Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between Leisure Preferences, Mindfulness, Psychological Capital, and Life Satisfaction

This study intended to explore which leisure preferences contribute to mindfulness, psychological capital, and life satisfaction and assess whether mindfulness, psychological capital, and life satisfaction are associated with different leisure preferences. This study applied the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-12), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), and the instrument to evaluate the prevalence of leisure preferences. A sample consisted of 586 participants, 104 males and 478 females. The mean age of participants was 42.06, SD = 13.29. The results show that respondents who did not spend free time watching television scored higher on life satisfaction, mindfulness, and psychological capital. Participants who preferred attending events scored higher on life satisfaction and psychological capital. Participants who preferred spending time with family as a leisure preference scored significantly higher on life satisfaction, mindfulness, and psychological capital, including PsyCap overall, PsyCap work, PsyCap relationship, and PsyCap health. The findings also reveal that time spent with family is significantly associated with life satisfaction. Besides, males’ life satisfaction was significantly associated with time spent in nature, while females’ satisfaction was associated with spending time with family and participating in events. Males’ mindfulness was significantly associated with book reading, and females’ mindfulness was associated with not watching television. Males’ psychological capital was significantly associated with spending time with family and book reading, and females’ psychological capital was associated with not watching television but spending time with family, participating in events, and spending time in nature. The findings also showed that mindfulness mediated the link between watching television and life satisfaction, and psychological capital mediated links between spending time with family, participating in events, and life satisfaction. The findings demonstrate that life satisfaction is also significantly associated with spending time with family as a leisure preference. This study also revealed a significant negative association between age and spending time with friends or family, evidencing the possible loneliness of elderly respondents. Due to limitations of this study, including sample size and characteristics, cultural context, and research design, the research findings would preferably be regarded thoughtfully.
The Highlighting of a Biological Process for the Treatment of Leachate from a Public Discharge

Due to the composition and their impact on the environment, landfill leachate is a serious environmental and public health problem. Our physicochemical and microbiological study has shown that leachate is highly loaded with minerals including iron, Mg, Cd, etc.) and pathogenic microorganisms hence the need for effective and sustainable treatment. Our present study enters this preoccupation we have highlighted a biological process allowing the transformation of leachate by way of fermentation, being based on leaven having fermenting, acidifying and antimicrobial power. Microbiological analysis showed that almost all the pathogenic flora was removed showing the biological treatment efficacy. In addition, the stable product obtained after 15 days of fermentation was used as a base in a formula of a bio-fertilizer. Application trials in different crops (wheat, peas, corn, etc.) have shown satisfactory results.
Thermal Conductivity and Rheology of Graphene Oxide Nanofluids and a Modified Predication Model

In order to reveal the heat transfer performance of nanofluids in solar collectors, the thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of five kinds of graphene oxide nanofluids, with a mass fraction of 0.002% to 0.01%, were studied in the temperature range of 25–50 °C. To ensure the dispersion and stability of the prepared nanofluids, UV–Vis absorption spectrum, zeta potential and particle size distribution were employed for nanofluid characterization. Agglomeration and sedimentation of the prepared nanofluids after standing for 20 days were observed, showing the good stability of the prepared graphene oxide–water nanofluid. The dynamic viscosity and thermal conductivity were measured. They show that with the increase in temperature, the dynamic viscosity of nanofluids decreases and the thermal conductivity increases. With the increase in mass concentration, the viscosity and thermal conductivity are improved. The highest thermal conductivity increase is obtained when the nanofluid concentration is 0.01% and the temperature is 50 °C. Finally, and most importantly, considering the inaccuracy of the existing experimental correlations to the predicted values of thermal conductivity, we propose our new mathematical model of correlation and carry out a series of tests to verify its reliability. The experimental correlations with temperature and concentration as independent variables show good agreement and accuracy with the experimental data.
Effective adsorption of antimony(III) by MIL-101(Cr)-NH2: influencing-factor and characterization analyses and response surface optimization

