Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Hybrid Trust Update Solution for Dynamic Social IoT Trust Management Model

The principles of social networking and the Internet of Things were combined to create the Social Internet of Things (SIoT) paradigm. Therefore, this paradigm cannot become widely adopted to the point where it becomes a well-established technology without a security mechanism to assure reliable interactions between SIoT nodes. A Trust Management (TM) model becomes a major challenge in SIoT systems to create a trust score for the network nodes' ranking. Regarding the defined TM models methodology, this score will persist for the subsequent transaction and will only be changed after some time has passed or after another transaction. However, a trust evaluation methodology must be able to consider the different constraints of the SIoT environments (dynamism and scalability) when building trust scores. Based on both event-driven and time-driven methods for trust update solutions, this model can identify which damaging nodes should be eliminated based on their changing problematic behaviors over time. The effectiveness of our proposed model has been validated by a number of simulation-based experiments that were conducted on various scenarios.
Experimental Investigation on 3D Turbulent Flow around Straight and T-Shaped Groynes in a Flat Bed Channel

AbstractLaboratory measurements were conducted to investigate the three-dimensional turbulent flow field around a single straight (SD) and two different T-shape groynes (TH and TF) under smooth flat-bed conditions. An acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV) was used in the measurements. Experimental results showed profound effects of the groyne shape on both the mean and turbulent flow characteristics, especially for the near bed region. The near bed velocity amplifications due to both of the local effects of groyne structure and constriction of the channel cross section in the SD is higher than T-shape groynes. The horseshoe vortex at the base of the SD has more compact and strong rotational momentum and lasts a longer distance downstream compared with T-shape groynes. By increasing the wing length of the T-shape groyne the flow structure at the upstream mini embayment changes from the vertical to the dominantly horizontal circulation, the horseshoe vortex disappears, and the wing segment acts as a scour coun.
The Devonian nekton revolution

Klug, C. , Kroger, B. , Kiessling, W. , Mullins, G.L. , Servais, T. , Frýda, J., Korn, D. & Turner, S. 2009: The Devonian nekton revolution. Lethaia, 10.1111/j.1502-3931.2009. 00206.x Traditional analyses of Early Phanerozoic marine diversity at the genus level show an explosive radiation of marine life until the Late Ordovician, followed by a phase of erratic decline continuing until the end of the Palaeozoic, whereas a more recent analysis extends the duration of this early radiation into the Devonian. This catch-all approach hides an evolutionary and ecological key event long after the Ordovician radiation: the rapid occupation of the free water column by animals during the Devonian. Here, we explore the timing of the occupation of the water column in the Palaeozoic and test the hypothesis that ecological escalation led to fundamental evolutionary changes in the mid-Palaeozoic marine water column. According to our analyses, demersal and nektonic modes of life were probably initially driven by competition in the diversity-saturated benthic habitats together with the availability of abundant planktonic food. Escalatory feedback then promoted the rapid rise of nekton in the Devonian as suggested by the sequence and tempo of water-column occupation. □Devonian, diversity, ecology, food webs, nekton, plankton, radiation.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Market discipline through credit ratings and too-big-to-fail in banking

Do credit ratings help enforce market discipline on banks? Analyzing a uniquely comprehensive data set consisting of 1,081 rating change an-nouncements for 154 international financial institutions between January 2004 and December 2015, we find that rating downgrades for internal reasons, such as adverse changes in the operating performance or capital structure of banks, are associated with a significant credit default swap spread widening. However, this widening only occurs for banks that are not perceived as to be Too-Big-to-Fail (TBTF). Our findings question the reliability of credit ratings as a tool to discipline TBTF banks and suggest that regulatory monitoring should remain the main mechanism for disciplining these banks.
Community Detection in Dense Networks using Effective Resistance and Link Pruning

The detection of communities in networks can be made more effective by weighting edges with a distance measure reflecting the similarity/dissimilarity between pairs of nodes. In this paper, we focus on a particular measure derived from the fields of electrical circuits: the effective resistance. Specifically, we propose a community detection method organized into two phases. During the first phase, the edges of the input graph are weighted through their effective resistance and a weight thresholding sparsification procedure is applied to cut the less important edges while keeping the edges fundamental for maintaining a modular structure. We then run a GA-based community detection method maximizing the modularity as the objective function on the sparse graph. The results of the experiments over both real-world and synthetically generated networks show the effectiveness of the approach when compared to other benchmark methods.
Analysis of the scientific capabilities of the ExoMars Raman Laser Spectrometer instrument

