Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Männlich, mittelalt, gebildet – oder?

Podcasts erfahren nicht nur auf Seite der Horenden eine immer starkere Verbreitung. Auch die Zahl podcastproduzierender Personen steigt und macht Podcasts zu einem der aktuell wichtigsten partizipativen Medien. Zur Charakterisierung der Gruppe der Podcaster:innen liegen allerdings bisher nur wenige, uberwiegend demographische Daten vor. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll daher dazu beitragen, die deutschsprachigen Podcastproduzierenden in drei Analysebereichen zu beschreiben: im Hinblick auf demographische, podcastspezifische und Personlichkeitsvariablen. Mittels eines Online-Fragebogens wurden Daten von 653 Podcaster:innen gesammelt. Die Arbeit bietet erste Einblicke in die Diversitat der deutschsprachigen Podcastproduzierenden und legt ein besonderes Augenmerk auf die Untersuchung von Geschlechterunterschieden.
Do Gaming Simulations Substantiate That We Know More Than We Can Tell?

Background. Revealing tacit knowledge often is seen as very valuable for organizations, although it is usually challenging to enunciate and share this type of knowledge. Methods. This study uses a participatory design and the application of a board gaming simulation as instruments to extract tacit knowledge. To illustrate this application, the gaming simulation is played with entrepreneurs from horticulture. Horticulture represents a complex social system where tacit knowledge plays a major role in the trade process. A participatory design process is used to explore whether the design and play of gaming simulations enable participants to explicate their tacit knowledge. Participants’ participation in designing the gaming simulation explicated that reconstructing reality was a prerequisite for their commitment. Results. The results from playing simulation sessions show that participants were able to: (1) narrow down the anecdotic behaviour to a few factors; (2) to structure these factors; (3) explore how these factors relate to trade barriers and (4) to explain which tactics are applied to foster trade. Conclusion. The educational value of this study is that it helped entrepreneurs in understanding complex real-life situations.
Attitudes towards refugees and Muslim immigrants in Iceland: The perceived link to terrorism

In the past few years, millions have been forced to leave their homes seeking refuge in other countries, most displaced from Muslim majority countries. The inflow of refugees and recent terrorist attacks in Europe may have reinforced prejudice against Muslim immigrants in Europe. Research on these issues is almost non-existent in Iceland. Using a random sample of 3.360 individuals in late 2019 and a survey-based experimental design, we address several questions related to attitudes towards Muslim immigrants and refugees in Iceland. Our results indicate that just over half of the population is willing to accept more refugees than is currently done and does not want to limit the proportion of Muslims among them. Notwithstanding, about 44% of the public believe that the risk of terrorism will increase if Iceland accepts more immigrants from Muslim majority countries. Political orientation and education are associated with attitudes toward refugees, an association that is partly mediated through stereotypes of Muslims as a security threat. The findings also show that people who are informed that research finds no link between the number of Muslim immigrants and the risk of terrorism are less likely to stereotype Muslim immigrants as a security threat than people who get no such information. This type of information has similar effects on people irrespective of their political orientation. Consequently, the current study does not support the proposition that right-leaning individuals in Iceland are more distrustful of scientific information than those on the left. The effects are, however, significantly contingent on education.
Optimising grazing for livestock production and environmental benefits in Chinese grasslands

Overgrazing has extensively degraded Chinese grasslands. A reduction in stocking rate of 30–50% below the district averages is required to increase the profitability of livestock production and protect vital ecosystem services such as mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG). Grazing experiments located in the desert steppe, typical steppe and alpine meadow verified the influence of stocking rate and grazing management on livestock production, grassland composition and associated ecosystem services. The desert steppe experiment found lower stocking rates of ~150 SE (where SE is sheep equivalent, which is a 50kg animal) grazing days ha–1 (1 SE ha–1 over 150 days) enhanced botanical composition, maintained profitable lamb growth rates and reduced GHG emissions intensity. The typical steppe experiment found moderate grazing pressure of ~400 SE grazing days ha–1 (4 SE ha–1 over 100 days) maintained higher lamb growth rates, an average herbage mass >0.5t DM ha–1 that maintained the content of Leymus chinensis above 70% and Artemisia frigida below 10% of the grassland and had the highest level of net carbon sequestration. In the alpine meadow experiment the district average stocking rate of ~16 SE ha–1 (1440 SE grazing days ha–1 over 90 days) was not too high, but extending grazing into the non-growing season had no benefit. The findings of these experiments highlight that many of the benefits to ecosystem services can be achieved with reduced stocking rates which also generate profitable levels of livestock production. In both the desert and typical steppe experiments, the results were optimal when the stocking rates were adjusted to maintain average herbage mass over summer above ~0.5t DM ha–1, whereas herbage mass was higher with the local, conservative stocking rates in the alpine meadow.
Physician's knowledge and experience with the off-label use of medicines

