Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of bushfire exposure on prenatal and early life development in humans: a life history perspective

Taking a life history theory perspective, this dissertation considers the effects of bushfire related stress on a suite of human reproductive outcomes. Life history theory suggests that human reproduction is responsive to environmental pressure and that this responsiveness can be detected via changes to reproductive strategy, such as degree of maternal investment. Using multivariate analysis, this dissertation examines the effects of maternal fire exposure in two populations on gestational age, birth weight, secondary sex ratio, plurality rates, fertility rates, and behavioural indicators. It hypothesises that decreases will be observed in those measures that indicate degree of maternal investment, such as birth weight, gestational age, and plurality, as well as predicting decreases in sex ratio associated with differential loss in early pregnancy. It suggests that behavioural indicators will worsen as sequela of in utero stress. Using a mixed-methods approach, the dissertation also documents the experience of mothers who have lived through bushfires while pregnant, hypothesising that they will have experienced considerable subjective and objective stress. The dissertation finds that reproductive responses vary considerably between the populations studied and potentially in relation to the intensity of fire exposure. Contrary to the hypothesis, it finds that birth weights increased in the population exposed to a smaller fire (the 2003 Canberra fire), while remaining unchanged in the population exposed to a larger fire (Black Saturday fire, Victoria, 2009). However, the reverse was true of secondary sex ratio, which decreased in the population exposed to the Black Saturday fire, while remaining unchanged in the Canberra population. Gestational age was unaffected in both cases. Behavioural indicators and fertility rates were largely unaffected by fire exposure, although they both appeared sensitive to other environmental factors. Mothers in both fires reported feeling stressed, although mothers exposed to the Black Saturday fire reported higher perceived and objective stress. Mothers in both fires reported that public support and information were, at times, insufficient. Taken together, the findings indicate the functioning of finely tuned evolutionary mechanisms that adjust to environmental conditions only where a threshold of severity is met, thereby protecting reproductive strategy from the influence of more transient stressors.
Global Groundwater Sustainability, Resources, and Systems in the Anthropocene

Groundwater is a crucial resource for current and future generations, but it is not being sustainably used in many parts of the world. The objective of this review is to provide a clear portrait of global-scale groundwater sustainability, systems, and resources in the Anthropocene to inspire a pivot toward more sustainable pathways of groundwater use. We examine groundwater from three different but related perspectives of sustainability science, natural resource governance and management, and Earth System science. An Earth System approach highlights the connections between groundwater and the other parts of the system and how these connections are impacting, or are impacted by, groundwater pumping. Groundwater is the largest store of unfrozen freshwater on Earth and is heterogeneously connected to many Earth System processes on different timescales. We propose a definition of groundwater sustainability that has a direct link with observable data, governance, and management as well as the crucial functions and services of groundwater. ▪ Groundwater is depleted or contaminated in some regions; it is ubiquitously distributed, which, importantly, makes it broadly accessible but also slow and invisible and therefore challenging to govern and manage. ▪ Regional differences in priorities, hydrology, politics, culture, and economic contexts mean that different governance and management tools are important, but a global perspective can support higher level international policies in an increasingly globalized world that require broader analysis of interconnections and knowledge transfer between regions. ▪ A coherent, overarching framework of groundwater sustainability is more important for groundwater governance and management than the concepts of safe yield, renewability, depletion, or stress.
Helping Others and Feeling Engaged in the Context of Workplace Flexibility: The Importance of Communication Control

Workplace flexibility can lead to fewer physical encounters, impacting the extent to which employees can help others. This is important because giving help to coworkers facilitates engagement. This study draws on two-wave panel data from 329 employees to examine the relationship between workplace flexibility and engagement through helping behavior. Furthermore, the role of communication control—that is, an employee’s ability to regulate the use of work-related communication technologies—is examined, as it may buffer the negative associations between workplace flexibility and helping behavior. The results demonstrate that spatial flexibility is detrimental to engagement because it reduces helping behavior. Importantly, this negative impact may be alleviated by high levels of communication control (as opposed to low levels). Furthermore, the study provides insights into the independent effects of spatial and temporal flexibility on helping behavior and supports the notion that doing good may lead to feeling good, as helping behavior is positively associated with engagement.
Secure distributed optimal frequency regulation of power grid with time‐varying voltages under cyberattack

The distributed optimal frequency regulation of power grid containing plenty of distributed renewable energy resources is highly dependent on the communication network. However, the utilization of a communication network makes the power grid vulnerable to cyberattacks, which could deteriorate the control performance and even cause the failure of a control task. To address this problem, this paper investigates the secure distributed optimal frequency regulation of power grid under cyberattack. The stealthy deceptive cyberattack model is constructed, and its perniciousness on optimal frequency regulation is analyzed. A novel type of secure distributed optimal frequency regulation is developed by introducing a secure‐based communication network to improve the resilience against cyberattack. It is proved theoretically that the secure regulation can restore the frequency deviation of each area to zero and minimize the total generation cost to retain the economic efficiency even under cyberattack. Simulation result shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Integrating Registered Dietitian Nutritionists Into Primary Care Practices to Work With Children With Overweight

