Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What is the difference between augmented reality and 2D navigation electronic maps in pedestrian wayfinding?

ABSTRACT Augmented reality (AR) navigation aids have become widely used in pedestrian navigation, yet few studies have verified their usability from the perspective of human spatial cognition, such as visual attention, cognitive processing, and spatial memory. We conducted an empirical study in which smartphone-based AR aids were compared with a common two-dimensional (2D) electronic map. We conducted eye-tracking wayfinding experiments, in which 73 participants used either a 2D electronic map or AR navigation aids. We statistically compared participants’ wayfinding performance, visual attention, and route memory between two groups (AR and 2D map navigation aids). The results showed their wayfinding performance did not differ significantly. Regarding visual attention, the participants using AR tended to have significantly shorter fixation durations, greater saccade amplitudes, and smaller pupil sizes on average than the 2D map participants, which indicates lower average cognitive workloads throughout the wayfinding process. Considering attention on environmental objects, the participants using AR paid less visual attention to buildings but more to persons than the participants using 2D maps. Sketched routes results revealed that it was more difficult for AR participants to form a clear memory of the route. The aim of this study is to inspire more usability research on AR navigation.
Care Ethics in Online Teaching

ABSTRACT As a teacher educator, I sought to understand how to cultivate care ethics in my online teaching over a three-year period. Through surveys, student work, interviews, my course materials and teaching journal, and video-ed synchronous class sessions with seven cohorts of teacher candidates, the lenses of care ethics revealed particular challenges and possibilities for care with authentic modeling through story, practice and continuity, dialogue, and addressing power and confirmation in assessment. The self-study process helped me uncover my own assumptions to carve out better ways to cultivate caring relationships in the distanced and disembodied online environment.
Accessibility of public services in the age of ageing and shrinking population: are regions following trends

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the characteristics and functional-demographic diversity of municipalities in Poland that use spatial data. It answers the question about the relationship between accessibility to services of general interest (SGI; public administration, child-care, educational, medical, and cultural services) in municipalities and their demographic conditions. Demographic literature devotes much space to demographic transformations in the context of their underlying causes and spatial variations and to the impact of these changes. Meanwhile, transport-focused approaches concentrate on the spatial accessibility of SGI themselves, the methods for measuring them and the various methodologies employed. This study combines these two study areas in order to present the broadest possible approach to the accessibility of SGI among communities at different stages of demographic advancement. We found that the nature of demographic processes is associated with the level of accessibility to SGI. Notably, accessibility to educational and medical services in depopulating areas is better than in ageing areas. The opposite is true for cultural services. The poorest accessibility affects those communities where the two above demographic processes overlap. There is clear variation in the accessibility of SGI: functional urban areas having the best accessibility and remote areas the worst accessibility .
Photosynthetic response of young oaks to biochar amendment in field conditions over 3 years

ABSTRACT Amendment by biochar made by thermal degradation of biomass is expected to enhance carbon sequestration through stimulating carbon assimilation by plants. We clarified the effect of biochar amendment on the photosynthesis of trees in forest ecosystems. Biochar was applied to young oak trees (Quercus serrata) in temperate deciduous forest at rates of 0, 5, 10 and 20 Mg ha−1 in four plots (C0, C5, C10, and C20). The variation in photosynthetic parameters (the maximum photosynthetic rate: Pmax, maximum carboxylation rate: Vcmax and the potential rate of electron transport: Jmax) and leaf traits (the stomatal conductance: gc, leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf nutrient concentrations) were examined every month during the growing seasons for 3 years. Pmax generally increased in C5 and C10 and did not increase in C20. Similarly, Vcmax and Jmax increased in C5 and C10 and correlated significantly positively with Pmax, suggesting that biochar amendment basically increased the photosynthetic rate through improvements in physiological activities but that there was a maximum useful dosage. We also found that gc, LMA and leaf nutrient (N, Mg, and S) showed significant positive correlations with Pmax, indicating that an increase in photosynthetic rates would be supported by these leaf traits. However, stimulation of photosynthesis became smaller year by year, indicating that the effects of biochar amendment faded gradually. We concluded that biochar amendment basically improved the photosynthesis of oak trees in the forest through the change of all gc, LMA and leaf nutrient concentrations but declined yearly.
Mother-Tongue Maintenance in Canada: The Role of the Coethnic Community and Coethnic Resources

