Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Senior high school students’ self-efficacy and its relation to engagement in online class setting in a private university in the south of Metro Manila

This study explored the self-efficacy of senior high school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students (N = 134) in an online physics class in terms of gender and its relationship to engagement. The study employed a descriptive correlation research design. Adapted instruments namely ‘Sources of Self-Efficacy in Science Course – Physics’ (SSSCP) and ‘Engagement in Physics Scale’ (EPS) were used to collect the data from the students. SSSCP was correlated with the scores of ‘Self-Efficacy for Academic Milestone-Strength’ scale for its validity. Reliability and validity of EPS was examined through Cronbach alpha and confirmatory factor analysis with acceptable results. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while independent samples t-test, Cohen’s d, and Pearson r correlation were used to test the hypotheses. It was revealed that both male and female students have a high level of self-efficacy in the following: overall, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and performance accomplishment with an average level for the emotional arousal. Furthermore, a significant difference across gender was found only on the emotional arousal sub-level with a small effect size of 0.32. Moreover, positive correlation was found between overall self-efficacy and overall engagement as well as on cognitive engagement. On the other hand, a negative correlation was revealed between overall self-efficacy and emotional engagement. Focusing on increasing the self-efficacy of students in an online physics class should be practiced by teachers in order to increase engagement.
Ecology of Nepenthes clipeata on Gunung Kelam, Indonesian Borneo

ABSTRACT Background Nepenthes clipeata is a Critically Endangered plant species with the population at its only location in the wild, Gunung (Mount) Kelam in Kalimantan, Indonesia, under threat – its nutrient relationships have not been studied. Aims To improve understanding of the autecology of N. clipeata by assessing the current population and providing information on its mineral nutrient relationships. Methods A survey was undertaken in 2019 when population numbers and habitat preferences of N. clipeata were recorded. Nutrient concentrations in soil, leaves and pitcher fluid were analysed and compared with those in other Nepenthes species. Results Eighteen individuals of N. clipeata were found on Gunung Kelam (only one of which was female). Seven other Nepenthes species were found and hybrids with two of these and N. clipeata were observed. Although the foliar nutrient concentrations (‘ionome’) of N. clipeata appeared distinct from that of other Nepenthes species, with N. clipeata having greater nutrient concentrations, particularly nitrogen, potassium and calcium, nitrogen limitation was still prevalent. Conclusions N. clipeata still persists in the wild but with very low numbers, indicating that conservation actions are required. Along with other species of Nepenthes, it is limited by soil nitrogen concentrations although it has a distinct ionome derived from high foliar nutrient concentrations.
Rate dependent constitutive relations based on Anand model for 92.5Pb5Sn2.5Ag solder

A rate dependent constitutive model, the Anand model, was applied to represent the inelastic deformation behavior for a Pb-rich solder 92.5Pb5Sn2. 5Ag used in electronic packaging and surface mount technology. This rate dependent model is a unified viscoplastic constitutive model using an internal state variable, the deformation resistance, to describe the averaged isotropic resistance to macroscopic plastic flow. In order to obtain the acquired data for the fitting of the material parameters of this unified model for 92.5Pb5Sn2. 5Ag solder, a series of experiments of constant strain rate test and constant load creep test were conducted under isothermal conditions at different temperatures ranged from -65/spl deg/C to 250/spl deg/C. A procedure for the determination of material parameters was proposed in this paper. Model simulations and verifications revealed that there are good agreements between model predictions and experimental data. Moreover, some discussions on using this rate dependent model in the finite element simulation of stress/strain responses of solder joints under thermal fatigue loading were presented.
Manufacturing for synchronous supply: a case study of Ikeda Hoover Ltd

Presents a case study examining the characteristics of synchronous manufacturing within an automotive context. In particular, the case examines the essential differences between traditional just‐in‐time manufacture and Synchronous manufacture and also explores the nature of buyer‐supplier relationships between Nissan Manufacturing (UK) Ltd and its seating manufacturer – Ikeda Hoover Ltd. The findings of this case, aligned to the developments of the “modular supply model”, suggest that the nature of buyer‐supplier relationships will change as the value‐creation ratio moves from vehicle manufacturers to global first‐tier modular suppliers. Moreover, the growth of the “modular supply model” is likely to require a reappraisal of supply chain relationships as both the nature of buyer‐supplier relationships change and a new tier‐one position is established that moves the modular suppliers closer to the buyer.
Simplified site-specific traffic load models for bridge assessment

