Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microelements Changes in Leaves and Fruits of Raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) Under the Influence of Ameliorative Measures

ABSTRACT The study evaluated the effects of lime and dolomite application (2 and 4 t ha−1) in combination with NPK fertilizer (1 t ha−1) or borax (50 kg ha−1) on micronutrient concentrations in the raspberry leaves and fruits grown in the soil with a strongly acid reaction. Changes in the content of micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, and B) and Al in the soil and raspberry leaves and fruits were monitored during a two-year period. Calcification reduced the content of micronutrients and Al in the soil, as well as their content in the plant. Applied doses of lime or dolomite of 4 t ha−1 almost completely neutralized the high to toxic content of mobile Al in the soil, but the values in the leaves although reduced were still high. In all applied treatments, high and very high concentrations of available forms of Fe and Mn in the soil and/or leaves and fruits were significantly reduced. However, the Mn concentrations in the soil, leaves, and raspberry fruits were very high. Calcification did not reduce the available Cu in the soil, while this effect was observed in raspberry leaves and fruits where the Cu concentrations were within optimal values. After calcification, the Zn and B concentrations decreased in the soil and plant, but they mostly remained within the optimal values. The results indicate that due to the very high concentrations of Al and Mn in the soil and plant after lime application, additional doses of lime materials in more than one season are required.
Anesthetic Conversion of Preexisting Labor Epidural Analgesia for Emergency Cesarean Section and Efficacy of Levobupivacaine with or Without Magnesium Sulphate: A Prospective Randomized Study

Background For pregnant women who require an emergency cesarean section (CS), extending labor epidural analgesia as quickly as feasible to good quality anesthesia is a critical issue. This indicates the presence of functional labor epidural analgesia and reduces the need for general anesthesia. Addition of magnesium increases anesthetic and analgesic qualities of epidural anesthesia. Objectives The purpose of this trial was to assess the role of adding magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) with levobupivacaine to speed up the conversion of labor epidural analgesia into enough anesthesia for emergency CS. Methods Fifty parturients were randomly assigned to receive 19.5 mL of levobupivacaine 0.5% with either 0.5 mL of normal saline 0.9% (Group I) or 0.5 mL of MgSO4 10% (Group II) after receiving labor epidural analgesia. We documented the onset of block (loss of pinprick to T6), number of patients needing additional analgesia, the time needed for sensory and motor blockade to recover, and the adverse effects. Results The frequency of patients receiving intraoperative supplements was comparable in the study groups (P = 0.491), although the onset of the block was faster in Group II than in Group I (P = 0.000*). Group II took substantially longer to recover from sensory and motor blockade than Group I (P = 0.001* and P = 0.001*, respectively). In both groups, the occurrence of adverse events was similar. Conclusions Adding 50 mg of MgSO4 to levobupivacaine 0.5% accelerated the epidural top, and both sensory onset and motor blocks period were prolonged as compared to levobupivacaine alone when extending epidural analgesia for emergency CS.
Do Pollination and Pollen Sources Affect Fig Seed Set and Quality? First Attempt Using Chemical and Vibrational Fingerprints Coupled with Chemometrics

This research investigates whether pollination and pollen sources separately and simultaneously influence fig seed set and quality, as being thus far the less studied part of the fig trees. This is the first research that tries to answer and verify the above hypothesis through a combined approach of vibrational spectroscopy along with lipo-biochemical and ionomic fingerprinting. Results showed that pollination and pollen source significantly impacted seed set as it was higher in fertilized seeds than that in the control. A similar pattern was obtained with oil yield, which generally ranged between 25.93 and 32.59%. Caprification also displayed a substantial effect on seeds' phenolic components, which was more driven by pollen carbohydrates, involved in the phenolic biosynthesis in the endosperm and embryo tissues. This biosynthesis is also activated by minerals, which are cofactors for large varieties of enzymes that are involved in the phenolic synthesis pathways. Ca and Zn did not follow this pattern and have recorded high levels in figs fertilized by the pollen of OZ and FD4 caprifigs pollen, respectively. Vibrational spectroscopy using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy coupled with total attenuated reflectance (ATR) also showed a similar pattern to the seed sets and their lipo-biochemical attributes. Thus, the fertilized seeds displayed high vibrational intensity compared to the control in all fingerprint regions. Peaks at 2928 and 1747 cm−1 had a higher intensity and were attributed to lipids CH2 and CH3 stretching vibration and C=O of the carbonyl groups belonging to the triacylglycerols, respectively. Principal component analysis showed high throughput classification with quite similar patterns for both FTIR-ATR fingerprinting and ionomic and biochemical analysis. As many areas of how caprification impacts other seed aspects still need to be investigated further, this research suggests the importance of caprification in seed valorization for oil extraction and as a functional ingredient.
Immunology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutics

