Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Learning in Technology Adoption: Evidence on Hybrid Rice Adoption in Bihar, India

Much empirical research has shown that individualsâ€™ decisions to adopt a new technology are the result of learningâ€“both through personal experimentation through observing the experimentation of others. Yet even casual observation would suggest significant heterogeneity of learning processes, manifesting itself in widely varying patterns of adoption over space and time. This paper explores this heterogeneity in the context of early adoption of hybrid rice in rural India. Using specially designed experiments conducted as part of a primary survey in the field, we identify which of four broad learning heuristics most accurately reflects individualsâ€™ information processing strategies. Linking these learning heuristics with observed use of rice hybrids, we demonstrate that pure Bayesian learning is well suited for the tinkering and marginal adjustments that are required to learn about a technology like hybrid rice, but it is also more cognitively taxing than other learning styles requiring a longer memory and more complex updating processes. Consequently, only about 25 percent of the farmers in our sample can be characterized as pure Bayesian learners. Present-biased learning and relying on first impressions will likely hinder adoption of a technology like hybrid rice, even after controlling for access to credit and a rudimentary proxy for intelligence.
Educational and Occupational Aspirations: A Longitudinal Study of Vienna Youth

During their transition from lower to upper secondary education, young peoplemake educational and occupational choices driven by their aspirations. Such aspirations are shaped by the individuals’ social environment, their idea of what seems achievable and desirable, and their experiences. Therefore, aspirations can change during the transitional phase. In this article, we explore the development of educational and occupational aspirations of young people over three years. At the start of the study period, the students were attending the lower track in lower secondary education, the so‐called Neue Mittelschule (8th grade), in the city of Vienna in the 2017–2018 academic year. Drawing on the panel survey data (2018–2020) of the Pathways to the Future project, we simultaneously explore stability and change of educational and occupational aspirations. We describe different patterns of change in aspirations and analyse the influence of sociodemographic characteristics and prior achievement on these patterns. Using latent transition analysis, we identify 11 patterns of aspirations with important differences depending on social background. Most of the students have stable aspirations. However, the results show that school performance, migration background, and the level of parental education play important roles in explaining different levels and patterns of aspirations over time. These longitudinal analyses of educational and occupational aspirations provide important insights into the transition process.
Early Noninvasive Monitoring of Hypoxic State of Diabetic Foot Based on Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy

Early accurate diagnosis and assessment severity of the hypoxic state of diabetic foot is of paramount importance. In this paper, a noninvasive monitoring method of the hypoxic state of the diabetic foot based on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is proposed. Monte Carlo simulation method is used to imitate the effect on diffuse reflectance of the foot from different blood volume fractions and blood oxygen saturations. Moreover, the in vivo experiments of the hypoxic state of the foot based on the binding method is carried out using an integrating sphere system. Monte Carlo simulation results show that the diffuse reflectance of the foot under normal state and hypoxic state is significantly different. In vivo experimental results are highly consistent with the Monte Carlo simulation results. In vivo experiments further indicate that six characteristic wavelengths (440, 469, 514, 540, 560, and 576 nm) of the diffuse reflectance are more able to distinguish the normal oxygen state and hypoxic states of the foot. The proposed method promotes the development and application of the diffuse reflectance spectroscopy method in the noninvasive detection of biological tissue.
Preference at First Sight: Effects of Shape and Font Qualities on Evaluation of Object-Word Pairs

Subjective preferences for visual qualities of shapes and fonts have been separately reported. Such preferences are often similarly attributed to factors such as aesthetic impressions, attributed meaning from the visual properties, or processing fluency. Because shapes and fonts were rarely studied together, we investigated whether these qualities had a similar impact on preference judgment of object-word pairs. Each pair consisted of an abstract object with either preferred or disliked shape qualities and a pseudoword with either preferred or disliked font qualities. We found that only shape qualities, but not font qualities, influenced preference ratings of the object-word pairs, with higher preferences for pairs with preferred than disliked shapes. Moreover, eye movement results indicated that while participants fixated the word before the object, their prolonged fixation on the object when first attending to it might have contributed to the preference ratings. Nonetheless, other measures, including response times, total fixation numbers, and total dwell time, showed different patterns for shape and font qualities, revealing that participants attended more to objects with preferred than disliked shapes, and to words with disliked than preferred fonts. Taken together, these results suggest that shape and font qualities have differential influences on preferences and processing of objects and words.
Cost forecasting using RCF: a case study for planning public building projects costs in Turkey

