Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emergence of a potentialising organisation in University self-governance: temporalisations in strategies

Referring to failures in policy-driven public governance research this paper looks at strategising in higher education. It expands horizons for understanding university strategies in a more nuanced way than hitherto has been done. Deploying systems theory, it shows how different temporalities co-exist in strategies and how their change reflects the university’s capacity to meet future contingencies. Extending the current research on strategising, the paper uses the present’s past, the present’s future, the future’s present and the future’s future as temporal categories to understand strategies. It shows how strategies evolve from traditional linear planning orientation to a novel potentiality-seeking mode with unique meanings attached to unknown futures. It claims that universities develop such responsive contingency awareness to construct a leeway for their self-governance in the face of unexpected future conditions. This change is characterised by the emergence of a potentialising organisation seeking to turn indeterminant futures into its developmental resources.
Prediction of Three-Directional Ground Reaction Forces during Walking Using a Shoe Sole Sensor System and Machine Learning

We developed a shoe sole sensor system with four high-capacity, compact triaxial force sensors using a nitrogen added chromium strain-sensitive thin film mounted on the sole of a shoe. Walking experiments were performed, including straight walking and turning (side-step and cross-step turning), in six healthy young male participants and two healthy young female participants wearing the sole sensor system. A regression model to predict three-directional ground reaction forces (GRFs) from force sensor outputs was created using multiple linear regression and Gaussian process regression (GPR). The predicted GRF values were compared with the GRF values measured with a force plate. In the model trained on data from the straight walking and turning trials, the percent root-mean-square error (%RMSE) for predicting the GRFs in the anteroposterior and vertical directions was less than 15%, except for the GRF in the mediolateral direction. The model trained separately for straight walking, side-step turning, and cross-step turning showed a %RMSE of less than 15% in all directions in the GPR model, which is considered accurate for practical use.
The Impact of E-Portfolio Assessment Implementation on Polytechnic Students’ Speaking Proficiency and Self-Reflection on Learning Business English

As an effective learning and assessment tool, E-portfolio has enjoyed great popularity with its great benefits in improving academic performances. However, few empirical studies have focused on integrating e-portfolio assessment into ESP courses by adopting blended learning mode. This study aims to investigate the effect of e-portfolio on students’ speaking proficiency in an ESP course within the context of blended learning and the learners’ use of self-reflection strategies. Data on students’ performance on the final speaking test, teacher observation and semi-structured interview were collected from second-year Business English students in Ningbo Polytechnics in China. The data were both qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. The findings revealed that the use of e-portfolio had a significant effect on improving students’ speaking proficiency in discourse and interactive communication. Evidence from the study also indicate that guided reflection has enabled students’ active engagement in e-portfolio development and thus their new understanding on the basis of reflection could be integrated into personal practices to help achieve learning outcomes.
Determinants of Consumption of Vegetables among the Spanish Population: A Cross-Sectional Study

The consumption of vegetables is one of the fundamentals of a healthy diet. The purposes of the present study were to describe the frequency of consumption of vegetables in the general Spanish population and to explore the relations between the consumption of vegetables and sex, age, cohabitation circumstances, educational level, and body mass index (BMI). Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was accomplished based on data from the European Health Survey in Spain (2020). Results: A total of 20,745 (52.1% women) subjects with a median age of 54 years old were included. Only 2.8% of them ate vegetables at least three times a day. The adjusted generalized linear model showed that being a woman increased the odds of consuming vegetables at least three times a day by 1.666 times (p < 0.001). Not cohabiting as a couple decreased the odds by 0.783 (p < 0.001). Having studied at a university increased the odds by 1.812 times (p < 0.001) and possessing a certificate of higher education by 1.408 (p = 0.030). Being overweight decreased the odds by 0.924 (p = 0.006). For every additional year of age, the odds of consuming vegetables at least three times a day increased by 1.3% (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The vast majority of the general Spanish population did not consume an optimal amount of vegetables. Women, people with higher levels of education, and older individuals reported having a more frequent intake of vegetables. Not cohabiting as a couple and being overweight were related to a less frequent intake of vegetables.
Small carnivores of the Maliau Basin, Sabah, Borneo, including a new locality for Hose's Civet Diplogale hosei