Abstract As a main digestive organ and an important immune organ, the intestine plays a vital role in resisting the invasion of potential pathogens into the body. Intestinal immune dysfunction remains important pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this review, we explained the interactions among symbiotic flora, intestinal epithelial cells, and the immune system, clarified the operating mechanism of the intestinal immune system, and highlighted the immunological pathogenesis of IBD, with a focus on the development of immunotherapy for IBD. In addition, intestinal fibrosis is a significant complication in patients with long-term IBD, and we reviewed the immunological pathogenesis involved in the development of intestinal fibrogenesis and provided novel antifibrotic immunotherapies for IBD.
Regaining control over cloud and mobile data

While emerging computing technologies, such as cloud computing and small, powerful, mobile devices – offer previously unimaginable global access to data and applications, they also threaten users' sense of control over data ownership, distribution, and properties. For example, uploading some data to a Web service – such as a document to Google Docs, a photo to Facebook, or an email to Hotmail – causes the user to lose control over that data. The user cannot ensure that the service deletes all copies of her data when she asks it to do so, that her data is not shared with advertisers, or that her data is replicated sufficiently to ensure its long-term availability. Similarly, storing data on a mobile device causes the user to lose control over that data when the device is stolen or lost; the user cannot ensure that the data can never be compromised and she cannot tell whether it has been compromised. This dissertation examines the broad data security, privacy, and management challenges raised by modern technology and proposes a set of techniques that address these issues. We present four systems, each aiming to re-empower users with a specific aspect of their lost data control. Keypad offers remote access control and auditability for data stored on a stolen device. Vanish provides control over the lifetime of data stored in untrusted clouds. Comet lets clients customize the functionality of trusted cloud storage, while Menagerie provides a uniform view of a user's scattered Web data. We present the design, implementation, and detailed evaluation for each of the four systems, demonstrating the feasibility of our approaches.
Agent behavior in peer-to-peer shared ride systems

Shared ride systems match the travel demand of transport a client with the supply of vehicles, or hosts, so that the client find rides to their destinations. A peer-to-peer shared ride system allows a client to find rides in an ad-hoc manner, by negotiating directly with nearby hosts via radio-based communication. Such a peer-to-peer shared ride system has to deal with various types of hosts, such as private cars, taxicabs and mass transit vehicles. Agents, i.e. a client and hosts, have diverse behaviors in such systems. Their different behaviors affect the negotiation process, and consequently the travel choices. Preliminary research (Winter et al. 2005) has investigated peer-to-peer shared ride systems with homogeneous hosts and Immobile client. This thesis extends their work to multiple types of agents. It focuses on what are typical agent behaviors in peer-to-peer shared ride systems, and how these behaviors affect negotiation processes in a dynamic transport environment. This thesis presents and discusses a model of a peer-to-peer shared ride system with diverse types of hosts and one a client with different levels of knowledge. Agents’ typical natures and behaviors contributing to peer-to-peer shared ride systems are identified and formalized in the model. This multi-agent model allows testing different communication and way-finding strategies in peer-to-peer shared ride systems. The inheritance design of the model makes it easy to extend and suitable for other related investigations and further research. A computer simulation is employed to implement this model. Experiments are designed to test agent behaviors under different communication and way-finding strategies. The results of experiments demonstrate that different types of agents enrich the choices of the client, and lead to local solutions that are nearly optimal.
Survival strategies of traditional retailers during the COVID-19 pandemic: Some insights from a developing country

Purpose: The paper aims to report the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate survival strategies during the pandemic of traditional retailers.Design/methodology/approach: Exploratory methodology consisting of the literature review and an empirical study was conducted. The theoretical framework of resilience strategy was built to provide a guideline for the empirical study. The empirical study involves a longitudinal study with 30 traditional retailers located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The empirical data was collected using semi-structured interviews in mid-2019 and mid-2020, corresponding to the condition before and during the pandemic. Secondary data sources were also examined to refine the empirical evidence.Findings: The findings confirm that the pandemic has created disruptions in supply and demand, subsequently affecting operations. 90% of the traditional retailers experienced demand reduction, which varied among the retailers (M = 47%, SD = 25%), and 10% of the traditional retailers have not received any profit. The majority of the traditional retailer adopted reactive rather than proactive strategies. To cope with the pandemic, the traditional retailers have focused on efficient strategies and implemented exploitation-oriented strategies combined with exploration-oriented strategies. Trust and social capital were also discovered to explain the reasons behind the resiliency and sustainability of the traditional retailers.Research limitations/implications: Due to the preliminary and explorative nature of the present study, the generality of the findings may therefore be limited. Future research focusing on quantitative analysis using a large sample helps to achieve the generality of the findings.Practical implications: Because the strategies implemented in large enterprises (LEs) usually do not fit in micro-, small-, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), exploring strategies that are consistent with the characteristics of MSMEs and leverage their potentials is necessary. Building ambidextrous retailers through leveraging social capital/network and informal forum, exploiting affordable technology (e.g., social media, marketplace), and honing innovativeness is a way to survive in a dynamic environment.Social implications: Because the traditional retailers have contributed to economic development and social function, the government should empower them to leverage their capabilities through training and strengthen their business ecosystem through collective actions.Originality/value: The study contributes to the resilience body of knowledge concerning the strategies implemented by the traditional retailers during a long and unpredictable disruption in a developing country setting, which is scarce in the literature.
Multiresolution approximation and consistent estimation of a multivariate density function

