bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Children’s inequality aversion in intergroup contexts: The role of parents’ social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism and moral foundations
Authors: Guidetti Margherita , Carraro Luciana , Castelli Luigi
Published: December 2021

Although children are overall sensitive to inequality and prefer fair allocation of resources, they also often display ingroup favouritism. Inquiring about the factors that can shape the tension between these two driving forces in children, we focused on the role of parents. Extending the limited literature in this field, the present work examined whether individual differences in 3-to 11-year-old White children’s (N = 154, 78 boys) evaluations of fair versus pro-ingroup behaviours in an intergroup context vary as a function of both mothers’ and fathers’ social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and moral foundations. Parents completed a questionnaire. Children were presented with a scenario in which two ingroup members distributed candies to two other children, one White and one Black, either in an egalitarian way or displaying a clear ingroup favouritism. Afterwards, their attitudes towards the two ingroup members who had distributed the candies were assessed through both an Implicit Association Test and explicit questions. Although children displayed on average an explicit preference for the fair over the pro-ingroup target, this preference did not emerge at the implicit level. Most importantly, both children’s explicit and implicit attitudes were related to mothers’ SDO, indicating that at increasing level of mothers’ SDO children’s inequality aversion tended to drop. Overall, these results emphasize the relevance of mothers’ support for social hierarchy in relation to the way in which children balance the two competing drives of equality endorsement and pro-ingroup bias.
How populist attitudes scales fail to capture support for populists in power
Authors: Jungkunz Sebastian , Fahey Robert A. , Hino Airo
Published: December 2021

Populist attitudes are generally measured in surveys through three necessary and non-compensatory elements of populism, namely anti-elitism, people-centrism, and Manicheanism. Using Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Module 5 (2016–2020) data for 30 countries, we evaluate whether this approach explains voting for populist parties across countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas. We show that the existing scales of populist attitudes effectively explain voting for populists in countries where populist leaders and parties are in opposition but fail to explain voting for populist parties in countries where they are in power. We argue that current approaches assume “the elite” to mean “politicians”, thus failing to capture attitudes towards “non-political elites” often targeted by populists in office—in particular, journalists, academics/experts, bureaucrats, and corporate business leaders. The results reveal limits to the usefulness of existing survey batteries in cross-national studies of populism and emphasize the need to develop approaches that are more generalizable across political and national contexts.
A systems biology analysis of lipolysis and fatty acid release from adipocytes in vitro and from adipose tissue in vivo
Authors: Lövfors William , Ekström Jona , Jönsson Cecilia , Strålfors Peter , Cedersund Gunnar , Nyman Elin
Published: December 2021

Lipolysis and the release of fatty acids to supply energy fuel to other organs, such as between meals, during exercise, and starvation, are fundamental functions of the adipose tissue. The intracellular lipolytic pathway in adipocytes is activated by adrenaline and noradrenaline, and inhibited by insulin. Circulating fatty acids are elevated in type 2 diabetic individuals. The mechanisms behind this elevation are not fully known, and to increase the knowledge a link between the systemic circulation and intracellular lipolysis is key. However, data on lipolysis and knowledge from in vitro systems have not been linked to corresponding in vivo data and knowledge in vivo. Here, we use mathematical modelling to provide such a link. We examine mechanisms of insulin action by combining in vivo and in vitro data into an integrated mathematical model that can explain all data. Furthermore, the model can describe independent data not used for training the model. We show the usefulness of the model by simulating new and more challenging experimental setups in silico, e.g. the extracellular concentration of fatty acids during an insulin clamp, and the difference in such simulations between individuals with and without type 2 diabetes. Our work provides a new platform for model-based analysis of adipose tissue lipolysis, under both non-diabetic and type 2 diabetic conditions.
Active environmental surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Midwestern United States meatpacking plants
Authors: Storms Suzanna M. , Lowe James F.
Published: December 2021

This pilot project investigated environmental SARS-CoV-2 presence in seven Midwestern meatpacking plants from May 2020 to January 2021. This study investigated social distancing and infection control practices and incorporated environmental sampling of surfaces and air in employee common areas. All plants increased their social distancing efforts, increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting worker areas, and screened for symptomatic people to prevent entry into the workplace. 575 samples from common areas were collected and evaluated with RT-qPCR for the presence of SARS-CoV-2. 42/367 surface samples were positive, while no virus was detected in air samples. Case positive data from the counties surrounding each plant showed peak positive SARS-CoV-2 cases from 12–55 days before the virus was detected in the plant, indicating that environmental sampling is likely a lagging indicator of community and plant infection.
Evaluating borrowers’ default risk with a spatial probit model reflecting the distance in their relational network
Authors: Lee Jong Wook , Sohn So Young
Published: December 2021

Potential relationship among loan applicants can provide valuable information for evaluating default risk. However, most of the existing credit scoring models either ignore this relationship or consider a simple connection information. This study assesses the applicants’ relation in terms of their distance estimated based on their characteristics. This information is then utilized in a proposed spatial probit model to reflect the different degree of borrowers’ relation on the default prediction of loan applicant. We apply this method to peer-to-peer Lending Club Loan data. Empirical results show that the consideration of information on the spatial autocorrelation among loan applicants can provide high predictive power for defaults.
Baseline knowledge and attitudes on COVID-19 among hotels’ staff: A cross-sectional study in Kigali, Rwanda
Authors: Hagabimana Aphrodis , Omolo Jared , El-Khatib Ziad , Rwagasore Edson , Benemariya Noella , Nsekuye Olivier , Kabeja Adeline , Balisanga Helene , Umutoni Angela , Musafili Aimable , Ndagijimana Albert
Published: December 2021

