Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When news media and social media meet: How Facebook users reacted to news stories about a supermarket plastic bag ban

Plastic reduction policies are important for addressing plastic pollution however, the success of such policies relies on establishing new social norms. This study advances knowledge on public expressions of social norms by exploring the interplay between news media and social media in response to a new environmental policy. It is the first study to explore this phenomenon with the explicit aim of identifying and comparing information related to social norms. A content analysis was conducted in relation to the 2018 Australian supermarket plastic bag ban. Results demonstrate how social norms related to a new policy are created, reinforced and expressed in the contemporary media landscape. The interaction between news media and social media offers a window into public expressions of social norms, where social media provides a platform for civic participation in a public and real-time environment in which users can challenge the dominant narrative presented by the news media.
Experimental Study of Electrical Properties of Pharmaceutical Materials by Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy

The physicochemical characterization of pharmaceutical materials is essential for drug discovery, development and evaluation, and for understanding and predicting their interaction with physiological systems. Amongst many measurement techniques for spectroscopic characterization of pharmaceutical materials, Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) is powerful as it can be used to model the electrical properties of pure substances and compounds in correlation with specific chemical composition. In particular, the accurate measurement of specific properties of drugs is important for evaluating physiological interaction. The electrochemical modelling of compounds is usually carried out using spectral impedance data over a wide frequency range, to fit a predetermined model of an equivalent electrochemical cell. This paper presents experimental results by EIS analysis of four drug formulations (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole C14H18N4O3-C10H11N3O3, ambroxol C13H18Br2N2O.HCl, metamizole sodium C13H16N3NaO4S, and ranitidine C13H22N4O3S.HCl). A wide frequency range from 20 Hz to 30 MHz is used to evaluate system identification techniques using EIS data and to obtain process models. The results suggest that arrays of linear R-C models derived using system identification techniques in the frequency domain can be used to identify different compounds.
On the importance of being flexible: early interrelations between affective flexibility, executive functions and anxiety symptoms in preschoolers

ABSTRACT When children are confronted with an emotional problem, affective flexibility mobilizes their cognitive and emotional resources to optimally address it. We investigated the contribution of executive functions to cognitive and affective flexibility in preschoolers. We assessed affective flexibility in 67 preschoolers (30 girls; Mmonths = 61.77, SD = 11.08 months) using an innovative measure – the Emotional Flexible Item Selection Task (EM-FIST), plus cool measures of executive functions (working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility), anxiety symptoms and intelligence. Findings revealed that affective flexibility improves during the preschool years. While individual differences in age and proactive inhibition predicted cognitive flexibility, a different constellation of predictors (maternal education, proactive inhibition, working memory and age) were significant for affective flexibility. Cognitive flexibility didn't contribute to affective flexibility beyond the predictors mentioned above. Anxiety exerted a negative effect on affective flexibility in a high anxious subgroup of preschoolers, but only when processing negative, relative to happy faces, supporting the Attentional Control Theory which predicts valence-related executive impairments.
Temporal shifts in Americans’ risk perceptions of the Zika outbreak

Abstract Cross-sectional surveys, despite their value, are unable to probe dynamics of risk perceptions over time. An earlier longitudinal panel study of Americans’ views on Ebola risk inspired this partial replication on Americans’ views of Zika risks, using multilevel modeling to assess temporal changes in these views and inter-individual factors affecting them, and to determine if similar factors were influential for both non-epidemics in the USA. Baseline Zika risk scores – as in the Ebola study – were influenced by dread of the Zika virus, perceptions of a near-miss outbreak, and perceived likelihood of an outbreak. Judgments of both personal risk and national risk from Zika declined significantly, and individual rates of news following predicted slower decline of perceived national risk in both cases. However, few other factors affected changes in Zika risk judgments, which did not replicate in a validation half-sample, whereas several factors slowed or increased the rate of decline in Ebola judgments of the U.S. risk. These differences might reflect differences in the diseases caused by these two viruses – e.g., Ebola’s much greater lethality – but more longitudinal studies across multiple diseases will be needed to test that speculation. Benefits of such studies to health risk analysis outweigh the difficulties they pose.
Sustainable Competitive Advantage Driven by Big Data Analytics and Innovation

