Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compostos bioativos e potencial antioxidante de genótipos de araçá avaliados em dois ciclos produtivos.

O araca e uma fruta nativa com grande potencial de uso devido as suas propriedades biologicas. Os frutos apresentam epicarpo de coloracao amarela ou vermelha, o que torna um fator interferente na concentracao de compostos bioativos. Este trabalho foi realizado com o objetivo de avaliar a concentracao de antocianinas, carotenoides, compostos fenolicos e atividade antioxidante total em diversos genotipos de aracas vermelhos e amarelos produzidos em Pelotas, RS, em dois ciclos de producao. Os resultados demonstram que os aracas vermelhos apresentam maior concentracao de antocianinas, compostos fenolicos e atividade antioxidante total em comparacao com os frutos amarelos. Os genotipos AR 09, AR19 e AR 93 tiveram maior atividade antioxidante dentre os demais, sendo que o AR 09 e o AR 93 no ano de 2016 e o AR 19 no ano de 2015. O conhecimento das diferencas no potencial antioxidante entre diferentes genotipos de frutos e util para programas de melhoramento genetico, auxiliando a selecao de variedades com maior valor nutricional. O ciclo de producao (ano) foi uma variavel interferente importante nos niveis de compostos antioxidantes, pois influencia diretamente na concentracao dos compostos bioativos.
Effects of Age on Pavlovian Autoshaping of Ethanol Drinking in Non-Deprived Rats

Previous studies of autoshaping of drinking report a positive relationship between experience with autoshaping procedures and drinking, but this effect was confounded with age, as the rats were older when they drank more. The present experiment evaluated the effects of the age of male Long-Evans hooded rats [90-days old (Younger group) vs. 135 days old (Older group)], at the beginning of the study, on drinking induced by Pavlovian autoshaping procedures. Autoshaping procedures consisted of pairings of sipper conditioned stimulus (CS) with food unconditioned stimulus (US). Rats were deprived of neither food or fluid, and sweeteners were not employed at any time during the study. For all rats (n = 32), during sessions 1-10, the sipper CS contained water. Thereafter, for rats in the Ethanol groups (n = 20), the sipper CS contained ethanol, with the concentration (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6%, v/v) increasing across autoshaping sessions. For rats in the Water groups (n = 12), throughout the experiment the sipper CS contained tap water (0% ethanol). Rats in the Younger group drank more ethanol and more water from the sipper CS than rats in the Older group, and across age groups there was more ethanol drinking than water drinking, an effect unlikely due to foraging for calories. Data support the hypothesis that ethanol’s pharmacological effect was to enhance autoshaping, resulting in a positive feedback loop inducing still more ethanol drinking. The younger rats were more vulnerable to autoshaping effects. Implications for models of addiction are discussed.
Revisiting Marshall's Agglomeration Economies: Technological Relatedness and the Evolution of the Sheffield Metals Cluster

Potter A. and Watts H. D. Revisiting Marshall's agglomeration economies: technological relatedness and the evolution of the Sheffield metals cluster, Regional Studies. According to Alfred Marshall, firms receive increasing returns from a trinity of agglomeration economies: a local pool of skilled labour, local supplier linkages and local knowledge spillovers. This article re-examines the mechanisms underlying Marshall's agglomeration economies in the Sheffield metals cluster wherein Marshall discovered them. Despite the cluster's decline, empirical evidence is found that the mechanisms underlying Marshallian agglomeration economies continue to occur within the surviving metals industry. However, upon closer examination, Marshallian agglomeration economies have evolved to become more prevalent amongst plants that use related metals technology. The results highlight the importance of technological relatedness to cluster survival.
Putting together and taking apart: assembly and disassembly of the Rad51 nucleoprotein filament in DNA repair and genome stability

Homologous recombination is a key mechanism providing both genome stability and genetic diversity in all living organisms. Recombinases play a central role in this pathway: multiple protein subunits of Rad51 or its orthologues bind single-stranded DNA to form a nucleoprotein filament which is essential for initiating recombination events. Multiple factors are involved in the regulation of this step, both positively and negatively. In this review, we discuss Rad51 nucleoprotein assembly and disassembly, how it is regulated and what functional significance it has in genome maintenance.
User Perception and Expectations on Deleting Instant Messages, or "What Happens If I Press This Button?"

