Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mating Preferences and Consequences of Choosing Sibling Or Non-Sibling Mates by Females of the Predator Podisus nigrispinus (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae)

ABSTRACT The sex with the greater investment in offspring is more careful in selecting sexual partners. Mating preferences and consequences of choosing sibling or non- sibling males by Podisus nigrispinus (Dallas) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) females were investigated. Females of this predator were placed with sibling, non- sibling or both types of males in 500 mL plastic containers. The numbers of matings and egg masses per female were registered after 12 h. Eggs were transferred to Petri dishes (9.5 × 1.5 cm) and the number of nymphs that hatched were recorded daily until 10 days after each oviposition. Female longevity with sibling, nonsibling or both types of males was registered and adults were weighed and measured after their deaths. Females of P. nigrispinus did not discriminate between sibling or non- sibling males, which can lead to inbreeding. However, the greater number of eggs laid and the higher egg viability of P. nigrispinus females that mated with non- sibling males indicate that this predator can avoid inbreeding depression including reduced fitness by mating with unrelated males.
Evaluating the Role of Education as a Birth Control Policy in Burkina Faso: A Propensity Score Weighting Approach

We use the 2014 round of Burkina Faso’s Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to identify and quantify the causal effect of women’s education on their fertility outcomes focusing on two fertility indicators: the total number of children ever born and the age at first birth. However, women's educational attainments may reflect the difference in term of access to schooling or individual characteristics such the family wealth, causing a threat to the empirical identification. In order to achieve consistent estimation, our empirical strategy follows Imbens (2000) and uses the propensity score weighting (PSW) approach to generate an appropriate counterfactual group accounting for education levels. Results from the PSW estimation suggest that education reduces the number of children per woman and delays women’s first birth in Burkina Faso. Hence, promoting girls education is an efficient policy to achieve birth control in Burkina Faso.
Inactivation of Chironomid Larva in Water with Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. Israelensis

The excessive propagation of Chironomid larva in waterworks is a difficult problem. The inactivation of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) on different instar Chironomid larva was studied using distilled water as test sample. Furthermore, batch experiments were performed to analyze the influence of pH value, liquid chlorine, and water temperature and ammonia nitrogen on inactivation efficiency of Chironomid larva with Bti. Based on it, removal effects on Chironomid larva in the actual raw water and pre-chlorination coagulation sedimentation water were evaluated. The results showed that Bti possessed good inactivation performance to all larval stages of Chironomid. The 24 h semi-lethal concentration of Bti to the third instar Chironomid larva was 0.423 mg/L. The inactivation rate at pH 9.2 was significantly higher than that at pH 4.4 and 7.1. The liquid chlorine had negative effects on inactivation, indicated by the decreased inactivation rate from 74.22% at liquid chlorine concentration of 0 mg/L to 15.5% at 2.5 mg/L when Bti concentration was 0.5 mg/L. Water temperature ranging from 15℃ to 35℃ did not affect the inactivation efficiency of Bti. At Bti concentration of 0.125 mg/L, the inactivation rate significantly increased from 17.32% at ammonia nitrogen concentration of 0 mg/L to 53.26% at 6 mg/L. The inactivation rate of Chironomid larva was significantly higher in actual raw water than that in pre-chlorination coagulation sedimentation water. It could conclude static immersion with Bti solution in sedimentation tank is an effective method to control Chironomid larva.
Identification of Protein S-Farnesyl Cysteine Prenylation Sites Based on Substrate Specificities

Protein S-farnesyl cysteine prenylation (SFCP) is a specific kind of prenylation involved in the transfer of a farnesyl moiety to a cytoplasmic cysteine at or near the C-terminus of the target protein. It has been exhibited to play very important roles in promoting membrane interactions and biological activities of variety of cellular proteins. With the advancements in proteomic technology recently, the number of experimentally verified SFCP sites is increasing and becomes available. Due to the very important roles caused by Sfarnesyl cysteine prenylation, the knowledge insight SFCP is one of the most hot issue nowaday. Howver, the number of proposed models for the identification of SFCP sites has still not met our current demands. Therefore, in this study we are motivated to propose a novel schema for the identification of S-farnesyl cysteine prenylation sites based on substrate specificities.
Hippocampal neural stem cells rapidly change their metabolic profile during neuronal differentiation in cell culture