The first camera-trapping study in the Maliau Basin Conservation Area of Malaysian Borneo, an area containing some of the last intact rainforest in Southeast Asia, detected 13 small mammalian carnivore species over 2,915 camera-trap-nights, including three newly recorded for the area: Banded Linsang Prionodon linsang, Masked Palm Civet Paguma larvata and Hose’s Civet Diplogale hosei. Hose’s Civet, endemic to Borneo, is one of the least known carnivore species in Southeast Asia and possibly the world. Maliau is only the fifth site where the species has been confirmed in Sabah. Camera-traps—deployed in three habitats: primary (unlogged) dipterocarp forest, logged dipterocarp forest and tropical heath (kerangas) forest—detected more small carnivore species in primary dipterocarp forest than in logged forest, despite similar sampling effort; data were too few to allow the estimation of meaningful habitat-specific detection probabilities. The Malay Civet Viverra tangalunga was the small carnivore species detected most often overall, followed by Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis and Banded Palm Civet Hemigalus derbyanus. We did not detect Malay Civet or Leopard Cat in logged forest, yet other studies suggest that they are common in disturbed areas. The paucity of records (only one) of the generally abundant Common Palm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus is unusual. Ongoing monitoring at this and other sites across Borneo should help elucidate patterns of small carnivore distribution and richness with respect to natural and anthropogenic variation in forest characteristics.
Humans in Kitchens: A Dataset for Multi-Person Human Motion Forecasting with Scene Context

Forecasting human motion of multiple persons is very challenging. It requires to model the interactions between humans and the interactions with objects and the environment. For example, a person might want to make a coffee, but if the coffee machine is already occupied the person will have to wait. These complex relations between scene geometry and persons arise constantly in our daily lives, and models that wish to accurately forecast human behavior will have to take them into consideration. To facilitate research in this direction, we propose Humans in Kitchens, a large-scale multi-person human motion dataset with annotated 3D human poses, scene geometry and activities per person and frame. Our dataset consists of over 7.3h recorded data of up to 16 persons at the same time in four kitchen scenes, with more than 4M annotated human poses, represented by a parametric 3D body model. In addition, dynamic scene geometry and objects like chair or cupboard are annotated per frame. As first benchmarks, we propose two protocols for short-term and long-term human motion forecasting.
Analytical validation and clinical utilization of K-4CARE™: a comprehensive genomic profiling assay with personalized MRD detection

Background: Biomarker testing has gradually become standard of care in precision oncology to help physicians select optimal treatment for patients. Compared to single-gene or small gene panel testing, comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) has emerged as a more time- and tissue- efficient method. This study demonstrated in-depth analytical validation of K-4CARE, a CGP assay that integrates circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) tracking for residual cancer surveillance. Methods: The assay utilized a panel of 473 cancer-relevant genes with a total length of 1.7 Mb. Reference standards were used to evaluate limit of detection (LOD), concordance, sensitivity, specificity and precision of the assay to detect single nucleotide variants (SNVs), small insertion/deletions (Indels), gene amplification and fusion, microsatellite instability (MSI) and tumor mutational burden (TMB). The assay was then benchmarked against orthogonal methods using 155 clinical samples from 10 cancer types. In selected cancers, top tumor-derived somatic mutations, as ranked by our proprietary algorithm, were used to detect ctDNA in the plasma. Results: For detection of somatic SNVs and Indels, gene fusion and amplification, the assay had sensitivity of >99%, 94% and >99% respectively, and specificity of >99%. Detection of germline variants also achieved sensitivity and specificity of >99%. For TMB measurement, the correlation coefficient between whole-exome sequencing and our targeted panel was 97%. MSI analysis when benchmarked against polymerase chain reaction method showed sensitivity of 94% and specificity of >99%. The concordance between our assay and the TruSight Oncology 500 assay for detection of somatic variants, TMB and MSI measurement was 100%, 89% and 98% respectively. When CGP-informed mutations were used to personalize ctDNA tracking, the detection rate of ctDNA in liquid biopsy was 79%, and clinical utility in cancer surveillance was demonstrated in 2 case studies. Conclusions: K-4CARETM assay provides comprehensive and reliable genomic information that fulfills all guideline-based biomarker testing for both targeted therapy and immunotherapy. Integration of ctDNA tracking helps clinicians to further monitor treatment response and ultimately provide well-rounded care to cancer patients.
Genome-wide risk prediction of primary open-angle glaucoma across multiple ancestries

