Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Who buys organic food? Understanding different types of consumers

Abstract Globally, concerns regarding consumers’ food quality and safety have increased. There is an increase in the search of alternative healthy and safe food that also enhances immunity. Organic food eliminates most of the concerns that consumers have. Market experts expect the Indian domestic organic food market to grow rapidly in the coming years. This study aims to understand the characteristics, attitudes, and buying patterns of different types of consumers so that producers, sellers, and the government can design appropriate marketing strategies. To study the attitude of consumers, the Multi-attribute Model was used. A survey was conducted in Delhi-NCR, and data was obtained from 556 consumers. Through Exploratory Factor Analysis, six factors were derived: health, humanity, and environment; obstacles in buying; trust and confidence; fundamental knowledge; tradition and culture; and social acceptance and status. Based on these factors, and with cluster analysis, consumers were classified into five segments: incognizant consumers, unconcerned consumers, critical consumers, conservative consumers, and congruent consumers.
Global changes explain the long-term demographic trend of the Eurasian common lizard (Squamata: Lacertidae)

Abstract The demographic trend of a species depends on the dynamics of its local populations, which can be compromised by local or by global phenomena. However, the relevance of local and global phenomena has rarely been investigated simultaneously. Here, we tested whether local phenomena compromised a species’ demographic trend using the Eurasian common lizard Zootoca vivipara, the terrestrial reptile exhibiting the widest geographic distribution, as a model species. We analyzed the species’ ancient demographic trend using genetic data from its 6 allopatric genetic clades and tested whether its demographic trend mainly depended on single clades or on global phenomena. Zootoca vivipara’s effective population size increased since 2.3 million years ago and started to increase steeply and continuously from 0.531 million years ago. Population growth rate exhibited 2 maxima, both occurring during global climatic changes and important vegetation changes on the northern hemisphere. Effective population size and growth rate were negatively correlated with global surface temperatures, in line with global parameters driving long-term demographic trends. Zootoca vivipara’s ancient demography was neither driven by a single clade, nor by the 2 clades that colonized huge geographic areas after the last glaciation. The low importance of local phenomena, suggests that the experimentally demonstrated high sensitivity of this species to short-term ecological changes is a response in order to cope with short-term and local changes. This suggests that what affected its long-term demographic trend the most, were not these local changes/responses, but rather the important and prolonged global climatic changes and important vegetation changes on the northern hemisphere, including the opening up of the forest by humans.
I, Trolley: Self-Redirection and Hybrid Trolley Cases

Abstract While it is permissible to switch the trolley in the classic Switch case, it is not permissible to push the stranger in the classic Footbridge (aka, ‘Push’) case. But what may we do in cases that offer both a ‘switch-like’ option and a ‘push-like’ option? Surprisingly, we may choose the push-like option, provided that it has better consequences than the switch-like option. We arrive at this conclusion by taking ourselves seriously – not just as agents who might redirect threats – but as threats who might be redirected by agents.
Conditional mean risk sharing in the individual model with graphical dependencies

Abstract Conditional mean risk sharing appears to be effective to distribute total losses amongst participants within an insurance pool. This paper develops analytical results for this allocation rule in the individual risk model with dependence induced by the respective position within a graph. Precisely, losses are modelled by zero-augmented random variables whose joint occurrence distribution and individual claim amount distributions are based on network structures and can be characterised by graphical models. The Ising model is adopted for occurrences and loss amounts obey decomposable graphical models that are specific to each participant. Two graphical structures are thus used: the first one to describe the contagion amongst member units within the insurance pool and the second one to model the spread of losses inside each participating unit. The proposed individual risk model is typically useful for modelling operational risks, catastrophic risks or cybersecurity risks.
Fuzzy panel data analysis

