Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ruminal dry matter and nitrogen degradation in relation to condensed tannin and protein molecular structures in sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) and lucerne (Medicago sativa)

SUMMARY Sainfoin is a temperate legume that contains condensed tannins (CT), i.e. polyphenols that are able to bind proteins and thus reduce protein degradation in the rumen. A reduction in protein degradation in the rumen can lead to a subsequent increase in amino acid flow to the small intestine. The effects of CT in the rumen and the intestine differ according to the amount and structure of CT and the nature of the protein molecular structure. The objective of the present study was to investigate the degradability in the rumen of three CT-containing sainfoin varieties and CT-free lucerne in relation to CT content and structure (mean degree of polymerization, proportion of prodelphinidins and cis-flavanol units) and protein structure (amide I and II bands, ratio of amide I-to-amide II, α-helix, β-sheet, ratio of α-helix-to-β-sheet). Protein molecular structures were identified using Fourier transform/infrared-attenuated total reflectance (FT/IR-ATR) spectroscopy. The in situ degradability of three sainfoin varieties (Ambra, Esparcette and Villahoz) was studied in 2008, during the first growth cycle at two harvest dates (P1 and P2, i.e. 5 May and 2 June, respectively) and at one date (P3) during the second growth cycle (2 June) and these were compared with a tannin-free legume, lucerne (Aubigny). Loss of dry matter (DMDeg) and nitrogen (NDeg) in polyester bags suspended in the rumen was measured using rumen-fistulated cows. The NDeg of lucerne compared with sainfoin was 0·80 v. 0·77 at P1, 0·78 v. 0·65 at P2 and 0·79 v. 0·70 at P3, respectively. NDeg was related to the rapidly disappearing fraction (‘a’) fraction (r=0·76), the rate of degradation (‘c’) (r=0·92), to the content (r=−0·81) and structure of CT. However, the relationship between NDeg and the slowly disappearing fraction (‘b’) was weak. There was a significant effect of date and species×date, for NDeg and ‘a’ fraction. The secondary protein structure varied with harvest date (species×date) and was correlated with the fraction ‘b’. Both tannin and protein structures influenced the NDeg degradation. CT content and structure were correlated to the ‘a’ fraction and to the ‘c’. Features of the protein molecular secondary structure were correlated to the ‘b’ fraction.
Local adaptation of the pondweed Potamogeton pectinatus to contrasting substrate types mediated by changes in propagule provisioning

1 We studied local adaptation to substrate type within a population of the clonal aquatic macrophyte Potamogeton pectinatus and the role that genotypic variation in propagule‐provisioning plays therein. 2 P. pectinatus reproduces mainly by means of subterranean asexual propagules (tubers), whose survival and sprouting success depends on the interaction of factors such as the size of tubers, substrate type and predation risk by Bewick's swans. 3 We studied a population of P. pectinatus in which genotypes producing large tubers predominate at the sandy shore and those producing small tubers at the clay‐rich shore. Clonal lines originating from different shores were grown on a sandy and a clay‐rich substrate in a common‐garden. Plants from all clonal lines were grown from tubers of a comparable size range, but the various clones from within each shore differed in the average size of tubers they are genetically determined to produce. 4 The performance of all clones was much lower on sandy substrate than on clay‐rich substrate, indicating that the former is a stressful (nutrient‐poor) environment. The reaction norms of morphological traits varied significantly among clones, revealing genetic variation in phenotypic plasticity. However, these differences were not related to our correlates of fitness (total tuber biomass, tuber size and tuber number). We found no evidence of local adaptation independent of genotypic tuber size. Instead, tuber size mediated local adaptation: clones producing larger tubers had a higher fitness in sandy substrate, while clones producing smaller tubers had a higher fitness in clay‐rich substrate. 5 Our results imply that diversifying selection for tuber size takes place between the two substrate types and confirms the importance of tuber‐size provisioning for local adaptation to substrate heterogeneity.
Design and Implementation of Mobile Information System for Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) of Nigeria

