Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional conservation areas and the future of Africa’s wildlife

Ungulate populations in African conservation areas (CAs) are in widespread decline, which can largely be attributed to a lack of functionality of the area encompassed by the CAs themselves. We present evidence from a wide range of African CAs showing that they do not encompass both the functional wet- and dry-season resources that ungulates traditionally migrated between. Before human populations and economic development had grown to levels where they interfered with migrations outside the CAs, ungulates were able to make use of their traditional seasonal resources but this is becoming increasingly difficult and we are now seeing the effects of this restriction of movement on ungulate population numbers. New innovative strategies are required for the conservation of African wildlife. An urgent Africa-wide survey is needed to establish past and present functional resources in and around CAs and to prioritize conservation regions that are most functional. In addition, innovative attempts need to be made to reconsolidate functional seasonal resources within revised expanded protected areas. Resume Les populations d’ongules dans les aires de conservation africaines (AC) sont largement en declin, ce que l’on peut en grande partie attribuer au manque de fonctionnalite de la superficie englobee par les AC elles-memes. Nous presentons des preuves tirees d’une large gamme d’AC africaines qui montrent qu’elles ne comprennent pas l’ensemble des ressources fonctionnelles de saison des pluies et de saison seche entre lesquelles les ongules ont l’habitude de migrer. Avant que les populations humaines et le developpement economique n’aient atteint des niveaux ou ils interferent avec les migrations qui se font en dehors des AC, les ongules etaient a meme d’utiliser leurs ressources saisonnieres traditionnelles, mais ceci est devenu de plus en plus difficile, et nous voyons desormais les effets de cette restriction des deplacements sur les chiffres des populations d’ongules. Il est urgent de realiser une etude a l’echelle du continent pour etablir quelles sont les ressources fonctionnelles passees et presentes dans et autour des AC et pour prioriser les regions de conservation qui sont les plus fonctionnelles. De plus, il faut innover pour consolider les ressources fonctionnelles saisonnieres au sein d’aires protegees revisees et elargies.
Developmental studies of the murine homeobox gene - Hoxa-9.

Cell patterning during embryogenesis is essential for establishing the identity of the developing body plan. Hox genes are fundamental regulators of tissue organisation along the anterior-posterior body axis of the developing embryo. These homeodomain-containing proteins act as transcription factors during normal development. The function of the homeodomain is to bind sequence-specific DNAmotifs which allows either activation or repression of downstream effector genes, which consequently results in the control of tissue-specific determination and differentiation. Aberrant expression of such Hox genes, including Hoxa-9 can result in homeotic transformations leading to phenotypic malformations and oncogenesis. However the normal function of Hoxa-9 is poorly understood. This study explored the potential role for Hoxa-9 in normal development and differentiation. An in situ hybridisation approach was taken to define the expression of Hoxa-9 in the developing mouse. Hoxa-9 was found to expressed in a temporarily and spatially regulated manner, in particular being detected in the developing cardiac atria, ventricles and cardiac vessels during E9.5-E12 stages of development. The expression of this homeotic gene during in vitro differentiation of embryonic stem cells into cardiomyocytes and haematopoietic cells demonstrated a profile that correlated with the emergence of these cell types. The functioning relationship between Hoxa-9 expression and lineage commitment was Airther explored using over-expression in embryonic stem cells. A potential role for Hoxa-9 in normal development is discussed.
Health, social support, resilience and successful ageing among older Chilean adults

The promotion of successful ageing (SA) has become a strategy. But there has been little examination of the dimensions that are associated with SA from an integrative perspective that takes into account potential particularities among indigenous older adults. This study explores the predictors of SA for a sample of 800 older Chilean adults. The results show that demographic, health and psychosocial variables are associated with SA, with resilience being of particular note. The findings of this study underline the importance of assessing SA, using multidimensional approaches and emphasising heterogeneity and the particularities of indigenous cultural contexts.
Resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides and expression changes of eighteen cytochrome P450 genes in field populations of Bemisia tabaci from Xinjiang, China

