Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Digital platforms and speed-based competition: The case of secondhand clothing

Recent research studies have explored what digital platforms do as well as the behaviour they generate among users. This article builds on the existing literature by studying how P2P digital platforms are speeding up market activities and how this acceleration is shaping inter-user relationships. A qualitative ethnographic study was conducted on the secondhand clothing market from 2013 to 2020. Drawing on social acceleration theory, we show how the affordances of digital platforms encourage an acceleration in the pace of life, an acceleration in the renewal of items owned, and a technical acceleration across multiple domains. These accelerations are inciting speed-based competition between users, who must now be more responsive, more trend-conscious, and more savvy than others. The platforms also constitute a particular digital space that invites us to rethink the notion of alienation in various forms, specifically spatial and temporal alienation. In addition to these theoretical contributions, this research offers societal insights that will help users become more aware of the scale of their sped-up activities on digital platforms.
Fast Correction of “Finite Aperture Effect” in Photoacoustic Tomography Based on Spatial Impulse Response

Photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) is a fast-developing imaging technique, which can provide structural and functional information in biological tissues with high-resolution beyond the depth of the optical diffusion limit. However, the most current PACT reconstruction method generally employs a point detector assumption, whereas in most PAT systems with circular or spherical scanning modes, the transducer is mostly flat and with a finite size. This model mismatch leads to a notable deterioration in the lateral direction in regions far from the rotation center, which is known as the “finite aperture effect”. In this work, we propose to compensate a novel Back-projection (BP) method based on the transducer’s spatial impulse response (SIR) for fast correction of the “finite aperture effect”. The SIR accounts for the waveform change of the transducer for an arbitrary point source due to the geometry of the detection surface. Simulation results showed that the proposed SIR-BP method can effectively improve the lateral resolution and signal to noise ratio (SNR) in the off-center regions. For a target 4.5 mm far from the rotation center, this new method improved the lateral resolution about five times along with a 7 dB increase in the SNR. Experimental results also showed that this SIR-BP method can well restore the image angular blur to recover small structures, as demonstrated by the imaging of leaf veins. This new method offers a valuable alternative to the conventional BP method, and can guide the design of PAT systems based on circular/spherical scan.
A comparison between rotating squares and anti-tetrachiral systems: Influence of ligaments on the multi-axial mechanical response

Rotating unit systems are one of the most important and well-known classes of auxetic mechanical metamaterials. As their name implies, when loaded, these systems deform primarily via rotation of blocks of material, which may be connected together either directly through joints (or ‘joint-like’ connections made by overlapping vertices of the rotating units) as in the case of rotating rigid polygonal-unit systems or by ligaments/ribs as in the case of chiral honeycombs. In this work, we used Finite Element Analysis to investigate the effect which the presence/absence of ligaments has on the on-axis and off-axis mechanical properties of these systems by analysing two of the most well-known structures which characterise these two cases: the rotating square system and the anti-tetrachiral honeycomb. It was found that while the presence of ligaments has a negligible effect on the on-axis Poisson’s ratio of these systems, it has a profound influence on nearly all other mechanical properties as well as on the off-axis loading behaviour. Systems with ligaments were found to exhibit a high level of anisotropy and also a severely reduced level of stiffness in comparison to their non-ligamented counterparts. On the other hand, the rotating square system suffers from high localized stress-intensities and has a very low strain-tolerance threshold. In addition, an optimized ‘hybrid’ geometry which is specifically designed to capture the best features of both the anti-tetrachiral and rotating square system, was also analysed. This work shows the main differences between ligament-based and non-ligament-based auxetic structures and also highlights the importance of considering the off-axis mechanical response in addition to the on-axis properties when investigating such systems.
Diagnostic workup of cancer in patients with new-onset anaemia: a Danish cohort study in general practice

