Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring heterogeneity in shrimp farmers` preferences for the contracts of producing certified organic shrimp

Certified organic shrimp, Farmers’ stated preference, Choice experiments, Contract design, Heterogeneous preferences ABSTRACT This research applied choice experiments to explore farmers’ preferences for hypothetical contracts of producing certified organic shrimp. The contracts were described by four attributes, including premium for certified organic shrimp, premium-payment delay, selling place and the provision of quality seed. Conditional logit and mixed logit models were used to analyze the data which were collected among shrimp farmers in Vietnam. The results indicate that farmers prefer the contract with a higher premium; however, premium-payment delay decreases farmers’ utility and the probability of choosing the contract. Besides the premium, the provision of quality seed is an important attribute that attracts farmers to choose a contract. Almost farmers prefer to sell their shrimp from farms. The results also show heterogeneity in farmers’ preferences for the contract’s attributes and their willingness to accept these attributes. These findings should be carefully considered in building reasonable and attractive contracts for shrimp farmers.
Intranasal delivery of mesenchymal stem cell‐derived extracellular vesicles exerts immunomodulatory and neuroprotective effects in a 3xTg model of Alzheimer's disease

Abstract The critical role of neuroinflammation in favoring and accelerating the pathogenic process in Alzheimer's disease (AD) increased the need to target the cerebral innate immune cells as a potential therapeutic strategy to slow down the disease progression. In this scenario, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have risen considerable interest thanks to their immunomodulatory properties, which have been largely ascribed to the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs), namely exosomes and microvesicles. Indeed, the beneficial effects of MSC‐EVs in regulating the inflammatory response have been reported in different AD mouse models, upon chronic intravenous or intracerebroventricular administration. In this study, we use the triple‐transgenic 3xTg mice showing for the first time that the intranasal route of administration of EVs, derived from cytokine‐preconditioned MSCs, was able to induce immunomodulatory and neuroprotective effects in AD. MSC‐EVs reached the brain, where they dampened the activation of microglia cells and increased dendritic spine density. MSC‐EVs polarized in vitro murine primary microglia toward an anti‐inflammatory phenotype suggesting that the neuroprotective effects observed in transgenic mice could result from a positive modulation of the inflammatory status. The possibility to administer MSC‐EVs through a noninvasive route and the demonstration of their anti‐inflammatory efficacy might accelerate the chance of a translational exploitation of MSC‐EVs in AD.
Detection of Speech Impairments Using Cepstrum, Auditory Spectrogram and Wavelet Time Scattering Domain Features

We adopt Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) neural network and Wavelet Scattering Transform with Support Vector Machine (WST-SVM) classifier for detecting speech impairments of patients at the early stage of central nervous system disorders (CNSD). The study includes 339 voice samples collected from 15 subjects: 7 patients with early stage CNSD (3 Huntington, 1 Parkinson, 1 cerebral palsy, 1 post stroke, 1 early dementia), other 8 subjects were healthy. Speech data is collected using voice recorder from Neural Impairment Test Suite (NITS) mobile app. Features are extracted from pitch contours, Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC), Gammatone cepstral coefficients (GTCC), Gabor (analytic Morlet) wavelet and auditory spectrograms. 94.50% (BiLSTM) and 96.3% (WST-SVM) accuracy is achieved for solving healthy vs. impaired classification problem. The developed method can be applied for automated CNSD patient health state monitoring and clinical decision support systems as well as a part of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).
Susceptibility evaluation of Picea abies and Cupressus lusitanica to the pine wood nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus)

