Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Crop Residue Removal Threshold Ensures Sustainable Agriculture in the Purple Soil Region of Sichuan, China

Sichuan, a hilly area in southwestern China, is recommended as a bioethanol production base because of its abundant crop residue resources. However, removing the crop straw for bioethanol may negatively affect soil fertility and productivity due to the local purple soil vulnerability. To explore the impact of crop residue removal on soil fertility and productivity and meet the needs of sustainable agriculture, we conducted a crop residue removal experiment by measuring the soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) contents, and crop yield in the purple soil region in southwest China. Soil erosion was also simulated by Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation version 2 (RUSLE 2). The results showed that soil erosion increased with the increase of the straw removal rate. Compared with 0% removal treatment, the SOC content reduced at other removal rate treatments, especially for long-term residue removal. The effect of residue removal on soil TN and TP was not consistent within one year. After two years, residue removal greater than 25% caused a decrease in TN by 1.6–3.7%, and straw removal greater than 50% caused a TP decrease by 8.5–9.3%. More than 25% of the residue removed reduced maize and canola yields, and TN and TP content. However, all crop residue removal treatments resulted in SOC content reduction and soil erosion deterioration. In conclusion, crop residue removal was not recommended due to agricultural sustainability in Sichuan, China.
Evolution of Primary and Eutectic Si Phase and Mechanical Properties of Al2O3/Al-20Si Composites under High Pressure

To further improve the mechanical properties of Al-Si alloys. The phase, microstructure and mechanical properties of Al2O3/Al-20Si composites under different pressures were studied. The results show that the phase of Al2O3/Al-20Si composites are composed of α-Al phase, β-Si phase and Al2O3. Under the condition of hot-pressing sintering (0.02 GPa), a large number of Si phases with irregular shape and sharp angle are distributed on the α-Al matrix. Under high pressure solidification, the growth of primary Si phase is inhibited and the eutectic Si is spheroidized obviously. The microhardness of Al2O3/Al-20Si composite increases from 102.5 HV0.05 at 0.02 GPa to 156.4 HV0.05 at 4 GPa, which increases by 52.6%. The compressive strength increased from 381.5 MPa at 0.02 GPa to 469.1 MPa at 4 GPa, increasing by 23%. With the increase of solidification pressure, the fracture mechanism changes from cleavage fracture to quasi cleavage fracture.
How aspiration and expectation shortfalls drive strategic investments

Performance feedback is an important concept to explain managerial risk taking. This paper aims to distinguish between two forms of performance feedback: A performance shortfall can be positively or negatively associated with risk inclination. The first effect arises for a shortfall from aspirations, while the second effect occurs if there is a shortfall from expectations. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of S&amp;P 1500 firms over a period of 19 years (1992–2010) using a fixed effects regression model. The empirical results suggest that missing aspirations increases the likelihood of risk taking in the form of higher strategic investments. Missing expectations in contrast diminishes managerial power and discretion to engage in risk taking and thus lowers strategic investments. The results further support the idea that both effects reinforce each other, suggesting that shortfalls from expectations and aspirations have an interactive effect. By distinguishing between these two sides of performance feedback, this study provides an improved understanding on managerial risk taking. Additionally, this paper highlights how motivation and power interact when analyzing managerial risk taking.
Viral marketing: influencer marketing pivots in tourism – a case study of meme influencer instigated travel interest surge

ABSTRACT A young herder in western China accidentally went viral on the internet and aroused public interests to visit his scenic hometown. The subsequent collaborations between the herder and destination marketers on social media made him an influencer and further boosted the surge of public travel interests. Drawing on big data analytics and natural language processing techniques, this paper conducted two studies. Study 1 has proved that the local tourism authority has successfully pivoted tourism marketing strategies from viral marketing to influencer marketing. Study 2 corroborated the positive effects of influencer attraction and government tourism promotion on public travel interests. The moderating role of public suspicions about the pandemic disruptions was also identified.
Teacher Preparation by Universities: Internal Stakeholders Perception of Teacher Education Curriculum Content in Makerere and Kyambogo Universities

