Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-efficacy in life skills and satisfaction among adolescents in school transitions

Background: Life skills, according to the World Health Organization, can promote youth well-being through educational school programs. Among life skills, decision-making and problem-solving skills can help adolescents consciously choose their career path. The Italian school system, in fact, requires students, already at a young age (13–14 years old) to make important decisions about their future, like for example choosing the high school that they would like to attend. This study aims to analyze differences in decision-making, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction in a sample of adolescents in secondary school in Italy. It aims to analyze whether there are differences in those dimensions according to students’ age, gender, regularity, and future choice intentions. Design and methods: Here we present a cross-sectional study involving 2104 students, balanced by gender, and attending upper secondary school in Italy. Participants completed Soresi and Nota’s questionnaires on life satisfaction and Caprara’s questionnaire on problem-solving self-efficacy. The data were processed using MANOVA. Results: Research results show significant differences in self-efficacy and school satisfaction in relation to the age at which school transition occurred. Specifically, incoming preadolescents (13–14 years old) scored lower than outgoing late adolescents (17–18 years old) in both decision-making self-efficacy and school satisfaction. Girls scored lower than boys in decision-making self-efficacy. Students who expressed the intention to drop out of school scored lowest on both the self-efficacy and perceived support satisfaction scales. Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of promoting the development of self-efficacy in life skills and school satisfaction to help students in school transitions.
Changing World of Work and Rural Diversification

In India, as in most of the global South, the capitalist transition during the post–World War II era has unfolded in a manner by which labor absorption has not been commensurate with the growth of output in the non-agricultural sectors. For India, there is strong evidence to suggest that the employment elasticity of output has declined in most sectors during much of the so-called reform period. Furthermore, the transfer of agricultural workers to non-agricultural sectors has been largely driven by distress—particularly those of the self-employed, who still account for a lion’s share of employment in the country. This article engages with some of the crucial issues pertaining to the conceptualization of rural “diversification”, situating the increasingly complex rural–urban circuits within the larger architecture of contemporary capitalism. A large proportion of the total workers, especially in the global South, are caught in these circuits as proto- or semi-proletariats, often perambulating ceaselessly between rural and urban. Through the lens of the Marxian political economy, this article highlights some of the relevant tendencies and changes connected with contemporary circuits of accumulation and the associated patterns of rural diversification with a special focus on the last two decades.
Does WeChat use intensity influence Chinese college students' mental health through social use of WeChat, entertainment use of WeChat, and bonding social capital?

Background Previous research notes that the usage of WeChat is significantly related to individuals' mental health, but the underlying mechanism is still not completely discovered. The present study aimed to explore the sequential mediating roles of WeChat use motivations and bonding social capital on the effects of WeChat use intensity on mental health in Chinese college students. Method The present study adopted an online survey with a total of 487 Chinese college students. Correlation analysis and serial mediation analysis were measured by process regarding the hypothesis. Results The study presented findings indicating that WeChat use intensity had both direct and indirect impacts on the levels of life satisfaction and loneliness experienced by college students in China. Specifically, the utilization of WeChat for social motivation and entertainment motivation was found to have a suppressive effect on the relationship between the intensity of WeChat usage and individuals' life satisfaction. The association between the intensity of WeChat usage and mental health outcomes (life satisfaction and loneliness) was found to be mediated by bonding social capital. Furthermore, the association between the intensity of WeChat usage and mental health was found to be mediated by the sequential mediation effects of using WeChat for social motivation and bonding social capital, as well as the sequential mediation effects of using WeChat for entertainment motivation and bonding social capital. Conclusion Our findings provide implications for policymakers and social workers regarding renovating the perceptions of the relationships between WeChat use intensity and overall mental health. Specifically, practical online activities and services of SNSs are recommended to be designed for meeting social and recreational gratifications and boosting bonding social capital, which in turn promotes psychological wellbeing.
Enhanced Corrosion Resistance of TiZrN-Coated Additively Manufactured 8620 Low-Alloy Steel in Nitrate Salt Solution and Salt Bath

In this study, corrosion resistance of TiZrN-coated additively manufactured (3D-printed) 8620 steel has been separately studied in a 60–40 wt% NaNO3 + KNO3 molten salt and in an aqueous nitrate salt environment. Microstructural characterization of the as-built bare 3D-printed 8620 sample revealed martensitic microstructures. High-temperature corrosion analysis in molten nitrate salt revealed improved film stability and corrosion resistance of the coating. The coated 3D-printed sample showed no scale of corrosion products, whereas the bare 3D-printed sample exhibited a layer of corrosion products of 2.62 ± 0.24 µm thickness. Potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests in aqueous nitrate salts at room temperature exhibited an ~8-fold decrease in corrosion current density and a ~7-fold increase in charge transfer resistance, indicating enhanced corrosion resistance of the coated 8620. The coated wrought 8620 showed comparable corrosion resistance to that of the coated 3D-printed sample. However, in aqueous solution, the bare 3D-printed sample exhibited localized corrosion, whereas the bare wrought revealed uniform corrosion on the surface.
Political Regimes, Trade Openness, and National Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Democratic and Autocratic Regimes