With the increasing threat antimony (Sb) pollution poses to the environment, its removal from water is becoming increasingly important. Accordingly, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are garnering increasing research attention owing to their excellent performance as adsorbents. Here, the MOF MIL-101(Cr)-NH 2 was prepared directly by solvothermal synthesis. Sb(III) adsorption using MIL- 101(Cr)-NH 2 was evaluated systematically at varying adsorbent dosages and pHs. And the adsorption kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamics were explored by altering the contact time, initial Sb(III) concentration, and temperature, respectively. The results revealed that Sb(III) was adsorbed onto MIL-101(Cr)-NH 2 very quickly, even at low antimony concentrations. The maximum Sb(III) adsorp- tion capacity of MIL-101-NH 2 is 83.61 mg g −1 . In the presence of coexisting ion (NO 3− ), the amount of Sb(III) adsorbed was slightly increased, which may be due to the formation of an inner-sphere complex. The Box–Behnken method was used to design and optimize a response surface with ref- erence to three main influencing factors, that is, dosage, pH, and temperature, so as to obtain a multivariate quadratic model of adsorption behavior and identify the optimal adsorption con- ditions. Finally, a preliminary economic analysis of the synthetic material was carried out.
Why does the shtyle spread? Street prestige boosts the diffusion of urban vernacular features

Abstract In this article, we investigate social meaning as a determinant of linguistic diffusion by confronting laboratory and corpus data of Citétaal, a multi-ethnolect that has spread across Flanders. In a speaker evaluation experiment, we found that Citétaal was upgraded on ‘streetwise dynamism’, even by respondents unfamiliar with its migrant origin. From this, we conclude that it is Citétaal's third-order indexicality, pruned of ethnic associations, which carries the diffusion. To determine the relative importance of streetwise cool vis-à-vis other predictors, we studied the diffusion across Twitter of the principal Citétaal shibboleth (/s/ palatalisation). As a production proxy for streetwise cool, we included expressive compensation strategies such as lengthening (verrry), which turned out to be among the main predictors of the Citétaal form. We argue that social meaning is a major change determinant, and that Twitter is the optimum source to track both a diffusion and the factors, including social meaning, which drive it. (Rapid linguistic diffusion, social meaning, streetwise prestige, speaker evaluation experiment, corpus linguistics, Twitter)*
Revisiting the Effect of Axial Force Ratio on the Seismic Behaviour of RC Building Columns

Abstract Protection of structural columns against severe damage is of most importance in the seismic design of RC structures. The seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) columns can be improved by concrete confinement in the plastic hinge regions, where the required quantity of confining reinforcement is influenced by the axial force ratio (AFR). Nevertheless, different design standards have different treatments on the AFR effect in the ductility design of RC columns. In this regard, this paper presents a scientific revisit, which is conjugated with a statistical analysis of 474 sets of experimental data, on the effect of AFR. It is found that the displacement and hysteretic dissipation capacities of the flexure-critical RC columns can be significantly reduced by increasing AFR, although the lateral strength shows a reversed trend. On the other hand, the displacement ductility of short columns is apparently not influenced by AFR, yet the hysteretic dissipation capacity deteriorates under high AFR. The analytical results also suggest that different AFR limits should be used for the design of slender and short columns due to different failure mechanisms. The presented work sheds light on the considerations of the AFR effect and setting a suitable limit for controlling the seismic performance of RC columns.
An Experimental Study on Measuring Breaking-Wave Bubbles with LiDAR Remote Sensing

Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of profiling and characterizing subsurface bubble plumes following a breaking wave event from an above-water Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system. Measurements of LiDAR backscatter profiles of bubble plumes under mechanically generated breaking waves in a wave tank were collected and analyzed. After onset of wave breaking, the LiDAR backscatter increases rapidly by injected bubble plumes of active wave breaking. This intensification reaches a depth of one wave height within one wave period. After active wave breaking, the LiDAR backscatter from dissipated bubble plumes in the upper layer of water column decreases very slowly. The temporal variations of LiDAR backscatter are comparable to the collocated in-water measurements of optical backscatter at 850 nm wavelength and acoustic backscatter at 2000 kHz frequency. The decay rate of LiDAR backscatter of dissipated bubble plumes follows a power-law function consistent with decay rate of void fraction measurements in previous studies. This study demonstrates the viability and potential of using above-water LiDAR remote sensing to characterize subsurface bubble plumes.
Effect of KI Concentration in Correcting Tank on Optical Properties of PVA Polarizing Film

Polarizer is a key component of the liquid crystal display panel, and the optical properties mainly include transmittance, degree of polarization and chromaticity. Polarizer is made of a multilayer optical film, in which the PVA polarizing film is the core structure for realizing the polarization of the whole polarizer. PVA polarizing film is commonly manufactured through a multi-step craft, including rinsing, dyeing, stretching and correcting. The correction process has a significant impact on the final apparent color and optical properties of the polarizer. In this study, the KI concentration in the correcting tank, ranging from 1% to 3%, was systematically investigated. With the increase in KI concentration, the Raman vibration peak at 160 cm−1 representing I5− ions gradually weakened, while the Raman vibration peak at 110 cm−1 representing I3− ions gradually increased, indicating that the KI in the correcting tank changed the chemical equilibrium of polyiodide ions in PVA. Then abundant chromophore I5− ions were consumed and I3− ions generated, so that the apparent color of PVA polarizing film gradually changed from dark blue to dark gray, and the chromaticity a-value and b-value gradually increased. The change in the concentration of dichroic species (I5− and I3−) in PVA polarizing film had directly affected its transmittance in the visible range. From the UV-Vis transmittance spectrum of PVA polarizing film, when the I5− ions were consumed and I3− ions generated, the transmittance of PVA polarizing film in the region of 675–525 nm wavelength increased gradually while the polarization degree also increased.
Corn Yield in Monoculture and Intercropped with Cover Plants and Aggregates Stability

The cultivation of corn intercropped with cover crops has been increasing in the western region of Paraná. However, more technical information about this type of cultivation is needed. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate the yield of corn intercropped with brachiaria and crotalaria and its effect on aggregate stability and soil consistency. The experiment was carried out at the experimental station of Cooperativa Agrícola Mista Rondon (Copagril), in the city of Marechal Cândido Rondon. The experimental design was randomized blocks with 8 replications. There were six treatments for corn cultivation (T1) Corn monoculture (control), (T2) Corn intercropped with Brachiaria (Brachiaria ruzizienses), (T3) Brachiaria in monoculture, (T4) Crotalaria spectabilis (Crotalaria spectabilis) in monoculture, (T5) Corn intercropped with Crotalaria, (T6) Black oats (Avena sativum) in monoculture. Corn yield in intercropping, dry matter added to the soil, aggregate stability and soil consistency were evaluated. The yield of corn intercropped with cover crops was similar to that of corn in monoculture. The cultivation of Brachiaria ruziziensis in monoculture or intercropped with corn produced a large amount of straw and favored soil aggregation. Therefore, the intercropping systems are recommended for the improvement of soil physical properties and the conservation of soil.
PET image harmonization using smoothing-CycleGAN

