Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender invariance and psychometric properties of a Brazilian version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ)

Abstract Introduction Emotion regulation refers to use of strategies to change or suppress a response to an affective experience and is an important component of an individual’s subjective wellbeing. Difficulties properly regulating emotions are related to psychopathological processes. Objective This study assessed the factor structure of the Brazilian version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ); the invariance of its psychometric parameters as a function of gender; and its convergent validity with other scales measuring affective processes. Method A total of 813 adults (73.7% women), aged between 18 and 64 years and with a high educational level used an electronic platform to complete the ERQ, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Affect Scale (AS), and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Factor structure, reliability, and validity of the adapted version of the ERQ were investigated. Results Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) revealed adequate goodness of fit for the ERQ’s two-factor model (cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression), providing evidence of invariance of its psychometric parameters as a function of gender. Correlations between the ERQ’s factors and measures of affect and emotional dysregulation presented positive indicators, with significant associations between emotion regulation and affective experiences depending on gender. Conclusion The ERQ presents good psychometric indicators for use with the Brazilian population.
Development and testing of an algorithm for calculating the load on support of mine workings

Purpose. The purpose is to develop the calculation methods for minimizing the load on the fastening system of the preparatory mine working in difficult mining and geological conditions of its maintenance. Methods. By analysing the multivariate computational experiments on the study of the stress-strain state of the load-bearing elements of the ‘massif – support’ system in the preparatory mine workings by means of the finite-element method, as well as mine observations and measurements of displacement in the coal-overlaying rock formation. Findings. An algorithm has been developed for searching the rational modes of the fastening system resistance and methods for minimizing the load on the support of the preparatory mine working, maintained in very complex mining and geological conditions. Originality.The methodical principles have been developed of minimizing the load on the fastening system of the preparatory mine working, which are based on the use of a combination of stress-strain state studies of the ‘massif – support’ system by means of the finite element method and provisions of normative documents for calculating the dimensions of the dome of natural equilibrium of the mine working roof rocks. Practical implications. The operation modes optimisation of the load-bearing elements interaction of the mine working fastening system reduces the material and labour costs during its construction and increases its stability during operation. Keywords: analysis, calculation, optimization, support, preparatory mine working, stope works, roof rocks, collapse
Trump’s populist discourse and affective politics, or on how to move ‘the People’ through emotion

ABSTRACT Recursively in history, emotions such as social anger, moral satiety, distrust of the elite and the Establishment, among others, have all contributed to politicians’ encouragement and exploitation of a rather emotionally charged discourse (Block, E., and R. Negrine. 2017. “The Populist Communication Style: Toward a Critical Framework.” International Journal of Communication 11: 178–197). In their self-imposed capacity as mouthpiece for 'the People', populist leaders have successfully given vent to the expression of some of these emotions. The fact that emotion permeates all levels of linguistic description (Alba-Juez, L., and G. Thompson. 2014. “The Many Faces and Phases of Evaluation.” In Evaluation in Context, edited by L. Alba-Juez, and G. Thompson, 3–23. Amsterdam, PA: John Benjamins, 10–11) makes its examination a fascinating enterprise. In this paper, we discuss the role played by emotion in the production of populist discourse; to this end, we examine a very well-known example of populist rhetoric, i.e. Donald Trump, under the lens of Appraisal Theory (Martin, J. R., and P. R. R. White. 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; Bednarek, M. 2008. Emotion Talk Across Corpora. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). In particular, we employ a refined model of the affect subsystem (i.e. Benítez-Castro, M. Á., and E. Hidalgo-Tenorio. 2019. “Rethinking Martin and White’s Affect Taxonomy: A Psychologically-Inspired Approach to the Linguistic Expression of Emotion.” In Emotion in Discourse, edited by L. Mackenzie, and L. Alba-Juez, 301–332. Amsterdam: John Benjamins) to analyse seven speeches delivered by the US President in the last four years. Our study helps uncover a set of strategies and patterns showing how this unconventional politician’s emotion-driven language manages to develop a more inclusive in-group identity uniting the members of an angry, scared, frustrated and unsure audience.
Student engagement for intercultural learning in multicultural project groups via the use of English as a lingua franca

ABSTRACT In light of increased cross-border movements of students to pursue their academic studies, university educators in many contexts are concerned about a lack of interactive engagement among students from different cultural backgrounds because of the use of L2 in international programmes. This study explores how students develop engagement in intercultural learning settings via mixed-group project work in an international curriculum provided by a Chinese university. 19 students in six mixed project groups participated in this qualitative study at three time points during one semester, with collected data including videoed project meetings after class and student presentations in class, student interviews, and student reflective essay writing. Analyses of video data identified the multifaceted nature of student engagement in intercultural learning, including collaborative, cognitive, emotional, and intercultural engagement, as well as their non-linear changing trajectories. Contrastive analysis of students’ interviews and reflections between successful and less successful groups further identified factors affecting student engagement. Implications are discussed for international and intercultural curriculum design to promote student engagement in intercultural learning.
Productivity, bromatological composition and economic benefits of using irrigation in the forage cactus under regulated deficit irrigation in a semiarid environment

