Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the impact of glutathione-transferase ( GST )-based S metabolic resistance to insecticide on vector competence of for Anopheles funestus Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria control heavily relies on insecticide-based Background: interventions against mosquito vectors. However, the increasing spread of insecticide resistance is a major threat. The extent to which such resistance, notably metabolic resistance, interferes with the development of the parasite and its impact on overall malaria transmission Plasmodium remains poorly characterized. Here, we investigated whether glutathione S-transferase-based resistance could influence Plasmodium falciparum development in . Anopheles funestus females were infected with Methods: Anopheles funestus P. falciparum gametocytes and midguts were dissected at day 7 post infection for detection/quantification of oocysts. Infection parameters were compared between individual with different L119F-GSTe2 genotypes, and the polymorphism of the GSTe2 gene was analyzed in infected and uninfected mosquito groups. Overall, 403 mosquitoes were dissected and genotyped. The Results: frequency of the L119F-GSTe2 resistance allele was significantly higher in non-infected (55.88%) compared to infected (40.99%) mosquitoes (Fisher's exact test, P<0.0001). Prevalence of infection was significantly higher in heterozygous and homozygous susceptible genotypes (P<0.001). However, homozygous resistant and heterozygous mosquitoes exhibited significantly higher infection intensity (P<0.01). No association was observed between the GSTe2 polymorphism and the infection status of mosquitoes. Altogether, these results suggest that GSTe2-based Conclusion: metabolic resistance may affect the vectorial competence of resistant An. 1-4 4,5 3
Dye aggregation and interaction of dyes with a water‐soluble polymer in ink‐jet ink for textiles

Detailed understanding of the interaction between dyes and additives and the aggregation behaviour of the dye molecules in aqueous solutions is required to develop ink-jet ink for textiles. In the present study, the aggregation behaviour of three acid dyes (CI Acid Red 88, CI Acid Red 13 and CI Acid Red 27) containing different number of sulphonate groups in aqueous solutions was investigated by means of visible absorption spectroscopy. As a result, the higher the solubility of the dyes in water (the larger the number of sulphonate groups in the dyes), the lower are the aggregation constants of the dyes. For all the dyes, the aggregation constants decreased with increasing temperature, indicating the exothermic process of the dye aggregation. The thermodynamic process for CI Acid Red 88 with one sulphonate group is less enthalpic and more entropic than that for CI Acid Red 13, which contains two sulphonate groups. CI Acid Red 27, which includes three sulphonate groups, hardly forms any aggregates. To elucidate the effects of the polymer additive, the binding constants of the dyes with the water-soluble polymer, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) and the aggregation constants of the dyes in aqueous polymer solutions were also estimated. In addition, the binding constants were influenced by the number of sulphonate groups in the acid dyes: the larger number of sulphonate groups diminished the binding constants. The aggregation constants in the presence of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) were smaller than those in its absence at every temperature for all dyes. This suggests that poly(vinylpyrrolidone) has disaggregation effects. Furthermore, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) makes the aggregation process less enthalpic with a greater entropic change. Thus, the aggregation process of the dyes in the polymer solutions is thermodynamically different from that in water, reflecting the interactions between the dyes and the polymer.
ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY, GENDER AND ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION

Academic procrastination has been described as a behaviour in which academic tasks such as preparing for exams, preparing term papers, administrative affairs related to school and duty of attendance are postponed till other time. Research findings have supported the fact that this habit occurs as a result of either failure in self-regulation (passive procrastination) or utilitarian purposes (active procrastination). This study therefore explored the prevalence of academic procrastination and prevalent type of procrastinators among the undergraduate students. It also examined the difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators, and as well examined gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. It further determined gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. A descriptive survey design was adopted. A total of 200 undergraduate students randomly selected from five faculties from University of Ilorin constituted the sample size for this study. Three research instruments that were used to collect data for this study were College Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (CASES), Tuckman Academic Procrastination Scale (TAPS) and Active Procrastination Scale. Results revealed that 29.0% of the undergraduate students were procrastinators and 51.7% of the procrastinators were passive type. No significant difference was found in academic self-efficacy of passive and active procrastinators, t (56) = 1.038, p > . 05, and gender was not significantly associated with passive and active undergraduate procrastinators, χ2 (n = 58) = 1.752, df = 1, p = . 186. It was also found that no significant gender difference existed in procrastinatory behaviour of male and female university undergraduates, t (56) = . 168, p > . 05. This study concludes that most of the university undergraduates that engage in procrastinatory behaviour are passive in nature and neither academic self-efficacy nor gender of the students was a significant factor in their procrastinatory behaviour.
Controlled study of ISA effects: comparing speed attitudes between young volunteers and external controls, and the effect of different ISA treatments on the speeding of volunteers