ABSTRACT Many construction projects are perceived to perform badly since the majority of them suffer cost overruns. This paper analyses cost estimates produced by two most commonly used estimation methods for building projects in Turkey, namely unit area cost (UAC) and unit price analysis (UPA). It also investigates whether reference class forecasting (RCF) method can be used to provide the client with more certainty in the final project cost forecasts compared to those two methods. Data from 369 public building projects in Turkey were collected and cost overruns were analysed. Part of the data representing 14% of the projects were randomly selected and used as control group for testing the reliability of the forecasts produced using RCF. The results have shown the estimates of the final project cost produced using the UAC and UPA methods in Turkey are either too pessimistic or optimistic. The results have also shown that it is possible to use the reference class as a basis to produce a reasonably accurate prediction of the actual cost of a project in a similar class for various levels of acceptable risks. This is achieved by adding uplifts/reductions to the estimates produced by the two traditional methods.
The frequency dependency of localisation thresholds in the presence of reflections

This paper describes subjective experiments conducted to investigate the frequency dependency of localisation threshold in vertical stereophonic and quadraphonic reproductions. The localisation threshold here is defined as a minimum level difference of the upper loudspeaker layer (elevated at 30 degrees) to the lower loudspeaker (ear level) layer that is required for the resulting vertical phantom image to be localised at the same height as the image produced by the lower layer. Transient and continuous octave-band and broadband pink noise signals were used as stimuli. The time delays of 0, 1 and 10ms were applied to the upper loudspeaker signal. Results showed that the localisation thresholds varied significantly for different octave bands. The difference between the vertical stereophonic and quadraphonic conditions in localisation threshold was found to be insignificant. The thresholds for the transient stimuli were found to be generally higher than those for the continuous ones, with significant differences found for the 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz bands. Additionally, no evidence was found to support the operation of the precedence effect in both vertical reproduction conditions. It is considered that the results have useful practical implications for designing 3D microphone
Distributed Fusion Tracking Estimation under Range-Only Measurement

This paper concentrate on the distributed fusion estimation problem for range-only target tracking system with unknown but bounded noises, where the linear and nonlinear motion models are both considered. A kind of nonlinear transformation is used to convert the nonlinear distance measurement model into a linear one, which eliminates the corresponding linearization errors in the design of estimation error system. In spite of the transformed measurement noise becomes more complicated, while it is still bounded. Moreover, for the nonlinear target motion model, the state linearization error caused by the Taylor expansion is modeled by the state dependent matrix with uncertainty bounded matrix. In this case, based on the bounded recursive optimization algorithm, two kinds of convex optimization problem are established to determine the gains of the local/fusion estimators, and the stability of the designed estimators also can be guaranteed. Finally, two kinds of range-only target tracking systems are presented to show the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed methods.
Dietary guanidinoacetic acid increases the longissimus dorsi muscle depth of finishing pigs without requiring a higher standardised ileal digestible methionine + cysteine concentration

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the interaction of guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) with standardised ileal digestible methionine + cysteine (SID Met + Cys) levels in finishing pig diets on the performance, carcase characteristics, pork quality, blood variables, gene expression of creatine transporter (SLC6A8) and oxidant and antioxidant action. The experimental design (n = 32) was in randomised blocks arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial scheme, consisting of two levels of guanidinoacetic acid (0.00% and 0.05%) and two levels of SID Met + Cys (0.44% and 0.50%). There was no interaction of SID Met + Cys and GAA levels on the performance variables, carcass characteristics, pork quality and creatine transporter gene expression (p ≥ .05), except for plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (p = .016), wherein at the highest SID Met + Cys level the GAA supplementation (0.05%) showed lower plasma LDH concentration in relation to non-supplementation. Longissimus dorsi muscle depth (MD) (p = .001) showed an isolated effect for the evaluated GAA levels, in which the supplementation increased the MD. Blood urea presented an isolated effect (p = .040) for SID Met + Cys levels, showing lower plasma concentration for the highest dietary level. It was concluded that GAA does not require a higher intake of SID Met + Cys in finishing pig diets and its supplementation improved the depth of Longissimus dorsi muscle, without changing the performance, meat quality and gene expression of the SLC6A8 transporter in the liver. Highlights Higher levels of SID Met + Cys reduced homocysteine concentration, and GAA supplementation reduced plasma lactate dehydrogenase concentration at higher dietary SID Met + Cys level. GAA supplementation improves the depth of Longissimus dorsi muscle and did not affect the post-mortem glycolysis. Higher concentration of SID Met + Cys in finishing pig diets do not affect the gene expression of the creatine transporter (SLC6A8) in the liver.
Divergence in gut bacterial community between females and males in the wolf spider Pardosa astrigera

