Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel Surfactant-Induced MWCNTs/PDMS-Based Nanocomposites for Tactile Sensing Applications

The paper presents the use of surfactant-induced MWCNTs/PDMS-based nanocomposites for tactile sensing applications. The significance of nanocomposites-based sensors has constantly been growing due to their enhanced electromechanical characteristics. As a result of the simplified customization for their target applications, research is ongoing to determine the quality and quantity of the precursor materials that are involved in the fabrication of nanocomposites. Although a significant amount of work has been done to develop a wide range of nanocomposite-based prototypes, they still require optimization when mixed with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrices. Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) are one of the pioneering materials used in multifunctional sensing applications due to their high yield, excellent electrical conductivity and mechanical properties, and high structural integrity. Among the other carbon allotropes used to form nanocomposites, MWCNTs have been widely studied due to their enhanced bonding with the polymer matrix, highly densified sampling, and even surfacing throughout the composites. This paper highlights the development, characterization and implementation of surfactant-added MWCNTs/PDMS-based nanocomposites. The prototypes consisted of an optimized amount of sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) and MWCNTs mixed as nanofillers in the PDMS matrix. The results have been promising in terms of their mechanical behaviour as they responded well to a maximum strain of 40%. Stable and repeatable output was obtained with a response time of 1 millisecond. The Young’s Modulus of the sensors was 2.06 MPa. The utilization of the prototypes for low-pressure tactile sensing applications is also shown here.
English Listening Anxiety of Indonesian Speakers

Research on foreign language anxiety among Indonesian learners of English has gained some attention thus far. However, few studies have examined specifically English listening anxiety of Indoensian speakers. Previous research in other countries has suggested a number of variables contributing to the foreign language anxiety. Taking into consideration some of the factors that are distinctive for Indonesian learners’ contexts, this present study aims to find out the relationship between number of languages learned or acquired by the learners, gender of the learners, the learners’ English self-rating proficiency, and length of residence of the learners in the target language country with L2 listening anxiety of Indonesian learners of English. This study involved Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS) data that were obtained from 109 Indonesian university students and were analyzed quantitatively using Pearson’s correlation, Spearman’s rho, and one-way ANOVAs. The finding shows that there is a significant negative correlation between Indonesian learners of English listening anxiety with the learners’ length of residence in the target language country and the learners’ English self-rating proficiency. The significant difference in terms of length of residence in the target language country especially lied in between the no residence group and <1-year group, and between no residence group and >1 year. In the English self-rating, the significant difference lied in between Intermediate and advanced groups.
Why has Precipitation Increased in the Last 120 Years in Norway?

We use a data set with daily precipitation observations from 55 homogeneity‐tested stations in Norway from 1900 to 2019 available from MET‐Norway. These observations show that precipitation in Norway has increased by 19% since 1900. Notably, over half of the overall increase occurred within the decade of 1980–1990 and is happening across all precipitation rates. To examine possible mechanisms behind the precipitation increase, we use a diagnostic model to separate the effects of changes in vertical velocity, temperature and relative humidity. We use daily vertical velocity, near‐surface temperature and relative humidity from two reanalysis products, ERA‐20C and 20th Century Reanalysis. The model‐based precipitation correlates significantly with the observed precipitation on an annual timescale (r > 0.9), as well as captures the trend in all reanalysis products. The diagnostic model indicates that the variability in vertical velocity chiefly determines the interannual variability and long‐term trend. The trend in vertical velocities contributes to more than 80% of the total modeled trend in precipitation between 1900 and 2019. However, over the last two decades (1995–2015), changes in temperature and relative humidity are the main contributors to the modeled trend in precipitation.
Simulation and Machine Learning Methods for Ion-Channel Structure Determination, Mechanistic Studies and Drug Design

Ion channels are expressed in almost all living cells, controlling the in-and-out communications, making them ideal drug targets, especially for central nervous system diseases. However, owing to their dynamic nature and the presence of a membrane environment, ion channels remain difficult targets for the past decades. Recent advancement in cryo-electron microscopy and computational methods has shed light on this issue. An explosion in high-resolution ion channel structures paved way for structure-based rational drug design and the state-of-the-art simulation and machine learning techniques dramatically improved the efficiency and effectiveness of computer-aided drug design. Here we present an overview of how simulation and machine learning-based methods fundamentally changed the ion channel-related drug design at different levels, as well as the emerging trends in the field.
Profiles of early childhood special educator well-being

