Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identifying areas and approaches for improving evaluation processes in environmental education in the United States of America

Abstract Evaluation has not been used to its fullest potential in environmental education (EE). Pressures from external stakeholders can cause organizations to focus on reporting requirements at the expense of conducting evaluations that support programmatic improvement. Understanding practitioners’ satisfaction with their evaluation processes and the drivers of this satisfaction may reveal strategies for improving evaluation processes in the field of EE. We administered an online survey to EE practitioners in the United States via email and social media. Our results indicate low satisfaction with evaluation processes overall, but greater satisfaction from organizations engaged in systematic formal evaluation, particularly processes focused on adaptive management and programmatic improvement, when compared to evaluations focused on satisfying external accountabilities or using informal evaluation processes based on nonsystematic observation and reflection. Our results also highlight current gaps in using evaluation for adaptive management and for furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the field.
Effect of Previous Crops and Soil Physicochemical Properties on the Population of Verticillium dahliae in the Iberian Peninsula

The soil infestation of Verticillium dahliae has significant Verticillium wilt of olive (VWO) with epidemiological consequences which could limit the expansion of the crop. In this context, there is a misunderstood history of the crops and soil property interactions associated with inoculum density (ID) increases in the soil. In this study, the effect of the combination of both factors was assessed on the ID of V. dahliae in the olive-growing areas of the Iberian Peninsula. Afterwards, the relationship of the ID to the mentioned factors was explored. The detection percentage and ID were higher in Spain than Portugal, even though the fields with a very favourable VWO history had a higher ID than that of the fields with a barely favourable history, regardless of the origin. The soil physicochemical parameters were able to detect the degree to which the ID was increased by the previous cropping history. By using a decision tree classifier, the percentage of clay was the best indicator for the V. dahliae ID regardless of the history of the crops. However, active limestone and the cation exchange capacity were only suitable ID indicators when <2 or 4 host crops of the pathogen were established in the field for five years, respectively. The V. dahliae ID was accurately predicted in this study for the orchard choices in the establishment of the olive.
The Importance of Autogenic Relaxation in Reducing Anxiety Levels for Pregnant Women

Abstract – Anxiety is one of the causes of prolonged labor and fetal death. Autogenic relaxation is a non-pharmacological method for treating anxiety in pregnant women. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of autogenic relaxation techniques on cortisol levels in third trimester pregnant women. The research was conducted at Pembina Public Health Center in Palembang City with a total sample of 21 people with one group pretest and posttest designThe anxiety level measuring instrument used isHARS scale (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale). And measuring cortisol levels using a biomarker examination. And the statistical analysis used in this study is the Wilcoxon test. The results of statistical analysis showed that the mean cortisol level before the intervention was 1.434. And after the intervention was 1.367. And there are differences in the anxiety of pregnant women before and after autogenic therapy with p = 0.001. And there is no correlation between cortisol levels before and cortisol levels after autogenic relaxation p = 0.138.
Algebraic structures in stochastic differential equations

We define a new numerical integration scheme for stochastic differential equations driven by Levy processes with uniformly lower mean square remainder than that of the scheme of the same strong order of convergence obtained by truncating the stochastic Taylor series. In doing so we generalize recent results concerning stochastic differential equations driven by Wiener processes. The aforementioned works studied integration schemes obtained by applying an invertible mapping to the stochastic Taylor series, truncating the resulting series and applying the inverse of the original mapping. The shuffle Hopf algebra and its associated convolution algebra play important roles in the their analysis, arising from the combinatorial structure of iterated Stratonovich integrals. It was recently shown that the algebra generated by iterated Ito integrals of independent Levy processes is isomorphic to a quasi-shuffle algebra. We utilise this to consider map-truncate-invert schemes for Levy processes. To facilitate this, we derive a new form of stochastic Taylor expansion from those of Wagner & Platen, enabling us to extend existing algebraic encodings of integration schemes. We then derive an alternative method of computing map-truncate-invert schemes using a single step, resolving difficulties encountered at the inversion step in previous methods.
Comparative Effectiveness of Physical Activity Intervention Programs on Motor Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

Objective: To evaluate how different physical activity (PA) interventions (traditional, exergaming, and teacher/parent education) impacted children’s motor skills (object control, locomotor, and gross motor). Design: Systematic review and network meta-analysis. Data sources: PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, and PsycINFO. Eligibility criteria: (1) Participants comprised 1708 children 3–12 years; (2) PA or exercise-based interventions were investigated; (3) only studies using a Test of Gross Motor Skills assessment were included; (4) RCT were chosen as the study design to assess the impact of PA interventions on children’s motor skills; and (5) culture-based PA studies with English language only were included. Data were analyzed using a Bayesian network meta-analysis. Results: The results were reported as standardized mean differences (SMDs) with associated 95% credible intervals (CrIs). For object control, aerobic intervention (SMD 6.90, 95% Crl 1.39 to 13.50); for locomotor, exergaming intervention (SMD 12.50, 95% Crl 0.28 to 24.50); and for gross motor, aerobic intervention (SMD 7.49, 95% Crl 0.11 to 15.70) were the most effective treatments. Conclusion: Children’s FMSs have been improved through different PA interventions. Among them, aerobic interventions seem to be the most effective intervention in enhancing object control skills and overall gross motor skills.
JOB STANDARDIZATION AND DEVIANT WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR

Facing fiercely competitive global environments, organizations use widespread mass production of goods and services for lower cost and larger market shares for survival and growth. Thus, a job design and characteristic of standardization has long been adopted and recognized to be essential for the competitiveness of organizations by sustaining output consistency, effectiveness and efficiency. However, Keeley (1988) maintained that organizations have a fundamental tension between the goal of efficiency and the goal of morality and struggle for a delicate balance between these competing objectives. This tension elicits the question whether job standardization relates to deviant workplace behavior (DWB), which is immoral, pervasive in the workplace and harmful to organizational competitiveness. Using conservation of resources theory as an underlying explanation, this study developed an interesting theoretical model that specified how and why job standardization enhances DWB directed at the organization (DWB-O) and attenuates DWB directed at organizational members/individuals (DWB-I). Three-wave panel survey data were collected from 283 employees with various occupations. Empirical results found job standardization evokes employee boredom, which, in turn, translates into increased DWB-O and decreased DWB-I, suggesting employees’ concern for workplace relationships. With job design of standardization, organizations can use the influence of coworkers to stifle DWB-O. This study extends and shifts the understanding of job standardization consequences from the side of employee positive behavior to the side of negative behavior. DWB literature on situational antecedents, focusing on the organizational systems/social context and theory, is enriched by invoking a job perspective of standardization and resource theory.
Classification Algorithms Used in Predicting Glaucoma Progression

In this paper, various machine learning algorithms were used in order to predict the evolution of open-angle glaucoma (POAG). The datasets were built containing clinical observations and objective measurements made at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the UK and at the “St. Spiridon” Hospital of Iași, Romania. Using these datasets, different classification problems were proposed. The evaluation of glaucoma progression was conducted based on parameters such as VFI (Visual field index), MD (Mean Deviation), PSD (Pattern standard deviation), and RNFL (Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer). As classification tools, the following algorithms were used: Multilayer Perceptron, Random Forest, Random Tree, C4.5, k-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machine, and Non-Nested Generalized Exemplars. The best results, with an accuracy of over 90%, were obtained with Multilayer Perceptron and Random Forest algorithms. The NNGE algorithm also proved very useful in creating a hierarchy of the input values according to their influence (weight) on the considered outputs. On the other hand, the decision tree algorithms gave us insight into the logic used in their classification, which is of practical importance in obtaining additional information regarding the rationale behind a certain rule or decision.
Elevated Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteins and Albumin Determine a Poor Prognosis for Spinal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a heterogeneous disease, both in its onset phenotype and in its rate of progression. The aim of this study was to establish whether the dysfunction of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and blood–spinal cord barrier (BSCB) measured through cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins and the albumin-quotient (QAlb) are related to the speed of disease progression. An amount of 246 patients diagnosed with ALS were included. CSF and serum samples were determined biochemically for different parameters. Survival analysis based on phenotype shows higher probability of death for bulbar phenotype compared to spinal phenotype (p-value: 0.0006). For the effect of CSF proteins, data shows an increased risk of death for spinal ALS patients as the value of CSF proteins increases. The same model replicated for CSF albumin yielded similar results. Statistical models determined that the lowest cut-off value for CSF proteins able to differentiate patients with a good prognosis and worse prognosis corresponds to CSF proteins ≥ 0.5 g/L (p-value: 0.0189). For the CSF albumin, the QAlb ≥0.65 is associated with elevated probability of death (p-value: 0.0073). High levels of QAlb are a bad prognostic indicator for the spinal phenotype, in addition to high CSF proteins levels that also act as a marker of poor prognosis.
Antecedents of Work Outcomes of Local Government Employees: The Mediating Role of Public Service Motivation

Many studies have analyzed the performance of government employees, but there is still little research on the relationship between equal employment opportunity and public service motivation. The purpose of this study was to examine whether equal employment opportunities affect individual job satisfaction and job performance. This study also evaluated whether the relationship is mediated by public service motivation. The survey research was implemented in the Bengkulu City Government to achieve the study objectives. There were 252 participants in this study who responded by completing an online questionnaire. The results of the structural equation modeling show that job satisfaction and individual job performance are equally influenced by job opportunities and public service motivation. In addition, the influence of equal employment opportunity on job satisfaction and individual job performance is mediated by public service motivation. The implications of this work on the theory and practice of human resource management in the public sector are outlined in the findings.
Imaging findings of inflammatory pseudotumor-like follicular dendritic cell sarcoma of the spleen: A case report and literature review