Background

The World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a global pandemic on the 11th of March, 2020. Hotels and other public establishments have been associated with higher transmission rates. Sensitisation of staff and strengthening of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practices in such settings are important interventions. This study assessed the baseline knowledge and attitudes on COVID-19 among hotels’ representatives in Kigali, Rwanda.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among hotels’ staff in Kigali in July 2020. A structured questionnaire was self-administered to 104 participants. Baseline knowledge and attitudes were assessed using a number of pre-test questions and mean scores were used to dichotomise the participants’ responses as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Results

All of the 104 hotels’ staff completed the self-administered questionnaires. Sixty-seven percent (n = 70) were male and 58% (n = 60) were aged between 30 and 44 years. The satisfactory rate of correct answers was 63%±2.4 (n = 66) on knowledge and 68%±1.7 (n = 71) on attitudes evaluation. Participants with University education were more likely to have satisfactory knowledge (AOR: 2.6, 95% C.I: 1.07–6.58) than those with secondary education or less. The staff working in the front-office (AOR: 0.05; 95% CI 0.01–0.54) and housekeeping (AOR: 0.09; 95% C.I: 0.01–0.87) were less likely to have satisfactory attitudes than those working in the administration.

Conclusions

Hotels’ staff based in the capital of Rwanda have shown satisfactory knowledge and attitudes regarding appropriate IPC practices for preventing the COVID-19 transmission. Educational interventions are needed to improve their knowledge and attitudes for better prevention in this setting.
Clinical patterns of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment during the first state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic in a Tokyo center
Authors: Hirakata Toshiaki , Huang Tianxiang , Hiratsuka Yoshimune , Yamamoto Shutaro , Inoue Akira , Murakami Akira
Published: December 2021

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is disturbing and overwhelming a regular medical care in the world. We evaluated the clinical characteristics of patients with primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) during the state of emergency for COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. We also reviewed measures against the COVID-19 pandemic in our institute with a focus on RRD treatment. Retrospectively, patients who underwent initial RRD surgery during the state of emergency between April 7, 2020 and May 25, 2020 were included. For comparison, we recruited patients who underwent surgery for initial RRD during the same period in the last 2 years (2018 and 2019). Data related to the number of surgeries, age, gender, macular detachment, proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), preoperative visual acuity, surgical techniques, the time between the onset and hospitalization and/or surgery of the 2020 cohort were analyzed and compared with those of the 2018 and 2019 cohorts. Furthermore, we reviewed measures taken against COVID-19 in our institute. The number of RRD patients during the state of emergency tended to be lower than that within the last 2 years. Relatively lesser female (vs. male) patients were observed in the 2020 cohort than in the last 2 years (P = 0.084). In contrast, among all cohorts, no significant differences were observed in the incidence of macula-off and PVR, preoperative visual acuity, and the time period between symptom onset and hospitalization and/or surgery. This is the first report to show the clinical patterns of RRD during COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Despite the state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, no delay in the patient’s initial visit to the hospital and surgery was observed. Further studies, including multicenter researches, are important for investigating the influence of COVID-19 on urgent ocular diseases.
Pruning harvesting with modular towed chipper: Little effect of the machine setting and configuration on performance despite strong impact on wood chip quality
Authors: Suardi Alessandro , Saia Sergio , Alfano Vincenzo , Rezaei Negar , Cetera Paola , Bergonzoli Simone , Pari Luigi
Published: December 2021

Pruning residues can have a high quality as feedstock for energy purposes and are largely available in Europe. However, it is still an untapped resource. Such scarce use is due to the need to optimize their supply chain in term of collection machines and the associate cost of collection. A modular chipper (prototype PC50) for pruning harvest was developed. Such prototype is adaptable to various harvesting logistics and may produce a higher quality woodchip compared with the one produced by shredders available in the market. In this work, we tested the performance and quality of the product delivered by the prototype PC50 in various conditions and plant species, after a modulation of the machine settings (counter-rotating toothed rollers [CRR] speed), loading systems ([LS], either big bag or container), and knife types ([KT], either discontinuous hoe shaped knives or continuous helicoidal knives). To take into account of the covariates in the experiment (Cropping season and plant species), LSmeans were computed to have an unbiased estimate of the treatments means. The modulation of LS and KT scarcely affected the performance of the machine. In particular, the choice of the KT affected the field efficiency when the LS was a Tilting box but not a Big Bag. Whereas the continuous knife resulted in a 97% higher material capacity compared to hoe shape knives, the last of which the amount of short sized (<16 mm) fractions compared to helicoidal knives. No role of the CCR was found on the machine performance, but increasing CRR speed reduced the chip apparent bulk density and the fraction chips with a size <8 mm.
Risk factors associated with poor pain outcomes following primary knee replacement surgery: Analysis of data from the clinical practice research datalink, hospital episode statistics and patient reported outcomes as part of the STAR research programme
Authors: Mohammad Hasan Raza , Gooberman-Hill Rachael , Delmestri Antonella , Broomfield John , Patel Rita , Huber Joerg , Garriga Cesar , Eccleston Christopher , Pinedo-Villanueva Rafael , Malak Tamer T. , Arden Nigel , Price Andrew , Wylde Vikki , Peters Tim J. , Blom Ashley W. , Judge Andrew
Published: December 2021

Objective

Identify risk factors for poor pain outcomes six months after primary knee replacement surgery.

