Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysing LecturersWeb/Internet Competence at the Zimbabwe Open University

This study aimed at assessing the extent to which tutors at the Zimbabwe Open University in Mashonaland East Region were internet/web competent and prepared to handle internet related correspondence through the ZOU-online facility. The lecturers were tested for competence in the use of the web/internet in handling and processing studentsassignments as well as researching. A questionnaire, two tests and an interview schedule were used to collect data from respondents. The population for the study consisted of 14 fulltime and 51 part time lecturers from the 4 faculties of ZOU. Out of the sixty-five, a sample of 32 was chosen through stratified random sampling. Findings of the study show that while full time lecturers had access to computers, the majority of the part time tutors had no computer access. Despite the setback, the majority of the respondents in the sample, 58 (89%), was computer literate mostly in document production through word processing. Generally, lecturers at the Zimbabwe Open University lack the basic knowledge on the web/internet. Their poor performance in the tests demonstrates that the lecturers do not have the practical skills to undertake web/internet operations. The study recommended that all initial distance education programmes should include compulsory courses in ICT. Programmes should also be put in place for the capacity building for tutors' in internet/web usage which should be a priority if the ZOU on-line initiative is to be effective. Future employment prerequisites for lecturers, should include high levels of computer literacy from job seekers. Internet courses also need to be carried out. Part time tutors should be included in all initiatives to do with ICTs because they are indespensible to the system.
A new recombination model for device simulation including tunneling

A recombination model for device simulation that includes both trap-assisted tunneling (under forward and reverse bias) and band-to-band tunneling (Zener tunneling) is presented. The model is formulated in terms of analytical functions of local variables, which makes it easy to implement in a numerical device simulator. The trap-assisted tunneling effect is described by an expression that for weak electric fields reduces to the conventional Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) expression for recombination via traps. Compared to the conventional SRH expression, the model has one extra physical parameter, the effective mass m*. For m*=0.25 m/sub 0/ the model correctly describes the experimental observations associated with tunneling. The band-to-band tunneling contribution is found to be important at room temperature for electric fields larger than 7*10/sup 5/ V/cm. For dopant concentrations above 5*10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/ or, equivalently, for breakdown voltages below approximately 5 V, the reverse characteristics are dominated by band-to-band tunneling. >
Reporting of Concussion Symptoms by a Nationwide Survey of United States Parents of Middle School Children

This cross-sectional study assessed concussion symptom knowledge of parents of middle school (MS) children (aged 10–15 years) through a free-response item that solicited concussion symptoms and compared findings to a pre-validated scale-based measure. A self-administered online questionnaire was sent to a panel of randomly selected United States residents who were recruited by a third-party company, aged ≥ 18 years, and identified as parents of MS children. Via a free-response item, parents listed what they believed were concussion symptoms. Multiple sections later, parents identified potential concussion symptoms via a scale measure, which featured 25 items (22 actual symptoms, three distractor symptoms) with three response options: yes, no, maybe. Free-response item responses were coded into specific symptoms. The 1062 eligible parents that provided complete data commonly identified the symptoms of dizziness (90.2%), blurred vision (87.4%), and balance problems (86.4%) on the scale-based measure. However, these and other symptoms were less commonly identified via the free-response item (dizziness: 44.4%; blurred vision: 16.5%; balance problems: 3.5%). Concussion symptoms commonly reported via the scale-based measure were reported less frequently within the free-response item. Future research must explore strategies to help clinicians working with parents and their children to measure and assess concussion symptom reporting and knowledge.
An empirical examination of stakeholder pressures, green operations practices and environmental performance

This study explores two key attributes constituting green operations practices (i.e. internal green management and green product/process design) and examines the links of adopting green operations practices with its antecedent factors (stakeholder pressures) and consequent performance outcomes (environmental performance). Data collected from 167 manufacturing firms in the UK were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results reveal that stakeholder pressures have a significant positive effect on internal green management, and that internal green management significantly affects green product/process design. The two attributes of green operations practices are significantly and positively related to environmental performance. More specifically, we find that internal green management fully mediates the relationship between stakeholder pressures and green product/process design and the relationship between stakeholder pressures and environmental performance.
Ultrawide-band long-wavelength p-i-n photodetectors