Inflammatory pseudotumor-like follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (IPT-like FDCS) is a low-grade malignant tumor type caused by the proliferation of follicular dendritic cells. It is a distinct subtype of FDCS that is rarely encountered in the clinic and is overwhelmingly associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection. As it is a sporadic disease with a low specificity of clinical and imaging manifestations, it is less frequently considered a diagnosis, resulting in a low preoperative diagnostic rate and easy misdiagnosis. The present study reported the ultrasound, CT and MRI features of a patient with splenic IPT-like FDCS and discussed this rare subtype of FDCS based on a review of previously published literature to provide radiologists with a broader understanding of the differential diagnosis of splenic lesions.
Testing for Homogeneity of Slopes in Analysis of Covariance: A Tutorial.

Although an analysis of covariance allows for the removal of an uncontrolled source of variation that is represented by the covariate(s), this "correction", which occurs with the dependent variable scores is unfortunately seen by some as a blanket adjustment device that can be used with an inadequate amount of consideration for the homogeneity of slopes assumption. When regression slopes are found to be unparallel, treatment effects will most likely be biased and there will be a reduction in the efficiency of the analysis. Heuristic data sets coupled with ANOVA and ANCOVA analyses are provided to illustrate what may occur when the homogeneity of slopes requirement is not met.
RGB-T Semantic Segmentation With Location, Activation, and Sharpening

Semantic segmentation is important for scene understanding. To address the scenes of adverse illumination conditions of natural images, thermal infrared (TIR) images are introduced. Most existing RGB-T semantic segmentation methods follow three cross-modal fusion paradigms, i. e. , encoder fusion, decoder fusion, and feature fusion. Some methods, unfortunately, ignore the properties of RGB and TIR features or the properties of features at different levels. In this paper, we propose a novel feature fusion-based network for RGB-T semantic segmentation, named LASNet, which follows three steps of location, activation, and sharpening. The highlight of LASNet is that we fully consider the characteristics of cross-modal features at different levels, and accordingly propose three specific modules for better segmentation. Concretely, we propose a Collaborative Location Module (CLM) for high-level semantic features, aiming to locate all potential objects. We propose a Complementary Activation Module for middle-level features, aiming to activate exact regions of different objects. We propose an Edge Sharpening Module (ESM) for low-level texture features, aiming to sharpen the edges of objects. Furthermore, in the training phase, we attach a location supervision and an edge supervision after CLM and ESM, respectively, and impose two semantic supervisions in the decoder part to facilitate network convergence. Experimental results on two public datasets demonstrate that the superiority of our LASNet over relevant state-of-the-art methods. The code and results of our method are available at https://github.com/MathLee/LASNet.
NGC 5953/54: BVRIHαJK photometry and [N II] Fabry-Perot interferometry. I. The data

We present new BVRIHαJK imaging and [N II] scanning Fabry-Perot observations for the interacting galaxy pair NGC 5953/54. Morphology is reviewed using a combination of contrast-enhanced images, color-index maps, and geometric (radial μ , $\epsilon = 1 - b/a$, PA and $a_{4}/a$) profile parameters. Our data are complemented by archived V / R / H images from HST. The Seyfert 2 NGC 5953 shows an underlying featureless disk ( ≥ 1.5 kpc) in all the observed bands and traces of faint external fan-like features in H α and [N II]. A compact flocculent spiral pattern ( ≤ 1.5 kpc), and a ~60 pc bar-like central structure are also observed. The Liner galaxy NGC 5954 is an inclined and distorted spiral with a strong circumnuclear starburst region and star-forming regions throughout the disk. A tidal bridge or distorted arm appears to link the two galaxies, extending to the northwest as a linear feature (plume). NGC 5954 also shows blue filaments delineating bubble-like features on the north side of the nucleus where our Fabry-Perot observations reveal double emission line profiles. We derive BVRIJK magnitudes and surface brightness profiles for the galaxies. HST V / R and H -band surface brightness profiles are also presented for NGC 5953. Fabry-Perot observations yield an [N II] velocity field and rotation curves for the components. The observations coupled with results from a simulation atlas of tidal features allow us 1) to suggest a tentative geometry of the encounter in NGC 5953/54, and 2) to comment about a suspected secular transformation in NGC 5953/54 via the interaction process. A forthcoming paper is devoted to a more detailed analysis of our observations including HI synthesis observations and n -body numerical simulations.
Exact solutions and momentum couplings in the Dirac-Born-Infeld effective theory

