Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supervision experiences of postgraduate students at an ODL institution in South Africa

Abstract This article expounds on findings of a qualitative case study was conducted in a South African Open Distance Learning university. The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of postgraduate students Open and Distance Learning context. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and narratives written by the interviewees. Typical case sampling was used to select six doctoral graduates. Data analysis was conducted thematically, and predetermined themes from the literature and those emerging from the data were analysed and interpreted collectively. The findings revealed that many students felt supported by their supervisors, while some strongly felt unsupported and neglected. Moreover, communication is mainly through emails, telephone, WhatsApp, and occasionally through personal meetings. Whilst new technologies enhance support for such students, care needs to be taken that other tried and tested methods of support are not assumed to be anachronistic. Therefore, supervisors need to develop rigorous strategies, for example, Communities of Practice (COPs) to involve postgraduate students in the research community of which they wish to become a part. Moreover, the students are older and in remote rural areas where there is a problem of connectivity and they struggle to familiarise themselves with e-learning.
Low Temperature Sunlight‐Powered Reduction of CO2 to CO Using a Plasmonic Au/TiO2 Nanocatalyst

Sunlight‐powered reduction of CO2 to fuels and chemicals is a promising strategy to close the carbon loop and facilitate the energy transition. In this research, we demonstrate that Au nanoparticles supported on TiO2 are an efficient plasmonic catalyst for the sunlight‐powered reverse water‐gas shift (rWGS) reaction. A maximum CO production rate of 429 mmol ⋅ gAu−1 ⋅ h−1 with a selectivity of 98 % and an apparent quantum efficiency of 4.7 % were achieved using mildly concentrated sunlight (1.44 W ⋅ cm−2 equals 14.4 sun). The CO production rate showed an exponential increase with increasing light intensity, suggesting that the process is mainly promoted by a photothermal effect. Thermal reference experiments with the same catalysts promoted CH4 formation, dropping the CO selectivity to 70 %. Thus, mildly concentrated sunlight can efficiently and selectively enhance the promotion of the rWGS reaction without using external heating.
Context Specificity and Time Dependency in Classifying Sub-Saharan Africa Dairy Cattle Farmers for Targeted Extension Farm Advice: The Case of Uganda

Despite the huge potential for milk production, interventions to improve productivity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are barely based on specified farm classifications. This study aimed to develop robust and context-specific farm typologies to guide content of extension farm advice/services in Uganda. From a sample of 482 dairy farmers, we collected data on farmer socio-demographics, farm management practices, ownership of farm tools and facilities, willingness to pay for extension services, milk production, and marketing. Farm typologies were obtained based on principal component and cluster analyses. Thereby, of the three dairy production systems that emerged, small-scale, largely subsistence yet extensive and low productive farms were more prominent (82.6%). Farms that were classified as large-scale, less commercialized yet extensive with modest productive systems were more than the medium-scale commercial farms with intensive and highly productive systems. However, the later were considered to potentially transform dairy farming in Uganda. It was also predicted that the validity of our farm classification may persist until half of the farms have moved between clusters. The study gives new insights on dairy production systems in Uganda, which can be used to organize more targeted research on farmers’ extension needs for facilitating delivery of relevant and effective extension services and designing appropriate extension policies.
Use of Problem-Based Digital Comics in the Era of Disruption as an Increasing Effort Critical Thinking Skills and Learning Achievement

Learning in the era of disruption is directed at using technology optimally, and learning is directed to have critical thinking skills. Directed learning has critical thinking skills that make it difficult for students to understand the material, which causes student learning achievement to be not optimal. The teaching carried out has not been carried out innovatively due to the teacher's limitations, technological capabilities, and media. So far, learning has only conventionally. This makes students' interest in learning less and less because it is difficult to understand the material. This study aimed to determine the use of problem-based digital comics on learning achievement and critical thinking skills. The method used is a literature review. The study results show that problem-based digital comics in the era of disruption can develop critical thinking skills and improve learning achievement.
A study to assess anemia and hypoalbuminemia in diabetic patients with ulcers

