Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consumer awareness in the adoption of microgeneration technologies An empirical investigation in the Republic of Ireland

Despite major policy and marketing efforts, the uptake of microgeneration technologies in most European countries remains low. Whereas most academic studies and policy reports aim to identify the underlying reasons why people buy these new technologies, they often fail to assess the general level of consumer awareness. The process of adopting an innovation, however, shows that awareness is a prerequisite which needs to be understood before adoption can be addressed. This paper takes a closer look at awareness of microgeneration and presents the results from a nationally representative study conducted in the Republic of Ireland. Findings from logistic regressions clearly indicate that awareness varies significantly between the individual technologies and customer segments. The paper concludes with implications for policy makers and marketers aiming to promote microgeneration technologies in consumer markets.
Impact of Erysiphe cynoglossi on the Growth and Reproduction of the Rangeland Weed Cynoglossum officinale

Abstract The powdery mildew fungus, Erysiphe cynoglossi (Wallr.) E. Braun, is a commonly occurring pathogen of houndstongue ( Cynoglossum officinale L.) and may have a role in the biocontrol program being developed in North America for this introduced rangeland weed. To assess the effect of E. cynoglossi on the growth and reproduction of houndstongue, field observations were conducted to relate the level of infection to percentage seed set at three rangeland sites in British Columbia. Garden experiments also were conducted in Lethbridge, Alberta to assess the impact of E. cynoglossi on vegetative plant growth (1994) and on reproduction (1994 and 1995). Two of the three field sites examined showed a negative correlation between the percentage of the plant area infected by powdery mildew and the seed set. Diseased vegetative plants in the garden experiment were smaller in size by the season's end in 1994 compared to control plants. Powdery mildew reduced percentage seed set by about 20% in both 1994 and 1995. There also were significant reductions in nutlet number, nutlet size, and percentage germination of seed for infected versus control plants in 1995.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL MEANING CONSTRUCTION IN DESIGN TEAMS

Creation of new meanings of products and services is acknowledged as the key skill of designers today. Still, it is also recognised as a difficult competence to acquire and moreover, there is very little guidance for novice designers or non-designers on how to practice this creation of new products meanings. In this study, we explore the meaning construction process in four novice design teams. The study reveals a remarkable difference between high-grade and low-grade students related both to their approach to a design problem as well as their prioritisation of aspects in the design process.
A Neuroprosthesis for Tremor Management

Tremor is the most common movement disorder, affecting ∼15 % of people over 50 years old according to some estimates. It appears due to a number of syndromes, being essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease the most prevalent among them. None of these conditions is fully understood. Tremor is currently treated through drugs or neurosurgery, but unfortunately, it is not managed effectively in ∼25 % of the patients. Therefore, it constitutes a major cause of loss of independence and quality of life. Various alternative approaches for tremor management are reported in the literature. Among them, those devices that rely on the application of forces to the tremulous segments show a considerable potential. A number of prototypes that exploit this principle are available, spanning fixed devices and orthoses. However, none of them has fulfilled user’s expectation for continuous use during daily living. This thesis presents the development and validation of a neuroprosthesis for tremor management. A neuroprosthesis is a system that restores or compensates for a neurological function that is lost. In this case, the neuroprosthesis aims at compensating the functional disability caused by the tremor. To this end, it applies forces to the tremulous limb through the control of muscle contraction, which is modulated according to the characteristics of the tremor. The concept design envisions the device as a textile that is worn on the affected limb, thus meeting the usability requirements defined by the patients. The development of the neuroprosthesis comprised the following tasks: 1. The development of a concept design of the neuroprosthesis, which incorporates state of the art knowledge on tremor, and user’s needs. 2. The design and validation of a cognitive interface that parameterizes the tremor in functional contexts. This interface provides the information that the neuroprosthesis uses for tremor suppression. Two versions are developed: a multimodal interface that integrates the recordings of the whole neuromusculoskeletal system, and an interface incorporating only wearable movement sensors. The latter is intended for the functional validation of the neuroprosthesis, while the former is a proof of concept of an optimal interface for this type of applications.
Length weight relationship and otolith morphometry of twelve species of sciaenids (Family: Sciaenidae) from Mumbai waters, India