We compare different designs for very high-speed (millimeter-wave) long-wavelength photodetectors, different materials for such detectors, and different ways of characterizing the speed of these devices. Experimental results are given, showing high-speed response with bandwidths beyond 50 GHz, impulse responses less than 10 ps, and detection sensitivities to 0.1 fJ in packaged devices. Discussed is the inherent bandwidth-efficiency limit in conventional p-i-n detectors, which is then compared to theoretical and experimental results for waveguide-geometry detectors.
Shifting between roles of a customer and a seller – patients’ experiences of the encounter with primary care physicians when suspicions of cancer exist

ABSTRACT Purpose: Sweden has tried to speed up the process of early cancer detection by standardization of care. This increased focus on early cancer detection provides people with a conflicting norm regarding the importance of recognizing possible cancer symptoms and the responsibility of not delaying seeking care. Based on existing norms about patients’ responsibility and care seeking, this study explores how patients experience encounters with primary care physicians when they seek care for symptoms potentially indicating cancer. Methods: Thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients receiving care for symptoms indicative of cancer in one county in northern Sweden. Data was analysed with thematic analysis. Results: The common notion of describing patients as customers in a healthcare context does not sufficiently capture all aspects of what counts as being a person seeking care. Instead, people interacting with primary care face a twofold role in where they are required to take the role not only of customer but also of seller. Consequently, people shift between these two roles in order to legitimize their care seeking. Conclusions: Standardization oversimplifies the complexity underlying patients’ experience of care seeking and interaction with healthcare. Hence, healthcare must acknowledge the individual person within a standardized system.
An Empirical Study of the Impact of Systems Thinking and Simulation on Sustainability Education

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is considered vital to the success of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Systems Thinking has been identified as a core competency necessary to incorporate into ESD. Systems Thinking orientated ESD learning tools, established methods of assessment of sustainability skills, and studies to demonstrate effectiveness of such learning tools, are all lacking. There is a wealth of experience in the System Dynamics field regarding the application of Systems Thinking and simulation to environmental problems, sustainability and systems education. Many System Dynamicists regard simulation as essential for teaching Systems Thinking. The substantial body of research into the design of effective simulation-based learning environments (SBLEs) can also inform ESD initiatives. This research describes a randomised controlled trial (n=106) to investigate whether an online sustainability learning tool that incorporates Systems Thinking and System Dynamics simulation increases understanding of a specific problem and supports transfer of knowledge to a second problem with a similar systemic structure. The effects of Systems Thinking and simulation were tested separately and in combination. The learning tool was designed for a single online learning session. Simulation was found to increase ESD learning outcomes significantly, and also to support transfer of skills, although less significantly.
Ethnic Bias after Ethnic Conflict: Preferential Voting and the Serb Minority in Croatian Elections

ABSTRACT In spite of growing interest in democratization and electoral competition after ethnic conflict, we know little about the impact of ethnic violence on voter choice in post-conflict societies. This article uses an original dataset of local-level electoral results, communities’ exposure to war violence, and candidates’ ethnicity derived from names in contemporary Croatia to uncover the relationship between local post-conflict ethnic distribution, ethnic violence, and the electorate's ethnic bias. Our analysis points to the presence of ethnic bias that is determined by local interethnic balance and exposure to war violence – particularly for communities populated by the Serb minority.
Produksi Enzim Fibrinolitik Tempe oleh Rhizopus oryzae FNCC 6078

ackground Rhizopus oryzae FNCC 6078 had been evaluated producing fibrinolytic enzyme under solid state fermentation. Soybean had been used to produce fibrinolytic enzyme through fermentation in tempeh. The main purpose of this study was to reveal optimum condition for fermentation. The parameters of the condition were inoculum volume, incubation period and temperature. Optimum condition was defined by maximum fibrinolytic activity. Methode Fibrinolytic activity was measured using spectrophotometry at 274 nm. Result optimum condition for producing fibrinolytic enzyme was 1,5 mL volume of inoculum of Rhizopus oryzae suspension in 25%T, 42 hours for incubation period and 35oC temperature incubation.
Multiservice provisioning mechanism with service curves assurance for per-class scheduling delay guarantees

