Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sprout: Using a Garden Metaphor to Visualize and Support Customizable and Collaborative Health Tracking

Self-tracking tools have become increasingly popular, especially with the advent of wearable technology and smartphone applications. However, traditional tracking tools often display data in a quantitative format that can be overwhelming and cause users to abandon their tracking efforts. Additionally, these tools typically provide a generic user experience and are designed from a single-user perspective, lacking external support. To overcome these limitations, we develop Sprout, a mobile data-tracking application that offers a more qualitative, customizable, and collaborative experience for health monitoring and management. Sprout uses a garden metaphor to visually represent health information and allows users to tailor their data experience by customizing data capture types and corresponding visual representation for each element. Furthermore, users in Sprout can collaborate to achieve community goals, unlocking new features for their gardens. We conduct a user study with 22 participants to investigate the impact of qualitative data visualization, customizability, and social support on users’ activity levels, goal attainment, engagement, and satisfaction with the self-tracking system. Our results suggest that qualitative visualization of data can help some users maintain their motivation to meet health-related goals, but a mix of quantitative and qualitative data is desired by some users. Customizability requires tailored features to help users develop a sense of ownership over time, and social features are a crucial motivator for users to achieve their health goals. However, tracking with strangers instead of friends can hinder user engagement due to the lack of connection.
What works and what does not work in local entrepreneurship support policy?

Objective: The article aims to determine the influence of specific entrepreneurship support instruments in each type of municipality on the increase entrepreneurship level as measured by the number of newly established companies in the area. Research Design & Methods: A survey was conducted among 896 Polish municipalities, asking about four areas of entrepreneurship support: cooperation of the commune with entrepreneurs; finance, tax, and administration support; attracting investors, granting external funds by the commune; and supporting non-govern-mental organizations. To determine the relationship between the type of commune, the instrument used, and the effectiveness of the tool used, we used a generalized reduced gradient non-linear algorithm. Findings: The study results proved that there is no one universal area or instrument that would guarantee with high probability success in the form of an increase in the level of entrepreneurship in a municipality, regardless of its type. It was shown that in specific types of municipalities, it is possible to identify tools that are more effective than others. Implications & Recommendations: This knowledge can and should provide important guidance to decision-makers at the local level, showing tools that may work better in their type of municipality. Contribution & Value Added: The identification of specific tools that work for a particular type of municipality is an important stimulus in the discussion on strengthening the effectiveness of Polish municipalities’ policies.
Comparative Analysis Study for Air Quality Prediction in Smart Cities Using Regression Techniques

In smart cities, air pollution has detrimental impacts on human physical health and the quality of living environment. Therefore, correctly predicting air quality plays an important effective action plan to mitigate air pollution and create healthier and more sustainable environments. Monitoring and predicting air pollution is crucial to empower individuals to make informed decisions that protect their health. This research presents a comprehensive comparative analysis focused on air quality prediction using three distinct regression techniques- Random Forest regression, Linear regression, and Decision Tree regression. The main goal of this study is to discern the most effective model by considering a range of evaluation criteria, including Mean Absolute Error and $R^{2}$ measures. Moreover, it considers the crucial aspects of minimizing prediction errors and enhancing computational efficiency by evaluating the regression models within two frameworks. The findings of this study underscore the superiority of the Decision Tree regression approach over the other models, demonstrating its exceptional accuracy with a high $R^{2}$ score and a minimal error rate. Moreover, integrating cloud computing technology has resulted in substantial improvements in the execution time of these approaches. This technology enhancement significantly affects the overall efficiency of the air quality prediction process. By leveraging distributed computing resources, real-time air quality forecasting becomes feasible, enabling timely decision-making and proactive measures to address air pollution episodes effectively.
Bird diversity along an urban to rural gradient in large tropical cities peaks in mid-level urbanization

The gradient from natural to urban areas strongly associates with the structure of avian communities over that gradient. Most research on urban birds is from temperate areas and knowledge from tropical Southeast Asia is lacking. We examined bird species diversity, relative abundance, and species composition along an urban to rural gradient in three Myanmar cities, and assessed potential environmental factors responsible for the changes. We counted birds within 40 point-count sites with 50-m fixed-radius in three large cities of Myanmar, namely Mandalay, Mawlamyine, and Myeik. We distinguished four urban habitat types (Downtown–urban, University Campus–suburban, Paddy Field–agriculture, Hill–forest). We classified all species into migrant or resident and into major feeding groups and related with several environmental parameters such as ‘impervious surface’. We counted 5,423 individuals of 103 species with roughly equal species diversity between the three cities. Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) was the most frequent species. The species composition differed significantly between the four major habitat types. Omnivores were more abundant in the city center than all other functional groups. Interestingly, insectivores were also predominant in the city center. In addition, more generalist’ species occurred towards the city center compared to the periphery, indicating that the periphery has increased relevance for specialized birds. We found some marked differences in species composition between the three cities of Mandalay, Mawlamyine, and Myeik. Additionally to species composition, species diversity and relative abundance differed significantly between each of the four major habitat types in all three cities.
A study on the relationship between attitudes towards sports and self-efficacy levels of individuals doing leisure time activities