Traffic load is identified as one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in the assessment of bridges. In recent years, simulation techniques, using measured traffic data, have been used to predict the characteristic traffic load effects on bridges. However, the techniques are complex, sensitive to the assumptions adopted and require specialist statistical expertise. This work presents a simplified site-specific traffic load model that generates comparable load effects to the corresponding results from a full simulation. While the simplified model is still sensitive to the underlying assumptions, these can be carefully reviewed prior to the method being approved. Further, the simplified method can be employed by practising engineers for bridge assessment.
Factors affecting open technological innovation in open source software companies in Korea

Abstract Open source software (OSS) is a rapidly growing method of collaborative technology development. Yet there has been little quantitative research into the specific innovativeness of the OSS industry that seeks to address the question of whether such collaborative processes are also correlated with increased innovative activity. Using survey data from Korean OSS firms, this paper seeks to analyze the decisive factors in the open technological innovation activity of the OSS industry. Building on this analysis, we discuss the policy significance of OSS in fostering capacity intensification of technological innovation.
Exploring empowering practices for teachers’ sustainable continuing professional development

ABSTRACT Background The question of how best to enable sustainable professional development remains a challenging one. The research reported here is situated within a professional learning communities (PLCs) approach as a long-term goal for continuing professional development (CPD) with action research (AR) principles as a means of organisation. Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate how teachers’ CPD can be structured and facilitated to enable sustainable professional development. In this context, ‘sustainable’ refers to an impact of professional learning beyond the duration of the course in question. Method An AR-oriented CPD course was used as a case study, with a specific focus on the participants’ experiences of how the course work affected their professional practice and the enabling factors contributing to this end. Data were qualitative interviews with the 11 in-service teachers who completed the course, 6 months after its completion. The interviews were analysed in an inductive manner using qualitative content analysis. Findings The analysis identified eight different categories relating to participants’ experiences of how the AR-inspired CPD process affected their practice. Effects were connected to three overarching levels in terms of scope: individual level, school level and level of the wider community. In addition, we determined ten interconnected factors that appeared to influence the scope and quality of the process. Conclusions The findings highlight the importance of grounding CPD courses in participants’ own practice and offer insights into the significance of collaboration and collegial relationships for sustainable professional development. The study reflects how an increase in strategies and structures for collaboration has the potential to transform school cultures into more collaborative ones. It also draws attention to how cognitive and affective aspects are intertwined during developmental processes: teachers suggested that acknowledgement and supportive actions of colleagues and leadership had underpinned development, empowered them and spurred them on as active agents of change.
Design, Construction, and Performance of a Highway Embankment Failure Repaired with Tire-Derived Aggregate

In July 2006, a large embankment failure occurred during construction of a four-lane divided highway leading to the Canada–U.S. border crossing in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. The highway embankment was approximately 12.3 m in height, just short of the design height of 14 m, when it failed. The cause of the failure was attributed to the rapid rate of construction and the intensity of loading on low-strength foundation soils, consisting of up to 15 m of soft marine clay. The reconstruction effort used 1.4 million scrap tires to create the tire-derived aggregate (TDA) as lightweight fill. TDA was placed within the new embankment, constructed over the site of the original failure. An important element to the design was the installation of geotechnical instrumentation, which allowed an observational approach to be taken during the construction process. This approach resulted in modifications to the original design throughout the process of reconstructing the TDA embankment. This paper presents the results of the TDA embankment and foundation performance over 25 months, with an emphasis on the design and behavior of the TDA during construction. The predicted values versus the values measured in the field for geotechnical parameters and the performance characteristics of TDA are presented, including unit weight, temperature, immediate compression, and time-dependent compression. The values for these measured parameters are compared with those from similar case histories and published values available from the literature. The TDA embankment reconstruction project began in the summer of 2007 and was successfully completed in the late fall of 2008.
Sustainability of Natural Hazard Risk Mitigation: Life Cycle Analysis of Environmental Indicators for Bridge Infrastructure

AbstractThe performance of structures and infrastructure under natural hazards can have a significant impact on the sustainability of the system, often characterized in terms of environmental, economic, or social indicators of performance. This paper commences with a brief review of the relation of natural hazard performance to sustainability and an assessment of bridge infrastructure sustainability with an emphasis on environmental indicators. A framework for life cycle sustainability analysis (LCS-A) is then posed that elucidates the role of natural hazard risks when evaluating sustainable bridge performance using risk-based indicators of environmental sustainability, including embodied energy and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Its application provides insight on the sustainability of mitigating damage from natural hazards through retrofitting deficient structures, considering uncertainty in the hazard occurrence, structural performance, and repair or reconstruction actions that affect energy expenditu.
Opto-Electrical Modeling of CMOS Buried Quad Junction Photodetector

