Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
"This Matter of Women Is Getting Very Bad": Gender, Development and Politics in Colonial Lesotho

Marc Epprecht. "This Matter of Women Is Getting Very Bad": Gender, Development and Politics in Colonial Lesotho. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 2000. ix + 281 pp. Biographical sketches of informants. Notes. Bibliography. Index. R190. Paper By challenging existing orthodoxies about gender roles and women's accomplishments in the development of Lesotho, Marc Epprecht has made a major contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of that small country and of the regional environment in which it is situated. Like any work that emphasizes a previously neglected factor, however, it occasionally creates new interpretive problems by making that selected element the master variable in situations in which it was just one relevant element among many. Epprecht builds his analysis of women's roles on the previous efforts of Elizabeth Eldredge, judy Kimble, Colin Murray, and Eddie Maloka to provide a gendered historical analysis that complements the more male-centered analyses of Leonard Thompson and Peter Sanders. Epprecht's most important insights concern the twentieth-century phenomena about which he developed new primary data from the many interviews conducted during the research for his doctoral dissertation. While not a theoretical discourse on gender, the book is an application of such materials to Lesotho and is quite accessible to the serious reader. The high quality of the study belies Epprecht's unnecessary apologies in his introduction for being a white, expatriate male writing about African women. Epprecht is at his best in describing and evaluating hitherto neglected women's kopcmos, namely, homemakers' and church organizations that allowed women to assume new voices and greater control of their destinies in both secular and religious domains. he also does a first-rate job in explaining the social reforms initiated by the Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Bonhomme, which coexisted, paradoxically, with an oppressive and restrictive view of appropriate female roles. While he redresses prior scholarly neglect of Catholic groups, his range of interviews seems to have been somewhat skewed, so that Protestant voices are not given an equivalent hearing. His portrayal of Regent Paramount Chieftainess Amelia 'Mantsebo Seeiso as a proponent of democratic consultation and solidarity and as a protofeminist reverses earlier, overly negative and sexist evaluations of her, but it ignores the substance of unfavorable assessments of her reign. …
Some quantitative aspects of 31 P magnetic resonance spectroscopy in vivo in an exercise physiology context

Phosphorous NMR spectroscopy (31PMRS) has become a very important tool in biological research, since it allows non-invasive recording of essential features of tissue energy metabolism at a high time resolution. Here I present some of the concepts and key features of the technique as applied to human skeletal muscle with physical exercise as the main principle of intervention.
Skin microbiota differs drastically between co-occurring frogs and newts

Diverse microbial assemblages inhabit amphibian skin and are known to differ among species; however, few studies have analysed these differences in systems that minimize confounding factors, such as season, location or host ecology. We used high-throughput amplicon sequencing to compare cutaneous microbiotas among two ranid frogs (Rana dalmatina, R. temporaria) and four salamandrid newts (Ichthyosaura alpestris, Lissotriton helveticus, L. vulgaris, Triturus cristatus) breeding simultaneously in two ponds near Braunschweig, Germany. We found that bacterial communities differed strongly and consistently between these two distinct amphibian clades. While frogs and newts had similar cutaneous bacterial richness, their bacterial composition strongly differed. Average Jaccard distances between frogs and newts were over 0.5, while between species within these groups distances were only 0.387 and 0.407 for frogs and newts, respectively. At the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) level, 31 taxa exhibited significantly different relative abundances between frogs and newts. This finding suggests that chemical or physical characteristics of these amphibians' mucosal environments provide highly selective conditions for bacterial colonizers. Multi-omics analyses of hosts and their microbiota as well as directed efforts to understand chemical differences in the mucosal environments (e.g. pH), and the specificities of host-produced compounds against potential colonizers will help to better understand this intriguing pattern.
Transformational School Leadership Effects: A Replication

