Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores: Evidence from US States

We estimate the impact of district-level schooling mode (in-person versus hybrid or distance learning) on test scores. We combine Spring 2021 state standardized test score data with comprehensive data on schooling in the 2020-21 school year across 12 states. We find that pass rates declined compared to prior years and that these declines were larger in districts with less in-person instruction. Passing rates in math declined by 14.2 percentage points on average; we estimate this decline was 10.1 percentage points smaller for districts fully in-person. Changes in English language arts scores were smaller, but were significantly larger in districts with larger populations of students who are Black, Hispanic or eligible for free and reduced price lunch.
Reading as a Collaborative Construction: supporting the design of physico-virtual environments

Collaborative reading and hypertext allow readers to have an active role through their points of view and interests in the text. The active interaction in the reading of these texts brings cognitive advantages, since it changes interpretation of its contents. Although we find literature research on this type of reading, we do not find forms of hypertexts created to favor collaborative reading in richer interaction. Thus, this work proposes a framework for the construction of systems with the concept of Collaborative Reading in the Physico-Virtual environment (CRPV). This framework is based on Organizational Semiotics artifacts, the structure of hypertexts and the concept of enaction. In this work, text structures of this model and corresponding multimodal interfaces were created. The CRPV scenarios implement the interactions with contemporary technologies, including augmented reality, seeking to achieve the concept of an enactive and socio-enactive system. One of these scenarios has already been tested and the initial experiment showed engagement and high motivation of participants in the activity. This research has the potential to contribute to the creation of new spaces and reading processes through multimodal interfaces studies, offering highly dynamic interactions in environments that can be built at low cost.
The Linear Interval Method for Determining Habitat Selection of Riparian Wildlife Species

Since this technique (originally developed for river otters) can be used in highly heterogeneous habitats, incorporates both categorical and continuous data, yields a physiugnomic representation of habitat structure, and facilitates the use of multivariate statistics in data analysis, it is inherently superior to those techniques typically employed by wildlife ecologists in studies of habitat selection.
Multi-Objective Scheduling Optimization for Mobile Energy Supplemented Micro-Grid

The 7 International Workshop on Advanced Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Informatics (IWACIII2021) Beijing, China, Oct.31-Nov.3, 2021 1 Abstract. Microgrid scheduling optimization is a complex optimization problem, existing research work is mainly focused on the energy scheduling optimization and the economic benefit scheduling optimization. This paper makes use of mobile charging equipment to provide supplement energy for microgrid with insufficient energy supply, and study the electric load sequence scheduling optimization problem. A multi-objective scheduling optimization model is built by comprehensively considering the benefit from staggered peak energy storage, equipment cost, charging cost and punishment cost caused by delayed charging, and a novel particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed to maximize the economic benefit of the microgrid. Extensive experiments verify the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, and analyze the impacts of different parameters on the economic benefit.
Determinants of Cross Sectional Stock Returns Variation

This is the first part of a two-part study on the factors that influence cross variability in stock returns, with particular attention to the role of macroeconomic fluctuations and idiosyncratic risks. The study covered the listed firms represented in the Phisix for the period 1988-2000 and 1994-2000. The first part of the study focuses on the role of macroeconomic fluctuations as risk factors. It uses a multifactor asset pricing framework that is based on the inherent trade-off between risk and return that has been a basic principle of investment theory since at least Markowitz. Using factor analysis, seven macroeconomic factors are identified as potential sources of significant risks to individual firms. Regression results indicate that fluctuations in all of these macroeconomic factors have significant influence on individual stock returns. An exact formulation of the multifactor asset pricing model, however, fails to price the macroeconomic risk factors. Two possible explanations are offered for the poor results. The first is that lack of market efficiency may result in excess profits that can be gained by arbitrage, violating the major assumption of the exact form of the multifactor model. The second is the presence of large idiosyncratic risks that are not fully diversified away by investors. These do not necessarily invalidate the model but they can lead to large pricing errors such that tests have little power to reject the null hypothesis that factor prices are zero. Furthermore, incomplete arbitrage and lack of diversification also result in significant idiosyncratic risks in investor portfolios . Thus, systematic risks due to macroeconomic factors, while significant, may not by themselves be able to fully explain observed variation in stock returns. The role of idiosyncratic risks, relative to systematic risks, is to be discussed in the second part of the study. * Professor of Accounting and Finance, College of Business Administration, University of the Philippines.
Stage-Gate Process for the Development of Medical Devices

