Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reading Comprehension Abilities in the Anglophone Aging Population with Post-Secondary Education

Literacy skills such as reading comprehension are essential in order to understand written information and complete daily tasks. Low literacy skills are common in the aging population thus affecting quality of life, independence and social integration. Reading comprehension is a complex activity that requires processing at many different levels. According to Kintsch’s construction-integration model, three levels of representations of a text must be achieved in order to fully comprehend a text. Previous studies often considered the aging population as a single group and compared this group to young adults. However, few studies examined the variability in reading comprehension abilities within the aging population. Studies examining the variability in the construction of a situation model in older adults are even more scarce. The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of age on reading comprehension abilities at the surface model, text-based model and situation model in the aging population with high education level. Participants were recruited in northern Ontario and were grouped into three age intervals (60-69 years; 70-79 years; ≥ 80 years). Participants’ cognitive functions were assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and health literacy was assessed using the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (STOFHLA). Reading comprehension abilities were evaluated using the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests - third edition (WRMT-III) as well as the Gray Oral Reading Test – fifth edition (GORT5). Results indicated no significant differences in performance of reading comprehension abilities among the three age groups at the surface level, text-based level, and situation model level of reading comprehension. These findings suggest no age-related effect on reading comprehension abilities in adults with high levels of education. The lack of differences observed may be explained by the absence of differences in cognitive functions between the three age groups as well as the high level of education which may have acted as a protective factor. Future studies should examine reading comprehension in Anglophone adults with lower levels of education to better understand whether education is a protective factor against a decline in reading comprehension abilities in the aging population.
Prediction Models for COVID-19 Integrating Age Groups, Gender, and Underlying Conditions

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of infections worldwide, and the loss of trillions of dollars for many large economies It poses a grave threat to the human population with an excessive number of patients constituting an unprecedented challenge with which health systems have to cope Researchers from many domains have devised diverse approaches for the timely diagnosis of COVID-19 to facilitate medical responses In the same vein, a wide variety of research studies have investigated underlying medical conditions for indicators suggesting the severity and mortality of, and role of age groups and gender on, the probability of COVID-19 infection This study aimed to review, analyze, and critically appraise published works that report on various factors to explain their relationship with COVID-19 Such studies span a wide range, including descriptive analyses, ratio analyses, cohort, prospective and retrospective studies Various studies that describe indicators to determine the probability of infection among the general population, as well as the risk factors associated with severe illness and mortality, are critically analyzed and these findings are discussed in detail A comprehensive analysis was conducted on research studies that investigated the perceived differences in vulnerability of different age groups and genders to severe outcomes of COVID-19 Studies incorporating important demographic, health, and socioeconomic characteristics are highlighted to emphasize their importance Predominantly, the lack of an appropriated dataset that contains demographic, personal health, and socioeconomic information implicates the efficacy and efficiency of the discussed methods Results are overstated on the part of both exclusion of quarantined and patients with mild symptoms and inclusion of the data from hospitals where the majority of the cases are potentially ill
Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Surface Functionalized MoS2 Monolayers

Monolayered, semiconducting MoS2 and their transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) families are promising and low-cost materials for hydrogen generation through electrolytes (HER, hydrogen evolution reaction) due to their high activities and electrochemical stability during the reaction. However, there is still a lack of understanding in identifying the underlying mechanism responsible for improving the electrocatalytic properties of theses monolayers. In this work, we investigated the significance of controlling carrier densities in a MoS2 monolayer and in turn the corresponding electrocatalytic behaviors in relation to the energy band structure of MoS2. Surface functionalization was employed to achieve p-doping and n-doping in the MoS2 monolayer that led to MoS2 electrochemical devices with different catalytic performances. Specifically, the electron-rich MoS2 surface showed lower overpotential and Tafel slope compared to the MoS2 with surface functional groups that contributed to p-doping. We attributed such enhancement to the increase in the carrier density and the corresponding Fermi level that accelerated HER and charge transfer kinetics. These findings are of high importance in designing electrocatalysts based on two-dimensional TMDCs.
Sub-Subword N-Gram Features for Subword-Level Neural Machine Translation