Throughout life neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) produce new neurons in distinct regions of the mammalian brain, a process called adult neurogenesis. Hippocampal NSPCs undergo several developmental steps until they reach their final stage of fully differentiated neuronal progeny. Failing any of those steps can compromise adult neurogenesis, resulting in impaired function of the mammalian hippocampal circuit. Altered neurogenesis has been associated with impaired learning and memory as well as number of neuropsychiatric diseases. Previously it was shown that metabolism changes markedly between NSPCs and their differentiated progeny. However the dynamics of metabolic adaptations (gradual vs. acute) occurring during neuronal differentiation have yet to be identified. To answer this question we here determined the metabolic profile of mouse hippocampal NSPCs and their neuronally differentiating progeny in vitro by mass-spectrometry, using an inducible differentiation system, allowing for high temporal resolution of the differentiation process. The metabolomics data we have generated show major and rather quick metabolic adaptations occurring during the first days of neuronal differentiation. Thus, we here observe that NSPCs and their neuronal progeny show distinct metabolic profiles that can rapidly change depending on their developmental state.
Long-Run Identification in a Fractionally Integrated System

We propose an extension of structural fractionally integrated vector autoregressive models that avoids certain undesirable effects on the impulse responses that occur if long-run identification restrictions are imposed. We derive the model’s Granger representation and investigate the effects of long-run restrictions. Simulations illustrate that enforcing integer integration orders can have severe consequences for impulse responses. In a system of U.S. real output and aggregate prices, the effects of structural shocks strongly depend on the specification of the integration orders. In the statistically preferred fractional model, shocks that are typically interpreted as demand disturbances have a very brief influence on GDP. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
A Probabilistic Black Hole & Gray Hole Attacks Detection Scheme for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network

: Vehicular Ad-hoc Network is a technology which conduce the vehicle to interconnect with each other through a wireless network. So that it can way and locate other vehicles to manage road safety. Security is a major issue in vehicular ad-hoc network as it can be people’s life in danger. The black hole attack is a pattern of a denial of service attack that makes a difference for data traffic in VANET. A gray hole attack is a technique in which the vindictive node just drops the packet from some decided node in the network and forwards all other packets to its destination. We will provide a suitable solution for a low solidity network where each car moves in a straight line and submit or assign packets to other neighboring cars using a routing protocol. NS2 is a simulation tool which is used to design and imitate our proposed method. I analyzed variable parameters like a packet delivery ratio(PDR) , delay and throughput.
The Effect of HIV Infection Risk Beliefs on Sexual Behavior : Scared Straight or Scared to Death ?

Economists typically assume that risk compensation is uniformly self-protective – that people become more careful as the health risks of their actions increase. However, riskseeking, or fatalistic, responses can also be rational: increased risks can lead people to take fewer precautions. I extend the typical model of risk compensation show that fatalism is a rational response to sufficiently high health risks if people do not have perfect control over all possible exposures, and if the health risk in question is irreversible. This result holds even for people who do not understand how to add up probabilities. I test this model’s implications using a randomized field experiment that provided information on HIV transmission risks to people in Malawi. Average risk responses are self-protective and statistically significant, but small in magnitude: the mean risk elasticity of sexual behavior is roughly -0.6. Consistent with the model, this elasticity varies sharply by baseline risk beliefs. I develop a method of decomposing 2SLS estimates of the risk elasticity of sexual behavior by people’s baseline risk beliefs, and find that the risk elasticity varies from -2.3 for the lowest initial risk beliefs to 2.9 for the highest initial beliefs. 13.8% of the population has a positive elasticity, which is consistent with fatalism. University of Michigan Department of Economics and Population Studies Center. Email jtkerwin@umich.edu. I am grateful to Rebecca Thornton, Jeff Smith, John DiNardo, David Lam, Matias Cattaneo, Bob Willis, Mel Stephens, John Bound, Miles Kimball, Susan Watkins, Ophira Vishkin, Evan Herrnstadt, Joe Golden, Audrey Dorélien, Laura Derksen, Eric Chyn, Olga Malkova, Justin Ladner, and seminar participants at the University of Michigan, MEA, and PacDev for their valuable feedback. Data collection on this project was supported by internal UM grants from the Center for Global Health, the Population Studies Center, the Weinberg International Travel Fund, the Center for Education of Women, and the Michigan Institute for Teaching and Research in Economics as well as the Russell Sage Foundation’s Small Grants in Behavioral Economics program. I acknowledge fellowship support from the Population Studies Center and the Rackham Graduate School. All remaining mistakes are my own.
Otolith shape analyses and dimensions of the Anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus L. in the Black and Marmara Seas