ABSTRACT We analyze the influence of political regimes (autocracy and democracy) and national cultures (power distance and uncertainty avoidance) of 22 countries on trade openness and international peace. Using R and structural equation modeling (SEM), we found support that as power distance increases, it has a more harmful effect on the trade openness–international peace relationship in both regimes. Thus, the trade openness–international peace relationship exhibits non-linearity in line with the trade expectations theory and movements of power distance. However, as uncertainty avoidance decreases, the political regime–trade openness relationship strengthens.
Asian vs. liberal democracy: identifying the locus of conflict in the Asian values debate

ABSTRACT The Asian values thesis argues that a coherent value system endemic to Asian societies is incompatible with the Western notion of individual human rights and liberal democracy. Past survey studies have treated Asian values as a one-dimensional variable and left the meaning of democracy open to various interpretations. As a result, the precise loci of conflict between the two value systems were never fully fleshed out. This study addresses those shortfalls by breaking the concept of Asian values down into ‘Asian’ personal and political values and liberal democracy down to its defining characteristics: electoralism, political rights, and civil rights. Using country-level data from the Pew Research Centre and the World Values Survey, I examined how ‘Asian’ personal and political values are associated with these liberal democratic principles. Regression results reveal a wide intraregional disparity in ‘Asian’ values orientation within East and Southeast Asia and interregional effects suggest that the existence of a pan-Asian identity is greatly overstated. Whereas ‘Asian’ personal values are not inimical to liberal democratic principles, ‘Asian’ political values are negatively associated with the support for electoralism and political rights. This leaves countries in Asia open to the possibility of alternative political models to gain mass support.
Assessment of genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship of local coffee populations in southwestern Saudi Arabia using DNA barcoding

The genetic diversity of local coffee populations is crucial to breed new varieties better adapted to the increasingly stressful environment due to climate change and evolving consumer preferences. Unfortunately, local coffee germplasm conservation and genetic assessment have not received much attention. Molecular tools offer substantial benefits in identifying and selecting new cultivars or clones suitable for sustainable commercial utilization. New annotation methods, such as chloroplast barcoding, are necessary to produce accurate and high-quality phylogenetic analyses. This study used DNA barcoding techniques to examine the genetic relationships among fifty-six accessions collected from the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia. PCR amplification and sequence characterization were used to investigate the effectiveness of four barcoding loci: atpB-rbcl, trnL-trnF, trnT-trnL, and trnL. The maximum nucleotide sites, nucleotide diversity, and an average number of nucleotide differences were recorded for atpB-rbcl, while trnT-trnL had the highest variable polymorphic sites, segregating sites, and haploid diversity. Among the four barcode loci, trnT-trnL recorded the highest singleton variable sites, while trnL recorded the highest parsimony information sites. Furthermore, the phylogenetic analysis clustered the Coffea arabica genotypes into four different groups, with three genotypes (KSA31, KSA38, and KSA46) found to be the most divergent genotypes standing alone in the cluster and remained apart during the analysis. The study demonstrates the presence of considerable diversity among coffee populations in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, it also shows that DNA barcoding is an effective technique for identifying local coffee genotypes, with potential applications in coffee conservation and breeding efforts.
MVRA-UNet: Multi-View Residual Attention U-Net for Precise Defect Segmentation on Magnetic Tile Surface

Magnetic tile defect segmentation plays a vital role in magnet motor production. However, it is difficult to detect defect areas from the magnetic tile because of these issues: 1) There is low contrast between the defects regions and the normal ones on the magnetic tile surface; 2) The defects on the magnetic tile vary greatly, and the small defects are always masked by complex backgrounds. To tackle these problems, a Multi-View Residual Attention U-Net (MVRA-UNet) is proposed for defect segmentation from magnetic tile surface, where the Gaussian Residual Attention Convolution (GRAC) module is designed to distinguish similar feature defects in low contrast environments by modeling discriminative feature representation; then, the Multi-View Cycle Convolution (MVCC) module is designed to segment the tiny defects from background noise by learning multi-view (i.e., x, y, and z-axis) feature maps. Experiments conducted on the benchmark demonstrate the superiority of the MVRA-UNet, achieving an excellent performance of 87.7% on the Intersection over Union (IoU), which is better than the state-of-the-art approaches.
Modelling the effect of riparian vegetation restoration on sediment transport in a human‐impacted Brazilian catchment