Background: Diabetic foot is a severe public health issue. Nutrition is important in the repair of soft tissue injuries and wound healing and specific nutrients have been shown to enhance wound healing. Anemia and hypoalbuminemia are among the commonly encountered deficiencies in patients. Early detection of nutritional deficiencies and their prompt treatment is imperative for the effective management of diabetic foot ulcers. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of anemia and hypoalbuminemia in diabetic foot patients presenting at our institution.Methods: Hemoglobin and albumin levels of 175 patients with diabetic foot were collected. Data was tabulated and analysed with descriptive statistics.Results: Hemoglobin varied from 6.5 g/dl to15 g/dl (10.5±2.3 g/dl). 116 (66.28%) patients had anemia. Among the 66 female patients, 43 (65.15%) had anemia. Among the 109 male patients, 73 (66.97%) had anemia. 11 of the 29 patients aged less than 40 had anemia (37.93%), while 105 of the 146 (71.91%) patients above 40 years had anemia. Albumin levels ranged from 1.6 g/dl to 5.4 g/dl (3.3±1.06 g/dl). 93 (53.14%) patients had hypoalbuminemia. 33 of the 66 female patients (50%) had hypoalbuminemia. 60 (55.04%) of the 109 male patients had hypoalbuminemia. 4 of the 29 (13.79%) patients below 40 years had hypoalbuminemia 89 of the 146 patients (60.9%) above 40 years had hypoalbuminemia.Conclusions: Anemia and hypoalbuminemia are common in patients with diabetic foot ulcers, with males being more commonly affected by both than females and older age group being more commonly affected than younger age group.
Magnetic Field Sensing Characteristics Based on Optical Microfiber Coupler Interferometer and Magnetic Fluid

In this paper, a novel and compact magnetic field sensor based on the combination of an optical microfiber coupler interferometer (OMCI) and magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed. The sensor is made up of an OMCI cover with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and MF, and it uses MF as a material for adjusting the magnetic refractive index and magnetic field response. The sensing characteristics of the sensor are analyzed, and the experimental test is carried out. Under the condition of the same OMC waist length, the sensor sensitivity increases with the decrease of the OMC waist radius. The sensitivity of 54.71 and 48.21 pm/Oe was obtained when the OMC waist radius was set at 3.5 and 4 μm, respectively. In addition, we also tested the sensing response time and vector response characteristics of the sensor. At the same time, we discuss the demodulation idea about the cross-sensitivity of the magnetic field and temperature. The sensor has the advantages of high sensitivity, low cost, small size, optimized performance, and convenient integration. It has huge application potential in the fields of navigation and industrial intelligent manufacturing.
Small Intestinal Levels of the Branched Short-Chain Fatty Acid Isovalerate Are Elevated during Infection with Heligmosomoides polygyrus and Can Promote Helminth Fecundity

Heligmosomoides polygyrus is a helminth which naturally infects mice and is widely used as a laboratory model of chronic small intestinal helminth infection. While it is known that infection with H. polygyrus alters the composition of the host’s bacterial microbiota, the functional implications of this alteration are unclear. ABSTRACT Heligmosomoides polygyrus is a helminth which naturally infects mice and is widely used as a laboratory model of chronic small intestinal helminth infection. While it is known that infection with H. polygyrus alters the composition of the host’s bacterial microbiota, the functional implications of this alteration are unclear. We investigated the impact of H. polygyrus infection on short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) levels in the mouse intestine and sera. We found that helminth infection resulted in significantly upregulated levels of the branched SCFA isovaleric acid, exclusively in the proximal small intestine, which is the site of H. polygyrus colonization. We next set out to test the hypothesis that elevating local levels of isovaleric acid was a strategy used by H. polygyrus to promote its own fitness within the mammalian host. To test this, we supplemented the drinking water of mice with isovalerate during H. polygyrus infection and examined whether this affected helminth fecundity or chronicity. We did not find that isovaleric acid supplementation affected helminth chronicity; however, we found that it did promote helminth fecundity, as measured by helminth egg output in the feces of mice. Through antibiotic treatment of helminth-infected mice, we found that the bacterial microbiota was required in order to support elevated levels of isovaleric acid in the proximal small intestine during helminth infection. Overall, our data reveal that during H. polygyrus infection there is a microbiota-dependent localized increase in the production of isovaleric acid in the proximal small intestine and that this supports helminth fecundity in the murine host.
The Clinical Utility of the Dream Home Assessment: An Occupational Therapy Evaluation of Executive Functioning

Abstract This study aimed to determine the clinical utility of the Dream Home Assessment (DHA), a projective and executive function assessment for adults with mental health and substance use disorders. Participants included 23 clinicians. The majority affirmed its usefulness. 82% stated that they would use it in their practice. Its primary strengths were identified as themes: engaging and enjoyable, creative, assesses non-routine executive function skills, and convenient to use. Its primary weaknesses were time constraints, overly challenging tasks, triggers strong emotions, and barriers to material use. The study provides preliminary evidence of the clinical utility of the DHA.
PERAMALAN TINGKAT PENGHUNIAN KAMAR DENGAN MEMANFAATKAN DATA GOOGLE TRENDS DI PROVINSI BANTEN

