Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aggregation patterns of sensory sensillae in the food canal and cibarium of the tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans morsitans.

Mouthparts of hematophagous vectors enable the transfer of blood and pathogens from and to their hosts. Here we describe aggregation patterns of basiconic and setiform sensillae in the food canal and cibarium of the medically significant tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans morsitans Westwood. Mean body length of females was significantly greater than males. Mean lengths of the food canal and cibarium were also significantly greater in females than males, even when correcting for the greater body lengths of females, but there was no significant difference in total number of sensillae in the food canal or cibarium between the sexes. A pair of basiconic (campaniform) sensillae was consistently present in the food canal of every individual, but numbers of setiform sensillae in the canal of both females and males varied from 53 to 74. No basiconic sensillae were observed in the cibarium proper of any individual, but four minute conical basicones embedded in a sclerotized plate at the posterior edge of the cibarial wall were observed. The number of setiform sensillae in the cibarium varied from 5 to 12 in females and 7 to 11 in males. Setiform and basiconic sensillae were significantly aggregated in the proximal-most (i.e., nearest the head) food canal region of both sexes, whereas setiforms were significantly aggregated in the mid regions of the cibarium. Sensilla aggregation patterns in tsetse flies are very different from those documented for tabanid flies indicating potential differences in monitoring blood flow between these two groups of hematophagous feeders.
Changes in Ambient Bacterial Community in Northern Taiwan during Long-Range Transport: Asian Dust Storm and Frontal Pollution

Long-range transport (LRT) can carry air pollutants to downwind areas. However, studies about the impacts of LRT on bacterial communities are few. This study investigated the influence of Asian dust storms (ADS) and frontal pollution (FP) on bacterial communities in ambient air using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP). Air samples were collected at Cape Fugui (CF) and National Taiwan University (NTU) in northern Taiwan before (or background days), during, and after LRTs from November 2013 to March 2015. The richness, H index, and evenness increased during FPs and then decreased after FPs. During and after ADS and FP, the prevalence of the phylum Proteobacteria decreased, but that of Firmicutes increased. The dominant class of Proteobacteria changed from Alphaproteobacteria on background days to Betaproteobacteria during LRTs. At the genus level, the high abundance of Ralstonia and Bacillus during FP and Clostridium during ADS were detected at both locations. Additionally, Ralstonia was dominant at CF during ADS. In conclusion, FP and ADS both changed the bacterial community. The indicator genus was Clostridium and Ralstonia for ADS as well as Bacillus and Ralstonia for FP. Given the potential health threats posed by the bioaerosols transported, people should avoid outdoor activities during LRTs.
Sentinel-1 SAR Backscatter Response to Agricultural Drought in The Netherlands

Drought is a major natural hazard that impacts agriculture, the environment, and socio-economic conditions. In 2018 and 2019, Europe experienced a severe drought due to below average precipitation and high temperatures. Drought stress affects the moisture content and structure of agricultural crops and can result in lower yields. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) observations are sensitive to the dielectric and geometric characteristics of crops and underlying soils. This study uses data from ESA’s Sentinel-1 SAR satellite to investigate the influence of drought stress on major arable crops of the Netherlands, its regional variability and the impact of water management decisions on crop development. Sentinel-1 VV, VH and VH/VV backscatter data are used to quantify the variability in the spatio-temporal dynamics of agricultural crop parcels in response to drought. Results show that VV and VH backscatter values are 1 to 2 dB lower for crop parcels during the 2018 drought compared to values in 2017. In addition, the growth season indicated by the cross-ratio (CR, VH/VV) for maize and onion is shorter during the drought year. Differences due to irrigation restrictions are observed in backscatter response from maize parcels. Lower CR values in 2019 indicate the impact of drought on the start of the growing season. Results demonstrate that Sentinel-1 can detect changes in the seasonal cycle of arable crops in response to agricultural drought.
Adequacy of the electrical conductivity test on Libidibia ferrea seeds (Mart. Ex Tul.) L. P. Queiroz var. ferrea classified with different masses