Despite increased reimbursement for registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs), few studies have assessed the potential of integrating them into primary care clinics to support pediatric weight management. To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach, RDNs were introduced into 8 primary care practices in North Carolina. This mixed-methods study combined (1) interviews and focus groups with RDNs and clinic personnel, (2) comparison of change in body mass index (BMI) z-score in study practices to change in historical comparison groups, and (3) analysis of behavior and BMI change for RDN utilizers. Qualitative data were coded thematically, and McNemar’s and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used for quantitative data. RDN integration was good, but average referral rate for eligible children was 19.4%; 48.4% of those referred utilized the RDN (most fewer than 3 times). Using the full analysis set, there was no difference in change in BMI z-score for intervention and comparison groups. For RDN utilizers, the average change in BMI z-score was −0.089 (P < .001), and there was statistically significant improvement in 7 of 8 health behaviors. Integrating RDNs into primary care practices was feasible and possibly effective for utilizers. Reaping potential benefits of RDN co-location would require increasing low referral and utilization rates.
Influence of visual field results in the glaucoma diagnosis

Objective: To determine the influence of visual field results in the diagnosis of glaucoma. Methods: A questionnaire with ophthalmologists was conducted where slides of a digital photograph of the optic disc and computerized visual field exam were presented. (Physicians were instructed to answer whether glaucoma was observed in each of the slides). No other information was given to those examiners. Half of the patients had glaucoma with corresponding visual field, and the other half had physiological cupping and normal visual field. The slides were equally divided between retinography and corresponding visual field (same patient) and exams randomly exchanged, where an optic disc of glaucoma with a normal visual field was placed, and vice-versa. The order in which the slides were presented was also randomized. Results: Forty slides were evaluated by 29 ophthalmologists. No glaucoma specialist was included. The overall agreement among the examiners (Kappa) was 0.270 ± 0.281, and 0.261 ± 0.238 for the exams of the same eye and was 0.274 ± 0.217 from the slides with the exams changed (p=0.4). The diagnosis was made correctly in glaucoma patients with corresponding visual field exam in 66.89% of the cases, and in 66.20% of patients with physiological cupping. When the exams were exchanged, the results dropped to 34.13% and 35.86%, respectively (p<0.001 for both). Conclusion: Visual field results may influence the diagnosis of glaucoma by non-glaucoma specialists.
Review on cross-layer design for cognitive ad-hoc and sensor network

Most of the ad-hoc networks including wireless sensor network operates in unlicensed spectrum bands (e.g. 2.4 GHz ISM band), which is shared by other wireless technologies. This leads to coexistent interference and degrades the performance of ad-hoc sensor network (AHSN). Introducing cognitive radio (CR) concept in AHSN, the unutilised licensed spectrum (white spaces) can be used opportunistically without disturbing licensed holders. Conventional TCP/IP layered architecture for CR network lacks in mobility, data transfer performance, energy efficiency, quality of service and so on. Coupling of some of the layers allows coordination, interaction and joint optimisation of protocols to achieve significant performance improvements for CR-AHSN. Of late, many researches are going on different approaches of using CR for reusing unused spectrum and enhancing total system capacity. This study presents a comprehensive review of various cross-layer design approaches in CR sensor network.
Introducing New Traditional Cuisine for Maintaining Culture and Promoting Tourism in Tegal Regency

Culture is the custom, the art, the specific institution, and the achievement of a particular nation, people, or social group. Since a culture reflects the life of its owner, when the owner of a culture no longer keeps the culture, it becomes a history. One of ways of maintaining culture is through developing new ones, such as developng new tradition. One of the examples of it is developing new tradition of cooking traditional cuisine especially made by local people using local ingredient with new way of consuming it. This research shows how the local people of Tegal Regency develops new traditional cuisine from the old one, supported by the local govenment to be part of their culinary tourism promotion. The first one is sate blengong, a side dish developed from the old/original chicken/lamb satay but was made of blengong meat, a cross breed of bebek (duck) and mentok (Muscovy duck), sticked on bamboo skewer, grilled and served with peanut sauce. The second one is Rujak Teplak, a side dish developed from the old/original rujak (boiled vegetables served with peanuts sauce) whose name is created from the way the seller put nine kinds of vegetable on banana leaf as its wrapping (teplak means putting something with a force resulting a kind of slapping sound). The result shows that the new traditional cuisines are famous for its uniqueness and good taste so that it attracts tourists to come and taste it after seeing them being promoted through various social medias. It can be concluded that those new cuisines keeps Tegal Regency’s culinary tradition as part of their culture that is beneficial to promote Tegal Regency culinary tourism.Keywords: culture, tradition, cuisine, culinary, tourism, promotion
Bio-Inspired Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Enhanced Sensing of Mercury Through Green Synthesized Silver Nanoparticle

