Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence That Microorganisms at the Animal-Water Interface Drive Sea Star Wasting Disease

Sea star wasting (SSW) disease describes a condition affecting asteroids that resulted in significant Northeastern Pacific population decline following a mass mortality event in 2013. The etiology of SSW is unresolved. We hypothesized that SSW is a sequela of microbial organic matter remineralization near respiratory surfaces, one consequence of which may be limited O2 availability at the animal-water interface. Microbial assemblages inhabiting tissues and at the asteroid-water interface bore signatures of copiotroph proliferation before SSW onset, followed by the appearance of putatively facultative and strictly anaerobic taxa at the time of lesion genesis and as animals died. SSW lesions were induced in Pisaster ochraceus by enrichment with a variety of organic matter (OM) sources. These results together illustrate that depleted O2 conditions at the animal-water interface may be established by heterotrophic microbial activity in response to organic matter loading. SSW was also induced by modestly (∼39%) depleted O2 conditions in aquaria, suggesting that small perturbations in dissolved O2 may exacerbate the condition. SSW susceptibility between species was significantly and positively correlated with surface rugosity, a key determinant of diffusive boundary layer thickness. Tissues of SSW-affected individuals collected in 2013–2014 bore δ15N signatures reflecting anaerobic processes, which suggests that this phenomenon may have affected asteroids during mass mortality at the time. The impacts of enhanced microbial activity and subsequent O2 diffusion limitation may be more pronounced under higher temperatures due to lower O2 solubility, in more rugose asteroid species due to restricted hydrodynamic flow, and in larger specimens due to their lower surface area to volume ratios which affects diffusive respiratory potential.
Sustainability Risk Management: An Exploratory Study

There have been significant environmental changes, including climate-related events that are affecting the businesses in India and the world. The impact of these events is estimated to cost the global economy by 20 percent of its GDP over the next few years with serious economic consequences for the business. In spite of such an alarming risk, very little is known on how corporates deal with sustainability in general and environmental sustainability in particular and their linkages to corporate risks in a strategy setting. This exploratory study attempts to understand the state of environmental sustainability risk disclosures of a select 200 companies listed in the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). We use content analysis to study the disclosures made in the Annual Report, Business Responsibility Report, Sustainability Reports and other allied reports presented by the companies to understand the levels of disclosures. Further, we study the extent of disclosures by the companies to understand the present state of engagement with environment sustainability and climate change and their integration with the main stream risk management. Our findings suggest that almost all companies have some basic general disclosures on risks this can mainly be attributed to the mandatory nature of disclosures in the annual report. However, companies do not disclose more than 37% of the total risk categories identified by the research. Only financial risks are discussed in detail. Environment Sustainability risk disclosure is poor, and the quality of disclosure is also low. Disclosures on climate change risks were even more opaque. It appears that the changes in the weather patterns have either not emerged as a significant cause of concern to be disclosed in the risk section or they companies have generally not disclosed the same. We also find that environmental disclosures are not integrated in a more comprehensive in the risk reports. We also find that companies had not integrated sustainability risk into the risk management framework and strategy mainly due to lack of understanding of the direct business impacts (quantification), lack of regulations and stakeholder pressure. Moreover, firms have a short term outlook and are more focussed on quarterly results and profitability in the near term. Though reporting on environmental risks and climate change are weak, companies are taking initiatives on matters such as energy conservation, water, and waste management.
YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated the prospects of youth entrepreneurship and how it can be used as a panacea to unemployment problems of the youth, and promotes economic development. All over the world today, serious attention is being paid by various governments to secure economic survival through entrepreneurship growth and development by providing the enabling environment like infrastructure, financial facilities and other empowerment that can stimulate production activities, thus engaging the youths adequately to reduce the rate of unemployment and crime in the society. The specific objectives of this study were to examine the prospects and the extent to which technical innovation can reduce unemployment in Delta State, Nigeria: to examine the influence of creativity in reduction of unemployment to determine the extent to which entrepreneurship education can reduce unemployment and to assess the extent to which opportunity recognition can reduce unemployment. The survey research design was adopted in this study and the population was 10,000 while the sample was 370, selected through the use of simple random sampling. The hypotheses formulatedwere tested using the Pearson correlation analysis. The findings revealed that youth entrepreneurship has positive influence on the life of the youths. There is positive influence in technical innovation and creativity in reduction of unemployment and also there is positive influence in opportunity recognition in reduction of unemployment. Entrepreneurship education created so much awareness to the youths. It was recommended that policy makers should pay more attention practically by allocating fund for entrepreneurship through technical innovation, encourage and reward creativity skills by both government and private institutions, include entrepreneurship in educational curriculum at all levels with practical perspectives and create vocational centres outside the schools. Youths who are interested in being independent economically and control business empires should possess the skill of opportunity recognition with eagle eyes to identify and locate resources that will help to process unique products and come up with strategic business plans that others may not have to solve business problems.
Association between telomere length in the DNA of peripheral blood leukocytes and the propofol dose in anesthesia induction

