Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of porous high-entropy alloys by mechanical alloying and chemical de-alloying

In this study, nanoporous high-entropy alloys (HEAs) were fabricated by chemically de-alloying aluminium atoms in mechanically alloyed HEAs. In addition, the effect of alloy composition, compositional uniformity, and porosity of the HEA precursors on the pore structures of the final HEA foams was investigated. Aluminium was successfully de-alloyed only for Ni-free HEAs because of the low mixing enthalpy of Ni and Al. For HEAs containing pre-existing microscale pores, aluminium atoms were readily de-alloyed because the pores opened pathways for NaOH, thereby resulting in hierarchical micro-nanoporous structures in the final foams. For denser HEAs with better compositional uniformity, homogeneous nanoporous structures were revealed in the final foams.
Social capital and business performance: a study of female-owned SMEs in the Nigerian informal sector

ABSTRACT This research examined the effect of internal and external social capital on the business performance of female-owned small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the Nigerian informal sector. Using a quantitative research approach, a cross-sectional survey of 400 female SME owners was carried out, and data analysis was implemented using the structural equation modelling. The research findings, therefore, validate the existence of a positive and significant influence of internal and external social capital on the business performance of female-owned SMEs in the Nigerian informal sector. However, external social capital had a stronger influence on business performance. The results of this study create further awareness and contribute to existing research on the importance of internal and external social capital in ensuring the business performance of female-owned SMEs in the Nigerian informal sector. The possibilities of more successful business outcomes are further enhanced through the increased usage of online networking and social media platforms.
Problem Based Learning and Guided Inquiry Learning Model on Critical Thinking Ability

This research aims to determine the distinction in students' critical thinking abilities who were taught by using the problem-based learning, guided inquiry learning, and conventional learning models. The population is all grade VIII students of public junior high schools in Bantul district in the 2019/2020 academic year. This study used stratified cluster random sampling to select 3 classes in each school. The pre-requisite test used was the balance test, normality test, and homogeneity test. The data collection technique used was a critical thinking ability test. The analysis technique of this research was two-way ANOVA with different cells. The results showed that the problem-based learning model had a significant positive effect on the critical thinking abilities compared to conventional learning. Meanwhile, there is no significant difference between students taught by problem-based learning and by guided inquiry learning, and between the guided inquiry learning and conventional learning, either.
Communication and innovation in the performance of weaving and pottery crafts in Gojjam, Ethiopia

Competitive organizations harness information and knowledge sharing undertakings to take risks and break customary routines. This study investigates craftspeople’s communication practices and innovation implementation towards improving business performance. Cross-sectional survey research design was employed to describe and see the association of communication and innovation with business performance. Data were collected from a sample of 326 craftspeople through structured questionnaire and field observation. Both descriptive and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) statistics were mainly used to analyze data. Findings revealed that communication practices vital for craftspeople to be innovative and integrate them with clients were negligible. The communication flaws in turn resulted in stagnant and in-house limited trifling inventiveness in craft industries. Moreover, reflexivity, frequency of communication on creativity, product and market innovation were significantly associated with craftspeople’s performance. Hence, it is recommended to arrange training and experience sharing schemes for craftspeople to enhance their communication and innovation skills thereby improve performance.
Query-by-Example Spoken Term Detection using Attentive Pooling Networks at ALBAYZIN 2020 Evaluation: The AUDIAS-UAM System

Query-by-example Spoken Term Detection (QbE-STD) is a key technology to harness the large amount of audiovisual content that is being stored and generated nowadays. Using audio example queries for STD has several advantages such as requiring less resources (both computational and linguistic) and resulting in less language-dependent systems. A further advantage is the possibility of developing neural end-to-end models. In this paper, we explore one of these models for QbE-STD. The model starts projecting the input pair formed by a query and a segment into ﬁxed-length vector representations. Then, a distance between these vectors is calculated to generate a detection score. To learn similarities over the projected input pair, a two-way attention model, called attentive pooling networks, has been used. Both elements in the input pair can inﬂuence the vector representation of the other, paying more attention to the frames that contain key information of both the query and the occurrence. Our main objective is to explore if this model can ﬁnd similarities regardless of the language used for training. We start showing the effectiveness of the proposed model on the Librispeech corpus, and then we evaluate it on the ALBAYZIN 2020 Search-on-Speech evaluation data.
Toward Load Identification Based on the Hilbert Transform and Sequence to Sequence Long Short-Term Memory