The occurrence of Bemisia tabaci poses an increasingly serious threat to cotton and vegetable crops in Xinjiang, China. Currently, neonicotinoid insecticides are commonly used to control the insect, to which resistance is inevitable due to intensive use. However, the resistance status and mechanism of B. tabaci to neonicotinoid insecticides in Xinjiang are poorly understood. Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases represent a key detoxification mechanism in the neonicotinoid resistance of B. tabaci. In this study, the resistance level to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam was investigated using the leaf dipping method in five field populations of B. tabaci from Turpan (TP, two sampling sites), Shache (SC), Hotan (HT) and Yining (YN) in northern and southern Xinjiang. The expression changes of eighteen cytochrome P450 genes from the select B. tabaci populations were determined by real‐time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR). The bioassay revealed that the five populations tested had developed moderate to high levels of resistance to imidacloprid (12.26–46.07‐fold), while the populations remained sensitive to thiamethoxam except for HT, which had a low level of resistance. The qPCR results showed that the expression levels of five P450 genes, CYP4G68, CYP6CM1, CYP303A1‐like, CYP6DZ7 and CYP6DZ4, were significantly higher in some resistant field populations than in the susceptible strain. Resistance to imidacloprid in field populations of B. tabaci might be associated with the increased expression of these five cytochrome P450 genes. The results are useful for further understanding the mechanism of neonicotinoid resistance and will contribute to the management of insecticide‐resistant B. tabaci in Xinjiang.
Unconscious Gender Bias in Academia: Scarcity of Empirical Evidence

Implicit or unconscious bias is commonly proposed to be responsible for women’s underrepresentation in academia. The aim of this scoping review was to identify and discuss the evidence supporting this proposition. Publications about unconscious/implicit gender bias in academia indexed in Scopus or psycInfo up to February 2020 were identified. More than half were published in the period 2018–2020. Studies reporting empirical data were scrutinized for data, as well as analyses showing an association of a measure of implicit or unconscious bias and lesser employment or career opportunities in academia for women than for men. No studies reported empirical evidence as thus defined. Reviews of unconscious bias identified via informal searches referred exclusively to studies that did not self-identify as addressing unconscious bias. Reinterpretations and misrepresentations of studies were common in these reviews. More empirical evidence about unconscious gender bias in academia is needed. With the present state of knowledge, caution should be exercised when interpreting data about gender gaps in academia. Ascribing observed gender gaps to unconscious bias is unsupported by the scientific literature.
Identifying the Circular Polarization Handedness of an Antenna in a Reverberation Chamber

When an antenna is circularly (or elliptically) polarized, the axial ratio can be measured in a reverberation chamber (RC) by using the self-correlation of the radiation pattern of the antenna under test (AUT). However, the self-correlation method cannot identify the handedness (left- or right-handed polarization) of an antenna. In this communication, we propose a reference antenna method in an RC to solve this problem. Two reference antennas are used, which are left- and right-handed circularly polarized, respectively. By measuring the radiation pattern correlation between the AUT and the reference antennas, the handedness of the AUT can be identified. Interestingly, the results are based on statistics and the significance of the measurement results is self-explained. Measurements are performed to validate the proposed method.
The Effect of Patient- and Treatment-Related Factors on Circuit Lifespan During Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy in Critically Ill Children

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Objectives: To examine the effects of patient and treatment variables on circuit lifespan in critically ill children requiring continuous renal replacement therapy. Design: Retrospective observational study based on a prospective registry. Setting: Tertiary referral 30-bed PICU. Patients: One hundred sixty-one critically ill children undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy during an 8-year period (2007–2014) were included in the study. Interventions: Continuous renal replacement therapy. Measurements and Main Results: During the study period, 161 patients received a total of 22,190 hours of continuous renal replacement therapy, with a median duration of 74.75 hours (interquartile range, 32–169.5) per patient. Of the 572 filter circuits used, 276 (48.3%) were changed due to circuit clotting and 262 (45.8%) were electively changed. Median circuit life was 24.62 hours (interquartile range, 10.6–55.3) for all filters and significantly longer for those electively removed as compared to those prematurely removed because of clotting (35.50 hr [interquartile range, 16.9–67.6] vs 22.00 hr [interquartile range, 13.8–42.5]; p < 0.001). Multivariate regression analyses revealed that admission diagnosis (p < 0.001), anticoagulation type (p < 0.001), access type (p = 0.016), and circuit size (p = 0.027) were associated with prolonged circuit life, as well as, in patients on heparin anticoagulation, with higher doses of heparin (p < 0.001) and a prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (p < 0.001). Conclusions: In this study, circuit lifespan in pediatric continuous renal replacement therapy was low and appeared to depend upon the patient’s diagnosis, the type of access and anticoagulation used as well as the size of the circuit used.
CARASIL with coronary artery disease and distinct cerebral microhemorrhage: A case report and literature review