A Buried Quad Junction (BQJ) PhotoDetector (PD), composed of four vertically-stacked p-n junctions, has recently been implemented and fabricated in CMOS technology. The detector, providing four different spectral responses, has higher spectral discriminating ability than both conventional Buried Double Junction (BDJ) and Buried Triple Junction (BTJ) detectors. For rapid system design integrating of the BQJ PD, we propose a BQJ SPICE-like model based on the physical properties of the device structure. The analytical expressions of the four BQJ photocurrents have been developed. Dark currents as well as intrinsic noise can also be evaluated by computations. Results have been compared with both TCAD simulations and measurements. Our model shows a good agreement with measurements and the mean relative error on spectral response prediction is between 6 % and 17 % in function of the observed junction.
Constructive Approximation of Continuous Interval-Valued Functions

Abstract In this paper we present a Stone-Weierstrass type result in the context of continuous interval-valued functions defined on a compact Hausdorff space. We also provide a Jackson type approximation result involving the modulus of continuity of interval-valued functions based on the gH-difference of intervals. Finally we show how an interval-valued continuous function can be approximated using interval neural networks. All the proofs are constructive.
USP1 Promotes GC Metastasis via Stabilizing ID2

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignant tumors all over the world. And recurrence and metastasis are still the main causes of low survival rate for advanced GC. USP1 has been shown overexpressed in multiple cancers, which indicate its important biomarker in tumorigenesis and development. Our study is aimed at defining the exact role of USP1 on GC metastasis and the underlying mechanism. USP1 was firstly found overexpressed in GC tissues and relatively high-expression levels conferred poor survival rates. Then, real-time cellular analysis (RTCA) showed that USP1 knockdown inhibited GC metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanically, we demonstrated that USP1 promoted GC metastasis via upregulating ID2 expression and further confirmed that USP1 stabilized ID2 expression through deubiquitinating ID2 in GC. In conclusion, our study showed that USP1 promoted GC metastasis via stabilizing ID2 expression, which provides a potential biomarker and therapy target for GC.
Life-Cycle Assessment and the Environmental Impact of Buildings: A Review

Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of various management tools for evaluating environmental concerns. This paper reviews LCA from a buildings perspective. It highlights the need for its use within the building sector, and the importance of LCA as a decision making support tool. It discusses LCA methodologies and applications within the building sector, reviewing some of the life-cycle studies applied to buildings or building materials and component combinations within the last fifteen years in Europe and the United States. It highlights the problems of a lack of an internationally comparable and agreed data inventory and assessment methodology which hinder the application of LCA within the building industry. It identifies key areas for future research as (i) the whole process of construction, (ii) the relative weighting of different environmental impacts and (iii) applications in developing countries.
Nonreciprocity and the optimum operation of ferrite coupled lines

The first full-wave normal-mode analysis of ferrite coupled lines (FCLs) magnetized in the longitudinal direction is presented in this paper. It is found that the tangential and axial components of the guided electric and magnetic fields undergo a different change in the process of reversing the direction of magnetization. These changes cause the same input wave to decompose into the eigenmodes of the FCL differently for different direction of magnetization and, consequently, cause the nonreciprocal behavior of the magnetized FCL. A new optimum nonreciprocal operation condition is obtained, and applications to FCL circulators built on microstrips and striplines are discussed.
The Development of Mathematics and Soft Skills at the Graduate Level through Project- Based Learning in Times of COVID-19

The objective of the research was to analyse the development of mathematical competences and soft skills in graduate students through the implementation of the Project-Based Learning methodology in times of COVID-19. The type of study used was a quantitative methodology with a descriptive scope. The instrument used to obtain the information was a questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale. The main results were that the participants developed the mathematical competences of using mathematical terminology, formulating and estimating the quantitative model. The soft skills developed were time management, collaborative work, self-regulation and decision-making.
A Review and Comparison of IGES and STEP