Otoliths, which can be used for the evaluation of relationships between the environment and organisms, are structures consisting of calcium carbonate. The aim of this study was to realize the shape analysis. In addition, it is to detect the characteristics of otolith biometrics in order to determine the relationship between the fish size of Engraulis encrasicolus L. from the Black and Marmara Seas. The samples were obtained from the Black and Marmara Seas between December 2013 and February 2014. The relationships between the TL (Total length) and OL (Otolith length), TL and OB (Otolith breadth), and TL and OW (Otolith weight) were determined using the linear regression equation. Form factor, roundness, circularity and rectangularity were used for shape analyses. According to the data, there was no difference between localities (p>0.05). Moreover, there was no difference between the left and right otoliths of the individuals sampled from the same locality (p>0.05). According to the regression coefficient for relationships of TL-OL, TL-OB and TL-OW, otolith length was identified as the best index for estimating fish length (r2>0.70). It showed that index values were statistically different between two populations (p<0.001).
Thermodynamic Analysis of Single Effect Vapor Absorption Refrigeration Cycle

Present day utilization of low grade energy like solar energy, geothermal energy, waste heat from industries etc. are a challenge. Vapor absorption refrigeration (VAR) cycle is a best alternative to vapor compression refrigeration (VCR) cycle, despite of having low coefficient of performance compared to VCR because it is heat operated. In this paper the energetic and exergetic analysis of single effect vapor absorption refrigeration cycle using the LiBr2-H2O solution as working fluid is done. This analysis is done for the evaporator temperature of 5, 7.5, 10 and 12.5 C and the main condenser temperature of 30 and 35 C. The absorber temperature is assumed to be equal to condenser temperature. The calculated results indicate that the value of maximum value of coefficient of performance and maximum exergetic efficiency comes out to be 0.8055 to 0.8849 and 0.3062 to 0.5116 respectively. Exergy destruction is highest in absorber on comparison with other component.
More Than Meets the Eye: Taking a Look at EMDR in Trauma-Focused Therapy

v Introduction.1 The Unconscious Mind The Impact of Trauma The Limits of Language Transforming Trauma: EMDR.12 Origins of EMDR How it Works Why it Works EMDR Efficacy Controversy.26 Discussion and Clinical Implications.28 References.32
Bayesian Energy Measurement and Verification Analysis

Energy Measurement and Verification (M&V) aims to make inferences about the savings achieved in energy projects, given the data and other information at hand. Traditionally, a frequentist approach has been used to quantify these savings and their associated uncertainties. We demonstrate that the Bayesian paradigm is an intuitive, coherent, and powerful alternative framework within which M&V can be done. Its advantages and limitations are discussed, and two examples from the industry-standard International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP) are solved using the framework. Bayesian analysis is shown to describe the problem more thoroughly and yield richer information and uncertainty quantification results than the standard methods while not sacrificing model simplicity. We also show that Bayesian methods can be more robust to outliers. Bayesian alternatives to standard M&V methods are listed, and examples from literature are cited.
Evaluation of Heavy Metals Contamination and Assessment of Mineral Nutrients in Poultry Liver Using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

