Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Testing the Assumptions in the Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services Using Empirical Data, Focusing on Cultural Awareness

Introduction: Encounters with children of foreign origin call for school nurses’ cultural competence during the health visits. This study aimed to investigate the statistical associations between the cultural constructs described by the Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services (PCCDHS) model and whether school nurses’ cultural encounters, cultural knowledge, and cultural skill could statistically predict their cultural awareness. Methodology: Spearman correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted using cross-sectional secondary data from 816 Swedish school nurses. The cultural constructs in the theoretical description of the PCCDHS model guided the selection and sorting of the items on cultural competence. Results: The constructs of cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounters, and cultural awareness were positively correlated with each other. However, becoming culturally aware was not statistically predicted by included cultural constructs (R2 = 13.4, p = .06). Discussion: Despite the interrelations between the investigated cultural constructs of the PCCDHS model, understanding cultural awareness development requires further empirical testing.
Identification, characterization and expression analysis of rLcn13, an epididymal lipocalin in rats

As the essential tissue for sperm maturation and storage, the epididymis secretes a number of tissue-specific proteins to exert its functions. Among these proteins, epididymal lipocalins have been intensively studied because of their epididymis-specific expression pattern and clustered genomic organization. In this study, rLcn13, a member of the rat epididymal lipocalin family, is identified and elaborately characterized. The cDNA sequence of rLcn13 consists of 719 nucleotides and encodes a 176 amino-acid protein with a predicted N-terminal signal peptide of 19 amino acids. rLcn13 shares a similar genomic structure and predicted 3D protein structure with other lipocalin family members. A recombinant rLCN13 mature peptide of 157 amino acids is expressed and purified, which is used to raise a polyclonal antibody against rLCN13 with high specificity and sensitivity. Northern blot, western blot, and immunohistochemistry assays reveal that rLcn13 is an epididymis-specific gene which is expressed predominantly in the initial segment and proximal caput epididymis and influenced by androgen. The rLCN13 protein is modified by N-glycosylation and secreted into the epididymal lumen, and then binds to the acrosome region of the sperm. Our data demonstrate that rLcn13 exhibits a specific temporospatial expression pattern and androgen dependence, indicating its potential roles in sperm maturation.
MRI and fluid biomarkers reveal determinants of myelin and axonal loss with aging

White matter damage is a feature of Alzheimer's disease, yet little is known about how facets of the Alzheimer's disease process relate to key features of white matter structure. We examined the association of Alzheimer's disease (Aß42/40 ratio; pTau181), neuronal injury (NfL), and reactive astrogliosis (GFAP) biomarkers with MRI measures of myelin content and axonal density.
Factors impacting employee turnover intentions among professionals in Sri Lankan startups

Employee turnover is one of the topical issues worldwide. The impact of factors affecting employee turnover varies occasionally and new factors are considered. Many countries have examined various factors that affect employee turnover. The main objective of this research is to consider psychographics and socio-demographic factors in one study and analyse the impact on employee turnover. A Probit regression model through the stepwise technique was used to analyse the collected data. Using ventures in Sri Lanka as a case study, this study demonstrates that employee turnover occurs in different stages and independent factors impact differently in each stage. The study population was professionals who have been a key part of Sri Lankan startups, which involved 230 respondents. Data analysis was performed through a forward stepwise technique through STATA. The results verified that job satisfaction and co-worker support negatively impact employee turnover, whereas leader member exchange positively impacts employee turnover. This study also proved a significant positive relationship between male employees in their thirties and high employee turnover. This study’s findings help to identify the areas management should focus on to minimise employee turnover to retain experienced and skilled employees.
Hierarchical Multi-Task Transformers for Crosslingual Low Resource Phoneme Recognition

This paper proposes a method for multilingual phoneme recognition in unseen, low resource languages. We propose a novel hierarchical multi-task classifier built on a hybrid convolution-transformer acoustic architecture where articulatory attribute and phoneme classifiers are optimized jointly. The model was evaluated on a subset of 24 languages from the Mozilla Common Voice corpus. We found that when using regular multi-task learning, negative transfer effects occurred between attribute and phoneme classifiers. They were reduced by the hierarchical architecture. When evaluating zero-shot crosslin-gual transfer on a data set with 95 languages, our hierarchical multi-task classifier achieves an absolute PER improvement of 2.78% compared to a phoneme-only baseline.
Comparison of Token- and Character-Level Approaches to Restoration of Spaces, Punctuation, and Capitalization in Various Languages