Most school restructuring initiatives assume significant capacity development on the part of individuals, as well as whole organizations; they also depend on high levels of motivation and commitment to solving the substantial problems associated with the implementation of restructuring initiatives. Transformational approaches to leadership have long been advocated as productive under these conditions, and evidence suggests that transformational practices do contribute to the development of capacity and commitment. Much less evidence is available, however, about whether these socio-psychological effects actually result in organizational change and enhanced organizational outcomes. Survey data from an achieved sample of 1818 teachers and 6490 students from 94 elementary schools in one large district were used to replicate an earlier study of the effects of transformational leadership practices on selected organizational conditions and student engagement with school. Similar in most respects to our earlier s.
Enhancing Pre-Service Elementary School Teachers' Understanding of Essential Science Concepts through a Reflective Conceptual Change Model.

This study explored the impact of a reflective teaching method on pre-service elementary teachers’ conceptual understanding of the lunar phases, reasons for seasons, and simple electric circuits. Data were collected from 40 pre-service elementary teachers about their conceptual understanding of the lunar phases, reasons for seasons and day and night, and simple electric circuits pre and post instruction. Findings show that the instructional approach adopted by a science teacher educator had a significant impact on pre-service elementary school teachers’ conceptual understanding of lunar phases, seasonal changes and simple electric circuits. The discussion focuses on pre-service elementary school teachers’ misconceptions about the lunar phases, seasonal changes and simple electric circuits as revealed through their answers to the pre-test questions. Further discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for pre-service elementary school science teacher education.
New Mitigating Technique to Overcome DDOS Attack

In this paper, we explore a new scheme for filtering spoofed packets (DDOS attack) which is a combination of path identification (Pi) and client puzzle (CP) concepts. In ingress router, client puzzle is placed. For each client request, the puzzle issuer provides a puzzle, which the client has to solve. In this each IP packet has unique Pi is embedded, where the router marks forwarding packets to generate particular identifiers corresponding to different paths. Along with Pi hop count value is also included. Thus the victim can use the tuple to identify and discard malicious packets. Our design has the following advantages over prior approaches, 1) Reduce the network traffic, as we place a client puzzle at the ingress router. 2) Mapping table at the server is lightweight and moderate.
Genetic differentiation of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae across Nigeria suggests that selection limits gene flow

Gene flow was investigated in Anopheles gambiae from eight localities that span the ecological zones of Nigeria (arid savanna zones in the north gradually turn into humid forest zones in the south). Genetic differentiation was measured over 10 microsatellite loci and, to determine any effects of selection, five loci were located within chromosome inversions and the other five were outside inversions. Over all loci, the largest estimates of differentiation were in comparisons between localities in the savanna vs. forest zones (range FST 0.024–0.087, Nm 2.6–10.1; RST 0.014–0.100, Nm 2.2–16.4). However, three loci located within inversions on chromosome II, whose frequencies varied clinally from north to south, were responsible for virtually all of the differentiation. When the three loci were removed, genetic distances across the remaining seven loci were markedly reduced even between localities in the forest and savanna zones (range FST 0.001–0.019, Nm 12.7–226.1) or no longer significant (P > 0.05) in the case of RST. Although tests of isolation by distance gave seemingly equivocal results, geographical distance does not appear to limit gene flow. These observations suggest that gene flow is extensive across the country but that selection on genes located within some inversions on chromosome II counters the homogenizing effects of gene flow.
Lay representations of workplace stress: What do people really mean when they say they are stressed?

Abstract An individual's beliefs in relation to stress are likely to affect their perceptions, and hence their work-related actions (such as absenteeism). In this paper, lay representations of work stress were investigated utilising semi-structured interviews with 45 individuals from a range of occupations. The meaning of occupational stress, its antecedents and outcomes, and ways by which it may be managed were examined. Dominant factors were established through the use of thematic content analysis. Similarities and differences were found between lay and professional discourses on work stress. Results indicate that lay representations of occupational stress are multi-faceted. Little consensus was found in how participants interpreted the concept: a diverse range of personal, environmental, and societal factors was highlighted. A different (and arguably more complex) range of definitions of job stress and the manner in which it impacts on individuals was revealed than has been reported in previous studies. The causes of stress at work were perceived as being predominantly organisational, but the impact of stress on the employee was more salient than organisational outcomes. Paradoxically, secondary and tertiary stress management techniques were thought to be more effective than interventions designed to prevent stress at work. Interviewees with line management responsibility were more likely to emphasise individual responsibility for managing stress, most others maintained that the individual and the organisation are equally responsible. The potential value of examining lay representations of job stress to the discipline of Occupational Health Psychology is discussed and suggestions for future research are made.
Underwater target classifier capable of reducing self-convolution distortion