The aim of this study was to perform a short characterization of heavy metals and mineral nutrients concentration in poultry liver samples with macroscopic lesions and their possible effect on food safety. Thirty-eight poultry liver samples with macroscopic lesions were submitted to analysis. Heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Al) and mineral nutrients (Cr, Mn, Cu, Fe, Zn, Ca, Mg, K, Na) were determined by ICP-MS. The concentrations for heavy metals ranged from 0,1 to 1,29 mg/kg for Cd, 0,02 to 0,08 mg/kg for Pb and 0,13 to 8,85 mg/kg Al. For mineral nutrients, concentrations ranged from 0,13 to 2,66 mg/kg for Cr; 0.24 to 1,08 mg/kg for Mn; 0.74 to 2,92mg/kg for Cu; 14,11 to 54,65 mg/kg for Fe; 4,37 to 17,86 mg/kg for Zn, 43,2 to 199,51 mg/kg for Ca, 78,35 to 275,81 mg/kg for Mg, 989,54 to 3108,65 mg/kg for K, 276,28 to 1059,16 mg/kg for Na. Although it is known that people ingest heavy metals from animal products, the concentrations obtained in this study showed that there is no risk for human health linked to the consumption of poultry liver.
Spatial BIM Queries : A Comparison between CPU and GPU based Approaches

From today’s perspective, the future of computation lies in parallelization. This is a central design focus of modern GPUs, whose enormous calculation capabilities are now available for general purpose programming. This thesis examines the portability of spatial queries to NVIDIA’s popular GPGPU CUDA platform. The two algorithms analyzed are the query on the R-tree spatial indexing structure and an intersection test between triangle meshes. Both of them offer potential for the high-level parallelization necessary for efficient GPU programs. The CUDA implementation showed no significant advantage over the singlethreaded CPU one for the R-tree query, both for single as well as multiple parallel queries. The mesh intersection test on the other hand performed better using CUDA, at least when the tested objects were preselected by their bounding boxes using an R-tree. The entire CPU code of the examined program was written in C#. A pure C implementation could yield different results. The analysis could also be repeated for a multi-threaded CPU program and on newer hardware. Author: Robert Schweizer Philipp-Foltz-Straße 31 D-81737 München Student ID: 03630077 Supervisors: Prof. Dr.-Ing. André Borrmann Dipl. -Ing. (FH) Simon Daum Date of Issue: October 15, 2014 Date of Presentation: January 27, 2015
Inhibition of proteasome activity by the dietary flavonoid Quercetin associated with growth inhibition in cultured breast cancer cells and xenografts

Objective: To study the Inhibition of proteasome activity by the dietary flavonoid Quercetin associated with growth inhibition in cultured breast cancer cells and xenografts. Methods: MCF-7 breast cancer cell cultures and xenografts were treated with quercetin , carried out by following measurement of reduced cellular viability/proliferation, proteasome inhibition, and apoptosis induction. Inhibition of the proteasome was decided by levels of the proteasomal chymotrypsin-like activity, by target proteins, and by accumulation of proteasome target proteins in extracts of the treated cells or tumours. Apoptotic cell inhibition was measured by capase-3/caspase-7 activation, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage, and immunohistochemistry for terminal nucleotidyl transferase. Results: This result is carried out for the first time by us that quercetin inhibits the proteasomal chymotrypsin-like activity and induces apoptosis not only in cultured MCF-7 cell lines but also in MCF-7 xenografts moreover, while quercetin has antibreast tumour activity and no toxicity was observed to the tested animals. Conclusion: We have shown that quercetin is an effective proteasome inhibitor in cultured breast cancer cells and in breast cancer xenografts. Furthermore, quercetin induces apoptotic cell death in human breast cancer cells and exhibits anticancer activities in tumours. The results suggest its potential benefits in breast cancer prevention and treatment. Key words: Breast cancer, MCF-7, Proteasome activity, Quercetin , Xenografts.
1 Perceived characteristics , perceived popularity , and playfulness : Youth adoption of mobile instant messaging in China 1