Cerebral Autosomal Recessive Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CARASIL, Maeda syndrome) is an extremely rare autosomal-recessive genetic disorder with a serious arteriopathy causing subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy. In less than 20 cases, a genetic mutation was proven. Patients suffer from alopecia, disc herniations, and spondylosis. Between the age of 30 and 40, the patients typically develop severe cerebral infarcts. Clinical symptoms, genetic study, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and coronary angiography of a patient with proven CARASIL are presented. The patient showed the typical phenotype with cerebral small-vessel disease, cerebral infarcts, spondylosis, and abnormal hair loss. Additionally, distinct cerebral microhemorrhage and a severe coronary artery disease (CAD) were found, which have not been reported before for CARASIL. Mutation screening revealed the presence of a homozygous c.1022G > T substitution in the HTRA1 gene. Evidence from other publications supports a pathogenetic link between the HTRA1 mutation and CAD as a new feature of CARASIL. This is the first report about CARASIL with a concomitant severe CAD. Thus, in patients with CARASIL, other vessel diseases should also be considered.
Management of rhizome rot caused by Pythium, Fusarium and Ralstonia spp in ginger (Ginger officinale) under natural field conditions

An experiment was conducted during 2005–08 to study the management practices to control rhizome rot caused by Pythium, Fusarium and Ralstonia in ginger (Ginger officinale Rosc) the seed treatment with Ridomil MZ 72% WP (metalaxyl 8% mancozeb 64% (1.25 g /litre) found 81.6% of plant survival and maximum yield of 10.2 tonnes /ha, followed by the treatment with T. harzianum 72.05% plant survival and 7.6 tonnes /ha of yield. Both the best treatments are statistically different regarding plant survival and yield.
Islamic Performance Instrument (IPI): An Alternative Servant Leadership (SL) tool for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

In the search for measures to keep the society sustained, a qualitative study was conducted to explore a Tawhidic Paradigm (TP) alternative for servant leaders, building upon Greenleaf servant leadership (SL) theory. The aim is to ground an Islamic Performance Instrument (IPI) favourable to sustainable development (SD). Adopting Charmaz's (2006) constructivist Grounded Theory Method (GTM), 5 Muslim managers were identified and interviewed through purposive sampling. The coding process produced an IPI-5es principles (expertise, ethereal, emotional, ethical and empowering) essentially required by servant leaders to transform SDGs around the globe. The Islamic constructs of ‘Aqidah (Creed), Khalifa (Vicegerent) and ‘Adl (Justice) were critical in grounding these principles. Theoretically, the research outcome contributes to body of knowledge on Tawhidic Paradigm (TP) and Islamic Servant Leadership (ISL). This paper projects leaders forming polices that synchronizes meeting SDGs with spiritual responsibilities. Practically, it offers leaders the ideal purpose of SL: servitude to the Creator – ( Allah ) and, also to humanity (fulfilling SDGs), as against the conventional SL theory which excludes the former. By implication, TP projects service to humanity (SDGs) as acts of worship ( Ibadah ). The paper was limited by fewer GTM research on Islamic SL principles for SDGs. Future study may conduct a time series analysis on servant leaders imbued with IPI-5es principles to determine SDGs success rate . The paper offers a pioneer model (IPI-5es principles) that extends conventional SL theory for SD.
A Novel Biomimetic Magnetosensor Based on Magneto‐Optically Involved Conformational Variation of MagR/Cry4 Complex