Pine wilt disease (PWD), recently introduced into Europe, is caused by the pine wood nematode (PWN) Bursaphelenchus xylophilus and is a devastating illness that affects mainly pine trees. It is known that the PWN is capable of infecting other conifers; however, there is currently no information on which other plant species may be susceptible to PWD. In this study, the potential susceptibility of two common species of European forests, Picea abies and Cupressus lusitanica, to PWN was assessed through the monitoring of visual external symptoms, dimension and localization of the nematode population in stems, quantification of total chlorophyll, total soluble phenolics and lignin, at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after inoculation. The degree of susceptibility was established through the comparison of symptoms with Pinus pinaster, a well-known PWN host. Furthermore, the stem ultrastructure of P. abies, C. lusitanica and Pn. pinaster was analysed by scanning electron microscopy. The results suggest that P. abies and C. lusitanica are resistant to PWN, and that lignin biosynthesis in these species is affected at an early stage of the infestation. Nevertheless, P. abies seems to be a compatible host that could act as a repository for PWN.
Resistance to Leveillula taurica in pepper (Capsicum annuum) is oligogenically controlled and stable in Mediterranean regions.

The resistance to Leveillula taurica from an african pepper line H3 (Capsicum annuum) was evaluated and analysed, using the androgenetic haplodiploid progeny from an F 1 hybrid between H3 and a susceptible line. Tests were performed in natural infection conditions in two locations (France and Sicily). Stable behaviour of the parental and haplodiploid lines was observed in both locations, confirming the high level and stability of this resistance source in Mediterranean countries. Heritability of resistance was high and genetic analysis suggested that it is under oligogenic control. However, the number of genetic factors involved in resistance depended on infection conditions: two or three genetic factors with additive and partial dominance effects appear sufficient to confer resistance at the beginning of the epidemic or in weak infection conditions. However, additional genes are necessary to slow down further disease progress and secondary infections and at least five genetic factors are necessary to confer resistance in severe infection. In this case, both additive and epistatic effects are significant. The transfer of this resistance into cultivars will require the use of artificial inoculation procedures to control the severity of the test.
Morphology, distribution and ecology of Eupelops curtipilus and Eupelops plicatus (Acari, Oribatida, Phenopelopidae)

In this study, the morphology, distribution and ecology of Eupelops curtipilus (Berlese, 1916) and E. plicatus (C. L. Koch, 1835) are investigated and morphological characters of Eupelops Ewing, 1917 are discussed. The juveniles of these species have plicate integument and a dorsoventrally flattened hysterosoma, with short and thin setae c1, c3 and of d-series on the gastronotum, which is typical of Phenopelopidae, whereas the length of marginal gastronotal setae differs in these species. Eupelops curtipilus has these setae short, except for a long and thick posterior seta h1 in the larva and h3 in the nymphs, whereas Eupelops plicatus has them longer and thicker, especially setae lp and h1 in the larva and h3 in the nymphs. The adults of E. curtipilus and E. plicatus have long, phylliform seta in, 10 pairs of notogastral setae, including three pairs of p-series, and three pairs of adanal setae, which are typical of Eupelops, but differ by the length and location of some notogastral setae. Eupelops curtipilus has all these setae short, including h1, whereas E. plicatus has them longer, especially h1. The former species has setae lp and h3 inserted close to each other, with porose area A1 between them, whereas the latter species has setae lp and h3 separated and A1 at the insertion of seta lp. The adults of both species have ventrodistal apophysis on genu I, which may have generic value. The juveniles and adult of E. plicatus have more long and thick setae on the leg segments than those of E. curtipilus. Eupelops curtipilus is considered a Palaearctic species, whereas E. plicatus is Holarctic.
Dealing with ethical issues in rehabilitation medicine: The relationship between managerial support and emotional exhaustion is mediated by moral distress and enhanced by positive affectivity and resilience.