Methods

Observational cohort study on patients receiving primary knee replacement from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, Hospital Episode Statistics and Patient Reported Outcomes. A wide range of variables routinely collected in primary and secondary care were identified as potential predictors of worsening or only minor improvement in pain, based on the Oxford Knee Score pain subscale. Results are presented as relative risk ratios and adjusted risk differences (ARD) by fitting a generalized linear model with a binomial error structure and log link function.

Results

Information was available for 4,750 patients from 2009 to 2016, with a mean age of 69, of whom 56.1% were female. 10.4% of patients had poor pain outcomes. The strongest effects were seen for pre-operative factors: mild knee pain symptoms at the time of surgery (ARD 18.2% (95% Confidence Interval 13.6, 22.8), smoking 12.0% (95% CI:7.3, 16.6), living in the most deprived areas 5.6% (95% CI:2.3, 9.0) and obesity class II 6.3% (95% CI:3.0, 9.7). Important risk factors with more moderate effects included a history of previous knee arthroscopy surgery 4.6% (95% CI:2.5, 6.6), and use of opioids 3.4% (95% CI:1.4, 5.3) within three months after surgery. Those patients with worsening pain state change had more complications by 3 months (11.8% among those in a worse pain state vs. 2.7% with the same pain state).

Conclusions

We quantified the relative importance of individual risk factors including mild pre-operative pain, smoking, deprivation, obesity and opioid use in terms of the absolute proportions of patients achieving poor pain outcomes. These findings will support development of interventions to reduce the numbers of patients who have poor pain outcomes.
Young key populations left behind: The necessity for a targeted response in Mozambique
Authors: Boothe Makini A. S. , Semá Baltazar Cynthia , Sathane Isabel , Raymond Henry F. , Fazito Erika , Temmerman Marleen , Luchters Stanley
Published: December 2021

Introduction

The first exposure to high-risk sexual and drug use behaviors often occurs during the period of youth (15–24 years old). These behaviors increase the risk of HIV infection, especially among young key populations (KP)–men how have sex with men (MSM), female sex workers (FSW), and people who inject drugs (PWID). We describe the characteristics of young KP participants in the first Biobehavioral Surveillance (BBS) surveys conducted in Mozambique and examine their risk behaviors compared to adult KP.

Methods

Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) methodology was used to recruit KP in three major urban areas in Mozambique. RDS-weighted pooled estimates were calculated to estimate the proportion of young KP residing in each survey city. Unweighted pooled estimates of risk behaviors were calculated for each key population group and chi-square analysis assessed differences in proportions between youth (aged less than 24 years old) and older adult KP for each population group.

Results

The majority of MSM and FSW participants were young 80.7% (95% CI: 71.5–89.9%) and 71.9% (95% CI: 71.9–79.5%), respectively, although not among PWID (18.2%, 95% CI: 13.2–23.2%). Young KP were single or never married, had a secondary education level or higher, and low employment rates. They reported lower perception of HIV risk (MSM: 72.3% vs 56.7%, p<0.001, FSW: 45.3% vs 24.4%, p<0.001), lower HIV testing uptake (MSM: 67.5% vs 72.3%, p<0.001; FSW: 63.2% vs 80.6%; p<0.001, PWID: 53.3% vs 31.2%; p = 0.001), greater underage sexual debut (MSM: 9.6% vs 4.8%, p<0.001; FSW: 35.2% vs 22.9%, p<0.001), and greater underage initiation of injection drug use (PWID: 31.9% vs 7.0%, p<0.001). Young KP also had lower HIV prevalence compared to older KP: MSM: 3.3% vs 27.0%, p<0.001; FSW: 17.2% vs 53.7%, p<0.001; and PWID: 6.0% vs 55.0%, p<0.001. There was no significant difference in condom use across the populations.

Conclusion

There is an immediate need for a targeted HIV response for young KP in Mozambique so that they are not left behind. Youth must be engaged in the design and implementation of interventions to ensure that low risk behaviors are sustained as they get older to prevent HIV infection.
Geographical variation and associated factors of vitamin A supplementation among 6–59-month children in Ethiopia
Authors: Gilano Girma , Hailegebreal Samuel , Seboka Binyam Tariku
Published: December 2021

Introduction

Vitamin A has been one of the most important micronutrients which are necessary for the health of the children. In developing countries, the supplementation of vitamins under a regular schedule had different constraints. Awareness, access, and resource limitations were usually the problem. In the current study, we analyzed the data from the demographic health survey (EDHS) 2016 to uncover the spatial distribution, predictors, and to provide additional information for policymaking and interventions.