Contemporary mobile messaging provides rich text and multimedia functionality leaving detailed trails of sensitive user information that can span long periods of time. Allowing users to manage the privacy implications both on the sender and the receiver side can help to increase confidence in the use of communication applications. Recently, in October 2017, one of the mobile messengers with the largest user base, WhatsApp, has introduced a feature to delete past messages from communication, both from the sender’s and the receiver’s logs. In this paper, we report on a study with 125 participants conducted in a between-subjects design. We explore the actual demand for deleting mobile messages, and we investigate how well users comprehend this functionality as implemented in popular messaging applications. We found statistically significant differences in users’ understanding of message deletion between our three test conditions, comprising WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Skype. 80 % of participants in the WhatsApp condition could correctly assess the effects of deleting messages, compared to only 49 % in the Skype condition. Our findings indicate that users demand a message deleting functionality and that they can more precisely estimate the capabilities of a deletion function when its effects are transparently explained in the application’s user interface. Keywords—usability, privacy, messaging, mobile systems, digital forgetting
Borrowing from the insurer: An empirical analysis of demand and impact of insurance in China

Farmers in developing countries face relatively large income risk and have limited access to formal financial products that can help them manage their risk. We present results from a randomized controlled trial in rural China designed to understand whether a small change in the timing of a premium payment for a swine insurance contract helps to overcome an important barrier to insurance demand and, if so, whether the resulting increase in insurance would allow farmers to increase investment in activities that expose them to the risk being insured against. We find that insurance take-up is three times higher among those who were given the option to pay at the end of the insured period.
Social Media Idea Ontology : A Concept for Semantic Search of Product Ideas in Customer Knowledge through User-Centered Metrics and Natural Language Processing

In order to survive on the market, companies must constantly develop improved and new products. These products are designed to serve the needs of their customers in the best possible way. The creation of new products is also called innovation and is primarily driven by a company’s internal research and development department. However, a new approach has been taking place for some years now, involving external knowledge in the innovation process. This approach is called open innovation and identifies customer knowledge as the most important source in the innovation process. This paper presents a concept of using social media posts as an external source to support the open innovation approach in its initial phase, the Ideation phase. For this purpose, the social media posts are semantically structured with the help of an ontology and the authors are evaluated using graph-theoretical metrics such as density. For the structuring and evaluation of relevant social media posts, we also use the findings of Natural Language Processing, e. g. Named Entity Recognition, specific dictionaries, Triple Tagger and Part-of-Speech-Tagger. The selection and evaluation of the tools used are discussed in this paper. Using our ontology and metrics to structure social media posts enables users to semantically search these posts for new product ideas and thus gain an improved insight into the external sources such as customer needs. Keywords—Idea ontology, innovation management, open innovation, semantic search.
Molecular Evolution Within Protease Family C2, or Calpains