ABSTRACT Product data exchange among different CAD/CAM/CAE systems or even animation and documentation software are of great importance to computer-integrated manufacturing CIM. This sharing of product data is also a key to successful deployment of concurrent engineering. Furthermore, this practice mainly contributes in reducing lead-time of product development. Due to the large variety of CAD systems in the market, design data exchange among different CAD systems is indispensable. Currently, data exchange standards such as IGES and STEP provide a unique approach for interfacing among different CAD platforms. This paper reviews the development in IGES and STEP by categorizing their topics of researches, key players and years of publications ranging from 2000 to 2009 access from well known databases namely SCOPUS, Sciencedirect and Emerald. Comparisons between them in respects of structures, advantages and disadvantages are discussed together. Among all neutral files available in the market, IGES and STEP are chosen because of two reasons. First, they are standards developed by standard bodies, ANSI and ISO. Second, both are extensively applied and most popular in product data exchange among heterogeneous CAD systems.
Siting a Hazardous Waste Facility: A Success Story in Retrospect1

As the result of an intensive four-year program, an integrated hazardous-waste treatment facility was successfully sited in 1984 in the Province of Alberta. The facility was officially opened in 1987. No other public jurisdiction in Canada or the United States has succeeded in siting and subsequently constructing such a major integrated facility to properly manage organic and inorganic hazardous wastes. Mistakes were made, but real blunders were avoided. At the end of the four years Alberta had agreement on not only one but two sites (Ryley, which is near Edmonton, and Swan Hills), both highly acceptable to the immediate public. This overview is presented by a physical scientist who was associated with the program from the beginning and throughout the process, including being involved in about 100 public meetings carried out borber to border in Alberta. The Alberta siting experience illustrates the importance of honesty, trustworthiness, and integrity. Personnel must be attached to such a program who can focus of technical aspects and ensure that those aspects are sound. Planners need to realize that siting problems are generally in the social-psychological-political realm.
Electric field modeling of outdoor insulator for optimized performance

This project presents the study of electric field stress along the surface of a 132 kV ceramic post insulator. Insulators are among the important devices of the electric power transmission systems. They are used to support and separate conductors at high voltage. Different insulator shapes have been obtained by varying several parameters, which defines the shape of the post insulator . For each insulator shape, the maximum electric field stress occurring on the insulator surface has been determined under clean and dry environment. The COMSOL Multiphysics software has been employed to investigate the electric field stress along the insulator’s surface. The full detailed model of a dry and clean ceramic 132kV post insulator with 25 sheds has been developed for the base model calculation. The maximum value of electric field stress was found to be at the junction between the porcelain and the end fitting. End fittings with round edges tend to reduce the electric field stress along the insulator’s surface. With smaller first shed’s outer corner radius, the electric field stress slightly decreases. The electric field stress of the 25th shed near the top end fitting tends to reduce as the shed’s inclination angle is increased. Furthermore, as the shed’s diameter increases, the electric field stress increases except at the shed’s outer corner where the electric field stress decreases. With greater distance between the first shed and the bottom end fitting, the electric field stress becomes lower. The end fittings design was found to be significantly affecting the electric field stress along the surface of the post insulator. A modified post insulator is proposed and proven to have a better performance in term of electric field stress.
The Paris Agreement and Climate Justice: Inequitable Impacts of Sea Level Rise Associated With Temperature Targets

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing unprecedented changes to the climate. In 2015, at the United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties in Paris, France, countries agreed to limit the global mean temperature (GMT) increase to 2°C above preindustrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. Due to the long‐term irreversibility of sea level rise (SLR), risks to island and coastal populations are not well encapsulated by the goal of limiting GMT warming by 2100. This review article investigates the climate justice implications of temperature targets in light of our increasing understanding of the spatially variable impact and long temporal commitment to rising seas. In particular we highlight the impact that SLR will have on island states and the role of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in UN climate negotiations. As a case study we review dual impacts from the Antarctic Ice Sheet under a changing climate: (a) recent climate and ice sheet modeling shows that Antarctic melt has the potential to cause rapid SLR with a distinct spatial pattern leading to AOSIS nations experiencing SLR at least 11% higher than the global average and up to 33% higher; and (b) future ice sheet melt will result in a negative feedback on GMT, thus delaying temperature rise. When considering these impacts in conjunction, justice concerns associated with the Paris Agreement are exacerbated.
Wideband patch antenna with low cross-polarisation

A wideband patch antenna with low cross-polarisation is presented. Based on a novel meandering-shaped probe feed, an impedance bandwidth (SWR<2) of 24% has been obtained. The cross-polarisation is less than −20 dB across the operating bandwidth. The antenna has a gain of 9 dBi.