Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
POLLINATION, HYBRIDIZATION AND ETHOLOGICAL ISOLATION OF RHINANTHUS-MINOR AND R-SEROTINUS (RHINANTHOIDEAE-SCROPHULARIACEAE) BY BUMBLEBEES (BOMBUS-LATR)

The pollination, hybridization and ethological isolation of sympatric and synchronously flowering annuals Rhinanthus minor and R. serotinus were studied. Pollination was achieved by nototribically and sternotribically pollinating bumblebees (Bombus spp.), i.e. the essential parts of the flower contacts the dorsal respectively the ventral side of the insect's body. In general, pollination behaviour was related to tongue lengths of bumblebee species. Bumblebees could bring about species hybridization by visits to both plants species during one foraging trip as nototribic or as sternotribic pollinators and species isolation by visits to only one species during one foraging trip or by visits to one species nototribically and to the other sternotribically during one foraging trip. Hybridization between the two annual Rhinanthus species resulted in the rise of hybrid swarms. Partial isolation could be effected if mediumtongued or short-tongued bumblebee species visited both plant species during one foraging trip; in that case the stigma of R. minor is not able to touch the sites of R. serotinus pollen on the bodies of the bumblebees, but the reverse may be possible. The inaccessibility of the R. minor stigma resulted in R. minor remaining relatively 'pure'. By analyzing the foraging patterns of bumblebees on Rhinanthus during three successive days the significance of two different forms of ethological isolation is considered. About 40% of the observed bumblebees confined their visits to one Rhinanthus species. The long-tongued B. hortorum showed a strong preference for R. serotinus. The behaviour patterns of 60% brought about partial isolation or hybridization. The medium-tongued B. pascuorum was responsible for partial isolation (isolation of R. minor). The short-tongued species B. pratorum, B. terrestris and B. lapidarius were 'good' hybridizers. To support the idea that introgression into R. serotinus was likely, some other factors are discussed, e.g. the attractiveness of R. serotinus, and the fact that bumblebees are more likely to alternate between R. serotinus and the hybrid forms.
Utilization of High Protein Cottonseed Meal in Broiler Diets

Abstract Two experiments evaluated a high-protein (44.9%) low-gossypol (0.13%) cottonseed meal (CSM) in broiler diets with amino acid values adjusted in accordance with published digestibility values. In the first experiment, a range of metabolizable energy levels was assigned to CSM to try to biologically determine its energy value. In contrast to the corn-soybean meal control, broilers fed CSM had reduced feed intake and body weight; however, feed utilization proved superior. Assigned energy value had no significant effect on performance. In the second experiment, CSM was assigned an ME value of 2000 kcal/kg and incorporated into diets at 0, 10, 20, and 30% fed with and without additional ferrous sulfate. At 42 days broilers fed diets with 10 and 20% CSM did not differ from the control group in body weight, feed intake, or feed utilization; however, broilers fed 30% CSM had significantly reduced body weight, probably as a result of reduced feed intake on this diet. Physical effects of the 30% CSM diet may have inhibited feed intake, suggesting that CSM may be used more effectively in diets with lower nutrient density.
Effect of harvest time and minimal processing on nutritional and microbiological quality of three leaf crops

Recently, the use of ready-to-eat vegetables has become important for increasing demand of consumers, but minimal processing of vegetables could imply quality loss of these products. The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of harvest time and minimal processing on total antioxidant activity and the evolution of spoilage bacteria of different leaf crops (rocket salad, endive and curly endive), in order to assess food quality and safety. The evolution of total antioxidant activity and microbial population during packaging and storage was monitored through standard methods on fresh sample, at the second day of commercial life of packaging and after one week of storage at 4 0 C, several times during a year (2007). Harvest time, packaging process, and their interaction significantly (P≤0.001) affected the total antioxidant activity in all species. In curly endive and endive was observed a high decrease at the second day of commercial life of packaging (65% and 55%, respectively) while rocket salad showed the lowest reduction of total antioxidant activity (4%). Storage at 4 0 C for one week significantly affected only the total antioxidant activity of rocket salad (8% of decrement respect to the second day of commercial life of packaging) (P≤0.001). In all analyzed samples quantitative recovery of Aerobic Mesophilic Count, pseudomonas spp and fungi showed that microbial rates was reduced sensibly from whole fresh vegetables to minimally processed products of about two log units, but increased after packaging and at the end of shelf-life.
Effects of gibberellic acid, asparagine and glutamine on flower bud induction in olive