The Raman Laser Spectrometer (RLS) is part of the payload of the 2018 ExoMars rover. The Sample Preparation and Distribution System (SPDS) of the rover will crush samples acquired from down to two meters depth under the Martian surface, and provide them to the RLS instrument in the form of flattened powdered samples. The RLS instrument will acquire a minimum of 20 points on the flattened surface of the samples. To be able to obtain the maximum scientific return from the instrument once on Mars, a simulator of the SPDS system has been built to perform a series of experiments in a representative scenario. The crushing process implies the loss of rock structure and texture and, hence, the geological context of the samples. However, qualitative analysis with the RLS simulator on powdered natural samples and rocks showed that the RLS is capable of detecting carbonaceous material occurring in trace amounts in one of the rock samples (a silicified volcanic sand), more easily than with the same analysis on bulk. Furthermore, it is shown that minor phases in carbonate cements that cannot be detected by Raman in the bulk sample can be detected in the powder, thus allowing the identification of all the carbonate phases present in the cement crust. In order to quantify the detection threshold of the instrument, further analysis on controlled samples were performed. The results with the RLS SPDS simulator showed that the instrument can reach detection thresholds down to 1 % on powdered samples. Furthermore, analysis of controlled mixtures showed that performing a very simple intensity-based statistical analysis of the spectra can provide semi-quantification of the abundance of the mineral species with quite linear calibration curves.
LEGO® Serious Play® in management education

Abstract The paper outlines the design of a LEGO Serious Play (LSP)-based undergraduate management module delivered to a diverse group of students, and consequently evaluates the LSP workshops. It argues for the importance of participatory and co-creational approaches to management education, and demonstrates that LSP is a method that has the potential to address these requirements. This paper is unique in outlining the use of LSP throughout an entire intensive management module, including the assessment. It also contributes by utilising music to enhance the benefits of the LSP method. Student reflections have been used to evaluate the learning experience; additionally, I draw on my positionality as a lecturer and LSP facilitator to reflect on the benefits and challenges of the LSP method. The reflections were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. The findings identify LSP as a learning method where the benefits outweigh its limitations, and highlight that LSP also helped develop important management and employability skills.
THE CANADIAN CORDILLERA: Geology and Tectonic Evolution

The Canadian Cordillera (Figure 1A) is a relatively youthful mountain belt. However, its origins extend back some 750 million years (or 750 Ma) to the episode of rifting that marked the first stages in the break-up and dispersal of “Rodinia”, a Neoproterozoic supercontinent that had existed since about 1,000 Ma. The late Neoproterozoic-earliest Cambrian break-up (between 750-540 Ma) led to the opening of a new ocean basin that was the distant ancestor of the present Pacific Ocean basin and to the formation of a continent-ocean boundary that is preserved today within the eastern Canadian Cordillera. The protracted evolution of the Canadian Cordillera is dominated by interactions between the margin of the old, stable North American continent and the oceanic lithosphere located outboard of it. The initial intra-plate continent-ocean boundary was analogous to that of the present boundary between eastern North America and the Atlantic Ocean basin. It persisted until the Middle Devonian (~390 Ma), when a convergent, inter-plate boundary formed, along which magmatic arcs were generated within the edge of the North American Plate by subduction of oceanic lithosphere beneath it. Arc magmatism has persisted to a greater or lesser extent until the present but has varied in character. In the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic (between ~355 and 185 Ma), the convergent plate boundary apparently lay well offshore, and involved chains of island arcs separated from the old continental margin by back arc basins. A modern analogue may be the western Pacific Ocean basin with its chains of intraoceanic volcanic islands separated by basins, such as those containing the Japan and Philippine seas, from eastern Asia. Starting in the Jurassic (~185 Ma), the North American continent converged with the offshore subduction zones. The rocks of the back arc basins and of the offshore arcs were accreted to the original continental margin, and new continental arcs were built on both the accreted material and parts of the ancient continental margin. By the Late Cretaceous (~90 Ma), a new continental margin was located near its present position, about 500 km oceanwards of the position of the original margin, and bounded a mountain belt that probably resembled the present Andes. The record of the 750 million year long evolution is preserved both in rocks of the Cordillera and in those of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin on its eastern margin and the plains, which evolved hand-in-hand with the Cordillera (Price, 1994). Below, we first note the nature and expansion of the earthscience knowledge base for the Canadian Cordillera, then provide a simple geological overview, and explore the influence exerted by plate tectonic theory on interpretations of Cordilleran geology. This material provides background for the last half of the article, which is a summary review of the tectonic evolution of the Canadian Cordillera.
Promoter from Chinese hamster elongation factor-1a gene and Epstein-Barr virus terminal repeats concatemer fragment maintain stable high-level expression of recombinant proteins

