Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wind Energy Forecasting: A Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Approaches

This paper conducts a comprehensive comparative analysis of machine learning and deep learning techniques for wind energy forecasting. Wind energy prediction is a crucial aspect of renewable energy management. We study and assess the application of tree-based algorithms (LightGBM, CatBoost, and Random Forest) and deep learning approaches (feedforward networks with skip connection and FT-transformers). In the numerical study, we evaluate forecasting accuracy, robustness, computational efficiency, and analyze the reasons why some methods are better than others. This research contributes to advancing wind energy forecasting methodologies in the renewable energy sector. Accurate predictive models play the most crucial role in optimizing wind energy integration into the grid, supporting a sustainable energy future.
Revealing the Origin of Typical and Atypical Forms of Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia with a Compact Computer Model of Rabbit AV Node

In this work, using our recent compact multifunctional model of rabbit AV node, we studied the onset of typical and atypical forms of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) and revealed the origin of both forms and their incidence in clinics. We demonstrated for the first time using computer simulations that differences in the effective refractory periods of slow and fast conduction pathways during anterograde and retrograde conduction determine the type (typical or atypical) of AVNRT. The obtained results correspond to the clinical and experimental data and explain the significant prevalence of the typical type over the atypical one.
Analysis of Factors that Affect Users of Quick Response Indonesia Standard

QRIS is one of the payment methods that are commonly used in this digital era. It is based on QR Code with the purpose to solve challenges in other payment system. QRIS gives more advantages compared to other payment systems by offering ease and practicality. However, not all people sympathize with the advantages QRIS offers. Some people prefer to use the old payment method (cash), and it is affected by several factors. This research seeks to determine how performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and perceived security affect users' preference of utilizing QRIS. For purposes of assessing its objective, quantitative approach was employed. The survey was distributed to the public that had experience using QRIS. SmartPLS 4 was used to assess 191 responses for model and structural metrics. As in result, effort expectancy and performance expectancy were not crucial to the respondents when adopting QRIS payment. On the other hand, facilitating condition, perceived security, and social influence significantly influence the QRIS utilization. This study offers better clarity to acknowledge the factors that affect users of QRIS.
Cognitive Load Assessment through Power Spectral Density in EEG

Cognitive load (CL) is a key concept in evaluating and tracking human performance in cognitive activities. The goal of this study was to assess cognitive strain using EEG signals from an existing mental arithmetic dataset. Our evaluation included examining the PSD values of theta and alpha frequency bands across all channels. We also investigated the theta-to-alpha ratio in three electrode configurations: Fz, Pz, Cz, and a mix of frontal and parietal electrodes for both the left and right brain hemispheres. The assessments were conducted in two conditions: (i) resting vs task; and (ii) based on distinct performance levels. Our main findings revealed that, when compared to the rest state, the PSD values for the theta and alpha frequency bands decreased during the task state, while the theta-to-alpha ratio increased. This means that individuals had increased cognitive load and decreased relaxation.Furthermore, when assessing CL during a single subtraction task, the left brain hemisphere appeared to be more active than the right. The secondary observation found that good performers, as opposed to average and bad performers, had peak PSD values in both theta and alpha frequency bands, as well as the theta-to-alpha ratio. This shows that good performers bear a heavier cognitive load than their peers, which is consistent with the observation that their left hemisphere is more engaged than the others. Finally, the methods used in this study are insightful and can be considered a feature of EEG data.
Assessing the Impact of Field-Measurement on the Design of Spectrum Sensing WSN

Measuring the pathloss between points on a network (i.e., a site survey) is a time-consuming and costly process. Understandably, WSN designers rely on (empirical) models of signal propagation for indoor environments combined with a calibration phase to estimate a priori the sensor coverage area. However, the accuracy of these indoor models decreases as the signal crosses floors in the same building or between buildings. Thus, when the sensing range of a sensor is relatively large compared with the communication range for which the models are developed - as it is the case in a Spectrum Sensing WSN - a model-based WSN design will incur a significant error. Previously, authors have concentrated on intermediate figures of error: either the pathloss estimation or the WSN coverage area. Our work focuses on the “bottom line”, that is, the error in the total number of sensors required by the design, which directly associates with the implementation cost. The final results show that in the case of spectrum sensing for a WiFi network in typical school buildings, the use of actual pathloss measurements results in significant savings of up to over the 50% in the number of sensors required.
Learning Technique to Solve Periodic Markov Decision Process for Network Resource Allocation