Load identification is a core concept in non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM). Through NILM systems, users can check their home appliance usage habits and then adjust their behavior to save electricity. In this way, a NILM system offers an effective method to detect the event status of household appliances as well as individual loads’ energy consumption. However, prior NILM methods have encountered a challenge in improving recognition accuracy for both linear load and non-linear load types. These methods used a representative feature, namely transient load signals. However, the transient signals on these loads differ in terms of transient time and transient shape, which is the main cause of reduced accuracy performance in load identification. To this end, this paper presents a novel method, HT-LSTM (Hilbert Transform Long Short-Term Memory), which enhances recognition of the various load types that contain the difference in the transient time and the transient shape of any load signal. The proposed method consists of two main parts: (i) generating a novel transient feature based on a Hilbert transform (HT), called APF (Amplitude-Phase-Frequency). APF features are sequential data, which is used for the classification model; and (ii) applying Sequence-to-Sequence Long Short-Term Memory (Seq2Seq LSTM) to identify appliances by using APF features as the input data. In this work, we evaluate the HT-LSTM method using two high-frequency public datasets, Building-Level fUlly-labeled dataset for Electricity Disaggregation (BLUED) and Plug Load Appliance Identification Dataset (PLAID). Also, we evaluate our method using a private dataset collected in the lab. Based on the experimental results obtained and comparison classification performance pointed, the proposed method outperforms previous methods of F-score measurement on both public datasets in load identification as well as the private dataset.
The discovery of a microbialite-associated freshwater fish in the world’s largest saline soda lake, Lake Van (Turkey)

Lake Van is the largest saline soda lake in the world and one of the world’s few endorheic lakes of greater than 3,000 km2 surface area. Despite its huge size, no fish species have so far been known to permanently occur in this lake due to its extreme environmental conditions. Here, we report the discovery of a fish population that permanently inhabits some of the unique microbialites of the lake, at a maximum depth of 13 m and about 500 m offshore. We tested whether this is an undescribed species or a new occurrence of a known species. A molecular and morphological examination showed that the newly discovered fish represents an isolated population of Oxynoemacheilus ercisianus, the only nemacheilid loach native to the freshwater tributaries of the Lake Van endorheic basin. Our further hypotheses on the prediction that (a) stream fishes would have a more anterior placement of fins than lake fishes were supported; but, that (b) stream fishes would be more slender bodied than their lake conspecifics was not supported. The lake dwelling population also shows very small sequence divergence (0.5% K2P distance) to its stream dwelling conspecific in the mtDNA-COI barcode region. The notable morphological difference with minute molecular divergence implies that the newly discovered population might have lost its link to freshwater during desiccation and transgressional phases of the Lake Van, and has adapted to a life on the microbialites.
Working memory contributes to word stress processing in a fixed-stress language

ABSTRACT The role of working memory (WM) has been evidenced in language processing; however, the contribution of WM to the detection of linguistic deviance has remained unclear. This study aimed to examine how WM performance influences the detection of prosodic deviance in a fixed-stress language, which is supposed to be determined by a long-term word stress template. Therefore, Mismatch Negativity (MMN) event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a passive oddball paradigm containing pseudowords with two different stress patterns, legal and illegal. Besides, complex WM tasks (Counting span task, Verbal fluency tasks) were administered. Results revealed that greater WM performance measured by the Counting span task was associated with smaller MMN response for the legally-stressed stimuli but with larger MMN response for the illegally-stressed stimuli. Altogether, our ERP results suggest that WM has a general role in the processing of the native fixed word stress.
Text Summarization System: An Extractive Approach using Hierarchical Text Clustering

The need for summarizing texts evolves from the large amount of data present in electronic channels which leads to distraction of users and wastage of their time. There are generally two major techniques for text summarization: extractive method and abstractive method. The extractive method has proven to be quite reliable and involves extracting the key sentences from the document to form a summary. In this paper, an unsupervised text mining model is developed for clustering and summarizing texts. The model is deployed into a web-based system for summarizing large documents. Using the informational criteria of redundancy, coherence, speed and information coverage, our approach chooses ‘not likely’, ‘high’, ‘fast’, and ‘medium’ as semantic dimensions values for the criteria respectively.
A contextual analysis of public health implications of water choices and hygiene practices in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT Households’ choices of water for domestic and economic purposes and associated hygiene practices have implications for their health. However, scant documentation exists on this, particularly in the Ghanaian context. Using a mixed-methods cross-sectional research design, we conducted interviews with 86 household heads or their representatives (both male and female) to explore the factors that influence water choices, hygiene practices, and public health implications in Northern Ghana. Findings suggest that water choices among participants were influenced mainly by ease of access, availability, and traditional belief systems rather than safety reasons. While the study households drew water mainly from traditional sources including wells, ponds, and streams, socio-cultural practices such as burying the dead near wells make these water sources unsafe. This poses potential health risks to residents. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal on water, sanitation and hygiene, the Tatale-Sanguli District Assembly should step up efforts in providing potable water and also educate residents against the obsolete and health-endangering socio-cultural practices such as burying the dead near wells.
Blood rheological and electrical properties and relationships with the microvascular tone regulation in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2