Background The Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line is the main host for the high-titer production of therapeutic and diagnostic proteins in the biopharmaceutical industry. In most cases, plasmids for efficient protein expression in CHO cells are based on the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. The autologous Chinese hamster eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1α (EEF1A1) promoter is a viable alternative to the CMV promoter in industrial applications. The EEF1A1 promoter and its surrounding DNA regions proved to be effective at maintaining high-level and stable expression of recombinant proteins in CHO cells. EEF1A1-based plasmids’ large size can lead to low transfection efficiency and hamper target gene amplification. We hypothesized that an efficient EEF1A1-based expression vector with a long terminal repeat fragment from the Epstein-Barr virus (EBVTR) could be truncated without affecting promoter strength or the long-term stability of target gene expression. Methods We made a series of deletions in the downstream flanking region of the EEF1A1 gene, and then in its upstream flanking region. The resulting plasmids, which coded for the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP), were tested for the level of eGFP expression in the populations of stably transfected CHO DG44 cells and the stability of eGFP expression in the long-term culture in the absence of selection agents. Results It was shown that in the presence of the EBVTR fragment, the entire downstream flanking region of the EEF1A1 gene could be excluded from the plasmid vector. Shortening of the upstream flanking region of the EEF1A1 gene to a length of 2.5 kbp also had no significant effect on the level of eGFP expression or long-term stability. The EBVTR fragment significantly increased expression stability for both the CMV and EEF1A1 promoter-based plasmids, and the expression level drop during the two-month culture was more significant for both CMV promoter-based plasmids. Conclusion Target protein expression stability for the truncated plasmid, based on the EEF1A1 gene and EBVTR fragment, is sufficient for common biopharmaceutical applications, making these plasmid vectors a viable alternative to conventional CMV promoter-based vectors.
Clinical Cases of Coccidioidomycosis in the Americas in the Period 1950–2021: Epidemiology Data, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Coccidioidomycosis, caused by Coccidioides immitis and C. posadasii, causes significant morbidity and mortality, both in immunocompetent and immunocompromised people, mainly in endemic areas. The present work analyzed its epidemiology, diagnostic methods, and treatment by reviewing clinical cases published from 1950 to 2021. Fifty-nine articles were included, corresponding to 275 clinical cases. The results showed a higher incidence of coccidioidomycosis in the male gender than the female gender. The most affected age group was 31–40 years, and the most reported clinical presentation was disseminated with greater involvement in cutaneous and subcutaneous tissue, followed by the CNS, bone system, and peritoneum. The species most frequently reported was C. immitis. The most used treatment was azoles, followed by their combination with amphotericin B, monotherapy with amphotericin B, and alternative medicine. This work shows that epidemiological data outside the USA are still scarce. Serological tests are the preferred diagnostic method in daily medical practice, and cultures remain the gold standard. The treatment for coccidioidomycosis is ketoconazole and amphotericin B, individually or in combination.
Description du peuplement piscicole du lac sahélien de Higa, un site Ramsar du Burkina Faso, Afrique de l’Ouest

Objectif : Ce travail vise a caracteriser l’assemblage des especes de poisson du lac de Higa, un site Ramsar du Burkina Faso, et a identifier, a partir des connaissances des pecheurs, les especes qui sont eteintes. Methodologie et resultats : En mai 2012 nous avons echantillonne les poissons au moyen de filets epervier et observe les captures de la peche commerciale. Nous avons aussi organise un atelier avec les pecheurs. Le peuplement piscicole etait compose de 9 familles largement dominees par les Cichlidae (86%) et 18 especes avec une abondance de Oreochromis niloticus (56%) et de Sarotherodon galilaeus (23%). Trois especes de la famille des Cichlidae presentent le plus fort embonpoint : Sarotherodon galilaeus (facteur de condition K = 1,94), Oreochromis niloticus (K = 1,88) et Tilapia zillii (K = 1,80). Les pecheurs ont unanimement declare que Lates niloticus et Heterotis niloticus ont disparus du lac. Conclusions et application des resultats : L’ecosysteme aquatique de Higa presente des signes de degradation. Les programmes de conservation en cours meritent d’etre poursuivis et ameliores pour assurer une meilleure protection et une exploitation durable des ressources aquatiques. La conscience ecologique des pecheurs suggere qu’ils peuvent etre responsabilises dans cette tâche. Mots cles : Burkina, Ramsar, Higa, poisson, ecosysteme, degradation. Description of the Fish community of the Sahelian Lake Higa, a Ramsar site of Burkina Faso, West Africa ABSTRACT Objective : The work aims to characterize the fish community of Lake Higa, a Ramsar site in Burkina Faso and to identify extinct species with help of the fishermen experiences. Methodology and results : In May 2012, we sampled fish with cast nets, observed commercial fish landings and held a workshop with the local fishermen. We listed nine families dominated by the Cichlidae (86%) and eighteen species dominated by Oreochromis niloticus (56 %) and Sarotherodon galilaeus (23 %). Three species of Cichlidae had the highest factor condition K: Sarotherodon galilaeus (K = 1.94), Oreochromis niloticus (K = 1.88) and Tilapia zillii (K = 1.80). The fishermen unanimously declared Lates niloticus and Heterotis niloticus to have disappeared from the lake. Conclusions and application of findings : The aquatic ecosystem Higa shows signs of degradation. Ongoing conservation programs need to be continued and improved to ensure better protection and sustainable use of aquatic resources. The environmental awareness of the fishermen suggests that they can be empowered in this task. Key words : Burkina, Ramsar, Higa, Fish, ecosystem degradation.
Experiences of Women with Disabilities in Accessing Maternal Healthcare Services: A South African Case Study