Reinforcement learning (RL) has been widely applied to communication and computer systems. The mathematical foundation of RL is Markov Decision Process (MDP), where a Markov process with defined states is used to model the system and the actions to be taken affect the state transitions and the corresponding rewards. The deep RL (DRL) can produce the optimal action policy represented by deep neural networks to maximize the long-term reward. However, a key limitation of the RL is that the system under consideration often does not satisfy the required mathematical properties, thus making the MDP inexact and the derived policy non-optimal. To overcome this shortcoming, we consider the periodic Markov Decision Process (pMDP) where the evolution of the underlying process and model parameters for the pMDP demonstrate some forms of periodic characteristics (e.g., periodic job arrivals and available resources). To obtain the optimal policies for the pMDP, a policy gradient method with a multi-policies solution framework is proposed, and a deep-learning method is developed to improve effectiveness and stability of the proposed solution. The deep-learning method is applied to achieve the optimal allocation of resources to arriving computational tasks in a network setting similar to the software-defined network (SDN). Evaluation results reveal that the proposed technique is valid and capable of outperforming the baseline, which employ the state-of-art RL algorithm by 25% on average.
The effect of career plateau on the academic productivity of public secondary school teachers in Kikuyu District, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to establish how the negative outcomes of career plateau affect productivity. The general objective of the study was to determine how career plateau has an influence on the academic productivity of public secondary school teachers in Kikuyu District. The specific objectives were to determine; how stress and burnout, absenteeism, conflict with administrators, and the desire to leave the teaching profession have affected the academic productivity of teachers. The Study was conducted in Kikuyu District, which is one of the 10 districts in Kiambu County. The other districts in this county are: Gatundu, Githunguri, Kiambu, East Kiambaa, Kiambu West, Lari, Ruiru, Thika East and Thika West. There were 26 public secondary schools in Kikuyu district. The target population consisted of 563 teachers from the 23 public secondary schools in the district. The researcher used stratified random sampling and simple random sampling to get the sample size of 141 teachers out of whom 110 teachers participated by responding to the questionnaire. The research utilized descriptive design. Frequency counts, percentages, bar graphs, and charts were used in data analysis. The study established that, majority of the teachers 69 (63%) were last promoted between 2 15 years ago. This revelation clearly indicates that very many teachers have been experiencing career plateau in their profession. The results on teachers' assessment on job productivity show clearly that teachers who are exhibiting characteristics of career plateauing are among those teachers who are citing reasons for average and below average performance. The study leads to the conclusion that career plateau-has caused many teachers to desire to leave the teaching profession. The study recommends that teachers should be motivated and good promotion policies developed. v
THE EFFECT OF DIET ON GROWTH PERFORMANCES, CARCASS AND MEAT QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF LAMBS FROM TSIGAI BREED

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of diet on growth performances, carcass and meat quality of Tsigai lambs – rusty variety fed with different diets, in order to improve meat quality and meat sensory characteristics of lambs; forty male lambs (L1 and L2, n = 20 heads/ group) were used in experiment from birth up to 5 months. No significant differences (p > 0.05) were found between the two lots with regard at final weight and average daily gain. The diet had a significant effect between L1 and L2 groups in terms of hot carcass weight and hot slaughter yield (p < 0.001), cold carcass weight and cold slaughter yield (p < 0.01), as well for commercial yield (p < 0.05). The juiciness and overall difference were strongly influenced by the diet administered in the present study, significant differences (p <0.001) being recorded between meat from the two groups. The diet administered to L1 influenced positively the eating qualities of lamb meat, resulting in a more juicy and tender meat, in which the specific lamb taste was attenuated.
Water Pollution and Its Impact on Environment of Society