Abstract Sex is one of the important factors affecting gut microbiota. As key predators in agroforestry ecosystem, many spider species show dramatically different activity habits and nutritional requirements between females and males. However, how sex affects gut microbiota of spiders remains unclear. Here, we compared the composition and diversity of gut bacteria between female and male Pardosa astrigera based on bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Results showed that the richness of bacterial microbiota in female spiders was significantly lower than in male spiders (p < .05). Besides, β‐diversity showed a significant difference between female and male spiders (p = .0270). The relative abundance of Actinobacteriota and Rhodococcus (belongs to Actinobacteriota) was significantly higher in female than in male spiders (p < .05), whereas the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Acinetobacter (belongs to Proteobacteria) and Ruminococcus and Fusicatenibacter (all belong to Firmicutes) was significantly higher in male than in female spiders (p < .05). The results also showed that amino acid and lipid metabolisms were significantly higher in female than in male spiders (p < .05), whereas glycan biosynthesis and metabolism were significantly higher in male than in female spiders (p < .05). Our results imply that sexual variation is a crucial factor in shaping gut bacterial community in P. astrigera spiders, while the distinct differences of bacterial composition are mainly due to their different nutritional and energy requirements.
Marker-Free Rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. IR 64) Overexpressing PDH45 Gene Confers Salinity Tolerance by Maintaining Photosynthesis and Antioxidant Machinery

Helicases function as key enzymes in salinity stress tolerance, and the role and function of PDH45 (pea DNA helicase 45) in stress tolerance have been reported in different crops with selectable markers, raising public and regulatory concerns. In the present study, we developed five lines of marker-free PDH45-overexpressing transgenic lines of rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. IR64). The overexpression of PDH45 driven by CaMV35S promoter in transgenic rice conferred high salinity (200 mM NaCl) tolerance in the T1 generation. Molecular attributes such as PCR, RT-PCR, and Southern and Western blot analyses confirmed stable integration and expression of the PDH45 gene in the PDH45-overexpressing lines. We observed higher endogenous levels of sugars (glucose and fructose) and hormones (GA, zeatin, and IAA) in the transgenic lines in comparison to control plants (empty vector (VC) and wild type (WT)) under salt treatments. Furthermore, photosynthetic characteristics such as net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular CO2 (Ci), and chlorophyll (Chl) content were significantly higher in transgenic lines under salinity stress as compared to control plants. However, the maximum primary photochemical efficiency of PSII, as an estimated from variable to maximum chlorophyll a fluorescence (Fv/Fm), was identical in the transgenics to that in the control plants. The activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), glutathione reductase (GR), and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), were significantly higher in transgenic lines in comparison to control plants, which helped in keeping the oxidative stress burden (MDA and H2O2) lesser on transgenic lines, thus protecting the growth and photosynthetic efficiency of the plants. Overall, the present research reports the development of marker-free PDH45-overexpressing transgenic lines for salt tolerance that can potentially avoid public and biosafety concerns and facilitate the commercialization of genetically engineered crop plants.
Effect of Cigarette and E-Cigarette Smoke Condensates on Candida albicans Biofilm Formation and Gene Expression

Smoking triggers environmental changes in the oral cavity and increases the risk of mucosal infections caused by Candida albicans such as oral candidiasis. While cigarette smoke has a significant impact on C. albicans, how e-cigarettes affect this oral pathogen is less clear. Here, we investigated the effect of cigarette and e-cigarette smoke condensates (CSC and ECSC) on C. albicans growth, biofilm formation, and gene expression. Whereas pure nicotine (N) at the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC, 4 mg/mL) prevented C. albicans growth, enhanced biofilm formation was observed at 0.1 mg/mL. In contrast, at this nicotine sub-MIC (0.1 mg/mL) concentration, CSC and ECSC had no significant effect on C. albicans biofilm formation. Additionally, N, CSC, and ECSC increased the expression of HWP1 and SAP2 genes. The ECSC group exhibited elevated expression levels of the EAP1 and ALS3 genes, compared to the nicotine-free ECSC (−) control. Moreover, our in vitro study illustrated that the antifungal drugs, fluconazole and amphotericin B, alleviated the effect of nicotine on C. albicans gene expression. Overall, the results of the study indicated nicotine from different sources may affect the pathogenic characteristics of C. albicans, including hyphal growth, biofilm formation, and particularly the expression of virulence-related genes.
TcdB of Clostridioides difficile Mediates RAS-Dependent Necrosis in Epithelial Cells

A Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is the most common nosocomial infection worldwide. The main virulence factors of pathogenic C. difficile are TcdA and TcdB, which inhibit small Rho-GTPases. The inhibition of small Rho-GTPases leads to the so-called cytopathic effect, a reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton, an impairment of the colon epithelium barrier function and inflammation. Additionally, TcdB induces a necrotic cell death termed pyknosis in vitro independently from its glucosyltransferases, which are characterized by chromatin condensation and ROS production. To understand the underlying mechanism of this pyknotic effect, we conducted a large-scale phosphoproteomic study. We included the analysis of alterations in the phosphoproteome after treatment with TcdA, which was investigated for the first time. TcdA exhibited no glucosyltransferase-independent necrotic effect and was, thus, a good control to elucidate the underlying mechanism of the glucosyltransferase-independent effect of TcdB. We found RAS to be a central upstream regulator of the glucosyltransferase-independent effect of TcdB. The inhibition of RAS led to a 68% reduction in necrosis. Further analysis revealed apolipoprotein C-III (APOC3) as a possible crucial factor of CDI-induced inflammation in vivo.
Defining reflective practice from the Indonesian novice EFL teachers’ perspective

ABSTRACT Educational researchers have long attempted to define reflective practice. More than a century after the term was first introduced to the education field, there is still no consensus regarding its definition. This article suggests that although it is important to provide the practitioners with a comprehensive definition, it is not less important to investigate how the practitioners understand and define the concept. Therefore, this study attempts to provide empirical knowledge regarding how the practitioners conceptualise reflective practice. The participants of this study are six Indonesian novice English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers working at junior and senior high school levels in West Java, Indonesia. This study employs qualitative research methods and collects data through interviews. Thematic analysis has been adopted in order to analyse the data. The findings suggest that the participants understood the term reflective practice as a problem-solving strategy. In this regard, an activity for sharing knowledge, a flashback process for improving the teaching practices and a tool for professional development were the themes that were emerged from the data analysis. In order for practitioners to develop a full picture of the term, teacher education and training programs were invited to offer reflective practice as a separate module.
Physical Quality and Porosity Aspects of Amazon Anthropogenic Soils under Different Management Systems

Archaeological Dark Earth (ADE) soils are rich in organic matter and highly fertile, but when used for farming or grazing activities, they generally lose chemical and physical quality, becoming more susceptible to erosion. In this context, this study aimed to evaluate the changes in physical properties of the soil in different management systems adopted in ADE areas of the Amazon. The study area is located in the municipality of Novo Aripuanã, in the mesoregion of Madeira, south of the state of Amazonas. Three ADE areas were selected: 1—native forest (Amazon forest fragment); 2—area covered with Brachiaria (Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu), without the addition of fertilizers or soil improvers; and 3—area covered with pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and other commercial crops (corn, beans, and watermelon). The following soil characteristics were evaluated: soil resistance to penetration, soil bulk density, macroporosity and microporosity, and total soil porosity in the 0–0.20 m and 0.20–0.40 m layers. The results showed that the pasture area presented a smaller amount of total pores and complex pores, which are important for water flow in the soil. The areas analyzed in this study presented no critical obstacle to plant root development with the low value of resistance to penetration (<2.00 MPa) in all areas.
Generation of Human Micro-Doppler Signature Based on Layer-Reduced Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network

Human activity recognition (HAR) using radar micro-Doppler has attracted the attention of researchers in the last decade. Using radar for human activity recognition has been very practical because of its unique advantages. There are several classifiers for the recognition of these activities, all of which require a rich database to produce fine output. Due to the limitations of providing and building a large database, radar micro-Doppler databases are usually limited in number. In this paper, a new method for the generation of radar micro-Doppler of the human body based on the deep convolutional generating adversarial network (DCGAN) is proposed. To generate the database, the required input is also generated by converting the existing motion database to simulated model-based radar data. The simulation results show the success of this method, even on a small amount of data.