Length-weight relationship of 12 fish species belonging to the family Sciaenidae landed at New Ferry Wharf, Sassoon Dock and Versova fish landing centers of Greater Mumbai were estimated between September 2006 and August 2007. A normal distribution of calculated ‘b’ values ranged from 2.3585 to 3.5458 and r2 values of length-weight relationship varied from 0.6356 to 0.9886. The Student’s t-test revealed that the b values significantly differed in 7 of the 12 species studied (p<0.05). Morphometric relationship between otolith dimensions and fish weight were also studied. The significance of parameters like otolith length, width and mass was correlated for estimation of fish weight employing multiple regression model. ANCOVA test indicated that difference between left and right sagitta in otolith length, width and mass were insignificant (t-test, p<0.05). Results also indicated better correlation between fish weight and otolith measurement. Analysis of morphometric relationships concluded that otolith length, width and mass are good indicators of total length and weight in the species studied.
Compressed and Practical Data Structures for Strings

In this dissertation, I will cover a number of di erent topics related to strings in compressed and practical settings. I will rst present some fundamental techniques from the area, and then cover 6 di erent topics within the area. A short introduction to each of these topics is given in the following. Finger Search in Grammar-Compressed Strings. Grammar-based compression, where one replaces a long string by a small context-free grammar that generates the string, is a simple and powerful paradigm that captures many popular compression schemes. Given a grammar, the random access problem is to compactly represent the grammar while supporting random access, that is, given a position in the original uncompressed string report the character at that position. We study the random access problem with the nger search property, that is, the time for a random access query should depend on the distance between a speci ed index f , called the nger, and the query index i. We consider both a static variant, where we rst place a nger and subsequently access indices near the nger e ciently, and a dynamic variant where also moving the nger such that the time depends on the distance moved is supported. Let n be the size of the grammar, and let N be the size of the string. For the static variant we give a linear space representation that supports placing the nger in O(logN) time and subsequently accessing in O(logD) time, where D is the distance between the nger and the accessed index. For the dynamic variant we give a linear space representation that supports placing the nger in O(logN) time and accessing and moving the nger in O(logD + log logN) time. Compared to the best linear space solution to random access, we improve a O(logN) query bound to O(logD) for the static variant and to O(logD + log logN) for
Combining ability among twenty insect resistant maize inbred lines resistant to Chilo partellus and Busseola fusca stem borers.

A partial diallel design was used among 20 maize inbred lines to form 110 F1 hybrids to generate information on the values of these lines for developing insect resistant maize varieties during the short rains season of 2006. The hybrids were evaluated for resistance to the C. partellus and B. fusca, and for agronomic performance over two seasons during long and short rains of 2007 at a mid-altitude dry early maturity site at KARI Kiboko, and the moist mid-altitude medium maturity site at KARI Embu. leaf damage score (using a scale of 1-9 where: 1= No damage and 9= extremely damaged), number of exit holes, cumulative tunnel length, and grain yield were measured as resistance traits. The genotype sum of square was partitioned into general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects. Maize inbred lines with good general combining ability for insect resistance including maize inbred lines with significant and negative GCAs for leaf damage were identified as lines 12,16,18,19 and 20 at Kiboko and lines 8, 17, 18, and 20 in Embu. Results showed that the problem of stem borers intensified by over 40% within four years in the experimental region of Eastern Kenya; currently mean yield loss due to stem borers was assessed to be about 56%. Several hybrids had significant negative SCA for leaf damage and significant positive SCA for grain yield. The maize inbred lines studied revealed their potential for use in breeding programs for insect resistance that could result in a correlated response for increased grain yield. Recurrent selection would be the best option to develop high yielding insect resistant germplasm for this region of Kenya considering that additive gene action were predominant. Evidently, it would be more difficult to develop host plant resistance to B. fusca than to C. partellus.
Betalactamasas tipo AmpC: Generalidades y métodos para detección fenotípica

Las AmpC son serin-betalactamasas pertenecientes al grupo 1 de la clasificacion de Bush-Jacoby-Medeiros, presentes deforma natural en diversas enterobacterias y en bacilos gramnegativos no fermentadores como Pseudomonas aeruginosa y Acinetobacterbaumannii. Estas enzimas son capaces de resistir la inhibicion por acido clavulanico, sulbactam y tazobactam. Aunque para la deteccionde AmpC no existen metodos estandarizados por el CLSI, se han disenado diversas tecnicas con elevada sensibilidad y especificidad. Lasbetalactamasas AmpC estan asociadas a elevada mortalidad y, a nivel de laboratorio, con falsos reportes de susceptibilidad antimicrobiana.Por lo tanto, es de vital importancia su investigacion de rutina en los laboratorios de microbiologia. En la presente revision se describeel contexto de las betalactamasas AmpC y algunos metodos disponibles para su deteccion fenotipica.
Genetic divergence and units for conservation in the Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis

In the past decade much attention has focused on the role that genetics can play in the formation of management strategies in conservation. Here, we describe genetic diversity in the world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), examining the evolutionary relationships and population genetic history of the four islands in south–east Indonesia, which form the vast majority of its range. We identify distinct genetic groups for conservation. The population on the island of Komodo shows by far the largest values of genetic divergence and is proposed that it should be a separate conservation management unit. Other populations, surviving either on small islands with substantially reduced genetic variability, or in isolated patches, are identified as particularly vulnerable to stochastic threats and habitat loss. Our results provide an example of how data defining intraspecific levels of genetic divergence can provide information to help management plans, ensure the maintenance of genetic variability across populations and identify evolutionary potential within endangered species.
Dynamics of nitrifying activities, denitrifying activities and nitrogen in grassland mesocosms as altered by elevated CO2

Summary • The objective of this study was to better identify the mechanisms by which elevated CO2 (c. 665 µmol mol−1) alters soil nitrifying and denitrifying enzyme activity (NEA and DEA), and the dynamics of plant and microbial N pools. • We measured the effects of elevated CO2 on plant biomass and N, soil microbial biomass N, soil ammonium and nitrate concentrations, NEA and DEA in monospecific grassland mesocosms (Holcus lanatus and Festuca rubra) grown for 15 months in reconstituted grassland soil. • NEA strongly decreased at elevated CO2 in the Holcus mesocosms, but was not affected in Festuca systems. DEA was less sensitive to elevated CO2 than NEA. In Holcus mesocosms, microbial N showed an initial growth phase that appeared to limit plant N acquisition, but was only transient. • CO2-induced changes in NEA and DEA were best explained by factors that could reduce soil [O2] (increased soil water content and organic C). Elevated CO2 may increase microbial immobilisation in highly disturbed systems, this effect weakening as the system gets closer to equilibrium.
Comparative proteomic analysis uncovers potential biomarkers involved in the anticancer effect of Scutellarein in human gastric cancer cells

Scutellarein (SCU), a flavone that belongs to the flavonoid family and abundantly present in Scutellaria baicalensis a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, has been reported to exhibit anticancer effects in several cancer cell lines including gastric cancer (GC). Although our previous study documented the mechanisms of Scutellarein-induced cytotoxic effects, the literature shows that the proteomic changes that are associated with the cellular response to SCU have been poorly understood. To avoid adverse side-effects and significant toxicity of chemotherapy in patients who react poorly, biomarkers anticipating therapeutic responses are imperative. In the present study, we utilized a comparative proteomic analysis to identify proteins associated with Scutellarein (SCU)-induced cell death in GC cells (AGS and SNU484), by integrating two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), mass spectrometry (MS), and bioinformatics to analyze the proteins. Proteomic analysis between SCU-treated and DMSO (control) samples successfully identified 41 (AGS) and 31 (SNU484) proteins by MALDI-TOF/MS analysis and protein database search. Comparative proteomics analysis between AGS and SNU484 cells treated with SCU revealed a total of 7 protein identities commonly expressed and western blot analysis validated a subset of identified critical proteins, which were consistent with those of the 2-DE outcome. Molecular docking studies also confirmed the binding affinity of SCU towards these critical proteins. Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit β isoform (PIK3CB) protein expression was accompanied by a distinct group of cellular functions, including cell growth, and proliferation. Cancerous inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A), is one of the oncogenic molecules that have been shown to promote tumor growth and resistance to apoptosis and senescence-inducing therapies. In the present study, both PIK3CB and CIP2A proteins were downregulated in SCU-treated cells, which boosts our previous results of SCU to induce apoptosis and inhibits GC cell growth by regulating these critical proteins. The comparative proteomic analysis has yielded candidate biomarkers of response to SCU treatment in GC cell models and further validation of these biomarkers will help the future clinical development of SCU as a novel therapeutic drug.
Quantification of the association between predisposing health conditions, demographic, and behavioural factors with hospitalisation, intensive care unit admission, and death from COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Comprehensive evidence synthesis on the associations between comorbidities and behavioural factors with hospitalisation, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission, and death due to COVID-19 is lacking leading to inconsistent national and international recommendations on who should be targeted for non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination strategies. Methods We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis on studies and publicly available data to quantify the association between predisposing health conditions, demographics, and behavioural factors with hospitalisation, ICU admission, and death from COVID-19. We provided ranges of reported and calculated effect estimates and pooled relative risks derived from a meta-analysis and meta-regression. Results 75 studies were included into qualitative and 74 into quantitative synthesis, with study populations ranging from 19 - 44,672 COVID-19 cases. The risk of dying from COVID-19 was significantly associated with cerebrovascular [pooled RR 2.7 (95% CI 1.7-4.1)] and cardiovascular [RR 3.2 (CI 2.3-4.5)] diseases, hypertension [RR 2.6 (CI 2.0-3.4)], and renal disease [RR 2.5 (CI 1.8-3.4)]. Health care workers had lower risk for death and severe outcomes of disease (RR 0.1 (CI 0.1-0.3). Our meta-regression showed a decrease of the effect of some comorbidities on severity of disease with higher median age of study populations. Associations between comorbidities and hospitalisation and ICU admission were less strong than for death. Conclusions We obtained robust estimates on the magnitude of risk for COVID-19 hospitalisation, ICU admission, and death associated with comorbidities, demographic, and behavioural risk factors. We identified and confirmed population groups that are vulnerable and that require targeted prevention approaches.
Compartmentalization of Phytophthora cinnamomi in stems of highly susceptible Banksia brownii treated with phosphonate