Background Propofol is a widely used anesthetic and its dose is closely related to aging. Telomere length (TL) is a unique heritable trait, and emerging as a biomarker of aging, health and disease. We proposed a hypothesis that propofol dose can be determined by telomere length, which greatly reduced the risk of anesthesia, especially the elderly.Methods/design To evaluate the association between the propofol dose in anesthesia induction and: TL in the DNA of peripheral blood leukocytes; body weight;sex;difference of the Bispectral Index (BIS) before and after anesthesia induction in patients. To detect deletion at the 5′end or 3′end of telomerase RNA component (TERC). 100 patients scheduled for elective surgery. Multivariable linear regression analyses were undertaken.Results We found that propofol dose in anesthesia induction was clearly correlated significantly with TL (r = 0.78, p <0.001), sex (r = 0.83, p <0.001), body weight (r = 0.84, p = 0.004), and difference of BIS before and after anesthesia induction (r = 0.85, p = 0.029). By comparing the absolute values of standardized regression coefficients (0.58, 0.19, 0.21, and 0.12) of the four variables, it can be seen that TL contributes the most to the propofol dose in anesthesia induction. However, detection of deletion at the 5′ end or 3′ end of TERC was not found, which showed that telomerase in these patients was relatively stable.Discussion These findings provide preliminary evidence that the propofol dose in anesthesia induction was clearly correlated with genetically determined TL. TL may be a promising predictor of the propofol dose, which is beneficial to improve the safety of anesthesia and reduce perioperative complications.
Cocreated internet‐based stepped care for individuals with cancer and concurrent symptoms of anxiety and depression: Results from the U‐CARE AdultCan randomized controlled trial

The aim was to evaluate the effects of cocreated internet‐based stepped care (iCAN‐DO) on anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, and health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) in individuals with cancer and self‐reported anxiety and/or depression symptoms, compared with standard care.
Genes co-related with poor prognosis of patients with lung cancer via bioinformatical approaches

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors with high mortality worldwide. Recently, researchers reported that molecular markers on lung cancer could be used as diagnostic and prognostic targets. However, these molecules were not ideal in specificity and high selectivity. Therefore, exploring more reliable biomarkers to improve the prognosis and clarify the underlying mechanism is urgently needed both for clinic and basic research. This study aimed to identify significant genes with poor prediction for lung cancer and their underlying mechanisms. Firstly, we used gene expression datasets available from GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) database. There were 109 lung cancer samples and 27 normal samples in the selected datasets. First, DEGs (Different Expressed Gene set) of lung cancer and normal lung samples were screen out with GEO2R tool, and we displayed them by Venn diagram software and Heatmap. Secondly, we used DAVID (Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery) to analyze KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genome) pathway and GO (Gene Ontology). Third, PPI (Protein-Protein Interaction) of these DEGs was conducted by Cytoscape with STRING (Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes). Our results showed that the expression trends of 21 up-regulated genes and 116 down-regulated were similar in selected three datasets. Analyzed by MCODE (Molecular Complex Detection) plug-in, 11 up-regulated and 16 down-regulated genes were selected. To further verify gene expression differences, GEPIA (Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis) was implemented and we found 26 of 27 genes were found differently expressed in lung cancer compared with normal lung tissues. Furthermore, Kaplan–Meier analysis was used and we found 23 of 26 genes for overall survival indicated much less survival time. At last, three genes, CDH5, CLDN5, PECAM1, were found to be significantly decreased in lung cancer tissue proved through re-analysis of DAVID, which mainly co-related with leukocyte trans-endothelial migration. In conclusion, three significant down-regulated deferentially expressed genes with poor prognosis on lung cancer were identified basing on integrated bioinformatical methods. These down-expressed genes may be as a potential prognosis targets for patients with lung cancer.
STBC Site Diversity Using Layered Code Assignment for Multicarrier CDMA in MULTI-CELL System