With a daily increase in the use of mobile devices in the 21st century, handheld devices are fast reaching the unreached and information is now easily disseminated. Nigeria as a developing nation in the western Africa needs to be all information technology compliant. Far from this, vehicles have been registered manually. This mobile information system is designed to aid the every member of the Nigeria community in building an information network with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). Motorists, drivers and others who had registered their vehicles manually would be able to register their vehicles number plates and report accident victims to the Corps with ease from their mobile devices. This work focuses mainly on the vehicle registration, issuing number plates and information dissemination to the Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria.
The anti-respiratory syncytial virus activity of methanol leaf extract of Aspilia africana

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), to date, is still the most frequent cause of infantile and childhood cause of viral lower respiratory tract illness on a global scale, and at the same time, causing significant impact in the elderly. Presently, there is no licensed vaccine or safe and specific antiviral agent that could be used against the virus. Medicinal plants are known to be a promising source for the discovery of utilizable anti-RSV treatments. In this present study, we screened the anti-RSV and cell cytotoxicity activities of methanol extract of A. Africana by virus plaque reduction and corresponding cell viability methods in Hep-2 and Vero cells of human and mammalian origin respectively. The corresponding set up for analyses of A. Africana extract on cell viability were performed by the reduction of thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide (MTT) in the Hep-2 cells following the established method. The results of an evaluation of the extract of A. africana showed anti-RSV activities with inhibition of RSV at IC50, 42.5 ± 8.89, while the cell cytotoxic effect in Hep2 cells recorded was TC50, 121.4. ± 7.21. Therefore, our results show that the methanol extract of AA exhibited anti-RSV activities and has a moderate effect on the cell viability of the recipient host cell, indicating that target molecular substances against RSV can be developed from the extract.
Aquaporins in the plasma membrane of leaf callus protoplasts of Actinidia deliciosa var. deliciosa cv. Hayward

The water transport activity of Actinidia deliciosa protoplasts was determined using a cell imaging system. Results showed that the protoplast volume increased swiftly when placed in a hypotonic medium, and also increased with an increase in medium osmotic gradients. The osmotic water permeability coefficient (Pf) values were 0.118 〈 10 -3 , 0.121 〈 10 -3 , and 0.133 〈 10 -3 cm s -1 when the osmotic gradients were 75, 100, and 125 mosmol, respectively. The water transport activity of protoplasts could be inhibited by HgCl2 and stimulated by amphotericin B. Moreover, ZnCl2 and ZnSO4 had a sig- nificant inhibitory effect on the water transport activity of the protoplasts. Our results indicate that the Actinidia deliciosa protoplasts had properties typical of aquaporins, suggesting that aquaporins were present at the plasma membrane.
Feeding strategy and habitat choice in Littorina saxatilis (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) and their role in the origin and maintenance of a sympatric polymorphism

Abstract A remarkable adaptive polymorphism occurs in L. saxatilis on exposed rocky shores in Galicia (NW Spain), where two conspecific morphs (Ridged and Banded, and Smooth and Unbanded) can be found associated with different shore levels. These two morphs overlap in the mid shore, and in spite of hybridization they retain their distinct phenotypes. This is partially caused by an adaptive response of each morph to different microhabitats as well as a partial prezygotic reproductive isolation between them. We investigated the diet and microhabitat preference of these two morphs and hybrids to check their possible contribution to the origin and maintenance of the present polymorphism. The diversity and abundance of species in the gut content was studied in separate individuals of these morphs from different shore levels, microhabitats and localities. The most frequent taxa present in the gut content of all morphs were diatoms, mainly Grammatophora and Navicula (about 50% of total gut content). Twelve other.
Transmission of Leptosphaeria maculans from a cropping season to the following one