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. It is characterized by irreversible memory loss and degradation of cognitive skills. Amyloid PET imaging has been used in the diagnosis of AD to measure the amyloid burden in the brain. It is quantified by the Standard Uptake Value Ratio (SUVR). However, there is great variability in SUVR measurements when different scanner models are used. Therefore, standardization and harmonization is required for quantitative assessments of amyloid PET scans in a multi-center or longitudinal study. Conventionally, PET image harmonization has been tackled either by standardization protocols at the time of image reconstruction, or by applying a smoothing function to bring PET images to a common resolution using phantom data. In this work, we propose an automatic approach that aims to match the data distribution of PET images through unsupervised learning. To that end, we propose Smoothing-CycleGAN, a modified cycleGAN that uses a 3D smoothing kernel to learn the optimum Point Spread Function (PSF) for bringing PET images into a common spatial resolution. We validate our approach using two sets of datasets, and we analyze the SUVR agreement before and after PET image harmonization. Our results show that the PSF of PET images that have different spatial resolutions can be estimated automatically using Smoothing-cycleGAN, which results in better SUVR agreement after image translation.
A High-Protein and Low-Glycemic Formula Diet Improves Blood Pressure and Other Hemodynamic Parameters in High-Risk Individuals

Low-caloric formula diets can improve hemodynamic parameters of patients with type 2 diabetes. We, therefore, hypothesized that persons with overweight or obesity can benefit from a high-protein, low-glycemic but moderate-caloric formula diet. This post-hoc analysis of the Almased Concept against Overweight and Obesity and Related Health Risk- (ACOORH) trial investigated the impact of a lifestyle intervention combined with a formula diet (INT, n = 308) compared to a control group with lifestyle intervention alone (CON, n = 155) on hemodynamic parameters (systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP), resting heart rate (HR), and pulse wave velocity (PWV)) in high-risk individuals with prehypertension or hypertension. INT replaced meals during the first 6 months (1 week: 3 meals/day; 2–4 weeks: 2 meals/day; 5–26 weeks: 1 meal/day). Study duration was 12 months. From the starting cohort, 304 (68.3%, INT: n = 216; CON: n = 101) participants had a complete dataset. Compared to CON, INT significantly reduced more SBP (−7.3 mmHg 95% CI [−9.2; −5.3] vs. −3.3 mmHg [−5.9; −0.8], p < 0.049) and DBP (−3.7 mmHg [−4.9; −2.5] vs. −1.4 mmHg [−3.1; 0.2], p < 0.028) after 12 months. Compared to CON, INT showed a pronounced reduction in resting HR and PWV after 6 months but both lost significance after 12 months. Changes in SBP, DBP, and PWV were significantly associated positively with changes in body weight and fat mass (all p < 0.05) and resting HR correlated positively with fasting insulin (p < 0.001) after 12 months. Combining a lifestyle intervention with a high-protein and low-glycemic formula diet improves hemodynamic parameters to a greater extent than lifestyle intervention alone in high-risk individuals with overweight and obesity.
Crisis Management in Communication: A Study on MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 Aviation Tragedies

In 2014, the MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 flight crash tragedies become a viral issue and attract the attentions of media and stakeholders, globally, and raise many crises to the airlines companies, respectively, including the risk of losing their stakeholders ’trust. The study is to identify the crises management approaches used for the tragedies related, to analyse and compare the effectiveness of the crises management between two well-known airlines companies, Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines (MAS). Qualitative method was used to collect the data related to the ways that the airlines company had taken to handling the crises. So, the researchers conducted content analysis by studying the secondary data, due to the fact of the airlines reluctance to give out information about safety procedures or policies, as the airlines accidents are a very sensitive subject. The data are mostly of the documentary types in written format of press conferences, press releases and media coverage of the accidents by local and western daily press (printed and online news).
Using robots at work during the COVID‐19 crisis evokes passion decay: Evidence from field and experimental studies

Abstract The growing trend of introducing robots into employees' work lives has become increasingly salient during the global COVID‐19 pandemic. In light of this pandemic, it is likely that organisational decision‐makers are seeing value in coupling employees with robots for both efficiency‐ and health‐related reasons. An unintended consequence of this coupling, however, may be an increased level of work routinisation and standardisation. We draw primarily from the model of passion decay from the relationship and clinical psychology literature to develop theory and test a model arguing that passion decays as employees increasingly interact with robots for their work activities. We demonstrate that this passion decay leads to an increase of withdrawal behaviour from both the domains of work and family. Drawing further from the model of passion decay, we reveal that employees higher in openness to experience are less likely to suffer from passion decay upon more frequent interactions with robots in the course of work. Across a multi‐source, multi‐wave field study conducted in Hong Kong (Study 1) and a simulation‐based experiment conducted in the United States (Study 2), our hypotheses received support. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Modeling, Simulation and Development of Grid-Connected Voltage Source Converter with Selective Harmonic Mitigation: HiL and Experimental Validations