ABSTRACT Early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers report high levels of stress, but little is known about the well-being of educators working with young children with disabilities. This study explores latent class analysis of early childhood special educator well-being, based on multidimensional measures of mental health and well-being to investigate whether qualitatively different subgroups of teachers exist within this population. With calls to make teacher training universal, there is a critical need to learn how ECSE experiences well-being to inform future practices in the field. Recommendations for research, practice are discussed.
The Past and Future of Mid-Infrared Studies of AGN

Observational studies of AGN in the mid-infrared regime are crucial to our understanding of AGN and their role in the evolution of galaxies. Mid-IR-based selection of AGN is complementary to more traditional techniques allowing for a more complete census of AGN activity across cosmic time. Mid-IR observations including time variability and spatially resolved imaging have given us unique insights into the nature of the obscuring structures around AGN. The wealth of fine structure, molecular, and dust features in the mid-IR allow us to simultaneously probe multiple components of the ISM allowing us to explore in detail the impact on the host galaxy by the presence of an AGN—a crucial step toward understanding galaxy-SMBH co-evolution. This review gives a broad overview of this wide range of studies. It also aims to show the evolution of this field starting with its nascency in the 1960s, through major advances thanks to several generations of space-based and ground-based facilities, as well as the promise of upcoming facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Hygiene and Sanitation Implementation on Food Handlers

Latar belakang: Makanan yang dikonsumsi selain sehat, bersih dan bergizi juga harus aman. Penjamah makanan memiliki peran penting dalam memastikan keamanan makanan untuk mencegah terjadinya keracunan makanan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengetahuan, sikap, dan praktik (KAP) tentang higiene dan sanitasi makanan pada penjamah makanan yang bekerja di kantin Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia.Metode: Desain penelitian ini adalah kuantitatif dengan menggunakan cross sectional study. Pengumpulan data pada tahun 2020 melibatkan 52 penjamah makanan. Data dikumpulkan dengan menggunakan kuesioner. Data dianalisis secara univariat dan bivariat dengan uji chi square CI 95%(α=0,05). Hasil: Hasil penelitian menunjukan 65,4% penjamah memiliki pengetahuan baik, 53,8% memiliki sikap baik dan 52% memiliki praktik baik tentang higiene dan sanitasi makanan. Ada hubungan yang signifikan antara tingkat pendidikan (p= 0,003), pelatihan higiene dan sanitasi makanan (p=0,05), pengetahuan (p=0,005), dan sikap (p=0,006) dengan praktik higiene sanitasi makanan.Simpulan: Penjamah makanan lebih banyak yang memiliki pengetahuan, sikap dan praktik yang baik, namun beberapa aspek tindakan personal hygiene seperti penggunaan masker, sarung tangan dan celemek pada saat pengolahan dan penyajian makanan perlu ditingkatkan. ABSTRACT Background: The food consumed in addition to being healthy, clean and nutritious must also be safeFood handlers are crucial in guaranteeing food safety and preventing food illness. The purpose of this study was to compare food handlers' knowledge, attitude, and behaviors (KAP) on food hygiene and sanitation at Andalas University in Padang, Indonesia. Method: This study's design was quantitative, with a cross-sectional approach. Data were collected in 2020 involving 52 food handlers was assessed using a questionnaire. The data were examined in univariate and bivariate mode using the chi square test with a 95 percent confidence interval (=0,05). Result: 65,4 percent of food handlers have adequate knowledge, 53,8 percent have a positive attitude, and 52 percent adopt appropriate food hygiene and sanitation methods. There is a significant relationship between education level (p=0,003), food hygiene and sanitation training (p=0,05), knowledge (p=0.005), and attitude (p=0,006) and food hygiene and sanitation behaviors.Conclusion: Even though the results show that there are more food handlers who have good KAP levels, some aspects on personal hygiene measures like use of masks, gloves and aprons during food processing and serving need to be improved.
Maternal passives addressed to Japanese-speaking children: A usage-based approach

This study examined Japanese-speaking mothers’ passives in the child-directed speech from the CHILDES database. We selected five parent–child corpora and analyzed the overall distribution of the mothers’ passives and further investigated the contribution of the construction and the passivized verbs to sentence meaning. The findings were as follows: (1) There are only a few verbs that accounted for much of the mothers’ passives; (2) mothers’ passives can be categorized into broad classes based on the verb–patient relation; and (3) most of the passives, both direct and indirect, were used to denote adversative meaning and these negative passives collocated with the verbal auxiliary -shimau. We suggest that analyses of child-directed speech should take into account lexical repetition and the semantic redundancy of language as part of a process designed to support language development. Furthermore, highly frequent exemplar passives and their discrete reference in the events and contexts may be facilitative for children’s learning of Japanese passives. The results are evaluated in light of the usage-based proposal of learning.
Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Transcriptome-Based Comparison of Animal Models

