Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information and Participatory Research and Action: An Alternative to Avoid Domination and Develop Citizenship

Objective: The research presents the effectiveness of Participatory Research and Action (PRA) specifically in information science. The main statement that motivated this qualitative study was that there is no citizenship without critical awareness. This research has the objective to demonstrate that collaborative work combined with multidirectional and interactive communication in PRA can develop critical awareness and citizenship.Methodology: The study is focused on citizens’ critical awareness development. It is based on bibliographical research, within critical thinking theoretical perspective, one of the currents contemplated by subjectivism epistemology. The study search mainly two data sources. First, Borges’ article, which presents comparative issues related to socialism and capitalism ideologies. Second, Tavares’ PhD thesis, in which PRA techniques were tested. Additionally, findings from several researches related with social development, social rights, popular participation, as well as citizen’s manipulation and domination were also collected. Data analysis were based on grounded theory principles, particularly the coding process and textual examination.Findings: Data analysis revealed three great postulations. First, lack of critical awareness and dissemination of fake news has both guided people to be manipulated, oppressed and dominated. Second, it is essential for citizen to be educated critically to deal with information that affects his life. Finally, it is possible to use PRA to develop critical awareness and citizenship. PRA promotes learning, broadens the notion of citizenship, and develops attitudes such as reading, analyzing and criticizing information, which constitutes an essential skill to developing critical awareness.
Soccer shoe bending stiffness significantly alters game-specific physiology in a 25-minute continuous field-based protocol

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of soccer shoes with differing bending stiffness on physiological and performance variables in a game-like situation. A sample of 13 male soccer players was recruited to complete this study. Three soccer shoes with different forefoot bending stiffness (low, medium, high) were compared using a continuous field-based work protocol (the Soccer-25). Participants performed the Soccer-25 while the physiological (rate of oxygen consumption, heart rate, ventilation, and rate of energy expenditure) and performance variables (drill completion times) were recorded. The Soccer-25 consists of seven phases, Drills 1–3 and Shuttle Runs 1–4. A one-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine whether there were any significant effects for soccer shoe condition for each of the physiological and performance variables. The medium-stiffness shoe was significantly lower than the high-stiffness shoe for a number of physiological variables, including global oxygen consumption (p = 0.044), heart rate during Drills 2 (p = 0.043), ventilation during Shuttle Run 4 (p = 0.016), global energy expenditure (p = 0.043), and rate of energy expenditure during Drills 1 (p = 0.044). The low stiffness shoe was not significantly different from the medium- or high-stiffness shoes. No significant differences were found for any of the performance variables. Soccer shoe forefoot bending stiffness significantly affects the physiological variables in a game-like situation.
Transcriptomic Signatures of End-Stage Human Dilated Cardiomyopathy Hearts with and without Left Ventricular Assist Device Support

Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) use in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) can lead to a differential response in the LV and right ventricle (RV), and RV failure remains the most common complication post-LVAD insertion. We assessed transcriptomic signatures in end-stage DCM, and evaluated changes in gene expression (mRNA) and regulation (microRNA/miRNA) following LVAD. LV and RV free-wall tissues were collected from end-stage DCM hearts with (n = 8) and without LVAD (n = 8). Non-failing control tissues were collected from donated hearts (n = 6). Gene expression (for mRNAs/miRNAs) was determined using microarrays. Our results demonstrate that immune response, oxygen homeostasis, and cellular physiological processes were the most enriched pathways among differentially expressed genes in both ventricles of end-stage DCM hearts. LV genes involved in circadian rhythm, muscle contraction, cellular hypertrophy, and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling were differentially expressed. In the RV, genes related to the apelin signalling pathway were affected. Following LVAD use, immune response genes improved in both ventricles; oxygen homeostasis and ECM remodelling genes improved in the LV and, four miRNAs normalized. We conclude that LVAD reduced the expression and induced additional transcriptomic changes of various mRNAs and miRNAs as an integral component of the reverse ventricular remodelling in a chamber-specific manner.
Impact of brand equity and mobile web quality on intentions to use m-commerce amongst Traveloka customers

This study purposed to analyze the application of an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) by combining the influence of brand equity and mobile web quality that are used to predict intention to use m-commerce, through perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude toward using. The research was conducted on Indonesian citizens who have used service products on m-commerce Traveloka. The analytical method used is the structural equation modeling (SEM) with Lisrel 8.80 Software. Using a convenient sampling technique, 270 respondents were involved in the study. Only five of the nine hypotheses developed are significant, while the others are not. However, the current study discovers a new finding that brand equity significantly affects the attitude toward using m-commerce. The results of this study are quite different from Chi’s (2018) study, indicating that the model still needs to be reinvestigated using a different sample to test the model consistency.
Scattering and ACTH regulation.