This study compares token-and character-level approaches to restoration of spaces, punc-tuation, and capitalization to unformatted sequences of input characters, which is a vital step in use cases such as formatting outputs of automatic speech recognition systems for automatic transcription, and formatting hash-tags. We obtain an overall F-score of 0.95 for our main English dataset with a hybrid pipeline model composed of a Naive Bayes classifier for space restoration and a BiLSTM classifier with a pre-trained Transformer layer for restoration of punctuation and capitalization. We also propose a novel character-level end-to-end BiL-STM model (overall F-score 0.90) which has the advantages of being able to restore mid-token capitalization and punctuation and of not requiring space characters to be present in input strings. We demonstrate that this model is language agnostic through experiments on Japanese, a scriptio continua language, and Gu-jarati, a low-resource language. We also compare our models with the only existing work on this task of which we are aware by carrying out experiments on the same dataset, and find that all of our models outperform those in that work.
“Der Frank Sinatra der Wettervorhersage”: Cross-Lingual Vossian Antonomasia Extraction

We present a cross-lingual approach for the extraction of Vossian Antonomasia, a stylistic device especially popular in newspaper articles. We evaluate a zero-shot transfer learning approach and two approaches that use machine-translated training and test data. We show that our proposed models achieve strong results on all test datasets in the target language. As annotated data is sparse, especially in the target language, we generate additional test data to evaluate our models and conclude with a robustness study on real-world data.
Regularity Matters: Designing Practical FPGA Switch-Blocks

Several techniques have been proposed for automatically searching for FPGA switch-blocks which typically show some tangible advantage over the well-known academic architectures. However, the resulting switch-blocks usually exhibit high levels of irregularity, in contrast with what can be observed in a typical commercial architecture. One wonders whether the architectures produced by such search methods can actually be laid out in an efficient manner while retaining the perceived gains. In this work, we propose a new switch-block exploration method that enhances a recently published search algorithm by combining it with ILP, in order to guarantee that the obtained solution satisfies arbitrary regularity constraints. We measure the impact of regularity constraints commonly seen in industrial architectures (such as limiting the number of different multiplexer sizes or forced sharing of inputs between pairs of multiplexers) and observe benefits to the routability of complex circuits with only a limited reduction in performance.
Eliminating Excessive Dynamism of Dataflow Circuits Using Model Checking

Recent HLS efforts explore the generation of dynamically scheduled, dataflow circuits from high-level code; their ability to adapt the schedule at runtime to particular data and control outcomes promises superior performance to standard, statically scheduled HLS solutions. However, dataflow circuits are notoriously resource-expensive: their distributed handshake mechanism brings performance benefits in some cases, but causes an unneeded resource overhead when general dynamism is not required. In this work, we present a verification framework based on model checking to systematically reduce the hardware complexity of dataflow circuits. We devise a series of formal proofs that identify the absence of particular behavioral scenarios and use this information to replace the generic dataflow logic with simpler and cheaper control structures. On a set of benchmarks obtained from high-level code, we demonstrate that our technique significantly reduces the resource requirements of dataflow circuits (i.e., it results in LUT and FF reductions of up to 51% and 53%, respectively), while still reaping all performance benefits of dynamic scheduling.
Comparison of Finite State Score Theory, Classical Test Theory, and Item Response Theory in Scoring Multiple-Choice Items

Ability estimates obtained from applying finite state score theory, item response models, and classical test theory to score multiple-choice items were compared and contrasted. Responses of 1,230 subjects to the multiple-choice portion of a school-leaving reading comprehension examination were used. Correlations among the ability estimates were nearly perfect. Furthermore, the mean absolute difference values between finite state scores and ability estimates based on the one- and two-parameter models were smaller than that between finite state scores and the ability estimates based on the three-parameter model. The mean absolute difference value between finite state scores and classical test scores was the largest. However, whereas the item response theory and classical test score theory analyses provide item-level information, that is not the case for finite state score theory.
Recycling waste sources into nanocomposites of graphene materials: Overview from an energy-focused perspective

