Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conversations with Scientists and Science Educators: In Search of the Third Dimension

We have argued that science in general, and scientific inquiry in particular, is a human activity and that current models to describe science (either as Scientific Method or as a Body of Knowledge) tend to underestimate the significance of human beings in the phenomenon. Our earlier paper (Bevins & Price, 2016) suggests a model to correct this imbalance which we call 3-Dimensional science. The current paper used the Storyline Method to look at the lived experiences of nine science researchers and educators for evidence of our third dimension (Psychological Energy). Results suggest that the key features of our third dimension are present, namely: a degree of autonomy, a sense of competence, and a relatedness to significant others. We suggest this further strengthens the argument for a more holistic approach to science education which celebrates these issues rather than simply a technical analysis of isolated teaching techniques.
INVESTIGATION OF CHARACTERISTICS OF QUADRATIVE - AMPLITUDE MODULATION AFFECTING INTERFERENCE-RESISTANT RECEPTION

The article analyzes the main reasons for reducing reliability, channel violations during the transmission and reception of digital television signals. The main regularities of noise-resistant formation of quadrature-amplitude modulation are investigated. Mathematical models, vector diagrams of the QAM signal and the results of a theoretical study of the dependence of the bit error probability on Eb/N0, to ensure noise-immune reception of digital television signals.
QID: Robust Mobile Device Recognition via a Multi-Coil Qi-Wireless Charging System

Recent years have witnessed the increasing penetration of wireless charging base stations in the workplace and public areas, such as airports and cafeterias. Such an emerging wireless charging infrastructure has presented opportunities for new indoor localization and identification services for mobile users. In this paper, we present QID, the first system that can identify a Qi-compliant mobile device during wireless charging in real-time. QID extracts features from the clock oscillator and control scheme of the power receiver and employs light-weight algorithms to classify the device. QID adopts a 2-dimensional motion unit to emulate a variety of multi-coil designs of Qi, which allows for fine-grained device fingerprinting. Our results show that QID achieves high recognition accuracy. With the prevalence of public wireless charging stations, our results also have important implications for mobile user privacy.
Btool: a friendly teaching tool to acquire and process vibration signals

The present work aims to describe a graphical user interface to acquire and process vibration and acoustic signals. The interface allows the students to obtain or simulate signals from mechanical elements in an easy way and without a deep previous knowledge. The signal processing tools implemented can be used to extract valuable information about the signals and to diagnose the status of the mechanical elements. The interface has been developed on MATLABR^®, using data acquisition and GUIDE toolboxes, assuring the portability of the software.
Beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks: Transforming the traditional media of communication from drivers of conflict to instruments for peace and security: Examples from Hakamat singers in Sudan’s Darfur

The Hakamats, a group of traditional women singers and poets from Darfur, Western Sudan, contributed greatly to fueling the decade old Darfur conflict using their traditional war songs and poetry. Using the same instrument to appeal to the ego and romanticisms of their male counterparts they also blocked several proposed peace initiatives. Through education and advocacy, they now sing for peace; a clear case of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks. This study examines the factors that influenced the Hakamats’ choice to promote war and conflict rather than peace and peaceful co-existence, and the motivation that sustained that momentum. The focus is on how they were convinced to abandon an old-time traditional role and embrace the search for sustainable peace in an area they held sway for a long time. The study is based on series of workshops, sensitization campaigns and personal interviews with some women Hakamats. The data generated from the workshops and interviews was critically examined using content analysis. The findings show that economic benefits and, the quest for societal recognition greatly influenced and sustained the Hakamats’ choice of trade, motivation, and activities. The study recommends that a new set of value system and other means of economic survival for the Hakamat are an imperative in order for the transformation to be sustainable. It also recommends the deployment of traditional media as a very critical tool for conflict resolution.
Stealthy attacks and defense strategies in competing sensor networks

Stealthy Attacks and Defense Strategies in Competing Sensor Networks. (August 2008) Aleksandra Czarlinska, B.A.Sc. , University of Toronto Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Deepa Kundur The fundamental objective of sensor networks underpinning a variety of applications is the collection of reliable information from the surrounding environment. The correctness of the collected data is especially important in applications involving societal welfare and safety, in which the acquired information may be utilized by end-users for decision-making. The distributed nature of sensor networks and their deployment in unattended and potentially hostile environments, however, renders this collection task challenging for both scalar and visual data. In this work we propose and address the twin problem of carrying out and defending against a stealthy attack on the information gathered by a sensor network at the physical sensing layer as perpetrated by a competing hostile network. A stealthy attack in this context is an intelligent attempt to disinform a sensor network in a manner that mitigates attack discovery. In comparison with previous sensor network security studies, we explicitly model the attack scenario as an active competition between two networks where difficulties arise from the pervasive nature of the attack, the possibility of tampering during data acquisition prior to encryption, and the lack of prior knowledge regarding the characteristics of the attack. We examine the problem from the perspective of both the hostile and the legitimate network. The interaction between the networks is modeled as a game where a stealth utility is derived and shown to be consistent for both players in the case
Forecasting of Electric Load Using a Hybrid LSTM-Neural Prophet Model