The purpose of this paper is to forecast the room occupancy rate (ROR) of star hotels by utilizing Google Trends data, in addition to historical ROR data. The data used is the ROR (%) which comes from the Badan Pusat Statistik-Statistics Indonesia and the Google Trends query index using the search word "hotel". The method used is the ARIMAX model. The results of this study indicate that the ARIMAX model has excellent forecasting capabilities. This is shown by the MAPE value which reached 6.541%, which means the added value of the hotel sector in the first quarter of 2021 is not expected to increase significantly.
Double Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Energy Management for a Parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicle With Engine Start–Stop Strategy

Committed to optimizing the fuel economy of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), improving the working conditions of the engine, and promoting research on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) in the field of energy management strategies (EMSs), this article first proposed a DRL-based EMS combined with a rule-based engine start–stop strategy. Moreover, considering that both the engine and the transmission are controlled components, this article developed a novel double DRL (DDRL)-based EMS, which uses a deep Q-network (DQN) to learning the gear-shifting strategy and uses a deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) to control the engine throttle opening, and the DDRL-based EMS realizes the multiobjective synchronization control by different types of learning algorithms. After off-line training, the simulation result of the online test shows that the fuel consumption gaps of the proposed DRL- and DDRL-based EMSs are −0.55% and 2.33% compared to that of the deterministic dynamic programming (DDP)-based EMS by overcoming some inherent flaws of DDP, respectively. The computational efficiency has been significantly improved, and the average output time per action is 0.91 ms. Therefore, the control strategy that combines learning- and rule-based controls and the multiobjective control strategies both have the potential to ensure optimization and real-time efficiency.
Perceptual Contributions of Vowels and Consonant-Vowel Transitions in Understanding Time-Compressed Mandarin Sentences

Many early studies reported the importance of vowels and vowel-consonant transitions to speech intelligibility. The present work assessed their perceptual impacts to the understanding of time-compressed sentences, which could be used to measure the temporal acuity during speech understanding. Mandarin sentences were edited to selectively preserve vowel centers or vowel-consonant transitional segments, and compress the rest regions with equipment time compression rates (TCRs) up to 3, including conditions only preserving vowel centers or vowel-consonant transitions. The processed stimuli were presented to normal-hearing listeners to recognize. Results showed that, consistent with the segmental contributions in understanding uncompressed speech, the vowel-only time-compressed stimuli were highly intelligible (i.e., intelligibility score >85%) at a TCR around 3, and vowel-consonant transitions carried important intelligibility information in understanding time-compressed sentences. The time-compression conditions in the present work provided higher intelligibility scores than their counterparties in understanding the PSOLA-processed timecompressed sentences with TCRs around 3. The findings in this work suggested that the design of time compression processing could be guided towards selectively preserving perceptually important speech segments (e.g., vowels) in the
Research on the Efficiency of China’s Fiscal Expenditure Structure under the Goal of Inclusive Green Growth

Inclusive Green Growth is a sustainable development mode that pays attention to the coordinated growth of the economy, society, and ecology. With the intensification of the contradiction between fiscal revenue and expenditure, adopting the goal of adjusting the fiscal expenditure structure is conducive to improving the efficiency of fiscal funds. This paper establishes a theoretical model of the efficiency of the fiscal expenditure structure under the goal of Inclusive Green Growth, and on this basis, it constructs an index system of Inclusive Green Growth. Then, it applies a DEA-Malmquist model to analyze the efficiency of the fiscal expenditure structure. The results show that from 2007 to 2018, the growth rate of Inclusive Green Growth index showed a downward trend, which was mainly due to the decline in the growth rate of economic development. It rebounded after 2016, and the growth of the inclusiveness level played a major role. In time and space, the development resources tend to the unbalanced development trend of the eastern region; the average total factor productivity of the fiscal expenditure structure in space is the lowest in the east. The fiscal expenditure should be inclined to social expenditure and green expenditure, the western region should be inclined to economic expenditure, and the allocation of the expenditure structure in the central region should imitate the high-efficiency areas. In order to achieve the comprehensive development goal, this paper provides an analytical idea for the adjustment of the fiscal expenditure structure.
Evaluation of Chlorhexidine Application on Shear Bond Strength in Different Brackets and Different Etching Techniques in Vitro Study