Mobile instant messaging (MIM) has been gaining in popularity in China due to its free and user-friendly nature. Few scholarly studies have investigated factors affecting the adoption of MIM among Chinese youth. This web survey examined perceived characteristics of MIM and its adopter characteristics among 18 to 30 year-old users in China. The study found that the majority of Chinese youths adopted WeChat and Mobile QQ services and used texting most often. Socialization was their main purpose of using MIM. More than 75% of respondents used it to connect with friends, colleagues, and classmates. The results also showed age had a negative influence on the adoption levels of MIM while compatibility, perceived popularity, and perceived playfulness were positively associated with MIM usage among Chinese youths. Contrary to prior studies, perceived trialability of MIM was negatively related to MIM use. The implications of MIM usage and adoption are discussed.
PREVENTIVE EFFECTS OF PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA POLYPHENOLS AGAINST 7,12-DIMETHYLBENZ(A)ANTHRACENE-INDUCED MAMMARY CANCER

Objectives: Polyphenols are vital micronutrients, in our diet, which have a role in the prevention of progressive cancer and cardiovascular diseases developing. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the hemopreventive effects of some polyphenols of Phoenix dactylifera pits on 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary cancer of female albino rats.Methods: The phenolics of P. dactylifera pits (Zahidi cultivar) were prepared by successive steps; extraction by ethanol:methanol:HCl:H2O, adsorption chromatography using a silica gel column and preparative high performers chromatography. The cytotoxic activity of the phenolics was detected against human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). The acetone phenolic fraction, 50 female albino rats, and DMBA carcinogen were used to study the preventive effects.Results: The acetone phenolic fraction contained considerable amounts of the total phenolics and having antioxidant activity, which inhibit cancer cell line MCF-7 growth, and the inhibitory concentration 50% of cells (IC50) at 24 hrs was 202 I¼g/ml for MCF-7 and 480 I¼g/ml for WRL-68. The purified phenolic compounds may be related to genistein and quercetin derivatives that inhibited MCF-7 cell line growth and IC50 were 1030 and 203.9 I¼g/ml, respectively, compared with negligible effects on normal cell line. The acetone phenolic fraction prevented mammary cancer formation in the DMBA-induced rat model.Conclusions: The phenolics of date palm had chemopreventive effects against DMBA-induced mammary cancer, and they required further research to clarify the possible mechanisms that might have contributed to the preventive effects against mammary cancer.
Polarizing beam splitter based on a subwavelength asymmetric profile grating

In this paper, we propose a broadband compact polarizing beam splitter (PBS) constructed by only a single layer subwavelength asymmetric profile grating. The properties of the grating PBS are investigated by rigorous coupled-wave analysis. It is shown that, over a broadband spectrum of 1.53–1.62 µm, the grating PBS demonstrates high diffraction efficiencies (>97%) with extinction ratio (ER) greater than 16 dB and a comparatively wide angular bandwidth (about 8°). Effects of deviation from the design parameters on the performance of the grating PBS are also presented.
Differentiability of pseudo-dual-quaternionic functions with a differential operator

This paper introduces the new concept of pseudo-dual-quaternions and some of their basic properties based on matrices. We extend the concept of differentiability to pseudo-dual-quaternionic functions. Also, we propose a corresponding CauchyRiemann formulas induced the properties of a holomorphic function of pseudo-dual-quaternionic variables.
Fabrication and Characterization of Electrospun PHA/Graphene Silver Nano-Composite Scaffold for Antibacterial Application

Many wounds are unresponsive to current available treatment techniques and therefore there is an immense need to explore suitable materials including biomaterials, which are being considered as the crucial factor to accelerate the healing cascade. In this study, we fabricated polyhydroxyalkanoate based antibacterial mats via electrospun technique. One-pot green synthesized graphene decorated silver nanoparticles (GAg) were incorporated into the fibres of poly-3 hydroxybutarate-co-12 mol% hydroxyhexanoate (P3HB-co-12mol% HHx), a co-polymer of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) family which is highly biocompatible, biodegradable and flexible in nature. The synthesised PHA/GAg biomaterial was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), elemental mapping, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In-vitro antibacterial analysis were performed to investigate the efficacy of PHA/GAg against gram positive Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) strain 12600 ATCC and gram negative Escherichia coli (E.coli) strain 8739 ATCC. The results indicated that the PHA/GAg demonstrated significant reduction of Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus strain 12600 ATCC) and Escherichia coli (E.coli strain 8739 ATCC) as compared to bare PHA or PHA-rGO in 2 hours of time. The P value (P< 0.05) was obtained by using 2 sample T-test distribution.