Current modelling of inoculum transmission from a cropping season to the following one relies on the extrapolation of kernels estimated on data at short distances from punctual sources, because data collected at larger distances are scarce. We estimated the dispersal kernel of Leptosphaeria maculans ascospores from stubble left after harvest in the summer previous to newly sown oilseed rape fields, using phoma stem canker autumn disease severity. We built a dispersal model to analyse the data. Source strengths are described in the spatial domain covered by source fields by a log-Gaussian spatial process. Infection potentials in the following season are described in the space consisting of the target fields, by a convolution of sources and a power-exponential dispersal kernel. Data were collected on farmers' fields considered as sources in 2009 and 2011 (72 and 39 observation points) and as targets in 2010 and 2012 (172 and 200 points). We applied the Bayesian approach for model selection and parameter estimation. We obtained fat tail kernels for both data sets. This estimation is the first from data acquired over distances of 0 to 1000 m, using several non-punctual inoculum sources. It opens the prospect of refining the existing simulators, or developing disease risk maps.
The Influence of Student Enrollment in Pre-College Engineering Courses on Their Interest in Engineering Careers

Pre-college student enrollment in engineering courses increases every year in the United States, yet little is known about the relationship between taking these courses and subsequent science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career interest. Through multinomial logistic regressions, and while controlling for student background variables and prior STEM career interest, this study addresses two research questions: (1) Does completing a pre-college engineering course increase the likelihood of an engineering career interest at the end of high school? (2) Does completing a pre-college engineering course have a different influence on career interest in engineering than on career interest in other STEM fields (namely science, technology, and mathematics)? The study uses data from the Outreach Programs and Science Career Intentions survey (N 5 15,847), a large U.S. sample of college students enrolled in mandatory English courses. Our analysis reveals that the relationship between completing a pre-college engineering course and interest in a STEM career appears to be field-specific. Students completing a precollege engineering course were two times more likely to want to pursue an engineering career than those without such a course, after controlling for a host of other relevant variables. By contrast, taking a precollege engineering course was not associated with heightened interest in other science, technology, or mathematics careers. These findings suggest that high schools should offer engineering courses as an effective way to foster students’ career interest in engineering. This effect appears to apply similarly to all students, independent of gender, race/ethnicity, and other background variables.
PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF A DONOR'S ENDOGENOUS ELECTRIC FIELDS ON HUMAN PERIPHERAL BLOOD LYMPHOCYTE VIABILITY

Recent studies of interactions between the brain and immune system cells, as well as reports of bioeffects from artificial electromagnetic sources too weak to exert thermal effects, suggest that biophysical communication may exist between them not explained by electrochemical action. We report here that a human donor's endogenous electric fields protect his lymphocyte viability in vitro. The endogenous fields of a healthy male donor were introduced into a cell culture via a gold wire for 7 h overnight and the cells' viability compared by trypan blue exclusion, with nonexposed cells cultured similarly. Cells exposed to their donor's endogenous fields remained significantly more viable compared with unexposed cells. However, when cells were exposed to the endogenous fields of a nondonor, viability was no different from that of unexposed controls. We conclude that endogenous electric fields, observed in all living organisms, perform a previously unsuspected but important role in cellular immune system surveillance.
The structure of a plant-pollinator food web.

The pollination biology literature is dominated by examples of specialization between plants and their pollinators. However, a recent review shows that it is generalization that prevails in the field, with most plants having a number of pollinators and most pollinators visiting a number of plants. Consequently, the vast majority of plant-pollinator interactions are embedded in a complex web of plant-pollinator interactions. These plant-pollinator webs can be studied in the manner of conventional food webs and the aim of this paper is to illustrate how contemporary methods of web construction and analysis can be applied to plant-pollinator communities.
When Transparency Fails: Bias and Financial Incentives in Ridesharing Platforms

