Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intrinsic motivation of millennials and generation Z in the new post-pandemic reality

The effective performance of any company is determined by the degree of motivation of its staff. In a pandemic, it is important to explore changes in the values and motivational profiles of staff, especially young people. The aim of the paper is to study the internal motives of millennials and Generation Z, to identify modern motivational tools, taking into account the challenges of an unstable global ecosystem. To assess the changes in the motives for work, a questionnaire was used. The survey was conducted (at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021) among young people in Kyiv (Ukraine) aged 17-22 (287 people participated), who had previous work experience. All results were proven to be valid. The results of the study showed that changes in the motivational profile of millennials and Generation Z under the influence of restrictive measures due to the pandemic occurred in the range of values of awareness of individuality: motives for maintaining health, balancing life, personal and professional growth came out to be more relevant. Such changes indicate positive opportunities for young people due to high adaptability to changing and unstable conditions, and, on the other hand, they bring challenges for companies – the loss of personnel. The most optimal models will be career-oriented and adaptive with elements of well-being management to motivate millennials and Generation Z.
SFSRNet: Super-resolution for Single-Channel Audio Source Separation

The problem of single-channel audio source separation is to recover (separate) multiple audio sources that are mixed in a single-channel audio signal (e.g. people talking over each other). Some of the best performing single-channel source separation methods utilize downsampling to either make the separation process faster or make the neural networks bigger and increase accuracy. The problem concerning downsampling is that it usually results in information loss. In this paper, we tackle this problem by introducing SFSRNet which contains a super-resolution (SR) network. The SR network is trained to reconstruct the missing information in the upper frequencies of the audio signal by operating on the spectrograms of the output audio source estimations and the input audio mixture. Any separation method where the length of the sequence is a bottleneck in speed and memory can be made faster or more accurate by using the SR network. Based on the WSJ0-2mix benchmark where estimations of the audio signal of two speakers need to be extracted from the mixture, in our experiments our proposed SFSRNet reaches a scale-invariant signal-to-noise-ratio improvement (SI-SNRi) of 24.0 dB outperforming the state-of-the-art solution SepFormer which reaches an SI-SNRi of 22.3 dB.
The Relationship between Attachment Styles and Compulsive Online Shopping: The Mediating Roles of Family Functioning Patterns

The rapid expansion of e-commerce has made the buying experience faster, potentially anonymous, and without limits of space and time. While this may produce benefits, for some individuals, online shopping can become an addiction. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the psychological factors that may be associated with Compulsive Online Shopping, with a specific focus on the role of Attachment Styles and Family Functioning patterns as risk or protective factors. The study involved a sample of 306 participants (Mage = 31.86 years, SD = 11.925) who filled out an online survey consisting of the Compulsive Online Shopping Scale, Relationship Questionnaire, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales-IV, as well as a demographic questionnaire. The results showed two significant parallel mediation models. In the first one, Secure Attachment was negatively and significantly related to Compulsive Online Shopping, with the mediation of Cohesion and Enmeshed Family Functioning. In the second one, Fearful Attachment was positively and significantly related to Compulsive Online Shopping, with the mediation of Cohesion and Enmeshed Family Functioning. Important implications for preventive activity and tailored interventions may emerge from these data.
A study on Financial Indicators of selected Pharmaceutical Companies

The aim of this study is to analyses financial ratios. This study covers four different ratios; net profit margin ratio, return on assets ratio, current ratio and quick ratio as financial indicators. This study is based on secondary data and data are collected from moneycontrol.com. Researcher has selected two pharmaceuticals’ companies by using simple random sampling. Independent t-test has been used as a statistical tool and findings were discussed.
Test–retest reliability of wide‐pulse high‐frequency neuromuscular electrical stimulation evoked force

Introduction: We compare forces evoked by wide‐pulse high‐frequency (WPHF) neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) delivered to a nerve trunk versus muscle belly and assess their test–retest intraindividual and interindividual reliability. Methods: Forces evoked during 2 sessions with WPHF NMES delivered over the tibial nerve trunk and 2 sessions over the triceps surae muscle belly were compared. Ten individuals participated in 4 sessions involving ten 20‐s WPHF NMES contractions interspaced by 40‐s recovery. Mean evoked force and force time integral of each contraction were quantified. Results: For both nerve trunk and muscle belly stimulation, intraindividual test–retest reliability was good (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.9), and interindividual variability was large (coefficient of variation between 140% and 180%). Nerve trunk and muscle belly stimulation resulted in similar evoked forces. Discussion: WPHF NMES locations might be chosen by individual preference because intraindividual reliability was relatively good for both locations. Muscle Nerve 57: E70–E77, 2018.
CausalGNN: Causal-Based Graph Neural Networks for Spatio-Temporal Epidemic Forecasting