Abstract Background Anaemia is associated with adverse outcomes, including increased morbidity and all-cause mortality. Diagnostic workup of patients with anaemia is essential to detect underlying disease, especially undiagnosed malignancy. Objective To describe the cancer-relevant diagnostic workup in patients with new-onset anaemia detected in general practice. An additional aim was to analyse associations between patient characteristics and the diagnostic workup. Design Observational population-based cohort study using electronic laboratory and register data. Setting Danish general practice. Subjects Patients aged 40–90 years with new-onset anaemia (no anaemia in the preceding 15 months) detected in general practice. Patients were identified in Danish laboratory information systems and nationwide registries in 2014–2018. Main outcome measures We measured the proportion of patients receiving predefined diagnostic investigations, that is, cancer patient pathway, colonoscopy, gastroscopy, computerised tomography (CT) scan, faecal test for haemoglobin, and bone marrow examination within three months of the anaemia index date. Results We included 59,993 patients, and around half of the patients with ‘iron deficiency anaemia’, ‘anaemia of inflammation’, or ‘combined inflammatory iron deficiency anaemia’ had no cancer-relevant diagnostic investigations performed. Patients aged 60–79 years and patients with severe anaemia were more likely to have investigations performed, while patients with comorbidity were less likely to have investigations performed. Conclusion Around half of the patients with anaemia subtypes that may indicate underlying cancer had no cancer-relevant diagnostic investigations performed. This may represent missed diagnostic opportunities. Future interventions are needed to improve the diagnostic workup of cancer in patients with anaemia, for example, laboratory alert systems and clinical decision support. KEY POINTS The general practitioners are often the first to detect anaemia and its underlying disease (e.g. undiagnosed malignancy). Large-scale studies are needed on the diagnostic workup of patients with anaemia in general practice in relation to an underlying malignancy. This study shows that the majority of patients with anaemia had no cancer-relevant diagnostic investigations performed, which may cause diagnostic delay. Interventions seems needed to improve the diagnostic workup of cancer in these patients to ensure timely diagnosis.
Fluoroscopy‐guided percutaneous lithotripsy using FREDDY laser for giant gallstones: Preliminary experience

Percutaneous treatment of symptomatic cholelithiasis with large gallstones remains a challenge. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a new method for the removal of giant gallstones with percutaneous lithotripsy using a frequency‐doubled double‐pulse neodymium: YAG (FREDDY) laser.
Vocational Education at Special School in North Sumatra

Vocational education is the proper treatment of work skills or life skills education, especially for students with special needs. This study aims to analyze the implementation of vocational education at A/B/C Melati 'Aisyiyah special school located in Tembung, North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. This study uses a qualitative approach, with field research type. The data collection is through observation, interview, and documentation, then analyzed with interactive analysis models, following the data validity test using triangulation methods. This study discovers that analyzing the vocational education implementation for special students at the high school level, namely from aspects: a) teacher potential, b) student potential, c) supporting infrastructure, d) vocational learning system and policy to grant students to work according to their ability, as one of the efforts to realize the school vision and mission. The implication of this study is to provide an overview of vocational education implementation for special students to have independence and responsibility in living their lives.
The Effects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Use on Human Development—A Macroeconomic Approach

Information and communication technology (ICT) is considered a significant factor in economic growth and development. Over the past two decades, scholars have studied the impact of ICT on economic growth, but there has been little research that has addressed the impact of ICT on human development, which is considered one of the fundamental factors of economic development. This could be especially important from the perspective of developing countries, which can develop faster through the implementation of ICT. Thus, the aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of ICT use on human development, distinguishing effects among high, upper-middle, lower-middle and low-income countries following the World Bank classification 2020. Our sample includes 130 countries in the period from 2007 to 2019. The empirical analysis is based on dynamic panel data regression analysis. We use Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) as an estimator, i.e., two-step system GMM. The results primarily support the dynamic behaviour of human development. The results of the analysis also show that ICT has highly significant positive effects on human development in lower-middle-income and low-income countries, while the effects do not appear to be significant in high- and middle-income countries. This research serves as an argument for the need to invest in ICT and its implementation in low-income countries; however, it also suggests that the story is not one-sided and that there are possible negative effects of ICT use on human development. From the perspective of economic policy, the results can be a guideline for the implementation and use of ICT in developing countries, which could lead to economic growth and development and thus better quality of life. On the other hand, policymakers in developed countries cannot rely on ICT alone; they should also consider other technological innovations that could ensure a better quality of life.
Deep-Learning-Based Central African Primate Species Classification with MixUp and SpecAugment