Neural machine translation (NMT) systems often use subword segmentation to limit vocabulary sizes. This type of segmentation is particularly useful for morphologically complex languages because their vocabularies can grow prohibitively large. This method can also replace infrequent tokens with more frequent subwords. Fine segmentation with short subword units has been shown to produce better results for smaller training datasets. Character-level NMT, which can be considered as an extreme case of subword segmentation in which each subword consists of a single character, can provide enhanced transliteration results, but also tends to produce grammatical errors. We propose a novel approach to this problem that combines subword-level segmentation with character-level information in the form of character n-gram features to construct embedding matrices and softmax output projections for a standard encoderdecoder model. We use a custom algorithm to select a small number of effective binary character n-gram features. Through four sets of experiments, we demonstrate the advantages of the proposed approach for processing resource-limited language pairs. Our proposed approach yields better performance in terms of BLEU score compared to subwordand character-based baseline methods under low-resource conditions. In particular, the proposed approach increases the vocabulary size for small training datasets without reducing translation quality.
Team Dynamics Perceptions, Motivation, and Anxiety in University Athletes

This study aimed to evaluate the interrelation between team dynamics with motivation types and anxiety factors in university athletes, highlighting the role played by team members’ point of view and coach’s point of view. Participants were 674 university athletes, men (46.4%) and women (53.6%), from different sports, with an age range between 18 and 28 years (M = 21.06; SD = 2.07). Instruments used were Cooperation Workteam Questionnaire (CWQ), the Sports Motivation Scale (SMS-II), and the Sports Anxiety Scale (SAS-2). The model from the team member’s point of view presented adequate fit indices (χ2 (924) = 2690.17, χ2/df = 2.91, CFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.05), same as the model from the coach’s point of view (χ2 (924) = 2692.82, χ2/df = 2.99, CFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.05). The results obtained in both models show five indirect effects, two of them between team dynamics from both points of view with somatic anxiety and deconcentration, with autonomous motivation as a mediator, and the other three between the team dynamics from both perspectives with somatic anxiety, worry, and deconcentration, having controlled motivation as a mediator.
Rule omission, rule migration and the limits of financial industry power

This paper seeks to deepen our understanding of ﬁnancial industry lobbying efforts that result in speciﬁc regulatory rules being dropped from the regulatory agenda, or what we call ‘rule omission’. Critically, existing research either ignores rule omission or characterizes it as the pinnacle of lobbying success. We argue that only in carefully mapping out industry preferences and tracking what happens to rules following their omission can we say something about the extent to which ﬁnance wins or loses in its effort to shape regulation. Our analysis is based on two in-depth case studies from the European Union: (1) solvency rules in the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision Directive (IORPP II) , where rule omission does reﬂect a strong case of industry inﬂuence; and (2) short selling rules in the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) , a case of rule omission resulting in more stringent rules over industry activities.
What is the teacher's challenge on the developing of learning media to increase critical thinking ability and the character?

The development of technology makes learning media have an essential function for the learning process conducted by the teacher to students. However, in reality, there are still many teachers who have not yet implemented the development of learning media to support the learning program. The purpose of this study is to describe the challenges and problems that occur in the development of learning media to improve critical thinking skills and character. This study examines how the challenges of teachers in developing learning media to improve students' critical thinking skills and character. The method was in the form of qualitative data (phenomenology). Data were collected by conducting interviews and observations on nine teachers from 3 public elementary schools in Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Based on research, it conducted that students' critical thinking skills and character will increase if the teacher can solve or face challenges in developing existing learning media.
Adsorption of Arsenic(III) on Biochar-manganese Oxide Composites

Both biochar and manganese oxide are good adsorbents for metals. However there is little information about metal adsorption on their composited material. In this study, the adsorption of arsenic(Ⅲ)on manganese oxide-modified biochar was investigated under different contact time, adsorbent doses and solution p H, using batch adsorption method. The arsenic(Ⅲ)adsorption on both unmodified biochar and biochar-manganese oxide composite was rapid, reaching adsorption equilibrium within 30 min. The adsorption behavior could be well described with pseudo-second-order kinetic equation with a R20.99. The adsorption process appeared to be a multistep process that could be fitted with an intraparticle diffusion model. The maximum capacity of arsenic(Ⅲ)adsorption increased from 11.41(unmodified biochar)to 20. 08 mg·g-1(manganese oxide modified biochar), which should be attributed to the increase of adsorption sites on the surface of biochar-manganese oxide composite due to the presence of manganese oxides. The effect of solution p H on arsenic(Ⅲ)adsorption was negligible in p H 3~7. The present results show that biochar-manganese oxide composite is a promising functional adsorbent as it is easy to be synthesized and works well in a wide p H range.
ON MARKOVIAN QUEUES WITH SINGLE WORKING VACATION AND BERNOULLI INTERRUPTIONS