ABSTRACT Much of our understanding of language attainment among immigrants and their descendants focuses on the US with substantial evidence of mother-tongue loss within a few generations. However, these patterns may differ in Canada given its unique linguistic context, such as continuous migration, multicultural policy, two official languages, and a skilled migration policy. Thus, this study focuses on several contexts under which immigrants and their children are received. Specifically, this article examines the role of the coethnic community and coethnic resources on unofficial and official language proficiency among the first, 1.5, and second generations in Canada. Using data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Study and 2001 Canadian microdata, this study finds that simultaneous proficiency in non-official and official languages is structured by the availability of coethnic resources and the average size and education of the coethnic community. Specifically, individuals with greater access to coethnic resources and many coethnic neighbors are more likely to maintain the mother tongue with the official language(s).
Perceptions of teachers regarding the perceived implementation of creative pedagogy in “making” activities

Abstract “Making” has its origin in the maker movement, emphasizes novel, innovative creations by adopting applicable technologies, and fosters students’ creativity or encourages them to engage in creative thinking in school-based making activities, in which teachers act as a facilitator for the implementation of creative pedagogy. This study constructed a hypothesized model based on the theory of planned behavior and incorporated pedagogical beliefs, personal innovativeness, peer influence, and facilitating conditions to predict teachers’ perceptions regarding the perceived implementation of creative pedagogy in making activities. Questionnaires were obtained from 68 Chinese teachers with maker instruction experience and were tested against the proposed model by partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that teachers’ attitudes and subjective norms had positive impacts on their intentions to implement creative pedagogy. Pedagogical beliefs and personal innovativeness showed a significant impact on their attitudes, while peer influence exerted a significant influence on subjective norms.
Determinants of Webrooming and Showrooming Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract The aim of this study is to explore the characteristics of omnichannel shoppers in the context of webrooming and showrooming behavior. A total of two hundred and forty research papers were accessed from various sources through searches based on keywords. One hundred and thirteen papers were found to be relevant for further analysis. Most of the studies were from the USA and UK and had predominantly used structural equation modeling for analysis and establishing relationships between the variables of interest. Based on analysis of these studies and a thorough review of extant literature on omnichannel retail environment in general and webrooming and showrooming behavior in particular, the present study attempts to (i) provide deeper insights into the omnichannel phenomena; (ii) identify the determinants of the consumer purchase journey in an omnichannel environment; (iii) categorize the extant studies in five broad areas; and (iv) identify the critical areas for future research focusing on new forms of buying behaviors.
Pulmonary vascular diseases

Jason Weatherald, Sanjay Mehta, and Andrew M. Hirsch Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, Libin Cardiovascular Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Southwest Ontario PH Clinic, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, London Health Sciences Centre, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Centre for Pulmonary Vascular Disease, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Ocean eddies strongly affect global mean sea-level projections

Small-scale ocean features have global effects. Current sea-level projections are based on climate models in which the effects of ocean eddies are parameterized. Here, we investigate the effect of ocean eddies on global mean sea-level rise (GMSLR) projections, using climate model simulations. Explicitly resolving ocean eddies leads to a more realistic Southern Ocean temperature distribution and volume transport. These quantities control the rate of basal melt, which eventually results in Antarctic mass loss. In a model with resolved ocean eddies, the Southern Ocean temperature changes lead to a smaller Antarctic GMSLR contribution compared to the same model in which eddies are parameterized. As a result, the projected GMSLR is about 25% lower at the end of this century in the eddying model. Relatively small-scale ocean eddies can hence have profound large-scale effects and consequently affect GMSLR projections.
Understanding Disability: High-Quality Evidence in Research on Special Education Disproportionality

This chapter examines how studies focused on the same topic—disproportionality in special education—can generate vastly different conclusions about its sources and causes. By analyzing existing disagreements in the field, we explore essential questions about what constitutes high-quality and relevant evidence when seeking to understand how, when, for whom, and why disproportionality occurs. Using a holistic review of the empirical literature on disproportionality, we illustrate how differing epistemological and ontological views inform research around the topic of disability in schools and argue that to develop high-quality evidence around disproportionality, researchers need a shared framework that describes how school-based disabilities and classification processes intersect. A shared framework will enable researchers to evaluate whether their findings are expected or unexpected, connect to other related research, and build and rebuild paradigms around issues of equity in special education, rather than disregard one set of findings over another.
Australian Research in Early Childhood Education and Care: Insights Into the Actual; Imagining the Possible