Providing transparency into operational processes can change consumer and worker behavior. However, it is unclear whether operational transparency is beneficial with potentially biased service providers. We explore this in the context of ridesharing platforms where early evidence documents bias similar to what has been observed in traditional transportation systems. Platforms responded by reducing operational transparency through removing information about riders’ gender and race from the ride request presented to drivers. However, following this change, bias may still manifest through driver cancelation after a request is accepted, at which point the rider’s picture is displayed. Our primary research question is to what extent a rider’s gender, race, and perception of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights impact cancelation rates. We investigate this through a large field experiment on a major ridesharing platform in Washington, DC. By manipulating rider names and profile pictures, we observe drivers’ behavior patterns in accepting and canceling rides. Our results confirm that bias at the ride request stage has been eliminated. However, after acceptance, racial and LGBT biases are persistent, while we find no evidence of gender biases. We also explore whether peak times moderate (through increased pay to drivers) or exacerbate (by signaling that there are many riders, allowing drivers to be more selective) these biases. We find a moderating effect of peak timing, with lower cancelation rates for non-Caucasian riders. We do not find a similar moderating effect for riders that signal support for the LGBT community. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.
Tapasztalatok egy manualizált csoportos edukációs programmal az osztályos kardiológiai rehabilitációban

Műhelytanulmányunkban egy olyan új szemléletmódot mutatunk be, amelyet az elmúlt években egy kardiológiai rehabilitációs osztályon működtetett standard, manualizált betegedukációs program használata során sajátítottunk el. Az edukáció új szemléletében a betegek képessé tevése alapozza meg azt, hogy mindennapi életükben meg tudják oldani a betegségükhöz kapcsolódó problémákat. Ennek kiindulópontja, hogy a betegek az igényeiknek megfelelő információkat kapnak betegségükről és kezelésükről. A betegséggel kapcsolatos reális attitűdök és adekvát készségek megtanulása olyan edukációs módszereket igényel, amelyek célja a betegek aktív részvételének ösztönzése, a betegséggel kapcsolatos saját elképzelések és tapasztalatok megosztása és megbeszélése. Az aktív részvétel segíti a betegek felelősségvállalását és a megtanult képességek átültetését a mindennapi életükbe. A tanulmány további részében ismertetjük „A koszorúér-betegség oktatási programjá“-t, amely saját betegedukációs gyakorlatunk alapjául szolgált. A program öt egymásra épülő modulból áll. Kialakítása multidiszciplináris együttműködés keretében történt, a kockázati tényezők csökkentésével és az életmód-változtatással foglalkozó részei az egészségmagatartás társas-kognitív folyamatmodelljén alapulnak. Saját tapasztalataink szerint a betegedukációs program működtetését nagymértékben segíti strukturáltsága és részletes kidolgozottsága. Ezek nemcsak fontos feltételei az edukáció minőségének, hanem segítséget adnak az egyes témák megbeszélése során kialakuló csoportdinamikai folyamatok kezeléséhez is. A betegedukációs program standardizált alkalmazása elősegítheti eredményességének és mechanizmusainak empirikus kutatását.
IoTSIT: A Static Instrumentation Tool for IoT Devices

In recent years, an increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices have been employed in various fields, which has caused an increased demand for IoT device testing and analysis. However, due to the strictly limited software interfaces and hardware resources of IoT devices, traditional instrumentation-based testing and analysis technologies cannot be effectively used in IoT devices. In this paper, to address the problems encountered in IoT device detection and analysis using instrumentation methods, we present a prototype novel instrumentation tool, IoTSIT, that is suitable for the static instrumentation of firmware in IoT devices. This tool forcibly writes instrumented code into files while leaving the original program logic intact. A comparison of IoTSIT with several other instrumentation tools confirms that IoTSIT offers advantages in terms of time efficiency and code expansion rate for firmware instrumentation.
Simulation analysis of incentives on employees' acceptance of foreign joint venture management practices: a case study