Methods

In this analysis, we applied intra-community correlation to measure the random effect; global Moran’s I to test the nature of variance in the null model; proportional change in variance to check the variance of null and neighborhood in subsequent models. We used STATA 15 for prediction; ArcGIS 10.7 for the spatial distribution of vitamin A supplementation; SaTscan 9.6.1 to specify location of clustering were the applied soft wares. After confirming that the traditional logistic regression cannot explore the variances, we applied multilevel logistic regression to examine predictors where p-value <0.25 was used to include variables into the model and p-value<0.05 was used to declare associations. We presented the result using means, standard deviations, numbers, and proportions or percent, and AOR with 95% CI.

Result

The vitamin A coverage was 4,029.22 (44.90%) in Ethiopia in 2016. The distribution followed some spatial geo-locations where Afar, Somali were severely affected (RR = 1.46, P-value < 0.001), some pockets of Addis Ababa (RR = 1.47, p-value <0.001), and the poor distribution also affected all other regions partially. Place of delivery 1.2(1–1.34), primary and secondary education 1.3 (1–1.6), media exposure 1.2(1.1–1.4), having work 1.4(1.2–1.5), and all visits of ANC were positively influenced the distribution.

Conclusion

The distribution of vitamin A coverage was not random as per the EDHS 2016 data. Regions like Afar, Somali, and some pocket areas in Addis inquires immediate interventions. Pastoralist, agrarian, and city administrations were all involved from severe to the lesser coverage in order. Since factors like Place of delivery, education, ANC, media exposure, and having work were showed positive associations, interventions considering awareness, access, and availability of service need more attention than ever.
Growth modulation and metabolic responses of Ganoderma boninense to salicylic acid stress
Authors: Ong Cu Ean , Ahmad Rafidah , Goh You Keng , Azizan Kamalrul Azlan , Baharum Syarul Nataqain , Goh Kah Joo
Published: December 2021

Various phenolic compounds have been screened against Ganoderma boninense, the fungal pathogen causing basal stem rot in oil palms. In this study, we focused on the effects of salicylic acid (SA) on the growth of three G. boninense isolates with different levels of aggressiveness. In addition, study on untargeted metabolite profiling was conducted to investigate the metabolomic responses of G. boninense towards salicylic acid. The inhibitory effects of salicylic acid were both concentration- (P < 0.001) and isolate-dependent (P < 0.001). Also, growth-promoting effect was observed in one of the isolates at low concentrations of salicylic acid where it could have been utilized by G. boninense as a source of carbon and energy. Besides, adaptation towards salicylic acid treatment was evident in this study for all isolates, particularly at high concentrations. In other words, inhibitory effect of salicylic acid treatment on the fungal growth declined over time. In terms of metabolomics response to salicylic acid treatment, G. boninense produced several metabolites such as coumarin and azatyrosine, which suggests that salicylic acid modulates the developmental switch in G. boninense towards the defense mode for its survival. Furthermore, the liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-TOF-MS) analysis showed that the growth of G. boninense on potato dextrose agar involved at least four metabolic pathways: amino acid metabolism, lipid pathway, tryptophan pathway and phenylalanine pathway. Overall, there were 17 metabolites that contributed to treatment separation, each with P<0.005. The release of several antimicrobial metabolites such as eudistomin I may enhance G. boninense’s competitiveness against other microorganisms during colonisation. Our findings demonstrated the metabolic versatility of G. boninense towards changes in carbon sources and stress factors. G. boninense was shown to be capable of responding to salicylic acid treatment by switching its developmental stage.
Super.Complex: A supervised machine learning pipeline for molecular complex detection in protein-interaction networks
Authors: Palukuri Meghana Venkata , Marcotte Edward M.
Published: December 2021

Characterization of protein complexes, i.e. sets of proteins assembling into a single larger physical entity, is important, as such assemblies play many essential roles in cells such as gene regulation. From networks of protein-protein interactions, potential protein complexes can be identified computationally through the application of community detection methods, which flag groups of entities interacting with each other in certain patterns. Most community detection algorithms tend to be unsupervised and assume that communities are dense network subgraphs, which is not always true, as protein complexes can exhibit diverse network topologies. The few existing supervised machine learning methods are serial and can potentially be improved in terms of accuracy and scalability by using better-suited machine learning models and parallel algorithms. Here, we present Super.Complex, a distributed, supervised AutoML-based pipeline for overlapping community detection in weighted networks. We also propose three new evaluation measures for the outstanding issue of comparing sets of learned and known communities satisfactorily. Super.Complex learns a community fitness function from known communities using an AutoML method and applies this fitness function to detect new communities. A heuristic local search algorithm finds maximally scoring communities, and a parallel implementation can be run on a computer cluster for scaling to large networks. On a yeast protein-interaction network, Super.Complex outperforms 6 other supervised and 4 unsupervised methods. Application of Super.Complex to a human protein-interaction network with ~8k nodes and ~60k edges yields 1,028 protein complexes, with 234 complexes linked to SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, with 111 uncharacterized proteins present in 103 learned complexes. Super.Complex is generalizable with the ability to improve results by incorporating domain-specific features. Learned community characteristics can also be transferred from existing applications to detect communities in a new application with no known communities. Code and interactive visualizations of learned human protein complexes are freely available at: https://sites.google.com/view/supercomplex/super-complex-v3-0.
The association between student body mass index and tests of flexibility assessed by the FITNESSGRAM®: New York City public school students, 2017–18
Authors: Thompson Hannah R. , Pavlovic Andjelka , D’Agostino Emily , Napier Melanie D. , Konty Kevin , Day Sophia E.
Published: December 2021