Calpains, or the intracellular Ca2+-dependent proteases (EC 3.4.22.17, family C2, cysteine protease clan CA) are one of the most important proteolytic systems in cytosol of eukaryotic and some prokaryotic cells (reviews: Croall & DeMartino, 1991; Goll et al., 2003; Sorimachi et al., 2011a). Calpain family is ancient and diverse since highly variable modules flanking conservative proteolytic core are found in the structure of these proteins. Linking of protease catalytic domain with ancillary domains, i.e. specialized functional modules with their own spectrum of non-proteolytic activities and binding partners, expands calpain functions on multiple cellular processes. Calpains are processing proteases cleaving their specific substrates at one or a limited number of sites to modulate their structure and activity rather than degrade it. Calpains are versatile proteases that have been implicated in diverse cellular signaling pathways mediated by calcium, such as cytoskeleton remodeling, cell-cycle regulation, differentiation, and death (Croall & DeMartino, 1991; Carafoli & Molinari, 1998; Goll et al., 2003; Nemova et al., 2010). Calpains were also considered to participate in chromosome rearrangements during mitosis (Schollmeyer, 1988), microtubule assembly and disassembly (Billger et al., 1988), intracellular signaling, motility, and vesicle traffic (Choi et al., 1997; Huttenlocher et al., 1997; Lu et al., 2002; Li & Iyengar, 2002). In mammals and plants it is clear that calpains are of critical importance for development (Wang et al., 2003; Dutt et al., 2006; Sorimachi et al., 2010). Furthermore, impaired calpain activity due to mutations or misregulation of the calpains has been implicated in a variety of pathological conditions including muscular dystrophy, ischemia, diabetes mellitus, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease (Tidball & Spencer, 2000; Huang & Wang, 2001; Crocker et al., 2003; Mamoune et al., 2003; Suzuki et al., 2004; Zatz & Starling, 2005). Calpains have attracted much attention because of the recent discovery of correlations between calpain gene mutations and human diseases, together with elucidation of its three-dimensional structure (Hosfield et al., 1999; Strobl et al., 2000) and Ca2+-induced activation mechanisms (Moldoveanu et al., 2002; 2004). Because the enzyme participates not only in normal intracellular signal transduction cascades but also in various pathological states, calpain research has attracted tremendous interest in wide areas of life sciences in both basic and clinical terms.
Soil ingestion by cattle on semiarid range as reflected by titanium analysis of feces.

Soil ingestion was determined for cattle grazing a Bromus tectorum range in southern Idaho by measuring titanium concentrations in animal feces collected at 2-week intervals during the droughty 1973 grazing season. The experiment was based on the premise that titanium, which is abundant in soils, is contained only in small quantities (less than 1 ppm) in plants not contaminated with soil. Fecal-soil values averaged 14%, with values ranging from 3 to 30% of fecal dry matter, increasing as forage availability decreased. Soil ingestion levels were estimated to range from 0.1 to 1.5 kg with a median of 0.5 kg soil/animal-day. This soil was ingested primarily with the roots of Bromus tectorum, which were often pulled up and consumed with the aboveground plant parts. Dust on leaves and stems accounted for only a small portion of the ingested soil. Measurements of acid-insoluble residue concentration in feces overestimated soil ingestion because of the probable presence of SiO? of plant origin. Large changes in forage SiO? concentrations of the diet reduce the effectiveness of this method compared to the Ti method. Ingested soil may be a possible source of trace minerals, pesticides, heavy metals, and radionucleides that may be sorbed to surface soil particles.
Evolution of Eruptive Flares. I. Plasmoid Dynamics in Eruptive Flares

We investigate the resistive processes of plasmoid dynamics in eruptive flares by performing 2.5-dimensional resistive MHD numerical simulations. We start with a linear force-free field arcade and impose the localized resistive perturbation on the symmetry axis of the arcade. Then the magnetic fields begin to dissipate, producing inflows toward this region. These inflows make the magnetic fields convex to the symmetry axis and hence a neutral point is formed on this axis, leading to a formation of a magnetic island around the symmetry axis. At the first stage, the magnetic island slowly rises by the upflow produced by the initial resistive perturbation. Then, once the anomalous resistivity sets in, the magnetic island begins to be accelerated. This acceleration stops after the fast MHD shock is formed at the bottom of the magnetic island, which implies that the upflow around the central part of the magnetic island is no longer strong. These three stages in the evolution of the plasmoid are confirmed to exist in the observational results. Moreover, a time lag between the start time when the magnetic island begins to be accelerated and the peak time of the neutral-point electric field can be explained by the inhibition of magnetic reconnection by the perpendicular magnetic field. We also study the difference of the initial rise motion of the plasmoid between the simulation results and the observational ones, and we conclude that, in actual situations, the initial resistive perturbation proceeds very weakly and at many positions inside the arcade.
Optimal Asset Allocation for Retirement Saving: Deterministic Vs. Time Consistent Adaptive Strategies