In this paper, we focus on multicarrier CDMA systems, which are known as one of the candidates of the access method for broadband mobile communication systems, and propose a performance improvement method at the edge of the cells by using a novel site diversity technique. In order to improve the performance of terminals located at the cell edge in one-dimensional cell systems, we have proposed combined system between space time block coding (STBC) and the site diversity techniques for multicarrier CDMA. This method can improve the performance of terminals located around the cell edge by designing the scrambling code to keep the orthogonality of the signals transmitted from the adjacent two base stations. However, in multi-cell systems, since cells are displayed with two-dimensional expansion, the scrambling code assignment is complicated. In this paper, in order to improve the performance of the site diversity in multi-cell multicarrier CDMA systems, we propose a scrambling code design and assignment scheme with layered structure for STBC site diversity
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between integrated tuberculosis and Human Immuno-deficiency Virus therapy and tuberculosis treatment outcomes among adults in sub-Saharan Africa

Background: Despite the scale-up of programmes integrating treatment of tuberculosis (TB) and Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), TB treatment outcomes in TB/HIV co-infected patients in the region remain sub-optimal.Objective: To summarize the available evidence on the association between integrated TB/HIV treatment and TB treatment outcomes specifically, successful treatment and all-cause mortality in TB/HIV co-infected adults in SSA.Method: A systematic review of studies published between March 2004 and 10 July 2019 was performed. Seven electronic databases including Medline, Embase and Cochrane were searched to identify interventional and observational quantitative studies reporting on integrated TB/HIV treatment in SSA. Two investigators independently screened the search output, reviewed the eligible studies, and rated the quality of eligible studies using quality assessment tools of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) were derived using random-effects meta-analysis. Heterogeneity across studies was assessed using the I2 statistic. The confidence in the pooled ORs was rated using the GRADE. The final review was reported using the PRISMA.Results: Eleven studies including 4181 participants were retained. The studies were of moderate to good quality, with 10 being quasi-experimental and cohort. Pooling of relevant studies showed that the odds of treatment success with integration was 1.1 times (95% CI: 0.93-1.29; I2=74.5%; p-value for heterogeneity=0.001) the odds of treatment success without integration and the odds of mortality with integration was 1.27 (95% CI 1.02-1.59; I2=87.3%; p-value for heterogeneity<0.0001) times the odds of mortality without integration. On sensitivity analysis, the odds of mortality with integration decreased to 1.06 (95% CI: 0.83-1.34; I2=80.1%; p-value for heterogeneity<0.0001) times the odds of mortality without integration and there was strong evidence of an association between sample size variation and heterogeneity (p=0.01). Good quality studies (4/11) tended to support the effectiveness of integrated treatment in increasing successful outcomes and decreasing mortality. Certainty in the pooled ORs was low.Conclusion: Evidence on the effect of integrated TB/HIV treatment services on treatment success and all-cause mortality in TB/HIV co-infected patients in SSA is inconclusive but the few available good quality studies tend to favour the effectiveness of these services. More robust primary studies are warranted.
What Affects Creative Performance In Idea Co-Creation: Competitive, Cooperative Or Coopetitive Climate?

Companies develop co-creation platforms to collect innovative ideas generated by consumers. The idea competition model is traditionally used to organise such collective action and has been widely implemented by companies. In parallel, the development of collaborative platforms and social networks have led to the appearance of co-creation platforms based on a cooperation model with community features. In addition to these two classical models, a third model, a combination of competition and cooperation — the coopetition model — has emerged. Although there is growing interest in this model, no study to date has compared its performance to the other two models. Our research objective is to investigate and compare how these three models affect creative performance in terms of idea quantity and quality. We thus conducted an experiment with 177 students to generate ideas that were submitted to an established company. The results show that the coopetition model generates more ideas and more creative ideas than the other two models. We also offer insights on how a consumer co-creation platform should be designed to achieve better creative performance.
Rancang Bangun Aplikasi Virtual Tour Monumen Mandala Berbasis Android

Penelitian ini bertujuan adalah merancang dan membangun aplikasi Virtual Tour Monumen Mandala Makassar berbasis Android . Metode penelitian pada penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif dimana strategis yang digunakan adalah Design and Creation . Penelitian ini menggunakan metode pengumpulan data wawancara dan observasi. Metode perancangan menggunakan waterfall dan teknik pengujian yang digunakan adalah Black Box. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah aplikasi Virtual Tour Monumen Mandala Makassar yang dapat menjadi media penyampaian informasi sejarah Pembebasan Irian Barat. Aplikasi ini sudah memvisualisasikan lingkungan pada Monumen Mandala Makassar, desain aplikasi menarik, serta informasi yang disajikan cukup lengkap mengenai Monumen Mandala Makassar tersebut. Namun pengoperasian atau kontrol dari penggunaan aplikasi masih perlu diperbaiki karena beberapa dari responden mengatakan bahwa pengoperasian dari aplikasi ini masih sulit.
Senolytic compound ABT-263 improved senescent macrophages function by inducing autophagy and protected the aged mouse from sepsis