Class-based traffic treatment frameworks, such as differentiated service (DiffServ), have been proposed to solve the scalability problem of flow-based approach for quality of service (QoS) provisioning. While these frameworks provide service differentiation according to traffic classes, the provision of QoS guarantee for individual flows, within a class, remains a challenging problem. In the paper, the authors present a novel multiservices mechanism, which is able to provide service curves assurance for per-flow deterministic delay guarantees. The core component of this mechanism is a new packet scheduling algorithm, called flow-state-dependent packet scheduling (FDPS), to handle different flows within the same class to provide end-to-end scheduling delay bound guarantees. The mechanism is based on an analysis that guides the flow admission control operation for class-based queueing delay bound. Using the packets' flow-states, FDPS provides fine granularity packet service differentiation within each class. By means of this property, the proposed mechanism achieves per-flow end-to-end delay bound independent of the number of intermediate nodes along the path of the flow. Another notable feature is that it can be integrated into a DiffServ framework as an enhancement for deterministic QoS guarantees. The performance of this mechanism is mathematically analysed to demonstrate its enhancements and ns-2 simulation experiments are used to validate the analytical results.
Game Plan—a Brief Web-Based Intervention to Improve Uptake and Use of HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Reduce Alcohol Use Among Gay and Bisexual Men: Content Analysis

Background HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has considerable potential for reducing incidence among high-risk groups, such as gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM). However, PrEP’s effectiveness is closely linked with consistent use, and a variety of individual-level barriers, including alcohol use, could impede optimal uptake and use. Web-based interventions can encourage medication adherence, HIV prevention behaviors, and responsible drinking and may help support PrEP care, particularly in resource-limited settings. Objective We previously developed a web application called Game Plan that was designed to encourage heavy drinking GBM to use HIV prevention methods and reduce their alcohol use and was inspired by brief motivational interventions. This paper aims to describe the web-based content we designed for integration into Game Plan to help encourage PrEP uptake and consistent use among GBM. In this paper, we also aim to describe this content and its rationale. Methods Similar to the original site, these components were developed iteratively, guided by a thorough user-centered design process involving consultation with subject-matter experts, usability interviews and surveys, and user experience surveys. Results In addition to Game Plan’s pre-existing content, the additional PrEP components provide specific, personal, and digestible feedback to users about their level of risk for HIV without PrEP and illustrate how much consistent PrEP use could reduce it; personal feedback about their risk for common sexually transmitted infections to address low-risk perceptions; content challenging common beliefs and misconceptions about PrEP to reduce stigma; content confronting familiar PrEP and alcohol beliefs; and a change planning module that allows users to select specific goals for starting and strategies for consistent PrEP use. Users can opt into a weekly 2-way SMS text messaging program that provides similar feedback over a 12-week period after using Game Plan and follows up on the goals they set. Conclusions Research preliminarily testing the efficacy of these components in improving PrEP outcomes, including uptake, adherence, sexually transmitted infection rates, and alcohol use, is currently ongoing. If supported, these components could provide a scalable tool that can be used in resource-limited settings in which face-to-face intervention is difficult.
Design theory of thermoelectric modules for electrical power generation

One of the main requirements in the design of a thermoelectric module is to determine the optimum module geometry, based upon available thermoelectric material and manufacturing technology, which meets the given application specifications. In order to assist in determining the appropriate module geometry for thermoelectric generation, its relationship to the power output and conversion efficiency is examined. A practical procedure for optimising module geometry guided by the "economic factor" is described, together with formulae and graphs which form the foundations of thermoelectric module design.
Formation of steady dimples in point TEHL contacts

Experimental results of steady dimples measured in elliptical glass-steel contact under pure sliding conditions are presented. It is found that two dimples connected with a shallower furrow are generated, each near an end of the major radius of the contact ellipse. The complete solution of the corresponding thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) problem is calculated numerically. Good agreement is obtained between the experimental and theoretical results. This agreement can be explained by the temperature-viscosity wedge mechanism, Correctness of this mechanism is demonstrated using additional experiments with ceramic balls in contact with glass and sapphire disks.
Effects of intercooling on the performance of an irreversible regenerative Brayton cycle

An irreversible regenerative intercooled Brayton cycle with the finite heat capacities of external reservoirs is presented in this paper. The power output is adopted as the objective function of the cycle and optimised with respect to the cycle temperatures along with the intercooling pressure ratio for a given set of operating conditions. It is found that there exists an optimal value of the intercooling pressure ratio at which the optimised power output and the corresponding efficiency attain their maximum value. Moreover, the optimised power output and the corresponding thermal efficiency are plotted against the intercooling pressure ratio for the different sets of operating parameters. Another result, which is different from the earlier studies, shows that the heat capacitance rate and the effectiveness on the source side should be larger than those the heat capacitance rates of the other side viz., they should be in the order of C H>C L>C I>C W and ϵH>ϵR>ϵL>ϵI, respectively, for better performance.
Seasonal and Spatial Variations of Bioaerosols in Indoor Urban Environments, Ankara, Turkey