Underwater target classification has got numerous applications in ocean engineering and technology. The suitable selection of target specific features is of prime importance, as it determines the efficiency and general performance of the classifier. Equally significant, is the selection of the classifier architecture, as it has a profound effect on the implementation complexity and system behavior. The spectral features, when suitably modified, are capable of providing certain essential clues that can be utilized in the design of underwater target classifiers. A non-stochastic underwater target classifier, which makes use of an improved feature set, under heavily distorted signal environment, is proposed in this paper. The classifier is based on modified Kaiser-Bessel window and makes use of the Matching Parameter (MP) metric which is a functional measure of the Mahalanobis and Euclidean distances. The system also utilizes an algorithmic vector quantization approach for the formation of clusters. The proposed system reduces the ambiguity in the classification process under heavily distorted and randomly fluctuating signal variations introduced by signal self-convolution processes occurring in nonlinear underwater channels.
The Rees product of posets

We determine how the flag f-vector of any graded poset changes under the Rees product with the chain, and more generally, any t-ary tree. As a corollary, the M\"obius function of the Rees product of any graded poset with the chain, and more generally, the t-ary tree, is exactly the same as the Rees product of its dual with the chain, respectively, t-ary chain. We then study enumerative and homological properties of the Rees product of the cubical lattice with the chain. We give a bijective proof that the M\"obius function of this poset can be expressed as n times a signed derangement number. From this we derive a new bijective proof of Jonsson's result that the M\"obius function of the Rees product of the Boolean algebra with the chain is given by a derangement number. Using poset homology techniques we find an explicit basis for the reduced homology and determine a representation for the reduced homology of the order complex of the Rees product of the cubical lattice with the chain over the symmetric group.
Proposed model to implement high-level Information Security in Internet of Things

Internet of Things (IoT) connect different types of devices to control different things or simply read data from then, such as room temperature, location, pressure and others, in a variety of application domains using the World Wide Web. This is a challenge for technology and Information Security (IS). Therefore, this paper surveys advances in IoT-based with an eye towards security, where discusses the technologies used in devices, the risks to which these devices are exposed to stay directly connect to a global network, the TCP/IP Network Layers Model that is used in this connection. The main objective of this paper is to propose an implementation models of security based on ISO 7498-2 for residential and industrial use in IoT. Mitigate risk is a major job for users of this technology because all Internet-connected device runs the risk of having their availability or integrity data transmitted corrupted.
Endogenous and Silencing-Associated Small RNAs in Plants Online version contains Web-only data. Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.003210.

A large set of endogenous small RNAs of predominantly 21 to 24 nucleotides was identified in Arabidopsis. These small RNAs resembled micro-RNAs from animals and were similar in size to small interfering RNAs that accumulated during RNA silencing triggered by multiple types of inducers. Among the 125 sequences identified, the vast majority (90%) arose from intergenic regions, although small RNAs corresponding to predicted protein-coding genes, transposon-like sequences, and a structural RNA gene also were identified. Evidence consistent with the derivation of small RNAs of both polarities, and from highly base-paired precursors, was obtained through the identification and analysis of clusters of small RNA loci. The accumulation of specific small RNAs was regulated developmentally. We propose that Arabidopsis small RNAs participate in a wide range of post-transcriptional and epigenetic events.
Activity energy expenditure is a major determinant of dietary fat oxidation and trafficking, but the deleterious effect of detraining is more marked than the beneficial effect of training at current recommendations.