The present seminar paper mainly highlight the concept of water pollution, causes of water pollution, Its Effects, Elements of pollutants, Methods used to prevent the water pollution in environment and the mandatory initiatives taken by the concerned authorities for prevention of water pollution. Water is essential for survival of all living organisms on the earth. Thus for human beings and plants to survive on land, water should be easily accessible. The term “ Pollution ” is generally refers to addition of any foreign body either living or non – living or deletion of anything that naturally exists. The basic Sources of Water pollution causes due to Culmination into lakes, rivers, ponds, seas, oceans etc. Domestic drainage and sanitary waste, Industrial drainage and sewage , Industrial waste from factories , Dumping of domestic garbage, Immersion of Idols made of plaster of Paris, Excess use of Insecticides , pesticides, fungicides, Chemical fertilizers, Soil erosion during heavy rains and floods, Natural disasters, tsunami etc. General pollutants which are also caused for water pollution which include Organic, Inorganic, and Biological entities, Insecticides, Pesticides, Disinfectants ,Detergents, Industrial solvents, Acids, Ammonia fertilizers, heavy metals, Harmful bacteria, Virus, Micro –Organisms and worms, Toxic chemicals. Agricultural lands become infertile and thereby production also drops, Spread of epidemic diseases like Cholera, Dysentery, Typhoid, Diarrhea, Hepatitis, Jaundice etc. The basic responsibility of the Government, NGOs, National Pioneer scientific Research Institutions may conduct research oriented programs on control of water pollution by create awareness among the public through mass media and Environmental Education on recycling units, and water treatment plants must be established both at domestic levels and Industry levels, Every citizen must feel responsible to control water pollution. There have been many water pollution prevention acts that have been set up by the governments of the world. But these are not enough for permanent water pollution solutions. Each of us needs to take up the responsibility and do something at an everyday at individual level. Otherwise we can’t survive in a society forever in a future.
Drying effect on the microstructure of compacted salted silt

: This study investigates the drying-induced microstructure evolution of compacted silt with different salinities, using mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). The pore size distribution (PSD) of specimens compacted near optimum ( w = 17%) exhibited bi-modal characteristics. Upon drying ( w = 8%), the PSD changed to tri-modal pattern with appearance of a new nano-pore population. This suggested the development of nano-fissures which could occur in the clay fraction and at the interface between clay particles and silt/sand grains due to the clay shrinkage. With further drying ( w = 3%), the nano-pores disappeared and the PSD recovered to bi-modal characteristics, suggesting that the created nano-fissures were enlarged until they became micro-fissures. The salinity seemed to decrease the frequency of the drying-induced micro-pores due to the enhanced mechanical strength of salted soil by the soil aggregation resulting from the compression of diffuse double layer and a possible cementation effect produced by precipitated salt. However, the salinity effect was relatively low, due to (i) the low clay fraction (15.7%) and the low activity clay minerals (illite, chlorite and kaolinite), (ii) the low specific surface area (24 m 2 /g) which limited the salinity effect on diffuse double layer.
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

A B S T R A C T Research suggests that sleep plays a vital role in memory. We tested the impact of total sleep deprivation on adults ’ memory for a newly learned writing system and on their ability to generalise this knowledge to read untrained novel words. We trained participants to read ﬁ ctitious words printed in a novel arti ﬁ cial orthography, while depriving them of sleep the night after learning (Experiment 1) or the night before learning (Experiment 2). Following two nights of recovery sleep, and again 10 days later, participants were tested on trained words and untrained words, and performance was compared to control groups who had not undergone sleep deprivation. Participants showed a high degree of accuracy in learning the trained words and in generalising their knowledge to untrained words. There was little evidence of impact of sleep deprivation on memory or generalisation. These data support emerging theories which suggest sleep-associated memory consolidation can be accelerated or entirely bypassed under certain conditions, and that such conditions also facilitate generalisation.
24. Clayey Landslide Investigations Using Active and Passive Measurements

Clay slopes frequently are affected by gravitational movements. Such movements generate complex patterns of deformation that have slip surfaces located at different depths and are likely to modify geophysical parameters of the ground. Geophysical experiments performed on the large clayey Avignonet landslide (Western Alps, France) have shown that shear-wave velocity (VS) is most sensitive to clay deconsolidation resulting from the slide. Values of VS at shallow depths exhibit an inverse correlation with the GPS-measured surface-displacement rates. Compared with measurements in stable zones, VS values in the most deformed areas of the slide can be reduced by a factor of two to three. Laboratory measurements on clay samples set in triaxial cells have shown that a strong decrease of VS values accompanies an increase in the void ratio, in a velocity range similar to that measured in situ. Although other factors (stress change, cementation, granularity) can modify VS values, these results justify the potential of VS imaging to map spatially the deformation induced by a landslide. Several active and passive techniques for measuring VS are tested and compared on the kilometer-size and 50-m-deep Avignonet landslide. The crosscorrelation technique, applied to seismic noise recorded by a large-aperture array and associated with shot records, turns out to be an effective tool for imaging the landslide in three dimensions. If permanent stations are installed, the same method also can be used to monitor the evolution of seismic velocity with time, as an indicator of landslide activity.
Comparative analysis of microorganism adhesion on coated and uncoated orthodontic archwires: A prospective clinical study