In statistical and econometric researches, three types of data are mostly used as cross-section, time series and panel data. Cross-section data are obtained by collecting the observations related to the same variables of many units at constant time. Time series data are data type consisted of observations measured at successive time points for single unit. Sometimes, the number of observations in cross-sectional or time series data is insufficient for carrying out the statistical or econometric analysis. In that cases, panel data obtained by combining cross-section and time series data are often used. Panel data analysis (PDA) has some advantages such as increasing the number of observations and freedom degree, decreasing of multicollinearity, and obtaining more efficient and consistent predictions results with more data information. However, PDA requires to satisfy some statistical assumptions such as “heteroscedasticity”, “autocorrelation”, “correlation between units”, and “stationarity”. It is too difficult to hold these assumptions in real-time applications. In this study, fuzzy panel data analysis (FPDA) is proposed in order to overcome these drawbacks of PDA. FPDA is based on predicting the parameters of panel data regression as triangular fuzzy number. In order to validate the performance of efficiency of FPDA, FPDA, and PDA are applied to panel data consisted of gross domestic production data from five country groups between the years of 2005-2013 and the prediction performances of them are compared by using three criteria such mean absolute percentage error, root mean square error, and variance accounted for. All analyses are performed in R 3.5. 2. As a result of analysis, it is observed that FPDA is an efficient and practical method, especially in case required statistical assumptions are not satisfied.
New Volvovirus Isolate From Domesticated House Cricket, Acheta Domesticus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

BackgroundDNA viruses have a broad variety of genetic material. Most viral DNA experiments focused on those with recognized pathogenic characteristics. Herein, we employed hybrid approach to systematically identify viral DNA from the Acheta domesticus genome and also curated primer library to reconfirm the infection of Acheta domesticus volvovirus (AdVVV) from A. domesticus samples obtained from breeding facility in Thailand. Methods and ResultsThe AdVVV nucleotide sequence was anchored and examined from genome sequence of A. domesticus. Subsequently, we sequenced the overlapping amplified DNA to assemble the whole genome of AdVVV isolate. The genome sequence began with the putative nonanucleotide origin of replication (1-TAGTATTAC), and had four open reading frames. The circular nature of AdVVV was confirmed as typical stemloop assembled by complementary initial and ending nucleotides sequences. The newly discovered volvovirus isolates from Thailand is also highly homologous (97.34 -98.77 %) with previously identified volvovirus sequences and having identical gene organization. This correlation is particularly surprising considering that the identified volvovirus considerably mutated compared to previously discovered volvovirus isolates. ConclusionsThis research appears to be the first to find volvovirus isolates from Thailand with an alternative approach to identify viral isolates. These results widen our knowledge on rapidly evolving volvovirus, and provide insights for better identification and the phylogenetic analysis based on different segments of viral genome. Also, the alternative method used in the present study will aid in the detection of DNA viruses and the assembly of their genomes.
Effect of thermal and non-thermal processing on antioxidant potential of cowpea seeds

ABSTRACT Legumes are a good source of bioactive components, besides being nutrient dense. These components have antioxidant properties and have a protective role against free radicals. Legumes like cowpeas are usually consumed after certain processing, so the present study was intended to assess antioxidant property of selected four cultivars of cowpea after going through various thermal (autoclaving, microwave, boiling, and roasting) and non-thermal (soaking and fermentation) processings. Thermal processing reduced total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) in all cultivars with respect to antioxidant activity of raw cultivars, while DPPH scavenging activity increased after all thermal treatments excluding few thermal processings. Non-thermal processing revealed increase in TPC, DPPH scavenging activity, and FRAP values, while TFC content showed a decreasing trend. A moderately high correlation between TPC and DPPH scavenging activity was observed in both kinds of thermal treatments indicating the role of phenolic compounds for antioxidant activity. It was concluded from the study that fermentation processing has promising effects on retention and enhancement of antioxidant activity of cowpea cultivars.
Synthesis of poly (n-butyl acrylate) with tempo by nitroxide mediated polymerization method