Background Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a common complication characterized by a significant cognitive decline. Increasing evidence suggests an association between the pathogenesis of POCD and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, a comprehensive understanding of their relationships is still lacking. Methods First, related databases were obtained from GEO, ArrayExpress, CNGB, and DDBJ repositories. De novo analysis was performed on the raw data using a uniform bioinformatics workflow. Then, macro- and micro-level comparisons were conducted between the transcriptomic changes associated with AD and POCD. Lastly, POCD was induced in male C57BL/6j mice and the hippocampal expression levels of mRNAs of interest were verified by PCR and compared to those in AD congenic models. Results There was a very weak correlation in the fold-changes in protein-coding transcripts between AD and POCD. Overall pathway-level comparison suggested that AD and POCD are two disease entities. Consistently, in the classical AD pathway, the mitochondrial complex and tubulin mRNAs were downregulated in both the POCD hippocampus and cortex. POCD and AD hippocampi might share the same pathways, such as tryptophan metabolism, but undergo different pathological changes in phagosome and transferrin endocytosis pathways. The core cluster in the hippocampal network was mainly enriched in mitosis-related pathways. The hippocampal expression levels of genes of interest detected by PCR showed good consistency with those generated by high throughput platforms. Conclusion POCD and AD are associated with different transcriptomic changes despite their similar clinical manifestations. This study provides a valuable resource for identifying biomarkers and therapeutic targets for POCD.
Evaluating the quality of Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIARs) for tourism developments in protected areas: The Kruger to Canyons Biosphere case study

ABSTRACT There has been little empirical investigation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) performance towards safeguarding conservation and promoting responsible tourism within protected areas. This paper examines the quality of EIA Reports (EIARs) prepared for tourism developments in the world-renowned Kruger to Canyons (K2C) Biosphere Reserve, one of the largest in Africa. An adapted version of the internationally recognised Lee and Colley report review package was used. The review results indicate that the EIARs are, overall, of satisfactory quality and that the reports provide adequate information to support the incorporation of sustainable and responsible tourism principles in decision-making. However, inadequacies are observed in certain review areas, namely public participation, provision for mitigation and monitoring, and content of non-technical summaries. Notably, the analytical review areas (e.g. impact assessment) perform better than the descriptive ones (e.g. presentation of assessment results), which contrasts with review findings reported in the international literature. This research provides important insights and contributes to advancing review frameworks and to ongoing debates around the potential of EIA to foster environmental protection and sustainability within protected areas.
Positive Correlation of the Gene Rearrangements and Evolutionary Rates in the Mitochondrial Genomes of Thrips (Insecta: Thysanoptera)

Simple Summary Aeolothrips, commonly known as banded thrips, is the largest genus of the family Aeolothripidae (predatory thrips). In the current study, we sequenced the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the banded thrip species Aeolothrips xinjiangensis. We found a novel gene arrangement in this mitogenome that has not been reported in Thysanoptera. By comparing the gene order and rearrangement patterns, we found seven identical gene blocks and three identical rearrangement events in two mitogenomes of banded thrips. There was marked variation in the mitochondrial gene order across thrip species, with only two conserved gene blocks shared by all 14 thrips. In addition, we found a positive correlation between the degree of gene rearrangement and evolutionary rate. Our results suggested that the mitogenomes of thrips have tended to be stable since their massive rearrangement. Abstract Extensive gene rearrangement is characteristic in the mitogenomes of thrips (Thysanoptera), but the historical process giving rise to the contemporary gene rearrangement pattern remains unclear. To better understand the evolutionary processes of gene rearrangement in the mitogenomes of thrips, we sequenced the mitogenome of the banded thrip species Aeolothrips xinjiangensis. First, we found a novel mitochondrial gene order in this species. This mitogenome is 16,947 bp in length and encodes the typical 37 coding genes (13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, and two rRNA genes) of insects. The gene arrangement was dramatically different from the putative ancestral mitogenome, with 26 genes being translocated, eight of which were inverted. Moreover, we found a novel, conserved gene block, trnC-trnY, which has not been previously reported in the mitogenomes of thrips. With this newly assembled mitogenome, we compared mitogenome sequences across Thysanoptera to assess the evolutionary processes giving rise to the current gene rearrangement pattern in thrips. Seven identical gene blocks were shared by two sequenced banded thrip mitogenomes, while the reversal of ND2 combined with TDRL events resulted in the different gene orders of these two species. In phylogenetic analysis, the monophyly of the suborders and families of Thysanoptera was well supported. Across the gene orders of 14 thrips, only two conserved gene blocks, ATP8-ATP6 and ND4-ND4L, could be found. Correlation analysis showed that the degree of gene rearrangement was positively correlated with the non-synonymous substitution rate in thrips. Our study suggests that the mitogenomes of thrips remain stable over long evolutionary timescales after massive rearrangement during early diversification.
Consistent higher-twists analysis of moments of spin structure function