Load forecasting (LF) is an essential factor in power system management. LF helps the utility maximize the utilization of power-generating plants and schedule them both reliably and economically. In this paper, a novel and hybrid forecasting method is proposed, combining a long short-term memory network (LSTM) and neural prophet (NP) through an artificial neural network. The paper aims to predict electric load for different time horizons with improved accuracy as well as consistency. The proposed model uses historical load data, weather data, and statistical features obtained from the historical data. Multiple case studies have been conducted with two different real-time data sets on three different types of load forecasting. The hybrid model is later compared with a few established methods of load forecasting found in the literature with different performance metrics: mean average percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE), sum of square error (SSE), and regression coefficient (R). Moreover, a guideline with various attributes is provided for different types of load forecasting considering the applications of the proposed model. The results and comparisons from our test cases showed that the proposed hybrid model improved the forecasting accuracy for three different types of load forecasting over other forecasting techniques.
Evaluation of Metformin Hydrochloride Tailoring Bilosomes as an Effective Transdermal Nanocarrier

Introduction Metformin hydrochloride (metformin HCL), a first-line drug treating diabetes type II, was known to cause severe gastritis, so seeking a non-oral dosage form was the new trend. Bilosomes are bilayer nano-vesicles of non-ionic surfactants embodying bile salts. In our study, bilosomes were investigated as an acceptable novel carrier for active targeting transdermal delivery of metformin HCL, circumventing its side effects. Methods Twelve bilosome formulations were prepared with solvent evaporation method with slight modification according to a 31.22 full factorial design, and the optimized formulation was determined using Design -Expert 13 software (Stat-Ease, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) studying the effect of surfactant and bile salt types on the entrapment efficiency (EE), vesicle size (VS), polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential (ZP), percentage of drug released within 24 h (R), and flux of drug permeated within 6 h (Jss) of vesicles. In addition, the optimized formulation was further evaluated to Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), deformability index (DI), and transmission electron microscope (TEM) to ensure bilosomes formation, elasticity, and spherical shape, respectively. Results The resulting vesicles publicized EE from 56.21% to 94.21%, VS from 183.64 to 701.8 nm, PDI values oscillating between 0.33 and 0.53, ZP (absolute value) from 29 to 44.2 mV, biphasic release profile within 24 h from 60.62 and up to 75.28%, and permeation flux enhancement (198.79–431.91 ng cm −2 h−1) in comparison with the non-formulated drug (154.26 ng cm −2 h−1). Optimized formulation was found to be F8 with EE = 79.49%, VS = 237.68 nm, ZP = 40.9 mV, PDI = 0.325, R = 75.28%, Jss = 333.45 ng cm−2 h−1 and DI = 6.5 with spherical self-closed non-aggregated vesicles and non-superimposed bands of its components in the FTIR. Conclusion Overall results showed that bilosome incorporation of metformin HCL improved permeation and offered a new nano-carrier for active transdermal delivery.
Analysis and Design of Computerized Production Management System for Garment Manufacturing Company

Work involves analysis and design of 'Production Management System' a part of ERP System for Garment Manufacturing Company. Requirement study of the system is carried out at Unitex Ltd Bangalore. The system is incorporated with three sub-systems (modules) such as (a) Product development, (b) Production, and (c) Quality management. Analysis of data flow, information flow, processing activities of the three modules are carried out using Data Flow Diagrams. Analysis identified seven processes in Product development, 14 processes in Production, and four processes in Quality Management modules. Design of the system entities, their relationship, and attributes is carried out using Entity Relationship (ER) modelling technique. Structural design of the system is carried out using Unified Modelling Language (UML) technique. Complete database of the system consisting of 21 tables is designed, and attributes of the database tables are identified with required data types and relationship keys. Keywords— DFD, ERD, ERP, Garment, UML
Hybrid coordinated strategy of downlink coordinated multi-point transmission

Coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission is put forward in the long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) system to improve both average and cell-edge throughput. CoMP-joint processing (JP) scheme can get a larger cell-edge throughput and a lower bit error rate (BER) than the CoMP-coordinated beamforming (CB) scheme, but it also has higher complexity due to data sharing. A hybrid coordinated strategy with parameter α, which indicates the proportion of users employing the CoMP-JP scheme, is proposed to apply the CoMP-JP scheme to improve the poorer communication quality of cell edge and employ the CoMP-CB scheme for other users to enhance average throughput and spectral efficiency. This paradigm selects users defined by the certain threshold of signal to interference plus noise power ratio (SINR) corresponding to the parameter α to the CoMP-JP scheme. This paper compares the BER performance between the block diagonalization (BD) based precoding and the linear precoders by maximizing signal to leakage and noise ratio (SLNR), and also indicates that the SLNR based precoding algorithm gets lower BER than the BD based precoding algorithm with certain signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Finally, this paper discusses that the system performance is partially affected by the percentage of CoMP-JP users and concludes that 50% of users sorted to communicate under the CoMP-JP scheme will reach the best system performance.
Serious Games for Training Myoelectric Prostheses through Multi-Contact Devices

In the medical context, designing and developing myoelectric prostheses has made it possible for patients to regain mobility lost due to amputations; however, their use requires intensive training. Serious games through multi-touch devices can serve as a complement to the activities carried out during face-to-face sessions with occupational therapists and physiotherapists, as a useful resource to engage patients, especially children, and make them enjoy training. In this paper, we describe our work to support the training of myoelectric prostheses through digital serious games. Firstly, we studied the needs of children with myoelectric prostheses and the way they perform rehabilitation. Secondly, we designed specific games to support training accordingly. Thirdly, we developed a system able to generate variations of these games dynamically, adapting the elements at each round to the needs and progress of each child. The interfaces are simple, friendly, and based on tablets to favor autonomy. Finally, we assessed the potential of the use of these games for rehabilitation. Specialists in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Medicine and Special Education collaborated as experts; they agreed that SilverTouch is good for myoelectric prosthetic training and confirmed its potential to be widely used in this context.
Age Differences in Overall Functioning, Gambling-Related Symptoms, and Comorbid Conditions Among Gamblers

Results: Older adults were less likely to qualify for a DSM-5 disordered gambling diagnosis, had lower physical functioning, less help-seeking behavior, lower prevalence of comorbid psychiatric conditions, and were more likely to play a single game (versus multiple games) within a casino (versus outside of a casino) compared to other age groups. The three age groups also differed in terms of the DSM-5 gambling criteria endorsed. Age also moderated the influence of one indicator of quality of life and gambling severity: lower social functioning was associated with increased gambling severity to a greater extent in younger and middle-aged adults than in older adults.
Study on the Effect of Rock Strength on the Macro-Meso Shear Behaviors of Artificial Rock Joints

Understanding the shear properties of joints of rock masses is of great importance for engineering disaster prevention and control. In this paper, a systematic study of the macroscopic shear properties of joints of rock masses with different strengths is carried out using a combination of indoor tests and PFC2D numerical simulations. The results show that (i) the shear stress curve of low-strength rock joints is strain-softening type, while high-strength rock joints are strain-hardening type, and high-strength rock joints are more sensitive to the change of roughness. (ii) With the increase of JRC, the damage mode of different strength rock joints gradually changes from “abrasion” to “abrasion + gnawing,” and the damage characteristics of the surface of high-strength rock joints are more significant. (iii) The contact force between particles is mainly concentrated on the joints. At the beginning of shear, the contact force is mainly distributed on the second-order roughness and gradually concentrated on the first-order roughness as the shear progresses. Compared with the low-strength rock joints, the contact force on the high-strength rock joints is larger and more widely distributed. (iv) Due to the change of contact force, the cracks keep expanding and the particle rotation arc keeps changing. The particles with larger rotational arcs are consistent with the location of crack distribution, and the cumulative number of cracks on the joints of high-strength rock is higher. (v) The total input energy and dissipation energy increase continuously with the shear, and the elastic energy tends to increase at the beginning of shear and then starts to decrease and gradually tends to be constant near the peak of shear stress. The total input energy and dissipation energy of the joints of the high-strength rock are larger, while the peak elastic energy of it is smaller.
Economic performance of product and process firms