This study is a part of an ongoing ISA project in Denmark. Its aim was to clarify two human factors issues, (1) the difference in attitude between ISA-volunteers and non-volunteers, and (2) the relative impact on speeding of two factors, ISA-information and driver motivation. The first part of the study compared survey data from ISA-volunteers with those of non-volunteers. The two groups differed in their judgement of ISA features and anticipated effects of driving with ISA, whereas no differences were found in judgement of speed limits, attitude to speeding or reported driving style. The second part of the study was a driving experiment in which two factors, informative ISA and an economic incentive for not speeding, were manipulated between groups of volunteers. A control group had ISA switched off and received insurance discount independent of their speeding. This group did not reduce their speeding in the experiment period, whereas another group, also with ISA switched off but with insurance discount dependent on their speeding reduced their speeding by a small amount. Two groups, both driving with ISA switched on showed a substantial reduction in their speeding. The effect of informative ISA alone was substantial, which presumably prevented a further gain from combining ISA information with the incentive.
A redshift-distortion-free correlation function at third order in the non-linear regime

The zeroth-order component of the cosine expansion of the projected three-point correlation function is proposed for the clustering analysis of cosmic large-scale structure. These functions are third-order statistics but can be measured similarly to the projected two-point correlations. Numerical experiments with N-body simulations indicate that the advocated statistics are redshift distortion free within 10 per cent in the non-linear regime on scales of similar to 0.2-10 h-1 Mpc. The halo model prediction of the zeroth-order component of the projected three-point correlation function agrees with simulations within similar to 10 per cent. This lays the ground for using these functions to perform joint analyses with the projected two-point correlation functions, exploring galaxy clustering properties in the framework of the halo model and relevant extensions.
Dynamic rupture models of earthquakes on the Bartlett Springs Fault, Northern California

The Bartlett Springs Fault (BSF), the easternmost branch of the northern San Andreas Fault system, creeps along much of its length. Geodetic data for the BSF are sparse, and surface creep rates are generally poorly constrained. The two existing geodetic slip rate inversions resolve at least one locked patch within the creeping zones. We use the 3‐D finite element code FaultMod to conduct dynamic rupture models based on both geodetic inversions, in order to determine the ability of rupture to propagate into the creeping regions, as well as to assess possible magnitudes for BSF ruptures. For both sets of models, we find that the distribution of aseismic creep limits the extent of coseismic rupture, due to the contrast in frictional properties between the locked and creeping regions.
VAGAL INFLUENCE ON SELECTIVE ATTENTION UNDER HIGH AND LOW PERCEPTUAL LOAD

I examined the effect of high and low levels of vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) on a computer-based selective attentional task under high and low perceptual load. In the task, letter strings were superimposed on either fearful or neutral facial distractors and participants were asked to identify target letters. Under high load, letter strings consisted of one target letter and five nontarget letters arranged in random order. Under low load, letter strings consisted of 6 target letters. Under both highand low-load, the low HRV group did not show differences in RTs between neutral and fearful distractors. For the high HRV group, the valence of distractors played different roles in detecting targets under different perceptual loads. Under low perceptual load, the high HRV group was significantly faster to detect targets with fearful distractors compared to those with neutral distractors. Under high perceptual load, the opposite pattern was observed. The high HRV group was faster to detect targets with neutral distractors under high load. The results were explained in the context of the Neurovisceral model proposed by Thayer and Lane (2000, 2002). According to the model, HRV can index the top down modulation of the prefrontal cortex on sympathoexcitatory subcortical structures. High HRV represents the highly integrated cortical-subcortical circuits in the organism and is expected to be associated with good attentional and emotional regulation whereas low HRV indicates poor self-regulation as a result of rigid neuroviseral integration. As the ii model predicted, the low HRV group failed to detect safety signals and made undifferentiated responses to neutral and fearful distractors. However, the high HRV group made responses that were appropriate for emotional contexts such that under low load, they quickly disengaged their attention away from fearful distractors and under the high load condition with neutral distractors, they recognized safety signals and made faster responses than with fearful distractors. Under the low load condition, the high HRV group exerted greater attentional control to quickly disengage their attention away from fearful stimuli and to process task-relevant stimuli. Under the high load condition with fearful distractors, the prefrontal cortex disinhibited its inhibitory control over sympathoexcitatory subcortical circuits, which allowed the processing of fearful distractors further. As a result, the processing of task-relevant stimuli might be delayed. However, with neutral distractor, the prefrontal cortex recognized the safety signal, the neutral facial expression, and focused on the processing of task-relevant stimuli while inhibiting the activity of symapthoexcitatory subcortical circuits. As a result, the high HRV group could identify targets significantly faster with neutral distractors than with fearful distractors.
Elements of green highway assessment: Social and safety

