Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gut microbiome of an unindustrialized population have characteristic enrichment of SNPs in species and functions with the succession of seasons

Most studies investigating human gut microbiome dynamics are conducted in modern populations. However, unindustrialized populations are arguably better subjects in answering human-gut microbiome coevolution questions due to their lower exposure to antibiotics and higher dependence on natural resources. Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania have been found to exhibit high biodiversity and seasonal patterns in their gut microbiome composition at family level, where some taxa disappear in one season and reappear at later time. However, such seasonal changes have previously been profiled only according to species abundances, with genome-level variant dynamics unexplored. As a result it is still elusive how microbial communities change at the genome-level under environmental pressures caused by seasonal changes. Here, a strain-level SNP analysis of Hadza gut metagenome is performed for 40 Hadza fecal samples collected in three seasons. First, we benchmarked three SNP calling tools based on simulated sequencing reads, and selected VarScan2 that has highest accuracy and sensitivity after a filtering step. Second, we applied VarScan2 on Hadza gut microbiome, with results showing that: with more SNP presented in wet season in general, eight prevalent species have significant SNP enrichments in wet season of which only three species have relatively high abundances. This indicates that SNP characteristics are independent of species abundances, and provides us a unique lens towards microbial community dynamics. Finally, we identify 83 genes with the most characteristic SNP distributions between wet season and dry season. Many of these genes are from Ruminococcus obeum, and mainly from metabolic pathways like carbon metabolism, pyruvate metabolism and glycolysis, as shown by KEGG annotation. This implies that the seasonal changes might indirectly impact the mutational patterns for specific species and functions for gut microbiome of an unindustrialized population, indicating the role of these variants in their adaptation to the changing environment and diets. Importance By analyzing the changes of SNP enrichments in different seasons, we have found that SNP characteristics are independent of species abundances, and could provide us a unique lens towards microbial community dynamics at the genomic level. Many of the genes in microbiome also presented characteristic SNP distributions between wet season and dry season, indicating the role of variants in specific species in their adaptation to the changing environment for an unindustrialized population.
Holding (not so) fast: surface chemistry constrains kelp bioadhesion

ABSTRACT Benthic macroalgae must attach firmly to the substrate to prevent being detached and washed away by water motion. The success of the bioadhesion system can be strongly influenced by surface chemistry and so this should be optimized for large-scale cultivation. This is especially important during the early stage of cultivation when the juveniles have little thigmotactic attachment, which is needed to interlock with surface rugosity. Juvenile sporophytes of Saccharina latissima (Phaeophyceae) were directly applied onto polymer films of varied surface composition to determine how the attachment force of the developing holdfast was influenced by surface chemistry. Eight polymer chemistries were examined: polyamide (PA), polyethylene (PE), polyester (PES), polypropylene (PP), polymethylacrylate (PMA), polyvinylalcohol (PVA), polyvinylchloride (PVC) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The PP and PE were also examined as three grades: commercial grade with additives, pure polymer, or pure polymer following a corona treatment. Additive inclusion and corona significantly reduced the water contact angle (p < 0.0001), indicating an increase in the surface free energy available for bioadhesion. After 6 weeks, the attachment force was greatest on PVA, PA and PVC (0.19–0.33 N), correlating strongly with the achieved biomass (R2 = 0.68). Additives and corona treatment improved holdfast attachment force, particularly corona treated PE (0.28 ± 0.08 N: 0 N without corona). Generally, attachment force appeared greatest on chemistries with a contact angle of 60–75°. These results confirm that the bioadhesion of the phaeophyte holdfast is strongly influenced by the surface free energy of the substrate chosen. Through alteration of the additive composition, attachment could be improved to create bespoke cultivation substrates. Corona treatment is highlighted as a very suitable method for improving holdfast attachment force during cultivation.
Effects of fleas on nest success of Arctic barnacle geese: experimentally testing the mechanism