Sepsis is a critical challenge for the elderly population as the immune function is less responsive by aging. Although cell numbers seem preserved in the elderly, macrophages present age-related function decline, which including reduced chemokines, phagocytosis, and autophagy. ABT-263, an inhibitor of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl2, is reported had a senolytic effect which can selectively clear the senescent cells in vivo and rejuvenate the aged tissues. Therefore, we treated the aged mouse with ABT-263 and used cecal slurry injection to induce sepsis to observe its effect on the survival rate of sepsis. Besides, we isolated peritoneal macrophages from the aged mouse to investigate the cell function and molecular mechanism. 3-methyladenine (3-MA), a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3K) inhibitor, and rapamycin, an autophagy-enhancer, were used to block or mimic the autophagy, respectively. EGFP-expressing E. Coli was used as a marker to evaluate the phagocytic ability of macrophages. The results showed ABT-263 treatment improved the survival rate of sepsis in the aged mouse which related to autophagy. Additionally, It is revealed that ABT-263 induced autophagy and enhanced the phagocytic ability of the peritoneal macrophages. However, blocking the autophagy can eliminate this effect. In conclusion, ABT-263 enhanced the macrophage function by inducing autophagy, consequently, protected the aged mouse from sepsis.
Estimation of the cointegrating rank in fractional cointegration

This paper proposes an estimator of the cointegrating rank of a potentially cointegrated multivariate fractional process. Our setting is very flexible, allowing the individual observable processes to have different integration orders. The proposed method is automatic and can be also employed to infer the dimensions of possible cointegrating subspaces, which are characterized by special directions in the cointegrating space which generate cointegrating errors with smaller integration orders, increasing the �achievement� of the cointegration analysis. A Monte Carlo experiment of finite sample performance and an empirical analysis are included.
Push and Pull Factors of International Higher Education: A Case Study of Pakistani Female Students Studying in Malaysia

This paper investigates and analyses various push and pull factors affecting Pakistani female doctoral students to pursue international higher education in Malaysia. The study implemented an open-ended interview approach to collect qualitative data and analysed it using a constant comparative analysis originally developed from Grounded Theory (GT) methodology. The study findings discovered affordability as a major push factor besides other relevant but not less important push factors, such as scholarship conditions to choose Malaysia as a country of destination because of its affordable tuition fees and living expenses. In contrast, this study also identified the principal pull factor that makes Malaysia as a preferred Muslim country for Pakistani women seeking higher education. Other general pull factors, including cultural diversity, lifestyle, security of women and freedom of women, were also found as significantly important as the remaining individual pull factors, such as personal comparison made between Pakistani and Malaysian higher education, students’ previous international experience and family bond. Based on these findings, some lessons are learned and discussed in the details for internationalizing our higher education system in Pakistan in the future.
Social survival: Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) use social structure to partition ecological niches within proposed critical habitat

Animal culture and social bonds are relevant to wildlife conservation because they influence patterns of geography, behavior, and strategies of survival. Numerous examples of socially-driven habitat partitioning and ecological-niche specialization can be found among vertebrates, including toothed whales. But such social-ecological dynamics, described here as ‘social niche partitioning’, are not known among baleen whales, whose societies -- particularly on foraging grounds -- are largely perceived as unstructured and incidental to matters of habitat use and conservation. However, through 16 years of behavioral and photo-identification observations of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding within a fjord system in British Columbia, Canada, we have documented long-term pair bonds (lasting up to 12 years) as well as a complex societal structure, which corresponds closely to persistent patterns in feeding strategy, long-term site fidelity (extended seasonal occupancy and annual rate of return up to 75%), specific geographic preferences within the fjord system, and other forms of habitat use. Randomization tests of network congruency and clustering algorithms were used to test for overlap in patterns of social structure and habitat use, which confirmed the occurrence of social niche partitioning on the feeding grounds of this baleen whale. In addition, we document the extensive practice of group bubble net feeding in Pacific Canada. This coordinated feeding behavior was found to strongly mediate the social structure and habitat use within this humpback whale society. Additionally, during our 2004 – 2019 study, we observed a shift in social network structure in 2010 – 2012, which corresponded with environmental and demographic shifts including a sudden decline in the population’s calving rate. Our findings indicate that the social lives of humpback whales, and perhaps baleen whales generally, are more complex than previously supposed and should be a primary consideration in the assessment of potential impacts to important habitat.