Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantified secularism? Counting religious conflicts in French state schools since the 1980s

ABSTRACT Religious matters have traditionally been considered as a sensitive subject in French state schools. Since 1989 and the first ‘Muslim headscarf affair’, faith-related conflicts in those institutions have been the subject of a relatively opaque counting policy. Mobilising several state institutions- which alternatively cooperate or compete- this quantification has deeply reshaped the way the French state perceived religious expressions, especially those linked to Islam, in schools. This article, based on newly released archives, uses an interdisciplinary approach (history, education science, political sociology) to study these political and administrative phenomena.
Gender and teacher attitude toward digital literacy programme in Kisii county primary schools

Digital technologies have been associated with improved and enriched learning experiences which include more student-centered learning. These technologies have made teaching and learning experiences more interesting. In view of the crucial role of digital technologies in enhancing learning, this study sought to assess teacher attitudes towards the Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) in Kisii County based on gender differences. Does the gender of the teachers involved in the Digital Literacy Programme in Kisii County affect their readiness to uptake and implement the program? A survey research design was applied in the study. The population of the study constituted of 1,420 standard one and two teachers selected from randomly sampled schools of the county. The sample size was determined using the Fisher formula and the sample consisted of 302 standard one and two teachers. Purposive sampling was used to select the specific teachers. Simple random sampling was used to select the specific schools to include in the study and proportionate sampling was used to determine the number of respondents from each school. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. To ascertain the reliability of the research instruments, a pilot test was carried out and a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.76 was realized. Data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics in SPSS. The study established that difference in gender has no effect on the teachers’ attitude to the Digital Literacy Programme.
Are epistemic reasons normative?

According to a widely held view, epistemic reasons are normative reasons for belief – much like prudential or moral reasons are normative reasons for action. In recent years, however, an increasing number of authors have questioned the normativity of epistemic reasons. In this article, I discuss an important challenge for anti-normativism about epistemic reasons and present a series of arguments in support of normativism. The challenge for anti-normativism is to say what kind of reasons epistemic reasons are if they are not normative reasons. I discuss various answers to this challenge and find them all wanting. The arguments for normativism each stress a certain analogy between epistemic reasons and normative reasons for action. Just like normative reasons for action, epistemic reasons provide partial justification; they provide premises for correct reasoning; they constitute good bases for the responses they are reasons for; and they are reasons for which agents can show these responses without committing a mistake. In each case, I argue that the relevant condition is plausibly sufficient for the normativity of a reason, and that normativism is in any case in a much better position to explain the analogy than anti-normativism.
Effect of biasing conditions on the performance of a SMA spring actuator under thermo-mechanical loading

Abstract This paper presents an extension of the existing phase kinetics model of shape memory alloy (SMA) wire on a SMA spring actuator. The phenomenological modeling of an SMA spring under two different bias conditions – SMA spring with (A) normal spring (B) SMA wire along with the computing algorithm is addressed. The results of Case A are found in close agreement with the published literature. Whereas, the results of Case B are reported for the first time and outperform the results of Case A in terms of equal deflection, more controllability, and degrees of freedom as compared with Case A.
Selection of the number of components for finite mixtures of linear mixed models

Abstract Over the last decades, linear models have been studied by the scientific community as an important tool of statistical modelling in a great variety of phenomena. However, in many situations the data are grouped according to factors, so the introduction of random effects is required in order to consider the correlation between observations from the same individual, in which case linear mixed models are used. In addition, it is often observed that the data comes from a heterogeneous population, giving rise to situations where the estimation of a single linear model is not sufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to use models that incorporate this unobserved heterogeneity, as is the case of mixture models. Thus, mixtures of linear mixed models allow modelling the heterogeneity among the individuals and, at the same time, to account for correlations between observations from the same individual. Choosing the number of components for mixture models has long been considered as an important but difficult research problem. There is wide variety of literature available on the performance of model selection statistics for determining the number of components in mixture models. In this article, we study the problem of determining the number of components in mixtures of linear mixed models, investigating the performance of various model selection methods. In order to evaluate the methodologies developed, we carry out a simulation study and we illustrate these methodologies using a real data set.
Short‐term load forecasting at electric vehicle charging sites using a multivariate multi‐step long short‐term memory: A case study from Finland

Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Abstract This study assesses the performance of a multivariate multi‐step charging load prediction approach based on the long short‐term memory (LSTM) and commercial charging data. The major contribution of this study is to provide a comparison of load prediction between various types of charging sites. Real charging data from shopping centres, residential, public, and workplace charging sites are gathered. Altogether, the data consists of 50,504 charging events measured at 37 different charging sites in Finland between January 2019 and January 2020. A forecast of the aggregated charging load is performed in 15‐ min resolution for each type of charging site. The second contribution of the work is the extended short‐term forecast horizon. A multi‐step prediction of either four (i.e., one hour) or 96 (i.e., 24 h) time steps is carried out, enabling a comparison of both horizons. The findings reveal that all charging sites exhibit distinct charging characteristics, which affects the forecasting accuracy and suggests a differentiated analysis of the different charging categories. Furthermore, the results indicate that the forecasting accuracy strongly correlates with the forecast horizon. The 4‐time step prediction yields considerably superior results compared with the 96‐time step forecast.
Call and Response? Neighborhood Inequality and Political Voice

Over the past 20 years, many cities across the United States have adopted a range of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to make it easier for residents to get informed, communicate their preferences, and hold public officials accountable. In this paper, we ask two questions. First, are service requests and responses illustrative of existing neighborhood differences across a city? Second, do patterns of request and response differ by the type of complaint made to the city? We leverage data from the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to examine neighborhood variation in service requests and subsequent response times to those complaints. Our analysis makes a number of important contributions to the current literature on ICTs, including providing a more nuanced understanding of how types of requests vary by neighborhood context, and a more comprehensive picture of how requests and response times reveal social and racial disparities across the city.
Anxiety, Worry, and Grief in a Time of Environmental and Climate Crisis: A Narrative Review

Climate change worry, eco-anxiety, and ecological grief are concepts that have emerged in the media, public discourse, and research in recent years. However, there is not much literature examining and summarizing the ways in which these emotions are expressed, to what processes they are related, and how they are distributed. This narrative review aims to ( a) summarize research about the relationships between, on the one hand, negative emotions in relation to climate change and other environmental problems and, on the other hand, mental well-being among people in different parts of the world and ( b) examine studies that have explored the potentially constructive role of worry—for example, in the form of providing motivation to act. It is clear from this review that negative emotions regarding environmental problems are normal, and often constructive, responses. Yet, given the nature, range, and extent of these emotions, it is important to identify diverse place-based and culturally relevant strategies to help people cope. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews. org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
The effects of flipped classrooms on K-16 students’ science and math achievement: a systematic review

ABSTRACT One response to a pedagogical shift towards student-centred and active learning approaches to promote student learning in STEM is the flipped classroom. However, there has been inconsistency in the design and implementation of the flipped classroom and its impact on student learning. This review systematically analysed 30 empirical studies on flipped classrooms in formal, K-16 science and maths classrooms to understand theoretical underpinnings leading to different approaches to flipped classrooms and the impact of flipped classrooms on student learning in science and maths classrooms. The selected studies were qualitatively analysed, and the results showed that: (1) there is more published literature on the flipped classroom identified in post-secondary science and mathematics classrooms, (2) the design of the flipped classroom is rarely grounded in theoretical frameworks especially in science classrooms, and (3) the flipped classroom has an overall positive effect on students’ science and maths learning. This study highlights the importance of using explicit theoretical frameworks aligned with contemporary learning theories to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of the flipped classroom. Additionally, there is a need for future research to utilise design-based methodologies to maximise the positive impact of the flipped classroom on student learning.
Using Triples to Assess Symmetry Under Weak Dependence

Abstract The problem of assessing symmetry about an unspecified center of the one-dimensional marginal distribution of a strictly stationary random process is considered. A well-known U-statistic based on data triples is used to detect deviations from symmetry, allowing the underlying process to satisfy suitable mixing or near-epoch dependence conditions. We suggest using subsampling for inference on the target parameter, establish the asymptotic validity of the method in our setting, and discuss data-driven rules for selecting the size of subsamples. The small-sample properties of the proposed inferential procedures are examined by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Applications to time series of output growth and stock returns are also presented.
Antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine in kidney transplant recipients and in-centre and satellite centre haemodialysis patients

Antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine in kidney transplant recipients and in-centre and satellite centre haemodialysis patients Dominique Bertrand, Mélanie Hanoy, Stéphane Edet, Veronique Lemée, Mouad Hamzaoui, Charlotte Laurent, Lebourg Ludivine, Isabelle Etienne, Mathilde Lemoine, Dorian Nezam, Sophie Candon, Jean-Christophe Plantier, Frank Le Roy and Dominique Guerrot 1 Department of Nephrology, Transplantation and Hemodialysis, Rouen University Hospital, Rouen, France, ANIDER, Rouen, France, Department of Virology, Rouen University Hospital, Rouen, France and Department of Immunology and Biotherapies, Rouen University Hospital, Rouen, France
DETERMINATION OF SOME AGRONOMIC AND QUALITY TRAITS OF PEANUT VARIETIES WITH DIFFERENT POD CHARACTERISTICS AT DIFFERENT HARVESTING TIMES IN MAIN CROP GROWING SEASON

The objective of this study was to determine the agronomic and quality traits of peanut varieties having different pod characteristics at different harvesting times in the main crop growing season. This study was conducted in the experimental area of the Cukurova University Faculty of Agriculture Department of Field Crops as a main crop in 2015 and 2016. The experimental design was a split plots with three replications. Five peanut varieties, Halisbey, NC-7, G.Green, Florispan and G.Red, belonging to four different market types, were used as plant material. Based on two year average, the differences between the varieties were significant for the investigated traits harvested at different times in the main crop growing season. The results indicated that the means of pod number and pod weight per plant, 100 seed weight, shelling percentage, pod and kernel (seed) yield per hectare, oil percentage and crude oil yield per hectare were increased except protein content of seed when the harvesting was delayed,
Enhanced tumor cell killing by ultrasound after microtubule depolymerization

Abstract Recent studies show that tumor cells are vulnerable to mechanical stresses and undergo calcium‐dependent apoptosis (mechanoptosis) with mechanical perturbation by low‐frequency ultrasound alone. To determine if tumor cells are particularly sensitive to mechanical stress in certain phases of the cell cycle, inhibitors of the cell‐cycle phases are tested for effects on mechanoptosis. Most inhibitors show no significant effect, but inhibitors of mitosis that cause microtubule depolymerization increase the mechanoptosis. Surprisingly, ultrasound treatment also disrupts microtubules independent of inhibitors in tumor cells but not in normal cells. Ultrasound causes calcium entry through mechanosensitive Piezo1 channels that disrupts microtubules via calpain protease activation. Myosin IIA contractility is required for ultrasound‐mediated mechanoptosis and microtubule disruption enhances myosin IIA contractility through activation of GEF‐H1 and RhoA pathway. Further, ultrasound promotes contractility‐dependent Piezo1 expression and localization to the peripheral adhesions where activated Piezo1 allows calcium entry to continue feedback loop. Thus, the synergistic action of ultrasound and nanomolar concentrations of microtubule depolymerizing agents can enhance tumor therapies.
Efficacy of zinc nutrition for improving zinc content at different growth stages of rainfed pea-maize sequence in Northwestern Himalaya

Abstract In India, zinc (Zn) is now considered as fourth most important yield limiting nutrient of agricultural crops. Zinc deficiency in Indian soils is likely to increase from 42 to 63% by 2025. Efficacy of zinc nutrition for improving zinc content at different growth stages of rainfed pea-maize sequence in Northwestern Himalaya was carried out for two years (2014–15 and 2015–16) at the experimental farm of Hill Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Bajaura, Kullu (H.P). Four priming levels of Zn (0% ZnSO4 – water soaking, 1% ZnSO4, 2% ZnSO4, and 3% ZnSO4) and three priming durations (4 , 8 and 12 hr) were compared with basal dose of recommended NPK + ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha−1 and farmers’ practice (40% N of RDF + unprimed seed-control). The Zn content of pea (Pisum sativum L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) crop at various growth stages was found maximum due to priming with 3% ZnSO4 for a period of 12 hr.
From Design Requirements to Effective Privacy Notifications: Empowering Users of Online Services to Make Informed Decisions

ABSTRACT Privacy notifications issued by Transparency-Enhancing Tools (TETs) constitute a conceptual means of informing users of online data services about how their personal data are processed. We elicit a set of design requirements that reflect the particularities of privacy notifications received on mobile phones. Pursuing the principles of human-centered design, we evaluate the efficacy of a prototypical implementation for the context of personal health tracking in an iterative lab study. Our findings show that privacy notifications have the potential to facilitate usable transparency and informed decision-making in terms of improving privacy in the designated usage context. The feedback obtained during the evaluation of the prototype lends itself to a refined set of design requirements. We discuss these requirements as building blocks that can help designers create usable artifacts that accommodate the needs of users of mobile health services.
Modeling 65 Years of Land Subsidence in California’s San Joaquin Valley