FITNESSGRAM® is the most widely used criterion-referenced tool to assess/report on student health-related fitness across the US. Potential weight-related biases with the two most common tests of musculoskeletal fitness–the trunk extension and Back-Saver Sit-and-Reach (sit-and-reach)—have been hypothesized, though have not been studied. To determine the association between musculoskeletal fitness test performance and weight status, we use data from 571,133 New York City public school 4th-12th grade students (85% non-White; 75% qualified for free or reduced-price meals) with valid/complete 2017–18 FITNESSGRAM® data. Adjusted logistic mixed effects models with a random effect for school examined the association between weight status and whether a student was in the Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ; met sex- and age-specific criterion-referenced standards) for the trunk extension and sit-and-reach. Compared to students with normal weight, the odds of being in the HFZ for trunk extension were lower for students with underweight (OR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.741, 0.795) and higher for students with overweight (OR = 1.10; 95% CI: 1.081, 1.122) and obesity (OR = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.090, 1.13). The odds of being in the HFZ for sit-and-reach were lower for students with underweight OR = 0.85; 95% CI: 0.826, 0.878), overweight (OR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.819, 0.844) and obesity (OR = 0.65; 95% CI: 0.641, 0.661). Students with overweight and obesity perform better on the trunk extension, yet worse on the sit-and-reach, compared to students with normal weight. Teachers, administrators, and researchers should be aware of the relationship of BMI with student performance in these assessments.
Parade of diversity: Representations of places and identities of Indonesia through tourism brochures
Authors: Murti Desideria Cempaka Wijaya , Ratriyana Ina Nur
Published: December 2021

The article examines the discourses of diversity within a nation by investigating the tourism brochures as the media produced by municipalities/regencies. Using empirical research, this study analyses four major inquiries to gain insights into the discourse of diversity in Indonesia from tourism products/services, geographical representations, ethnic diversity and occupational variations within the dynamic of media and society. The research project then analyse the cultural and social meanings on how the media function to showcase and develop a notion of ‘parade of diversity’ in the society. It reflects the ways of displaying places and people, which can include and exclude part of society, promenade through series of similar patterns across different municipalities/regencies in Indonesia. Critically, tourism brochures then facilitate the commercial definition of tourism spaces, geographical identity, the representation of the dominant groups and the interests of the powerful elites.
Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public, Jacob L. Nelson (2021)
Authors: Palmer Ruth
Published: December 2021

Review of: Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public, Jacob L. Nelson (2021)

New York: Oxford University Press, 234 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-19754-260-6, p/bk, $27.95
Política comercial, abasto de grano y jurisdicción fragmentada
Authors: Mateos Royo Jose Antonio
Published: December 2021

Este artículo estudia mediante un caso regional la capacidad de las instituciones representativas en la Europa Moderna para establecer políticas comerciales autónomas ante la fragmentación jurisdiccional, valorando su eficiencia e incidencia sobre los mercados. Tras aplicar vedas y licencias de exportación en años de carestías desde 1521, la Diputación prohibió la exportación de cereal en Aragón desde 1556 cada año para defender su jurisdicción sobre este asunto frente a la monarquía hispánica y favorecer el suministro de la población del reino ante la inflación de los precios del trigo. Sin embargo, su gestión de estas prohibiciones protegió los intereses de nobles laicos y grandes mercaderes. Las Cortes aragonesas regularon la aplicación de vedas en 1585 y 1626 por la Diputación para reducir el desorden y la incertidumbre en el mercado de grano. Aunque esta institución siguió utilizando estas prohibiciones a menudo desde 1585 hasta 1652, su decreciente poder político y económico les restó eficiencia. Por este motivo, buscó una mayor cooperación municipal para combatir la salida de grano en años de carestía. A cambio de ver reconocida su jurisdicción por la monarquía durante el siglo XVII, la Diputación aceptó la exportación libre de impuestos de cereal destinado al ejército real en tránsito por Aragón, favoreciendo su salida hacia Cataluña durante las diferentes guerras franco- españolas acaecidas entre 1635 y 1697. El descenso regular de los precios del trigo en Aragón durante la segunda mitad del siglo XVII consolidó esta apertura comercial, al espaciar la Diputación las prohibiciones y ajustarlas mejor a las fluctuaciones de estos precios. Esta nueva política estimuló una mayor eficiencia e integración de los mercados de grano en Aragón
problemas de interpretación de las fuentes documentales sobre Beatriz Galindo, La Latina
Authors: Carabias Ana
Published: December 2021