In this paper, we report experiments in which we aim to auto-matically classify primate vocalizations according to four primate species of interest, plus a background category with forest sound events. We compare several standard deep neural networks architectures: standard deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs), MobileNets and ResNets. To tackle the small size of the training dataset, less than seven thousand audio ﬁles, the data augmentation techniques SpecAugment and MixUp proved to be very useful. Against the very unbalanced classes of the dataset, we used a balanced data sampler that showed to be efﬁcient. An exponential moving average of the model weights allowed to get slight further gains. The best model was a standard 10-layer CNN, comprised of about ﬁve million parame-ters. It achieved a 93.6% Unweighted Average Recall (UAR) on the development set, and generalized well on the test set with a 92.5% UAR, outperforming an ofﬁcial baseline of 86.6%. We quantify the performance gains brought by the augmentations and training tricks, and report fusion and classiﬁcation experiments based on embeddings that did not bring better results.
Effects of COVID‐19 lockdown on eating disorders and obesity: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract Objective This systematic review and meta‐analysis aimed to examine: the pooled prevalence of symptomatic behaviours and mental health deterioration amongst individuals with eating disorders (EDs) and obesity during the COVID‐19 confinement. Moreover, we examined changes in EDs and distress before and during the confinement, and the association between psychosocial factors and EDs symptoms. Method A systematic search was carried out in biomedical databases from January 2020 to January 2021. Both cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies that used quantitative measures of ED symptoms and psychological distress during and after the COVID‐19 confinement were included. Results A total of 26 studies met inclusion criteria (n = 3399, 85.7% female). The pooled prevalence of symptomatic deterioration in EDs was 65% (95% CI[48,81], k = 10). The pooled prevalence of increased weight in obesity was 52% (95% CI[25,78], k = 4). More than half of the participants experienced depression and anxiety. Moreover, at least 75% of the individuals with EDs reported shape and eating concerns, and increased thinking about exercising. However, the pooled analyses of longitudinal studies showed no significant differences from pre‐pandemic levels to the first lockdown phase in Body Mass Index and ED symptoms, whereas only few studies suggested increased distress, particularly among individuals with anorexia nervosa. Conclusions The majority of individuals with EDs and obesity reported symptomatic worsening during the lockdown. However, further longitudinal studies are needed to identify vulnerable groups, as well as the long‐term consequences of COVID‐19.
Effects of Cued-Recall Versus Recognition Retrieval Practice on Beginning College Students’ Exam Performance

Abstract Cognitive psychologists have found that taking practice tests improves students’ learning, and some claim that tests that require recall are more effective than those that require recognition. This study examined whether recognition (i.e., multiple-choice) quizzes were as effective as cued-recall (i.e., fill-in-the-blank) quizzes for improving introductory psychology students’ exam performance. Chapters covered on each of four exams were assigned to either a no-quiz, fill-in-the-blank-quiz, or multiple-choice-quiz condition, and I evaluated students’ average exam performance on questions related to each quiz condition. Both the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank quizzes improved students’ exam scores, and there was no significant difference in the effectiveness of the two types of quizzes.
Barriers and facilitators in the implementation of an evidence-based health promotion intervention in a primary care setting: a qualitative study

Purpose This study aims to elucidate the health care organization, management and policy barriers and facilitators associated with implementation of an evidence-based health promotion intervention in primary care centers in the Basque Country, Spain. Design/methodology/approach Seven focus groups were conducted with 49 health professionals from six primary care centers participating in the Prescribing Healthy Life program. Text was analyzed using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) focusing on those constructs related to health care organization, management and policy. Findings The health promotion intervention was found to be compatible with the values of primary care professionals. However, professionals at all centers reported barriers to implementation related to: (1) external policy and incentives, (2) compatibility with existing workflow and (3) available resources to carry out the program. Specific barriers in these areas related to lack of financial and political support, consultation time constraints and difficulty managing competing day-to-day demands. Other barriers and facilitators were related to the constructs networks and communication, culture, relative priority and leadership engagement. A set of six specific barrier-facilitator pairs emerged. Originality/value Implementation science and, specifically, the CFIR constructs were used as a guide. Barriers and facilitators related to the implementation of a health promotion program in primary care were identified. Healthcare managers and policy makers can modify these factors to foster a more propitious implementation environment. These factors should be appropriately monitored, both in pre-implementation phases and during the implementation process, in order to ensure effective integration of health promotion into the primary care setting.
Perception of Standard Arabic Synthetic Speech Rate

This experiment investigated how Arabic speakers perceive synthetic Standard Arabic speech rate produced by Google TTS, at normal vs. accelerated rates. Twenty syntactically identical Standard Arabic sentences with a similar length ( M = 22 syllables per sentence, SD = 1) were auditorily presented in a female voice to thirty female participants who were instructed to rate the tempo of the normal ( M ≈ 4.5 syllable per second) and accelerated (by 10%, 20%, and 30%) stimuli on a 1-7 Likert scale (1= extremely slow, 4= normal, 7= extremely fast). The results show that differences in the four-condition synthetic speech rates were reflected in the ratings provided by the participants: the more the speech was accelerated, the higher rating it received. More importantly, the findings support the observation that the current normal speech rate of Google TTS synthetic speech is not perceived as normal by Arabic speakers, but rather is perceived as slow. This may negatively affect the likelihood that users are comfortable using this technology. Hence, the outcome of this study does not only call for further investigation into Standard Arabic synthetic speech rates, but also reveals the need to define a baseline for a natural speech rate in Arabic.
Stability Analysis of Rotor-Bearing Systems under the Influence of Misalignment and Parameter Uncertainty