Developing a teacher education curricular content is an enduring concern for teacher educators. A continuous method to providing quality teacher education curriculum content discloses the potential for teacher educators to produce high-quality teachers. Drawing on data from twenty teacher educators and sixteen student teachers in public institutions in Uganda, this article explored the perceptions of the teacher education curriculum content held by academic staff and student teachers in public Universities in Uganda. Using Pedagogical Content Knowledge Model as a tentative model of teacher preparation and Constructivism theory as an interpretive framework, the study was guided by one objective namely: (1) to analyze the perception of internal stakeholders about teacher education curriculum content offered in Makerere and Kyambogo Universities. This research adopted a qualitative, multiple case study design that was anchored in the interpretivist paradigm and directed by the social constructivism thinking. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews were participants from twenty teacher educators and sixteen student teachers who were purposively and conveniently selected. It was therefore concluded that both lecturers and student teachers viewed teacher education curriculum content positively viewing it as enabling learners to be equipped with specialized teaching skills, essentially directed towards teaching profession. Thus, recommendations to improve the stakeholder perception of the teacher education curriculum content are made and these include: teacher education curriculum review and the need to design a 21st-century teacher education curriculum by teacher trainers in corroboration with other university units rendering a training service to teacher trainees. This would bridge the gap of the disjointed teacher education curriculum content at Makerere and Kyambogo Universities hence strengthening the building blocks that produce a teacher.
An empirical investigation on the impact of capital structure on firm performance: evidence from Malaysia

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between leverage and firm’s performance in Malaysia by framing the relationship under the tradeoff theory and agency cost theory.Design/methodology/approachBased on insights drawn from the existing literature, we opted for fixed effects and system two-steps GMM models to establish the hypothesized relationship between leverage and performance. We analyzed 528 nonfinancial firms listed on the Bursa Malaysia Stock exchange for the period of 12 years (2005–2016). FindingsThe outcomes show that the leverage ratio improves the firm performance, consistent with leverage serving as an effective strategy in constraining managers from building their personal empire, revealing a proportionately greater benefit for Malaysian firms than the cost to debt financing. The authors also find that a positive relationship between leverage and firm performance switch to the negative when the level of leverage reaches beyond the optimal level. Consequently, switching from positive to negative indicates that debt has a twofold (nonlinear) impact on firm performance.Practical implicationsOur research provides several implications to potential stakeholders. For investors, firms having lower leverage ratios could achieve superior performance, thus investing in corporations pursuing higher performance. Managers should therefore strive for achieving higher performance to meet the needs of investors and shareholders. From the researcher’s perspective, our research suggests the need to go away from the searching linear association between leverage and firm performance and the relevance of nonlinear correlation. Moreover, our research can help managers to understand how their lender relates to their debt to assets ratios. Thus, they can design an optimal level of leverage that not only improves the firm’s performance but also reduce the associated costs.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the initial attempt in the context of Malaysia that documents evidence indicating that the lower leverage is likely to create value for shareholders while a higher debt ratio reduces firm profitability.
Two-Phase Optimization Models for Liner Shipping Network Based on Hub Ports Cooperation: From the Perspective of Supply-Side Reform in China

From the perspective of supply-side reform in China, it is hard for COSCO Shipping, a merged company with a strong shipping capacity, to abandon the container shipping market. Meanwhile, the new company could cooperate with new strategic ports along the Maritime Silk Road in liner service. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to optimize the liner shipping network (LSN) from strategic, tactical, and operational levels and help the merged shipping company adjust its operational measures according to market changes. )e optimization towards different levels of decision-making process is a new research of highly practical values. Specifically, this paper created two-phase optimization models for LSN based on the selection of hub ports. In Network Assessment (NA) phase, the LSNs of two types of hub ports selected are designed and assessed on strategic and tactical levels, and the primary and secondary routes are identified; in Network Operation (NO) phase, the “path-based flow” formulations are proposed from the operational level, considering operational measures including demand rejection and flow integration. )emodels in both phases are mixed-integer linear programming (MILP), but are solved by different tools: CPLEX for the NA phase models and the Genetic Algorithm (GA) for the NO phase models due to the computational complexity of the latter problem. )en, a computational experiment is performed on the LSN of COSCO Shipping on the Persian Gulf trade lane. )e results have proved the effectiveness of the methodology and inspired important countermeasures for the merged shipping company.
IDENTIFYING FACTORS AFFECTING INTENTION TO USE IN DISTANCE LEARNING SYSTEMS

The use and benefit of Distance Learning Systems (DLS) can be increased by a detailed analysis of the factors affecting students’ intention to use. This study aims to analyse the effect of various independent variables on the user satisfaction and intention to use DLS via Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness. In addition, Time Effectiveness is proposed as a new variable with the claim that the time spent in DLS is valuable. Data were collected from 925 undergraduate students currently enrolled in 9 state universities in Turkey. Data were analysed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Results show that while Interaction, Compatibility and Time Effectiveness have a positive effect on user satisfaction and intention to use via Perceived Usefulness; Self Efficacy, Subjective Norm and Enjoyment have no influence. Moreover, Self Efficacy, Interaction, Anxiety and Time Effectiveness have a significant impact on Perceived Ease of Use, yet Subjective Norm and Enjoyment don’t.
Toward an index of oral somatosensory acuity: Comparison of three measures in adults.