This study aimed to adapt the methodology of the electrical conductivity test to detect differences in vigor between seeds of Libidibia ferrea of different masses. The seeds were classified according to their individual mass: small seeds ≤ 0.14 g, medium seeds 0.15 ≤ x ≤ 0.19, large seeds ≥ 0.20 g. Subsequently, seed morphology (length, width, thickness, water content, and weight of 1000 seeds), and the initial physiological potential of the seeds (germination, first count, average time, average speed, germination rate coefficient, germination and emergence rate index, emergence percentage, seedling length, and dry mass) were determined. The electrical conductivity was conducted in a 3 × 12 factorial scheme with three seed masses and 12 immersion periods (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 h), in volumes of 50 and 75 mL of water, with 25 and 50 seeds, respectively. The physical and physiological variables of the seeds were highly correlated with the electrical conductivity test. The seed mass of L. ferrea has a direct relationship with its physiological potential, with the seeds of mass ≥ 0.20 g classified with high vigor; the seeds of mass 0.15 ≤ x ≤ 0.19 with intermediate vigor; and the seeds of mass ≤ 0.14 g with low vigor. The electrical conductivity test is efficient in the evaluation of the physiological potential of L. ferrea seeds of different masses when conducted with 25 seeds soaked in 50 mL of distilled water for 4 h
Changes in the Ultrastructure of the Bladder Urothelium in Patients with Interstitial Cystitis after Intravesical Injections of Platelet-Rich Plasma

Urothelial dysfunction is considered a key pathological mechanism of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). Intravesical platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections might be effective for treating IC/BPS. This prospective study investigated the changes in electron microscopic findings among IC/BPS patients after intravesical PRP injections. Twenty-six patients with refractory non-ulcer IC/BPS underwent monthly intravesical PRP injections for 4 months. Changes in clinical symptom scores and video urodynamic study parameters were assessed from baseline to after the PRP injections. A post-treatment Global Response Assessment (GRA) score ≥ 2 was considered a successful outcome. The mean GRA score was significantly higher after 4 PRP injections than at baseline. Approximately 42% of patients experienced successful outcomes after PRP treatment. Urothelial ultrastructural defects showed no significant differences between baseline and after the PRP injections. However, patients showed variable improvements in different urothelial defects (grade improvements: urothelium cell layers, 31%; umbrella cell integrity, 42%; umbrella cell surface uroplakin plaque, 54%; tight junctions between adjacent umbrella cells, 46%; lysed organelles, 58%; inflammatory cell infiltration, 31%). Patients with successful treatment outcomes showed significant improvements in urothelial tight junction defects. Repeated intravesical PRP injections are effective for improving IC/BPS symptoms as they promote urothelial ultrastructural defect recovery.
A Review on Modeling Cure Kinetics and Mechanisms of Photopolymerization

Photopolymerizations, in which the initiation of a chemical-physical reaction occurs by the exposure of photosensitive monomers to a high-intensity light source, have become a well-accepted technology for manufacturing polymers. Providing significant advantages over thermal-initiated polymerizations, including fast and controllable reaction rates, as well as spatial and temporal control over the formation of material, this technology has found a large variety of industrial applications. The reaction mechanisms and kinetics are quite complex as the system moves quickly from a liquid monomer mixture to a solid polymer. Therefore, the study of curing kinetics is of utmost importance for industrial applications, providing both the understanding of the process development and the improvement of the quality of parts manufactured via photopolymerization. Consequently, this review aims at presenting the materials and curing chemistry of such ultrafast crosslinking polymerization reactions as well as the research efforts on theoretical models to reproduce cure kinetics and mechanisms for free-radical and cationic photopolymerizations including diffusion-controlled phenomena and oxygen inhibition reactions in free-radical systems.
Assessment of the Impact of Business Activity in Sustainability Terms. Empirical Confirmation of its Determination in

Abstract: Because the issue of sustainability presents urgent problems crucial to the future of mankind, there has been serious discussion of the role accounting should play. In this context, a new line of research, still at a relatively unexplored, embryonic stage, has arisen, which tries to establish measurement of business sustainability and so compensate for the lack of information currently existing about the net impact of the company‘s activity. Full Cost Accounting could allow sustainability to be translated into the language of business, together with analysis and comparison of its progress, so it might be the most appropriate vehicle for more participatory, democratic accounting, with greater dialogue, giving the accountant a much more active role, this being necessary in order to generalize the research, development and use. To analyze the current situation, a survey of 192 Spanish companies was carried out to obtain at first hand the perception of strategic positioning adopted with regard to Sustainable Development, measurement of the contribution of business activity to its achievement and the rendering of accounts carried out.
Causal Chains Linking Weather Hazards to Disasters in Somalia