Soil erosion threatens both soil and water resources and has increased globally because of the removal of natural vegetation and the intensification of existing agriculture. Brazil is privileged by a large proportion of natural vegetation and abundant freshwater. Recently, modifications of the Brazilian Forest Act (BFA) have been approved, which offer landowners that had committed illegal riparian deforestation in the past amnesty from reforestation, and further reductions of riparian protected areas are currently discussed. Here, we used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool to simulate river discharge and sediment exports in a typical human‐impacted Brazilian catchment, the Rio das Mortes catchment. By restoring the riparian vegetation according to the BFA and ignoring amnesties to land owners, the current annual sediment export of the catchment of 0·830 t ha−1 was reduced by 29·4% according to our model. Further, simulated reforestation twice the size demanded by the BFA resulted in a 31·4% reduction of the current sediment export. However, reforestation of a 5‐m homogeneous riparian corridor only, as currently discussed in the Federal Brazilian State of São Paulo, reduced sediment exports by only 23·8%, not considering expected additional erosion due to deforestation outside the simulated reforested 5‐m corridor. Our study is the first catchment‐wide assessment of the role of riparian vegetation in preventing soil erosion in Brazil. Its results support intensive reforestation efforts of the riparian zone and point to substantial negative effects of further reductions of the protected riparian corridor width and amnesties from reforestation to land owners. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
SEASONAL ABUNDANCE OF MAJOR INSECT PESTS OF SESAME AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH ABIOTIC FACTORS

: Investigation of the Seasonal abundance of major insect pests of sesame was carried out at the Agronomy Farm, of S.K. N. College of Agriculture, Jobner (Rajasthan), India. The insect pests, viz . , leaf roller and capsule borer, Antigastra catalaunalis (Dup.), leafhopper, Orosius albicinctus Distant, and whitefly Bemisia tabaci Genn. were recorded as major insect pests of sesame. The initiation of the leaf roller and capsule borer population was recorded in the 34 th standard meteorological week (SMW). However, the initiation of the leafhopper and whitefly population was recorded in the 33 rd SMW. The peak of leaf roller and capsule borer, leafhopper and whitefly population was recorded in 36 th SMW (7.20 leaf roller and capsule borer/ five plants, 7.48 leafhopper/ three leaves and 8.28 whitefly/ three leaves, respectively), when the minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and relative humidity was 22.9°C, 33.8°C and 83 per cent, respectively. The population of leaf roller and capsule borer had a significantly negative correlation with maximum temperature and relative humidity (r = -68 and r = -0.69, respectively). The minimum temperature and rainfall had a non-significant correlation (r = 0.38 and r = 0.28, respectively) with the leaf roller and capsule borer population. The population of leafhopper and whitefly had positive and significant correlation with minimum temperature (r = 0.72 and r = 0.71, respectively) and relative humidity (r = 0.67 and r = 0.67, respectively) but non-significant correlation with maximum temperature (r = 0.07 and r = 0.09, respectively) and rainfall (r= 0.19 and r= 0.17, respectively) with leafhopper and whitefly populations.
ESTRUCTURA EN UNA TAXOCENOSIS DE LACERTIDAE (SAURIA, REPTILIA) DEL SISTEMA CENTRAL

SUMMARY A study on taxocenosis of Lacertidae with 8 species: Lacerta lepida, Lacerta schreiberi, Lacerta monticola, Acanthodactylus erythrurus, Psammodromus algirus, Psammodromus hispanicus, Podareis hispanica and Podareis bocagei in the western part of the Sistema Central (Iberian Peninsula) has been carried out. Most of these behave as feeding generalists but A. erythrurus seems to specialize in mymecophagy whereas L. monticola turns out to be a «forced» sthenophage. The overlap values in each niche dimension suggest that the spatial dimension and habitat preference are the most important factors. However, segregation is produced jointly due to the interaction of the three dimensions considered which act interdependently.
Implementation of Tpack: Preservice Teacher Motivation

Science education today has been transformed to adapt towards the advancement of technology. Thus, it is important for teachers today to have technological knowledge so that they can suitably integrate technology into their teaching in the classroom. For that reason, this study is made to discover pre-service science teacher preparedness towards the implementation of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) by their knowledge in TPACK and their motivation to implement it. The TPACK survey instrument and the motivation survey were distributed to pre-service teachers in Puncak Alam, Selangor in purpose answer each research question. Results indicate that among seven TPACK domains which are TK, CK PK, PCK, TCK, TPK, and TPACK, TPACK domain was found to have the highest mean score. It is also found that pre-service teachers have high motivation towards implementing TPACK. The correlation test analysis shows that there is no significant relationship between pre-service teacher knowledge in TPACK and their motivation.
The influence of conservatism and overconfidence on investment decisions among investors in Nepali stock market

