Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4:summary report

The research project on Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4 was a major initiative funded by Becta to investigate the use and impact of such technologies in and out of school. The purpose of this research was to help shape Becta's own thinking and inform policy-makers, schools and local authorities on the potential benefits of Web 2.0 technologies and how their use can be effectively and safely realised. This document is he summary of the reports published for this project.
Pain in Older People

According to self-report measures, acute pain probably occurs at much the same rate across all age groups. Chronic pain is experienced more by older people, but this increase does not continue beyond the seventh decade. The elderly often experience chronic pain in the joints, back, legs, and feet; they appear to suffer less visceral pain and headache than younger people. The plateau in overall chronic pain prevalence with age may reflect a balance between age-related impairment of the nociceptive function of the nervous system and an increase in the pathological load that accompanies old age. The contribution of other dimensions of the pain experience to this equation can only be discovered through longitudinal studies that focus primarily on pain rather than addressing pain as an ancillary to other aspects of aging.
Effect of Ethanol Root-Extract of Sphenocentrum jollyanum on CD4

This study was designed to determine the effect of ethanol root extract of Sphenocentrum jollyanum on CD4 + count and some oxidative stress parameters in Plasmodium bergheiinfected mice. The parameters were determined using standard methods. A total of thirty six albino mice were used for the study. The mice were acclimatized for seven days, then randomly assigned into six experimental groups of A, B, C, D, E and F with six (6) mice in each group. Mice in group A were given normal saline only and regarded as normal control. Mice in groups B to F were infected with Plasmodium berghei via intra-peritoneal cavity. Mice in group B (Positive control) were treated with 5 mg/Kg body weight of standard drug (Lonart®-DS) while mice in group C (Negative control) were left without treatment. Group D, E and F (treated groups) were treated with graded doses of 200, 400 and 800 mg/Kg body weight of ethanol root extract of Sphenocentrum jollyanum, respectively. All the mice were allowed free access to water and feed without restriction. Oral route was used for the administration of the Lonart® and the extract. The treatment lasted for ten days. The result showed that infection of the mice with P. berghei revealed a significant (P<0.05) low activities of catalase, superoxide dismutase and level of cluster of differentiation 4 while level of malondialdehyde was significantly (P<0.05) higher relative to the normal control. Treatment of the infected mice with the stated doses of S. jollyanum extract and standard drug (Lonart®) significantly (P<0.05) reversed the trend of these parameters in a dose dependent manner to a level similar to that of the normal control. The effect of the extract, especially, the highest dose of 800 mg/Kg body weight was comparable to that of the standard drug as there were no significant (P>0.05) difference between these groups. This study indicates that ethanol root extract of Sphenocentrum jollyanum contain principles that may be useful in the management of oxidative stress elicited by Plasmodium berghei infection.
Phytophthora acerina sp. nov., a new species causing bleeding cankers and dieback of Acer pseudoplatanus trees in planted forests in northern Italy

B. Ginetti, S. Moricca*, J. N. Squires, D. E. L. Cooke, A. Ragazzi and T. Jung Department of Agri-Food Production and Environmental Sciences, Plant Pathology and Entomology Division, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine 28, 50144 Florence, Italy; The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK; Phytophthora Research and Consultancy, Thomastrasse 75, D-83098 Brannenburg, Germany; and Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Centre of Genomics and Biotechnology, (IBB/CGB), Plant and Animal Genomic Group, Laborat orio de Biotecnologia Molecular e Fitopatologia, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
PartialFed: Cross-Domain Personalized Federated Learning via Partial Initialization

The burst of applications empowered by massive data have aroused unprecedented privacy concerns in AI society. Currently, data conﬁdentiality protection has been one core issue during deep model training. Federated Learning (FL), which enables privacy-preserving training across multiple silos, gained rising popularity for its parameter-only communication. However, previous works have shown that FL revealed a signiﬁcant performance drop if the data distributions are heterogeneous among different clients, especially when the clients have cross-domain characteristic, such as trafﬁc, aerial and in-door. To address this challenging problem, we propose a novel idea, PartialFed , which loads a subset of the global model’s parameters rather than loading the entire model used in most previous works. We ﬁrst validate our algorithm with manually decided loading strategies inspired by various expert priors, named PartialFed-Fix . Then we develop PartialFed-Adaptive , which automatically selects personalized loading strategy for each client. The superiority of our algorithm is proved by demonstrating the new state-of-the-art results on cross-domain federated classiﬁcation and detection. In particular, solely by initializing a small fraction of layers locally, we improve the performance of FedAvg on Ofﬁce-Home and UODB by 4.88% and 2.65%, respectively. Further studies show that the adaptive strategy performs signiﬁcantly better on domains with large deviation, e.g. improves AP50 by 4.03% and 4.89% on aerial and medical image detection compared to FedAvg.
CONTEXT BASED SEMANTIC SEARCH DIVERSIFICATION MODEL