The purpose of this study was to research the relationship between attitudes towards sports and self-efficacy levels of individuals who do leisure-time activities. 894 people voluntarily participated in our study. The personal information form, the attitude scale towards sports developed by Koçak (2014) and the general self-efficacy scale developed by Sherer, et al. (1982) and adapted to Turkish by Yıldırım and İlhan (2010) were used in the study. The data were analyzed in the SPSS 25.0 package software. Furthermore, statistical frequency analysis and reliability coefficient calculations were used and since the data were normally distributed, Independent Samples t-test was used for pairwise cluster comparisons and the Anova test was used for more than two comparisons. Analyses were conducted at a confidence interval of 95%. According to the results of the study, it was found that the total mean score of the participants' attitude towards sports (89.62) and the mean score of self-efficacy (60.08) were above the medium level. A positive and low-level significant relationship was found between the participants' general attitude towards sports (r= ,221), psychosocial development (r= ,215), physical development (r= ,206), mental development (r= ,123) and self-efficacy. As a result, it was found that the participants' self-efficacy level increased as the mean scores of the general attitude towards sports and the mean scores of the sub-dimensions increased.
Impact of Soil Moisture Anomalies on Summer Rainfall over East Asia: A Regional Climate Model Study

Abstract Numerous modeling studies have shown that soil moisture anomalies in later spring have a significant effect on the summer rainfall anomalies in North America. On the other hand, the role of soil moisture in forming monsoonal precipitation in East Asia has not been identified. This study attempts to clarify the importance of soil moisture on the summer rainfall in late spring in East Asia. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Regional Spectral Model (RSM) is utilized for 3-month (June–August) simulations in 1998 (above-normal precipitation year) and 1997 (below-normal precipitation year). Initial and boundary conditions are derived from the NCEP–Department of Energy (DOE) reanalysis. The control run uses the initial soil moisture from the reanalysis, whereas it is set as a saturation and wilting point for “wet” and “dry” experiments, respectively. The impact of soil moisture anomalies on the simulated summer rainfall in East Asia is not significant. The change in precipitation .
How to construct future IDF curves, under changing climate, for sites with scarce rainfall records?

Optimal designs of stormwater systems rely very much on the rainfall Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) curves. As climate has shown significant changes in rainfall characteristics in many regions, the adequacy of the existing IDF curves is called for particularly when the rainfall are much more intense. For data sparse sites/regions, developing IDF curves for the future climate is even challenging. The current practice for such regions is, for example, to ‘borrow’ or ‘interpolate’ data from regions of climatologically similar characteristics.
Transform fault systems of California and New Zealand: similarities in their tectonic and seismic styles

When the San Andreas fault system of California and the Alpine fault system of New Zealand are compared within the reference frame of their regional slip vectors, their major tectonic elements are seen to occupy similar positions. This argues that a genetic relationship exists between the development of these complexities. Furthermore, three distinctive modes of slip, or ‘seismic style’, can be recognized for different segments of these major transform fault systems. These are: (1) slip during great (M ≥ 8) earthquakes separated by long periods of quiescence; (2) slip during more frequent large (6.5 ≤ M ≤ 7.5) earthquakes, and (3) aseismic slip (creep). These different seismic styles occur in distinctive tectonic settings and it is argued that they represent fundamental variations in the mechanical properties of the faults. I suggest that style 1 occurs along sections of the fault orientated such that a component of tectonic convergence occurs, leading to a high effective normal stress and hence high frictional strength. Style 2 occurs along sections of faults which strike close to the regional slip vector, and hence have a lower normal stress. Aseismic slip occurs only along sections of faults in central California where anomalously high pore pressures reduce the effective normal stress to a very low value and the fault is entirely within the stable sliding frictional field.
CO2 Injection As An Immiscible Application For Enhanced Recovery In Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Two techniques have been field-tested. These are ''huff-and-puff'' CO/sub 2/ injection for stimulation of the producing wells and either alternate or simultaneous injection of CO/sub 2/ and water. Both process mechanisms are discussed and are illustrated, where possible, by the results of field tests in the United States. These have been in sandstone reservoirs containing light oils and heavy oils. Several other pilot or field projects are in the planning stage. A planned field demonstration project of both processes, in different test areas of a fractured limestone reservoir (oil 9/degree/-15/degree/) in Turkey, is summarized. The possible range of candidate reservoirs is discussed, and general economic comparison with steam injection is given. 27 refs.
Reflection of layered bean leaves over different soil backgrounds: measured and simulated spectra