Parasites have detrimental effects on their hosts' fitness. Therefore, behavioural adaptations have evolved to avoid parasites or, when an individual is already in contact with a parasite, prevent or minimize infections. Such anti-parasite behaviours can be very effective, but can also be costly for the host. Specifically, ectoparasites can elicit strong host anti-parasite behaviours and interactions between fleas (Siphonaptera) and their hosts are one of the best studied. In altricial bird species, nest fleas can negatively affect both parent and offspring fitness components. However, knowledge on the effects of fleas on precocial bird species is scarce. Research on geese in the Canadian Arctic indicated that fleas have a negative impact on reproductive success. One possible hypothesis is that fleas may affect female incubation behaviour. Breeding females with many fleas in their nest may increase the frequency and/or duration of incubation breaks and could even totally desert their nest. The aim of our study was to 1) determine if a similar negative relationship existed between flea abundance and reproductive success in our study colony of Arctic breeding barnacle geese Branta leucopsis and 2) experimentally quantify if such effects could be explained by a negative effect of nest fleas on female behaviour. We compared host anti-parasite and incubation behaviour between experimentally flea-reduced and control nests using wildlife cameras and temperature loggers. We found that flea abundance was negatively associated with hatching success. We found little experimental support, however, for changes in behaviour of the breeding female as a possible mechanism to explain this effect.
Detection of Campylobacter spp. in Cloacal Swab of Hens Reared in Different Breeding Conditions in Slovakia

The study evaluated the detection of the Campylobacter spp. in cloacal swabs of hens at six poultry farms: one battery cage, three indoor and two free range. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) used for detection of Campylobacter spp. determined positivity in the range from 3.4% to 10%. The lowest values of Campylobacter spp. were recorded in free range poultry farms. Our results demonstrated low number of Campylobacter spp. in cloacal swabs of hens with no evident prevalence of positive birds under the various breeding conditions of present in the evaluated farms. Obtained results also indicate a self-limitation nature of the infection in majority of birds and would be helpful in the future studies. Finally, our study shows that detection of Campylobacter spp. in hens is not influenced by breeding of poultry under different farm conditions.
Neutron Scattering Studies of Phosphate Proton Conductors

Proton ceramic fuel cells operating in the intermediate temperature range of 300 − 500◦C offer potentially revolutionary advantages over existing fuel cells because expensive noble metal catalysts would not be needed, and in situ reforming of liquid bio-fuels such as ethanol or methanol would be possible. The chief obstacle facing intermediate fuel cells is the lack of a suitable electrolyte in the operating temperature range. A good electrolyte is thermally and chemically stable, inexpensive, environmentally friendly, and has a proton conductivity on the order of 10−2 S/cm [Siemens per centimeter] at 400◦C. Acceptor-doped lanthanum orthophosphate is an attractive candidate electrolyte as it meets all of the above requirements except that its proton conductivity is 1-2 orders of magnitude too low. One of the motivations for the research presented here is to understand the microscopic mechanisms of proton transport in phosphate materials in order to suggest future synthetic approaches leading to higher performance materials. Proton transfer in orthophosphates is known to involve both localized and longrange diffusion, but the energetically favored pathways and rate limiting steps of the proton transport are not well understood. We investigated acceptor-doped lanthanum orthophosphate by means of quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS), neutron powder diffraction, X-ray diffraction, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The conductivity of the hydrated sample was determined in the temperature range 500−850◦C by EIS, and showed a clear proton-conductivity signature with activation energy of about 1.0 eV [electron volt]. The QENS experiment revealed a fast
Multiple Intelligences as Predictors of Foreign Language Pragmatic Knowledge: The Case of Five Frequent English Speech Acts