: In keyword search it is important to identify the actual meaning of a query and the context of query terms at an earlier phase. Conceptualization is the process of identifying this contextual information about query terms and to produce meaningful segments which guides to achieve search diversification. Because of the advancements in Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the growth in overall Parallel computing applications the search diversification process is not at all a risky job now. The proposed Semantic Search Diversification Model (SSDM) identifies the context of the search query at the very beginning of the search. The concept of Smallest Lowest Common Ancestor (SLCA) nodes is used to lock the desired key and semantic keys over the XML tree branches. The Mutual Information value of the given query terms and their semi features are considered. The Probabilistic weight of the search query is calculated based on the relevancy and the novelty of the query. The proposed Anchor based Semantic Preservation (AESP) algorithm extracts the weighted SLCA nodes for the original and generated queries from the given XML data and determines the anchor nodes to initiate the tree pruning. The node lists are assigned to multiple processors in order to achieve parallelism. The fuzzy set of the popular terms in the given data set is used for creating semantic table for the query terms. The Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain (nDCG) measures of the SSDM shows the usefulness of the query suggestions, and a point to apply search annotations if needed.
Some factors affecting the in-soil load-strain behaviour of virgin and damaged nonwoven geotextiles

This paper presents a study on the tensile response of virgin and damaged nonwoven geotextile tested in isolation under different conditions of confinement. Five geotextiles, four confinement conditions and different types of mechanical damage were investigated. The influences of the intrusion of soil particles and the shape of these particles on the load–strain relation of the geotextiles were also examined. The results obtained show that confinement reduces the detrimental effects of mechanical damage on the tensile behaviour of nonwoven geotextiles. The amount and shape of the soil particles that intrude the geotextile pores also influence the tensile stiffness. The results show the potential of nonwoven geotextiles as reinforcement for reinforced soil structures of low to moderate sizes where the use of stiffer reinforcements may not be necessary or may be cost-prohibitive.
A MODIFIED OF TAM AND TTF INTEGRATION TO ANALYZE THE EFFECT OF ERP IMPLEMENTATION ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions have been implemented in most companies globally, including in Indonesia, because this system has a significant impact on the efficiency, effectiveness of business processes, and improved employee performance. State-owned enterprises in Indonesia have also implemented ERP to enhance employee performance. This study aims to prove that the ERP system can improve employee performance by identifying and testing the most critical factors that influence ERP implementation on employee performance in state-owned enterprises in the manufacturing sector in Indonesia. This study uses a modified model that integrates the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Task Technology Fit (TTF) model adapted to ERP implementation problems. The integration of the two models is carried out because the two models cover two different aspects; TAM focuses more on the technology used rather than the technology's ability to support users in carrying out tasks focused on the TTF model. The model was tested using data collected by distributing questionnaires to ERP users in State-Owned Enterprises. Hypotheses were tested and analyzed using the Partial Least Square(PLS) with the help of SmartPLS 3.0 software. This research's contribution is that the integration model can combine the strengths of the TAM and TTF models to see the performance of employees of State-Owned Enterprises in Indonesia. The results showed that 8 (eight) hypotheses were accepted, and 1 (one) hypothesis was rejected. Finally, these findings can help encourage ERP implementation in other companies in the future because the results of implementing ERP are proven to improve employee performance.
Interpretation of Violin Spectrum Using Psychoacoustic Experiments

Couple of psychoacoustic experiments with violin tones of several pitches led to the extraction of timbral attributes such as Sharpness, Darkness, Narrowness, Rustleness, Glossiness and Buzzing. The hypotheses about their spectral sources were formulated and verified in subsequent listening tests. The frequency position, level and pitch dependence and mutual connections of these spectral sources are discussed.
Large-scale Seismic Response Analysis of Super-high-rise Steel Building Considering Soil-structure Interaction using K computer

In the present study, the preliminary results of a large-scale seismic response analysis of a super-high-rise steel frame considering soil-structure interaction are presented. A seismic response analysis under the excitation of the JR Takatori record of the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake is conducted. Precise meshes of a 31-story super-high-rise steel frame and a soil region, which are constructed completely of hexahedral elements, are generated and combined. The parallel large-scale simulation is performed using K computer, which is one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. The results are visualized using an offline rendering code implemented on K computer, and the feasibility of using a very fine mesh of solid elements is investigated. The computation performance of the analysis code on K computer is also presented.
Level of Automation Effects on Situation Awareness and Functional Specificity in Automation Reliance