Abstract The off-label use of medicines is neither prohibited nor explicitly allowed, according to the current European Union (EU) pharmaceutical legislation. This can cause confusion in physicians’ practice as well as lead to patients’ dissatisfaction. The purpose of this survey is to assess the knowledge and experience of Bulgarian physicians with the off-label use of medicines. The survey was performed at the beginning of 2020 in the biggest private hospital in South-Central Bulgaria. Ninety-six physicians from the inpatient and outpatient medical care participated in the survey and answered 10 questions. The data analysis was performed using the statistical program SPSS v19.0. The results are described as numbers and percentages for the qualitative variables and mean value (median due to their distribution) and a variance measure (range) for the quantitative ones. The distribution of the variables was tested with the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. The evaluation of the relationships between the qualitative variables was performed using the χ 2 test or the Fisher's exact test, where applicable. The results showed that most of the participants (81%) have never prescribed medicines off-label and believe it is not allowed to use medicines off-label (73%). Physicians strongly support the introduction of clear rules for the off-label use (88%). In conclusion, physicians practicing outside of the capital city demonstrated good level of knowledge, but relatively low awareness and little experience with the off-label use of medicines. They feel also, uncertainty in their prescribing activities when they use medicines off-label and strongly support introduction of clear rules for the off-label use.
Portugal’s Changing Defense Industry: Is the Triple Helix Model of Knowledge Society Replacing State Leadership Model?

The defense industry has unique features involving national sovereignty. Despite the characteristics that led to the separation of the military and civil spheres, since the 1990s, the number of dual-use projects has been growing. Taking into account that Portugal is a small European country, this paper analyzes the relationships within the defense industry in order to determine how university–industry–government relationships (the Triple Helix) function in this specific industry. The analysis of 145 projects of the Portuguese Ministry of Defense led to the following conclusions: first, academia was represented in more than 90% of the projects, and 40% of those projects have a dual-use application; second, there is a predominance of knowledge production, dissemination and application, for which the university’s institutional sphere is essential and third, the Triple Helix system evolves into a network of relationships that involve projects with both civil and military applications.
Stigma -5, 22, -Diene-3-O-β-D-Glucopyranoside: A new antimicrobial glycoside from Tetrapleura tetraptera

Indigenous medical practices have been the subject of much attention in the literature of various disciplines to date but the specificity, mode of action and clinical efficacy of most traditional plants have not been established in a manner consistent with standards of modern pharmacognosy and pharmacology. In order to find antimicrobial lead compounds and to provide scientific validation for the use of Tetrapleura tetraptera (Schum.& Thonn.) in traditional medicine . Extensive chromatographic separation of stem bark and leaf extracts led to the isolation of three distinct compounds. Anti-microbial spectrum of these obtained compounds revealed that stigma-5, 22, diene-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside showed activity against Staphylococcus aureus (32 mm), Streptococcus pyrogenes (30 mm) and Candida tropicalis (30 mm). It is therefore recommended for further work for a possible development of new drugs.
Some solar radiation ratios and their interpretations with regards to radiation transfer in the atmospher

Ratios of some radiation fluxes such as global (total) solar radiation, H, direct solar radiation, H b , diffuse solar radiation, H d , and extraterrestrial radiation, H o were proposed to define radiation coefficients related to radiation transfer in the atmosphere and solar radiation measurement on the ground surface. The irradiative transfer interpretations and applications in radiation measurement of the ratios were explained. Examples of such ratios are H/H o and H d /H. These are used to define the “clearness index” and “cloudiness index” of the atmosphere respectively, and are already in common knowledge and use. H/H o and H d /H for example, were found, from experimentation, to add up practically to unity, i.e. H/H o + H d /H =1. Based on this result, an empirical expression for predicting the direct solar radiation was developed in a previous work. Other ratios are H b /H, H b /H o , H d /H o , Hr/H o and sub>a /H o . They were proposed to define relevant radiation coefficients, and were used to develop equations for estimating the reflection of the earth's surface and the absorption of the earth's atmosphere. Keywords : solar radiation, radiation transfer, clearness index Nigeria Journal of Pure and Applied Physics Vol. 4(1) 2005: 41-45
The effects of drying method on the wood permeability, wettability, treatability, and gluability of southern pine from Australia

