Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The mobile-born and the COVID-19 pandemic: opportunities, problems and the role of the telemedicine and e-health

The COVID-19 pandemic d i f ferent ia ted and i s differentiating itself from previous pandemics in many aspects that are difficult to list and that are finding interest in many scientific studies. One of the aspects, however, that is completely evident, is that it is the first pandemic that was faced by the mobile-born. He or she is particularly familiar with mobile-technology communication tools, widely incremented in use during the pandemic. His or her role was important, helping to countenance the digital divide inside the families (for example the elderly) and to create familiar spontaneous telemedicine tools to sustain the fragile subjects. Probably studies currently under development will tell us how the mobile born, thanks to his or her resources, personally crossed the pandemic (especially the during the emergency phases). However, data analysis is showing that the time spent with mobile technology is increased for all of us. The risk of mobile-technology abuse, correlated to the time use, in the mobile-born is still a critical issue and is increased, with particular reference to (I) the text neck, a postural risk, and (II) the addiction, that can lead to communication and psychological problems. Telemedicine and e-health (TeH) have pivotal role in the fight of these risks. The commentary highlights these risks and for each one of them describes the possible role of the TeH support. The research question in the commentary is to investigate whether the pandemic (I) may have exacerbated these problems due to the increase in smartphone use and (II) how they can be of aid. The commentary has been arranged into the following sections: (I) The COVID-19 pandemic and the mobile-born; (II) The COVID-19 pandemic and the new models of interaction; (III) The TeH tools and the text neck; (IV) The TeH tools and the smartphone addiction; (V) Conclusions and opened questions.
Assessing the Performance of Artificial Intelligence Systems for the Screening of Diabetic Retinopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus and one of the leading causes of blindness globally. Due to the progressive nature of the disease, earlier detection and timely treatment can lead to substantial reductions in the incidence of irreversible vision-loss. Artificial intelligence (AI) screening systems have offered clinically acceptable and quicker results in detecting diabetic retinopathy from retinal fundus and optical coherence tomography (OCT) images. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant investigations was performed to document the performance of AI screening systems that were applied to fundus and OCT images of patients from diverse geographic locations including North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. A systematic literature search on Medline, Global Health, and PubMed was performed and studies published between October 2015 and January 2020 were included. The search strategy was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) reporting guidelines, and AI-based investigations were mandatory for studies inclusion. The abstracts, titles, and full-texts of potentially eligible studies were screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria. Twenty-one studies were included in this systematic review; 18 met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity of the evaluated AI screening systems in detecting diabetic retinopathy was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.92-0.94) and the specificity was 0.88 (95% CI: 0.86-0.89). The included studies detailed training and external validation datasets, criteria for diabetic retinopathy case ascertainment, imaging modalities, DR-grading scales, and compared AI results to those of human graders (e.g., ophthalmologists, retinal specialists, trained nurses, and other healthcare providers) as a reference standard. The findings of this study showed that the majority AI screening systems demonstrated clinically acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity for detecting referable diabetic retinopathy from retinal fundus and OCT photographs. Further improvement depends on the continual development of novel algorithms with large and gradable sets of images for training and validation. If cost-effectiveness ratios can be optimized, AI can become a financially sustainable and clinically effective intervention that can be incorporated into the healthcare systems of low-to-middle income countries (LMICs) and geographically remote locations. Combining screening technologies with treatment interventions such as anti-VEGF therapy, acellular capillary laser treatment, and vitreoretinal surgery can lead to substantial reductions in the incidence of irreversible vision-loss due to proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Interaction between voice-gender difference and spatial separation in release from masking in multi-talker listening environments

Voice-gender difference and spatial separation between talkers are important cues for speech segregation in multi-talker listening environments. The goal of this study was to investigate the interactions of these two cues to explore how they influence masking release in normal hearing listeners. Speech recognition thresholds in competing speech were measured, and masking release benefits by either voice-gender difference or spatial separation cues were calculated. Results revealed that the masking releases by those two cues are inversely related as a function of spatial separation, with a gender-specific difference of transition between the two types of masking release.
Using Administrative Records and Survey Data to Construct Samples of Tweeters and Tweets