Abstract In line with the global recognition of waste-to-wealth concept aiming for circular economy, scientific articles are published in greatly increasing number on the eco-friendly and sustainable utilization of carbon nanocomposites. However, control on the structure and properties of waste-derived carbon nanomaterials still requires substantial future research. In this review, recycling materials into nanocomposites containing graphene are narrated by overviewing all the 120 publications currently available in the literature including their pioneering study in 2012 and their recent developments until 2022, focusing on energy-related aspects of functional graphene-based nanocomposites. Interestingly, almost all currently available sources report on composites in which graphene is a high value-added filler or matrix, and only the other phase originates from wastes. Flexibility of process parameters of pyrolysis methods enables the synthesis of biomass-derived graphene composites for virtually any kind of industrial applications. Biomass often acts both as carbon and SiO2 source, while only a few percentages of graphene material induce significant changes in their physicochemical properties. Utilization of wastes for energetic composites increases abruptly due to their outstanding price-to-value ratio and reusability. Future perspectives and current green chemistry or human health related challenges are also discussed to pave ways for new developments using unexplored waste sources.
Design of a superconducting MEM shunt switch for RF applications

We have designed, simulated and optimized a capacitively shunted RF MicroElectroMechanical (MEM) superconducting switch. The switch consists of a High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ coplanar waveguide (CPW) structure with a gold membrane bridge suspended above the center conductor and anchored at the ground planes (air gap 3 /spl mu/m). A thin layer of BaTiO/sub 3/, in the shape of a patch, lies on top of the center conductor and underneath the suspended gold membrane. Under an applied voltage, the gold bridge membrane actuates downwards and collapses on top of the dielectric layer of BaTiO/sub 3/ thereby capacitively shunting the RF signal to ground. Using Sonnet, simulations were conducted to optimize the switch design. An analysis of these results revealed interesting relationships between the switch mechanical and electrical parameters; this paper discusses and analyzes these results, along with measured data.
Observation of Mode like Coherent Structures in Curved Magnetic Fields of a Simple Magnetized Torus

The spatio‐temporal dynamics of large‐scale structures in curved magnetic field of simple magnetized torus (SMT) are presented. The experiments are performed in the SMT BLAAMANN and employ the techniques of conditional averaging (CA) and cross‐correlation (CCF) of Langmuir probe data. By means of a detailed comparison of radio‐frequency and thermionic discharges, it is shown that general features of the observed large‐scale structures are independent of the discharge mechanism. Further, the observed large scale structures have a pronounced spatio‐temporal periodicity, which suggests a description as mode‐like. The conjectured relationship between the observed coherent structures and the inverse energy cascade is therefore questioned again. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Alfvenically driven slow shocks in the solar chromosphere and corona

The nonlinear evolution of an Alfvenic impulse launched from the photosphere and its dynamical effects on the chromosphere, transition region (TR), and corona are investigated using a simple 1D model. It is found that the leading edge of the torsional pulse can steepen into a fast shock in the chromosphere if the pulse is of sufficiently large amplitude and short duration. A slow shock which develops behind the Alfvenic pulse can reflect downgoing Alfven waves back up to the corona. The upgoing reflected wave can induce a significant upward ejection of the TR. Nonlinear dynamics are found to lead to very impulsive behavior at later times. It is suggested that impulsive events occurring in the TR or corona need not be interpreted in terms of reconnection-driven microflares. It is also found that B(0) in the chromosphere can be amplified when the TR and chromosphere fall.
Nimble adaptation: Tailoring monitoring, evaluation, and learning methods to provide actionable data in complex environments

This chapter examines good practices in implementing effective Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) systems within complex international development Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) programs, which are characterized by challenges of non‐linearity, limited evidence of theories of change, and contextual and politically contingent nature of outcomes. The chapter presents three cases of MEL systems in complex projects implemented by Pact across distinct and diverse operating contexts – Zimbabwe, Cambodia, and Somalia – to illustrate those projects’ MEL approaches that enabled continuous adaptation. The authors analyze the cases to respond to two questions: (1) What are the key elements of effective adaptive management‐focused MEL systems in complex environments? (2) What is practical guidance for designing and enabling complexity‐responsive and effective adaptive management‐focused MEL systems? The case studies illustrate three key elements: (1) Information gathering that closely links context, research, and performance data; (2) Systems for reflection that offer scheduled learning moments of varying frequency and intensity, as well as multiple feedback mechanisms; and (3) Enabling structures that promote adaptive mindsets and attitudes within project teams.
Hubble Detects the Start of a New Saturn Ring Spoke Season

Saturn's ring spokes typically appear over an 8‐year duration centered on equinox. Hubble Space Telescope observations in 2021 indicate the beginning of a new spoke season as Saturn approaches equinox in 2025. The spokes show increased contrast and longevity in 2022, persisting for up to 11 hours. The spokes are visible from UV to near‐IR and are slightly bluer (i.e., less red) than the rings, but we find no significant wavelength dependence in the spectral contrast, which approximates their optical depth). Spoke rotation rates are between 606 and 626 min, consistent with either Keplerian rotation or possibly the variable rotation rate of Saturn's kilometric radiation. Spoke activity is expected to increase over the next several years.
AUTOMATIC MODEL IDENTIFICATION IN THE PRESENCE OF MISSING OBSERVATIONS AND OUTLIERS