We report sensing of mercury ion through localized surface plasmon resonance based intensity modulation. A U-shaped probe is utilized for this purpose that is functionalized with Chitosan mediated silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticles have been synthesized through a green route. The as-synthesized silver nanoparticles are found to be ∼44 nm, as affirmed by absorption curves and DLS experiment. Subject to the dipping of as- fabricated probe in various heavy metal ion solutions, we attain excellent selectivity towards mercury. The sensing offers a limit of detection of 1.5 ppb with an excellent linearity ∼0.97. The eco-friendly as well as cost-effective with simplistic design approach has enough potential for the application in real time monitoring of heavy metal contaminants in aqueous solutions.
Joint Subarray Selection and Power Allocation for Cognitive Target Tracking in Large-Scale MIMO Radar Networks

This article develops a joint subarray selection and power allocation (JSSPA) strategy for tracking multiple targets in clutter environments using large-scale distributed MIMO radar networks. The mechanism of our strategy is to implement the best resource allocation on the basis of the information in the tracking recursive manner, aiming at improving the overall tracking accuracy. By integrating with the information reduction factor, we derive the predicted conditional Cramér–Rao lower bound (PC-CRLB) in clutter, which offers a more accurate measure of target state estimate than the standard posterior Cramér–Rao lower bound. Then, the sum of weighted PC-CRLBs is utilized as the optimization criterion to guide our JSSPA strategy. It is shown that the optimization model is a nonconvex problem that involves three variables, and a two-stage local search-based algorithm is proposed to solve it. Numerical simulations verify the tracking performance improvement by the proposed method, compared with four other resource allocation strategies.
Non-native English-speaking teachers in Korean English classrooms: reflections through critical performative pedagogy

ABSTRACT This study explores non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) and their critical awareness in the enacted classroom of South Korea. As a conceptual framework of this study, critical performative pedagogy (CPP) was applied to foster participants’ critical reflection, and issues pertaining to the larger social discourse were discussed. Specifically, a group of four pre-service Korean English teachers participated in a semester-long CPP process that included reflection on previous learning and teaching experiences through storytelling, performances of forum theatre, critical discourse analysis (CDA) of performances, and post-discussions. The transcripts of the forum theatres were analyzed using a CDA, and the participants’ written and spoken data from all activities in the CPP process were analyzed using a thematic analysis. The findings show that native speakerism is fostered in normative classroom discourse, which tends to produce marginalized learners and deficit NNEST identities. The analysis also revealed that participants can challenge the existing discourse by applying the concept of World English and the reconceptualized English teacher model. Implications of this study include the use of CPP as a mediational tool in the critical and collaborative language teacher professional development, with the potential for transformation in their real-life situations.
Utilidad clínica de la prueba del frío en pacientes con factores de riesgo y sin enfermedad coronaria demostrada

Hoy es posible, con diferentes métodos incruentos, diagnosticar con gran precisión un músculo miocárdico isquémico, sobre todo si esa isquemia implica algún grado de riesgo en la evolución del paciente; por ejemplo, de padecer algún evento mayor como infarto o muerte. El más reciente de los hallazgos fisiopatológicos que puede producir isquemia miocárdica es el relacionado con la función endotelial. Se sabe que el endotelio infiltrado por aterosclerosis se altera significativamente en su función y también se sabe que la dislipidemia, el tabaquismo, la hipertensión arterial y/o la menopausia pueden producir alteraciones funcionales del endotelio sin que su estructura se halle dañada. (1) El endotelio es el órgano paracrino más grande y activo de la economía, que produce potentes sustancias vasoactivas, anticoagulantes, procoagulantes y fibrinolíticas. (2) El endotelio, entonces, sensor y transductor de los diversos estímulos químicos (acetilcolina, serotonina, trombina) y físicos [shear stress (estrés de deslizamiento)], no sólo regula el calibre de los vasos de conductancia, sino que también modula el tono de los vasos de resistencia que determinan el flujo y la perfusión tisular acorde a las necesidades metabólicas. La respuesta del endotelio sano a la infusión intracoronaria de acetilcolina es la de liberación de óxido nítrico, el cual ejerce un efecto vasodilatador coronario. Cuando hay una alteración funcional o anatómica del endotelio, la respuesta a la acetilcolina es vasoconstrictora, es decir que el endotelio pierde la capacidad de liberar sustancias vasodilatadoras, predominando el efecto de las sustancias vasoconstrictoras.
Characterization of the lateral diffusion barrier established in neural progenitor cells during embryonic cortical development