Purpose Somatosensory targets and feedback are instrumental in ensuring accurate speech production. Individuals differ in their ability to access and respond to somatosensory information, but there is no established standard for measuring somatosensory acuity. The primary objective of this study was to determine which of three measures of somatosensory acuity had the strongest association with change in production accuracy in a vowel learning task, while controlling for the better-studied covariate of auditory acuity. Method Three somatosensory tasks were administered to 20 female college students: an oral stereognosis task, a bite block task with auditory masking, and a novel phonetic awareness task. Individual scores from the tasks were compared to their performance on a speech learning task in which participants were trained to produce novel Mandarin vowels with visual biofeedback. Results Of the three tasks, only bite block adaptation with auditory masking was significantly associated with performance in the speech learning task. Participants with weaker somatosensory acuity tended to demonstrate larger increases in production accuracy over the course of training. Conclusions The bite block adaptation task measures proprioceptive awareness rather than tactile acuity and assesses somatosensory knowledge implicitly, with limited metalinguistic demands. This small-scale study provides preliminary evidence that these characteristics may be desirable for the assessment of oral somatosensory acuity, at least in the context of vowel learning tasks. Well-normed somatosensory measures could be of clinical utility by informing diagnosis/prognosis and treatment planning.
Read it on Reddit: Homogeneity and Ideological Segregation in the Age of Social News

This article empirically revisits the idea of ideological segregation and homogeneity in social networks with an exhaustive analysis of the website Reddit.com. Using a computer-assisted analysis on a corpus of multiple billion comments, it studies the relation between the tone of comments and three political topics, immigration, macroeconomics and defense. Looking at the standard deviation of the average tone of users and communities over time on these specific topics, results show an overall trend toward more ideological heterogeneity as a product of new users’ influx, while multiple communities studied and long-term users show a trend toward homogeneity. Results also show that digital heuristics, such as upvotes and downvotes, illustrate a far greater diversity of opinion than a study solely on published comments could let on.
Isotopic Niche Segregation among Darwin’s Finches on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos

Darwin’s finches are a classic example of adaptive radiation involving differential use of dietary resources among sympatric species. Here, we apply stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N, and δ2H) analyses of feathers to examine ecological segregation among eight Darwin’s finch species in Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos collected from live birds and museum specimens (1962–2019). We found that δ13C values were higher for the granivorous and herbivorous foraging guilds, and lower for the insectivorous finches. Values of δ15N were similar among foraging guilds but values of δ2H were higher for insectivores, followed by granivores, and lowest for herbivores. The herbivorous guild generally occupied the largest isotopic standard ellipse areas for all isotopic combinations and the insectivorous guild the smallest. Values of δ2H provided better trophic discrimination than those of δ15N possibly due to confounding influences of agricultural inputs of nitrogen. Segregation among guilds was enhanced by portraying guilds in three-dimensional isotope (δ13C, δ15N, and δ2H) space. Values of δ13C and δ15N were higher for feathers of museum specimens than for live birds. We provide evidence that Darwin’s finches on Santa Cruz Island tend to be generalists with overlapping isotopic niches and suggest that dietary overlap may also be more considerable than previously thought.
Efficacy of melatonin supplementation in the treatment of periodontitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to analyze the additive effects of the melatonin supplementation with nonsurgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) on periodontal status in patients affected by chronic periodontitis. Methods: In December 2020, We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CENTRAL databases and Google Scholar databases. Four RCTs were recruited with the same inclusion criteria. PD and CAL were the primary outcome measures. Subgroup analyses were performed according to health statuses and follow-up times, and Cochran’s Q and I-square ( I2 ) tests were used to assess heterogeneity.Results: This review included four RCTs. Four studies reported probing depth (PD) and 3 studies reported clinical attachment loss (CAL). Compared with the placebo groups, the melatonin groups showed a significant reduction in PD (weighted mean difference [WMD], -1.01; 95% confidence intervals [CI], -1.67 to -0.35; I2 = 76%) and CAL (WMD, -1.08; 95% CI: -1.36 to -0.79, I2 = 0%). Subgroup analyses revealed that the use of systemic melatonin + NSPT significantly reduced PD and CAL at the 2-, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups compared to NSPT alone, and stronger treatment effects of reducing PD were observed at shorter follow-ups than at longer follow-ups when adjunctive systemic melatonin was used.Conclusions: Melatonin supplementation in adjunct with nonsurgical periodontal therapy can moderately improve the efficacy of NSPT in reducing PD and greater CAL gain in patients with periodontitis. With the limited evidence available, it is evident that additional good quality RCTs are required to demonstrate additional beneficial effects of oral melatonin supplementation on periodontal clinical parameters after NSPT.
An Efficient Data Analysis Framework for Online Security Processing