In this paper we extend multiresolution analysis structures on to approximate multivariate probability density functions. We propose a consistent estimator for a multivariate multiresolution approximation (MMR) of a multivariate pdf. And we also develop an algorithm to estimate the MMR pdf that behaves well when handling big data. This algorithm performs better, in terms of running time, than traditional optimization algorithms. For large samples, the estimations are as good as those obtained by maximum likelihood. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the method.
Spelling-sound knowledge in the context of multilingualism: is lexical access selective or nonselective?

The present study investigates shared phonological information and selectivity during lexical access in Brazilian Portuguese-English unbalanced bilinguals, learners of Korean as an L3. Participants took part in a word naming task which used L2 primes with targets from the L3 at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) of 140ms and 250ms. The results show a significant facilitation effect in word naming when an English prime was presented in comparison with control primes. Additionally, a significant facilitation effect was also seen in trials in which the primes were presented at a 250ms SOA in relation to a 140ms SOA. Taken together, the results indicate that participants’ spelling-sound knowledge of L2 English was activated during the reading aloud of words in L3 Korean, which indicates nonselectivity in lexical access and a shared mental lexicon across languages.
Protecting user privacy in location-based services over road networks

ABSTRACT In location-based services (LBS), the users with mobile devices share information such as their locations and queries to obtain desired services. Additionally, LBS providers are often able to track or record the movements of their users with great spatial and temporal accuracy. However, user location information can be misused by LBS providers or attackers, which creates privacy problems for users. This raises concerns about privacy breaches; therefore, many approaches have been proposed to protect user privacy. Thus, in previous works, the authors have proposed approaches to maintain the privacy of mobile users in the Euclidean space. However, it is difficult to apply current methods of Euclidean space to the environment of the road networks due to the topological characteristics of the road networks. In this paper, we propose a new approach to preserve user privacy in LBS over road networks. Additionally, in this paper, we provide new methods for selecting segments and users on the road network to face the attacks. Moreover, to evaluate our work, we compared it with other works such as MCC, BATCH, V-DCA, D-TC, and GCA approaches. After comparing these works, our work offers a good balance between quality of service and privacy.
Exploring the inclusive leadership and employee change participation relationship: the role of workplace belongingness and meaning-making

PurposeBy drawing on the need to belong theory, the paper aims to propose a moderated mediation model to examine the role of workplace belongingness and meaning-making in the positive relationship between inclusive leadership and employee change participation.Design/methodology/approachParticipants were 155 employees from 31 teams from a branch of a multinational pharmaceutical company located in an EU country. The company faces constant legal, regulatory and technology-related changes after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak. Data were collected in three waves, approximately three weeks apart between March 2020 and May 2020. To test the mediating effect of workplace belongingness were performed first – a series of regression analyses – and second, bootstrapping to assess the statistical significance of the indirect effect (Preacher and Hayes, 2008). FindingsWorkplace belongingness mediates the relationship between inclusive leadership and employees change participation. Further, the research findings provide support that meaning-making moderates the relationship between workplace belongingness and change participation as well as the indirect relationship between inclusive leadership and change participation through workplace belongingness such that the positive relationships are stronger when meaning-making is higher.Practical implicationsThe results indicate that should leaders and change management practitioners manage to influence positively employees' workplace belongingness by employing inclusive practices and procedures; leaders and change management practitioners will increase the level of participation during change and further the results note from an applied perspective the importance of mean-making as a facilitating factor during change in organizational settings. Relevant suggestions are made.Originality/valueThe findings provide new insights into how inclusive leadership and workplace belongingness can affect employees' change participation. Further, the research findings note the significant moderating role of meaning-making regarding both the relationship between workplace belongingness and change participation as well as the indirect relationship between inclusive leadership and change participation through workplace belongingness.
Do conditional cash transfers improve antenatal care outcomes in Senegal? Combining non-experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations

ABSTRACT This paper evaluates the effects of a conditional cash transfer (CCT) on antenatal consultations in Senegal. We conduct a non-experimental and a quasi-experimental evaluations, in which the control group is constructed using a propensity score matching method. While the non-experimental approach alone does not allow to conclude on the impact of the CCT, the quasi-experimental approach reveals that the CCT significatively increases antenatal consultations of beneficiaries. The combination of non-experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations has the potential to offer evaluation of social policies in a cost-effective way, using existing information, such as administrative data and already-collected survey data.
Tweeting on Presidential Coattails: Congressional Candidate Use of Twitter in the 2020 Elections

There is a long history of political science research focused on congressional candidates riding presidential coattails into office. The underlying theory for this potential relationship is relatively simple—when presidential nominees are popular, they can help bolster the electoral fortunes of their down-ballot, co-partisan candidates. If this is right, congressional candidates should be incentivized to publicly align themselves with their co-partisan presidential nominee, albeit in strategic ways. We look for this relationship by constructing an original dataset of congressional candidate Twitter data and identifying the extent to which candidates mention presidential nominees during the 2020 campaign, a behavior we call “tweeting on coattails. ” Our data allow us to describe relationships between “tweeting on coattails”, candidate party ID, and district-level electoral conditions. We find that overall, challengers tweeted more than incumbents, but incumbents were more likely to “tweet on coattails. ” In addition, candidates of both parties “tweeted on coattails” more frequently if they were running in a district where their party’s nominee is popular. This relationship was not symmetric in magnitude, however, as Republicans were significantly more likely to tweet about Donald Trump than Democrats were to tweet about Joe Biden.
The effectiveness of second-language listening strategy instruction: A meta-analysis

Research on the effects of second language (L2) listening strategy instruction (SI) has gained momentum in recent years (e.g. Vandergrift & Tafaghodtari, 2010). However, the reported results have been inconclusive and varied across studies. Synthesizing the results of quantitative research in this domain, the present meta-analysis sought to determine the overall effectiveness of L2 listening SI as well as to examine the extent to which the effectiveness of instruction is likely to vary as a function of a set of potential moderators (i.e. learning contexts, treatment types, methodological variables, and outcome measures). A comprehensive search identified 45 primary studies, contributing data from 51 independent samples on the effects of SI on L2 listening comprehension. The aggregated findings indicate a medium effect of listening SI ( d = 0.69). These effects were also found to vary as a function of several moderator variables. Based on the obtained findings, L2 teachers are recommended to incorporate listening SI into L2 curricula. Pedagogical suggestions and directions for future research are provided in our discussion.
Compressed Sensing for Time-Frequency Gravitational Wave Data Analysis

The potential of compressed sensing for obtaining sparse time-frequency representations for gravitational wave data analysis is illustrated by comparison with existing methods, as regards i) shedding light on the fine structure of noise transients (glitches) in preparation of their classification, and ii) boosting the performance of waveform consistency tests in the detection of unmodeled transient gravitational wave signals using a network of detectors affected by unmodeled noise transient
Predicting Nonlinear Distortion in Common-Emitter Stages for Amplifier Design Using Volterra Series

In this paper we present a method for predicting nonlinear distortion in electronic circuits using the Volterra series. Simple expressions for the distortion in a Common-Emitter stage are determined. Designers may use these expressions to get a quick insight in both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the distortion. Also predictors are given for the maximum distortion in different situations.
Control-Oriented Physics-Based Modeling and Observer Design for State-of-Charge Estimation of Lithium-Ion Cells for High Current Applications

This article proposes a physics-based control-oriented model and observer design for the state-of-charge (SoC) estimation of lithium-ion cells for applications involving high magnitude fluctuating current profiles. The physics-based single-particle model (SPM) provides enhanced accuracy due to the inclusion of electrolyte dynamics and addresses the issue of nonobservability associated with it. The computationally efficient physics-based model is utilized to design a robust observer-based SoC estimator in the framework of linear matrix inequality to guarantee fast convergence despite parametric uncertainty in the state and output equations, and unknown initial conditions. The observer performance is validated using FTP75 and US06 dynamic tests at different temperatures, and the results are compared with the standard unscented Kalman filter (UKF). The mean SoC estimation error and the integral square error of the estimated SoC for the proposed observer are at least one order of magnitude smaller than that of UKF. Furthermore, robustness to ±30% parametric uncertainty, measurement noise, and unknown initial conditions is demonstrated through Monte Carlo simulations at different temperatures.