Aim. The study aims to evaluate impairment of the rheological and electrical properties of blood, plasma viscosity and blood conductivity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in comparison with the data of the control group of healthy individuals. It also aims to investigate the changes of the skin blood flow responses to cold stress in T2DM patients through wavelet analysis of the peripheral skin temperature pulsations and to estimate their relationships with the blood viscosity and blood conductivity parameters, obtained from the simulation of experimental data with mathematical equations.Materials and methods. The whole blood viscosity was measured by Contraves LS30 viscometer (Switzerland) at a steady flow in 9 healthy individuals and in 13 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Time variation of whole blood conductivity σ under transient flow at rectangular and trapezium shaped Couette viscometric flow and under electric field of 2 kHz was determined. The amplitudes of the skin temperature pulsations (ASTP) were monitored by «Microtest» device («FM-Diagnostics», Russia). To analyze the temperature fluctuations, wavelet transformation analysis of the low amplitude oscillations of skin temperature in accordance with myogenic (0.05–0.14 Hz), neurogenic (0.02–0.05 Hz), and endothelial (0.0095–0.02 Hz) control mechanisms of the vascular tone (WAST method) was applied.Results. Blood viscosity was increased in the T2DM patients’ group, while blood conductivity decreased in comparison to controls. Two sigmoidal equations were applied to describe the kinetics of blood conductivity. Both models include conductivity indices (σ1 , σ2 , σ3 ) and time indices too. The Pearson correlations between these parameters and the ASTP in the frequency ranges, corresponding to the myogenic, neurogenic and endothelial mechanisms of the microcirculation tone regulation were analyzed. The correlation analysis revealed good ASTP–(σ1 , σ2 , σ3 ) relationships in the neurogenic range 3 minutes after the cold test, while the ASTP–(σ1 , σ2 , σ3 ) correlation in the myogenic frequency range before the cold test was negative (r<–0.8, p<0.5). Conclusion. The results complement the studies of the microvascular regulatory mechanisms and endothelial dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, as well as their relationships with the rheological and electrical properties of blood.
Resisting Unmet Expectations as Service User Ethics: Implications for Social Work

ABSTRACT This paper takes up a call from activists and scholars in Mad and Disability Studies to pay more explicit attention to resistance. Drawing on conceptualizations of predictive, normative, and ideal expectations, we describe three ways 2SLGBTQ service users who have experienced psychosis resist unmet expectations of just treatment. These include: (1) defending self-respect through resistant thinking and resentment; (2) reducing discrepancy through lowering expectations of just treatment from others; (3) and protecting selves through distrust and self-reliance. This paper makes several contributions to existing literature: It expands our understanding of the ‘everyday’ forms of resistance that service users engage in, particularly those that are ‘quiet’ and risk being missed. By paying attention to quiet forms of resistance, we come to recognize the everyday ‘moral talk’ of service users, and opportunities for collectivizing the values underpinning this talk into ethics. Supporting the creation and affirmation of these ethics is one way for social work to address the exclusion of service users from the creation of social work ethical guidelines and respect and acknowledge the legitimacy of service user knowledges, especially their developing visions of justice and moral relations.
Trace Elements From Ocean‐Going Vessels in East Asia: Vanadium and Nickel Emissions and Their Impacts on Air Quality

Vanadium (V) and nickel (Ni) are considered the most abundant trace metals in ship exhaust burning heavy fuel oils. This study is the first attempt to estimate the impact of V and Ni from shipping on air quality in East Asia for the year 2015. In this study, emission inventories of V and Ni from shipping and land‐based sources were constructed and implemented into the revised aerosol module to simulate ambient V and Ni concentrations. Our results showed that ship emissions contributed the majority of vanadium and were important to nickel emissions in most coastal regions in East Asia, with the contributions exceeding 60% and approximately 40% in some regions, respectively. The simulated ambient V and Ni concentrations has been validated by the measurements, and the comparison revealed there was an obvious improvement (reducing the mean bias by 32%–63%) in the model performance of the V and Ni predictions after including shipping emissions. Our study filled the gaps of trace element contributions in coastal regions and implied that the impact of metals from shipping traffic on regional air quality is worthy of attention in East Asia. Although the International Maritime Organization (IMO) low‐sulfur fuel policy has been implemented since 2020, the impact of shipping traffic on trace metals with respect to regional air quality is still important given heavy fuel oils being in use.
Gender Effect on Mathematics Anxiety of Secondary School Students in Ogun West Senatorial District, Nigeria