Big data analytics (BDA) is one of the main pillars of Industry 4.0. It has become a promising tool for supporting the competitive advantages of firms by enhancing data-driven performance. Meanwhile, the scarcity of resources on a worldwide level has forced firms to consider sustainable-based performance as a critical issue. Additionally, the literature confirms that BDA and innovation can enhance firms’ performance, leading to competitive advantage. However, there is a lack of studies that examine whether or not BDA and innovation alone can sustain a firm’s competitive advantage. Drawing on previous studies and dynamic capability theory, this study proposes that big data analytics capabilities (BDAC), supported by a high level of data availability (DA), can improve innovation capabilities (IC) and, hence, lead to the development of a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). This study examines the proposed hypotheses by surveying 117 manufacturing firms and analyzing responses via partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) statistical software. Findings reveal that BDAC relies significantly on the degree of DA and has a significant role in increasing IC. Furthermore, the analysis confirms that IC has a significant and direct effect on a firm’s SCA, while BDAC has no direct effect on SCA. This study provides valuable insights for manufacturing firms to improve their sustainable business performance and theoretical and practical insights into BDA implementation issues in attaining sustainability in processes.
Stochastic (cid:1)(cid:6) VCO-ADC Utilizing 4x Staggered Averaging

—This work presents a stochastic ring voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) based analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that combines spatial redundancy with staggered averaging to reduce both noise and distortion. Staggered averaging reduces quantization noise more than simple averaging with single clock phase for the same amount of spatial redundancy for VCO-ADCs. 4 continuous-time (CT) second-order VCO based sub-ADCs are run in parallel, and their outputs are sampled with multi-phase clocks followed by averaging to form the overall ADC output. We present behavioral simulation results and measurement results on 65nm CMOS test chip. Measurement results show staggered averaging improves SNR by an average of 7.6dB compared to single ADC. In contrast, simple averaging with 4 sub-ADCs can improve SNR by 6dB. The test chip consumes 0.36mW power and has SNDR of 63dB over 0.5MHz bandwidth.
An efficient trajectory sampling design method for elementary effect based global sensitivity analysis

Abstract The elementary effects method is a screening global sensitivity measure to identify the few important inputs in a model which contains many inputs. In this work, a new advanced trajectory design method (NAT method) is developed to calculate the global sensitivity indices based on the elementary effects method. The conception of trajectory cube is proposed to define a trajectory, and then the central point of trajectory is defined. The quantitative relationship is constructed between the sample points in a trajectory and the central point in the trajectory. By taking exploration coverage and exploration accuracy into consideration, the length of the trajectory cube, i.e. exploration step length, is derived quantitatively. Before generating sampling points, the NAT method needs to generate central points of trajectories at first. In order to facilitate a better scanning of the input space, Sobol’s sequence and centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) sampling are adopted. Next, sampling points of the trajectories are generated according to the relationship between sampling points and central points of trajectories. Afterward, the global sensitivity indices of the elementary effects can be estimated by the trajectories resulted from the NAT method. Compared with the advanced trajectory sampling design method proposed by Campolongo et al. in 2007, the NAT method decreases the computational cost and improves the accuracy in screening important inputs, and it is demonstrated by the numerical examples.
Effect of Mechanical and Herbicide Treatments on Weed Densities and Biomass in Two Potato Cultivars

The effect of potato cultivar and mechanical or herbicide treatments on weed densities and biomass was determined in a research study on a field, conducted from 2007 to 2009 at the Institute of Plant Breeding and Acclimatization. Included in the study were two cultivars and different weed control treatments, including a mechanical method and metribuzin combined with various herbicides and application timings. Chemical methods of controlling weeds were more effective than mechanical methods to reduce weed densities and biomass. The combination of metribuzin with rimsulfuron + SN oil, applied before potato emergence (PRE), was more effective than the other metribuzin combinations. The weed infestation of potato cv. “Irga” was greater than that of cultivar “Fianna” due to differences in the type of growth.
Improved feature decay algorithms for statistical machine translation

Abstract In machine-learning applications, data selection is of crucial importance if good runtime performance is to be achieved. In a scenario where the test set is accessible when the model is being built, training instances can be selected so they are the most relevant for the test set. Feature Decay Algorithms (FDA) are a technique for data selection that has demonstrated excellent performance in a number of tasks. This method maximizes the diversity of the n-grams in the training set by devaluing those ones that have already been included. We focus on this method to undertake deeper research on how to select better training data instances. We give an overview of FDA and propose improvements in terms of speed and quality. Using German-to-English parallel data, first we create a novel approach that decreases the execution time of FDA when multiple computation units are available. In addition, we obtain improvements on translation quality by extending FDA using information from the parallel corpus that is generally ignored.
The carotenoid biosynthesis pathway in the asexual intraerythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum

Abstract. Nortey-Mensah R, Teye MA, Ofori MF. 2021. The carotenoid biosynthesis pathway in the asexual intraerythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum. Asian J Trop Biotechnol 18: 13-27. Plasmodium falciparum, like other Apicomplexans, possesses a dormant plastid called the apicoplast. Because it houses metabolic pathways peculiar to the parasite, such as isoprenoid production, this organelle promises a new and promising target for the chemotherapeutic control of malaria. Although the phytoene synthase (PSY) gene has been shown to be critical for carotenogenesis, nothing is known about its evolutionary relationship with P. falciparum and other Apicomplexans. The goal of this work was to identify the evolutionary history and relatedness of the PSY gene in Apicomplexans and other animals, as well as to profile the carotenoids generated in the asexual intraerythrocytic stages of P. falciparum. Fluridone's IC50 and effect on parasite population were determined utilizing in vitro inhibition experiments on the asexual intraerythrocytic stages of P. falciparum. To examine the evolutionary history and relatedness of the PSY gene in Apicomplexans and other taxa, HPLC was used to profile carotenoids created at the asexual phases, and an unrooted phylogenetic tree was built using MEGA 6. Dose-dependent inhibition of parasite population was observed with fluridone treatment on all the asexual stages, with the ring stages being the most vulnerable. The carotenoid profiles revealed that carotenoids are generated cumulatively in P. falciparum throughout the asexual intraerythrocytic phases, with carotenoids such as lycopene, ? -, ? -carotene among those synthesized. The discovery of relatively high quantities of abscisic acid (ABA) in the schizont stages but not in the other stages was an interesting novel finding of this study. This is the first time ABA has been shown to be synthesized by P. falciparum, and additional research into the specific role of ABA in P. falciparum schizont phases would be groundbreaking. The phylogenetic study revealed that the P. falciparum PSY was most closely related to P. reichenowi, a chimpanzee strain of the malaria-causing parasites, supporting the hypothesis that malaria species in humans originated in chimps.
Categorization of Lactobacillus brevis along their beer-spoiling potential

The tolerance towards hop acids is one of the most important prerequisites for the survival and growth of bacteria in beer. Based on “forcing tests” in beer of non-adapted L. brevis to hop compounds, bacteria were categorized into constitutive beer-spoiling and non-spoiling strains. Differential 2D gel electrophoresis revealed mechanisms, which contribute to basal level of hop tolerance. These are involved in pH and zinc homeostasis, utilization of maltose and degradation of mis-folded proteins as well as replication and DNA repair, homeostasis of copper or manganese, uptake of peptides, utilization of branched chain amino acids and unspecific acetylation of currently unknown substances. Additionally, usually non-specific, but typical bacterial stress responses could be induced in the lack of manganese, which contribute to advanced level of hop tolerance.
Evolutionary rate shifts suggest species-specific adaptation events in HIV-1 and SIV

HIV-1 is an emerging virus that entered the human population several times independently. Two host jumps from chimpanzees resulted in HIV-1 groups M and N, whereas two host jumps, most likely from gorillas, resulted in HIV-1 groups O and P. The virus infecting gorilla (SIVgor), is in itself likely to be a derived form of a host hump from the virus of chimpanzees (SIVcpz). How HIV-1 was able to cross the species barrier is an outstanding question. At the macro-molecular level, insights have been made about the relationships between specific antiviral restriction factors and the ability of SIV and HIV to restrict them. Nevertheless, the molecular view of the adaptation process of SIV and HIV to their hosts across a series of host jumps is still mostly unclear. Here, we utilized the availability of full and diverse HIV-1, SIVcpz and SIVgor sequences to identify sites in the proteins of HIV-1 that underwent a change in the rate of substitution. Rate deceleration events point at sites that became conserved in a specific lineage, and indicate a possible gain-of-function. We found a total of 137 rate deceleration events across the HIV-1/SIV phylogeny. The majority of rate deceleration events occurred in parallel to speciation and were mostly different across strains, indicating different adaptation strategies independently used by the different viral lineages. The rate shift distribution pattern found supports abundant adaption of the virus to the first stage of entry, followed by adaptation of the virus to host restriction factors. Surprisingly, we observed that HIV-1 group O exhibited the most rate shift events, and suggest that since the virus underwent two consecutive host jumps, from chimpanzee to gorilla to human, this entailed more adaptation on the part of the virus.
“Even If the Policy Changes, the Culture Remains the Same”: A Mixed Methods Analysis of LGBT Service Members’ Outness Patterns