PurposeCultural differences between employees of different nationalities are hindering the development of some transnational joint ventures. Describing and modelling the positive (or negative) factors that cause joint venture employees to accept (or reject) joint management business practices is of great value to all corporations operating abroad with locally sourced employees.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a Sino-Japan construction joint venture project as a representative case study. First, structural equation modelling is used to identify the factors influencing Chinese employees' acceptance of joint venture management practices. Then, a system dynamics model is adopted to simulate the time-dependent effects of the incentives.FindingsThe study results (1) indicate which incentives strongly affect employee acceptance of joint venture management practices; (2) identify inefficient management practices in cross-cultural joint ventures; and (3) provide evidence that the employees' perceptions of clear purpose, good working relationships and helpful mechanisms positively and directly also support their acceptance of joint management practices.Originality/value–A dynamic simulation method is used to analyse the influence of various incentive factors on employee acceptance of joint management. This provides unprecedented information regarding how these factors interact with each other, hence how their effectiveness varies (both positively and negatively) over time. Further findings also provide new ideas for joint venture managers to adopt more effective management methods.
Ringed seal (Pusa hispida) seasonal movements, diving, and haul‐out behavior in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas (2011–2017)

Abstract Continued Arctic warming and sea‐ice loss will have important implications for the conservation of ringed seals, a highly ice‐dependent species. A better understanding of their spatial ecology will help characterize emerging ecological trends and inform management decisions. We deployed satellite transmitters on ringed seals in the summers of 2011, 2014, and 2016 near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, to monitor their movements, diving, and haul‐out behavior. We present analyses of tracking and dive data provided by 17 seals that were tracked until at least January of the following year. Seals mostly ranged north of Utqiaġvik in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas during summer before moving into the southern Chukchi and Bering Seas during winter. In all seasons, ringed seals occupied a diversity of habitats and spatial distributions, from near shore and localized, to far offshore and wide‐ranging in drifting sea ice. Continental shelf waters were occupied for >96% of tracking days, during which repetitive diving (suggestive of foraging) primarily to the seafloor was the most frequent activity. From mid‐summer to early fall, 12 seals made ~1‐week forays off‐shelf to the deep Arctic Basin, most reaching the retreating pack‐ice, where they spent most of their time hauled out. Diel activity patterns suggested greater allocation of foraging efforts to midday hours. Haul‐out patterns were complementary, occurring mostly at night until April‐May when midday hours were preferred. Ringed seals captured in 2011—concurrent with an unusual mortality event that affected all ice‐seal species—differed morphologically and behaviorally from seals captured in other years. Speculations about the physiology of molting and its role in energetics, habitat use, and behavior are discussed; along with possible evidence of purported ringed seal ecotypes.
SDN-based VANETs, Security Attacks, Applications, and Challenges

Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) are the specific sort of ad-hoc networks that are utilized in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). VANETs have become one of the most reassuring, promising, and quickest developing subsets of the mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). They include smart vehicles, roadside units (RSUs), and on-board units (OBUs) which correspond through inconsistent wireless network. The current research in the vehicles industry and media transmission innovations alongside the remarkable multimodal portability administrations expedited center-wise ITS, of which VANETs increase considerably more attention. The particular characteristics of the software defined networks (SDNs) use the vehicular systems by its condition of the centralized art having a complete understanding of the network. Security is an important issue in the SDN-based VANETs, as a result of the effect the threats and vulnerabilities can have on driver’s conduct and personal satisfaction. This paper opens a discourse on the security attacks that future SDN-based VANETs should confront and examines how SDNs could be advantageous in building new countermeasures. SDN-based VANETs encourage us to dispose of the confinement and difficulties that are available in the traditional VANETs. It helps us to diminish the general burden on the system by dealing with the general system through a single wireless controller. While SDN-based VANETs provide us some benefits in terms of applications and services, they also have some important challenges which need to be solved. In this study we discuss and elaborate the challenges, along with the applications, and the future directions of SDN-based VANETs. At the end we provide the conclusion of the whole study.