Objectives-Microorganism adhesion on coated (SS and NiTi) and uncoated (SS and NiTi) orthodontic archwires after clinical use. correlation between surface roughness (SR) and bacterial colonization was evaluated. Methods-A total of 40 archwire segments (0.016 * 0.022-in) were equally divided into 4 groups: nickel-titanium coated, nickel-titanium uncoated, uncoated stainless steel, and coated SS. The archwires were randomly inserted. After 4 weeks of clinical use, the total number of microorganisms adhering to the archwire was quantified and transformed into colony-forming units. SR was evaluated using a SEM. Result-All archwires presented microbial adhesion, but coated SS group demonstrating the lowest value (P≤0.001) . A statistically significant increase in SR was observed after clinical use for all groups (P≤0.05). Microbial adhesion occurred on all of the archwires tested, especially on the uncoated NiTi shows maximum adhesion. Conclusion - Adequate implementation of each type of coated archwire can improve patients’ comfort as well as reducing the treatment time. The personal orthodontist should always know and understand the needs and opportunities during each stage of treatment. It
The Importance Of Decolonial Narratives: The Case Of Work Psychology In Rio De Janeiro

This paper aims to discuss the importance of decolonial narratives in general and in the field of history of psychology in particular. For this, we take as the starting point the initial results of a recently published empirical study, which investigated different styles of management within the scope of labor in Rio de Janeiro between 1949 and 1965 through the analysis of publications of the journal Arquivos Brasileiros de Psicologia. Such results pointed to an inadequacy between the interpretations of the management styles that are used, on the one hand, in the English and North American context and, on the other, in Rio de Janeiro. The discussion of this article focuses on this inadequacy, underlining the differences between how colonial and decolonial narratives conceive the relationship between empirical data and intelligibility matrices and the historiographical and methodological consequences of this relationship.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Nursing students’ attitudes towards information communication technology

Aim: The aim of this study was to develop and psychometrically test a shortened version of the Information Technology Attitude Scales for Health, in the investigation of nursing students with clinical placement experiences. Background: Nurses and nursing students need to develop high levels of competency in information and communication technology. However, they encounter significant barriers in the use of the technology. Although some instruments have been developed to measure factors that influence nurses’ attitudes towards technology, the validity is questionable and few studies have been developed to test the attitudes of nursing students, in particular. Design: A cross-sessional survey design was performed. Methods : The Information Technology Attitude Scales for Health was used to collect data from October 2012 to December 2012. A panel of experts reviewed the content of the instrument and a pilot study was conducted. Following this, a total of 508 nursing students, who were engaged in clinical placements, were recruited from six universities in South Korea. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed and reliability and construct validity were assessed. Results: The resulting instrument consisted of 19 items across four factors. Reliability of the four factors was acceptable and the validity was supported. Conclusions: The instrument was shown to be both valid and reliable for measuring nursing students’ attitudes towards technology, thus aiding in the current understandings of this aspect. Through these measurements and understandings, nursing educators and students are able to be more reflexive of their attitudes and can thus seek to develop them positively.
World Energy Outlook 2007 : China and India Insights

China and India are the emerging giants in the global economy. The unprecedented growth rates of their economies will improve billions of people's standard of living but will require ever more energy. But how can an energy system be made safer and with less carbon content? World Energy Outlook 2007, of which we publish the official summary, gives some answers.
Potential role of the palaeohistory of the Mediterranean and Paratethys basins on the early dispersal of Euro-Mediterranean freshwater fishes

Based on the distribution of primary freshwater fishes, 12 peri-Mediterranean ichthyogeographic districts are recognized. The uniqueness and restricted range of several endemic taxa occurring in the southern European peninsulas and in North West Africa suggest a first "Mediterranean" dispersal rather than a dispersal by river captures between southern and northern Europe. The analysis of the fossil record, palaeogeography and palaeoecological data of the Mediterranean and Paratethys suggests a major penetration of primary freshwater fishes into peri-Mediterranean districts during the Messinian (5 MY) lacustrine "Lago Mare" phase of the Mediterranean. Today's distribution of primary freshwater fishes in peri-Mediterranean districts, as well as the fish zoogeography of Palearctic region is mostly the result of Late Pleistocene events (last Wurm glaciation, 18 000 years ago), when during the more extended marine regressions, river confluences occurred in epicontinental seas. In Eurosiberian lowlands, a network of connected lakes was possibly in operation at every glacial-interglacial transition, allowing fish dispersal in the area comprise between England and eastern Siberia.Introduction