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) remains a priority area for public policy, internationally and in Australia. However, an analysis of empirical research published internationally up to 2008 has identified a bias toward positivist methodologies within a “scientific/psychological’ rather than educational perspective and with a focus on the interactions between preschoolers, family, and child care variables. For some researchers, this bias raises concerns that public policy in ECEC is based on limited research perspectives. This chapter examines research focusing on the Australian context and published between 2010 and 2014 to determine whether this bias exists in Australian research. We explore the quality of ECEC research to develop an overall understanding of the current situation of ECEC research in Australia. Our findings suggest that Australian research in ECEC is very dissimilar to research published internationally, especially in its reliance on qualitative paradigms and a focus on the educators (principals, teachers, and teacher aides). The strong qualitative focus may allow a diverse range of voices within the ECEC sector to be heard and identified, moving beyond traditional notions of historically marginalized individuals and communities that dominate other education research areas.
Assessing the Longitudinal Change in Low Vision: A Test of Competing Hypotheses

Introduction: Visual impairment among older adults has increasingly become one of the biggest challenges to public health and personal well-being in the United States. This study aims to examine whether the intersectionality hypothesis can be used in conjunction with the cumulative advantage (disadvantage), persistent inequality, or age-as-leveler to explain heterogeneity in low vision trajectories across birth cohorts, race or ethnicity, gender, and the level of education. Methods: Growth curve modeling was used to analyze data from the 2002–2014 Health and Retirement Study. Results: The type of trajectory (i.e., cumulative advantage or disadvantage, the persistent inequality, and the age-as-leveler) that characterize low vision is largely dependent upon the characteristics of an individual (i.e., race or ethnicity, gender, and education). Discussion: Trajectories of low vision are higher among females and those from ethnic minority groups with low levels of education. Implications for practitioners: Targeted interventions and attempts to close interethnic disparities in vision functioning should begin early on in life and should focus on racial ethnic minorities, females, and those with low education.
Subcutaneous Emphysema Caused by Third Molar Extraction

C omputed tomography (CT) was performed in a 28year-old woman, who was scheduled for carbon-ion radiotherapy (C-ion RT) for osteosarcoma of the right mandibular condyle (Figure 1, red arrow); CT confirmed the presence of air around the right parapharyngeal space (indicated by the yellow arrows in Figures 1-3). Palpation confirmed crepitus in the lower jaw and neck; no spontaneous symptoms were observed. The subcutaneous emphysema possibly developed when the right mandibular, semi-impacted, horizontally placed third molar was extracted after sectioning using an air-turbine handpiece 2 days before CT imaging; the extraction was performed before C-ion RT to ease oral care
Effect of temperature and age on near infrared spectra of amino resins

Quality control of amino resins must be based on reproducible and rapid methods. Fourier-transform near infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR) has been gaining increasing interest in this context. However, it is not always possible to perform the analysis under the same conditions. Temperature and storage time, in particular, are two factors that often vary. However, their influence on the FT-NIR results is not yet well understood. This work describes how temperature and resin ageing affect the near infrared spectra of amino resins. It is shown that a previously calibrated near infrared model to assess the molar ratio of amino resins has a linear response with temperature. To counteract this effect and improve the speed of analysis, the spectral pre-processing of extended multiplicative scattering correction was used in conjunction with the loadings of water at different temperatures. This procedure was able to diminish the dependency of the model in relation to temperature for two amino resins (an R2 above 95 % of a linear fit went down to below 1%). With respect to the ageing of amino resins, NIR spectra of two resins were examined for a period of 9 days. It was found that the spectra are influenced by the continuation of the condensation reactions and the formation of aggregates, which causes increase in absorbance with resin ageing. This was proven by checking the differences between NIR spectra of amino resins before and after being subjected to ultrasonic treatment to promote deagglomeration.
Are Couples More Satisfied When They Match in Sexual Desire? New Insights From Response Surface Analyses

While sexual frequency and satisfaction are strong contributors to the quality and longevity of romantic relationships and overall well-being, mismatches in sexual desire between partners are common and have been linked with poorer satisfaction. Previous findings linking mismatches in desire with poorer relationship and sexual outcomes have typically been derived using difference scores, an approach that does not account for partners’ overall levels of desire. In a sample of 366 couples, we investigated whether partners who match in desire are more satisfied than desire-discrepant couples. Results of dyadic response surface analyses provided no support for a unique matching effect. Higher desire rather than matching in desire between partners predicted relationship and sexual satisfaction. These findings shed new light on whether the correspondence between partners’ levels of sexual desire is associated with satisfaction and suggest the need to focus on sustaining desire and successfully navigating differences rather than promoting matching in desire.
Considerations for Evidence Frameworks in Education Research