This work investigated the relationship between task performance and situation awareness ( SA) at different levels of automation (LOA). The conventional wisdom is that routine performance improves with level of automation but that the consequences of automation failure become more severe. This has been characterized as a routine-failure trade-off, However, recent research indicates that the trade-off is subject to unknown contextual factors in addition to the level of automation. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the human operator’s SA may impact whether the trade-off between performance under routine and failure conditions is always tenable. The current study therefore aimed to i) provide evidence to support or refute the trade-off and ii) to identify possible extenuating factors. The results generally supported the existence of the routine-failure trade-off, though the strength of this finding was tempered somewhat by operators’ apparent selective disuse of higher level automation which limited the effective range of LOA tested. We interpreted that the SA collection method made the goal of SA maintenance explicit and in doing so encouraged operators to preferentially reallocate attention away from other system goals. Thus, the functional structure of the task seems to affect whether the routine-failure trade-off occurs in a given instance.
The Effects of Genre and Reading Difficulty on Narrative Transportation: The Mediating Role of Affect

Stories offer a refuge from people’s mundane troubles and commitments by immersing them in intricate fictional worlds. Narrative transportation, i.e., the feeling of being “lost” in the world of a story, has been found to be an important measure of involvement with narratives (Green & Brock, 2000). Numerous studies have examined the impact of literary fiction on readers’ theory of mind, but the relationship between genre and narrative transportation remains relatively unexplored. Black and Barnes (2015a) proposed that exposure to literary fiction produces higher narrative transportation than exposure to nonfiction texts. The present investigation sought to replicate this finding while (a) measuring baseline trait empathy, (b) addressing a confound of genre and reading difficulty noted in prior work, and (c) assessing the mediating role of affect on the relationship between genre and narrative transportation. Empathy was positively correlated with narrative transportation, r = . 39, p < . 001. Narrative transportation was higher for participants who read challenging fiction and nonfiction than for participants who read easy fiction, F(2, 891) = 5.79, p = . 003, ηp2= . 013. Positive affect, but not negative affect, mediated the effect of challenging versus easy text conditions on narrative transportation, b = –. 16, se = . 04 (95% CI [–.25, –.08]). These findings suggest that narrative transportation may not be dependent on story genre, but rather on a given text’s difficulty level and the positive emotions experienced while reading.
A Comparative Analysis of Mobile and Email Marketing Using AIDA Model

This study assessed the effectiveness of mobile and email marketing channels using AIDA model. The study used questionnaires based survey to collect data. The collected data were analyzed through logistic regression. The study is based on the marketing channels adopted by a mega store. Results indicated that mobile marketing was more effective as compared to email marketing. This study was unique in the sense that comparison between both channels based on AIDA model was analyzed for the first time. It is suggested that marketing professionals can increase their sales using mobile marketing; however, this effort should be supplemented by using e-mail marketing.
ICT for Learning, Innovation and Creativity

New technologies, and especially social computing, provide new opportunities for education and training, as they enhance learning and teaching, and facilitate collaboration, innovation and creativity for individuals and organizations. The benefits of deploying social computing and ICT for learning depend on the learning approach used, emphasizing the role and the skills of the teacher and the need for supportive settings for both learners and teachers. How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu), where you can place an order with the sales agent of your choice. The Publications Office has a worldwide network of sales agents. You can obtain their contact details by sending a fax to (352) 29 29-42758. The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of special interests, whether private or national.
Il web e l'informativa societaria ai mercati finanziari

Il web e l'informativa societaria ai mercati finanziari (di Alberto Quagli) - ABSTRACT: L’articolo descrive le potenzialita ed i rischi della distribuzione da parte delle societa di informazioni economico-finanziarie tramite i propri siti web ed i modelli di comunicazione impiegabili sul canale Internet rivolti ai mercati finanziari. E analizzato inoltre il quadro normativo attualmente esistente nel nostro Paese per tale tipo di informativa societaria. La parte finale presenta i risultati di una indagine condotta presso un campione di analisti finanziari in merito all’utilizzo di Internet come canale informativo in merito alle societa oggetto della loro attenzione.
The Glucose yield and increasing starch activity of the native amylase from Bacillus subtilis and cloned amylase from transformed E . coli