SummaryIn 1992, the following treatments were applied to olive trees, cv. Maurino, which had average flowering: removal of 50% and 100% of the flowers in mid-June, leaf treatment with gibberellic acid (GA3) at 60 ppm in mid-July, at the end of August, in mid-October and in July, August and October, leaf treatment with paclobutrazol (PP333) at 1000 ppm at the end of October, treatment of the soil with asparagine (10–5M) and glutamine (10–5M) at the end of December. Thinning and complete removal of the blossoms stimulated vegetative activity. Treatments with GA3 in July slightly increased vegetative growth in both the treatment year and the following year, while the later treatments and those with asparagine and glutamine stimulated growth only in the following year. PP333 reduced plant growth in the year following treatment. The complete or partial removal of the olive blossoms strongly increased flowering and fruit production in the year following treatment. Treatment with GA3 and PP333 did not significan.
Aristolochia longa aqueous extract triggers the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis in BL41 Burkitt’s lymphoma cells

Aristolochia longa (from the family Aristolochiaceae) is widely used for cancer treatment in Algerian traditional medicine. The aim of the present study was to investigate the cytotoxic and apoptogenic activities. The phytochemical composition and acute toxicity of aqueous extracts of the roots of A. longa from Algeria. An aqueous extract (decoction) of dried A. longa roots was prepared. The cytotoxic effects of this aqueous extract were then evaluated in Burkitt’s lymphoma BL41 cells, by flow cytometry. The induction of apoptosis was assessed in two corroborative assays: The propidium iodide staining of cell DNA and flow cytometry analyses of light scattering. Mitochondrial membrane potential was investigated with the fluorescent dye DIOC6. The expression and activation of capases-3, -8 and -9 were assessed by Western blotting. Acute oral toxicity was evaluated with a test dose limited to 5000 mg/kg. Phytochemical screening of A. longa roots was performed with standard qualitative procedures. The aqueous extract of A. longa induced cell death in a dose-dependent manner. The IC50 of A. longa aqueous extract was estimated at about 15,63 μg/ml. The extract-induced apoptosis, a loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and the activation of caspases-9 and -3 followed by PARP cleavage. A. longa could therefore be considered a promising source of novel treatments for Burkitt’s and other lymphomas. Key words: Apoptosis, Aristolochia longa, Burkitt’s lymphoma BL41 cell lines, caspase, mitochondrial pathway
Regeneration and Establishment Strategies of Emergent Macrophytes

The questions are; Are the traits possessed by juveniles (seed/seedlings) of an assemblage of twenty-five emergent macrophyte species independent of the traits possessed by adults of these species? What are the patterns of covariation among twenty morphological traits of these species of widely different taxonomy? Is there any predictable relationships between these traits and the environments in which the species occur?
MBA Students' Preparedness for Enterpreneurial Efforts.

Abstract This is a survey of MBA students’ preparedness for launching new business initiatives or other entrepreneurial activities. It explores the readiness of the MBA students, estimated on dimensions comprising knowledge, attitude, skills, experience, opportunity and networks. The variation of the postgraduate students’ perceptions along these six dimensions and certain demographic factors, including gender, stage of the MBA programme, students’ permanent residence, their funding source, enrolment status, employment status, marital status and years of work experience, was considered. Multiple regressions then established the relationship between entrepreneurial preparedness and the six dimensions. Finally, some broad implications for the MBA curriculum are considered.
Winter Starvation in Captive Common Barn-Owls: Physiological States and Reversible Limits

ABsTRAcr. -Among birds, the Common Barn-Owl (Tyto alba) is considered to be particularly sensitive to winter-induced starvation. Yet, there are no detailed data on the metabolic response of this species to long-term food deprivation in the cold. Therefore, eight captive Common Barn-Owls (T. a. alba), including both males and females, were fasted at 5? C ambient temperature, until there was a clear increase in the rate of body mass loss. In wild birds, which fast spontaneously, such an increase (reflecting increased protein utilization) is associated with a triggering of refeeding that anticipates a lethal depletion in body fuels. Weighing the barn-owls every 8 h and collecting excreta for 24-h periods, we found that even after only 0.7 day of starvation, body-mass and nitrogen loss reached low and constant values (at 8.6 ? SD of 1.0 and 0.17 ? 0.01 g/day, respectively), which were maintained for 7.2 ? 1.6 days. This was calculated to correspond to energy equivalents of body-mass loss and daily energy expenditure of 24.3 ? 1.9 kJ/g and 213 ? 22 kJ/day, respectively. Based on these data, the contribution of proteins to energy expenditure was as low as 8.7 ? 1.6%. In contrast to what could be expected, when compared to the prefasting level, mean daily energy expenditure per unit body mass was not significantly reduced. Presumably, this was due to the maintenance of a high locomotor activity during the first part of the night, as revealed by a rate in body mass loss two-fold higher than during the light phase. The fast was stopped after 1.3 ? 0.1 days of increased body-mass loss. The shift to an increased protein utilization was indicated by a 3.5-fold rise in nitrogen excretion associated with a rise in plasma uric-acid concentration from 0.34 ? 0.08 mmol/L up to 1.75 ? 0.13, and a drop of plasma free fatty acids from 1.3 ? 0.3 mmol/L to 0.11 ? 0.10. Despite the initially heavier females, this metabolic shift occurred simultaneously after 7.9 ? 1.7 days of starvation for both sexes. Accordingly, at the time of refeeding, the females weighed 240.0 ? 5.0 g and the males 217.8 ? 7.2 g (i.e. the initial difference in body mass was maintained). At this time, the barn-owls were still able to fly and refeed by themselves. However, based on data for wild Common Barn-Owls that presumably died from starvation, it can be estimated that the rise in nitrogen loss precedes death by less than 2.5 days. Received 3 October 1991, accepted 5 May 1992.
Lighting at work : environmental study of direct effects of lighting level and spectrum on psychophysiological variables

