Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extraversion Negatively Predicts Compliance with Social Distancing and Mask Usage Guidelines for Men but Not Women

Weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, health agencies began recommending social distancing and mask usage to slow the spread of COVID-19; however, not all individuals adhered to these guidelines as consistently as others. This study investigated if extraversion negatively predicted social distancing behaviors and mask usage in a sample of participants from North America. Additionally, based on research on sex differences and engaging in health risk behaviors, it was hypothesized that the relationships between extraversion, social distancing, and mask usage would be moderated by biological sex, such that the relationships would be stronger for men than women. Results showed that extraversion was negatively related to mask usage and social distancing guidelines for men and that no relationship between extraversion and complying with these guidelines occurred for women.
An assessment of forest loss and its drivers in protected areas on the Copperbelt province of Zambia: 1972–2016

Abstract In sub-Saharan Africa, protected areas provide a platform for conserving biodiversity. However, these areas are facing massive pressure due to deforestation, and information on forest dynamics and factors driving the changes in protected areas is generally lacking. This study has two objectives: (1) to assess forest cover changes that have occurred between 1972 and 2016 in Copperbelt Province’s protected areas, and (2) understand the drivers of forest cover changes. The study used thematic land cover maps for six selected years, which were classified using an object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach. We also applied a Classification Tree (CT) approach to assess the drivers of forest cover changes using R statistical software. The findings showed that forest cover in protected areas has been characterised by massive deforestation due to various factors. Between 1972 and 2016, primary and secondary forests showed a decrease of 2,226.43 km2 (11.06%) and an increase of 1,082.93 km2 (4.05%), respectively. The major factors driving forest changes include the levels of precipitation, human population density, elevation, distance from roads, towns and rivers. This study presents consistent information for long-term forest monitoring in protected areas, and informs decision-makers on the levels of deforestation and their drivers for effective forest management.
Intervening in Anti-Immigrant Sentiments: The Causal Effects of Factual Information on Attitudes toward Immigration

If preferences on immigration policy respond to facts, widespread misinformation poses an obstacle to consensus. Does factual information about immigration indeed affect policy preferences? Are beliefs about immigration’s societal impact the mechanism through which factual information affects support for increased immigration? To address these questions, we conducted an original survey experiment, in which we presented a nationally representative sample of 2,049 Americans living in the United States with facts about immigrants’ English acquisition and immigrants’ impact on crime, jobs, and taxes—four domains with common misperceptions. Three of these factual domains (immigration’s impact on crime, jobs, and taxes) raise overall support for increased immigration. These facts also affect beliefs that are directly relevant to that information. Moreover, those beliefs mediate the effect of factual information on support for increased immigration. By contrast, information about English acquisition affects neither policy preferences nor beliefs about immigration’s impact. Facts can leverage social cognitions to change policy preferences.
What Is the Role of Behavioral Analysis in a Multilayered Approach to Aviation Security?

Since the 1960s, civilian aviation has been a prime target for a myriad of terrorist organizations, which have engaged in asymmetrical tactics such as skyjacking, aircraft bombings, and attacks against airports. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has employed a multilayered security strategy in an attempt to secure commercial aviation. To that end, behavioral analysis, sometimes referred to as “behavioral profiling,” has become an integral layer of aviation security that monitors the behavior and mannerisms of air travelers. However, the technique is not without critics. The present article examines the current state of behavioral analysis as applied to aviation security and provides recommendations for its proper role and function within a larger security framework.
Fossiles directeurs variability in Late and Final stages of the Gravettian of Central Europe

The Upper Palaeolithic cultures in Central Europe are traditionally defined on the basis of lithic artefacts, predominantly various types of retouched tools, which are usually considered to be typical of a given culture. For the Late and Final Gravettian, the shouldered points and Kostenki knives are supposed to be the main fossiles directeurs in this region. Based on the identification of these artefacts in Central and Eastern European lithic assemblages, terms such as “Willendorf-Kostenki/Willendorf-Kostenkian”, or “Eastern Gravettian” or even “Shouldered Point Horizon” have emerged, pointing to the analogy between sites hundreds of kilometres apart. However, new excavations, revisions of old collections, as well as modern research methods, have brought new insights into these emblematic artefacts. Although they are likely to be found in some Central European Late and Final Gravettian assemblages, their occurrence is less common than had been anticipated in the past. Our paper aims to propose a historical “Central European” view on these traditional fossiles directeurs considering their identification and cultural value. We also describe their influence on the historical deve lopment of terminology in Central European Palaeolithic archaeology.
Assessing COVID-induced changes in spatiotemporal structure of mobility in the United States in 2020: a multi-source analytical framework