Available analyses on moments of the spin structure function g{sub 1} use different methods and are barely consistent with each other. We present an analysis of {Gamma}{sub 1}{sup p} using a method consistent with the studies of {Gamma}{sub 1}{sup n} and {Gamma}{sub 1}{sup p-n} already published. One result is that the higher twist coefficients seem to alternate signs: the relatively larger twist-6 contribution is partly suppressed by the twist-4 and twist-8 contributions. The size of twist-6 can be explained by the elastic contribution to the moments.
BI-RADS-Based Classification of Mammographic Soft Tissue Opacities Using a Deep Convolutional Neural Network

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of a machine learning algorithm to classify breast cancer solely by the presence of soft tissue opacities in mammograms, independent of other morphological features, using a deep convolutional neural network (dCNN). Soft tissue opacities were classified based on their radiological appearance using the ACR BI-RADS atlas. We included 1744 mammograms from 438 patients to create 7242 icons by manual labeling. The icons were sorted into three categories: “no opacities” (BI-RADS 1), “probably benign opacities” (BI-RADS 2/3) and “suspicious opacities” (BI-RADS 4/5). A dCNN was trained (70% of data), validated (20%) and finally tested (10%). A sliding window approach was applied to create colored probability maps for visual impression. Diagnostic performance of the dCNN was compared to human readout by experienced radiologists on a “real-world” dataset. The accuracies of the models on the test dataset ranged between 73.8% and 89.8%. Compared to human readout, our dCNN achieved a higher specificity (100%, 95% CI: 85.4–100%; reader 1: 86.2%, 95% CI: 67.4–95.5%; reader 2: 79.3%, 95% CI: 59.7–91.3%), and the sensitivity (84.0%, 95% CI: 63.9–95.5%) was lower than that of human readers (reader 1:88.0%, 95% CI: 67.4–95.4%; reader 2:88.0%, 95% CI: 67.7–96.8%). In conclusion, a dCNN can be used for the automatic detection as well as the standardized and observer-independent classification of soft tissue opacities in mammograms independent of the presence of microcalcifications. Human decision making in accordance with the BI-RADS classification can be mimicked by artificial intelligence.
Mechanical Behavior of Shape Memory Alloy Fibers Embedded in Engineered Cementitious Composite Matrix under Cyclic Pullout Loads

The incorporation of superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) fibers into engineered cementitious composite (ECC) materials can provide high seismic energy dissipation and deformation self-centering capabilities for ECC materials. Whether the SMA fibers can be sufficiently bonded or anchored in the ECC matrix and whether the mechanical properties of the SMA fibers in the ECC matrix can be effectively utilized are the key scientific issues that urgently need to be studied. In order to study the mechanical behavior of SMA fiber embedded in ECC matrix, four groups of semi-dog-bone pullout specimens were fabricated, and the cyclic pullout tests were conducted in this paper. The pullout stress, displacement, and self-centering capability were analyzed, and different influencing factors were discussed. The results show that the knotted ends can provide sufficient anchorage force for SMA fibers, and the maximum pullout stress of SMA fiber can reach 1100 MPa, thus the superelasticity can be effectively stimulated. The SMA fibers show excellent self-centering capability in the test. The minimum residual deformation in the test is only 0.29 mm, and the maximum self-centering ratio can reach 0.93. Increasing bond length can increase the ultimate strain of SMA fibers with knotted ends, but reduce the maximum pullout stress. Increasing fiber diameter can increase both the ultimate strain and the maximum stress of knotted end SMA fibers. While neither bond length nor fiber diameter has significant effect on the self-centering ratio. This paper provides a theoretical basis for further study of the combination of SMA fibers and ECC materials.