A green highway is fundamental for the infrastructure to be environmentally responsible and sustainable in all aspects. The need for promoting sustainability and green highway construction requires an assessment system. The Green Highway Assessment provides a management and technical approach for highway life-cycle from construction to its maintenance processes. It should also cover the relationship between environment and social responsibility with highway development. Nevertheless, safety and social element of highway development are often not addressed in majority of green highway assessments. The aim of this study is to identify and choose which social and safety elements are to be included in green highway criteria and therefore utilised in Malaysian Green Highway Index and its assessment. Data was obtained through comprehensive literature reviews, expert interviews and distribution of questionnaires. Respondents included experts and stakeholders from highway development field. The Average Index Value analysis was also utilised for the result of the questionnaire. The study resulted in 7 main criteria and 12 sub-criteria that were accepted to be used for green highway index assessment. The full list of main criteria and sub-criteria will be explained further in the text.
Ovine Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer: Retrospective Overview and Analysis of Epigenetic and Phenotypic Effects of Cloning Procedures

9.1 Historical Notes: Embryonic Cloning . 153 9.2 Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer . 154 9.3 Efforts in Ovine Somatic Cell Cloning . 155 9.4 Epigenetic Effect of Cloning Procedures . 157 Acknowledgments.161 References.161
Persistence and Drift in Organizations ∗

I analyze the evolution of organizations that allow free entry and exit of members, such as cities, trade unions, sports clubs and cooperatives. Current members choose a policy for the organization, but this, in turn, may lead to new agents joining or dissatisfied members leaving, yielding a new set of policymakers tomorrow. The resulting feedback effects may take the organization down a “slippery slope”, which agents may allow in equilibrium despite being forward-looking and patient, a result that contrasts with existing models of elite clubs. The model explains how quickly the organization approaches a steady state; how this limit depends on the distribution of agents’ preferences and the initial policy; and, in particular, when a population of mostly moderate agents might support extremist organizations. The model can also be extended to allow for competition between multiple organizations.
Cholesteric films exhibiting expanded or split reflection bands prepared by atmospheric photopolymerisation of diacrylic nematic monomer doped with a photoresponsive chiral dopant

Cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) films with gradient pitches are prepared by atmospheric UV irradiation of mixtures of a diacrylic nematic monomer (M), a macrocyclised chiral cinnamate dimer (CD), and a photoinitiator (PI). UV light induces the intramolecular photodimerisation of the two cinnamate moieties in the CD to decrease the helical twisting power. The CLC of 90/10 (w/w) mixture of M/CD exhibits an optical pitch of 482 nm, which increases homogeneously to 815 nm upon atmospheric UV irradiation of the film. When the CLC doped with 1.5 wt% PI is formed into a planar-aligned film and irradiated with UV light in the atmosphere, the CLC film exhibits pitches that increases toward the air-interface side so as to result in a wide reflection band ranging from 420 to 890 nm; in addition, the film assumes a silver appearance. When the PI concentration and UV intensity are increased, the spectra of the CLC films exhibit two reflection bands and films assume a magenta colour. Such pitch distributions result from the confliction between untwisting and polymerisation of the CLC, both of which are induced by the UV light, although the polymerisation rate is decreased by the diffusion of atmospheric oxygen into the film.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Differential modulation of human epidermal Langerhans cell maturation by ultraviolet B radiation

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Report 3: Transmissibility of 2019-nCoV