Purpose of this study was to assess the etch enamel surface of teeth, affect “shear bond strength” in application chlorhexidine and the “adhesive remnant index” scores. Material and Method : Eighty premolar teeth half of the samples (Groups A,B/metal bracket.C,D/ceramic bracket) were conditioned with using 37% orthophosphoric acid gel (SDI, California,USA)for 30s washed/ dried. The other half of the samples (Groups E,F/metal bracket.G,H/ceramic bracket) were conditioned with Er:CrYSGG laser system, Power: 2W, Wave length: 2,780,energy: 250 mJ , Pulse duration: 140 μs Frequency: 20 Hz. ,Cooling system: 90%:%80air-water spray , Mode of application: swiping motion (Waterlase,1 plus from Biolase USA) and then washed and dried. The groups(B,D,F,H) sealant was applied with CHX varnish . Results: statistical analyses presented that SBSs of laser radiation were significantly difference than that of acid etching. Conclusions : laser etched resulted the bond Strength accepted clinically in the metal , ceramic and could be an substitute to the acid etching . CHX sealant not significant affect in orthophosphoric acid etching but more weaker in laser etching.
Does Market Power Affect Banking Dividend Policy? Evidence from Nepal

We attempt to explain how market power impacts bank dividend payment behaviors in Nepal by taking the sample from the commercial banking sector employing a panel data regression model. Using the Lerner Index (LI), a non-structural measure of market power or lack of competition, we found that market power inversely but statistically insignificantly affect dividend payment. This finding leads us to conclude that market power-a proxy of more or less competition is not an important and influencing factor to the dividend decisions in commercial banking sectors signifying that competition does not seem helpful in mitigating agency conflicts. It is also concluded that banking dividend payouts are not the result of the punitive influence of product market antagonism. Further, among other firm-specific determinants, bank size and leverage significantly positively whereas asset growth significantly negatively affect the dividend decision. However, profitability is found insignificant determinant of dividend payment. The paper enriches and contributes to the literature on banking dividend payout and helps to identify the key factors that affect banking dividend decision-making. Keywords : Banks, Market competition, Market power, Lerner Index, Nepal
Tectono‐stratigraphic evolution of the offshore western Niger Delta from the Cretaceous to present: Implications of delta dynamics and paleo‐topography on gravity‐driven deformation

The interaction between sedimentary wedge dynamics and paleo‐fracture zones is investigated offshore western Niger Delta lobe (WNDL) to reconstruct the evolution of the delta from the Cretaceous to present. This was achieved through detailed regional seismic interpretation, calibrated with well data. Our results suggest that high sedimentation rates in the WNDL since the Serravallian–Tortonian triggered the migration of the ‘Oligocene‐Tortonian extensional zone’ and gravity spreading seawards (from a present‐day onshore to a present‐day offshore position), with extensional, translational and contractional deformation. An additional increase in sedimentation rate since the early Pliocene, further accelerated gravity spreading and the development of the present‐day contractional front. A five‐stage tectono‐stratigraphic evolution of the offshore WNDL from the late Cretaceous to present is proposed. Paleo‐topographies formed by the Charcot and Chain Fracture Zones exerted depositional control on the stratigraphic architecture of the offshore WNDL from the Cretaceous to Serravallian. Differential subsidence on both sides of the relict Charcot and Chain transform faults is responsible for the segmentation of gravity‐driven deformation of the eastern and western Niger Delta lobes. In addition, a comparison of the stratigraphic architecture of the eastern Niger Delta lobe (ENDL) and WNDL demonstrates a similar overall progradation and sediment bypass to the deep basin during the Pliocene. During the Pleistocene, the two lobes show a distinct evolution and architecture: the ENDL shows an overall retrogradation and sediment sequestration on the shelf, whereas the WNDL displays an overall progradation and sediment bypass. This study documents long‐term and large‐scale control of delta dynamics and paleo‐topography on gravity‐driven deformation of the offshore eastern and western Niger Delta lobes, and similar analysis could be applied in the reconstruction of other passive margin basins.
Paleodiet and niche partitioning among the easternmost European cave bears based on tooth wear analysis

ABSTRACT Extinct cave bears inhabited a large part of Eurasia in a wide diversity of habitats during the Pleistocene. This study investigates via tooth wear analysis the feeding habits of 66 individuals belonging to three genetically different species located in the Urals and eastern Europe: Ursus rossicus from Kizel cave, U. kanivetz from Secrets cave, and U. ingressus from Shiriaevo 1 cave. For the microwear analysis, the three species were compared with a reference collection of extant ursids. The dietary space of U. kanivetz does not match any of the extant species’ spaces. U. rossicus and U. ingressus tended towards some of the extant species’ measurements without any overlapping. For all three sites, the same microwear pattern was identified for all age groups (juvenile, prime, and old adult), meaning no differences related to ontogeny were found. The extinct species presented a larger number of coarse scratches compared to extant species, pointing to a preference for abrasive food items like dry grass or shrubs typical of the mammoth steppe biome during the cold season. These results indicate a niche partitioning between U. rossicus and U. kanivetz that co-existed in the same area, and in this way they avoiding competition.