ABSTRACT We consider optimal asset allocation for an investor saving for retirement. The portfolio contains a bond index and a stock index. We use multi-period criteria and explore two types of strategies: deterministic strategies are based only on the time remaining until the anticipated retirement date, while adaptive strategies also consider the investor’s accumulated wealth. The vast majority of financial products designed for retirement saving use deterministic strategies (e.g., target date funds). In the deterministic case, we determine an optimal open loop control using mean-variance criteria. In the adaptive case, we use time consistent mean-variance and quadratic shortfall objectives. Tests based on both a synthetic market where the stock index is modelled by a jump-diffusion process and also on bootstrap resampling of long-term historical data show that the optimal adaptive strategies significantly outperform the optimal deterministic strategy. This suggests that investors are not being well served by the strategies currently dominating the marketplace.
ScienceDirect International Conference on Accounting Studies 2014 , ICAS 2014 , 18-19 August 2014 , Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia Financial instruments disclosure practices : Evidence from Malaysian listed firms

The current changes in business settings have directed companies to conduct businesses at the international level which requires the use of financial instruments. The-mandatory MFRS 7, an adoption of IFRS 7 standard has been implemented for entities to disclose their involvement with financial instruments. Thus, the aimed of this study is to investigate the financial instruments disclosure practices (FID) among Malaysian listed companies; specifically, on the level of compliance with MFRS 7. The overall results indicate that companies complied with MFRS 7, though there are several requirements omitted by companies. Furthermore, with the revised of MCCG in 2012, this study examines the association of corporate governance mechanisms with the extent of FID among companies. Based on sample of 319 companies, result indicates that audit committee independence, internal audit independence (out-source) and audit fees are positive and significantly associated with FID. Hence, it suggests that effective corporate governance may have some influence on the extent of disclosure level among companies. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the School of Accountancy, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia.
Comments on “Why Hasn’t Earth Warmed as Much as Expected?”

AbstractIn a recent paper, Schwartz et al. suggest that 1) over the last century the earth has warmed less than expected, and they discuss several factors that could explain the discrepancy, including climate sensitivity estimates and aerosol forcing. Schwartz et al. then continue to 2) estimate the allowed carbon emissions for stabilization of global temperature, and find that given the uncertainty in the climate sensitivity even the sign of these allowed carbon emissions is unknown, implying that past emissions may already have committed the earth to 2°C warming for a best-estimate value of climate sensitivity of 3 K. Both of these conclusions in the Schwartz et al. study are revisited herein, and it is shown that 1) in contrast to Schwartz et al., current assessments of climate sensitivity, radiative forcing, and thermal disequilibrium do not support the claim of a discrepancy between expected and observed warming; and 2) the allowed emissions estimated by Schwartz et al. are in conflict with results f.
The throughput and sensitivity of the JWST mid-infrared instrument

The Verification Model (VM) of MIRI has recently completed an extensive programme of cryogenic testing, with the Flight Model (FM) now being assembled and made ready to begin performance testing in the next few months. By combining those VM test results which relate to MIRI's scientific performance with measurements made on FM components and sub-assemblies, we have been able to refine and develop the existing model of the instrument's throughput and sensitivity. We present the main components of the model, its correlation with the existing test results and its predictions for MIRI's performance on orbit.
Unemployment and the Social Safety Net During Transitions to a Market Economy: Evidence from the Czech and Slovak Republics

