Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulated Computational Model Lesson Improves Foundational Systems Thinking Skills and Conceptual Knowledge in iology Students

It is important for undergraduate biology students to understand biological phenomena from a systems perspective because it is important for solving world problems related to the life sciences (e.g., medical and environmental). Unfortunately, students have few opportunities to develop the skills and conceptual knowledge required for a systems perspective. Simulated computational models are promising tools to help students achieve a systems perspective. We examined one lesson that uses simulations of a computational model to teach students about cellular respiration, and we report on its effectiveness to improve systems thinking skills and conceptual knowledge. Concept models revealed that the lesson helped the students identify, relate, and interconnect the components of cellular respiration, thereby improving aspects of their systems thinking skills and conceptual knowledge. We discuss how learning was affected by how the students interacted with the computational model.
Solving the edge-disjoint paths problem using a two-stage method

There exists a wide variety of network problems where several connection requests occur simultaneously. In general, each request is attended by ﬁnding a route in the network, where the origin and destination of such a route are those hosts that wish to establish a connection for information exchange. As it is well documented in the related literature, the exchange of information through disjoint routes increases the eﬀective bandwidth, velocity, and the probability of receiving the corresponding information. The deﬁnition of disjoint paths may refer to nodes, edges, or both. As far as we know, the most studied variant is the one where disjointness implies not to share edges. This optimization problem is usually known as the maximum edge-disjoint paths (EDP) problem. This NP -hard optimization problem has applications in real-time communications, VLSI-design, scheduling, bin packing, or load balancing. The proposed approach hybridizes an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the problem with an Evolutionary Algorithm. Empirical results using 174 previously reported instances show that the proposed procedure compares favorably to previous metaheuristics for this problem. We ﬁnally conﬁrm the signiﬁcance of the results by conducting non-parametric statistical tests.
Texture analysis of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging for differentiating clinically significant prostate cancer in the peripheral zone

Background/aim Texture analysis (TA) provides additional tissue heterogeneity data that may assist in differentiating peripheral zone (PZ) lesions in multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI). This study investigates the role of magnetic resonance imaging texture analysis (MRTA) in detecting clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) in the PZ. Materials and methods This retrospective study included 80 consecutive patients who had an mpMRI and a prostate biopsy for suspected prostate cancer. Two radiologists in consensus interpreted mpMRI and performed texture analysis based on their histopathology. The first-, second-, and higher-order texture parameters were extracted from mpMRI and were compared between groups. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed using the texture parameters to determine the independent predictors of csPCa. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to assess the diagnostic performance of the texture parameters. Results In the periferal zone, 39 men had csPCa, while 41 had benign lesions or clinically insignificant prostate cancer (cisPCa). The majority of texture parameters showed statistically significant differences between the groups. Univariate ROC analysis showed that the ADC mean and ADC median were the best variables in differentiating csPCa (p < 0.001). The first-order logistic regression model (mean + entropy) based on the ADC maps had a higher AUC value (0.996; 95% CI: 0.989–1) than other texture-based logistic regression models (p < 0.001). Conclusion MRTA is useful in differentiating csPCa from other lesions in the PZ. Consequently, the first-order multivariate regression model based on ADC maps had the highest diagnostic performance in differentiating csPCa.
Breaking the chains of corporate compensation: Unraveling the complexities of non-executive director compensation in South Africa’s boardrooms

Abstract This study investigates the impact of excluding stock options for non-executive directors (NEDs) on the relationship between executive pay and firm performance. The research focuses on accounting measures and market performance. Using a sample of 220 non-financial firms, including 110 listed firms from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) as the treatment group and 110 firms from alternative stock markets as the control group, the study employs the Difference-In-Difference (DID) regression analysis. The findings show that excluding stock options for NEDs leads to a significant increase in the value of executive performance compensation. However, this relationship lacks statistical significance for market-based performance. The study also reveals a significant positive influence of executive ownership on executive compensation. The results suggest the importance of alternative compensation structures and aligning executive interests with shareholder interests. The study recommends encouraging the exclusion of stock options for NEDs, exploring alternative compensation structures tied to accounting-based measures, conducting further research on market-based performance metrics, implementing executive ownership programs, and continuously monitoring and evaluating executive compensation practices. The findings validate their recommendations, which may be helpful for future decisions in that area. The results are also valuable for shareholders, as they vote on remuneration policies, including the different forms of incentives relating to NEDs.
Finite 
 L2 ‐gain problem for networked control systems with delays via event‐triggered control