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How Risky Are Real Users' IFTTT Applets?

Smart-home devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and interconnected with other devices and services, such as phones, fitness trackers, cars, and social media accounts. Builtin connections between these services are still emerging, but end-user-programming tools such as If-This-Then-That (IFTTT) have existed for almost a decade, allowing users to create rules (called applets in IFTTT) that dictate interactions between devices and services. Previous work found potential secrecy or integrity violations in many applets, but did so without examining how individual users interact with the service. In this work, we study the risks of real-world use of IFTTT by collecting and analyzing 732 applets installed by 28 participants and participants’ responses to several survey questions. We found that significantly fewer applets than previously thought pose realistic secrecy or integrity risks to the users who install them. Consistent with this finding, participants were generally not concerned about potential harms, even when these were explained to them. However, examining participants’ applets led us to identify several new types of privacy risks, which challenge some assumptions inherent in previous analyses that focus on secrecy and integrity risks. For example, we found that many applets involve monitoring incidental users: family, friends, and neighbors who may interact with someone else’s smart-home devices, possibly without realizing it. We discuss what our findings imply for automatically identifying potentially harmful applets. Copyright is held by the author/owner. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee. USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) 2020. August 9–11, 2020, Virtual Conference.
Working Paper Series Inequality of opportunity and income in- equality in Spain: An analysis over time

The aim of this paper is to contribute both theoretically and empirically to the study of Inequality of Opportunity in Spain. The analysis is carried out using microdata collected by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which incorporate a wide variety of personal harmonised variables, allowing comparability with other countries. The availability of this database for years 2004 and 2010 is particularly relevant to analyse the impact of the economic crisis, the empirical evidence shows significant increases in both income inequality (17.24%) and, more significantly, inequality of opportunity (62.34%). According to our findings, the effect of circumstances on income distribution has intensified between the two years.
The Pattern of Use of Medical Masks Among Health Care Professionals During Covid 19 Pandemic in South East Nigeria University Teaching Hospitals

In history, pandemic outbreaks have wiped out populations as well as paved way for innovations and advances in Medicine and Public health. This study aims to ascertain the inherent knowledge gap and practice regarding the use of medical mask by healthcare workers during Covid-19 pandemic. Methods. This cross sectional survey was conducted at six tertiary hospitals within the south east Nigeria in April-June 2020 using convenient sampling method, a total of 273 respondents was enrolled in the study. A three components questionnaire comprising demographic inquiries, questions was designed to assess knowledge and practice of healthcare professionals regarding the use of medical mask. Collated data was analysed using SPSS software version 21. Result, 73.3% of the participant thought they knew the procedural steps in the use of medical mask however only 18.3% healthcare workers had good practice on the use of medical mask. Significant difference. (p<0.05) in total mean knowledge among different cadres of healthcare workers was observed and total percentage of participant with good knowledge and practice of the use of medical mask were 37% and 17.1% respectively. A weak positive correlation was also observed between knowledge and practice regarding the use of medical mask among health care professionals in south east Nigeria university teaching hospital. Conclusion: Findings from this study has reaffirmed the importance of continuous medical education thus knowledge and practice of the use of medical mask should be emphasized according to international standards to ensure they offer optimal product performance when used by healthcare professionals.
Understanding Seemingly Biased Self-Assessments

The so-called unskilled-and-unaware problem was experimentally identified a decade ago: The unskilled are seemingly afflicted by a double curse because they also seem unaware of their (relative) lack of skills. Numerous authors have elaborated on this problem – experimentally as well as theoretically. In this paper, we report on the results of three experiments (one field, two laboratory) through which we test a theoretical model and some informal extensions. Specifically, we examine the impact of general information and specific information (feedback) on the quality of self-assessment (“calibration”) in various tasks and under various conditions. Overconfidence behavior initially prevails in almost all settings. We find a strong positive effect of general information on calibration, and show that calibration improves more when feedback is provided. In our experiments, it is the unskilled who improve their calibration the most.
Effect of Growth Form, Salinity, Nutrient and Sulfide on Photosynthesis, Carbon Isotope Discrimination and Growth of Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle L.)