It has been observed that acrylate monomers are very difficult to polymerize with the low cost nitroxide catalyst 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxyl (TEMPO). Therefore, costly acyclic nitroxides such as N-tert-butyl-N-(1-diethylphosphono-2,2-dimethyl)-N-oxyl, (SG1), 2,2,5-Trimethyl-4-phenyl-3-azahexane-3-nitroxide (TIPNO) and TIPNO derivatives have to be used for the polymerization of the acrylic acid derivatives. There are very few reports on the use of TEMPO-derivatives toward the polymerization of n-butyl acrylate. Generally different reducing agents viz. glucose, ascorbic acid, hydroxyacetone etc. have been used to destroy excess TEMPO during the polymerization reaction. The acrylate polymerizations fail in the presence of TEMPO due to the strong C–O bond formed between the acrylate chain end and nitroxide. To the best of our knowledge, no literature report is available on the use of TEMPO without reducing agent or high temperature initiators, toward the polymerization of n-butyl acrylate. The present study has been carried out with a view to re-examine the application of low cost nitroxide TEMPO, so that it can be utilized towards the polymerization of acrylate monomers (e.g. n-butyl acrylate). We have been able to polymerize n-butyl acrylate using the nitroxide TEMPO as initiator (via a macroinitiator). In this synthesis, a polystyrene macroinitiator was synthesized in the first step from TEMPO, after this TEMPO end-capped styrene macroinitiator (PSt-TEMPO) is used to polymerize n-butyl acrylate monomer. The amount of macroinitiator taken was varied from 0.05% to 50% by weight of n-butyl acrylate monomer. The polymerization was carried out at 120°C by bulk polymerization method. The experimental findings showed a gradual increase in molecular weight of the polymer formed and decrease in the polydispersity index (PDI) with increase in amount of PSt-TEMPO macroinitiator taken. In all experiments conversion was more than 80%. These results indicate that the polymerization takes place through controlled polymerization process. Effect of different solvents on polymerization has also been investigated. In the following experiments TEMPO capped styrene has been used as macroinitiator leading to the successful synthesis of poly n-Butyl acrylate. It has been found that styrene macroinitiator is highly efficient for the nitroxide mediated polymerization, even in very small concentration for the synthesis of poly n-butyl acrylate. High concentration of macroinitiator results in the formation of block copolymers of polystyrene and poly (n-butyl acrylate) viz. polystyrene-block-poly-(n-butyl acrylate). The use of TEMPO toward controlled polymerization is of much importance, because it is the nitroxide commercially available at the lowest cost.
Hydrometeorological, glaciological and geospatial research data from the Peyto Glacier Research Basin in the Canadian Rockies

Abstract. This paper presents hydrometeorological, glaciological and geospatial data from the Peyto Glacier Research Basin (PGRB) in the Canadian Rockies. Peyto Glacier has been of interest to glaciological and hydrological researchers since the 1960s, when it was chosen as one of five glacier basins in Canada for the study of mass and water balance during the International Hydrological Decade (IHD, 1965–1974). Intensive studies of the glacier and observations of the glacier mass balance continued after the IHD, when the initial seasonal meteorological stations were discontinued, then restarted as continuous stations in the late 1980s. The corresponding hydrometric observations were discontinued in 1977 and restarted in 2013. Datasets presented in this paper include high-resolution, co-registered digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from original air photos and lidar surveys; hourly off-glacier meteorological data recorded from 1987 to the present; precipitation data from the nearby Bow Summit weather station; and long-term hydrological and glaciological model forcing datasets derived from bias-corrected reanalysis products. These data are crucial for studying climate change and variability in the basin and understanding the hydrological responses of the basin to both glacier and climate change. The comprehensive dataset for the PGRB is a valuable and exceptionally long-standing testament to the impacts of climate change on the cryosphere in the high-mountain environment. The dataset is publicly available from Federated Research Data Repository at https://doi.org/10.20383/101.0259 (Pradhananga et al., 2020).
Impact of Stripe Rust Resistance Alleles on Wheat Grain Yield Using Landraces and Improved Accessions