This research paper involved the isolation of amylase gene from pure Bacillus subtilis isolated from a cassava waste dumpsite, ligation of the gene onto a plasmid and subsequent insertion of the recombinant plasmid in Escherichia coli (E. coli) to produce a cloned amylase enzyme. The biochemical tests showed that the isolate was Application Programming Interface (API 50CH) positive and oxidase negative. These results in conjunction with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and defined primer sets were used to identify the organism as Bacillus subtilis. Courtesy of three methods of DNA extraction, the average concentration of the organism (Bacillus subtilis) DNA was found to be 395. 58μg while 1159 base pair was exhibited from the 2% gel electrophoresis of the amylase gene. The ligation and transformation processes were achieved using kits procured from Promega Corporation, U. S. A. which consists among other things pGEM®T Easy vector and JM109 High-Efficient competent Escherichia coli respectively. The enzyme analysis showed 0. 63μg/ml/seconds and 0. 66μg/ml/seconds activity for the native and cloned amylase respectively. The work concludes that the amylase gene from Bacillus subtilis isolated from a cassava waste dumpsite has been successfully transferred into E. coli which produced amylase more useful.
A Stepwise Efficiency Improvement DEA Model for Airport Management with a Fixed Runway Capacity

Airports face a mutual competition. Consequently, they will be forced to improve the efficiency. Actual airport policies may comprise both short-term (flexible) adjustments and long-term (rigid) adjustments. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a standard tool to assess the relative efficiency. Two interesting approaches, namely Distance Friction Minimization (DFM) model and Context-Dependent (CD) model, are noteworthy here. DFM model serves to improve the performance of business activities by identifying the most appropriate movement towards the efficiency frontier surface. Likewise, CD model seeks to reach efficient frontiers in a series of steps. Stepwise DFM model is integrated of DFM and CD model. An extension of Stepwise DFM model is next achieved by including a fixed (rigid) input factor. In our study, the above-mentioned Stepwise Fixed Factor projection model is illustrated on the basis of a comparative study regarding an efficiency assessment of airports in Japan.
Adversarially Robust 3D Point Cloud Recognition Using Self-Supervisions

3D point cloud data is increasingly used in safety-critical applications such as autonomous driving. Thus, the robustness of 3D deep learning models against adversarial attacks becomes a major consideration. In this paper, we systematically study the impact of various self-supervised learning proxy tasks on different architectures and threat models for 3D point clouds with adversarial training. Speciﬁcally, we study MLP-based (PointNet), convolution-based (DGCNN), and transformer-based (PCT) 3D architectures. Through extensive experimentation, we demonstrate that appropriate applications of self-supervision can signiﬁcantly enhance the robustness in 3D point cloud recognition, achieving considerable improvements compared to the standard adversarial training baseline. Our analysis reveals that local feature learning is desirable for adversarial robustness in point clouds since it limits the adversarial propagation between the point-level input perturbations and the model’s ﬁnal output. This insight also explains the success of DGCNN and the jigsaw proxy task in achieving stronger 3D adversarial robustness.
Nextclade: clade assignment, mutation calling and quality control for viral genomes

The variants of concern (VoCs) of SARS-CoV-2 have highlighted the need for a global molecular surveillance of pathogens via whole genome sequencing. Such sequencing, for SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens, is performed by an ever increasing number of labs across the globe, resulting in an increased need for an easy, fast, and decentralized analysis of initial data. Nextclade aligns viral genomes to a reference sequence, calculates several quality control (QC) metrics, assigns sequences to a clade or variant, and identifies changes in the viral proteins relative to the reference sequence. Nextclade is available as a command-line tool and as a web application with completely client based processing, meaning that sequence data doesn’t leave the user’s browser.
Effects of Maternal Alcohol Consumption on the Biochemical Parameters in the Pups of Albino Rats

Alcohol ingestion during pregnancy can result in fetal disturbances in the offsprings. In this work, the effects of maternal alcohol consumption on the biochemical parameters in the pups of albino rats were carried out. Three groups of the animals, A, B and C were used in this study . Group A was the control group while groups B and C served as test groups. Group B (Prenatal group) was exposed to 1ml of 20% ethanol per kg weight up to the delivery time while group C (postnatal group) was administered with 1ml of 20% ethanol per kg weight up to the weaning period. A total of 120 pups from the three groups were used in the investigations. Eight pups were randomly selected every week from each group and 3mls of blood was collected by ocular puncture for a period of five weeks. Vitros360 chemistry autoanalyzer was used for biochemical assay. Mean values of the aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities and bilirubin were significantly elevated (p<0.05) in test groups (B & C) from 2 nd to 6 th week of age compared with control while the mean value of alanine transminase (ALT) activities was only significantly increased (p <0.05) in the 6 th week of age in the test group C compared with control. Furthermore, while the mean value of glucose concentrations were significantly increased (p<0.05) in weeks 5 and 6, mean values of cholesterol and creatinine levels were only significantly increased in week 5 in the test groups compared with control (P<0.05). However, there was no significant elevation (p>0.05) in mean value of urea in the test groups in all the weeks understudy. These investigations have therefore demonstrated that maternal alcohol consumption during prenatal and postnatal periods has some deleterious and toxic effect on some biochemical parameters and has revealed potential risks in the offsprings. Therefore, there is the need for controlled maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and before weaning periods.