[copied directly from first paragraph of paper] Land subsidence, caused by groundwater extraction and subsequent subsurface compaction, is an issue of global concern. Since the 1920s, there have been numerous periods of subsidence in California’s San Joaquin Valley leading to widespread sinking of the land surface which has locally exceeded 9 m. The most recent period of severe subsidence, which was triggered by the 2012-15 drought, is now causing damage which threatens the long-term viability of critical water distribution infrastructure in the Valley. However, there is neither a continuous monitoring record of the subsidence nor high-quality records of the hydrologic head changes in the subsurface which have caused the subsidence, making it impossible to understand, and thus mitigate, the subsidence. Here, we leverage subsidence and hydraulic head data from a variety of sources to create and validate a one-dimensional model of subsurface compaction and subsidence over the 65 years between 1952-2017. This model, which simulated up to 7.5 m of subsidence since 1952, provides a complete record of subsidence in our study region by filling crucial gaps in the observed record. Our model reveals the long-term processes causing subsidence, which operated over decades-to-centuries and caused exceptionally high rates of baseline subsidence in 2017, resulting in a critical risk of future subsidence. This risk is exacerbated as the Valley moves into drought conditions again in Spring 2021. We demonstrated an approach which provided the understanding of subsidence in the Valley needed to directly inform sustainable groundwater management, and which is applicable in subsiding regions around the World.
Chemical comparison of coat and kernel of mung bean by nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolic fingerprinting approach

ABSTRACT To utilize the wasted coat resources, which are usually discarded in the process of mung bean derived food, and understand the traditional use of mung bean, nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolic fingerprinting approach was used to compare the chemical composition between the coat and kernel. The results showed that the flavonoids, isovitexin and vitexin, were only present in the coat, while the kernel contained higher levels of amino acids and sugars. In addition, the coat showed much stronger 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl scavenging activity than the kernel, which was in accordance with the analysis result from the biplot of partial least squares.
Quantum chemical study of inner-sphere complexes of trivalent lanthanide and actinide ions on the corundum (0001) surface

Abstract Sorption of trivalent metal ions onto mineral surfaces is of special relevance in the safety assessment of nuclear waste disposal. In the present quantum chemical study we mainly focused on understanding the interaction of trivalent metal ions (La3+, Eu3+ and Cm3+) with the corundum (0001) the surface. We studied how the structure of the inner-sphere complex at the corundum (0001) surface depends on the deprotonation of the surface and give a prediction for the most likely structure of the inner-sphere complex (bi-, tri- or tetradentate). We approached this question using a cluster model for the surface. By deprotonating the cluster we mimicked a chemical environment at pH values above the point of zero charge. In a first step, we tested the accuracy of Density Functional Theory calculations with the BP86 functional and various basis sets by comparing them with Møller-Plesset perturbation theory of second order on a small chemically similar test system. This is followed by a series of calculations on a large and realistic cluster which is an extended model for the formation of the inner-sphere complex at the corundum (0001) surface. Our calculations predict the highest stability for a species with six water molecules remaining in the first coordination sphere of the metal ions and forming an inner-sphere surface complex attached to three surface oxygen atoms. The formation of the inner-sphere complexes is even more favoured when the coordination takes place via one or two deprotonated surface oxygen atoms.
RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF MALARIA PREVALENCE IN SELECTED HOSPITALS IN ZARIA, NIGERIA

A retrospective study of laboratory records in selected hospitals in Zaria was carried out to determine the trend of malaria prevalence between 2001 and 2005. Data was obtained from the following selected hospitals: St Luke’s Anglican Hospital, Wusasa, Salama Infirmary, Saidu Dange railway Hospital and Sick Bay, Ahmadu Bello University, Main campus, Samaru. The selection of the hospitals was based on their geographical location and sizes. The prevalence was consistently high over the years; 2001–44.1%, 2002–59.45%, 2003–59.35%, 2004–58.30% and 2005–64.25%. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between malaria infection in males and females. Infection rates were significantly higher in children than adults (P<0.05) in all hospitals sampled except Salama Infirmary. Sick Bay in the main campus, Samaru had the least prevalence consistently over the five years period – 2001-27.0%, 2002-26.3%, 2003-21.8%, 2004-25.9% and 2005-33.2%. No clear seasonal variation over the years was observed. The study clearly showed consistent high prevalence over the five years period. Record keeping was useful as it provided data bur devoid of specific ages of attendees. Specific ages of hospital attendees rather than “children” or “adults” should be recorded and other demographic variables such as occupation and other socio-economic proxies should be included in laboratory record books.