Self-sustaining human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) is the only plausible explanation of the scale of the outbreak in Wuhan. We estimate that, on average, each case infected 2.6 (uncertainty range: 1.5-3.5) other people up to 18 January 2020, based on an analysis combining our past estimates of the size of the outbreak in Wuhan with computational modelling of potential epidemic trajectories. This implies that control measures need to block well over 60% of transmission to be effective in controlling the outbreak. It is likely, based on the experience of SARS and MERS-CoV, that the number of secondary cases caused by a case of 2019-nCoV is highly variable – with many cases causing no secondary infections, and a few causing many. Whether transmission is continuing at the same rate currently depends on the effectiveness of current control measures implemented in China and the extent to which the populations of affected areas have adopted risk-reducing behaviours. In the absence of antiviral drugs or vaccines, control relies upon the prompt detection and isolation of symptomatic cases. It is unclear at the current time whether this outbreak can be contained within China; uncertainties include the severity spectrum of the disease caused by this virus and whether cases with relatively mild symptoms are able to transmit the virus efficiently. Identification and testing of potential cases need to be as extensive as is permitted by healthcare and diagnostic testing capacity – including the identification, testing and isolation of suspected cases with only mild to moderate disease (e.g. influenza-like illness), when logistically feasible.
Contamination of stellar-kinematic samples and uncertainty about dark matter annihilation profiles in ultrafaint dwarf galaxies: the example of Segue I

The expected gamma-ray flux coming from dark matter annihilation in dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies depends on the so-called 'J-factor', the integral of the squared dark matter density along the line-of-sight. We examine the degree to which estimates of J are sensitive to contamination (by foreground Milky Way stars and stellar streams) of the stellar-kinematic samples that are used to infer dark matter densities in 'ultrafaint' dSphs. Applying standard kinematic analyses to hundreds of mock data sets that include varying levels of contamination, we find that mis-classified contaminants can cause J-factors to be overestimated by orders of magnitude. Stellar-kinematic data sets for which we obtain such biased estimates tend 1) to include relatively large fractions of stars with ambiguous membership status, and 2) to give estimates for J that are sensitive to specific choices about how to weight and/or to exclude stars with ambiguous status. Comparing publicly-available stellar-kinematic samples for the nearby dSphs Reticulum II and Segue I, we find that only the latter displays both of these characteristics. Estimates of Segue I's J-factor should therefore be regarded with a larger degree of caution when planning and interpreting gamma-ray observations.
Does Sustainability Performance Affect the Financial Performance of Indian Companies

In this paper we examine the relationship between firm performance and sustainability performance of Indian companies. We look at accounting based measures of Return on assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) and market based measure of Tobin’s Q (Price to book Ratio) as firm performance measures and ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) scores for measure of sustainability performance. We control for other variables like size, leverage and risk and study the linear and non linear relationship between firm performance and sustainability performance of Indian companies. In this context, we present some new evidence for the India capital markets.
PNS1100331 190..197

Seventy years have elapsed since the Nutrition Society was founded and John Boyd Orr became its first Chairman. Over the intervening period, nutrition research has embraced and responded to a wide variety of challenges as the requirements of research have evolved and changed. This paper reflects on some of the major challenges that have influenced nutrition research over the past 70 years and considers where nutrition stands today along with the challenges for the future. In the past, these challenges have included food security and improvements in animal nutrition to enhance production through problems of overnutrition, such as CVD and obesity, as well as the recognition of the importance of early-life nutrition. The challenges for the future include how to translate the increasingly comprehensive and complex understanding of the relationship between nutrition and health, being gained as a result of the genomic revolution, into simple and accessible policy advice. It also includes how we learn more about the ways in which diet can help in the prevention of obesity as well as the ways in which we prevent the rise in complex diseases in emerging nations as they undergo nutritional transition. From this, it is clear that nutrition research has moved a long way from its initial focus on nutritional deficiencies to a subject, which is at the heart of public health consideration. This evolution of nutrition research means that today diet and health are high on the political agenda and that nutrition remains a priority area for research. It has been 70 years since 1941 when the Nutrition Society was established, under its first Chairman, John Boyd Orr. At that time there were many who believed that nutrition research had reached its peak and there was little left to discover. This view stemmed from the fact that most vitamins and minerals had been discovered and that the syndromes associated with nutritional deficiencies in these were largely known. Despite this gloomy prognosis, the intervening 70 years have witnessed a remarkable evolution in nutrition research, which has underpinned key Government policies, ranging from food security right through to public health. This review considers some major developments that have helped to shape nutrition research over the past 70 years and in so doing have changed its frontiers.
Justice System Institutions and Corruption Control: Evidence from Latin America

This essay explores whether the design of justice system institutions helps control corruption. Applying the basic logic of checks and balances to intrabranch institutional design, the main argument is that any justice system where judges and prosecutors, of different ranks and levels, are unchecked actors generates incentives for them to abuse their positions. In other words, while generally judges and prosecutors are considered organs that oversee other branches of government, they may also constitute sources of corruption if left unchecked. The essay offers preliminary evidence on the specific hypotheses derived from the general argument from samples of eighteen Latin American countries and two case studies on Chile and Mexico.