Durante muchos años se creyó que Beatriz Galindo, llamada la Latina, había sido maestra de la reina Isabel la Católica entre 1486 y 1504, pero algunas investigaciones han puesto de manifiesto que durante este periodo de tiempo solo fue criada doméstica de la Casa de la Reina. Existen problemas de interpretación de las fuentes documentales sobre Beatriz Galindo. El objetivo de este estudio es hacer un análisis del contenido de estas fuentes documentales tratando de explicar sus dificultades interpretativas a partir de las distintas épocas de la vida de este personaje. Estas diferentes fases vitales (como criada, como esposa de un personaje influyente y como viuda acaudalada) pueden justificar la disparidad y las contradicciones de su biografía
Validation of Brix refractometer to estimate immunoglobulin G concentration in goat colostrum
Authors: Buranakarl Chollada , Thammacharoen Sumpun , Nuntapaitoon Morakot , Semsirmboon Sapon , Katoh Kazuo
Published: December 2021

Background and Aim: Immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration is high in goat colostrum, particularly in the first few hours after parturition, and this is important for the kid's immunity and growth. IgG levels vary depending on several factors, including breed, disease status, colostrum management, handling, and collection time postpartum. A handheld optical refractometer, an affordable instrument that is simple to use in the field, is used widely in dairy farms to measure total solids. However, it can also be applied to estimate colostrum IgG content on the basis of comparison with standard measurement methods, usually radial immunodiffusion. Studies comparing %Brix values in relation to IgG concentration measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in goats are limited. The present study aimed to evaluate the use of a handheld optical Brix refractometer for the measurement of IgG concentration in goat colostrum, compare results with those using ELISA, and estimate the %Brix cutoff value equating to low-quality colostrum.

Materials and Methods: Colostrum samples were collected on day 0 from 21 goats (nine Black Bengal, six Saanen, and six of their crossbred offspring) and were frozen. Subsequently, they were analyzed for IgG concentration using a goat-specific ELISA test and Brix percentage using a handheld refractometer. The optimum %Brix cutoff value for the evaluation of colostrum quality was evaluated.

Results: The mean IgG concentration and %Brix in colostrum were 10.60±0.64 and 25.0±0.9 mg/mL, respectively. There was a significant (p<0.01) correlation between %Brix and IgG concentration. For an IgG concentration of 6.9 mg/dl, the cutoff value for %Brix was 18.5, equating to high specificity (100%) but low sensitivity (50%). A higher %Brix cutoff value of 21.5 showed high specificity (95%) and high sensitivity (100%).

Conclusion: A Brix refractometer can be used to estimate goat colostrum quality with a proposed %Brix cutoff value of <18.5%-21.5% for poor-quality colostrum.
Melanocortin-4 receptor and leptin as genes for the selection of superior Madrasin cattle
Authors: Utomo Budi , Rimayanti Rimayanti , Triana Indah Norma , Fadholly Amaq
Published: December 2021

Background and Aim: The genetic improvement of cattle through livestock section is based on quantitative, qualitative, and molecular characteristics. This study examined polymorphisms of the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) and leptin genes as a reference for the selection of superior breeds in Madrasin cattle.

Materials and Methods: The leptin and MC4R genes of Madrasin cattle were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR); then, restriction fragment length polymorphism of the leptin gene was performed using the restriction enzyme BsaA1, at site 2793 with ACGT point position.

Results: The leptin gene was divided into three bands, namely, AA with one fragment (522 bp), CG with two fragments (441 bp and 81 bp), and AG with three fragments (522 bp, 441 bp, and 81 bp). The MCR-4 gene was divided into three bands, namely, 493 bp, 318 bp, and 175 bp.

Conclusion: The MC4R and leptin genes can act as molecular markers for growth traits in Madrasin cattle and can be used to genetically optimize and improve growth. The GG allele of the MC4R gene and the AA allele of the leptin gene can be used in Madrasin cattle.
Customer Decision Prediction Using Deep Neural Network on Telco Customer Churn Data
Authors: Nalatissifa Hiya , Pardede Hilman Ferdinandus
Published: December 2021

Customer churn is the most important problem in the business world, especially in the telecommunications industry, because it greatly influences company profits. Getting new customers for a company is much more difficult and expensive than retaining existing customers. Machine learning, part of data mining, is a sub-field of artificial intelligence widely used to make predictions, including predicting customer churn. Deep neural network (DNN) has been used for churn prediction, but selecting hyperparameters in modeling requires more time and effort, making the process more challenging for the researcher. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a better architecture for the DNN algorithm by using a hard tuner to obtain more optimal hyperparameters. The tuning hyperparameter used is random search in determining the number of nodes in each hidden layer, dropout, and learning rate. In addition, this study also uses three variations of the number of hidden layers, two variations of the activation function, namely rectified linear unit (ReLu) and Sigmoid, then uses five variations of the optimizer (stochastic gradient descent (SGD), adaptive moment estimation (Adam), adaptive gradient algorithm (Adagrad), Adadelta, and root mean square propagation (RMSprop)). Experiments show that the DNN algorithm using hyperparameter tuning random search produces a performance value of 83.09 % accuracy using three hidden layers, the number of nodes in each hidden layer is [20, 35, 15], using the RMSprop optimizer, dropout 0.1, the learning rate is 0.01, with the fastest tuning time of 21 seconds. Better than modeling using k-nearest neighbor (K-NN), random forest (RF), and decision tree (DT) as comparison algorithms.
Optimization of Low Site Density Area for 4G Network in Urban City
Authors: Yuliana Hajiar , Basuki Sofyan , Prini Salita Ulitia
Published: December 2021