: The use of irrigation can improve the productivity and nutritional quality of the forage cactus in environments with a water deficit, resulting in profit to the producer. The productive performance, bromatological composition and economic benefits of using irrigation were investigated in this study with forage cactus clones regulated deficit irrigation (RDI). The study was conducted in an experimental design of randomised blocks, in a factorial scheme with subdivided plots. The plots consisted of water regimes based on the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) (rainfed, 40, 80 and 120% ETc). The cactus clones [‘Miúda’ (MIU), ‘Orelha de Elefante Mexicana’ (OEM) and ‘IPA Sertânia’ (IPA)] comprised the subplots. The total number of cladodes per plant, the fresh and dry matter yields and the bromatological composition were evaluated. Economic viability was assessed using the net revenue and benefit to cost ratio (BCR). The irrigation depths did not increase the yield of the clones. The OEM clone showed 276 and 343% greater fresh and dry matter production, respectively, when compared to the IPA clone; however, when compared with the MIU clone, it was 63%, both on a fresh and dry matter production. The water regimes had no effect on the nutritional quality of the cactus. Only IPA showed no profit during the first cycle (BCR < 1). It can be concluded that planting one irrigated hectare with the OEM and MIU clones offer economic returns starting from the first production cycle (18 months).
A Novel Approach to EEG Speech Activity Detection with Visual Stimuli and Mobile BCI

With the ever-progressing development in the field of computational and analytical science the last decade has seen a big improvement in the accuracy of electroencephalography (EEG) technology. Studies try to examine possibilities to use high dimensional EEG data as a source for Brain to Computer Interface. Applications of EEG Brain to computer interface vary from emotion recognition, simple computer/device control, speech recognition up to Intelligent Prosthesis. Our research presented in this paper was focused on the study of the problematic speech activity detection using EEG data. The novel approach used in this research involved the use visual stimuli, such as reading and colour naming, and signals of speech activity detectable by EEG technology. Our proposed solution is based on a shallow Feed-Forward Artificial Neural Network with only 100 hidden neurons. Standard features such as signal energy, standard deviation, RMS, skewness, kurtosis were calculated from the original signal from 16 EEG electrodes. The novel approach in the field of Brain to computer interface applications was utilised to calculated additional set of features from the minimum phase signal. Our experimental results demonstrated F1 score of 86.80% and 83.69% speech detection accuracy based on the analysis of EEG signal from single subject and cross-subject models respectively. The importance of these results lies in the novel utilisation of the mobile device to record the nerve signals which can serve as the stepping stone for the transfer of Brain to computer interface technology from technology from a controlled environment to the real-life conditions.
The use of carbon nanomaterials for removing natural organic matter in drinking water sources by a combined coagulation process

Carbon nanomaterials are effective adsorbents for water treatment. This study examines natural organic matter (NOM) removal from drinking water with combined coagulation processes using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Conventional coagulation using aluminum sulfate (alum) and ferric chloride (FeCl3) was also conducted using Ulutan Lake water (ULW) samples collected in four seasons. The removal was characterized by ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (UV254) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The proposed process was more effective than using alum and FeCl3. The highest removal occurred for FeCl3 with SWCNTs in winter (94.13% DOC and 96.14% UV254). In spring and fall, DOC (90% and 84.63%) and UV254 (95.87% and 88.8%) removal was highest when using FeCl3 with MWCNTs. The DOC removal was lowest in summer (67–71% for alum and 72–79% for FeCl3). Summer UV254 removal was similar to DOC removal for combined coagulation. Hydrophobic NOM in winter ULW samples is more easily removed by SWCNTs than by MWCNTs, while MWCNTs were more effective in other seasons. The results reveal that the proposed process is more effective than the conventional coagulants alone in different seasons.
Liquid jet-based broadband terahertz radiation source

Abstract. The features of a liquid jet-based broadband terahertz (THz) generator that includes an optical part and system for a liquid jet formation are described. This system is based on the trapezium-shaped slit-type nozzle, the output of which is limited by two parallel blades. The applications of this generator for studying the optical-to-THz conversion efficiency for various liquids and THz energy temperature dependence are demonstrated. A trend for a decrease in the optical-to-THz conversion efficiency when using high-temperature water is revealed. This trend is interpreted through the increase in the THz wave absorption of the water jet. This system allows to achieve the optical-to-THz conversion efficiency up to 0.1% in the case of α-pinene double-pulse excitation.
Studies on the Firming Mechanism of Japanese Radish Root by Pre-heating Treatment