By using the integrals of the signals to construct the triggering condition, integral‐based event‐triggered control can relax the requirement of persistent decrease on the Lyapunov function and, then, may yield better sampling performance. This paper studies the disturbance rejection problem for the integral‐based event‐triggered control systems with transmission delays and observer‐based output feedbacks. An integral‐based triggering condition is employed to generate the events. Two asynchronous models are implemented in the different sides of the networks. The model in the observer node is used to detect the events, whereas the model in the controller node is used to calculate the control signals. This structure contributes to avoiding the Zeno behavior, and then, an estimation on the lower bound of the interevent times is provided. Moreover, the criteria on the parameter in the triggering condition and on the bounds of the transmission delays are given to guarantee the desired disturbance rejection performance. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the efficiency and feasibility of the obtained results.
Scaffolding strategy for encouraging Speaking skills among tenth graders

Introducción: Ecuador es uno de los países de América Latina con menor nivel de Inglés, por esta razón, muchas investigaciones han sido llevadas a cabo para enfrentar este problema. Objetivos: El presente estudio exploró el impacto de aplicar la estrategia de Andamiaje para el desarrollo del inglés como lengua extranjera enfocándose en la habilidad de hablar. Metodología: Se utilizó una investigación cuasiexperimental. Los participantes fueron estudiantes del décimo grado de la "Unidad Educativa Belisario Quevedo" de Pujilí-Ecuador. El método de muestreo fue intencional no probabilístico. El instrumento fue obtenido de la sección de expresión oral del examen de Cambridge PET (Preliminary English Test A2) funcionando como pre-test y post-test. Posteriormente, se aplicó la Estrategia de Andamiaje a un grupo. Los alumnos tuvieron 14 sesiones de clases con un procedimiento estructurado diseñado de acuerdo con las etapas de la estrategia ya mencionada. Al final del estudio, todos los participantes fueron evaluados mediante un pos-test para medir la eficacia de la estrategia. Resultados: Los Hallazgos fueron muy satisfactorios debido a que los niveles de expresión oral de los alumnos en los que se aplicó la estrategia aumentaron significativamente. Además, aspectos como la Gramática y el Vocabulario, la Pronunciación y la Comunicación Interactiva se fortalecieron a través de las etapas de la estrategia de Andamiaje. Conclusiones: Los resultados de este estudio apoyan el uso de la estrategia de andamiaje en las destrezas orales permitiendo a los estudiantes comprender más información e incorporar nuevas ideas a sus conocimientos previos. Área de estudio general: Educación. Área de estudio específica: Aprendizaje del idioma Inglés.
The persistence of hidden unemployment among incapacity claimants in large parts of Britain

Across Britain as a whole, the number of non-employed adults of working age in receipt of incapacity-related benefits substantially exceeds the number claiming unemployment benefits. This article explores the extent to which the large number of incapacity claimants hides unemployment. Building on previous methods and evidence but deploying an updated methodology to adjust for underlying differences in health, the article finds that the number of incapacity claimants who might have been expected to have been in work in a genuinely fully-employed economy remains substantial, though somewhat lower than in the early 2000s. It also finds that this hidden unemployment is disproportionately concentrated in the weaker local economies of Britain’s older industrial areas and a number of coastal towns. The benefit claims are legitimate it is argued, but the scale and location of hidden unemployment casts doubt on assumptions that the contemporary UK economy is operating close to full employment.
Flares at Earth and Mars: An Ionospheric Escape Mechanism?

Solar flares are nature's active experiment upon a planet's upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Observed effects at Earth are consistent with a “second sunrise” scenario that produces changes in electron density, electron temperature, and plasma dynamics. A solar active region in September 2017 provoked ionospheric disturbances due to solar flares observed at Earth (6 September) and later at Mars (10 and 17 September). Incoherent scatter radar observations from the Millstone Hill Observatory showed a burst of upward diffusion due to electron temperature enhancements. We explore the companion possibility of flares causing upward drifts and plasma escape at Mars. Solar observations made by the EUV Monitor instrument on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) satellite are used to portray the time histories of irradiance changes to determine the “early” (onset to peak emission) and “late” (decay to background) time scales for these flares. During the initial phase of a flare (when photons ionize an atmosphere unmodified by flare heating), MAVEN was well above the ionosphere and thus no in situ data are available to asses this period of possible plasma escape. Estimates made using a simple terrestrial model for plasma drifts in the topside ionosphere suggest that escape rates can be enhanced at Mars at “early” times. The “late time” effects observed below 400 km 2 hr after the flare onset times did not reveal conclusive remnants of the proposed mechanism. No model of the Martian thermosphere‐ionosphere system has produced a self‐consistent simulation of solar flare effects upon Mars' upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
Global regularity results for the climate model with fractional dissipation