The development of telecommunications is currently growing rapidly, especially in urban areas. To obtain optimal data services for users, the performances of 4G network services must continue to be optimized. It is known that many users are scattered in urban areas, but sometimes it is not balanced with an even distribution of the site in this area. This condition occurs because the distribution of the site is not evenly optimal distributed, either due to licensing constraints, limited land access for site development, or in terms of plans that have not been made. Balanced with the requirement of a 4G network, which is required, this "empty space" condition or low site density condition must find a solution or optimize it. Many optimization methods can optimize the area with low site density possibility. This study will optimize the area by adding a new site proposal based on coverage planning. We need to analyze Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) coverage signal distribution using Atoll Planning Software. After optimization, the RSRP level below or equal -80 dBm increased from 75.195% to 94.08%. Furthermore, the percentage calculation for inadequate coverage (below -80 dBm) decreased from 24.816% to 5.931%. This RSRP signal level also shows that the condition after optimization with a new site can improve the signal level condition from areas with low site density possibility.
FIRST REPORT ON THE FEEDING BEHAVIOR OF EARLESS MONITOR, LANTHANOTUS BORNEENSIS AND ITS PREDATION ON RICE FIELD FROG, FEJERVARYA LIMNOCHARIS IN A CAPTIVE ENVIRONMENT
Authors: Arroyyan Ahmad Nauval , Arida Evy , Firdhausi Nirmala Fitria
Published: December 2021

Being endemic to Borneo, the Earless monitor, Lanthanotus borneensis (Steindachner, 1878) is rarely found in its habitats due to its cryptic behavior. We provide care for confiscated animals in the Reptile House of Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (MZB) in Cibinong, West Java, Indonesia since 2014. Little is known on its natural prey but from scattered descriptive reports. This study is aimed at documenting the feeding behavior of ten captive Earless monitors and events of predation on frogs. We set up two experiments, one with meat of Rice Field Frog, Fejervarya limnocharis, and the other with live frog of the same species. Our recorded observations ran for four weeks for the frog meat feeding experiment and followed by the frog predation experiment. Our results showed that lizards constantly accepted frog meat. Lizards tended to feed before sunset for a short period of time on the muddy soil surface, although a few individuals inconsistently fed under water. The average body mass for these lizards increased by 4.29 g and average SVL by 0.45 cm. We recorded predation on frogs in three out of ten individuals observed during this study. If F. limnocharis is confirmed to occur in the natural habitats of L. borneensis, it is possible that this frog species is among the natural prey for Earless monitors. Further studies on its natural diets should be conducted to gain in-depth knowledge essential for generating effective captive husbandry for this nationally protected species in Indonesia.
CALLIDIOPINI BEETLES (COLEOPTERA, CERAMBYCIDAE) IN THE COLLECTION OF MUSEUM ZOOLOGICUM BOGORIENSE, INDONESIA. PART II, GENITALIA AND TAXONOMY OF THE GENUS TETHIONEA PASCOE
Authors: Yokoi Yaheita , Makihara Hiroshi , Noerdjito Woro A.
Published: December 2021

Species of Tethionea Pascoe, 1869, Callidiopini, in the collection of Museum of Zoologicum Bogoriense are reviewed. Two new species of the genus are described, T. peggieae sp. nov. and T. oculata  sp. nov., both from Papua Province, Indonesia. In addition, T. unicolor Pascoe, T. strumosa Pascoe and T. tridentata Pascoe are redescribed. Their male genitalia are documented and illustrated in detail. In particular, the ejaculatory duct complexes of endophalli are carefully observed, as well as 8th sternites and tergites.  For T. oculata sp. nov., the female genitalia are described. Morphological and taxonomical aspects of these species are discussed.
A Greener Approach for Synthesis of Quinoline-3-carboxylate Building Block and their Biological Screening
Authors: Galachar Kapilkumar , Rathod Ashokbhai R. , Pashavan Chandankumar , Naliapara Yogesh , Kataria Vipul , Korgaokar Sushil
Published: December 2021

The analogs of nitrogen-based heterocycles occupy an exclusive position as a value of more than 75% of drugs approved by the FDA and currently available in the market are nitrogen-containing heterocyclic moieties. Among many N-containing heterocycles, quinolines have become important due to their variety of applications in medicinal, synthetic organic chemistry as well as in the field of industrial chemistry. Present work gives information about the green and clean synthesis using multicomponent reactions (MCRs) methods and L-proline and ammonium acetate as a catalyst for the synthesis of quinoline derivatives. Synthesized quinoline derivatives undergo spectroscopic analysis and their biological evaluation.
Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticle Using Bioactive Phenolic Compound Extracts of
Leucas aspera and Leucas cephalotes and Evaluation of its Antibacterial Activity
Authors: Kausar M. Salma , Manjunatha B.K. , Purvika C. , Farkana Mizba
Published: December 2021