The work reported in this thesis is concerned with two completely separate topics scattering and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) regulation. The accuracies of two approximate scattering formulations, the Born approximation and geometrical optics, are investigated and compared. The distortion associated with multiple scattering in Born inversion is shown to be severe in situations where the refractive indices of object components are only slightly «5 %) different from the background. Second and higher order multiple scattering is found to contribute negligible distortion to the reconstruction. Backpropagation is explicitly formulated and implemented for receivers in the far-field, but Fourier interpolation is found to be a preferable method for performing Born inversion in the simulation situation. Shift-and-add, a form of frequency diversity processing which has been previously proposed to reduce distortion in Born inversion, is comprehensively tested. Although the anticipated reduction in distortion is not achieved, some improvement is demonstrated. Furthermore, this work shows the need for iterative solutions to realistic inverse scattering problems. A new solution to the two-dimensional benHoay computed tomography problem is developed. It is based on a novel ray description which does not require the ray paths to be known. The refractive index distribution is therefore found by solving linear equations, rather than through the conventional process of ray tracing. Reconstructions of circularly symmetric refractive index distributions demonstrate the feasibility of this approach and encourage further development. The information available from a recently developed method for sampling pituitary effluent (PES) in the horse is examined. The current sampling interval of 308 is found to be appropriate for measuring ACTH and arginine vasopressin (AVP), but not necessarily corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). Blood flow variations are found to have essentially negligible effect on measurement of hormone concentrations at the corticotropes. A recently proposed model of ACTH regulation, derived from static cell culture results, is tested on PES data and found to be inappropriate for the in vivo situation. The relationships between AVP, CRH, cortisol and ACTH are examined using crosscorrelation, pulse analysis and models of ACTH regulation. The pulse analysis indicates that the delay between AVP or CRH and ACTH is 0-308. Results from all three techniques indicate that AVP is the importantphysiologicalACTH secretagogue in the horse. Results from the modeling analysis suggest that the relative potency of AVP and CRH depends on the cortisol concentration, and that when this is low, CRH is the dominant secretagogue. Modeling results also reveal that the principal effects of cortisol on ACTH
Combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing and Removing Yellow Card From European Commission (EC): Vietnam's Determined Actions

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities have negatively impacted Vietnam fisheries. As a result, the European Commission (EC) issued a yellow card warning in October 2017. This paper examines how Vietnam has responded to the EC’s recommendations to address the yellow card. The analysis used a mix of documents analysis and online group discussion approaches. Although Vietnam has made considerable efforts to halt IUU fishing and clear the yellow card, the results are still insufficient to remove the yellow card. However, the yellow card has brought about positive signals for Vietnamese fisheries management. It is also an opportunity for the national marine fisheries sector and fishers communities to be more responsible in fishing. Institutional and legal regulations have been refined to be in line with international rules and enormously improved the enforcement capacity of the fisheries management system for fishers to end the situation of fishing vessels engaged in illegal fishing in the waters of Vietnam and other countries. Recommended actions to address the yellow card include finalisation of the fisheries guidance decrees in line with obligations to combating IUU fishing, more robust sanctions, strengthening the monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) system, information dissemination and education of the fisheries law and relevant regulations, and apply an electronic catch documentation and traceability (eCDT) system.
Modelling SARS-CoV-2 Binding Antibody Waning 8 Months after BNT162b2 Vaccination

Several lines of evidence suggest that binding SARS-CoV-2 antibodies such as anti-SARS-CoV-2 RBD IgG (anti-RBD) and neutralising antibodies (NA) are correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2, and the correlation of anti-RBD and NA is very high. The effectiveness (VE) of BNT162b2 in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection wanes over time, and this reduction is mainly associated with waning immunity, suggesting that the kinetics of antibodies reduction might be of interest to predict VE. In a study of 97 health care workers (HCWs) vaccinated with the BNT162b2 vaccine, we assessed the kinetics of anti-RBD 30–250 days after vaccination using 388 individually matched plasma samples. Anti-RBD levels declined by 85%, 92%, and 95% at the 4th, 6th, and 8th month from the peak, respectively. The kinetics were estimated using the trajectories of anti-RBD by various models. The restricted cubic splines model had a better fit to the observed data. The trajectories of anti-RBD declines were statistically significantly lower for risk factors of severe COVID-19 and the absence of vaccination side effects. Moreover, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with divergent trajectories consistent with a slower anti-RBD decline over time. These results suggest that anti-RBD may serve as a harbinger for vaccine effectiveness (VE), and it should be explored as a predictor of breakthrough infections and VE.
Managing Severe Hemophilia A in Children: Pharmacotherapeutic Options