Banksia brownii plants treated with a range of potassium phosphonate solutions were examined histologically to determine the mechanism of resistance to invasion by Phytophthora cinnamomi . Reaction zones in plants treated with the chemical compartmentalized P. cinnamomi in both bark and woody tissues, similar to acquired host resistance. Compartmentalization corresponded with the CODIT model of decay in trees. Reaction zones analogous to walls 2 and 3 of CODIT were actively rather than passively formed, and were associated with the ray and axial parenchyma respectively. While the anatomical evidence of resistance in Australian native flora to this pathogen has been reported previously, this is the first report of enhanced compartmentalization responses of a susceptible native species after treatment with phosphonate.
Effects of elevated CO2 associated with maize on multiple generations of the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera

Under elevated environmental carbon dioxide (CO2), leaf chewers tend to compensate for decreased leaf nutritional quality with increased consumption; mortality and development times also increase and cause a reduction in the fitness of leaf chewers. However, the effect of elevated CO2 on multiple successive generations of these and other insects is not well understood. Furthermore, information about the direct effects of increased environmental CO2 on developmental time and consumption of herbivores is lacking. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that cascade effects of elevated CO2 through plants, rather than the direct effects of elevated CO2, are the main factors decreasing the fitness of cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). We used two series of experiments to quantify the growth, development, and consumption of H. armigera fed on an artificial diet or C4 plants (maize) grown under two CO2 levels (ambient vs. double ambient). In the first series of experiments, elevated CO2 had no effect on the population abundance or individual consumption for three successive generations of cotton bollworms fed on an artificial diet. In the second series of experiments, elevated CO2 reduced population abundance of cotton bollworm larvae for two successive generations when they were fed maize milky grains. The specific effects were longer larval duration, lower fecundity, and decreased rm of cotton bollworms. Furthermore, elevated CO2 increased individual consumption when cotton bollworm was fed maize milky grains for two successive generations and decreased the population’s total consumption in the first generation but increased it in the second generation. The results from this study indicate that: (1) The effects of elevated CO2 on three successive generations of cotton bollworm fed on artificial diet were weak, or even non‐existent, and (2) elevated CO2 increased the consumption when cotton bollworm were fed maize. Our study also suggests that the damage inflicted by cotton bollworm on maize (a C4 plant) will be seriously affected by the increases in atmospheric CO2, which is unlike our previous results for spring wheat (a C3 plant).
Effects of regulated deficit irrigation on grain yield and water use efficiency of spring wheat in an arid environment

Grain yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of spring wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) in arid environments can be improved by applying irrigation selectively to allow soil water deficits to develop at non-critical stages of crop development. Field experiments were conducted on a loam soil in Zhangye district, northwest China in 2003 and 2004 to determine the grain yield, yield components, and water use characteristics of spring wheat in response to regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) schemes. Wheat grown under the RDI schemes produced 17% (in 2004) and 29% (in 2003) higher grain yield than wheat grown under water deficit-free control (5.6 t ha-1 in 2003 and 6.2 t ha-1 in 2004). Among six RDI schemes studied, wheat having a high water deficit at the jointing stage, but free from water def icit from booting to grain-filling produced highest grain yield in both 2003 (7.95 t ha-1) and 2004 (7.26 t ha-1). Compared with the control, wheat plants grown under the RDI schemes received 59 mm (or 15%) less water via irr.
Precise control of sex allocation in pseudo‐arrhenotokous phytoseiid mites

Can sex allocation be controlled by haplo‐diploid organisms where both males and females arise from fertilised eggs but males become effectively haploid by paternal genome loss (pseudo‐arrhenotoky)? If so, how does the control of mean and variance of sex allocation compare with haplo‐diploids where males arise from unfertilised eggs (arrhenotoky)? These questions are addressed by experiments with two species of pseudo‐arrhenotokous plant‐inhabiting predatory mites: Typhlodromus occidentalis Nesbitt and Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias‐Henriot (Acari: Phytoseiidae).