Infectious disease forecasting has been a key focus in the recent past owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and has proved to be an important tool in controlling the pandemic. With the advent of reliable spatiotemporal data, graph neural network models have been able to successfully model the inter-relation between the cross-region signals to produce quality forecasts, but like most deep-learning models they do not explicitly incorporate the underlying causal mechanisms. In this work, we employ a causal mechanistic model to guide the learning of the graph embeddings and propose a novel learning framework -- Causal-based Graph Neural Network (CausalGNN) that learns spatiotemporal embedding in a latent space where graph input features and epidemiological context are combined via a mutually learning mechanism using graph-based non-linear transformations. We design an attention-based dynamic GNN module to capture spatial and temporal disease dynamics. A causal module is added to the framework to provide epidemiological context for node embedding via ordinary differential equations. Extensive experiments on forecasting daily new cases of COVID-19 at global, US state, and US county levels show that the proposed method outperforms a broad range of baselines. The learned model which incorporates epidemiological context organizes the embedding in an efficient way by keeping the parameter size small leading to robust and accurate forecasting performance across various datasets.
Effects of Fly Ash Inclusion and Alkali Activation on Physical, Mechanical, and Chemical Properties of Clay

This study investigated the improvement in the behaviour of a clay soil due to the addition of alkali-activated fly ash as a stabilising agent, and the effects of different activation factors such as alkali dosages and silica moduli. The alkali activator solution used was a mixture of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide. Class F fly ash was used as the precursor material for the geopolymerisation process. Soil samples stabilised with non-activated class F fly ash were prepared and tested to compare the results with samples stabilised with alkali-activated fly ash. Compaction tests, unconfined compressive strength tests, X-ray diffraction analysis, and scanning electron microscopy analysis were carried out on samples cured 1, 7, and 28 days at room conditions. The results showed that the compressive strength of stabilised soil significantly increased when the fly ash was activated. The optimal activation parameters to stabilise the soil were found to be alkali dosages in the range of 12% to 16% and a silica modulus of 1.25. The highest compressive strength recorded was at 1293 kPa with an alkali dosage of 16% and a silica modulus of 1.25, while for the non-stabilised soil, it was at 204 kPa at 28 days of curing. Mineralogical analysis showed a decrease in the peak intensities of kaolinite and illite, while microstructural analysis indicated an alteration in soil texture with the addition of the alkali-activated fly ash.
Virtual Reality Platform for Sustainable Road Education among Users of Urban Mobility in Cuenca, Ecuador

—A trafﬁc accident is an event generated in an unforeseen way that is beyond the control of the people involved, which can produce bodily, functional, or organic injuries, leading to death or disability in the worst cases. According to the Empresa P´ublica Municipal de Movilidad, Tr´ansito y Transporte de Cuenca (EMOV-EP), the total accidents recorded in 2021 were, 24.97% due to ignoring trafﬁc signs, 21.11% due to not paying attention to trafﬁc, and 16.94% due to driving under the inﬂuence of alcohol. The EMOV-EP, is the responsible for the regulation of human mobility. Thus, the EMOV-EP in conjunction with the Universidad Polit´ecnica Salesiana (UPS) have introduced the next research question: How can a road safety education strategy, supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), can be developed to contribute to the improvement of the behavior of citizens to increase their knowledge of the trafﬁc laws and regulations, and thus reduce the number of accidents in the city of Cuenca? Furthermore, in this paper we present the development of a Virtual Reality (VR) platform designed for road safety education. The platform is composed of a Web system, and 4 VR systems (games) that have been designed for 4 common causes of accidents respectively (drunk drivers, high- speed drivers, cyclists riding in bicycle lanes, and users of the tram transport system), using a serious games approach and the Oculus Rift/Quest technology. We have found that more than 80% of users have had a very good experience of playing and learning through the VR systems. Hence, this virtual reality platform constitutes a technological proposal with social impact because it creates an entertainment environment that can raise awareness among citizens, thereby strengthening road safety education and reducing the number of accidents in the city of Cuenca.
Effects of exchange rate pass-through on inflation in Vietnam