Seasonal and spatial variations of both levels and characteristics of airborne bacteria and fungi in various types of non-complaint indoor environments and their outdoors were investigated. Bioaerosol samples were collected by the single-stage Andersen sampler during the winter and summer seasons in Ankara, Turkey. Indoor and outdoor temperature, relative humidity (RH) and CO2 concentrations were also monitored online during the sampling. Bacteria levels in apartments were found to be considerably elevated when people were present. Significant relationships between bioaerosol levels and RH and CO2 concentrations (p<0.05) were found. Bacteria levels exhibited a seasonal variation, while fungi levels did not, probably due to lower fungi concentrations occurrence as a result of lower RH values (median: 30%). Measured low levels of fungi in this study may be due to geographical conditions, climatic factors, and other environmental conditions. The indoor to outdoor (I/O) ratio for bacteria levels were found to be significantly higher than 1.0, while indoor and outdoor fungi levels were similar. Winter to summer (W/S) ratios in the sampling site groups varied on a large scale for both culturable fungi concentrations (0.24–19.59) and total bacteria count (0.16–6.59). The most prominent bacteria were Micrococcus spp. , Staphylococcus spp. and Bacillus spp. , while the most predominant fungi were Penicillium spp. , Aspergillus spp. and Cladosporium spp.
Systematic Validation of a Microscopic Traffic Simulation Program

To achieve high fidelity and high credibility of a microscopic traffic simulation, model validation is of the utmost importance. A systematic validation effort was performed on an advanced microscopic traffic simulation that uses a multiregime simulation (MRS) approach for its car-following and lane-changing logic. The vigorous validation procedure includes animation comparison and quantitative/statistical analysis at both macroscopic and microscopic levels, and is illustrated through case studies. For validation at the macroscopic level, the averages and other statistics of traffic variables are compared, and fundamental relationships of traffic flow parameters are studied. For validation at the microscopic level, the speed change pattern, vehicle trajectory plots, and headway distribution from simulations are compared with those of the real-world system. The importance of the real-world data sets to model validation is emphasized, and animation comparison that provides intuitive appreciation of the model validity is frequently used. The validation and testing not only show the validity of the MRS model but also illustrate a systematic approach that can be used to validate other simulation models.
A very high output resistance current source

The vertical stacking of two identical sub-circuits—improved versions of a bipolar transistor configuration proposed by Baxandall and Swallow—driven by dual output current mirrors, facilitates the design of a current generator producing a direct current of 1 mA with an incremental output resistance exceeding 200 GΩ.
System availability monitoring

A process set up by Digital to monitor and quantify the availability of its systems is described. The reliability data are collected in an automated manner and stored in a database. The breadth of data gathered provides a unique opportunity to correlate hardware andsoftware failures. In addition, several hypotheses have been tested, e.g. the relationship between crash rate and system load, the interdependence of crashes, the cause of crashes, and the effect of new releases in the operating system. It is concluded that the process (in operation since 1988) has yielded worthwhile information on the products monitored. The usual availability metrics are calculated regularly for the machines monitored. Trends in system fault occurrence have been identified, leading to suggestions for both software and hardware improvements. The monitoring process and analysis methodology are revised on an ongoing basis to improve the quality of information obtained and to extend the analysis to Digital's new systems. The recently announced VAX9000 mainframe and fault-tolerant VAXft 3000 are two such systems. >
Plant And Soil Microbial Communities Regulate Soil Respiration In Response To Precipitation And Land Use In An Inner Mongolian Grassland

Purpose: Changes in precipitation amount and land use are expected to greatly impact soil respiration (Rs) of grassland ecosystems. However, little is known about whether they can interactively impact Rs and how plant and soil microbial communities regulate the response of Rs. Methods: Here, we investigated the impacts of altered precipitation amount (–50%, ambient and +50%) and land-use regime (fencing, mowing and grazing) on Rs with a field experiment in the Inner Mongolian grassland.Results: We found that altered precipitation amount impacted Rs and its components across the 3-year study period, while land-use regime alone or its interaction with precipitation amount impacted them in certain years. In addition, changed soil microclimate, especially soil moisture, under altered precipitation amount and land-use regime can impact the components of Rs either directly or indirectly via influencing plant and soil microbial communities.Conclusions: Integrating changing precipitation amount and land-use regime within experiment can produce more accurate insights into grassland Rs, and chronically shifted plant and soil microbial communities under these changes may result in distinct long-term impacts on Rs.