Access to maternal healthcare services is a challenge in most low- and middle-income countries. South Africa is one of the countries striving to improve the accessibility of maternal healthcare services. Although South Africa has put some interventions in place to improve the accessibility of maternal healthcare services, vulnerable women including women with disabilities are still facing numerous challenges when trying to access these services. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of women with disabilities in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa in accessing public maternal healthcare services. The objectives of this study were to describe the experiences of women with disabilities in accessing maternal healthcare services during pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum care; explore the inhibitors of access to maternal healthcare services for women with disabilities; and explore the facilitators of access to maternal healthcare services for women with disabilities. Twelve women with disabilities (four with physical impairments, four with hearing impairments and four with visual impairments) were interviewed for this study. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed utilising the Framework of Assessing Access to Maternal Healthcare Services by Peters et al., 2008. Our study found that narrow passages and information in inaccessible formats were a challenge for women with visual impairments. Women with hearing impairments faced communication difficulties due to the lack of sign language interpreters in most facilities. Moreover, healthcare professionals displayed unfavourable attitudes toward women with hearing impairments, and these women were often overlooked when seeking help. The women with physical impairments encountered inaccessible buildings, narrow passages, small consultation rooms and equipment that is not adjustable, such as beds and scales.
Effects of pressure and H2O content on the compositions of primary crustal melts

ABSTRACT: Melting experiments with and without added H2O on a model metagreywacke and a natural metapelite demonstrate how pressure and H2O content control the compositions of melts and residual assemblages. Several effects are observed under isothermal conditions. Firstly, the stability field of biotite shrinks with decreasing pressure and with increasing H2O content, whereas that of plagioclase shrinks with increasing pressure and H2O content. Secondly, the ferromagnesian content of melts at the source (i.e. coexisting with their residual assemblages) decreases with decreasing H2O activity. Thirdly, with increasing pressure the Ca/Mg and Ca/Fe ratios of melts decrease relative to those of coexisting garnet. As a consequence, a wide spectrum of melts and crystalline residues can be generated from the same source material. For example, H2O-starved dehydration melting of metagreywacke at low pressure (≤10 kbar) generates K-rich (granitic) melts that coexist with pyroxene- and plagioclase-rich residues, whereas melting of the same material at high pressure (≍15 kbar) and with minor H2O infiltration can generate leucocratic Na-rich and Ca-poor (trondhjemitic) melts that coexist with biotite- and garnet-rich residues. An increased H2O content stabilises orthopyroxene at the expense of garnet + biotite + plagioclase, causing melts to shift towards granodioritic or perhaps tonalitic compositions.
Characterization of melt and ejecta deposits of Kepler crater from remote sensing data

We used Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), Arecibo and Mini‐RF radar, and Diviner radiometer data with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Camera and Kaguya Terrain Camera images to characterize the target, ejecta, and impact melt‐rich lithologies in and around lunar central peak crater Kepler. M3 data indicate the impact melt rocks of crater floor to be high‐Ca pyroxene dominated, distinct from the low‐Ca pyroxene‐dominated crater wall. The central uplift is high‐Ca pyroxene dominated, and has higher albedo. These observations are consistent with thin mare basalts underlain by noritic Imbrium ejecta, underlain by gabbroic crustal material. M3 data reveal an enigmatic, splash‐like feature of melt‐rich material on the southeastern (uprange) crater wall and flank. M3 data also highlight halos around Kepler. In detail the halos are slightly variable, but in broad terms they define a consistent feature, offset to the inferred downrange direction, and interpreted to reflect the distribution of glass‐bearing impact breccia. The radar data sets show most of the proximal ejecta to be radar‐bright. However, Diviner rock abundance data do not indicate the presence of blocks on the surface nor can they be seen using LRO Narrow Angle Camera images. Thus, the blocks giving rise to the enhanced radar signal are buried. Beyond the radar‐bright zone, a subtle radar‐dark halo emerges, coincident with a region of very low rock abundance in Diviner data. This multidisciplinary approach provides a robust analysis of the main characteristics of a lunar complex crater and reveals previously unidentified features related to the distribution of impact melt.