The authors investigate the remarkably short unemployment spells in the Czech Republic compared to Slovakia and other Central and East European economies. They estimate hazard functions and find that 40 to 5O percent of the difference in unemployment durations between the two republics is accounted for by differences in demographics and demand conditions. The remainder is explained by differences in coefficients, proxying the behavior of firms, individuals, and institutions. In both republics, the unemployment compensation system has a moderately negative effect on the exit rate from unemployment. Policymakers, hence, have latitude in providing adequate social safety nets without jeopardizing efficiency. Copyright 1998 by American Economic Association.
Role of semi-quantitative bacteriological culture in management of chronic wound infections

Introduction: The role of quantitative microbiology in the management of wound infections is very crucial. In this study semiquantitative swab technique is used as a simple procedure for assessing the bacterial load of chronic non healing wounds, thereby distinguishing the patients with infected ulcers from colonized one, thereby restricting the use of antibiotics only to the appropriate infected population. Aim: To assess the role of semi-quantitative bacterial culture of chronic non healing wounds in differentiating between colonised and infected wounds based on bacterial load. Setting and Design: This is a cross sectional study carried out in the Department of Microbiology in a tertiary care government medical College. Materials and Methods: Two wound swabs were taken using sterile cotton swabs from 100 patients with chronic non healing ulcer wounds. Semi-quantitative aerobic bacterial culture was done. Results: Among 100 patients for whom semi-quantitative culture was done, 72 patients showed growth, of which 21 patients had poly-microbial growth making a total of 93 isolates. Out of the total 93 isolates, 73 isolates had a significant count of ≥3+, hence considered as pathogens. The most commonly isolated pathogens were Staphylococcus aureus (24.6%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (24.6%). 55.5% were Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). 65% of Enterobacteriaceae were ESBL producers and 15% were AmpC β-lactamase producers. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the importance and benefits of semi-quantitative bacterial culture technique in differentiating between pathogens and colonisers and enable refinement of antibiotic regimens and thereby curbing antibiotic resistance.
Speculative Execution for Guided Visual Analytics

We propose the concept of Speculative Execution for Visual Analytics and discuss its effectiveness for model exploration and optimization. Speculative Execution enables the automatic generation of alternative, competing model configurations that do not alter the current model state unless explicitly confirmed by the user. These alternatives are computed based on either user interactions or model quality measures and can be explored using delta-visualizations. By automatically proposing modeling alternatives, systems employing Speculative Execution can shorten the gap between users and models, reduce the confirmation bias and speed up optimization processes. In this paper, we have assembled five application scenarios showcasing the potential of Speculative Execution, as well as a potential for further research.
Are genetically distinct lizard species able to hybridize? A review

Animal species are delimited by reproductive isolation mechanisms (RIMs). Postzygotic RIMs are mainly products of genetic differences and thus their strength increases with elapsed divergence time. The relationship between postzygotic repro- ductive isolation and genetic divergence, however, differs considerably among major clades of vertebrates. We reviewed the available literature providing empirical evidence of natural and/or experimental hybridization between distinct species of lizards (squamates except snakes). We found that hybridization events are widely distributed among nearly all major lizard clades. The majority of research focuses on parthenogenetic species and/or polyploid hybrids in families Lacertidae, Teiidae and Gekkonidae. Homoploid bisexual hybrids are mainly reported within Lacertidae and Iguania groups. As a proxy of genetic divergence of the hybridizing taxa we adopted nucleotide sequence distance (HKY85) of mitochondrial cyt b gene. The upper limit of genetic di- vergence was similar with regard to both parthenogenetic and bisexual hybrids. Maximum values of these distances between hy- bridizing species of lizards approached 18%-21%, which is comparable to or even exceeds the corresponding values reported for other principal clades of vertebrates. In spite of this, F1 hybrids are typically at least partially fertile in lizards and thus genetic in- trogression between highly divergent species is possible. The relationship between the genetic distance and hybrid fertility was