AIMS To analyse whether managerial support and ethical vision of patient care would be related to emotional exhaustion directly or through moral distress and whether these relationships would be conditional on individual levels of positive affectivity and resilience. BACKGROUND Although some studies described the effects of ethical climate, moral distress, resilience and positive affectivity on emotional exhaustion, there are no attempts of explicative models containing these variables. METHODS A total of 222 Italian professionals employed in neuro-rehabilitation medicine units participated in this cross-sectional study. Descriptive statistics, mediation and moderated mediation analyses were conducted using SPSS. RESULTS Managerial support and ethical vision of patient care were negatively related to emotional exhaustion, directly and through moral distress. Professionals high in resilience and positive affectivity benefited more from the protective effect of managerial support on emotional exhaustion through moral distress. CONCLUSION Ethical climate represents a protective factor against moral distress and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, individual levels of positive affectivity and resilience may increase the beneficial effects deriving from managerial support in dealing with ethical issues. IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Health organizations may consider developing strategies to improve ethical climate, enhance managers' ability to support team in dealing with ethical issues and foster employees' positive affectivity and resilience.
Drinking Water Quality Assessment of Ergene River Basin (Turkey) by Water Quality Index: Essential and Toxic Elements

Ergene River Basin is the most significant aquatic habitat for Thrace Region and also one of the most polluted watersheds in Turkey. The objectives of this study were to determine some essential-toxic element accumulations in drinking water of settlement areas located in Ergene River Basin and evaluated the water quality in terms of local public health. Drinking water samples were collected from 30 stations in dry (summer) season of 2018. Cluster Analysis (CA) was used to classify the investigated elements and villages and Weighted Arithmetic Water Quality Index (WAWQI) was used to assess the water quality. According to results of elemental CA, 11 statistically significant clusters were formed in terms of elemental densities and according to results of locational CA, 3 statistically significant clusters were formed in terms of drinking water qualities. According to results of WAWQI, the risk sequence of the elements in drinking water of the system as follows: Se > As > Mo > B > Ba > Cr > Pb > Mn > Ni > Cd > Cu. Although Ergene River Basin is known as a very contaminated freshwater ecosystem, it was determined that the groundwater of the basin has I. II class water quality, in general. Selenium accumulations detected in almost all the investigated villages exceeded the drinking water limit of 10 ppb. Arsenic, boron and molybdenum accumulations detected in some villages exceeded the drinking water standards. Although concentrations of some elements in some locations were exceed the limit values and recorded as quite high levels, the majority of investigated element concentrations in drinking water of the basin have been found to be in the range of human consumption standards.
Maternal Strategies of Phascogale-Tapoatafa (Marsupialia, Dasyuridae) .1. Breeding Seasonality and Maternal Investment

Phascogale tapoatafa, an arboreal carnivorous marsupial, is the largest mammal in which an obligate yearly die-off of all males occurs. The species is one of the most widespread of Australian marsupials, being found in tropical, subtropical and temperate forests and woodlands of Australia. Its breeding season varies little throughout this range, with most births occurring in July. In three Victorian populations, 2-year-old females typically gave birth earlier than first-year females, births were spread on average over 15 days, and, in some years, occurred two weeks earlier than average. Modal litter size equalled the number of teats (8), but litters of 1-6 young comprised 29% of the sample (n = 45), and litter size averaged 6.6 young. The sex ratio of litters produced by second-year females was significantly male-biased (0.62); that of first-year females was 0.48. When juveniles first released the teats (c. 48 days of age), they weighed about 4 g. Weight gain by captive juveniles was more rapid than that of wild conspecifics prior to weaning, but skeletal growth rate and morphological development were similar. Total lactational investment by P. tapoatafa is much greater than expected for a dasyurid of its size (wild litters at weaning average 313% of maternal weight; captive litters average 370%). The high mortality of wild adult females during lactation may reflect this energetic drain.
Biocontrol activity of salt tolerant Streptomyces isolates against phytopathogens causing root rot of sugar beet