Weather risk management products can be critical for supporting effective humanitarian actions to mitigate and prevent disasters; however, to be truly actionable, they must be based in an understanding of how weather contributes to disaster risk, informed by humanitarians’ decision-making context. Our paper seeks to identify considerations for weather risk management products to support disaster risk management, through analysis of humanitarian perceptions of the factors and processes that contribute to weather-influenced disasters, taking Somalia as a case study. We carry out semi-structured interviews with humanitarian actors familiar with using weather information in their work, and we apply social cascades and disaster risk creation as conceptual tools in our analysis. Our study finds that humanitarian actors perceive historically-influenced social networks, livelihood dependence on seasonality, terrorist territorial control, public capacities to manage disasters, and household-level factors related to asset control and coping mechanisms contribute to weather-influenced disasters in Somalia. These factors and processes are part of humanitarians’ dynamic decision-making context. Key insights from our study concern the importance of understanding local geographies of marginalization to design weather risk management products with the context specificity necessary for effective humanitarian actions. Also, assessing weather effects on livelihood calendars can help identify those seasonal weather conditions most responsible for detrimental livelihood impacts. Consideration of livelihood calendars can also promote accurate assessment of the effects of consecutive weather-related hazards on coping capacities and resiliency.
Chitosan-Based Materials: An Overview of Potential Applications in Food Packaging

Chitosan is a multifunctional biopolymer that is widely used in the food and medical fields because of its good antibacterial, antioxidant, and enzyme inhibiting activity and its degradability. The biological activity of chitosan as a new food preservation material has gradually become a hot research topic. This paper reviews recent research on the bioactive mechanism of chitosan and introduces strategies for modifying and applying chitosan for food preservation and different preservation techniques to explore the potential application value of active chitosan-based food packaging. Finally, issues and perspectives on the role of chitosan in enhancing the freshness of food products are presented to provide a theoretical basis and scientific reference for subsequent research.
Association of Human Intestinal Microbiota with Lifestyle Activity, Adiposity, and Metabolic Profiles in Thai Children with Obesity

Background Dysbiosis of intestinal microbiota may be linked to pathogenesis of obesity and metabolic disorders. Objective This study compared the gut microbiome of obese Thai children with that of healthy controls and examined their relationships with host lifestyle, adiposity, and metabolic profiles. Methods This cross-sectional study enrolled obese children aged 7–15. Body composition was evaluated using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Stool samples were analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Relative abundance and alpha- and beta-diversity were compared with normal-weight Thai children from a previous publication using Wilcoxon rank-sum test and ANOSIM. Relationships of gut microbiota with lifestyle activity, body composition, and metabolic profiles were assessed by canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and Spearman correlation. Results The study enrolled 164 obese children with a male percentage of 59%. Mean age was 10.4 ± 2.2 years with a BMI z-score of 3.2 ± 1. The abundance of Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria were found to be lower in obese children compared to nonobese children. Alpha-diversity indices showed no differences between groups, while beta-diversity revealed significant differences in the family and genus levels. CCA revealed significant correlations of the relative abundance of gut microbial phyla with sedentary lifestyle and certain metabolic markers. Univariate analysis revealed that Actinobacteria and Bifidobacterium were positively correlated with HDL-C and negatively correlated with body weight and screen time. Additionally, Actinobacteria was also negatively associated with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR. Lactobacillus showed positive correlation with acanthosis nigricans and adiposity. Cooccurrence analysis revealed 90 significant bacterial copresence and mutual exclusion interactions among 43 genera in obese children, whereas only 2 significant cooccurrences were found in nonobese children. Conclusions The composition and diversity of gut microbiota in obese Thai children were different from those of their normal-weight peers. Specific gut microbiota were associated with lifestyle, adiposity, and metabolic features in obese children. An interventional study is needed to support causality between specific gut microbiota and obesity.
The Effect of Corporate Governance Mechanisms on Earnings Management in Malaysian Manufacturing Companies

Earnings management (EM) firms produce less predictable accounting earnings that do not reflect the company's genuine financial success. However, EM is regarded as one of the most significant issues regarding financial reporting, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, this paper aims to investigate the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on earnings management in Malaysian manufacturing companies (MMCs). Data was collected from 2010 to 2019 for MMCs. By highlighting the updating of corporate governance rules, the market value and competitiveness of institutions will improve. Moreover, this paper provides evidence of the effect of corporate governance on earnings management. Therefore, the results may help policymakers to take a new approach to the development of corporate governance instructions, and stakeholders, which would enhance earnings quality and improve the quality of financial reports. This could help them build a more comprehensive picture of the firm and improve the decision-making process.
The Influence of Price, Product Quality, and Service on Apparel Purchase Satisfaction at Emi Boutique

The fashion business is a business that continues to grow rapidly, the latest fashions are published every day making business people engaged in this business sector to always keep abreast of the updates that occur. The updates that occur do not only focus on the design and fashion of clothing, but also consumer behavior in the fashion sector, which requires businesses to continue to pay attention to consumer behavior. Consumer satisfaction is the center of attention for companies engaged in the fashion business, not least at Emi Boutique, which is also always crowded with consumers who are looking for the best quality clothes. This research was conducted at Emi Boutique by analyzing the effect of price perception, product quality and service quality on customer satisfaction at Emi Boutique. The study was conducted with a quantitative approach using primary data and analyzed using SPSS. The results of this study indicate that all predictive variables have a specific and significant effect on customer satisfaction who shop for fashion products at Emi Boutique.
Damage Detection in Wind Turbine Blades Based on an Improved Broad Learning System Model