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) on domestic price of goods and services in Vietnam under the impact of the interest rate and refinancing rate over the period 2014 to 2019. Unit root test and many Diagnostic tests are conducted before applying the Vector Auto Regressive (VAR) model. Estimation results indicate that exchange rate changes have a positive impact on domestic consumer price level means that an increase in the depreciation of Vietnam dong could cause an increase in domestic price, the degree of ERPT into domestic price level is smaller than interest rate and refinancing one. The study also indicates many problems existing in the actual situation in Vietnam. From those analysis results, the study has proposed monetary policy orientations to help stabilize prices and develop macroeconomics.
Static and Vibration Analyses of a Composite CFRP Robot Manipulator

This paper reports analyses of a 5-degrees-of-freedom (5-DOF) carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) robot manipulator, which has been developed for farm applications. The manipulator was made of aluminum alloy (AA) and steel materials. However, to check the effectiveness of CFRP materials on the static and free-vibration performance of the manipulator, the AA parts were replaced with CFRP. For this purpose, the effects of various cross-sections and layups on three design criteria—deflection, load-carrying capacity, and natural frequency—were investigated. Two types of thin-walled laminated sections, specifically the I section and rectangular tubular sections, were used for the composite parts. These parts were made from three hollow square section (“SSS” section) beams and three I section (“III” section) beams. These multi-cell beams were modeled using the finite element (FE) method. Three configurations were selected for analysis based on the manipulator’s most common operating conditions. The results indicated that the use of CFRP increased the manipulator’s natural frequencies, increased the load-carrying capacity, and decreased the manipulator’s tip deflection when compared with its AA counterpart. An analysis showed that using CFRP in the manipulator’s structure could improve static and vibrational performances. It was observed that the “SSS” section beams were 1.17 times stiffer, could carry a 1.20 times higher load, and were 1.40 times heavier than the “III” section beams. Also, decreasing the fiber direction in angle-ply layups from 90° to 0° and adding 0° plies, while keeping the total number of layers constant, decreased the manipulator’s tip deflection and increased its natural frequencies.
Optimization of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Using WALANT Method

As surgical management of carpal tunnel release (CTR) becomes ever more common, extensive research has emerged to optimize the contextualization of this procedure. In particular, CTR under the wide-awake, local-anesthesia, no-tourniquet (WALANT) technique has emerged as a cost-effective, safe, and straightforward option for the millions who undergo this procedure worldwide. CTR under WALANT is associated with considerable cost savings and workflow efficiencies; it can be safely and effectively executed in an outpatient clinic under field sterility with less use of resources and production of waste, and it has consistently demonstrated standard or better post-operative pain control and satisfaction among patients. In this review of the literature, we describe the current findings on CTR using the WALANT technique.
The Community Health Agent in the control of tuberculosis in Primary Health Care

Objective: To evaluate the performance of the Community Health Agent (CHA) in the control of tuberculosis (TB) in areas served by the Family Health Strategy (FHS), which established a comparative analysis with the CHAs enrolled in the traditional Basic Health Units (BHU) . Methods: A cross-sectional study in a priority municipality for TB control in the state of Sao Paulo, with a minimum sample of 108 CHAs of FHSs and the BHUs. For the collection of data, we used an instrument developed for Primary Health Care (PHC), adapted for TB care. Results: With regard to the actions of TB control, it was observed that there were no statistically significant differences between the performance of CHAs, the units of the FHS, and those enrolled in the BHUs. Conclusion: The study highlighted the fragility of CHAs to incorporate into their practice actions to control TB in the distinct modalities of PHC, despite the prominence given to the FHS.
Economic vs. Epidemiological Approaches to Measuring the Human Capital Impacts of Infectious Disease Elimination

A rich economic literature has examined the human capital impacts of disease-eliminating health interventions, such as the rollout of new vaccines. This literature is based on reduced-form approaches which exploit proxies for disease burden, such as mortality, instead of actual infection counts, which are difficult to measure. The researchers develop an epidemiological dynamic accounting model based on the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) framework to derive precise measles infection shares across U.S. cohorts born around the introduction of the measles vaccine. Measles is highly infectious and fully immunizing which makes the disease an ideal candidate for epidemiological modeling. The authors’ epidemiological model is strongly predictive of future measles outbreaks, but the derived measles infection shares are not systematically related to cohorts’ later educational, economic, or health outcomes. The reduced-form approach, on the other hand, shows that these long-term outcomes strongly improved among vaccinated cohorts in states with high pre-vaccine measles mortality. The researchers’ results suggest that differences in disease severity are more relevant for long-term human capital impacts than raw differences in actual infection rates, supporting the reduced-form approach used in the economic literature.
Community-driven care of Lanna palm-leaf manuscripts