Abstract A GER IRIS field spectrometer has been employed in a laboratory setting to measure the spectral reflectance of multiple layers (1, 2, 3, and 4) of French bean leaves overlayed on three soil backgrounds (peat, sand and loam), each in either a dry or wet (watered to field capacity) condition. Spectral reflectance data for the dry sand and dry peat backgrounds and for both sides of the single bean leaf, over these two backgrounds, were used with a simple model to derive the basic leaf optical properties: the diffuse transmittance and front and back reflectance spectra. These basic leaf optical spectra were then used to simulate the effect of leaf layering over the six background soils at 100 nm intervals between 450 nm and 2450 nm. Reflectance differences over the entire spectrum between the simulated and measured spectra were consistently less than 3 per cent for the six background soils used, with leaf to leaf variability thought to play the major role in the observed variability. These results su.
Dynamics of soil aggregate coalescence governed by capillary and rheological processes

The desired soil structure following tillage of agricultural soils is often unstable and susceptible to coalescence of aggregates and reduction of interaggregate porosity due to wetting and drying cycles. This process of aggregate rejoining was modeled by equating the rate of work done by liquid‐vapor menisci, to the rate of energy dissipation due to viscous deformation of a pair of spherical aggregates. The nonlinearity of wet soil viscous flow behavior was accounted for by introducing a Bingham rheological model. A natural outcome of the analysis was the formulation of a mathematical condition for the onset and termination of coalescence based on soil strength at specified water content. The condition states that sufficient energy in excess of soil strength (yield stress) must be available for coalescence to proceed. The rate of aggregate coalescence is proportional to available energy and is inversely related to the coefficient of plastic viscosity. Transport of wet soil to the periphery of the interaggregate contact by viscous flow leads to smoothing of the neck, resulting in pore closure, on the one hand, and restricting the minimum matric potential that can be achieved, on the other. The interplay between rheology and geometry prevent coalescence from proceeding indefinitely. Independently determined soil rheological properties were used to illustrate the use of the model. Coalescence under constant water content and during wetting‐drying cycles was calculated. Comparison of data from experiments on one‐dimensional, aggregate bed settlement has shown reasonable agreement with the model predictions.
Use of alkaline flyash-based products to amend acid soils: Extractability of selected elements and their uptake by plants

In addition to promoting plant growth, the incorporation of flyash material into soil also has the potential to affect the solubility and plant availability of some elements. This paper reports on the effect of 2 flyash products (FAP) on the extractability and plant uptake as a function of pH of selected elements of concern in the environment: As, B, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Mn, Pb, Ni, and Zn. The results for the growth response of maize plants (Zea mays L.) in the FAP-amended soils have been reported in a companion paper. The addition of the FAP to the soils used in this study at rates up to 5% w/w resulted in increased levels of Cu, Mn, Ni, As, and Co in an acetic acid extract. The levels of Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, As, and Co in these extracts all showed a dependency on pH for some soils. Maize plants grown in the amended soils exhibited an increase in the plant uptake of Cu, Mn, and Ni in some soils. However, none of the elements studied increased the plant uptake to levels which would generally be considered toxic to plants or cause problems in the food chain. The presence of the FAP decreased the plant availability of Ni at low pH and levels of Mn and Cd in the acetic acid extract were decreased, most likely due to sorption of these elements by the FAP. There is no evidence that either the flyash alone, or the 2 FAP used in this study would pose a threat to plants or the environment when used at levels of up to 5% w/w. Possible beneficial effects for the environment were observed as the incorporation of FAP into soils has the capacity to reduce the uptake and potential toxicity of Cd, Ni, or Mn in some soils.
Helium and carbon isotope systematics at Ontake volcano, Japan