This paper elaborates on a development technique for the grid-connected voltage source converter (VSC). We propose a simulation technique in the MATLAB/Simulink environment that emulates the operation of the discrete-time controlled grid-connected VSC. The switched-circuit modeling approach is used for simulation of the power stage in the continuous-time domain with the physical unit scale. The discrete-time control algorithm is implemented in an interpreted MATLAB function in the per-unit scale, which synchronizes with the switching period. Such a control algorithm is easily translated into the C language for programing of the 32-bit C2000 DSP controller with the same regulators’ parameters. The proposed platform was validated with a hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulator and with a 5-kVA 3-phase LCL-filtered grid-connected VSC. The discrete-time control scheme was implemented in the synchronous reference frame control with proportional-integral with multi-resonant controllers at harmonic orders 6th and 12th for suppression of the grid voltage harmonic orders 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th. The experimental results closely agreed with the simulation results. The experimental grid currents complied with the IEEE 1547 standard thanks to the multi-resonant controllers. The proposed platform provides a smooth transition from implementation to a near-commercial prototype with a low investment cost in simulation and rapid prototyping tools. A MATLAB/Simulink VSC model is provided as an attachment of this paper.
Role of the prorenin receptor in endometrial cancer cell growth

Endometrial cancer is the most diagnosed gynecological malignancy. Despite numerous scientific advances, the incidence and mortality rate of endometrial cancer continues to rise. Emerging evidence suggests a putative role of the (pro)renin receptor ((P)RR), in the ontogenesis of endometrial cancer. The (P)RR is implicated in breast cancer and pancreatic carcinoma pathophysiology by virtue of its role in proliferation, angiogenesis, fibrosis, migration and invasion. Thus, we aimed to investigate the functional role of the (P)RR in human endometrial cancer. We employed an siRNA-mediated knockdown approach to abrogate (P)RR expression in the endometrial epithelial cell lines; Ishikawa, AN3CA and HEC-1-A and examined cellular proliferation and viability. We also carried out a sophisticated proteomic screen to explore potential pathways via which the (P)RR is acting in endometrial cancer physiology. These data confirmed that the (P)RR is critical for endometrial cancer development, contributing to both its proliferative capacity and in the maintenance of cell viability. This is likely mediated through proteins such as MGA, SLC4A7, SLC7A11 or DHRS2, which were reduced following (P)RR knockdown. These putative protein interactions/pathways, which rely on the presence of the (P)RR, are likely to contribute to endometrial cancer progression and could therefore, represent several novel therapeutic targets for endometrial cancer.
Selected properties of AlxZnyO thin films prepared by reactive pulsed magnetron sputtering using a two-element Zn/Al target

AlxZnyO thin films were obtained by reactive pulsed magnetron sputtering. A two-element Zn/Al planar target was used as source material prepared in the form of a Zn disc (100 mm diameter) with Al rings pressed into its surface. The sputtering processes were carried out in a mixture of argon and oxygen. The films were deposited with a discharge power of PE = 400 W, which corresponded to a power density on the target surface of approximately 5 W/cm2. The films were deposited on glass strip substrates, placed symmetrically over the target, making it possible to obtain films with different composition and thickness. The film sheet resistance was measured as a function of the distance from the target axis on both sides (front and back) of the substrate. The lowest measured resistivity was about 4 × 10−3 Ω·cm. Additionally, optical properties, surface topography, and elemental composition were determined in selected areas of the substrate.