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in profound changes in mobility patterns and altered travel behaviors locally and globally. As a result, movement metrics have widely been used by researchers and policy makers as indicators to study, model, and mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the veracity and variability of these mobility metrics have not been studied. This paper provides a systematic review of mobility and social distancing metrics available to researchers during the pandemic in 2020 in the United States. Twenty-six indices across nine different sources are analyzed and assessed with respect to their spatial and temporal coverage as well as sample representativeness at the county-level. Finally global and local indicators of spatial association are computed to explore spatial and temporal heterogeneity in mobility patterns. The structure of underlying changes in mobility and social distancing is examined in different US counties and across different data sets. We argue that a single measure might not describe all aspects of mobility perfectly.
Educating Young Adults about Opioid Misuse: Evidence from a Mass Media Intervention

The US opioid epidemic is a serious public health problem. Rates of opioid misuse and dependence are highest for young adults ages 18–25. Prevention strategies that reduce prescription opioid misuse while decreasing stigma around dependence and treatment are critical components of addressing the epidemic. The Truth About Opioids, a mass media public education campaign, was designed to prevent opioid misuse and dependence among young adults. This study examined the intervention’s effectiveness to shift opioid-related knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs within targeted designated market areas (DMAs) over time. A sample of young adults (N = 1434) in DMAs with varying levels of media exposure was surveyed at baseline (June–September 2019) and post-intervention (July–August 2020). Logistic regression assessed associations between campaign awareness and campaign-targeted knowledge and attitudes, controlling for baseline variables. Those with any awareness had significantly higher odds of campaign-targeted opioid-related knowledge (versus no awareness) (low awareness OR = 1.52 (95% CI: 1.04, 2.24); high awareness OR = 2.47 (95% CI: 1.58, 3.87)). Those with campaign awareness were also more likely to report lower levels of opioid-related stigma and higher intentions to share information and talk to a friend about the epidemic. Mass media public education campaigns can help influence young adults’ opioid-related knowledge and attitudes.
CGH null test design and fabrication for off-axis aspherical mirror tests

A null-lens based on a Computer Generated Hologram (CGH) is designed to test the primary off-axis aspherical mirror of the GAIA space telescope. This custom-designed and fabricated CGH includes five zones (null CGH, alignment CGH, and beam-projection CGH) on the same substrate. The optical test configuration is simple and the designed five-zones CGHs can simultaneously provide the aberrated wavefront correction for null tests, CGH alignment with a commercial interferometer, pre-positioning of the mirror under test in a cryogenic chamber, and isolation of the diffraction orders in the test setup. Positioning of the five zones with respect to each other is extremely critical for the success of this custom-made CGH null testing. For this reason, the fringes of all five zones were manufactured on a single photolithographic mask. With INO's special micro-fabrication processes, including its photolithographic, etching, and coating technologies, this 4.5-inch in diameter CGH was successfully made. The RMS wavefront error is estimated at 7.33 nm for the fabricated null CGH.
Filipino Science Teachers’ Evaluation on Webinars’ Alignments to Universal Design for Learning and Their Relation to Self-Efficacy amidst the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has led teachers in the Philippines to rely on technology to provide and support continued education for K-12 students. However, it is not only technology, but also the interactive online learning environments crafted by teachers that impact student science learning. To support teachers to cope with pandemic teaching, the government provided professional development in the form of teacher-training webinars. This study evaluated the webinars using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to understand the impact these professional development sessions had on science teachers’ self-efficacy for delivering science instruction during the pandemic. The study found that webinars including UDL design elements improved science teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching science and there were no significant differences in teacher perceptions relative to gender or teaching experience. Implications for the use of UDL to design long-term professional development offerings beyond the pandemic are discussed.
Toxic Comment Classification Based on Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit and Convolutional Neural Network

For English toxic comment classification, this paper presents the model that combines Bi-GRU and CNN optimized by global average pooling (BG-GCNN) based on the bidirectional gated recurrent unit (Bi-GRU) and global pooling optimized convolution neural network (CNN). The model treats each type of toxic comment as a binary classification. First, Bi-GRU is used to extract the time-series features of the comment and then the dimensionality is reduced through global pooling optimized convolution neural network. Finally, the classification result is output by Sigmoid function. Comparative experiments show the BG-GCNN model has a better classification effect than Text-CNN, LSTM, Bi-GRU, and other models. The Macro-F1 value of the toxic comment dataset on the Kaggle competition platform is 0.62. The F1 values of the three toxic label classification results (toxic, obscene, and insult label) are 0.81, 0.84, and 0.74, respectively, which are the highest values in the comparative experiment.
Interplay between microbial community composition and chemodiversity of dissolved organic matter throughout the Black Sea water column redox gradient