ダイコンの予備加熱に伴う水煮後の硬化現象を主としてぺクチン質の変化とカチオンの組織からの溶出の点から検討した。 (1) 硬化現象を促進する予備加熱の最適温度は55℃前後に存在し,処理時間は2時間まで硬度の増大がみられた。 (2) ぺクチンエステラーゼ粗抽出液の活性は, 50～60℃で最大で, pH8. 5前後で最も高かった。 この最適温度は最大硬化を起す予備加熱温度と一致した。 (3) 予備加熱によって,水溶性ぺクチン画分が減少し,熱水可溶性及び酸可溶性ぺクチン画分の比率が増大した。 また,予備加熱に伴ってペクチン質のエステル化度の低下がみられた。 (4) 予備加熱時の温度が50℃以上になると,浸漬水へのカリウムイオンの溶出が著しく,カルシウムおよびマグネシウムイオンの溶出よりも遙かに大きかった。 以上のことから,ダイコンの予備加熱に伴う水煮後の硬化現象は,まず組織内のカリウムイオンの移動が起り,本来不活性であったペクチンエスラーゼが活性化し,組織内に存在するペクチン質の脱メチル化を促し,共存する組織内の二価カチオンが遊離したカルボキシル基と結合して硬化すると結論した。
Evaluation of Zero-Valent Iron for Pb(II) Contaminated Soil Remediation: From the Analysis of Experimental Mechanism Hybird with Carbon Emission Assessment

Carbon emission is one of the main causes of global climate change, thus it is necessary to choose a low-carbon method in the contaminated soil remediation. This paper studies the adsorption ability of ZVI on Pb(II) contaminated soils under different working conditions. The removal efficiency of Pb(II) was 98% because of the suitable ZVI dosage, log reaction time and low initial solution concentration. The whole balancing process was much fast according to the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich isothermal model. Moreover, sequential extraction procedure (SEP) showed Pb(II) was transformed from Fe/Mn oxides-bound form to residual form in Pb(II) contaminated soils. From scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method (BET) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results, it was confirmed that zero-valent iron (ZVI) stabilizes Pb(II) pollutants mostly through the combination of chemical adsorption and physical adsorption. The economic and carbon emission assessments were used to compare the cost and carbon emissions of different methods. The results show that ZVI adsorption has excellent economic benefits and low carbon emission.
Climate change adaptation strategies, farm performance and poverty reduction among smallholder farming households in Ghana

ABSTRACT Many previous studies that evaluated the impact of adaptation to climate change on poverty failed to assess how the gains from adaptation can be assessed from the multidimensional poverty perspective. In this study, survey data were used to examine the effect of adoption of adaptation strategies comprising irrigation, soil conservation, and enhanced cropping calendar management, on farm performance and multi-dimensional poverty index. Multinomial Endogenous Treatment Effect (METE) model which accounts for selectivity bias due to both observed and unobserved factors was employed. The results showed that a higher crop output and a greater reduction in downside risk exposure were associated with adoption of adaptation strategies as a package. The results further revealed that using all three strategies led to a significant reduction in multi-dimensional poverty among adapters. This suggests that adaptation is not only an ex-ante strategy against risk exposure, but an effective means of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It is therefore important for policy makers to consider the promotion of irrigation, soil conservation and cropping calendar management as effective strategies that could enhance farm performance and reduce household poverty. Intensifying extension and farmer education will also enhance adaptation to climate change.
Current Status and Advances in Imaging Evaluation of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy of Breast Cancer

: It is particularly important to evaluate the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer. This article reviews the current status and progress of imaging evaluations regarding the efficacy of NAC in women with breast cancer, including mammography, ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET-CT) and radiomics. Each imaging method has value for evaluating the efficacy of NAC for breast cancer, but certain defects and limitations. Therefore, the optimal selection will employ a combination of multiple imaging methods that will not only benefit patients but also avoid the unnecessary waste of medical resources.
COVID-19 Outbreaks Following Full Reopening of Primary and Secondary Schools in England: Retrospective, Cross-Sectional National Surveillance