Mathematics has become an important and compulsory school subject in many countries of the world but it has been recognized by many researchers as causing panic and fear for many students and this has often made most of such students to fail the subject. This study therefore sought the effect of gender on the mathematics anxiety of senior secondary school students in Ogun West Senatorial District. The sample size for this study were 270 senior secondary school students 2 (SS2) who were selected through stratified random sampling technique. The Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale-revised (MARS-R) was the only instrument used for the study. The data collected were analysed through Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and t-test. Results revealed a significant difference effect of gender on students’ mathematics anxiety. The study also revealed higher mathematics anxiety scores for male students than the female. The researcher recommended that counselors should use this study as a theoretical and empirical basis to help counselors see the need to help male students focus more on the subject so as to avoid being anxious. Schools should also sponsor seminars/workshops especially for male students on the importance of mathematics for career progression. Original Research Article Asikhia; AJESS, 15(4): 17-23, 2021; Article no.AJESS. 65926 18
Evaluating cognitive profiles of patients undergoing clinical amyloid-PET imaging

Abstract Episodic memory impairment and brain amyloid-beta are two of the main hallmarks of Alzheimer’s Disease. In the clinical setting, these are often evaluated through neuropsychological testing and amyloid PET imaging, respectively. The use of amyloid PET in clinical practice is only indicated in patients with substantial diagnostic uncertainty due to atypical clinical presentation, multiple comorbidities and/or early age of onset. The relationship between amyloid-beta and cognition has been previously investigated, but no study has examined how neuropsychological features relate to the presence of amyloid pathology in the clinical population that meets the appropriate use criteria for amyloid PET imaging. In this study, we evaluated a clinical cohort of patients (n = 107) who presented at the Imperial Memory Clinic and were referred for clinical amyloid PET and neuropsychological assessment as part of their diagnostic workup. We compared the cognitive performance of amyloid-positive patients (Aβ-pos, n = 47) with that of stable amyloid-negative (stableAβ-neg, n = 26) and progressive amyloid-negative (progAβ-neg, n = 34) patients. The amyloid-positive group performed significantly worse than both amyloid-negative groups in the visuospatial and working memory domains. Episodic memory performance, however, effectively differentiated the amyloid-positive group from the stable but not the progressive amyloid-negative group. On affective questionnaires, the stable amyloid-negative group reported significantly higher levels of depression than the amyloid-positive group. In our clinical cohort, visuospatial dysfunction and working memory impairment were better indicators of amyloid positivity than episodic memory dysfunction. These findings highlight the limited value of isolated cognitive scores in patients with atypical clinical presentation, comorbidities and/or early age of onset.
ANALYSIS OF THE CHEMICAL ATTRIBUTES OF A TYPIC HAPLUDULT SOIL UNDER FOREST SYSTEMS

The aim of this study was to evaluate the chemical quality of a Typic Hapludult soil under secondary forest ( capoeira ), pasture and three leguminous tree species: Acacia auriculiformis , Mimosa caesalpiniaefolia and Inga edulis, in Conceicao de Macabu County, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, implemented in December 1998. Soil samples from the 0-0.10 and 0.10-0.20 m layers were collected and analyzed in July/2015. The C content in the 0.10 m layer was higher in capoeira and lower in the pasture. The CEC ef and CEC pH=7 values and the N, P, Ca, Mg and K levels were lower in pasture, higher in Acacia auriculiformis or capoeira , and intermediate in Inga edulis and Mimosa caesalpiniaefolia . The chemical variables regarding the vegetation cover generally had the lowest values in the pasture, the highest in the Acacia auriculiformis or capoeira , and intermediate values in Inga edulis and Mimosa caesalpiniaefolia . It was concluded that revegetation leads to changes in the superficial layer of the soil which make its attributes closer to those of capoeira and further away from those of pasture, indicating an increase in quality to support the functioning of a forest ecosystem, despite the worsening of some Agronomic quality indicators.
The conservation management implications of isolation by distance and high genetic diversity in Great Spotted Kiwi (Apteryx haastii)

ABSTRACT Maintaining genetic diversity and genetic structure in threatened species is recognised as important, but genetic data are frequently missing from management plans. We use a panel of 11 highly polymorphic microsatellites to describe genetic diversity and genetic structure in the Great Spotted Kiwi/Roroa (Apteryx haastii) (GSK). This flightless bird still occupies the majority of its historical range, but its population has become increasingly fragmented due to human activities. Using the most spatially continuous sample set yet collected for this species, we show that extant GSK exhibit high genetic diversity and clear signals of isolation by distance, where there is a strong correlation between genetic similarity and geographic distance between individuals. This suggests that most GSK do not disperse particularly far (15–20 km) and are most likely to settle and mate with close neighbours, promoting fine-scale genetic structuring and high genetic diversity overall. These findings are important for the management of GSK, as current efforts seek to rebuild depleted populations and restore the species back to its full range prior to human arrival in New Zealand. Our data have already been integrated into the GSK recovery plan, informing policy on translocations and other restoration opportunities.