Stability is a well-known challenge for rotating systems supported by hydrodynamic bearings (HDBs), particularly for the condition where the misalignment effect and the parametric uncertainty are considered. This study investigates the impact of misalignment and inherent uncertainties in bearings on the stability of a rotor-bearing system. The misalignment effect is approximately described by introducing two misaligned angles. The characteristics of an HDB, such as pressure distribution and dynamic coefficients, are calculated by the finite difference method (FDM). The stability threshold is evaluated as the intersection of run-up curve and borderline. Viscosity and clearance are considered as uncertain parameters. The generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) expansion is adopted to quantify the uncertainty in parameters by evaluating unknown coefficients. The unknown gPC coefficients are obtained by using the collocation method. The results obtained by the gPC expansion are compared with those of the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The results show that the characteristics of the HDB and the stability threshold are affected by misalignment and parameter uncertainties. As the uncertainty analysis using the gPC expansion is performed on a relatively small number of predefined collocation points compared with the large number of MC samples, the method is very efficient in terms of computation time.
Public Knowledge of Cardiovascular Diseases and its Risk Factors in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the critical yet preventable non-communicable diseases. Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) reports on non-communicable conditions in 2010, millions of people were killed by non-communicable diseases in 2008, resulting in deaths that occurred before the age of 60 (1). Our aim in this study is to provide descriptive epidemiology and to estimate the public’s knowledge towards CVD types, risk factors, and warning symptoms of heart attack or stroke. Methodology: The study was approved by Ibn Sina National College of Medical Sciences research committee in November of 2019.This is a cross-sectional analytic study conducted among the Saudi community in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia from November 2019 to April 2020. A total of 635 respondents contributed to fill the self-administered questionnaire. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used. The degree of association was tested using Chi-square. A statistically significant association was taken at P<0.05. Results: Participants who agreed to participate consisted of 228(35.9%) males and 407(64.1%) females. Hypertension is the highest disease diagnosed with a total of 111(17.5%) and highest among females with 71(64.0%). Most of the participants identified chest pain and discomfort (76.4%) and shortness of breath (73.7%) as symptoms of heart attack. Compared with other symptoms such as pain or discomfort in the arm or shoulder (57.3%), weakness in the arm or leg on one side of the body (55.6%), and weakness lightheaded and fainting (51.2%). Conclusion: The study participants show low knowledge in CVS. There is a need to increase public awareness and to establish basic knowledge to the general and targeted individuals.
Impact of CSR on Organizational Behavior during a Pandemic: Highlighting Public Health and Safety in the Airline Industry

This study expands Carroll’s CSR typology with the public health and safety dimension to examine how the airline industry’s CSR and public health and safety activities influence flight attendants’ organizational identification, self-esteem, and commitment to the company during COVID-19. A total of 342 South Korean flight attendants participated in online surveys. Based on social identity theory and using structural equation modeling (SEM), the study reveals that ethical-, economic-, and philanthropic-CSR and public health and safety are positively related to organizational identification and that all are linked to the self-esteem and organizational commitment of flight attendants. However, legal-CSR did not affect their organizational identification. The results suggest that “public health and safety” should be applied when initiatives aim to enhance flight attendants’ organizational behavior. The study’s findings contribute to the literature by extending the original CSR model and providing theoretical and practical implications for academic researchers and airlines during a pandemic.
An extensive study on strain dependence of glass fiber-reinforced polymer-based composites

Fiber-reinforced polymer-based composites may experience various strain rates under different dynamic loads. As the mechanical behavior of these composites varies with strain rate, their response will be dependent on the strain rate. This paper presents a comprehensive review on glass fibers and composites reinforced with these fibers, as the most practical polymer-based composite, under dynamic loading. First, the properties of long glass fibers under different strain rates will be reviewed in detail. In the following, experimental studies on the effects of strain rate on various types of glass fiber-reinforced polymer-based composites will be categorized and presented. The behavior of thermoset polymers will be also addressed under different strain rates. Finally, various analytical and numerical macromechanical and micromechanical models will be comprehensively described for this type of composites.