Abstract Hemophilia A is the most common severe inherited bleeding disorder in males. Initial treatment strategies focused on the use of factor concentrates to prevent joint bleeding and the development of long-term crippling arthropathy. The current standard of care has evolved from regular replacement of factor VIII concentrates which has significantly improved the quality of life for those with severe disease to include and consider novel therapies that augment or bypass the hemostatic pathway (ie, emicizumab, Mim8). Other pipeline therapies that suppress specific natural anticoagulant pathways (ie, antithrombin, TFPI) to reestablish hemostatic balance are under Phase 3 trial investigation. These novel therapeutics have allowed providers more variety in dosing regimens and ease of administration while also maintaining effective bleeding prevention. The possibility of “curative” gene therapy is under exploration, with ongoing clinical trials in adult males.
Building farmers' capacities for networking (Part I): Strengthening rural groups in Colombia through network analysis

This paper (Part I) present a case study of work conducted by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to adapt network mapping techniques to a rural and developing country context. It reports on work in Colombia to develop a prototype network diagnosis tool for use by service providers who work to strengthen small rural groups. It is complemented by a further paper in this issue by Louise Clark (Part II) which presents work to develop a network diagnosis tool for stakeholders involved in agricultural supply chains in Bolivia. The prototype methods used in both Parts I and II are based on social network analysis (SNA) methodology. SNA is a rapidly developing methodology that is gaining increasing popularity as an analytical and visualization tool with a wide range of applications across a number of disciplines such as health care, psychology and business organization. The focus of SNA is the nature of the relationships that exist between different actors in order to better understand how an actor’s position in a network influences their access to resources such as goods, capital and information.
Week-Wise Student Performance Early Prediction in Virtual Learning Environment Using a Deep Explainable Artificial Intelligence

Early prediction of students’ learning performance and analysis of student behavior in a virtual learning environment (VLE) are crucial to minimize the high failure rate in online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, traditional machine learning models fail to predict student performance in the early weeks due to the lack of students’ activities’ data in a week-wise timely manner (i.e., spatiotemporal feature issues). Furthermore, the imbalanced data distribution in the VLE impacts the prediction model performance. Thus, there are severe challenges in handling spatiotemporal features, imbalanced data sets, and a lack of explainability for enhancing the confidence of the prediction system. Therefore, an intelligent framework for explainable student performance prediction (ESPP) is proposed in this study in order to provide the interpretability of the prediction results. First, this framework utilized a time-series weekly student activity data set and dealt with the VLE imbalanced data distribution using a hybrid data sampling method. Then, a combination of convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) was employed to extract the spatiotemporal features and develop the early prediction deep learning (DL) model. Finally, the DL model was explained by visualizing and analyzing typical predictions, students’ activities’ maps, and feature importance. The numerical results of cross-validation showed that the proposed new DL model (i.e., the combined CNN-LSTM and ConvLSTM), in the early prediction cases, performed better than the baseline models of LSTM, support vector machine (SVM), and logistic regression (LR) models.
The determinants of personal luxury purchase intentions in a recessionary environment

ABSTRACT Luxury brand consumption has remained strong even in countries with recessions. This study explores the role of personal factors, socio-cognitive factors, and potential marketing forces, in driving consumers’ luxury purchase intentions in a market that is struggling to recover from a recession – Greece. Data were collected using a self-administered survey via an online panel. The results indicate that consumers’ need to escape and impulsiveness are positively associated with luxury brand purchase intentions in a recession. Sales promotions moderate the relationship between escape, self-expression, and luxury brand purchase intentions. Consumers’ perceptions about the recession effect on society also moderate the relationship between escape, self-expression, social status, and luxury brand purchase intentions. This study contributes to the literature and practice of luxury branding in recession by identifying the interplay between various personal, social, and marketing factors that can influence luxury brand purchase intentions in a recessionary environment.
Shrink fit effects on rotordynamic stability: experimental and theoretical study

