need for recognition that draws on a city’s identity. Mobilising Lotman’s concept of semiosphere, we propose that creative workers use city identity to understand what ‘soft’ factors they can harness from the city context. They filter city identity based on three recognition-related needs that are contingent on their level of work experience. Our contribution is threefold. First, we provide a nuanced view of the social and symbolic context in which careers are embedded, highlighting its multilayered, multivocal and multimodal nature. Second, we provide a fine-grained understanding of the interplay between an individual’s career need for recognition and their interpretation of city identity. Third, we shed light on recognition as a facet of subjective career success, which is particularly relevant to creative workers.
CONFORMAL RICCI SOLITON ON ALMOST CO-KÄHLER MANIFOLD

In this paper, we study almost coKähler manifolds admitting the conformal Ricci soliton and determine the value of the soliton constant λ and hence the condition for the soliton to be shrinking, steady or expanding. Then we find the condition on the conformal pressure p under which, a conformal Ricci soliton on a (k, μ)-almost coKähler manifold becomes expanding. Finally we show that a (k, μ)-almost coKähler manifold, with the potential vector field V pointwise collinear with the Reeb vector field ξ, does not admit conformal gradient Ricci soliton.
Inheritance and development of EST-SSR marker associated with turnip mosaic virus resistance in Chinese cabbage

Li, Q. , Tong, H. , Zhang, Z. , Zhao, Z. and Song, X. 2011. Inheritance and development of EST-SSR marker associated with turnip mosaic virus resistance in Chinese cabbage. Can. J. Plant Sci. 91: 707-715. Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) is one of the major pathogens infecting Brassica crops (including Chinese cabbage), and often causes serious reductions in yield and quality. Breeding for resistant cultivars is complicated by the existence of numerous TuMV strains and isolates. The objective of this research was to determine the mode of inheritance and to develop molecular markers associated with TuMV resistance in Chinese cabbage. F1 and F2 populations were developed from the cross between 71-36-2 (susceptible) and 73 (resistant) lines and mechanically inoculated with TuMV-C4. Inheritance analysis by visual scoring and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) indicated that resistance to TuMV-C4 in this cross was controlled by one recessive gene. A total of 132 EST-SSR primers were designed from EST sequences available in public databases. Seven primers detected polymorphism between parental genotypes. Marker HCC259 was associated with the TuMV resistance Ph-retr02. The distance between the marker and the TuMV resistance gene retr02 was 3.8 cM. This is the first co-dominant marker linked to the TuMV resistance gene with a distance less than 5.0 cM in Chinese cabbage. This marker was suitable for TuMV-C4 resistance screening in progenies from the cross between lines 73 (resistant) and susceptible line, 71-36-2. The usefulness of this marker was validated in 21 additional resistant and susceptible lines. This marker has the potential to simplify and accelerate breeding Chinese cabbage cultivars resistant to TuMV-C4.
Aggression Toward Healthcare Workers: The Effect of Indirect Victimization on Burnout Dimension

ABSTRACT Physical and verbal aggression can occur with significant frequency in the working life of healthcare workers. The effects of such events on the psychological health of victims of workplace aggression have been shown, but their indirect effect has not yet been studied. The present brief report describes an exploratory study investigating the effect of indirect victimization on burnout dimensions in healthcare workers. Two hundred ninety-seven workers completed an online questionnaire to detect direct/indirect workplace-related victimization experiences and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The direct physical victimization typology produced a significant effect on all the burnout dimensions while the verbal type had a significant impact on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, but not on personal accomplishment. Indirect victimization due to verbal aggression produced a significant effect on depersonalization. Aggression prevention and risk containment is important to safeguard workers against violent events but also to preserve perception of a safe workplace protected from all types of aggression.
Online food delivery services and behavioural intention – a test of an integrated TAM and TPB framework

PurposeThis research leverages an integrated framework that uses the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to analyse the main drivers of users' intention to use food delivery apps. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumer's willingness to adopt online food delivery (OFD) using the models' constructs and extend them to consider food choices, convenience, trust and the effect of the perceived risks related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as contextual factors.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to examine the data. The final sample consists of 425 people in Italy.FindingsThe authors have found that combining the TAM and the TPB provides a valid and significant model that can be used to understand OFD users' behavioural intentions. Moreover, the results show that subjective norms have a stronger effect on behavioural intentions than the personal attitude and that trustworthiness and the perception of risks related to COVID-19 have different effects. Accordingly, the authors derive several theoretical and managerial implications from these results.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the current debate on consumer behaviour in the OFD context. Only a few studies have integrated the TAM and TPB models in this context. This paper sheds light on the factors useful in predicting people's choice to buy food via OFD. Furthermore, it highlights the key role of some contextual factors and subjective norms over more technical ones.
Experimental study on travelling and standing pattern formation and capillary waves in a pinned liquid film: effects of multi-axis lateral (horizontal) vibrations and substrate geometry