Palm-leaf manuscripts are an important part of the heritage of the Lanna culture of northern Thailand. The purpose of this article is to explore the practices and attitudes towards managing palm-leaf manuscripts in three communities in northern Thailand with a view to developing a community-centric understanding of sustainable care for palm-leaf manuscripts. The study was based on interviews, which were analysed thematically. It was found that Buddhist beliefs in earning merit and the cultural value of palm-leaf manuscripts underlie community involvement. Leadership was also important, although models of leadership were different in each case. External organizations such as universities play a key role in cataloguing, preserving and using palm-leaf manuscripts. Digitization, although central to the value to external organizations, does not really promote community access. Reflecting on the drivers and challenges in the three villages, a model of community-driven care for palm-leaf manuscripts is proposed.
Safe Subgame Resolving for Extensive Form Correlated Equilibrium

Correlated Equilibrium is a solution concept that is more general than Nash Equilibrium (NE) and can lead to outcomes with better social welfare. However, its natural extension to the sequential setting, the Extensive Form Correlated Equilibrium (EFCE), requires a quadratic amount of space to solve, even in restricted settings without randomness in nature. To alleviate these concerns, we apply subgame resolving, a technique extremely successful in finding NE in zero-sum games to solving general-sum EFCEs. Subgame resolving refines a correlation plan in an online manner: instead of solving for the full game upfront, it only solves for strategies in subgames that are reached in actual play, resulting in significant computational gains. In this paper, we (i) lay out the foundations to quantify the quality of a refined strategy, in terms of the social welfare and exploitability of correlation plans, (ii) show that EFCEs possess a sufficient amount of independence between subgames to perform resolving efficiently, and (iii) provide two algorithms for resolving, one using linear programming and the other based on regret minimization. Both methods guarantee safety, i.e., they will never be counterproductive. Our methods are the first time an online method has been applied to the correlated, general-sum setting.
1-Methylcyclopropene and Ethephon Effects on 'Carabao' Mango Fruits Harvested at Different Stages of Fruit Maturity

Three experiments were conducted using three different stages of fruit maturity (100, 105, and 110 DAFI or days after flower induction) of ‘Carabao’ mangoes harvested from the same set of trees. Fruits harvested were applied with 1-MCP [(dosage:0.5 µL/L) via gas exposure for 20 hours and spraying], and ethephon (dipping at 1ml/L of H2O) applied singly or in combination. Mangoes were then stored in ambient room conditions [29.2±1.6°C, 69.88±4.0% relative humidity (RH)]. Mango fruits with 1-MCP treatment applied through gas exposure at 0.5 µL/L consistently delayed the peel color change, firmness, and weight loss of harvested fruits at 100, 105 and 110 DAFI. These fruits held its shelf life for 15 (100 DAFI), 12 (105 DAFI) and 9 (110 DAFI) days compared to control with 12, 10 and 8 days respectively. Furthermore, all treatments showed varied effects on the visual quality of fruits regardless of its maturity. It also appeared that fruits at 105 DAFI treated with ethephon alone have better taste while other organoleptic attributes, chemical properties (TSS, TTA and pH), as well as the disease incidence and severity were found to be comparable. This further proved that 1-MCP delays ripening of fruits but could not prevent disease occurrence.
Seroprevalence of West Nile Virus in Regular Blood Donors Referred to the Blood Bank of Kurdistan Province, Iran

Background: West Nile virus is an infection that is most commonly caused by infected mosquito bites, however, blood transfusions, organ transplants, breast feeding, pregnant mother-to-the-fetus transmission, and occupational transmission among laboratory and medical staff are also the less common routes of infection. Given the endemic nature of this virus in the Middle East, the aim of this study was to investigate the presence of this virus in regular blood donors, as the reliable source of blood supply needed for patients in hospitals. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, venous blood samples were collected from 259 regular blood donors referred to the Blood Transfusion Organization of Kurdistan. After separating blood serum, the amount of IgM and IgG antibodies against West Nile virus was measured via ELISA test. Results: Concerning antibodies, IgG and IgM against West Nile virus were positive in 14 patients (5.4%) and 3 patients (1.2%), respectively. Seropositive IgG levels were observed in 11 patients over the age of 40 (12.5%) but only in 3 patients under 40 years of age (1.8%). The difference was statistically significant (OR = 7.95; 95% CI: 2.16–29.32; p < 0.01). Conclusion: Given the value of blood and blood products obtained from regular blood donors for therapeutic purposes and the significant prevalence of the virus and considering the presence of cases with positive IgM, it seems necessary to screen blood donors in blood transfusion centers in the western parts of Iran.