Because of the important role of multiple intelligences (MIs) in learning a second/foreign langue (L2) as supported by the existing second language acquisition (SLA) literature, some pragmatic scholars have asked for studying their contribution to pragmatic competence (e.g., Taguchi & Roever, 2017). Accordingly, the present investigation has attempted to examine the relationship between L2 learners’ multiple intelligences and their speech-act pragmatic performance. A sample of 124 EFL students who were selected from an initial sample of 206 learners at two Iranian state universities based on their scores on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) took part in this study. The data collection procedure was done in two subsequent phases. First, McKenzie's (1999) multiple intelligences (MI) survey including 90 items was filled out by the participants. Then, a validated 50-item multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) including five frequent English speech acts (requests, apologies, refusals, complaints, and compliments/compliment responses) was administered. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that four of the intelligence including logical, interpersonal, verbal, and intrapersonal intelligences were significant predictors of L2 learners' speech-act pragmatic knowledge. Among these four intelligences, verbal intelligence was the strongest followed by interpersonal, intrapersonal, and logical intelligences. However, five other intelligences (i.e., naturalistic, musical, existential, visual, & kinesthetic intelligences were not significant predictors of L2 pragmatic performance). These findings can have some pedagogical implications for EFL teachers in helping their learners develop their speech-act pragmatic knowledge based on their MIs.
New information about the pre-imaginal morphology of genus Graptomyza (Diptera, Syrphidae, Volucellini): description of third-instar larva and re-description of puparium of G. signata (Walker, 1860)

Pre-imaginal morphology of the flower fly species Graptomyzasignata (Walker) is described and figured in detail based on specimens collected on a decomposed Aloe-like plant in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Third-instar larva is described for the first time and the puparium morphology is re-described using both light (optical) and electron microscopy. The present work represents the second larval description for a species of the genus Graptomyza, after the description of the larva of G.alabeta Séguy. The immatures of these two Graptomyza species were examined and compared to the pre-imaginal stages of the other members of the tribe Volucellini, pointing out the possible diagnostic characters of the genus Graptomyza. Moreover, new DNA barcodes are provided for G.signata and deposited in the NCBI GenBank.
Chemical composition of two warm‐season perennial grasses subjected to proportions of defoliation

Two experiments were conducted to assess the effect of pre‐grazing heights and proportions of defoliation on morphological and chemical composition of the grazing layer of two warm‐season perennial grasses of contrasting structures (tall tufted grass—elephant grass, Exp. I; small size stoloniferous grass—kikuyu grass, Exp. II) under intermittent stocking management. The treatments were as follows: Exp. I—factorial arrangement between two pre‐grazing heights (90 and 120 cm) and two proportions of defoliation (removal of 50% or 70% of the initial pre‐grazing heights); Exp. II—four pre‐grazing heights (10, 15, 20 and 25 cm) combined with the same proportion of defoliation (50% of the initial pre‐grazing heights). Forage samples were collected at pre‐grazing heights and clipped into the grazing layer (cutting heights defined by treatments). The following variables were analyzed: (a) forage mass; (b) proportion of leaves, stems, and dead material; (c) crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber contents. In a general way, there were no significant differences in morphological and chemical composition of the grazing layer of treatments with proportions of defoliation of 50%. Although the treatments of 70% (Exp. I) and 10 cm (Exp. II) showed some differences, both targets impaired the grazing process and were considered as unpractical under field situations. It was concluded that forage chemical composition of warm‐season perennial grasses does not change in the upper half of the sward within a range of pre‐grazing heights, provided moderate proportions of defoliation (around 50%) are used.
Robust Design Optimization of Electrical Machines: A Comparative Study and Space Reduction Strategy