This paper studies the global well-posedness problem on a tropical climate model with fractional dissipation. This system allows us to simultaneously examine a family of equations characterized by the fractional dissipative terms \begin{document}$ (-Δ)^{\mathit{\alpha }}u$\end{document} in the equation of the barotropic mode \begin{document}$ u$\end{document} and \begin{document}$ (-Δ)^β v$\end{document} in the equation of the first baroclinic mode \begin{document}$ v$\end{document} . We establish the global existence and regularity of the solutions when the total fractional power is 2, namely \begin{document}$ {\mathit{\alpha }}+ β = 2$\end{document} .
Precision standard siren cosmology

We discuss the constraints on the Hubble constant to be expected from standard siren sources in ground-based gravitational wave detectors. We consider binary neutron star and binary black hole sources, and focus on the role of golden sirens (the loudest and best constrained sources) to constrain cosmological parameters. We consider two approaches: the counterpart case, where electromagnetic observations provide an independent measurement of the redshift to the sources, and the statistical case, incorporating an analysis over all potential host galaxies within the localization volumes. Our analysis includes realistic measurement uncertainties and selection biases. Although the specific results depend on the configuration and sensitivity of the detector networks, we find that the statistical method would constrain $H_0$ to $4\%$ with $\sim100$ detections of binary neutron star mergers, while an equivalent statistical measurement can be accomplished with $\sim30$ golden events (all fractional uncertainties are quoted as half of the width of the symmetric 68% credible interval divided by the median of the $H_0$ posterior). Alternatively, with $\sim10/60/200$ binary neutron star standard sirens with electromagnetic counterparts, $H_0$ would be constrained to $4/2/1\%$. Given current rate uncertainties, the 5% measurement may happen within the 9 month O3 LIGO/Virgo run (starting Fall 2018), or if the rate is low this may not happen until one full year of the LIGO/Virgo network at design sensitivity (starting $\sim$2021+). Similarly, the 1% measurement may happen within two years of running at design sensitivity ($\sim$2024+), or may not happen until 3+ years of operation of a full five-detector network. Although the rates, and thus precise timetable, remain uncertain, precision standard siren cosmology can be expected in the foreseeable future.
A Priori Error Analysis of a Discontinuous Galerkin Scheme for the Magnetic Induction Equation

Abstract We perform the error analysis of a stabilized discontinuous Galerkin scheme for the initial boundary value problem associated with the magnetic induction equations using standard discontinuous Lagrange basis functions. In order to obtain the quasi-optimal convergence incorporating second-order Runge–Kutta schemes for time discretization, we need a strengthened 4 / 3 {4/3} -CFL condition ( Δ ⁢ t ∼ h 4 / 3 {\Delta t\sim h^{4/3}} ). To overcome this unusual restriction on the CFL condition, we consider the explicit third-order Runge–Kutta scheme for time discretization. We demonstrate the error estimates in L 2 {L^{2}} -sense and obtain quasi-optimal convergence for smooth solution in space and time for piecewise polynomials with any degree l ≥ 1 {l\geq 1} under the standard CFL condition.
Prevalence of permanent numeric dental anomalies in panoramic radiography in an Iranian population

Aim: Dental number anomalies are a group of congenital developmental disorders divided into two groups supernumerary and missing teeth. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of numeric dental anomalies using panoramic images in patients referred to the Hamadan Dental Faculty. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 2,197 panoramic radiographs of patients aged 6-49 years were evaluated. These anomalies are divided into two groups: 1) Supernumerary teeth, including Mesiodens, Distodens, and Peridens, and 2) Missing teeth, including Hypodontia, Oligodontia, and Anodontia. A Chi-square test was performed to assess the relationship between the anomalies. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 16, in which P-value < 0.05 was considered the statistical significance level. Results: Of 736 males (32.2%) and 1548 females (67.8%) in this study, 32 (4.3%) and 55 cases (3.8%) had supernumerary teeth, respectively. The prevalence of supernumerary teeth was 0.3%, 0.5%, and 0.6% in males and 0.2%, 1% and 1.2% in females for mesiodens, distodens, and peridens, respectively. Also, 243 males (10.6%) and 655 females (28.6%) had missing teeth anomalies. Hypodontia in the maxilla was the most common anomaly in both genders, while mesiodens was the least common. Conclusion: Hypodontia was the most common anomaly, followed by peridens; the least common anomaly was mesiodens. The prevalence of supernumerary teeth was greater in males, though the difference was not statistically significant. In comparison, females had a greater prevalence of missing teeth.
GENDER ANALYSIS ON EDUCATION AND INCOME: A PARADIGM SHIFT AMONG RURAL PARENTS WITH CHILDREN IN REGGIO EMILIA EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