Background: The full reopening of schools in September 2020 was associated with an increase in COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in educational settings across England. Methods: Primary and secondary schools reporting an outbreak (≥2 laboratory-confirmed cases within 14 days) to Public Health England (PHE) between 31 August and 18 October 2020 were contacted to complete an online questionnaire. Interpretation: There were 969 primary (n=450) and secondary school outbreaks (n=519) reported to PHE, representing 3% of primary schools and 15% of secondary schools in England. Of the 369 schools contacted, 190 geographically-representative schools completed the questionnaire; 2,425 cases were reported. Secondary school students (1.20%; 95%CI, 1.13-1.28%) had higher attack rates than primary school students (0.84%; 95%CI, 0.75-0.94%). Outbreaks were larger and across more year groups in secondary schools than in primary schools. When an outbreak occurred, attack rates were higher in staff (926/19,083; 4.85%; 95%CI, 4.55-5.17%) than students, especially among primary school teaching staff (9.81%; 95%CI, 8.90-10.82%) compared to secondary school teaching staff (3.97%; 95%CI, 3.79-5.69%). Staff represented 59% (471/799) of cases in primary school outbreaks and 27% (410/1515) in secondary schools (P<0.001). Teaching staff were more likely to be the index case in primary (48/100, 48%) than in secondary (25/79, 32%) schools (P=0.027). Conclusions: Secondary schools were more likely to be affected by a COVID-19 outbreak than primary schools and to experience larger outbreaks across multiple school years. The higher attack rate among teaching staff during an outbreak suggests that additional protective measures may be needed. Funding: PHE
Use of multiple stress indices as a measure of heat tolerance in wheat accessions

Wheat is a crop of global significance, grown in diversified environments. Heat stress affects a number of morpho-physiological traits in crops including wheat. A set of 40 wheat accessions along with four checks were screened for heat tolerance based on various stress indices. The present study was undertaken during rabi 2018-19 in randomized block design having three replications at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar under two dates of sowing i.e. 24 th November and 24 th December . Significant variance was observed among genotypes based on HSI of all the traits except plant height and spike length. Based on HSI and TOL, the accessions DT 126, DT 46, DT 142, DT 102 and DT 124 were found to be most tolerant to heat stress, whereas on the basis of HRI, HTI, MP and GMP, the promising accessions identified were DT 116, DT 101, DT 181, WH 1124, HD 3059 and DT190. The accessions identified as heat tolerant would form an important resource for the development of high yielding varieties under heat stress condition. Correlation coefficients based on HSI of different traits revealed significant positive association of grain yield per plant with biological yield per plant, harvest index, NDVI 1, tillers per plant and 1000 grain weight, denoting that these traits can be used effectively, for selection of heat tolerant genotypes. Grain yield was found to be positively correlated with the indices viz . , HRI, HTI, MP and GMP while, negatively with HSI and TOL under stress condition. The stress indices used under study were recognized as paramount for identifying cultivars with high tolerance to heat stress.
Hydrodesulfurization of Dibenzothiophene in a Micro Trickle Bed Catalytic Reactor under Operating Conditions from Reactive Distillation

Abstract The hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of dibenzothiophene (DBT) is investigated over a commercial NiMoP/γ-Al2O3 catalyst in a micro trickled bed reactor (Micro-TBR) at operating conditions of a reactive distillation (RD) column. An analysis with and without reaction is carried out to have a first understanding on the complex interaction between kinetics and transport phenomena. A set of well-accepted criteria is evaluated to elucidate the presence of heat and mass transport limitations. Residence time distribution (RTD) experiments are performed to evaluate axial dispersion through the estimation of axial dispersion coefficient (Daxial,L) from a convection-dispersion model. Experiments with reaction are carried out using hydrogen and DBT as feedstock at reaction temperatures from 533 to 599 K, pressures from 1.5 to 2.5 MPa and inlet molar flow of DBT from 4 to 12×10–8 mol.s–1. A pseudo heterogeneous model accounting for mass transport limitations is used to describe experiments under reaction conditions. The main findings can be summarized as follows: most of RD operating conditions lead to the presence of interfacial mass transport limitations at both interfaces L-S and G-L; convection-dispersion model is able to describe satisfactorily RTD observations, suggesting that axial dispersion phenomena are negligible; conversion of DBT ranges from ca. 22 to 90% having a selectivity to by-product molecules from 30 to 80%, respectively; and the pseudo heterogeneous reaction model describes observations adequately obtaining activation energies ranging from 49 to 62 kJ mol–1 at pressures from 1.5 to 2.5 MPa, respectively. Estimated activation energies are comparatively lower than the activation energies reported in literature for the conventional HDS process, i.e. 40–160 kJ.mol–1, thereby suggesting an apparent catalytic energy savings by using RD technology.
Grapevine Response to Furrow and Trickle Irrigation

The effects of trickle and furrow irrigation were determined on yield and growth of the wine grape `Shiraz9 in the hot arid climate of Griffith, N.S. W. Daily trickle irrigation applied at 0.4 the rate of class A pan evaporation (crop factor=0.4) produced similar yields to furrow irrigated vines with crop factor 0.5. Daily trickle application with crop factor of 0.2 decreased yield by 16%. Applying similar amounts of water daily or every second day by trickle had similar effects on yield. Water stress up to veraison significantly reduced berry size, the yield component most sensitive to water stress.