Drying has a major impact on the viability of sawn timber production, particularly through its influence on productivity, energy usage, and product quality. Traditionally, plantation-grown southern pine structural grade timber from Australia has been dried using high temperature (≥ 180 °C) conventional batch kilns. However, the Australian industry is showing increasing interest in continuous drying kilns because of reported cost savings and potential improvements in product quality. This study investigated the differences between continuous drying and conventional drying schedules on the radial permeability, wettability, gluability, and treatability of southern pine timber from Queensland plantations. The high temperature drying resulted in significantly lower liquid permeability compared to low temperature drying; however, there were no significant differences between drying schedules for gas permeability. For combined wood surface and core data, there were no significant differences in liquid permeability between low temperature drying and continuous drying or between continuous drying and high temperature drying schedules. For earlywood after surface machining, continuous drying resulted in the greatest wettability (based on K-values), whereas for latewood after surface machining, low temperature drying produced the greatest wettability. Earlywood had greater wettability compared to latewood. Continuous drying resulted in better gluability and treatability compared to conventional drying schedules.
Physical and Chemical Evolution of Lunar Mare Regolith

The lunar landscape evolves both physically and chemically over time due to impact cratering and energetic processes collectively known as space weathering. Despite returned soil samples and global remote sensing reflectance measurements, the rate of space weathering in the lunar regolith is not well understood. To address this, we developed a novel three‐dimensional landscape evolution model to simulate the physical processes that control the burial, excavation, and transport of regolith on airless bodies. Applying this model to the lunar mare, we find that over billions of years of surface evolution, material typically spends only a few million years on the surface where it is exposed to the effects of space weathering. The small surface residence times are a result of vigorous mixing by small‐scale impacts, predominantly driven by secondary crater formation. We deduce the rate of space weathering by comparing our modeled distribution of surface residence times on the lunar mare to measurements of space weathering maturity from Apollo soil samples and orbital surface reflectance datasets. These chemical constraints indicate that soil on the lunar mare reaches maturity in 7 Myr of cumulative surface exposure though due to uncertainties in the rate of small secondary crater production, this timescale could be 2–3 times higher. Weathering progresses more rapidly upon initial exposure to space but the surface residence time required to achieve maturity is realized over billions of years as regolith is repeatedly buried and exposed by small impacts.
Individual differences in interoceptive accuracy and prediction error in motor functional neurological disorders: A DTI study

In motor functional neurological disorders (mFND), relationships between interoception (a construct of high theoretical relevance to its pathophysiology) and neuroanatomy have not been previously investigated. This study characterized white matter in mFND patients compared to healthy controls (HCs), and investigated associations between fiber bundle integrity and cardiac interoception. Voxel‐based analysis and tractography quantified fractional anisotropy (FA) in 38 mFND patients compared to 38 HCs. Secondary analyses compared functional seizures (FND‐seiz; n = 21) or functional movement disorders (n = 17) to HCs. Network lesion mapping identified gray matter origins of implicated fiber bundles. Within‐group mFND analyses investigated relationships between FA, heartbeat tracking accuracy and interoceptive trait prediction error (discrepancies between interoceptive accuracy and self‐reported bodily awareness). Results were corrected for multiple comparisons, and all findings were adjusted for depression and trait anxiety. mFND and HCs did not show any between‐group interoceptive accuracy or FA differences. However, the FND‐seiz subgroup compared to HCs showed decreased integrity in right‐lateralized tracts: extreme capsule/inferior fronto‐occipital fasciculus, arcuate fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and thalamic/striatum to occipital cortex projections. These alterations originated predominantly from the right temporoparietal junction and inferior temporal gyrus. In mFND patients, individual differences in interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive trait prediction error correlated with fiber bundle integrity originating from the insula, temporoparietal junction, putamen and thalamus among other regions. In this first study investigating brain‐interoception relationships in mFND, individual differences in interoceptive accuracy and trait prediction error mapped onto multimodal integration‐related fiber bundles. Right‐lateralized limbic and associative tract disruptions distinguished FND‐seiz from HCs.
The Holocene paleoenvironmental history of Western Caucasus (Russia) reconstructed by multi-proxy analysis of the continuous sediment sequence from Lake Khuko

This paper presents new multi-proxy records of the Holocene environmental and climatic changes in the Western Caucasus revealed from a continuous sediment sequence from mountainous Lake Khuko (Caucasus State Natural Biospheric Reserve, 1744 m a.s.l.). Palaeoecological analyses of a sediment core for grain size, magnetic susceptibility, loss on ignition, and pollen allowed us to determine five principal climatic phases with several subphases since 10.5 ka BP. The age model is based on seven accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dates, supplemented by 210Pb data for the uppermost part of the sediment core. Warm periods (10.5–6.7, 6.7–5.5, 3.5–2.4, 0.8–0.5 ka BP) were characterized by high biological productivity in the lake as indicated by high organic matter content and expansion of forests, typical of modern low and middle mountain zones, as indicated by the increase in abundance of Quercus, Ulmus, Corylus, and Tilia in the pollen assemblages. Cold periods (5.5–3.5, 2.4–0.8, and 0.5 ka BP–present) are marked by a consistent decrease in organic matter content in lake deposits and possibly higher intensity of the catchment erosion. The changes in pollen assemblages (for instance peaks of Abies, Picea, and Pinus) suggested a potential elevational decline in the boundaries of vegetation belts and expansion of high-altitude woodlands. Abrupt changes in the lake ecosystem were identified between 4.2 and 3.5 ka cal BP marked by a short-term variation in sediment regime shown by variation in organic matter content, magnetic susceptibility values, and sediment grain size. This was probably caused by climatic fluctuations in the Western Caucasus region as a result of complex shifts in the ocean-atmosphere system during the 4.2 ka event. Overall, the first Holocene multi-proxy continuous lake sediment record provides new insights into the climate history in the Western Caucasus.
Fluvisol salinity evaluation using electrical magnetic device