Large quantities of carbon are stored in marine dissolved organic matter (DOM), and its recycling has a major effect on the carbon cycle. Microbes are responsible for turnover of DOM. Little is known about how the complex pool of DOM shapes microbial communities and vice versa, especially in anoxic systems. In this study, we characterized the DOM pool with high‐resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry and analyzed the microbial community composition with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing across a redox gradient in the Black Sea. The chemical stratification of the water column was clearly reflected in the microbial community, with different putative autotrophic taxa abundant across redox zones. The nitrate maximum was characterized by a high abundance of Thaumarchaeota, the suboxic zone by Gammaproteobacteria Chromatiales, while Epsilonbacteraeota Campylobacterales were abundant at the onset of the sulfidic zone. Compared to the variance in the microbial community, the molecular composition of DOM was relatively uniform across the sampled depths. However, underlying differences in the oxidation state of the DOM molecular formulas showed distinct changes that were linked to the redox zones, possibly connecting autotrophic metabolisms to changes in the DOM composition. In addition, known heterotrophs like Planctomycetes Phycisphaerae and Chloroflexi Anaerolineales were linked to more oxidized molecular forms of DOM, and not to the identified redox zones, suggesting that these fermentative organisms are reliant on newly formed carbon molecules. Our study suggests that the metabolism of autotrophic microbes influences the composition of DOM across the Black Sea water column.
Invited Article: A Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output Long-Term Evolution Precoding Based on Fast Diagonal-Weighted Jacket Matrices

Abstract In this article, a fast diagonal-weighted Jacket matrix is proposed to have orthogonal architecture. The successive diagonal-weighted Jacket matrix is developed to reduce the computational load while factorizing the large-order diagonal-weighted Jacket matrices into the low-order sparse matrices with fast algorithms. The proposed diagonal-weighted Jacket matrix is then applied to the precoding multiple-input and multiple-output wireless communications because of its diagonal-weighted framework with element-wise inverse characteristics. Based on the properties of the diagonal-weighted Jacket matrix, the proposed diagonal-weighted Jacket matrix can be used as alternative open-loop cyclic delay diversity precoding, which has recently become part of the cellular communications systems. Performance of the diagonal-weighted Jacket matrix-based precoding system is verified for orthogonal space-time block code multiple-input and multiple-output long-term evolution systems.
Maintenance management for effective operations management at Matimba Power Station

Effective and efficient operations management is the cornerstone of any company's success. Presently, because of cost-cutting pressures, all investors look out for companies' operations before making any investment commitment. The South African Government (through the Department of Public Enterprises), as an owner and investor in Eskom, is looking at optimising operational excellence within state-owned enterprises like Eskom. Eskom is presently experiencing problems with increased electricity consumption which it cannot meet due to the limited plant capacity it presently has. These challenges are forcing Eskom to be more efficient and effective in management of the present plant assets (like Matimba Power Station) it presently operates. Matimba Power Station has consistently shown improvement in the areas of plant, financial and operations performance over the last three years. It is presently the standard bearer for the whole Eskom in terms of plant and operational performance. Asset management (through maintenance and management thereof) , especially preventative management with in a power utility like Eskom, is a critical factor because supply (generation of electricity) has to meet demand (consumption of electricity) instantaneously as electricity cannot be saved . The planning, scheduling and execution of maintenance (through a work management process) to ensure success of business operations are very critical. An Eskom document titled Routine Work Management Manual emphasised the criticality of preventative management and included a six-step process of work management within the power generation business. The Japanese success in ensuring that operations costs are limited by implementing total productive maintenance (which includes work management) is suggested in the study as a way to go for operational success at Matimba Power Station. Many of the research studies done at Eskom in regard to maintenance were based on and confined to a sampling population of senior staff members like managers, engineers and supervisors. Experience has shown that progress of implementing change (whether in systems or structures) is slow if there was no proactive involvement of all participants and stakeholders, especially employees at lower levels involved in operations. A work management process, which is one of the pillars of total productive maintenance, was ii recently implemented at Matimba and is currently experiencing teething problems which are being attended to. Employee involvement in making sure of the success of work management is critica l. The study investigates the implementation of work management from the employees' perspective in order to address problems for possible full implementation of total productive maintenance.
Analysis of Phenolic Compounds for the Determination of Grafts (in) Compatibility Using In Vitro Callus Cultures of Sato-Zakura Cherries