During billions of years of evolution, some species develop fantastic magneto‐perception, offering a biomimetic route to develop the next generation of magneto‐sensors. Recently, a novel principle was proposed to explain the navigation of pigeons in the presence of geomagnetic fields and sunlight. The key link is thought to lie in the magneto‐optically involved conformational variation of magnetoreceptor protein (MagR)/cryptochrome (Cry4) complex. The MagR/Cry4 complex is fabricated and purified in vitro, creating a magneto‐sensing device by immobilization of this protein on a graphene‐modified electrochemical electrode. By using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, magneto‐sensing with a current detectability of 10 mT is realized with MagR/Cry4 complex. It is proved that this process requires the involvement of both magnetic fields and light, partly confirming in vitro the magneto‐perceptive mechanism of MagR/Cry4 complex. It is also shows that this device can be used to reflect the anisotropic responses of nanomaterials to the external magnetic field. It is believed this protein‐based magneto‐sensing will greatly boost development of bioelectronics and deepen understanding of the phenomena of magneto‐perception for organisms.
Extraction of source resistance in thin film transistors using a single gated-probe outside the channel

Extraction of source resistance in top contact thin film transistors (TFTs) is described using a gated three probe device structure. The three probes include a source terminal, a drain terminal and an electrode deposited outside the channel and kept open-circuited leading to unperturbed transistor operation. A measurement of floating potential of this probe together with a family of universal curves is presented, which allows estimation of source resistance from dc measurements in the linear mode of operation on a single device. Simulation results obtained for TFTs with different semiconductor technologies, like organic semiconductor pentacene, indium-gallium-zinc-oxide and amorphous silicon demonstrate the applicability of this technique. Experimental results obtained from organic TFTs with pentacene semiconductor confirm that the method gives estimates that are close to the values obtained from the relatively more complex transfer length measurement (TLM) technique. It is also shown that unlike the TLM method, the outside gated probe technique is much less sensitive to errors in device parameters and variations in device dimensions, such as the channel length.
Challenges and Advances in Hemodialysis Membranes

Hemodialysis (HD) is a filtration vital process through which the bloods ’ toxins and contaminations are removed. However, several immune system activations occur during dialysis, which can result in morbidity and mortality. The efficiency of the currently available blood purification process is hindered, on one hand, by the deficient toxins and middle molecule removal, and on the other hand, with the loss of valuable blood components (such as plasma and its constituents). This chapter offers an overview of the challenges and advances in HD membranes. It includes an introduction of the end stage renal disease, concepts of dialysis, its historical back-ground, and the path through which the configurations and materials evolved. The interactions between membrane polymeric materials with human blood is also discussed. The aspect of material modification is one of the critical areas in HD technology as it targets to solve the most immediate and prevalent HD issue of membrane bioincompatibility. High flux dialysis (HFD) and hemofiltration (HF) are introduced and discussed. This class of membranes was introduced to solve middle molecule (such as β 2- microglobulin) related challenges. This chapter high-lights the question of why the issue of incompatible materials still exists along with current membrane modifications.
Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Psikolojik Sağlamlıklarının Açıklanmasında Bilinçli Farkındalığın ve Çeşitli Demografik Değişkenlerin Rolü