Social media data can provide new insights into political phenomena, but users do not always represent people, posts and accounts are not typically linked to demographic variables for use as statistical controls or in subgroup comparisons, and activities on social media can be difficult to interpret. For data scientists, adding demographic variables and comparisons to closed-ended survey responses have the potential to improve interpretations of inferences drawn from social media—for example, through comparisons of online expressions and survey responses, and by assessing associations with offline outcomes like voting. For survey methodologists, adding social media data to surveys allows for rich behavioral measurements, including comparisons of public expressions with attitudes elicited in a structured survey. Here, we evaluate two popular forms of linkages—administrative and survey—focusing on two questions: How does the method of creating a sample of Twitter users affect its behavioral and demographic profile? What are the relative advantages of each of these methods? Our analyses illustrate where and to what extent the sample based on administrative data diverges in demographic and partisan composition from surveyed Twitter users who report being registered to vote. Despite demographic differences, each linkage method results in behaviorally similar samples, especially in activity levels; however, conventionally sized surveys are likely to lack the statistical power to study subgroups and heterogeneity (e.g., comparing conversations of Democrats and Republicans) within even highly salient political topics. We conclude by developing general recommendations for researchers looking to study social media by linking accounts with external benchmark data sources.
Vernacular graphic design: Interactive logos for tourism Terengganu

The tourism industry is one of the most important sectors for the economic development of a country around the world. Therefore, most countries use a variety of approaches including interactive graphic design to attract the attention of visitors traveling to their respective countries. In Malaysia, for example, most of the organizations involved in the tourism industry have strengthened their advertising towards interactive graphic design approach, especially the state tourism departments. One of the states in Malaysia that is actively developing tourism advertising and infrastructure is the state of Terengganu, which located on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia. In fact, the state of Terengganu has its own tourist attraction. There are many tourist attractions listed in the state. Among the organizations responsible for operating and promoting the tourism industry in the state is known as Terengganu Tourism. The Terengganu Tourism is an exemplary organization in the production of positive tourism advertisements, where a variety of creative and innovative tourism advertisements have been widely produced, and easily seen everywhere around the state. However, there are some matters related to the interactivity of the tourism ads that need to be improved, especially the identity of the logos. This study is conducted is to identify the main vernacular capacity found in the existing tourism logos, to analyse side-vernaculars for improvement to the existing tourism logos, and to recommend to Terengganu Tourism about the findings of new interactive graphic tourism logo design for their future tourism promotion use. This study was conducted based on qualitative research methods through time sampling observations and semi structured interviews. In addition, thematic analysis is also used to ensure that the theme of the study is coherent, consistent and distinctive. The findings of the study, which is the new interactive graphic tourism logo design, do have strong vernacular elements, such as diversity of culture, icon and heritage of the state of Terengganu. All efforts from Terengganu Tourism towards creative advertising, improvement in market segmentation, and innovative promotional campaigns at the national and international levels will be appreciated.
Polarization Reversal of Low‐Frequency Magnetic Variation in the Lunar Wake

A structure of polarization of magnetic field variation in the frequency range from 0.01 to 0.3 Hz was found by Kaguya in the lunar wake. In a dawnward‐directed magnetic field, the polarization was left‐handed in the southern hemisphere and right‐handed in the northern hemisphere of the lunar wake. The sense of rotation was consistent with vortices behind an obstacle in a fast stream, although no such vortices were detected by Kaguya. The direction of magnetic field variation was predominantly perpendicular to the background magnetic field, suggesting that the waves were of shear Alfvén mode. The same polarization structure was found in rotated magnetic fields. In a selenocentric coordinate system with x axis antiparallel to the solar wind flow and the magnetic field in x‐z plane, the polarization was dependent only on y position of the spacecraft. The polarization structure was stable and unchanged in various solar wind conditions showing no preferences. It was observed in the magnetosheath as well as in the solar wind, but not in the terrestrial magnetosphere. The power density showed preferences to high‐temperature, high‐speed solar wind. The power density was higher at the wake boundary than in the center of the wake, suggesting that the magnetic fluctuations were generated at the wake boundary by ions refilling the wake, and propagate into the deep wake as shear Alfvén waves.
Male Body Image

5 Three meta-analytic reviews have concluded that physical activity is positively related to 6 body image. Historically, research regarding physical activity and body image has been 7 disproportionately focused on female samples. For example, the most recent meta-analysis 8 (2009) extracted 56 effect sizes for women and only 12 for men. The current paper provides an 9 update to the literature regarding the relationship between physical activity and body image 10 among men and boys across 84 individual effect sizes. The analysis also provides insight 11 regarding moderator variables including participant age, and physical activity type and intensity. 12 Overall, physical activity was positively related to body image among men and boys with 13 various moderator variables warranting further investigation. Pragmatic implications are 14 discussed as well as the limitations within existing research and need for additional research to 15 further understand moderator and mediator variables. 16
Tomato Leaf Curl Virus of Tomato: Scenarios and Confronts