Salt concentration in soil and in the available waters in irrigated areas in the semi-arid regions is not always suitable, and it may interfere with the agricultural yield. In this work, soil salinity has been estimated from readings of an electrical magnetic device EM38 in an alluvial valley, considering the apparent soil salinity (EM). The equipment has been placed not only at the soil surface, but also at different heights above the soil level, as a way to encompass distinct vertical scales on the actual soil electrical conductivity estimation (ECr). Multiple regression models have been developed for the local conditions. The results have been analysed both by descriptive statistics and by the geostatistical methodology. The ECr estimates fitted to a logNormal distribution and presented a spatial dependence at a plot scale in the 0-30, 30-60 and 60-90 cm layers. It has been verified that the EM38 is a suitable tool for soil salinity mapping, when local calibrations are considered, at plot scale, and in the valley scale, even in areas with relevant vertical heterogeneities. Determination coefficients higher than 90% has been verified for the multiple linear regression models.
Arab Spring and COVID-19: Ex post facto examination of the Lebanese banking sector (the contemporary stakeholder analysis)

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential of Lebanese banks to address the economic challenges posed by COVID-19. These banks faced the disturbances of the 2011 Arab Spring, and these two crises have resulted in similar economic conditions, leading to an assessment of how Lebanese banks are dealing with the pandemic-led challenges. Exploratory analysis revealed the common features in the two events, and confirmatory analysis examined the hypotheses underlying a theoretical framework. Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data helped to scrutinize the two events. Content analysis of data collected from semi-structured interviews with seven senior banking professionals confirms that the Lebanese banking sector’s experience gained during the Arab Spring is a valuable asset for bankers, the Banque du Liban (BDL), and the government, which can be used to anticipate and deal with the COVID-driven economic crisis. The study finds three key moderating factors: trust deficit, inherited characteristics of the economy, and fiscal and monetary policy. Most of these conditions are permanent in nature and require long-term planning. As this research was conducted before the catastrophe caused by the August 2020 Beirut explosion, no aspects of the financial consequences to the Lebanese banking sector and economy resulting from this immerse shock are included.
Telling Stories in Science: Feyerabend and Thought Experiments

The history of the philosophy of thought experiments (TEs) has touched on the work of Kuhn, Popper, Duhem, Mach, Lakatos, and other big names of the twentieth-century. But so far, almost nothing has been written about Paul Feyerabend. His most influential work was Against Method, eight chapters of which concern Galileo, with a significant focus on Galileo’s TEs. The later Feyerabend was interested in what might be called the epistemology of drama, including stories and myths. This article brings these aspects of Feyerabend’s work together in an attempt to present what might have been his considered views on scientific TEs. According to Feyerabend, TEs are a special kind of story that can help to demolish a dominant myth and instigate a new one through the use of propaganda to change our habits, by appealing to our sense of what is interesting, appealing, revealing, comprehensible, coherent, and surprising. I conclude by contrasting Feyerabend’s ideas with two currents in the modern debate on TEs: (1) the claim that the epistemology of TEs is just the epistemology of deductive or inductive arguments and (2) the claim that a complete epistemology of TEs must take into account the fact that TEs are a kind of narrative.
Appropriate Simplifications in Calculation of Mass Transfer in a Multicomponent Rate-Based Distillation Tray Model

The Maxwell−Stefan approach has been successfully used to model mass transfer in distillation columns and other multicomponent separation processes. This approach leads to rather complicated and computationally intensive matrix calculations. In this work, several simplifications for a rate-based distillation tray model incorporating Maxwell−Stefan-type mass transfer are evaluated according to their accuracy in predicting tray performance. The tray model is based on an assumption of vapor flowing as a plug through a completely mixed liquid. Mass and heat transfer resistance on both sides of the interface is considered. The basic plug flow model, in which the number of mass transfer units in vapor phase is used to model the composition profiles in the vapor, proved to be quite accurate. In that model, constant effective interfacial compositions are assumed. These compositions are iterated during the solution of the model. Approximating the high-flux correction can ease the computational procedure without si.