Development of the cerebral cortex occurs via successive divisions of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) generating distinct neocortical layers that build up the mammalian brain. It has been shown during development in mice that a subset of NPCs exhibits a diffusion barrier in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that may be critically involved in the establishment of asymmetric cell division. However, it remains unclear if the ER-diffusion barrier is dynamically regulated in the course of embryonic cortical development. We here used fluorescence loss in photobleaching (FLIP) experiments in organotypic slice cultures of the developing mouse brain to analyze the presence and strength of the ER diffusion barrier in apical progenitors (APs) and basal progenitors (BPs) throughout cortical development. Our data indicate that a substantial fraction of APs and BPs establish an ER-diffusion barrier during cell divisions and that the strength of the ER barrier is decreased in BPs compared to APs. In addition, we show that during development, APs’ diffusion barrier strength reaches a peak around e15-e16, while the strength of the BP diffusion barrier is reduced with advancing developmental stages. Thus, our findings may suggest that the ER diffusion barrier is associated with the asymmetric division of NPCs during brain development that may contribute to the functional and cellular diversity of brain tissues.
Comparison of Cross-Linked Branched and Linear Poly(ethylene imine) Microgel Microstructures and Their Impact in Antimicrobial Behavior, Copper Chelation, and Carbon Dioxide Capture

Poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) is a cationic polymer that is commercially available in linear (LPEI) and branched (BPEI) architectures for both biological and environmental applications. By coupling the LPEI or BPEI with divinyl sulfone, crosslinked PEI is formed and has been researched for its same robust properties as traditional PEI, but with a rigid, insoluble structure. Herein, we present the first direct comparison of crosslinked linear PEI microgels and branched PEI microgels (LPM and BPM respectively) in both their intrinsic characteristics, such as morphology, surface charge, and surface chemistry, as well as their applications in antimicrobial activity, copper chelation, and CO2 capture. The Cu(II) adsorption capacity of the LPMs is larger than their branched counterparts and their performance is comparable to that of similar materials with a maximum adsorption capacity of 86.8 mg/g. LPM and BPM shows no significant inhibition in bacterial growth compared to a positive control (culture inoculated wi.
Hepatitis D in Patients Infected with Hepatitis B Virus in Cotonou: Characteristics and Risk Factors

Introduction: Hepatitis D virus (HDV) is a satellite virus of hepatitis B virus (HBV). The purpose of this work was to describe the epidemiological, clinical and biological characteristics of HBV/HDV co-infection and the factors associated with this co-infection in Cotonou. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study with prospective data collection. It took place from June to October 2016 at CNHU/HKM and the Atinkanmey Polyclinic in Cotonou. Subjects over 15 years of age with HBsAg and untreated for hepatitis were included consecutively. Sociodemographic, clinical and biological characteristics were collected for each patient using only a standardized questionnaire. Then, a blood sample was taken for the determination of anti-HDV antibodies as well as the viral load of HBV. Results: A total of 156 subjects were included, predominantly male (sex-ratio = 2), and of median age 36 years. The majority were monogamous married (50%) or single (41.7%), and were from south of Benin (84.6%). Most subjects were asymptomatic (49.4%). The prevalence of total HDV antibodies was 3.9% (6/156). In subjects with total HDV antibodies, the prevalence of HDV IgM was 33.3%. Origin in northern Benin appears to be a risk factor for HDV infection (p = 0.042). Similarly, married subjects were statistically more infected with HDV than unmarried subjects (p = 0.002). Conclusion: The prevalence of HDV infection varies according to the origin of the patients and their marital status.
The President's dilemma: The Portuguese semi-presidential system in times of crisis (2011‐16)

Abstract Economic crises and foreign interventions cause political actors to face a dilemma between responsiveness towards their electorate and responsibility vis-à-vis international institutions. In this article, we analyse how a seldom studied political actor in international affairs (the Head of State in a semi-presidential regime) dealt with this dilemma. We focus on Aníbal Cavaco Silva's (former president of the Portuguese Republic) discourse, and use of veto and constitutionality examination request powers in the 2011‐16 mandate, and on his attitudes regarding the access to power of pro- and anti-austerity political forces in the aftermath of the 2015 legislative elections. We conclude that the Head of State was more concerned with international responsibility than with domestic responsibility and responsiveness, especially at the behavioural level, although he occasionally acted in ways that toned down this feature of his presidential mandate. We therefore suggest that in times of severe crisis the political conditions that usually partly explain variations in the use of the presidential powers in semi-presidential regimes interact with short-term factors related to the crisis that can reduce or even cancel out their effects.