The present study was carried out to investigate the antibacterial activity of the bioactive phenolic extract
from Leucas aspera and Leucas cephalotes. The phenolic compounds were extracted using water:
ethanol (1:3, v/v) by hydroethanolic extraction method. The hydroethanolic extracts were subjected to
qualitative and FTIR analysis as a confirmatory step for the presence of phenolics. Synthesis of silver
nanoparticle from both plants was carried out by acid hydrolysis method and subjected to UV-visible
spectrophotometry, SEM, TEM and XRD analysis, for confirmation of tagged bioactive compound to
AgNO3. The nanoparticle size distribution ranged between 50-94 nm in L. aspera and 40-67 nm in L.
cephalotes. The antibacterial study was carried out using both crude phenolic extract and synthesized
nanoparticles and tested against 5 pathogens namely Escherichia coli (ATCC® 8739™), Pseudomonas
aeruginosa (ATCC® 25619™), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC® 6538™), Bacillus subtilis (ATCC®
11774™) and Klebsiella pneumonia (ATCC® 13882™) for their antibacterial activity. From present
study, the crude extract of L. cephalotes showed good antibacterial effect against test pathogen species
wherein highest inhibition was observed in, P. aeruginosa, followed by B. subtilis and S. aureus with
an average zone of inhibition of 23, 14 and 12 mm, E. coli and K. pneumonia measured 9 and 7 mm.
The crude extract of L. aspera showed the highest inhibition in P. aeruginosa followed by S. aureus
and E. coli with an average zone of inhibition of 12,11 and 10 mm B. subtilis and K. pneumonia
measured 8 and 7 mm. Statistical analysis was calculated using One way ANOVA and was found to be
statistically significant with p < 0.05.
ALÉM DA AUDITORIA FINANCEIRA: FATORES QUE PODEM INFLUENCIAR A PRESENÇA DAS GRANDES FIRMAS DE AUDITORIA CONTÁBIL NO MERCADO DE ASSEGURAÇÃO EXTERNA DOS RELATÓRIOS DE SUSTENTABILIDADE NO BRASIL
Authors: Silveira Gabriela Borges , Van Bellen Hans Michael , Mussoi Ribeiro Alex
Published: December 2021

Objetivo: Esta pesquisa busca analisar os fatores que podem influenciar a presença das grandes firmas de auditoria contábil no mercado de asseguração externa dos Relatórios de Sustentabilidade (RS) no Brasil.
Método: A amostra compõe-se de 47 companhias de capital aberto que asseguraram seus RS no período de 2012 a 2018. Os dados foram analisados por meio das técnicas estatísticas Anacor, HOMALS e regressão hierárquico logístico para dados em painel.
Resultados: Os resultados apontaram que a prestação conjunta de auditoria contábil e asseguração externa dos RS, bem como o isomorfismo mimético são fatores que afetam positivamente a presença das firmas Big-4 no mercado de asseguração externa dos RS no Brasil, caracterizando a vantagem competitiva dos provedores de contabilidade sobre os demais provedores nesse emergente mercado.
Contribuições: Este trabalho traz importantes implicações para profissionais e reguladores da área contábil, pois o reconhecimento das firmas de auditoria contábil no mercado de asseguração externa dos RS deve promover o interesse em desenvolver apoio institucional a essa prática.
Is There a Solution to Domestic Violence? Digging Deeper Into the Problem of Domestic Violence in Uganda a Case of Ibanda District
Authors: Mutabaruka Fredrick , Kazooba Charles Tushabomwe
Published: December 2021

This paper is a deeper analysis to whether there is an end to domestic violence. The fact that there are a numbers of increased cases reported especially during corona virus (covid-19) period, it was inevitable to carry out this study to understand more about domestic violence. The study mainly focused on clear features and causes of domestic violence. It also aimed at coming out with practical approaches to curbing the problem. A mixed design approach was used in both collection and analysis of data. The study used judgmental sampling strategy in selecting the participants because the data that was required more tailored to knowledge based participants. A total of 57 participants were involved from whom interviews and questionnaires were administered. Results reveal a high increase in domestic violence evidenced mainly by assaults of physical, mental emotional and verbal. Other cases are through harassment behaviuors, disrespect and confrontation. The leading caused to domestic violence are attributed to poverty, attitude of male dominance and alcoholism as well as having outside relationships. Creation of extensive public awareness through training and public campaign is recommended as the practical intervention to curb domestic violence.
TOWARDS GLOBAL OPTIMIZATION OF NEURAL NETWORK: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS USING GENETIC AND WHALE OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHMS
Authors: Igodan E. C. , Ukaoha K. C. , Oliomogbe S. O. P.
Published: December 2021

The intelligence and adaptability features of the neural network has made it a technique that is widely used to solve problems in diverse areas such as; detection, monitoring, prediction, diagnostics, data mining, classification, recognition, robotics, biomedicine, etc. However, determination of the optimal number of hidden layers of neural network and other parameters are still a difficult task. Usually, these parameters are decided by trial-and-error which increases the computational complexity and it is human dependent in obtaining the optimal model and parameters alike for any particular task. Optimization has received enormous attention in recent years, primarily because of the rapid progress in computer technology, including the development and availability of user-friendly software, high-speed and parallel processors, and artificial neural networks. This research work is to propose a neuro-evolutionary model using the computational intelligence techniques by combining ANN, GA and WOA for binary classification problems. The proposed optimized ANN-GA and WOA models is to circumvent the problem that is characterized in the trade-off between smoothness and accuracies in selecting the models and optimal parameters of neural network.