The red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle L.), a dominant mangrove species in Florida, frequently occurs in two distinct growth forms, scrub and tall trees. These two growth forms show significant differences in physiology in the field, with lower CO2 assimilation rate, stomatal conductance, and carbon isotope discrimination or higher transpiration efficiency for the scrub form. To elucidate the possible factors responsible for these physiological differences, we studied the physiological and growth responses of scrub and tall red mangrove seedlings grown hydroponically in the greenhouse under 12 different growth conditions combining three salinities (100, 250, 500 mM NaCl), two nutrient levels (10, 100% strength of full nutrient solution), and two sulfide concentrations (0, 2.0 mM Na2S). The two growth forms showed similar physiological and growth responses to these treatments, suggesting no genetic control of physiological and growth differences between the growth forms of this species. High salinity, low nutrient level, and high sulfide concentration all significantly decreased CO2 assimilation, stomatal conductance, and plant growth, but only salinity significantly decreased intercellular CO2 concentration and leaf carbon isotope discrimination, suggesting that the lower carbon isotope discrimination, or higher transpiration efficiency, observed for scrub mangroves in the field is caused only by high salinity during the dry season. Hypersalinity thus seems to be one of the stressful environmental conditions common to all scrub red mangrove forests studied in southern Florida.
THE EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE AND SOCIAL FACTORS ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE GOVERNMENT OF TANA TORAJA DISTRICT

This study aims to examine and analyze the influence of technology acceptance and social factors on the performance of the Tana Toraja district government employees. This research is a type of exploratory research and correlational research. This study aims to explore and observe the influence of technology acceptance and social factors on the performance of the Tana Toraja district government employees. This research was conducted in Local government work unit within the scope of the Tanah Toraja Regency government which was carried out for 2 (two) months effective from February 2020. The population in this study were all employees who used the SIPKD application which were spread across all Local government work unit in the Tana Toraja Regency Regional Government which consisted of 74 user / operator. The sample selection method used was population sampling or census, so that the sample size was the same as the population, namely, 74 respondents. Collecting data in this study using a questionnaire method. The data were obtained using a closed questionnaire which was delivered directly to the employees of SIPKD users. The type of data in this study was primary data. The dependent variable in this research is employee performance and the independent variable is the modernization of the use of information systems which includes perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, computer skills, and computer anxiety.
Default vs. Active Choices: An Experiment on Electricity Tariff Switching

In distinct decision environments, consumers often fail to financially optimize their decisions. In liberalized electricity markets, consumers frequently do not optimize their electricity choices and stick with the default providers instead, despite the ability to choose among an increasingly large set of electricity suppliers and benefit from lower cost options. In this paper, we study the effect of different contextual features of the choice environment (i.e., default and active choice enforcement) and search costs (i.e., high and low) on the quality of electricity contract choices, with the help of a randomized controlled laboratory experiment. We provide evidence that the default contract rule lowers decision quality compared to the active decision rule in both search cost environments. Default rules lower the quality of contract choices especially for the individuals with lower cognitive ability. Contrary to the expectations, we observe that the number of alternatives has no effect on the quality of electricity contract choices. Our findings have important implications for regulatory rule setting in the electricity market.
A Transient Modeling of the Thermoelectric Generators for Application in Wireless Sensor Network Nodes

This paper reports results of the transient modeling of thermoelectric cooling/heating modules as power generators with the aim to select preferable ones for use in thermal energy harvesting wireless sensor network nodes. A study is conducted using the selected commercial thermoelectric generators within the node of a compact design with aluminum PCBs. Their equivalent electro-thermal models suitable for SPICE-like simulators are presented. Model components are extracted from the geometrical, physical and thermo-electrical parameters and/or experimentally. SPICE simulation results mismatch within 7% in comparison with the experimental measurements. The presented model is used for the characterization of different thermoelectric generators within the wireless sensor network node from the aspects of harvesting efficiency, cold boot time, node dimensions and compactness, and maximum applicable temperature. The choice of the preferred generator is determined by its electrical resistance, the number of thermoelectric pairs, external area and thermoelectric legs length, depending on the primary design goal and imposed thermal operating conditions. The node can provide load power of 1.3 m W and the cold boot time of 66 s for generator with 31 thermoelectric pairs at a temperature difference of 15 ° C with respect to the ambient, and 7.6 m W of load power and the cold boot time of 40 s for generator with 71 thermoelectric pairs at a temperature difference of 25 ° C .