Industrial cloud security and internet of things security represent the most important research directions of cyberspace security. Most existing studies on traditional cloud data security analysis were focused on inspecting techniques for block storage data in the cloud. None of them consider the problem that multidimension online temp data analysis in the cloud may appear as continuous and rapid streams, and the scalable analysis rules are continuous online rules generated by deep learning models. To address this problem, in this paper we propose a new LCN-Index data security analysis framework for large scalable rules in the industrial cloud. LCN-Index uses the MapReduce computing paradigm to deploy large scale online data analysis rules: in the mapping stage, it divides each attribute into a batch of analysis predicate sets which are then deployed onto a mapping node using interval predicate index. In the reducing stage, it merges results from the mapping nodes using multiattribute hash index. By doing so, a stream tuple can be efficiently evaluated by going over the LCN-Index framework. Experiments demonstrate the utility of the proposed method.
Advances in the Ocean Color Component of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET-OC)

The Ocean Color Component of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET-OC) supports activities related to ocean color such as validation of satellite data products, assessment of atmospheric correction schemes, and evaluation of bio-optical models through globally distributed standardized measurements of water-leaving radiance and aerosol optical depth. In view of duly assisting the AERONET-OC data user community, this work (i) summarizes the latest investigations on a number of scientific issues related to above-water radiometry, (ii) emphasizes the network expansion that from 2002 until the end of 2020 integrated 31 effective measurement sites, (iii) shows the equivalence of data product accuracy across sites and time for measurements performed with different instrument series, (iv) illustrates the variety of water types represented by the network sites ensuring validation activities across a diversity of observation conditions, and (v) documents the availability of water-leaving radiance data corrected for bidirectional effects by applying a method specifically developed for chlorophyll-a-dominated waters and an alternative one that is likely suitable for any water type.
Direct Integration of Laser-Generated Nanoparticles into Transparent Nail Polish: The Plasmonic “Goldfinger”

A transparent nail varnish can be colored simply and directly with laser-generated nanoparticles. This does not only enable coloring of the varnish for cosmetic purposes, but also gives direct access to nanodoped varnishes to be used on any solid surface. Therefore, nanoparticle properties such as plasmonic properties or antibacterial effects can be easily adapted to surfaces for medical or optical purposes. The presented method for integration of metal (gold, platinum, silver, and alloy) nanoparticles into varnishes is straightforward and gives access to nanodoped polishes with optical properties, difficult to be achieved by dispersing powder pigments in the high-viscosity liquids.
‘It’s all about community’: educators’ experiences addressing literacy instruction for adults with complex support needs

ABSTRACT Adults with and without complex support needs (CSN; e.g. with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, multiple disabilities) experience benefit in many areas of their lives from developing or improving literacy skills. However, adults with CSN often face unique barriers to acquiring these critical skills, and few researchers have explored the nature of the available literacy instructional opportunities for them. In this qualitative study, we examined literacy instruction for this group of adults by interviewing 11 teachers who provide literacy instruction to adults with CSN in a variety of community agency settings about their definitions of literacy, how they structure literacy programmes, and how adults access these programmes. Findings revealed insights into the way instructors’ personal definitions of literacy influenced their instructional planning and delivery and the multiple ways in which adults with CSN use literacy in their everyday lives. Barriers to effective literacy instruction were also revealed. Implications for future research and for policy and practice are discussed.
Mental and physical health in general population during COVID-19: Systematic review and narrative synthesis

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 changed the normality of daily life. Due to mobility restriction measures, physical and mental health in general population became a remarkable concern for researchers and health professionals. Material and methods: This article briefly reviews the evidence of mental and physical health consequences during COVID-19 pandemic. The review was conducted in October 2020 through PubMed and Web of Science with the searching frame: Mental health and Physical health and COVID-19. The study selection process followed the PRISMA flow diagram. Results: The reported mental consequences were mainly negative psychological effects including stress symptoms, anxiety, and depression. The total physical activity in MET– minutes/week demonstrated a statistically significant reduction between before and during COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, males showed higher significant variation of Δ-MET compared with females (p < 0.001). Also, the reduction of total physical activity was related to worse psychological well-being (r = 0.07541, p < 0.001). Conclusions: In the general population, both mental and physical health consequences call for academic concern, and investigation from different social layers of population needs to be justified. Discovery of mental and physical promotion interventions to outline the psychological, social, and physiological aspects of the pandemic are required.