This dissertation refines the understanding of economic performance of firms, using data and practical insights from the automotive supplier industry. Firms in this industry are characterized as either product or process firms, reflecting the importance of technological capabilities in manufacturing industries. Specialized capabilities in product markets define product firms, whereas capabilities in materials processing and manufacturing technologies define process firms. A measure of technological coherence is introduced, which expresses the relatedness of capabilities of a firm. The measure is based on a concentration index and a hierarchical classification of products and processes in the automotive supplier industry. Using this measure of coherence, analysis shows that firms with stronger coherence are able to better exploit corporate synergies and therefore achieve superior economic performance. That is, firms focusing on a specialized and related set of capabilities are able to outperform less coherent firms. Analysis further reveals a significant difference in performance between product and process firms. Product firms in the automotive supplier industry exhibit negative returns to scale, whereas process firms exhibit positive returns to scale. These differences are attributed to the underlying corporate logic of product and process firms, supported with studies of value creation in corporate acquisitions and interviews with corporate executives. The findings have implications for strategic choices of firms, such as choosing between product and process focus, and choosing between focus and diversification. The dissertation contributes to strategic management theory with a framework of product and process firms that is based on a technological view of the firm, and with a measure of technological coherence that facilitates empirical research of corporate coherence. Thesis Supervisor: John B. Heywood Title: Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Use of Gallbladder Width Measurement by Computed Tomography in the Diagnosis of Acute Cholecystitis

This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of gallbladder width measurement with computed tomography (CT) in patients with acute cholecystitis. This retrospective case–control study was conducted between March 2016 and March 2020 at a tertiary emergency department. Of 310 patients, 254 patients with acute cholecystitis confirmed by surgery were compared with 254 patients diagnosed with other diseases (controls). In the acute cholecystitis group, the number of older patients with underlying illnesses was much higher (64% of men). Upon CT, the median (interquartile range [IQR]) gallbladder width was significantly longer in patients with acute cholecystitis (2.26 [1.82–2.78] cm vs. 3.73 [3.32–4.16] cm, p < 0.001). The optimal cut-off value of gallbladder width for differentiating acute cholecystitis was 3.12 cm, showing a sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 86%. In a multivariable analysis using a logistic regression model for diagnosing acute cholecystitis with CT findings (gallbladder width, length, stone, wall thickening, and pericholecystic fluid), a gallbladder width of ≥3.12 cm was significantly meaningful, even when adjusting for other variables (odds ratio 37.9; p < 0.001). Therefore, an increase in gallbladder width (≥3.12 cm) measured with CT can be a simple and sensitive diagnostic sign of acute cholecystitis, supporting the underlying pathophysiology of bile outflow obstruction.
New Generation Gepants: Migraine Acute and Preventive Medications

Migraine is a debilitating disease whose clinical and social impact is out of debate. Tolerability issues, interactions, contraindications, and inefficacy of the available medications make new options necessary. The calcitonin-gene-related peptide (CGRP) pathway has shown its importance in migraine pathophysiology and specific medications targeting this have become available. The first-generation CGRP receptor antagonists or gepants, have undergone clinical trials but their development was stopped because of hepatotoxicity. The new generation of gepants, however, are efficacious, safe, and well tolerated as per recent clinical trials. This led to the FDA-approval of rimegepant, ubrogepant, and atogepant. The clinical trials of the available gepants and some of the newer CGRP-antagonists are reviewed in this article.
Design of a C-Band High-Efficiency Doherty Power Amplifier With Harmonic Control

A design methodology of a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band high-efficiency Doherty power amplifier (DPA) with harmonic control is presented in this letter. The equivalent parasitic network (EPN) of the packaged device is constructed by a deembedding technique. The phase delay caused by the transistor parasitics is calculated using the scattering matrix of the EPN. Besides, the influence of the phase delay on DPA design is analyzed. To improve the efficiency at output back-off (OBO) power level, postmatching network (PMN) is used to control the second harmonic. A high-efficiency DPA working over 6.4–7.1 GHz is implemented, fabricated, and measured. The DPA delivers a saturation output power (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\text {sat}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of 39.6–41.6 dBm. Meanwhile, the drain efficiencies in the interested frequency band are 45.1%–53.2% and 34.5%–43.1% at the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\text {sat}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 6-dB OBO power levels, respectively.
The Factors That Affect Turnover Intention According to Clinical Experience: A Focus on Organizational Justice and Nursing Core Competency

The purpose of this study was to investigate organizational justice and nursing core competency as factors that affect turnover intention among nurses. The participants comprised 153 nurses who worked at tertiary hospitals and general hospitals throughout South Korea. Turnover intention was measured using the Nurse Turnover Intention Scale. Organizational justice was measured using the Justice Scale, and nursing core competency was measured using the Korean Nursing Core Competency Scale. Data were collected via an online survey and analyzed using multiple regression. Among nurses with less than 3 years of clinical experience, a lower distributive justice score (β = −0.47, p < 0.001) was associated with high turnover intention. Among nurses with 3 to 6 years of clinical experience, a lower interactional justice score (β = −0.37, p = 0.042) and high nursing core competency (β = 0.31, p = 0.034) were associated with high turnover intention. The type of organizational justice that influenced turnover intention differed depending on clinical experience. These results highlight the need to understand the professional characteristics of nurses according to their clinical experience and to provide targeted organizational support and effective competency-based human resource management.