The research on damage detection in wind turbine blades plays an important role in reducing the risk of shut down in wind turbines. Rapid and accurate damage identification by using efficient detection models is the focus of the current research on damage detection in wind turbine blades. To solve the problems of the complex structure of the model and high time consumption in deep learning models, an improved broad learning system (BLS) model using the algorithm of chunking based on non-local means (NLMs) was proposed, which was called the CBNLM-BLS. The chunked, in-parallel accelerated integral image approach was used to optimize the NLM to speed up the BLS. Experiment results showed that the proposed model achieved a classification accuracy of 99.716%, taking 28.662 s to detect damage in the wind turbine blades. Compared with deep neural network models, such as ResNet, AlexNet and VGG-19, the proposed CBNLM-BLS had higher classification accuracy, shorter training time and less complex model construction and parameters. Compared with traditional BLSs, the CBNLM-BLS had less time complexity. It is of great significance to identify damage in wind turbine blades more efficiently.
Reference ranges in hemostasis testing: necessary but imperfect

Most tests performed in laboratories rely on comparison of a test result, typically a patient sample, against a range of values defined for normal healthy individuals, the concept being that any result that lies outside this range thereby defines a (potentially) ‘abnormal’ test result. Indeed, it is difficult to otherwise conceptualize an alternative approach in laboratory diagnostics so far. This process comprises an established standard also within hemostasis testing, and can therefore be defined as ‘necessary’ to establish a deviation from the norm. However, the limitations imposed by this practice are often under-recognized.
Waning of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine-Induced Immune Response over 6 Months in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients and the Role of a Booster Dose in Maintaining Seropositivity

Introduction: Although lower than general population, newly developed SARS-CoV-2 vaccines generate immune responses in end-stage kidney disease patients. However, the persistence of immune responses in the long term is not known yet. This study aimed to evaluate humoral immune responses in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients over 6 months and to analyze the effects of the booster dose. Methods: Humoral immune responses of PD patients were measured after initial SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations and after 6 months following initial vaccinations. Immune responses were compared between patients who received and did not receive booster doses. PD patients were compared with 41 hemodialysis (HD) patients and 61 healthy controls. Humoral immune responses were measured by a commercial test that detects antibodies toward the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Results: Twenty PD patients were evaluated over 6 months. The initial seropositivity rate was 90.9% with inactivated vaccine and 100% with mRNA vaccine. Seropositivity decreased to 44.4% after 6 months, and a booster dose helped in maintaining the 100% of seropositivity (p = 0.005). Magnitude of humoral response at the 6th month was also higher in patients who received the third dose (1,132.8 ± 769.6 AU/mL vs. 400.0 ± 294.6 AU/mL; p = 0.015). Among patients who did not receive the third dose, those who got mRNA vaccine could maintain higher seropositivity than others who got inactivated vaccine (75% vs. 40% for PD, 81.8% vs. 50% for HD). Seropositivity and antibody levels were similar for PD and HD patients after 6 months (p = 0.24 and 0.56) but lower than healthy controls (p = 0.0013). Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced antibody levels and seropositivity of PD patients significantly fall after 6 months. A booster dose after around 3 months following initial immunization might help in maintaining seropositivity.
Improving Student Cooperation Skills in Civics Through the Quick on The Draw Learning Method

Low cooperation skills has created various social problems in the community. This phenomenon is not only discovered in the working world, but also in learning institutions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic where learning activities were predominantly delivered online. Due to such settings, numerous students prefer to be study by themselves and no longer demonstrate care about their surrounding environment. This study aims to examine the cooperative learning method of Quick On the Draw to improve the skills of class VIII students in one of the public junior high schools in Majalengka, specifically in one civic education subject, namely the order of laws and regulations. Purposive sampling with 24 college students was selected as the sampling approach. The data analysis of the results illustrated that the cooperation skills of students significantly improved and were in good and very good criteria. In the first cycle, the average percentage of the first session was at 61,45%, while the average percentage of the second session was at 69,05%. In the second cycle, the average percentage of the third session was at 78,45%, while the average percentage of the fourth meeting was at 89.97%. The results of this study demonstrate that Quick On the Draw learning method successfully improve the cooperative skills of class VIII students on the subject of civic education.