Background Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. The disease is often only diagnosed after retinal ganglion cell damage has occurred, with current treatments unable to restore lost vision. Developing risk identification tools for POAG will help enable timely diagnosis and prevent irreparable damage from occurring, especially for ancestry groups (such as African (AFR)) where the disease prevalence is high. Given the heritable nature of POAG, we aim to develop a polygenic score (PGS), which could facilitate earlier POAG risk detection for timely prevention and diagnosis. Methods We applied a multi-ancestry multi-trait approach to build powerful PGS for POAG. We first integrated the new and existing genetics data on POAG and two key endophenotypes, intraocular pressure (IOP) and vertical cup-to-disc ratio (VCDR). We then leveraged the shared POAG genetic information across European (EUR), AFR and Asian ancestries and between POAG and each of IOP and VCDR to develop PGS for POAG risk prediction. We systematically assessed the PGS prediction power and risk stratification ability in POAG cohorts of different ancestries. Results Our newly developed PGS showed improved accuracy compared to previous PGS for POAG risk prediction in EUR ancestry. We showed the transferability of PGS based on EUR ancestry in the prediction of POAG status in AFR and Asian ancestries. Utilizing the shared genetic information across ancestries further improved PGS prediction power for POAG in AFR and East Asian (EAS). For individuals with South Asian ancestry, those in the top PGS decile were diagnosed ~18 years earlier than those in the bottom decile. For AFR ancestry, individuals in the top percentile had an odds ratio of 4.08 (95% CI: 2.33-7.45) compared with the remainder of the population using the newly developed AFR-specific PGS. Conclusions In the current study, we developed PGS for POAG risk prediction in EUR, Asian and AFR populations. These PGS, to our best knowledge, are the most powerful PGS currently for POAG risk screening and stratification. We believe that our study will lead to improved POAG detection across diverse populations in the future by enabling targeting clinical screening of people at high levels of genetic risk.
Anatomically compliant modes of variations: New tools for brain connectivity

Anatomical complexity and data dimensionality present major issues when analysing brain connectivity data. The functional and anatomical aspects of the connections taking place in the brain are in fact equally relevant and strongly intertwined. However, due to theoretical challenges and computational issues, their relationship is often overlooked in neuroscience and clinical research. In this work, we propose to tackle this problem through Smooth Functional Principal Component Analysis, which enables to perform dimensional reduction and exploration of the variability in functional connectivity maps, complying with the formidably complicated anatomy of the grey matter volume. In particular, we analyse a population that includes controls and subjects affected by schizophrenia, starting from fMRI data acquired at rest and during a task-switching paradigm. For both sessions, we first identify the common modes of variation in the entire population. We hence explore whether the subjects’ expressions along these common modes of variation differ between controls and pathological subjects. In each session, we find principal components that are significantly differently expressed in the healthy vs pathological subjects (with p-values < 0.001), highlighting clearly interpretable differences in the connectivity in the two subpopulations. For instance, the second and third principal components for the rest session capture the imbalance between the Default Mode and Executive Networks characterizing schizophrenia patients.
Determination of geomorphological and volumetric variations in the 1970 land volcanic craters area (Deception Island, Antarctica) from 1968 using historical and current maps, remote sensing and GNSS

Abstract During the nearly 40 years covered by the study, major height differences of over ± 25 m have been revealed in the volcanic landscape of the 1970 craters in Deception Island, an active volcano in the South Shetland Islands (West Antarctica). In the last 14 years, the mean volcanic filling rate has been 1 m yr-1 and the mean erosion rate has been -0.2 m yr-1. There has been considerable landform modification mainly associated with landslide-induced accumulation, and erosion may indicate the craters’ fill over the next 30–40 years. Deception Island's eruptions have been recorded since 1842. Special attention was paid to the zones affected by the most recent volcanic events and the geomorphological changes that have taken place in those zones since then (e.g. the 1970 volcanic craters area in the last episode occurring between 1967 and 1970). Historical maps (produced before and just after the 1970 eruption) were compared with maps plotted in 1992 and updated using a 2003 image from the Quickbird satellite and data obtained with Global Navigation Satellite System technology in 2006. Techniques used included both geodetic transformation and the geometric correcting of maps.
Relative clause comprehension in Cantonese-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), present in 2 out of every 30 children, affects primarily oral language abilities and development in the absence of associated biomedical conditions. We report the first experimental study that examines relative clause (RC) comprehension accuracy and processing (via looking preference) in Cantonese-speaking children with and without DLD, testing the predictions from competing domain-specific versus domain-general theoretical accounts. We compared children with DLD (N = 22) with their age-matched typically-developing (TD) children (AM-TD, N = 23) aged 6;6–9;7 and language-matched (and younger) TD children (YTD, N = 21) aged 4;7–7;6, using a referent selection task. Within-subject factors were: RC type (subject-RCs (SRCs) versus object-RCs (ORCs); relativizer (classifier (CL) versus relative marker ge3 RCs). Accuracy measures and looking preference to the target were analyzed using generalized linear mixed effects models. Results indicated Cantonese children with DLD scored significantly lower than their AM-TD peers in accuracy and processed RCs significantly slower than AM-TDs, but did not differ from the YTDs on either measure. Overall, while the results revealed evidence of a SRC advantage in the accuracy data, there was no indication of additional difficulty associated with ORCs in the eye-tracking data. All children showed a processing advantage for the frequent CL relativizer over the less frequent ge3 relativizer. These findings pose challenges to domain-specific representational deficit accounts of DLD, which primarily explain the disorder as a syntactic deficit, and are better explained by domain-general accounts that explain acquisition and processing as emergent properties of multiple converging linguistic and non-linguistic processes.
An online mind-body program improves mental health and quality of life in primary biliary cholangitis: A randomized controlled trial