Abstract Biological control of fungi causing root rot on sugar beet by native Streptomyces isolates (C and S2) was evaluated in this study. The dry weight and colony forming unit (CFU) of S2 and C increased when 300 mM NaCl was added to medium. The in vitro antagonism assays showed that both isolates had inhibitory effect against Rhizoctonia solani AG-2, Fusarium solani and Phytophthora drechsleri. In dual culture, Streptomyces isolate C inhibited mycelial growth of R. solani, F. solani and P. drechsleri 45%, 53% and 26%, respectively. NaCl treatment of medium increased biocontrol activity of soluble and volatile compounds of isolate C and S2. After salt treatment, growth inhibition of R. solani, F. solani and P. drechsleri by isolate C increased up to 59%, 70% and 79%, respectively. To elucidate the mode of antagonism, protease, chitinase, beta glucanase, cellulase, lipase and α-amylase activity and siderophore and salicylic acid (SA) production were evaluated. Both isolates showed protease, chitinase and α-amylase activity. Also, biosynthesis of siderophore was detectable for both isolates. Production of siderophore and activity of protease and α-amylase increased after adding salt for both isolates. In contrast, chitinase activity decreased significantly. Production of SA, beta glucanase and lipase by isolate S2 and biosynthesis of cellulase by isolate C were observed in presence and absence of NaCl. Soil treatment with Streptomyces isolate C inhibited root rot of sugar beet caused by P. drechsleri, R. solani and F. solani. Results of this study showed that these two Streptomyces isolates had potential to be utilized as biocontrol agent against fungal diseases especially in saline soils.
Modeling Defocus-Disparity in Dual-Pixel Sensors

Most modern consumer cameras use dual-pixel (DP) sensors that provide two sub-aperture views of the scene in a single photo capture. The DP sensor was designed to assist the camera's autofocus routine, which examines local disparity in the two sub-aperture views to determine which parts of the image are out of focus. Recently, these DP views have been used for tasks beyond autofocus, such as synthetic bokeh, reflection removal, and depth reconstruction. These recent methods treat the two DP views as stereo image pairs and apply stereo matching algorithms to compute local disparity. However, dual-pixel disparity is not caused by view parallax as in stereo, but instead is attributed to defocus blur that occurs in out-of-focus regions in the image. This paper proposes a new parametric point spread function to model the defocus-disparity that occurs on DP sensors. We apply our model to the task of depth estimation from DP data. An important feature of our model is its ability to exploit the symmetry property of the DP blur kernels at each pixel. We leverage this symmetry property to formulate an unsupervised loss function that does not require ground truth depth. We demonstrate our method's effectiveness on both DSLR and smartphone DP data.
Circular Polarization Diversity Implementation for Correlation Reduction in Wideband Low-Cost Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output Antenna

In this paper, a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna featuring circular polarization diversity, and designed on a common coplanar ground is presented. The proposed antenna design utilizes a coplanar waveguide (CPW) feeding technique with three parallel coplanar ground planes, and two feedlines in-between. For circular polarization (CP), quasi-loops are created by etching slots on the outermost ground planes. With this configuration, circular polarization diversity is induced in the MIMO antenna with the left-hand CP (LHCP) from one antenna and the right-hand CP (RHCP) from the other. The total footprint of the antenna radiator is only <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.78\lambda _{0} \times 0.55\lambda _{0} = 0.42\lambda _{o}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Experimental results show perfectly overlapping impedance and axial ratio bandwidths of 39.3% (4.5 GHz to 6.7 GHz). In addition, average in-band isolation <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\vert S_{21}\vert \le -15$ </tex-math></inline-formula> dB without any added complexity or active circuit elements. The peak realized gain of the antenna is 5.8 dBic with broadside radiation pattern in the +z- direction and envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of 0.005. The antenna is suitable for multiple applications in the C-band that includes WLAN (5 GHz, 5.2 GHz and 5.8 GHz) and WiMAX (5.5 GHz).
On the Error Probability of Support Recovery for Orthogonal Matching Pursuit With a Random Measurement Matrix

In this paper, an asymptotic bound on the recovery error probability of a sparse signal is derived for the orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm. The proposed bound is based on the support recovery analysis with a random measurement matrix, which gets closer to the empirical bound tightly in a large system and high signal-to-noise ratio regime. During recovery, all signal associated parameters introduced in the existing analysis are considered together. Furthermore, the necessary conditions for the conventional bound derivation such as the minimum value limit of non-zero coefficients in the sparse signal can be relaxed in our proposed approach. Through numerical evaluations, our theoretical performance bounds are demonstrated to be close to the simulated results, notably closer than those obtained previously.
The States of Pluripotency: Pluripotent Lineage Development in the Embryo and in the Dish