This article presents a comparative study on different types of robust design optimization methods for electrical machines. Three robust design approaches, Taguchi parameter design, worst-case design and design for six-sigma, are compared for low-dimensional and high-dimensional design optimization scenarios, respectively. For the high-dimensional scenario, the computational burden is normally massive due to the robustness evaluation of a huge number of design candidates. To attempt this challenge, as the second aim of this paper, a space reduction optimization (SRO) strategy is proposed for these robust design approaches, yielding three new robust optimization methods. To illustrate and compare the performance of different robust design optimization methods, a permanent magnet motor with soft magnetic composite cores is investigated with the consideration of material diversities and manufacturing tolerances. 3-D finite element model and thermal network model are employed in the optimization process and the accuracy of both models has been verified by experimental results. Based on the theoretical analysis and optimization results, a detailed comparison is provided for all investigated and proposed robust design optimization methods in terms of different aspects. It shows that the proposed SRO strategy can greatly improve the design optimization effectiveness and efficiency of those three conventional robust design methods.
Environmental responsibility performance, corporate social responsibility disclosure, tax aggressiveness: Does corporate governance have a role?

How to cite this paper: Firmansyah, A. , & Estutik, R. S. (2020). Environmental responsibility performance, corporate social responsibility disclosure, tax aggressiveness: Does corporate governance have a role? Journal of Governance & Regulation, 9(4), 8-24. http://doi.org/10.22495/jgrv9i4art1 Copyright © 2020 The Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
Interaction between Bacillus thuringiensis Cyt2Aa Toxin and Phosphatidylcholine-liposome

Bacillus thuringiensis is Gram positive soil living bacteria and produces parasporal inclusion body containing insecticidal crystal proteins. The insecticidal crystal proteins (ICP), B. thuringiensis toxin (BT toxin), show the kill activity to spodoptera, diptera and coleoptera insects, and have been used as BT formulation for more than 60 years for crops etc., since they are biodegradable and less remain in soil (Pigott and Ellar, 2007). The bacteria also have been used as gene sources for insect resistant gene modified crops and vegetables (GM Plant) and play an important role to development for sustainable agriculture. BT toxin is generally recognized as Cry toxin but Cyt toxin which has cytotoxic activity is also produced but these have no direct relationships each other in gene structure (Crickmore et al., 1998). However both toxins resemble each other in insecticidal mechanism, thus when they are ingested into susceptible insects, both are solubilized in midgut fluid and kill susceptible insect by pore formation in plasma membrane of midgut epithelial cells. Although the precise mechanism to open pore on the plasma membrane are still in argument (Bravo et al., 2004; Tomimoto et al., 2006; Nair and Dean, 2008; Nair et al., 2008; Groulx et al., 2009), pore formation theory are widely accepted (Knowles and Ellar, 1987; Höfte and Whiteley, 1989; Schnepf et al., 1998). BT toxin has very specific insecticidal spectra and Cry1A attacks susceptible coleopteran insects, Cry4B, on the other hand, shows insecticidal activity for diptera, and Cry8C is known to kill only coleopteran scarabaeid family (Ogiwara et al., 1995). On the other hand, Cyt has been known to have insecticidal activity against mosquito and fly belonging to dipterous insect (Chilcott and Ellar, 1988; Fernández et al., 2005; Promdonkoy et al. , 2005). Its principle mechanism is cytotoxicity by cell-lyses (Chilcott et al., 1998). The structures of Cry and Cyt toxins are completely different from each other. Cry toxin is composed of three domains and structure of Cry3Aa (Li et al., 1991), Cry1Aa (Grochulski et al., 1995), and Cry4Ba (Boonserm et al., 2005) was shown to be almost the same each other by X-ray three dimensional analysis but Cyt toxin has single domain structure. Interestingly various Cry toxins have low homology in amino acid level with each other (Crickmore et al., 1998; Morse et al., 2001) but their three dimensional structure are very similar and activated Cry toxins are composed of three domains, i.e., domain I, II and III, each other. Domain I composed of seven α-helices and centrally positioned α-helix5 seemed to be surrounded by 6 α-helices.
Data Fusion for Multi-Source Sensors Using GA-PSO-BP Neural Network