Background and Aims: People with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) experience high rates of mental distress and fatigue despite standard of care therapy. We aimed to assess the impact of an online mind-body intervention on these symptoms. Methods: This 12-week RCT used sequential mixed-methods evaluation. Alongside standard of care, participants with primary biliary cholangitis were randomized to receive weekly countdown emails, or the intervention consisting of (i) a weekly 20–30 minute-mind-body follow-along video, (ii) weekly 5–10-minute psychology-based “managing chronic disease skills videos,” and (iii) 10-minute telephone check-ins. The primary outcome was a change in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Secondary outcomes evaluated changes in fatigue, perceived stress, resilience, and health-related quality of life. ANCOVA determined between-group differences. Results: Of the 87 randomized patients (control group: n = 44, intervention group: n = 43), the between-group HADS total score improved by 20.0% (95% CI 4.7, 35.2, p = 0.011). Significant improvements were seen in depression (25.8%), perceived stress (15.2%), and 2 primary biliary cholangitis-40 domains [emotional symptoms (16.3%) and social symptoms (11.8%)] with a mean satisfaction of 82/100. This corresponded with end-of-study qualitative findings. Although no improvements were observed in fatigue in the main analysis, a significant benefit was observed in the subgroup of intervention participants (20/36;56%) who completed the mind-body video routine at least 3 times per week. Conclusion: This intervention improved measures of mental wellness and quality of life with high satisfaction and reasonable adherence. Future studies could explore strategies to optimize adherence and target fatigue.
Shoaling behaviour in response to turbidity in three‐spined sticklebacks

Abstract Many fresh and coastal waters are becoming increasingly turbid because of human activities, which may disrupt the visually mediated behaviours of aquatic organisms. Shoaling fish typically depend on vision to maintain collective behaviour, which has a range of benefits including protection from predators, enhanced foraging efficiency and access to mates. Previous studies of the effects of turbidity on shoaling behaviour have focussed on changes to nearest neighbour distance and average group‐level behaviours. Here, we investigated whether and how experimental shoals of three‐spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in clear (<10 Nephelometric Turbidity Units [NTU]) and turbid (~35 NTU) conditions differed in five local‐level behaviours of individuals (nearest and furthest neighbour distance, heading difference with nearest neighbour, bearing angle to nearest neighbour and swimming speed). These variables are important for the emergent group‐level properties of shoaling behaviour. We found an indirect effect of turbidity on nearest neighbour distances driven by a reduction in swimming speed, and a direct effect of turbidity which increased variability in furthest neighbour distances. In contrast, the alignment and relative position of individuals was not significantly altered in turbid compared to clear conditions. Overall, our results suggest that the shoals were usually robust to adverse effects of turbidity on collective behaviour, but group cohesion was occasionally lost during periods of instability.
The effect of mindfulness on decision-making, inhibitory control, and impulsivity of substance use disorder in-treatment patients: A randomized clinical trial

This study aimed to investigate the effects of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) in decision-making, inhibitory control and impulsivity compared to Treatment as Usual (TAU) for individuals with Substance Use Disorders (SUD’s) in Brazil. A randomized clinical trial was conducted with participants from a therapeutic community (n = 122). Decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task), impulsivity dimensions (UPPS-P Scale), and inhibitory control (Stroop Color-Word Test) were assessed before and after the MBRP 8-week intervention. GLM Multivariate analysis was used to evaluate the effects of MBRP on different impulsivity measures. The results showed that MBRP+TAU improved the general decision-making score (p = 0,008) compared to TAU. However, no significant effects were found in impulsivity dimensions and inhibitory control in individuals with SUDs in the therapeutic community. This study found improvement in decision-making in the total IGT score; however, no effect for self-reported impulsivity and inhibitory control among middle-aged patients after an 8-weeks intervention of MBRP protocol in an inpatient setting. It adds information to the subject, with implications and possible directions to be followed by the next clinical trials with patients with SUDs in treatment. Trial registration: EnsaiosClinicos.gov. br: RBR-6c9njc.