The pluripotent cell lineage of the embryo comprises a series of temporally and functionally distinct intermediary cell states, the epiblast precursor cell of the newly formed blastocyst, the epiblast population of the inner cell mass, and the early and late epiblast of the postimplantation embryo, referred to here as early and late primitive ectoderm. Pluripotent cell populations representative of the embryonic populations can be formed in culture. Although multiple pluripotent cell states are now recognised, little is known about the signals and pathways that progress cells from the epiblast precursor cell to the late primitive ectoderm in the embryo or in culture. The characterisation of cell states is most advanced in mouse where conditions for culturing distinct pluripotent cell states are well established and embryonic material is accessible. This review will focus on the pluripotent cell states present during embryonic development in the mouse and what is known of the mechanisms that regulate the progression of the lineage from the epiblast precursor cell and the ground state of pluripotency to the late primitive ectoderm present immediately prior to cell differentiation.
PHOSPHORUS EFFICIENCY OF BORNEAN RAIN FOREST PRODUCTIVITY: EVIDENCE AGAINST THE UNIMODAL EFFICIENCY HYPOTHESIS

Plant communities on nutrient-poor soils are thought to use nutrients more efficiently to produce biomass than plant communities on nutrient-rich soils. Yet, increased efficiency with declining soil nutrients has not been demonstrated empirically in lowland tropical rain forests, where plant growth is thought to be strongly limited by soil nutrients, especially phosphorus (P). We tested for higher P uptake and use efficiency across a 16-fold soil P gradient in lowland Borneo by measuring the P content of aboveground net primary productivity (fine litter production plus new tree growth; ANPP) for 24 months. Extractable soil P was positively related to litter production, tree growth, and ANPP. Efficiency of P response (ANPP/available soil P), uptake (P uptake/available soil P), and use (ANPP/P uptake) increased monotonically with declining soil P and was significantly higher on P-rich soil than P-poor soil. Increased P uptake and use efficiency with declining soil P enabled higher than expected plant produc.
Model-Independent Rate Control for Intra-Coding Based on Piecewise Linear Approximations

This paper proposes a rate control (RC) algorithm for intra-coded sequences (I-frames) within the context of block-based predictive transform coding that departs from using trained models to approximate the rate-distortion (R-D) characteristics of the video sequence. Our algorithm employs piecewise linear approximations of the rate-distortion (R-D) curve of a frame at the block-level. Specifically, it employs information about the rate and distortion of already compressed blocks within the current frame to linearly approximate the slope of the R-D curve of each block. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the High-Efficiency Video Coding (H.265/HEVC) standard and compared with its current RC algorithm, which is based on a trained model. Evaluations on a variety of intra-coded sequences show that the proposed RC algorithm not only attains the overall target bit rate more accurately than the RC algorithm used by H.265/HEVC algorithm but is also capable of encoding each I-frame at a more constant bit rate according to the overall bit budget.
Methods for Rapidly Measuring the Lodging Resistance of Wheat Cultivars

Lodging resistance ratings for winter wheat cultivars are frequently based upon observations of lodging. This is an unreliable method because of the frequent occurrence of years without significant lodging events. It also does not distinguish between stem and root lodging resistance. This paper describes the development and testing of instrumentation and procedures for two field-based methods to rapidly assess stem and root lodging resistance. Both methods used a specifically designed instrument for measuring the resistance of shoots against rotational displacement. Stem lodging resistance was assessed when the soil was dry and strong, whereas resistance to root lodging was assessed after the soil had been weakened by irrigation. Tests were carried out on 14 winter wheat cultivars grown at two sites in the UK during 2002. Both methods were able to detect statistically significant differences between the cultivars for their resistance to stem and root lodging. A comparison of these results with observations of lodging in the field showed that the methods accounted for about 60 and 50 % of the stem and root lodging respectively.