In this chapter, we describe and compare the standards for evidence used by three entities that review studies of education interventions: Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development, Social Programs that Work, and the What Works Clearinghouse. Based on direct comparisons of the evidence frameworks, we identify key differences in the level at which effectiveness ratings are granted (i.e., intervention vs. outcome domain), as well as in how each entity prioritizes intervention documentation, researcher independence, and sustained versus immediate effects. Because such differences in priorities may result in contradictory intervention ratings between entities, we offer a number of recommendations for a common set of standards that would harmonize effectiveness ratings across the three entities while preserving differences that allow for variation in user priorities. These include disentangling study rigor from intervention effectiveness, ceasing vote counting procedures, adding replication criteria, adding fidelity criteria, assessing baseline equivalence for randomized studies, making quasi-experiments eligible for review, adding criteria for researcher independence, and providing effectiveness ratings at the level of the outcome domain rather than the intervention.
Personal Characteristics Associated with Working After Disability Onset for People with Visual Impairments

Introduction: This study utilized data from the 2014 Survey of Disability and Employment (SDE) to examine personal characteristics that influenced employment after disability onset for people who are visually impaired (i.e., those who are blind or have low vision). Method: The selected sample from the SDE data set included 131 individuals who are visually impaired, had disability onset after age 14 years, and worked before their disability onset. Logistic regression was used to examine working after disability onset associated with age at disability onset, years since disability onset, gender, race, education, receipt of government disability benefits, self-reported health, encouragement received to work, additional disabilities, and the interaction between age at disability onset and years since disability onset. Results: Persons who were female, received government benefits, and had multiple disabilities were less likely to work after disability onset; persons who had more sources of encouragement were more likely to work after disability onset. Age at disability onset interacted with time since disability onset; as age increased, odds of working after disability onset increased but only for persons who had their disability for at least 4 years. Discussion: Persons with newly acquired disabilities may need time to adjust to their disability and learn new skills that allow them to continue employment. Information about how employment may influence receipt of government benefits would be helpful to persons evaluating their options regarding continuing employment. Implications for practitioners: A person who has not worked after recent disability onset may be adjusting to life with a disability and may return to work in the future. Encouragement to work from both service providers and family members made a meaningful difference in employment retention after disability onset, and this is an area that vocational rehabilitation professionals can influence.
Publicizing Arbitrage

Abstract How does greater public disclosure of arbitrage activity and informed trading affect price efficiency? To answer this, we exploit rule amendments in U.S. securities markets, which impose a higher frequency of public disclosure of short positions. Higher public disclosure can hurt the production of information and deteriorate efficiency, or it can be beneficial by mitigating the limits to arbitrage and diffusing arbitrageurs’ information faster. With more frequent disclosure, information encapsulated within short interest is incorporated into prices faster, improving price efficiency. We find important reductions in short sellers’ horizon risk and increases in short sales with the rule amendments.
Clinical validation of the Siemens quantitative SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG assay (sCOVG) reveals improved sensitivity and a good correlation with virus neutralization titers

Abstract Objectives Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections cause coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and induce a specific antibody response. Serological assays detecting IgG against the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) protein are useful to monitor the immune response after infection or vaccination. The objective of our study was to evaluate the clinical performance of the Siemens SARS-CoV-2 IgG (sCOVG) assay. Methods Sensitivity and specificity of the Siemens sCOVG test were evaluated on 178 patients with SARS-CoV-2-infection and 160 pre-pandemic samples in comparison with its predecessor test COV2G. Furthermore, correlation with virus neutralization titers was investigated on 134 samples of convalescent COVID-19 patients. Results Specificity of the sCOVG test was 99.4% and sensitivity was 90.5% (COV2G assay 78.7%; p<0.0001). S1-RBD antibody levels showed a good correlation with virus neutralization titers (r=0.843; p<0.0001) and an overall qualitative agreement of 98.5%. Finally, median S1-RBD IgG levels increase with age and were significantly higher in hospitalized COVID-19 patients (median levels general ward: 25.7 U/mL; intensive care: 59.5 U/mL) than in outpatients (3.8 U/mL; p<0.0001). Conclusions Performance characteristics of the sCOVG assay have been improved compared to the predecessor test COV2G. Quantitative SARS-CoV-2 S1-RBD IgG levels could be used as a surrogate for virus neutralization capacity. Further harmonization of antibody quantification might assist to monitor the humoral immune response after COVID-19 disease or vaccination.