Shrink Fit Effects on Rotordynamic Stability: Experimental and Theoretical Study. (May 2007) Syed Muhammad Mohsin Jafri, B.E. , NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi; M.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. John M. Vance This dissertation presents an experimental and theoretical study of subsynchronous rotordynamic instability in rotors caused by interference and shrink fit interfaces. The experimental studies show the presence of strong unstable subsynchronous vibrations in two different rotor setups with interference and shrink fit interfaces that were operated above their first critical speeds. The unstable vibrations occur at the first natural frequency of the rotor-bearing system. The instability caused complete wreckage of the test rig in one of the setups showing that these vibrations are potentially dangerous to the safe operation of rotating machines. The two different rotor setups that are studied are a single-disk rotor mounted on a uniform diameter shaft and a two-disk rotor with an aluminum sleeve shrink fitted to it at the outer surface of the two disks. In the single-disk rotor, an adjustable interference arrangement between the disk and the shaft is obtained through a tapered sleeve arrangement, which acts as the interference fit joint. The unstable sub-synchronous vibrations originate from slippage in the shrink fit and the interference fit interfaces that develop friction forces, which act as destabilizing cross-coupled moments when the rotor is operated above its first critical speed. The unique contribution offered through this work is the experimental validation of a physically correct model of internal friction which models the destabilizing
Bioprospecting of Microalgae Isolated from the Adriatic Sea: Characterization of Biomass, Pigment, Lipid and Fatty Acid Composition, and Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity

Marine microalgae and cyanobacteria are sources of diverse bioactive compounds with potential biotechnological applications in food, feed, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biofuel industries. In this study, five microalgae, Nitzschia sp. S5, Nanofrustulum shiloi D1, Picochlorum sp. D3, Tetraselmis sp. Z3 and Tetraselmis sp. C6, and the cyanobacterium Euhalothece sp. C1 were isolated from the Adriatic Sea and characterized regarding their growth kinetics, biomass composition and specific products content (fatty acids, pigments, antioxidants, neutral and polar lipids). The strain Picochlorum sp. D3, showing the highest specific growth rate (0.009 h−1), had biomass productivity of 33.98 ± 0.02 mg L−1 day−1. Proteins were the most abundant macromolecule in the biomass (32.83–57.94%, g g−1). Nanofrustulum shiloi D1 contained significant amounts of neutral lipids (68.36%), while the biomass of Picochlorum sp. D3, Tetraselmis sp. Z3, Tetraselmis sp. C6 and Euhalothece sp. C1 was rich in glycolipids and phospholipids (75%). The lipids of all studied microalgae predominantly contained unsaturated fatty acids. Carotenoids were the most abundant pigments with the highest content of lutein and neoxanthin in representatives of Chlorophyta and fucoxanthin in strains belonging to the Bacillariophyta. All microalgal extracts showed antioxidant activity and antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative E. coli and S. typhimurium and Gram-positive S. aureus.
New Possibilities of Robot Arm Motion Simulation

into the unified platform resulted in the project ROS Industrial that brings new possibilities to solve such complex tasks in industrial robotics [6] implementing a unified open-source platform The Robotic Operating System (ROS). This platform is freely accessible for researchers from around the world and enables them to cooperate and exchange information with each other and determine the future direction of the ROS. In the framework of currently “running” European research projects [7] the several research workplaces (IPA Fraunhofer, Danish Technological Institute, TU Delft, LMS-University of Patras, etc.) participate in the research of tasks connected with intelligent and safety interactive Human-Robot (H-R) cooperation for assembly plants of the future. Research in individual solved projects is most of all aimed at hardware and software aids of symbiotic assembly solution and application of new technologies in area of the shared workspace operations sensing and controlling. The open-source system ROS is used for tasks relating to the H-R cooperation. This system consists The importance of computer simulations of the industrial robot arm motions at the technological scene becomes more important especially in connection with industrial applications of the new types of robot arm kinematic structures or with solving the human robot safety collaboration in industry. The article is aimed at the simulation of the basic (primitive) tasks executed by industrial robot with utilization of software packages of the ”open-source“ platform ROS. ROS is the software of modular architecture that extends the capabilities of the different robot types programming and controlling.
ORGANISATIONAL EXCELLENCE STRATEGIES AND KEY PERFORMANCE RESULTS

AbstractThe Excellence Model was introduced in 1992 as the framework for assessing applications for The European Quality Award. The EFQM Excellence Model is now widely used throughout Europe and has become the basis for national and regional quality awards in Europe and other parts of the world. In addition, the Excellence Model is used by organisations as a tool for organisational self-assessment. The widespread use and popularity of the Excellence Model has raised the issue about its impact on business performance. However, whilst articles and case studies have been written about the Excellence Model, and whilst in the US a comprehensive study has been conducted by Professor Vinod Singhal that clearly demonstrates a positive link between the adoption of holistic Models, such as the Baldrige National Quality Award and improved organisational results, there has been little systematic study of the impact of the Excellence Model on key elements of business performance in Europe. To bridge this gap in the knowledge base about the Excellence Model, EFQM/BQF has commissioned a research project, which is being undertaken by a team of international academics to investigate the correlation between the adoption of the Excellence Model as a management system and improved business performance results in Europe.