BACKGROUND Previous studies suggested that physical activity energy expenditure (AEE) is a major determinant of dietary fat oxidation, which is a central component of fat metabolism and body weight regulation. OBJECTIVE We tested this hypothesis by investigating the effect of contrasted physical activity levels on dietary saturated and monounsaturated fatty acid oxidation in relation to insulin sensitivity while controlling energy balance. DESIGN Sedentary lean men (n = 10) trained for 2 mo according to the current guidelines on physical activity, and active lean men (n = 9) detrained for 1 mo by reducing structured and spontaneous activity. Dietary [d31]palmitate and [1-¹³C]oleate oxidation and incorporation into triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and nonesterified fatty acid, AEE, and muscle markers were studied before and after interventions. RESULTS Training increased palmitate and oleate oxidation by 27% and 20%, respectively, whereas detraining reduced them by 31% and 13%, respectively (P < 0.05 for all). Changes in AEE were positively correlated with changes in oleate (R² = 0.62, P < 0.001) and palmitate (R² = 0.66, P < 0.0001) oxidation. The d31-palmitate appearance in nonesterified fatty acid and very-low-density lipoprotein pools was negatively associated with changes in fatty acid translocase CD36 (R² = 0.30), fatty acid transport protein 1 (R² = 0.24), and AcylCoA synthetase long chain family member 1 (ACSL1) (R² = 0.25) expressions and with changes in fatty acid binding protein expression (R² = 0.33). The d31-palmitate oxidation correlated with changes in ACSL1 (R² = 0.39) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (R² = 0.30) expressions (P < 0.05 for all). Similar relations were observed with oleate. Insulin response was associated with AEE (R² = 0.34, P = 0.02) and oleate (R² = 0.52, P < 0.01) and palmitate (R² = 0.62, P < 001) oxidation. CONCLUSION Training and detraining modified the oxidation of the 2 most common dietary fats, likely through a better trafficking and uptake by the muscle, which was negatively associated with whole-body insulin sensitivity.
Hybrid dual actuator unit: A design of a variable stiffness actuator based on an adjustable moment arm mechanism

For tasks requiring robot-environment interaction, stiffness control is important to ensure both stable contact motion and collision safety. The variable stiffness approach has been used to address this problem. We propose a hybrid dual actuator unit (HDAU) which is a novel variable stiffness unit design. The HDAU is composed of a hybrid control module based on an adjustable moment arm mechanism and a drive module with two motors. By controlling the relative motion of gears in the hybrid control module, position and stiffness can be simultaneously controlled for the same joint. The HDAU provides a wide range of joint stiffness due to nonlinearity obtained from the adjustable moment arm. The joint stiffness can be kept constant independent of the passive deflection angle of the output shaft. Furthermore, stable interaction can also be achieved because the joint stiffness is indirectly adjusted by position control of the hybrid control module. The characteristics of the HDAU are analyzed in this study. We show by experiment that the HDAU can provide a wide range of stiffness variation and rapid response for stiffness change.
Possible Existence of Two Subsets of Platelet‐Activating Factor Receptor to Mediate Polyphosphoinositide Breakdown and Calcium Influx in Neuroblastoma × Glioma Hybrid NG 108–15 Cells