Purpose - Adopting behavioral finance to identify the investors’ investment decision is instrumental in developing insight into the financial and economic activity of the investors. This paper attempts to examine how conservatism and overconfidence influence investors’ investment decisions in Nepali share market. Design/methodology/approach - The research followed the questionnaire method where structured self-monitored close questions were surveyed from 335 respondents via internet. To analyze the data, SPSS software was used, and to test the direct effects of the hypotheses, covariance base analysis (CB-SEM) was applied. Findings and Conclusion - The outcomes of the regression analysis depict that the conservatism of Nepali investors has a considerable positive impact on their investment decisions. It has also revealed that overconfidence had an insignificant role in investment decisions, which indicates investors do not show overconfidence while investing in the stock market. Originality/value - Conservatism and overconfidence of stakeholders in the share market by applying behavioral theory in Nepal are largely unexplored. Because it is one of the few studies that examine the influence of conservatism in Nepal, this study occupies a precarious position in Nepali research on investment decision in the share market.
Evaluation of present-day extreme precipitation over the United States: an inter-comparison of convection and dynamic permitting configurations of E3SMv1

Accurate simulation of the present-day characteristics of mean and extreme precipitation at regional scales remains a challenge for Earth system models, which is due in part to deficiencies in model physics such as convective parameterization (CP), and coarse resolution. High horizontal resolution (HR, ∼25 km) and multiscale modeling framework (MMF, i.e. replacing conventional CP with embedded km-scale cloud-resolving models) are two promising directions that could help improve the interaction between subgrid-scale physical processes and large-scale climate. Here, we evaluate simulated extreme precipitation over the United States (US) across three configurations (i.e. low-resolution [LR], HR, and MMF) of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv1) and intercompare them against two gridded observation datasets (climate prediction center daily US precipitation and integrated multi-satellite retrievals for global precipitation measurement). We assess the model’s ability to simulate very heavy seasonal precipitation (illustrated by the difference between the 99th and 90th percentile values) as well as the spatial distributions of several extreme precipitation indices defined by the expert team on climate change detection and indices. Our results show that both the dry (i.e. consecutive dry days (CDD)) and wet (i.e. consecutive wet days, maximum 5 day precipitation, and very wet days) extremes evaluated herein show some improvement as well as degradation with MMF and HR relative to LR. These results vary across seasons and US subregions. For instance, only the very heavy precipitation of winter is improved with MMF and HR. Both configurations alleviate the well-known drizzling bias evident in LR across both winter and summer in many parts of the US, largely due to the overall improvement in intensity and frequency of precipitation. Additionally, our results suggest that while E3SMv1-MMF has higher intensity rates when it does rain, it has too many CDD during the summer, contributing to a low mean precipitation bias.
The Influence of Selected Design Parameters on the Performance of Light Shelves under Overcast Conditions

This paper aims to investigate how changes in the light shelf design parameters can affect its efficiency under overcast sky conditions. A group of typical light shelves is selected to analyze its performance; selected light shelves represent six different settings, called "Types". The performance of selected light shelves was examined through simulating its effect on the illuminance levels in a hypothetical classroom (10.7 m x 7.4 m x 3 m). Modeling, simulations and lighting analysis calculations were performed by using daylight simulation software, i.e. Ecotect Analysis and Radiance. Cardiff City (UK) is selected as the geographic location of the study. Although that the lighting analysis of various light shelves under overcast sky conditions shows a reduction in illuminance levels, analyzing the daylight distribution within study space shows that the internal/external light shelf is found to offer the best results in terms of the illuminance distribution, as it is found to be effective in terms of cutting the glare down and minimizing the brightness near windows on one hand, and provide the best results in terms of illuminance distribution on the other. However, in order to select the optimum parameters, a good compromise is needed, since changing the height and the position of the light shelf can significantly change its performance.
GAN-based Channel Estimation for IRS-aided Communication Systems

—This paper proposes a generative adversarial network (GAN) based channel estimation scheme for intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-aided single-input multiple-output (SIMO) communication systems. The proposed novel GAN-based deep learning technique is efficient to estimate channels in IRS-aided wireless communication systems with high accuracy. The generator of GAN can reproduce data whose distributions are similar to the actual underlying channel. Consequently, the proposed approach does not require the statistical distribution of the underlying channel to be known in advance. Simulation results prove that the proposed GAN-based channel estimation approach outperforms the conventional least square estimation (LSE) approach significantly in terms of estimation accuracy as well as provides better performance than a fully connected deep neural network (DNN) and convolutional neural network (CNN)- based methods.