Bu arastirmanin amaci; universite ogrencilerinin psikolojik saglamliklarinin aciklanmasinda bilincli farkindaligin ve cesitli demografik degiskenlerin rolunun incelenmesidir. Arastirma nicel arastirma yaklasimina dayali iliskisel tarama modeli cercevesinde gerceklestirilmistir. Arastirmanin orneklemi bir devlet universitesinin belirtilen uc programinda (psikolojik danisma ve rehberlik, sosyal hizmet ve hemsirelik) ogrenim goren ve uygun ornekleme yontemine gore belirlenen 392 ogrenciden olusmaktadir. Arastirmada veri toplama araci olarak Bilincli Farkindalik Olcegi, Psikolojik Saglamlik Tutum ve Beceri Olcegi ve Kisisel Bilgi Formu kullanilmistir. Elde edilen verilerin analizinde coklu regresyon analizi kullanilmistir. Arastirmanin sonucunda; bilincli farkindalik ve sinif duzeyinin yukselmesinin psikolojik saglamligi anlamli ve olumlu yonde acikladigi anlasilmistir. Bununla birlikte universiteye gelmeden once yasanilan yerlesim yerinin nufusa gore azalmasinin bireylerin psikolojik saglamliklarini anlamli ve olumsuz yonde acikladigi belirlenmistir. Ote yandan cinsiyet, ogrenim gorulen program, genel akademik not ortalamasi, psikolojik destek alma durumu, psikolojik saglamlik ile ilgili egitim alma durumu, universite yasaminda ikamet edilen yer ve algilanan gelir duzeyi degiskenlerinin ise psikolojik saglamligi anlamli sekilde aciklamadigi tespit edilmistir.
Normalization and Multi-Valued Symbol Extraction From RO-PUFs for Enhanced Uniform Probability Distributions

Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) offer the possibility for on-chip generation of unique fingerprints for integrated circuits. Ring-oscillator (RO) PUFs are small and easy to configure on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and thus received great attention over the years. In the state-of-theart two neighboring ROs are compared and mapped to only a single bit of information. Few publications aims to extract more bits out of one PUF-cell, but struggle with non-uniform distributions. In this brief multi-valued symbol extraction is presented as a method to extract more bits of information out of each individual RO. A new post-processing approach is introduced to produce close-to-ideal uniformly distributed responses independent of the underlying physically probability distribution. To eliminate bias, caused by placement inequalities, multiple methods of normalization are utilized and analyzed by means of area and complexity. Based on metrics for symbol transmission, the Euclidean-distance and entropy are used as metrics to evaluate the uniqueness and reliability of multi-valued PUFs. This new approach allows to increase the amount of extracted information to 3 bits per RO.
Study of epipelic algae and epiphytic algae in Al-Sadir River, Al-Najaf, Iraq

In this study, epipelic algae and epiphytic algae which grow on the surface of submerged macrophyte Phragmites australis at Al-Sadir River in Al-Najaf province (Iraq) were investigated. The samples were collected monthly from three sites in this river for six months from January to June 2015. Many physicochemical variables were measured include water temperature, electrical conductivity, salinity, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness, calcium ion, magnesium ion, nitrite, nitrate, and Phosphates. The results showed that the number of epipelic algae was 100 species, while the number of epiphytic algae was 143 species. Diatoms were predominant over other algae species during the study period. Some benthic algal genera existed in most of the study months, including Navicula, Nitzschia, and Cymbella. The number of species common between the two algal groups (epipelic and epiphytic) was 62 species. The highest number of epipelic algae reached 9.09 cell×104/cm² and the lowest number was 0.18 cell×104/cm², while the highest number of epiphytic algae was 54.36 cell × 104/g and the lowest number was 2.04 cell×104/ g.
Intonational variation and incrementality in listener judgments of ethnicity

The current study examines how listeners make gradient and variable ethnolinguistic judgments in an experimental context where the speaker’s identity is well-known. It features an open-guise experiment (Soukup, 2013) that assessed whether sociolinguistic judgments are subject to incrementality, with judgments increasing in magnitude as variable stimuli demonstrate more extreme differences. In particular, this task tested whether judgments of President Barack Obama as sounding ‘more’ or ‘less’ black (e.g., Alim & Smitherman, 2012) are sensitive to differences in intonation. Half of critical stimuli featured an L+H* pitch accent, which occurs more frequently in African American Language than in Mainstream U.S. English (Holliday, 2016). Four stimuli apiece were created from these phrases by making each pitch accent more extreme by semitone-based F0 steps. Seventy-nine listeners rated these stimuli via the question, “How black does Obama sound here? ” Mixed-effects modeling indicated that listeners rated more phonetically extreme L+H* stimuli as sounding blacker, regardless of listener identity. A post-hoc analysis found that listeners attended to different voice quality features in L+H* stimuli. We discuss implications for research in intonation, ethnic identification, incrementality, language attitudes, and sociolinguistic awareness.