Tomato leaf curl disease (TLCD) is the most common viral disease in the tomato plant. It is caused by begomoviruses, which are viruses that cause plant development to be slowed. Many of the traditional disease management methods are still in use. They are, however, ineffective and out of date. Modern biotechnology is being used to detect illness in tomato plants as early as possible, thus reducing damage to the plants. Through genetic engineering, the spread of viruses may be controlled or prevented entirely. Here reviewed many methods for decreasing or eliminating the viral influence on crop growth through biotechnology and genomics. We also investigated the possibility of genetic engineering to reduce or remove the virus TLCD impact on tomato crop development.
Augmented Power Dispatch for Resilient Operation through Controllable Series Compensation and N-1-1 Contingency Assessment

Research on enhancing power system resilience against extreme events is attracting significant attention and becoming a top global agenda. In this paper, a preventive augmented power dispatch model is proposed to provide a resilient operation. In the proposed model, a new N-1-1 security criterion is proposed to select disruptive N-1-1 contingency cases that might trigger cascading blackouts, and an iterative contingency assessment process based on the line outage distribution factor is proposed to deal with security constraints. In terms of optimization objectives, two objectives related to power flow on the transmission line are considered to reduce the possibility of overload outages. Controllable series compensation devices are also considered in the model to improve the power flow distribution. Case studies conducted on the modified IEEE 30-bus, 118-bus and Polish 2382-bus systems show that the power flow solution of the proposed power dispatch model can avoid some branches from undertaking excessively heavy loads, especially lines forecasted to be affected by extreme events. The results of blackout simulations through a hidden failure cascading outage simulation model show that the average power losses of the proposed model are reduced by around 40% in some cases as compared to the classical economic dispatch model.
Variationally consistent computational homogenization of chemomechanical problems with stabilized weakly periodic boundary conditions

A variationally consistent model‐based computational homogenization approach for transient chemomechanically coupled problems is developed based on the classical assumption of first‐order prolongation of the displacement, chemical potential, and (ion) concentration fields within a representative volume element (RVE). The presence of the chemical potential and the concentration as primary global fields represents a mixed formulation, which has definite advantages. Nonstandard diffusion, governed by a Cahn–Hilliard type of gradient model, is considered under the restriction of miscibility. Weakly periodic boundary conditions on the pertinent fields provide the general variational setting for the uniquely solvable RVE‐problem(s). These boundary conditions are introduced with a novel approach in order to control the stability of the boundary discretization, thereby circumventing the need to satisfy the LBB‐condition: the penalty stabilized Lagrange multiplier formulation, which enforces stability at the cost of an additional Lagrange multiplier for each weakly periodic field (three fields for the current problem). In particular, a neat result is that the classical Neumann boundary condition is obtained when the penalty becomes very large. In the numerical examples, we investigate the following characteristics: the mesh convergence for different boundary approximations, the sensitivity for the choice of penalty parameter, and the influence of RVE‐size on the macroscopic response.
Genetic ablation of neuronal mitochondrial calcium uptake halts Alzheimer’s disease progression

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the extracellular deposition of amyloid beta, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles, synaptic dysfunction, and neuronal cell death. These phenotypes correlate with and are linked to elevated neuronal intracellular calcium (iCa2+) levels. Recently, our group reported that mitochondrial calcium (mCa2+) overload, due to loss of mCa2+ efflux capacity, contributes to AD development and progression. We also noted proteomic remodeling of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter channel (mtCU) in sporadic AD brain samples, suggestive of altered mCa2+ uptake in AD. Since the mtCU is the primary mechanism for Ca2+ uptake into the mitochondrial matrix, inhibition of the mtCU has the potential to reduce or prevent mCa2+ overload in AD. Here, we report that neuronal-specific loss of mtCU-dependent mCa2+ uptake in the 3xTg-AD mouse model of AD reduced Aβ and tau-pathology, synaptic dysfunction, and cognitive decline. Knockdown of Mcu in a cellular model of AD significantly decreased matrix Ca2+ content, oxidative stress, and cell death. These results suggest that inhibition of neuronal mCa2+ uptake is a novel therapeutic target to impede AD progression.
Comparative Analysis of the Importance of Determining Factors in the Choice and Sale of Apartments