Stripe rust is one of the most devastating biotic stresses to cause grain yield losses in wheat. In the current study, 227 imported accessions, and six widely grown modern cultivars (Sids14, Sids12, Misr1, Misr2, Giza171, and Gimmiza9), were used. All plant materials were planted in the field and evaluated for stripe rust resistance and grain yield. Five Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers Xpsp3000, Xbarc8, Xgwm419, Xwmc44, and Xbarc32, respectively, are associated with five essential stripe rust resistance genes Yr10, Yr15, Yr26, Yr29, and Yr59, were also used. The results indicated a highly positive and significant correlation between grain yield and stripe rust resistance. Furthermore, as the number of stripe rust resistance alleles increased, both grain yield and stripe rust resistance increased. Out of the 233 accessions used, 11 accessions were found to contain the five resistance genes. The identified resistant accessions could be used as a gene source to enhance stripe rust resistance in wheat breeding programs. SSR markers used in the current study effectively capture a substantial part of the phenotypic variation caused by stripe rust. Thus, these five markers could be used effectively in marker-assisted selection for stripe rust resistance.
A Cross-Sectional Study to Determine and Compare the Craniofacial Anthropometric Norms in a Selected Kenyan and Chinese Population

Background: Craniofacial anthropometry provides essential data for diagnosis and treatment planning, with the norms for many races having been investigated. The results reveal that facial morphometry varies greatly because of geographical, ethnic, and racial variations. This study aims to gather the normative anthropometric data and compare the differences in facial morphometry between the Kenyan population and that of the Chinese. Methods: Four vertical measurements (trichion–nasion, nasion–subnasale, subnasale–gnathion, and superaurale–subaurale) and 6 horizontal measurements (zygion–zygion, exocanthion–endocanthion, endocanthion–endocanthion, pupil-pupil, alare–alare, and chelion–chelion) were obtained manually from subjects with no craniofacial abnormality. Results: A total of 180 participants (90 Kenyans and 90 Chinese) were included. Among the Kenyans, males generally had greater dimensions in comparison to the Kenyan females with the exception of the upper third, lower third, and intercanthal, and interpupillary distances. Among the Chinese, there was a significant difference between the 2 genders with the exception of intercanthal distance. All measurements were greater in Chinese males in comparison to the females. Comparison between races shows that Kenyans had greater vertical measurements with exception of the ear length for both genders. The Chinese males had increased facial width and intercanthal distance, while the Chinese females showed increased intercanthal distance compared to Kenyans. Kenyans exhibited hyperleptoprosopic-type face, while Chinese exhibited mesoprosopic-type face, with none of the 2 groups conforming to the neoclassical canons. Conclusion: Kenyans generally have greater craniofacial measurements versus Chinese, except for the facial width and intercanthal distance for males and interorbital distance for females.
The Congregational Character Questionnaire: An Initial Empirical Examination of the Significance of Collective Church Character Traits

Researchers in several academic disciplines have begun to take an interest in group character traits, including the character traits of religious congregations. This article reports the first empirical studies of congregational virtues. The Congregational Character Questionnaire was developed for measuring 12 different virtues of Christian churches: clinging to apostolic teaching, honoring teachers, prayerfulness, hopefulness, discipleship, emotional supportiveness, material supportiveness, spiritual equality, unity, submission, peace with the world, and spreading the faith. The instrument was then used with an online sample (N = 530) to study how congregants’ perceptions of their congregation’s virtuousness related to congregants’ evaluations of their congregation, participation in their congregation, as well as congregants’ satisfaction with life, presence of meaning in life, and religious well-being. Results indicated that congregants’ overall perceptions of congregational virtuousness were significantly positively related to all of these dependent variables. These results help to reveal the important role that congregational character may play in the experience of congregants. Directions for future research in this area are outlined.
Implementation of Bounded Diffusion Impedance in a Model Pyeis to Correctly Simulate Flow Gradient on Channel-Electrode in Microfluidics