Butterworth filters are low-pass filters widely used in electrical engineering. It is shown in the paper that they can be obtained as the solution to a simple signal extraction problem. Details to design and construct Butterworth filters and bandpass filters based on them are given and it is shown how these fixed filters can be applied to economic time series to estimate smooth trends and/or business cycles. If, in addition, a model for the input series is available, a two-step procedure is proposed which circumvents many of the problems of ad-hoc filtering and can significantly improve the quality of the estimated signal.
Near‐field optics: Microscopy with nanometer‐size fields

The electromagnetic fields that can build up around metallic or dielectric pointed tips are of increasing interest in context with the new scanning probe microscopies (tunneling, near‐field optics, Coulomb and van der Waals forces etc.). The paper presents exact solutions of Laplace’s equations for the tip/sample geometry. For suitable media, plasmons are found whose electric fields are highly localized in the gap region. We believe that the field enhancement associated with such tip plasmons is instrumental for inelastic tunneling and light emission during scanning tunneling microscopy.
On the Geometric Determination of the Poles of Hodge and Motivic Zeta Functions

Abstract To any polynomial f ℂ[x 1, . , x n ]\ℂ one can associate the zeta function Z Hod(f , s) on the level of Hodge polynomials. This function is a specialization of the well-known motivic zeta function. For n = 2 Veys gave a complete geometric determination of the poles of ZHod(f , s). In this paper we work in arbitrary dimension. We provide for a given rational number a geometric sufficient condition for being a pole of ZHod(f , s). The same statement also holds for the motivic zeta function. Moreover, our results continue to hold when we consider the zeta functions associated to an effective ℚ-Cartier divisor D on a ℚ-Gorenstein variety with singular locus contained in SuppD.
Recurring Outbursts and Nuclear Fragmentation of Comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR)

Analysis of the visual light curve and fragmentation sequence of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) shows a strong temporal correlation between the onset of outbursts and separation of companion nuclei. This scenario conforms to Sekanina's conceptual model for the release of sizable fragments of an inert dust mantle from the nucleus surface: an outburst is triggered as some of the mass rapidly disintegrates into fine dust.
Force Generation in the Coiling Tendrils of Passiflora caerulea

Tendrils of climbing plants coil along their length and thus form a striking helical spring and generate tensional forces. We have found that, for tendrils of the passion flower Passiflora caerulea, the generated force lies in the range of 6-140 mN, which is sufficient to lash the plant tightly to its substrate. Further, we revealed that the generated force strongly correlates with the water status of the plant. By combining force measurements with anatomical investigations and dehydration-rehydration experiments on both entire tendril segments and isolated lignified tissues, we are able to propose a two-phasic principle of spring formation: First, during the free coiling phase, the tendril coiling is based on the active contraction of a fiber ribbon in interaction with the surrounding parenchyma as resistance layer. Second, in a stabilization phase, the entire center of the coiled tendril lignifies, stiffening the spring and securing its function independent of hydration status.
Tracking components of bilingual language control in speech production: an fMRI study using functional localizers

When bilingual speakers switch back to speaking in their native language (L1) after having used their second language (L2), they often experience difficulty in retrieving words in their L1: this phenomenon is referred to as the L2 after-effect. We used the L2 after-effect as a lens to explore the neural bases of bilingual language control mechanisms. Our goal was twofold: first, to explore whether bilingual language control draws on domain-general or language-specific mechanisms; second, to investigate the precise mechanism(s) that drive the L2 after-effect. We used a precision fMRI approach based on functional localizers to measure the extent to which the brain activity that reflects the L2 after-effect overlaps with the language network (Fedorenko et al., 2010) and the domain-general Multiple Demand network (Duncan et al., 2010), as well as three task-specific networks that tap into interference resolution, lexical retrieval, and articulation. Forty-two Polish-English bilinguals participated in the study. Our results show that the L2 after-effect reflects increased engagement of domain-general but not language-specific resources. Furthermore, contrary to previously proposed interpretations, we did not find evidence that the effect reflects increased difficulty related to lexical access, articulation, and the resolution of lexical interference. We propose that difficulty of speech production in the picture naming paradigm – manifested as the L2 after-effect – reflects interference at a non-linguistic level of task schemas or a general increase of cognitive control engagement during speech production in L1 after L2.