The development of real-time road condition systems will better monitor road network operation status. However, the weak point of all these systems is their need for comprehensive and reliable data. For traffic data acquisition, two sources are currently available: 1) floating vehicles and 2) remote traffic microwave sensors (RTMS). The former consists of the use of mobile probe vehicles as mobile sensors, and the latter consists of a set of fixed point detectors installed in the roads. First, the structure of a three-layer BP neural network is designed to achieve the fusion of the floating car data (FCD) and the fixed detector data (FDD) efficiently. Second, in order to improve the accuracy of traffic speed estimation, a multi-source data fusion model that combines information from floating vehicles and microwave sensors, and that, by using GA-PSO-BP neural network is proposed. The proposed model has combined GA and PSO ingeniously. The hybrid model can not only overcome the difficulties of the traditional fusion model of its estimation inaccuracy, but also compensate the insufficiency of the traditional BP algorithm. Finally, this system has been tested and implemented on actual roads, and the simulation results show the accuracy of data has reached 98%.
ANALYSIS OF AN ONLINE TAEKWONDO COMPETITION

The state of emergency declared in Bulgaria due to the COVID-19 situation has demonstrated that practicing sport under these conditions is limited The National Sport Academy "Vassil Levski" has been the pioneer in the online trainings in Bulgaria The Taekwondo department of the Academy was the first one to introduce an online competition in taekwondo during the 2020 pandemic in Bulgaria The methods we used were theoretical - analytical, expert evaluation, mathematical - statistical method and survey The feedback from the participants in the online tournament clearly indicate that such an event can and must be used in order to maintain motivation in athletes Such an event cannot fully replace the "real" competition but it is essential under the conditions of social isolation
Better biosecurity: spread-prevention of the invasive Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774)

Aquatic invasive species (AIS) negatively impact freshwater ecosystems on a global scale. As management options for control and eradication of established AIS populations are often complex, costly and resource-intensive, spread-prevention protocols are considered essential. The Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774), is considered a high-impact successful invader that can adversely alter freshwater habitats, community dynamics and ecosystem function. Accordingly, we examine the efficacy of a range of biosecurity techniques, including recommended (aquatic disinfectants, bleach and salt solutions) and more novel (hot water and direct steam) approaches, to induce adult C. fluminea mortality. In separate experiments, C. fluminea were submerged at 12 °C for up to 80 minutes in: 1) 2% and 4% solutions of Virasure® Aquatic and Virkon® Aquatic; 2) warm (30 °C) 2% and 4% solutions of these disinfectants; and 3) 10% and 20% bleach solutions. Furthermore, specimens were exposed to: 4) 30% and 70% salt solutions (NaCl) for up to 72 hrs; 5) hot water (35, 40 and 45 °C) for up to 20 minutes; and 6), direct steam exposure for up to 10 minutes. Adult C. fluminea were found to be largely resistant to aquatic disinfectants, bleach and salt solutions, with ≤ 58% mortality achieved at the maximum exposure times. However, immersion in hot water (≥ 45 °C) and direct steam exposure for five minutes and 30 seconds, respectively, rapidly caused mortality. Accordingly, simple biosecurity protocols that cause thermal shock appear highly effective. We discuss the need for further examination of biosecurity protocols across all life stages of current, emerging and potential AIS, and provide guidance for improving biosecurity practices.
Users’ satisfaction with facilities of university libraries in South-South, Nigeria

The main aim of the study was to examine the extent of user‟s satisfaction with physical facilities of university libraries in South-South Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive research design. The population of the study consisted of 21,162 library registered students of three federal and three state university libraries in South-South Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to select a total of 1056 respondents from six universities. A four point Likert questionnaire entitled: “Users‟ Satisfaction with Facility Questionnaire (USFQ)” was used as instrument of data collection. The data were analysed with frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The study revealed that users‟ satisfaction with reprographic facilities, lightning points facilities, shelving facilities, air condition facilities, seating arrangement and building facilities are high. The study concluded that if users in university libraries are not satisfied with the provision of library facilities then something other than facilities is responsible for their satisfaction. It was recommended that the library buildings should be properly sited and built to accommodate materials needed to aid academic research and other purposes of the library.