Abstract: Platelet‐activating factor (PAF) initiated polyphosphoinositide (polyPI) breakdown and a rise of intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) in neuroblastoma × glioma hybrid NG 108–15 cells. The accumulation of [3H]inositol trisphosphate and [3H]inositol bisphosphate was evident within 15 s after PAF stimulation, peaked at 1 min, and then gradually decayed. The increase in [3H]inositol monophosphate level was observed at 30 s, plateaued in 5 min, and was sustained up to 10 min in the presence of 10 mM LiCl. On the other hand, the rise of [Ca2+]i evoked by PAF reached a peak within 8–12 s and returned to basal levels within 1 min as measured in fura 2‐loaded cells. When cells were suspended in Ca2+‐depleted medium, the PAF‐induced [Ca2+]i rise was reduced by 80%, indicating that the increase of [Ca2+]i was predominantly due to the Ca2+ influx from an extracellular source. Both PAF‐induced accumulation of 3H‐labeled inositol phosphates and [Ca2+]i elevation were concentration dependent with EC50 values of ∼1 × 10−10 and 5 × 10−8M, respectively. The PAF analogs 1‐O‐hexadecyl‐2‐hydroxy‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine and 1‐O‐hexadecyl‐2‐O‐methyl‐rac‐glycerol‐3‐phosphocholine were much poorer agonists at eliciting the same responses in these cells. Pretreatment of cells with pertussis toxin caused a substantial inhibition of PAF‐induced accumulation of 3H‐inositol phosphates. In contrast, the rise in [Ca2+]i was not significantly affected by toxin treatment at the same concentration. SRI‐63675, a PAF antagonist, blocked both PAF‐induced responses effectively, whereas another antagonist, BN‐52021, at the same dose inhibited substantially the accumulation of 3H‐inositol phosphates but had a negligible effect on the Ca2+ response. Scatchard analysis of radioligand saturation binding data revealed the existence of two PAF binding sites in NG 108–15 cell membranes: one was high affinity with a dissociation constant (KD) of 6.1 ± 1.8 × 10−11M and a receptor density (Bmax) of 54.0 ± 2.8 fmol/mg of protein; another was low affinity with a KD of 1.7 ± 0.4 × 10−8M and a Bmax of 5.6 ± 0.5 pmol/mg of protein. Displacement of specific [3H]PAF binding by unlabeled PAF also demonstrated two binding sites with inhibitory constant (Ki) values of 7.5 ± 2.5 × 10−11 and 2.7 ± 1.7 × 10−7M, respectively. BN‐52021 and SRI‐63675 displayed differential affinities to these two binding sites. Taken together, these data suggest the existence of two subtypes of PAF receptor to mediate polyPI hydrolysis and Ca2+ influx in NG 108–15 cells.
The effect of different geometrical configurations of the performances of Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone separators (GLCC)

Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC) separator is widely used in the petroleum industry with potential fields of applications. Its performance is strongly influenced by the inlet configuration thus the importance of the behavior of flow in the GLCC and the effects of different geometrical configurations for enhancing its separation are interested in this paper. The main goal of this paper is the deep studying of the effect of different inlet configurations of the performances of GLCC by method 3D CFD simulation. Four different inlets configurations with the inclined angle of 27° and the same cross-sectional nozzle area of about 25% of the area of the cylinder have constructed, namely: (1) one circular inlet, (2) two circular inlets, (3) one taper square reduced nozzle inlet and (4) two taper square reduced nozzle inlets. Axial and tangential velocity of flow across the GLCC diameter are measured at 3 different axial locations (x=−200mm above the inlet; x=200mm and 300mm below the inlet). Two of flow rates are selected to investigate the effect of flow rate (Reynolds number) on the flow behavior. As a result, we propose the use of two taper square reduced nozzle inlets to enhance the separation efficiency because of their effects.
Scribbling Away the Ghosts: A Bakhtinian Interpretation of Preschool Writers and the Disruption of Developmental Discourses

Using Mikhail Bakhtin's conceptions of dialogue, monologue, and chronotope, the authors ask readers to consider how different values and actions ultimately create the teaching and learning spaces in which children are recognized as literate. Using qualitative data that focus on the relational writing practices of two preschoolers, this ethnographic work explores how authoritative monologues of development and risk commonly structure our thinking about and interaction with young writers. The article offers an alternative interpretation of children as writers engaged within a relational and dialogic writing space, wherein dominant developmental beliefs are rejected and relationships between children and teachers are reinterpreted. The authors argue for the creation of dialogic classroom spaces that afford children opportunities for multiple possible futures as whole persons.