Despite repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in 2011 and the ban on open transgender service from 2016 to 2019, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) service members may be reluctant to disclose their identities to fellow military personnel. This study used data collected through the Department of Defense–funded mixed methods research study conducted from 2016 to 2018. A sample of 248 active duty LGBT service members completed a survey, while a sample of 42 LGBT active duty service members participated in an in-depth interview. Regression analyses tested for differences in outness by demographic and military traits; a thematic analysis of qualitative data contextualizes these findings. Outness to fellow service members varied greatly by rank, military branch, education level, sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital status. The lowest outness was to chaplains (38%), while the highest outness was to LGBT unit friends (93%). Implications for military leadership and service providers are discussed.
Molluscs collected with otter trawl in the northern Alboran Sea: main assemblages, spatial distribution and environmental linkage

Molluscan assemblages of circalittoral and bathyal soft bottoms of the northern Alboran Sea were studied using an experimental otter trawl. Samples of fauna were collected from 190 hauls during four MEDITS surveys carried out in spring between 2012 and 2015 at depths ranging from 30 to 800 m. Measurements of water column variables (temperature and salinity) and sediment samples were taken in the same locations where faunistic sampling was carried out. A total of 101 species grouped in 55 families were recorded. Cephalopods were the most abundant group, with Abralia veranyi dominating in abundance, Octopus vulgaris in biomass and Illex coindetii and Todarodes sagittatus being the most frequently collected species. Multivariate analyses carried out separately with abundance data of demersal species, benthic species, bivalves, gastropods and cephalopods as well as of all molluscs, generally resulted in three main molluscan assemblages corresponding to a shelf assemblage (30-200 m depth), an upper slope assemblage (201-350 m depth), and a middle slope assemblage (351-800 m depth). PERMANOVA test revealed that significant differences of different groups of molluscs in relation to depth were more acute than to geographical sectors of the Alboran Sea (eastern, central, eastern and insular sectors). Abundance, biomass and species richness decreased with depth with a clear dominance of cephalopods in the slope. Significant geographical differences were mainly detected for demersal and benthic species as well as for gastropods and cephalopods between the insular sector (Alboran Island) and the western and eastern continental sectors. Both depth and temperature were the most influencing variables in the different CCA analyses using datasets of molluscs with different life styles and from different classes, but sedimentological variables displayed a more acute significant relationship with the benthic molluscs than with the demersal ones.
The behavior of least-squares extended reverse time migration for vertical seismic profiling data

Vertical seismic profiling (VSP) survey differentiates itself from surface seismic survey by deploying receivers inside the borehole, while the sources are excited on the surface. Due to this distinctive acquisition geometry, special attentions should be paid in processing and imaging the VSP data. Considering the fact that velocity errors are inevitable for field data application, it is better to utilize least-squares reverse time migration with subsurface offset extension (LSERTM) because of its good property of preserving data information in the extended domain. LSERTM has been actively studied for surface seismic data in academic research, but it is never reported with application to VSP data. We fill this gap by applying LSERTM to VSP data with a simple layered model, and analyze the behavior of the subsurface offset common image gathers (SOCIGs) and the angle domain common image gathers (ADCIGs). Numerical examples demonstrate that there are significant differences in the subsurface offset behavior between the VSP survey and the surface seismic survey. We conclude that the strategies functioning well in surface seismic processing workflow may not be suitable for direct application to VSP data.
Review of research advances in the screwworm eradication program over the past 25 years

New World screwworms, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Diptera: Calliphoridae: Chrysomyinae), are devastating pests of warm‐blooded animals that cause significant economic damage to livestock. The successful campaign to eradicate screwworms from continental North America, led by the US Department of Agriculture and using the sterile insect technique, continues to receive research support that has resulted in improved technologies for all aspects of the program. The process and ingredients for mass‐rearing screwworms is more efficient and sustainable, and there is now a standardized protocol for developing new strains used in mass rearing. Cryopreservation of screwworm embryos allows strains to be preserved and recovered if necessary and also reduces rearing requirements for backup and research strains. Sterile fly release procedures and equipment have been updated leading to optimized sterile fly release rates. Surveillance for screwworm infestations and outbreaks have incorporated new trap designs, habitat analysis, and molecular genetic techniques that enhance monitoring the progress of the program as well as early detection and response to outbreaks. Genetic analyses of screwworm populations across their current range have increased the understanding of genetic differentiation, which may aide in developing new strains and determining the geographic origin of screwworms causing outbreaks when they occur. The ability to release only sterile males, which has been a goal of the program for over 60 years, has recently been accomplished through the development of transgenic sexing strains. The strains carry a conditional female lethal gene and are comparable to the wild‐type strain for several biological parameters that are important for mass production and performance in the field. The strains should improve efficiency of population suppression of the current and future eradication and prevention programs against screwworms. These research advances as well as future considerations are presented.