We study the dynamics of a general scalar field, a tachyon or an ordinary scalar, in the presence of world-volume massless fields in the DBI effective theory by exploring their exact solutions. The obtained solutions indicate that the effective mass of the general scalar on a uniformly moving D-brane decreases, even to zero. For the tachyon case, the result implies that unstable D-branes decay slower when moving faster. The effective mass is also reduced on D-strings or in the space-independent case on arbitrarily dimensional D-branes with constant electromagnetic fields. The result for a tachyon indicates that the electric fields tend to slow down while the magnetic fields tend to expedite the decay process of unstable D-branes. In the spacetime-dependent case, D$p$-branes with $p\geq2$ in the presence of constant electromagnetic fields can fluctuate only in some restricted modes so that they propagate no faster than light. We also find solutions showing that D$p$-branes ($p\geq2$) carrying a beam of electromagnetic waves are propagating together with the electromagnetic waves. On such D$p$-branes, the tachyon gets stable while the massive scalar gets unstable if we demand their spacetime-dependent solutions to be real.
A refinement of Izumi's Theorem

We improve Izumi's inequality, which states that any divisorial valuation v centered at a closed point 0 on an algebraic variety Y is controlled by the order of vanishing at 0. More precisely, as v ranges through valuations that are monomial with respect to coordinates in a fixed birational model X dominating Y, we show that for any regular function f on Y at 0, the function v--> v(f)/\ord_0(f) is uniformly Lipschitz continuous as a function of the weight defining v. As a consequence, the volume of v is also a Lipschitz continuous function. Our proof uses toroidal techniques as well as positivity properties of the images of suitable nef divisors under birational morphisms.
Triplex Sonographic Evaluation of Portal Vein Indices Among Adults in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Background: Chronic liver disease is characterized by progressive hepatic fibrosis and changes in hepatic vascular hemodynamics. Sonography is a readily available tool in the assessment of the hepatic hemodynamic alterations that occur in chronic liver diseases. Aim: This study was aimed at sonographically determining the portal vein indices in apparently healthy adults by estimating the portal vein diameter, cross-sectional area, and portal vein velocity. Methods: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study carried out among 62 apparently healthy individuals. The participants underwent gray scale and Doppler ultrasonographic examinations of the portal vein. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) IBM Corp. version 23.0 (Armonk, NY: USA). The comparison of means of two groups was with the unpaired t-test, and level of significance was set at 5% (P < 0.05). Results: Forty-six (74.2%) of the 62 participants recruited were male and 16 (25.8%) were female. Participants were aged 18–65 years with a mean age of 39.90 ± 10.34 years. The means of portal vein diameter, cross-sectional area, and portal vein velocity are 1.15 ± 0.12 cm, 0.88 ± 0.18 cm2, and 18.37 ± 2.04 cm/s, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference of all portal vein ultrasound parameters between males and females, except portal vein flow velocity which was higher in males, t-test = 2.273 and P = 0.027 (>0.05). There was no significant correlation between age and ultrasound parameters P > 0.05. Conclusion: The normal values of portal vein diameter, cross-sectional area, and portal vein velocity were established.
Risk Factor Identification for Delayed Gastric Emptying after Distal Pancreatectomy—An Evaluation of 1688 Patients Based on the German StuDoQ|Pancreas Registry

Delayed gastric emptying (DGE) ranks as one of the most frequent complications in pancreatic surgery. It leads to increased costs for healthcare systems, lengthened hospital stays and reduced quality of life. Data about DGE after distal pancreatectomy (DP) are scarce. The StuDoQ|Pancreas registry of the German Society of General and Visceral Surgery provided data of patients who underwent distal pancreatectomy from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2018. The retrospective evaluation included comprehensive data: 1688 patients were enrolled; DGE occurred 160 times (9.5%); grade “A” was reported for 98 (61.3%), grade “B” for 41 (25.6%) and grade “C” for 21 (13.1%) patients. In univariate analysis pancreatic fistulas were associated with higher frequencies of intraabdominal abscesses (9.1% vs. 2%, p > 0.001), postpancreatectomy haemorrhage (8.1% vs. 3.7%, >0.001) and DGE (14.5% vs. 6%, p < 0.001). According to multivariate analysis, “abscesses with invasive therapy” (p < 0.001), “other surgical complications” (p < 0.001), prolonged “stays in ICU” (p < 0.001), lengthened duration of surgery (p < 0.001) and conventional surgery (p = 0.007) were identified as independent risk factors for DGE. Perioperative and postoperative factors were identified as risk factors for DGE. Following research should examine this highly relevant topic in a prospective, register-based manner. As there is no causal therapy for DGE, its avoidance is of major importance.