Here, we propose to test the limits of the bounded diffusion impedance model by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements in a microfluidic device architecture bearing a set of microelectrodes integrated in microchannel. This EIS Nyquist plot behaviour was currently modelled with the Randles equivalent circuit. In this work, one of the main advantages for using PyEIS (a Python-based Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy) software is being able to modify and correct the models with a simple implementation in the source code freely accessible with published data [K. B. Knudsen, ECS Meeting Abstracts, MA2019-01, 1937 (2019)]. The obtained results after implementing the diffusion convective equation in the PyEIS code permits to adapt each function to be able to plot, simulate and fit a specific modified Randles for channel-electrode. The modified Randles was used for preliminary tests for optimization of the parameters of flow in the microfluidic channel by comparing the diffusion layer thickness as a function with the volumetric flow.
Effect of feed processing during the nursery rearing of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

This study aimed to compare 5 feed processing for O. niloticus fingerlings: ME1: micro-extruded 1 mm; ED03: extruded and disintegrated 0.3 mm; ED06: extruded and disintegrated 0.6 mm; BF03: bran 0.3 mm and BF06: bran 0.6 mm. Feed conversion was lower in ME1 and ED06. The protein retention coefficient was statistically higher in ME1. The fish proximate composition did not differ among treatments. Although superior in ME1 weight gain did not differ statistically from ED06. ME1 resulted in nitrogen and phosphorus in water statistically lower. ME1, ED06 and BF06 obtained the highest partial net revenues. Thus, ME1 presented the best zootechnical indices, economic performance and reduced impact on water quality.
Analysis of the spatial variability of the concentrations of Na+ and K+ ions in the groundwater sourced in Southern Poland

Differences in the spatial variability of Na and K ion concentrations in the groundwater sourced in Southern Poland have been analysed. The study was based on selected hydrogeological environments differing in the lithology and geometry of aquifer rock voids. The hydrogeochemical background for Na and K ions was determined for various hydrogeological environments as well. The hydrogeochemical background ranges obtained do not deviate significantly from the background ranges for groundwater observed in other areas of Poland. The analyses conducted indicate the presence of anomalous concentrations of Na and K ions in all hydrogeological environments often accompanied with significantly elevated concentrations of Cl and SO4 2– ions. Owing to the fact that the data analysed exhibit a distribution deviating considerably from a normal one, non-parametric methods of statistical inference were used. The results obtained indicate statistically significant differences between the variabilities of Na and K ion concentrations in various hydrogeological environments. The factors responsible for such differences are lithological variability and different groundwater circulation systems.
Innovative Biotechnology for Generation of Cardiac Tissue

Heart transplantation remains the only curative treatment for end-stage heart failure. This life-saving option continues to be limited by the low number of organ donors, graft rejection and adverse effects of immunosuppressants. Engineering bioartificial hearts from acellular native-derived scaffolds and stem cells has gained attention because of its potential to overcome these limitations. In this study, rat hearts (n = 20) were decellularized by means of coronary perfusion with 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in a modified Langendorff device. The electrical field behavior of the SDS molecule was studied and it was assumed that when applying an alternating current, the exposure time of the tissue to the detergent might decrease. To repopulate the decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM), human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were used, induced to differentiate into cardiomyocytes (CMs) with 5-azacytidine (5-aza). The results showed no cellular debris and an intact ECM following decellularization. Decellularization in the presence of an electric field proved to be faster, decreasing the potential risk of ECM damage due to the detergent. After cell seeding and culturing of eight scaffolds with hMSCs, the recellularization process was analyzed using optic microscopy (OM), which showed cells suggestive for CMs. This study presents a novel and efficient decellularization protocol using an electric field and suggests that hMSCs can be useful in the generation of a bioartificial heart.