There is global progress toward gender equality with 68% of the countries in the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report of 2019. Despite the progress, education and income are among areas in which gender is still not equally enabled in developing regions. As the world is progressing in reaching gender-equal access to education and income some programs appeared in gender equity to wipe out some obstacles faced by girls and women in education and income which may invariably improve the socio-economic status. The quantitative- exploratory-Correlational design was used in a gender-disaggregated form on the parents with children in the Reggio Emilia Early Childhood Development (REA-ECD) centres. The sample size of 405 with 204 females and 201 males was used through multistage-systematic random sampling. The instrument for data collection was adapted, data collection with the aids of trained enumerators and analysed in descriptive and binary logistic regression. The results show a significant improve (44.9%) with tertiary education, mean income N34,572. 840, [USD138.291]and 28.5 times (odds=29.46) more likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance for girls and boys to attend schools. These revealed the need for more programs involving more women as well as laws and policies that enable girls and young women to attend school. More studies in future especially longitudinal to ascertain any dynamism in development over time. Hence, in developing countries, there are still barriers limiting women and girls opportunity.
Native point defects and impurities in hexagonal boron nitride

Recently hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has attracted a lot of attention because of discovery of single-photon emitters (SPEs) in monolayer, multi-layer and bulk [1−4]. Single photon emission exhibits linear optical polarization and has been attributed to point defects. These results highlight the potential of h-BN for applications related to quantum information science, including quantum computing and quantum-secure communication. Despite active investigations, the nature of these emitters has so far remain unresolved [5−6]. We study the properties of native defects and impurities in h-BN using density functional theory with a hybrid functional. We also investigate the migration properties of these point defects to determine their kinetics at different temperatures. Native vacancy and antisite defects have high formation energies, and are unlikely to form under thermodynamic equilibrium for typical growth conditions. Self-interstitials can have low formation energies when the Fermi level is near the band edges, and may form as charge compensating centers; however, their low migration barriers render them highly mobile, and they are unlikely to be present as isolated defects.
Vietnamese EFL Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Attainments (Achievements) and Difficulties from a Teaching Practicum

This study explored how a teaching practicum prepared pre-service English teachers (PSETs) for their profession and what difficulties they encountered during their practicum. Forty-seven PSETs of the 2019 intake at a Vietnamese university provided information via a questionnaire, and eight participated in follow-up interviews. The PSETs’ perceived gains in teaching competencies were examined with reference to Vietnam’s English Teacher Competency Framework (ETCF), issued in 2012 by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). The results indicated that the teaching practicum significantly aided the PSETs’ attainments of most competency domains in the ETCF, particularly those that are associated with a greater appreciation of the values and responsibilities of being a teacher, enhanced knowledge of the curriculum and the English language, as well as the ability to reflect on and improve teaching practices. However, certain competency indicators across the competency domains, including practice with assessment, handling difficult pedagogical incidents, and organizing extracurricular activities to create a supportive and meaningful learning environment, were less clearly obtained than the others. Dealing with time constraints and workload, insufficient preparation for classroom practice, and safety precautions to deal with the post-COVID-19 pandemic were some of the major obstacles the PSETs encountered. The results have important implications for pre-service teacher education programs and the implementation of the ETCF for teacher development.
Rheology of dense granular suspensions

Suspensions are composed of mixtures of particles and fluid and are omnipresent in natural phenomena and in industrial processes. The present paper addresses the rheology of concentrated suspensions of non-colloidal particles. While hydrodynamic interactions or lubrication forces between the particles are important in the dilute regime, they become of lesser significance when the concentration is increased, and direct particle contacts become dominant in the rheological response of concentrated suspensions, particularly those close to the maximum volume fraction where the suspension ceases to flow. The rheology of these dense suspensions can be approached via a diversity of approaches that the paper introduces successively. The mixture of particles and fluid can be seen as a fluid with effective rheological properties but also as a two-phase system wherein the fluid and particles can experience relative motion. Rheometry can be undertaken at an imposed volume fraction but also at imposed values of particle normal stress, which is particularly suited to yield examination of the rheology close to the jamming transition. The response of suspensions to unsteady or transient flows provides access to different features of the suspension rheology. Finally, beyond the problem of suspension of rigid, non-colloidal spheres in a Newtonian fluid, there are a great variety of complex mixtures of particles and fluid that remain relatively unexplored.