This paper considers the customers’ equilibrium and socially optimal joining–balking behavior in a single-server Markovian queue with a single working vacation and Bernoulli interruptions. The model is motivated by practical service systems where the service rate can be adjusted according to whether or not the system is empty. Specifically, we focus on a single-server queue in which the server's service rate is reduced from a regular to a lower one when the system becomes empty. This lower rate period is called a working vacation for the server which may represent that part of the service facility is under a maintenance process or works on other non-queueing job, or simply for saving the energy (for a machine server case). In this paper, we assume that the working vacation period is terminated after a random period or with probability p after serving a customer in a non-empty system. Such a system is called a queue with single working vacation and Bernoulli interruptions. Customers are strategic and can make choice of joining or balking based on different levels of system information. We consider four scenarios: fully observable, almost observable, almost unobservable, and fully unobservable queue cases. Under a reward-cost structure, we analyze the customer's equilibrium and social-optimal strategies. In addition, the effects of system parameters on optimal strategies are illustrated by numerical examples.
A Novel Method of Laparoscopic Approach in a Giant Bladder Diverticulum with Renal Cell Carcinoma "Double Trouble"

1. Abstract Congenital diverticular are rare and caused from weakening of the bladder mucosa with the entire wall of the diverticulum. Giant vesical diverticulum are uncommon and total of 13 cases reported. The gold standard of treatment this bladder diverticulum is with extravesical diverticulectomy approach. We would like to report a case of renal cell carcinoma with concurrent giant bladder diverticulum. This will be the first case report on the laparoscopic extravesicle approach done concurrent in a renal malignancy patient who has proved to be safe, effective, and minimally invasive and therefore superior to open extravesical diverticulectomy which is the gold standard. 2. Introduction Congenital diverticular are rare and caused from weakening of the bladder mucosa with the entire wall of the diverticulum. Giant vesical diverticulum is uncommon and total of 13 cases reported. A 76 years old Chinese gentleman presented with abdominal distention and lower urinary symptoms. CT renal 4 phases showed right RCC with large urinary bladder diverticulum. We would like to report a case of renal cell carcinoma with concurrent giant bladder diverticulum. This will be the first case report on the laparoscopic extravesicle approach done concurrently in a renal malignancy patient who has proved to be safe, effective, and minimally invasive and therefore superior to open extravesical diverticulectomy which is the gold standard (Figure 1). Figure 1: CT renal 4 phase showed a lobulated enhancing mass at interpole of right kidney measuring 8.8 x 6.6 x 8.6 cm suggestive of right renal cell carcinoma 3. Case Report 76 years old Chinese gentleman presented with abdominal distention and pain over the lower quadrant for past 5 months. Patient also had lower urinary symptoms. Per abdomen was distended with a vague mass over the right lower quadrant measuring 15cmx15cm, non tender, non pulsating. Digital rectal examination prostate was enlarged with median sulcus obliterated. No nodule or mass palpable. We proceeded with ultrasound abdomen and showed a highly
The Implementation of Mathematics Comic through Contextual Teaching and Learning to Improve Critical Thinking Ability and Character

Students' critical thinking ability requires improvement from schools as an educational institution. Besides, it is important to maximally integrate character education into mathematics learning. One of the attempts was implementing mathematics comic that contains Pancasila values as teaching material through contextual teaching and learning. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effectiveness of mathematics comic teaching material with Pancasila values in improving students' critical thinking and character. This is a quasi-experimental study that involves non-equivalent control group design. The population was fourth-grade students of elementary schools in Gajahmungkur District, and data were collected using a critical thinking test and questionnaire. The results showed that using mathematics comic teaching material with Pancasila values was (1) effective in improving students' critical thinking ability; (2) effective in developing character, especially discipline and hard work trait. In the beginning, both character traits were categorized as good, and after treatment, there was an increase in the very good category. Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of mathematics comic teaching material with Pancasila values is effective in improving critical thinking ability and character traits.
Anomalous nonlinear optical effect and enhanced emission by magnetic excitons in CVD grown cobalt-doped ZnSe nanoribbon