Abstract Pattern-forming instability in various fields is an interesting research topic because of its complex physical nature and numerous applications. In this paper, we experimentally study capillary surface waves and patterns formed on a liquid film, cast on a plane substrate without physical walls, but pinned to the substrate edges, and subjected to multi-axis horizontal (lateral) oscillations (55–333 Hz). The effect of single-axis ultrasonic horizontal vibrations (20–170 kHz) was also investigated. We show that using substrates with different geometrical shapes and various travelling paths created by multi-axis vibrations with a phase angle difference between the axes produce a plethora of standing and travelling wave patterns on the liquid film surface. We report perfect standing square and spiral-like patterns for low-frequency multi-axis horizontal vibrations, which are commonly observed for vertical vibrations, while the mechanisms of momentum transfer to the liquid film from the vibrating substrate are different in vertical and horizontal vibrations. Other patterns forming on the liquid film surface in our experiments include lines/stripes, circles, swirls, pentagons, triangles, etc. It is also reported that low-frequency excitations create harmonic travelling waves and standing patterns, while the frequency of response waves generated by the application of ultrasonic horizontal vibrations is several orders of magnitude less than the excitation frequency. No subharmonic cross-waves are observed in this study, which strengthens the idea that plane substrates (without walls) are a good approximation for the theoretical case of a horizontally vibrated liquid film with infinite lateral length.
The mechanical performance of the laminated aluminum-epoxy/glass fiber composites containing halloysite nanotubes: An experimental investigation

In this study, the effect of different weight percentages (wt. %) of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) on the mechanical performance of glass laminate aluminum (Al) reinforced epoxy (GLARE) was investigated. GLARE (3/2) laminates with quasi-isotropic lay-up, [Al/[(0°/90°)/(45°/−45°)]s/Al/[(0°/90°)/(45°/−45°)]s/Al] filled with 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 wt. % of HNTs were fabricated using hand lay-up followed by compression molding. To explore the effect of HNTs on the mechanical properties, tensile, flexural, in-plane shear, interlaminar shear, bearing and impact tests were conducted. Results demonstrated that the inclusion of 1 wt. % of HNTs into GLARE leads to maximum improvements of 35.67, 8.50, 28.85, 50.47, 50.27, 30.43, 23.73, 72.08, 30.74, and 51.52% in tensile strength, tensile strain, Young's modulus, modulus of toughness, flexural strength, flexural strain, in-plane shear strength, interlaminar shear strength, bearing strength, and impact strength, respectively, compared to pristine GLARE. An enhancement of 38.89% in the flexural modulus was attained by adding 0.5 wt. % of HNTs to GLARE compared to pristine GLARE. The tensile strength, tensile strain, modulus of toughness, flexural strength, flexural modulus, flexural strain, in-plane shear strength, and interlaminar shear strength of GLARE filled with 3 wt. % of HNTs are 0.91, 0.88, 0.91, 0.91, 0.71, 0.83, 0.85, and 0.91 times those of the original GLARE. But Young’s modulus, bearing strength, and impact strength are 1.10, 1.15 and 1.20 times those of the original GLARE. To investigate the fracture mechanism, field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were used. The microscopic images revealed that adding HNTs lead to the improvement in the interaction between the epoxy matrix and glass fiber, thereby improving the mechanical properties.
Feature Selection Based on Cross-Correlation for the Intrusion Detection System

One of the important issues in the computer networks is security. Therefore, trusted communication of information in computer networks is a critical point. To have a safe communication, it is necessary that, in addition to the prevention mechanisms, intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are used. There are various approaches to utilize intrusion detection, but any of these systems is not complete. In this paper, a new cross-correlation-based feature selection (CCFS) method is proposed and compared with the cuttlefish algorithm (CFA) and mutual information-based feature selection (MIFS) features with use of four different classifiers: support vector machine (SVM), naive Bayes (NB), decision tree (DT), and K-nearest neighbor (KNN). The experimental results on the KDD Cup 99, NSL-KDD, AWID, and CIC-IDS2017 datasets show that the proposed method has a better performance in accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score criteria in comparison with the other two methods in different classifiers. Also, the results on different classifiers show that the usage of the DT classifier for the proposed method is the best.