We have measured chemical compositions, He/Ne ratios, and He and C isotopic compositions of 47 gas samples collected from crater fumaroles and hot springs associated with Ontake volcano, Japan. Geographical and temporal variations of chemical compositions, 3He/4He ratios, and δ13C values of CO2 are reported here. Between 1981 and 1993, 3He/4He ratios decreased with increasing distance from the central cone of the volcano, while δ13C values increased with the distance. Magmatic He and CO2 are probably carried by a fluid flowing through the volcanic edifice and are diluted by crustal He and CO2. A negative correlation of 3He/4He ratios and δ13C values suggests two-component mixing between magmatic and crustal end-members. At the sampling sites close to the fault formed by a M6.8 earthquake that occurred in September 1984, 3He/4He ratios have increased significantly with time from 1984 to 1993, while, except for three sites close to the fault, no systematic change of δ13C values is found. On the other hand, He and C isotopes have been constant at the sites distant from the fault. The temporal variations of 3He/4He ratios may be related to the recent reactivation of Ontake volcano.
Synthesis of Iron-Carbon (Fe0-C) Nanocomposite and its Use for the Removal of Rhodamine-B and Hexavalent Chromium from Aqueous Solutions

Contamination of water resources by industrial effluents consisting of organic (e.g., dyes) and inorganic (e.g., heavy metals) pollutants is a significant environmental challenge. Treatment techniques that can efficiently target multiple co-contaminants are critically needed to achieve both performance and cost efficiency. In this study we employed a novel approach to synthesize a nanocomposite material consisting of a zerovalent iron (Fe0) core and a carbon shell (C), and investigated its ability to simultaneously remove toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) and rhodamine B dye (RhB) in batch aqueous solutions. Advanced characterization techniques revealed the uniform distribution of carbon on Fe0 particles in the size range of 60-85 nm. The batch removal experiments showed a Cr (VI) removal of 50% and RhB removal reached 93% in mixed matrix systems. The removal capacity increased from 16 to 33 mg/g for Cr (VI) and from 2.4 to 5.5 mg/g for RhB when the particles were tested in a mixed matrix compared to those in individual contaminant systems. Removal of contaminants was achieved most likely due to the combined adsorptive and reductive properties of the nanocomposite. Overall, the study demonstrated the strong potential of Fe0-C nanocomposite particles in targeting and treating both organic and inorganic contaminants. Results from this study may be useful in developing and optimizing nanocomposite materials for the removal of multiple contaminants in complex aqueous matrices.
A physical model of the low‐frequency electrical polarization of clay rocks

Low-frequency (0.18 Hz to 1.5 kHz) effective dielectric spectra have been measured on a set of near-saturated samples of argillite. The measured spectra of the real part of the complex apparent permittivity did not show significant correlation with cation exchange capacity (CEC) per unit mass of rock values. They satisfied a power law relationship with the frequency, at least for samples with CEC values lower than 10 cmol/kg. The Maxwell-Wagner-Hanai-Bruggeman formulation used for a two-phase mixture has been modified to account for mutual polarization between the pockets of water located in the micropores and those located in the macropores. The results of the modeling calculations illustrate (1) the ability of this new formulation to reproduce the power law relationships of the measured spectra of the real and imaginary components of the complex permittivity and (2) the strong impact of the pore electrical conductivity.
Carbon dioxide in clastic rocks and silicate hydrolysis

The amount of carbon dioxide in clastic rocks in sedimentary basins increases with depth. Organic matter, dissolved organic species, and dissolution of carbonate minerals have been suggested as sources of CO{sub 2}, which increases in abundance with depth and temperature. Isotopic compositions of aqueous HCO{sub 3}{sup {minus}}, gaseous CO{sub 2}, and calcite from conventional hydrocarbon wells and steam-assisted recovery of heavy oil suggest that calcite, or other carbonate minerals, are the source of CO{sub 2}, particularly at higher temperatures. Detailed examination of the stability of diagenetic minerals such as kaolinite, smectite, and analcime, among others, relative to the coexisting waters, indicates that silicate hydrolysis is the driving force for dissolution of carbonate minerals and the ultimate source of abundant CO{sub 2} in clastic rocks in diagenetic environments at temperatures over approximately 100 C.
Positive effects of physical activity in autism spectrum disorder: how influences behavior, metabolic disorder and gut microbiota

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social interactions and communication skills impairments that include intellectual disabilities, communication delays and self-injurious behaviors; often are present systemic comorbidities such as gastrointestinal disorders, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Moreover, in recent years has emerged a link between alterations in the intestinal microbiota and neurobehavioral symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder. Recently, physical activity and exercise interventions are known to be beneficial for improving communication and social interaction and the composition of microbiota. In our review we intend to highlight how different types of sports can help to improve communication and social behaviors in children with autism and also show positive effects on gut microbiota composition.