The motivation to compare the importance that buyers and sellers give to the diverse characteristics of apartments is its pertinency to grasping the housing market. The objective of this article is to compare the determining factors in the choice and sale of apartments among the potential buyers and sellers. During a sale, the realtors exhibit the dwellings’ positive characteristics, the so-called amenities. The homebuyers must analyse the deal in a rational and well-weighed way, striving to know its characteristics to reduce the information asymmetry. The study focuses on two distinct samples, with the common goal of transacting housing. One of the samples is composed of individuals who are looking for apartments, and the other one of individuals who are selling apartments, both being collected in mainland Portugal. It was verified that there are statistically significant differences between buyers and sellers. Buyers give more importance to certain rooms and the inexistence of negative externalities near their future residence. Sellers emphasise positive externalities and parking spots. This study is expected to contribute to the increase in scientific knowledge on the housing market and to the decrease of the information asymmetry between sellers and buyers. Knowing the importance that buyers and sellers give to the main different factors in the Portuguese real estate market constitutes an advancement of knowledge in this area.
Identification of Weather Influences on Flight Punctuality Using Machine Learning Approach

One of the top long-term threats to airport resilience is extreme climate-induced conditions, which negatively affect the airport and flight operations. Recent examples, including hurricanes, storms, extreme temperatures (cold/hot), and heavy rains, have damaged airport facilities, interrupted air traffic, and caused higher operational costs. With the development of civil aviation and the pre-COVID-19 surging demand for flights, the passengers’ complaints of flight delay increased, according to FoxBusiness. This study aims to discover the weather factors affecting flight punctuality and determine a high-dimensional scale of consequences stemming from weather conditions and flight operational aspects. Machine learning has been developed in correlation with the weather and statistical data for operations at Birmingham Airport as a case study. The cross-correlated datasets have been kindly provided by Birmingham Airport and the Meteorological Office. The scope and emphasis of this study is placed on the machine learning application to practical flight punctuality prediction in relation to climate conditions. Random forest, artificial neural network, support vector machine, and linear regression are used to develop predictive models. Grid-search and cross-validation are used to select the best parameters. The model can grasp the trend of flight punctuality rates well where R2 is 0.80 and the root mean square error (RMSE) is less than 15% using the model developed by random forest technique. The insights derived from this study will help Airport Authorities and the Insurance industry in predicting the scale of consequences in order to promptly enact and enable adaptative airport climate resilience plans, including air traffic rescheduling, financial resilience to climate variances and extreme weather conditions.
Accepting a “New” Standard Variety: Comparing Explicit Attitudes in Luxembourg and Belgium

Language maintenance efforts aim to bolster attitudes towards endangered languages by providing them with a standard variety as a means to raise their status and prestige. However, the introduced variety can vary in its degrees of standardisation. This paper investigates whether varying degrees of standardisation surface in explicit attitudes towards standard varieties in endangered vernacular speech communities. Following sociolinguistic models of standardisation, we suggest that explicit attitudes towards the standard variety indicate its acceptance in vernacular speech communities, reflecting its overall degree of standardisation. We use the standardised Attitudes towards Language (AtoL) questionnaire to investigate explicit attitudes towards the respective standard varieties in two related vernacular speech communities—the Belgische Eifel in Belgium and the Éislek in Luxembourg. The vernacular of these speech communities, Moselle Franconian, is considered generally vulnerable (UNESCO), and the two speech communities have opted to introduce different standard varieties: Standard Luxembourgish in Luxembourg shows lower degrees of standardisation and is only partially implemented. In contrast, Standard German in the Belgian speech community is highly standardised and completely implemented. Results show that degrees of standardisation surface in speakers’ explicit attitudes. Our findings have important implications for the role of standardisation in language maintenance efforts.
Transformative Learning within an International Teaching Experience: Developing as Emerging Culturally Responsive Teachers

ABSTRACT Within the teacher education literature, international teaching experiences are lauded as opportunities for teacher candidates to develop multiple perspectives and cultural awareness. The purpose of this study was to understand the experience of 12 teacher candidates who engaged in an international teaching experience in Costa Rica. This qualitative study specifically examined how teacher candidates’ experiences with culture during a short-term international teaching experience in Costa Rica shaped their perceptions and practices as emerging culturally responsive teachers. Data sources included: course assignments, focus groups, and interviews. Findings point to teacher candidates’ development as emerging culturally responsive teachers by 1) developing a broader conceptualization of culture, 2) developing a new frame of reference on the relationship between culture and classroom learning environments, 3) developing empathy and understanding, and 4) developing culturally responsive practices in US classrooms. The findings have implications for the design of international teaching experiences and their role in developing culturally responsive teachers within teacher preparation programs.