The aim of this study was to prove that under in vitro conditions, the adhesiveness of the callus between rootstock and scion, the development of callus cells at the points of fusion, and the presence of phenolic components are closely related to the level of (in) compatibility of the grafting combinations between Sato-zakura cherry cultivars (‘Amanogawa’, ‘Kanzan’, and ‘Kiku-shidare-zakura’) and commercial rootstocks. Prunus avium, Prunus ‘Colt’, Prunus mahaleb and Prunus serrulata were used as compatible and Prunus serotina and Pyrus communis ‘Pyrodwarf’ were used as two potentially incompatible rootstocks. The results indicated the significant manifestations of the early signs of the incompatibility on the callus junction. Phenols, as well as tissue senescence, were very precisely localized by toluidine blue and alcian blue as well as safranin staining, which can indicate the early signs of the callus incompatibility in some grafting unions. In the callus unions of Prunus avium with ‘Amanogawa’ and ‘Kiku-shidare-zakura’ the results of chemical analyses indicated that the existence of several flavonols, flavones and phenol acids could be involved in the incompatibility process in grafted combination. The detection of flavonol astragalin in the unions can be a biomarker of compatibility between scion and the rootstock, while some polyphenols, such as neochlorogenic acid, sinapic acid, ellagic acid, caffeic acid, baicalein, naringenin, apigenin and luteolin can be used as the indicators of graft incompatibility. p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid could be used for detection of delayed incompatibility.
The effects of temperature and light on ecosystem metabolism in a Japanese stream

Ecosystem metabolism is a fundamental process that governs biogeochemical C cycling through the fixation and mineralization of C by all the organisms in a system; however, the functional responses of ecosystem metabolism to light and temperature variability remain unknown in streams and rivers. In this study, we assessed the effects of temperature and light on ecosystem metabolism, namely gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER), in a Japanese stream by monitoring the seasonal diel changes in dissolved oxygen. We found that the temperature dependence of metabolism, which is expressed as activation energy, was higher for ER (0.48 eV) than for GPP (0.39 eV), supporting the metabolic theory of ecology. Both daily GPP and ER increased with the daily integrated photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), peaking at moderate PAR values and decreasing at higher irradiance levels. This unimodal relationship between daily GPP and PAR was due to the rapid increase of instantaneous PAR during the early morning, suppressing the maximum rate of area-specific productivity, which was a main determinant of daily GPP. Moreover, daily GPP and ER were closely associated in this study stream, resulting in a unimodal pattern of daily ER with daily integrated PAR. Our results suggest that both temperature and light regulate stream ecosystem metabolism but that the sunlight regime (i.e., the rapid increase of solar irradiance in the early morning) rather than light intensity per se may be a critical factor for both GPP and ER in the study stream.
Radiation Q of electrically large loop antennas with nonuniform currents

An analysis of the radiation Q of electrically large loop antennas is presented and its characteristics are discussed. The methodology involves the spherical mode expansion for the fields outside the loop. It is found that higher‐order modes need to be considered for a realistic estimate of the radiation Q of large loops. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 34: 377–380, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.10467
A fast method for computing radiation from printed circuit boards

An alternative approach for computing radiation from a multilayer circuit board is presented. Compared to a full-wave electromagnetic approach, this method is much faster and requires less storage space for data. Computational efficiency is the key attribute of the approach. It allows solutions, previously unobtainable, to complex and realistic structures, such as those arising from typical product designs. The radiation is calculated using a transmission line model to find the amplitude and spatial distribution of currents in printed circuit traces. The far field is computed using the Green's function of a current element just above, or inside, a thin dielectric sheet. Two examples are considered: (1) a comparison of results in the frequency domain obtained by using the method described here with those of a full-wave electromagnetic approach based on the method of moments; and (2) a comparison of simulation results with real semianechoic chamber measurements. <<ETX>>
Modulo M multiplication-addition: algorithms and FPGA implementation

Variants of a modular multiplication algorithm originally due to Koc$80 and Hung (1990), that are especially suited for FPGA implementation, and that allow to compute (XY+W) modulo M, where there is no need to know M at design-time, are presented. Some results obtained on a Xilinx Virtex-E FPGA are shown.