The magnetic excitons in diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) have varied formats due to the inhomogeneous phases out of doping concentration and/or structural relaxations or defects. Here the high quality cobalt-doped zinc blende ZnSe nanoribbons (NRs) were synthesized, showing bright and color-variable emissions from blue, yellow to a little mixed white colors. Their power and temperature dependent micro-photoluminescence (PL) spectra have been obtained in which two emission bands, one magnetic exciton band near the band-edge and a Co2+ high-level d–d transition emission band at 550 nm out of their ferromagnetic (FM) coupled aggregates in ZnSe lattice, both bands could also be reflected by a nonlinear optical absorption enhancement. The easy formed stacking fault defects in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown ZnSe zincblende NR took part in the above optical processes out of magnetic polaronic excitons (PXs). The femtosecond (fs) laser pulse pumping on single ZnSe:Co NR produces obvious lasing behavior but with profile of a complicated magnetic exciton interactions with indication of a crossover from collective exciton magnetic polarons (EMP) to bound magnetic polaron (BMP) scattering in Co doped ZnSe NR. These findings indicate the complication of the magnetic coupling natures in varied DMS structures, whose optical properties have been found to be highly nonlinear, due to the involvement of the spin–spin, spin–exciton and spin–phonon interactions, verified by the theoretic calculation in Yang X-T et al (2019 Interstitial Zn-modulated ferromagnetism in Co-doped ZnSe Mater. Res. Express 6 106121).
Studying the influences of organizational learning on turnover intentions, absenteeism, and organizational performance among employees working in a French-Canadian hospital

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the interrelationships among organizational learning (OL) facilitators, OL itself, and three organizational outcomes: employee intention to leave the organization, absenteeism, and perceived organizational performance. It also investigates how OL mediates the relationship between OL facilitators and organizational outcomes. 145 employees (113 women) working in a French-Canadian community hospital completed a survey covering all the studied variables. Bootstrap regression analyses were used to test various hypotheses. Results support the idea that environmental components (culture, leadership, support, and strategic management of learning) can facilitate OL. They also show that OL mediates the relationships between certain of its facilitators and employee intention to leave the organization as well as perceived organizational performance. The research supports the view that it is possible to reduce employee turnover intentions and foster performance in a healthcare context by establishing an environment conducive of OL.
VO+Net: An Adaptive Approach Using Variational Optimization and Deep Learning for Panchromatic Sharpening

Pansharpening refers to a spatio-spectral fusion of a lower spatial resolution multispectral (MS) image with a high spatial resolution panchromatic image, aiming at obtaining an image with a corresponding high resolution both in the domains. In this article, we propose a generic fusion framework that is able to weightedly combine variational optimization (VO) with deep learning (DL) for the task of pansharpening, where these crucial weights directly determining the relative contribution of DL to each pixel are estimated adaptively. This framework can benefit from both VO and DL approaches, e.g., the good modeling explanation and data generalization of a VO approach with the high accuracy of a DL technique thanks to massive data training. The proposed method can be divided into three parts: 1) for the VO modeling, a general details injection term inspired by the classical multiresolution analysis is proposed as a spatial fidelity term and a spectral fidelity employing the MS sensor’s modulation transfer functions is also incorporated; 2) for the DL injection, a weighted regularization term is designed to introduce deep learning into the variational model; and 3) the final convex optimization problem is efficiently solved by the designed alternating direction method of multipliers. Extensive experiments both at reduced and full-resolution demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms recent state-of-the-art pansharpening methods, especially showing a higher accuracy and a significant generalization ability.
Iron Ore Sintering: Quality Indices

ABSTRACT Sinter plants process a mixture of iron ore fines, recycled ironmaking products, slag-forming agents and solid fuel (coke) with the finality of obtaining a product with the suitable characteristics (thermal, mechanical, physical, and chemical) for being fed to the blast furnace. With this objective a series of parameters are defined, including the nature and composition of each component of the mixture, and the conditions of the sintering process. Sinter characterization includes chemical and granulometric analysis, determination of the mineral phases in its structure, apart from a series of quality indices that includes reducibility, low temperature degradation, reduction degradation and Tumbler. Operated sinter plants with the maximum productivity are also important with the purpose of obtaining a sinter with uniform composition and quality for facilitating the steady state operation of the blast furnace.