The medical device development process has become increasingly complex in recent years. The advent of new technology concepts, stricter regulatory requirements, and the ever increasing importance of reimbursement decisions for successful device commercialization require careful planning and strategy-setting, coordinated decisions, and consistent, rigorous business processes. The design and implementation of such processes, often captured in development models and accompanying standard operating procedures, have become a key determinant of the success of device commercialization. While various models may exist in the device industry, no comprehensive development model has been published. This paper reviews existing model representations and presents a new comprehensive development model that captures all aspects of device development and commercialization from early-concept selection to postmarket surveillance. This model was constructed based on best-practice analysis and in-depth interviews with more than 80 seasoned experts actively involved in the development, commercialization, and regulation of medical devices. The stage-gate process includes the following five phases: (1) initiation - opportunity and risk analysis, (2) formulation - concept and feasibility, (3) design and development - verification and validation, (4) final validation - product launch preparation, and (5) product launch and postlaunch assessment. The study results suggest that stage-gate processes are the predominant development model used in the medical device industry and that regulatory requirements such as the food and drug adminstration (FDA’s) Quality Systems Regulation play a substantive role in shaping activities and decisions in the process. The results also underline the significant differences between medical device innovation and drug discovery and development, and underscore current challenges associated with the successful development of the increasing number of combination products. DOI: 10.1115/1.3148836"
Decontamination of Ceratocystis Pathogens Responsible for Rapid ʻ

Rapid ʻ ohiʻa death (ROD) is caused by two recently described species of Ceratocystis, C. lukuohia and C. huliohia. These fungi are decimating ʻ ohiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha), the keystone native tree species of Hawaiʻi. Viable Ceratocystis propagules can persist in ambrosia beetle frass (Coleoptera: Scolytinae), and movement of the frass may play a key role in the spread of the disease. In order to prevent the spread of ROD, we developed effective and practical surface (e.g., tools and shoes) decontamination methods to be used by researchers, managers, and the public alike. We first tested different household and laboratory disinfectants on the Ceratocystis fungi in culture, and then we applied the effective culture disinfectants to contaminated ambrosia beetle frass. Laboratory-grade ethanol (70, 80, and 95%), Clorox bleach (10%, 0.825% active ingredient [a.i.]), and isopropanol (70 and 91%), were all equally effective at decontaminating cultured C. lukuohia and C. huliohia. Although all concentrations of isopropanol (50, 70, and 90%) and ethanol (50, 70, and 90%) were effective disinfectants of Ceratocystis-contaminated frass, treatments of frass with up to 20% Clorox bleach (1.2% a.i.) were not completely adequate at killing the fungus. These data reveal that bleach is not a sufficient ROD disinfectant when frass is present, and isopropanol or ethanol are the more reliable options.
Designing a familiar technology for elderly people

— Older adults have a difficult relationship with technology mostly because hardware and software have not been designed to suit them. For a large part of the old population, technology is unfamiliar and “alien” and even when elderly people perceive the potential of technology, they consider the investment of personal resources needed to use a new artefact as too high. The language spoken by technology is unfamiliar to elderly people because it depends on a series of elements that are out of their culture. In the present paper we propose a design approach based on familiarity, investigating how to translate technology language into a language familiar to those individuals grown up before the technological revolution.
Impact of Covid 19 on Perceived Stress and Social Support during Lockdown

Background: Perceived stress is the feelings or thoughts that an individual has about how much stress they are under at a given point in time or over a given time period. Social support represents the amount of support that a person perceives and reports receive it. Social support is a phenomenon that involves interactions of people so that when a person offers social interaction, it has an important role in his health. The present study explores the relationship between perceived stress and social support during Covid 19 lockdown and its relationship with demographic variables such as age, gender, education qualifications and employment status. Methodology: The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was completed by 120 samples 70 males and 50 females aged between 18 to 79 years. Descriptive, correlation, and t-test was used for data analysis. Results: The mean scores of perceived stress and social support was 17.53 and 5.39 respectively. The r value of -. 406 obtained for perceived social support with perceived stress was found to be significant. This indicate a moderate levels of perceived stress and perceived social support among the respondents. The p value of 0.04 and 0.006 for perceived stress indicate a significant influence of age and gender. For educational qualifications, a p value of 0.478 and 0.7436 was obtained for perceived stress and social support. A p value for perceived was 0.001 and for perceived social support p value obtained was 0.00, for the variable of employment status. Conclusion: There was a significant negative relationship between perceived stress and perceived social support. Age and gender significantly affected the perceived stress experienced by the respondents during the lockdown period. Education made no difference to perceived stress and perceived social support. Employment status however affected both perceived stress and perceived social support.
A Variable-Small-ﬁlter-size Residue-learning Dense CNN for Reconstruction of HEVC Video Frames

The in-loop ﬁlter module of High Efﬁciency Video Coding (HEVC) standard improves the reconstruction quality of compressed video frames, but it also brings bitrate increasing. In this paper, we aim to replace the existing in-loop ﬁlter module of HEVC with convolutional neural network (CNN) to facilitate HEVC intra coding performance on both visual quality and bitrate. First, two consecutive 3 × 3 convolutional layers are adopted instead of original 5 × 5 convolutional layer in Variable-ﬁlter-size Residue-learning CNN(VRCNN) to increase the nonlinearity and expression ability, then we incrementally utilize dense connection to boost unimpeded information ﬂow among three blocks. Finally, the proposed reconstruction network called Variable-Small-ﬁlter-size Residue-learning Dense CNN (VSRDCNN) is obtained. The dataset is gotten by HEVC compression which turns off the in-loop ﬁlter module with four quantization parameters ( QPs ). In a progressive way, the weights of VSRDCNN on the highest QP 37 are obtained by training and are used as initial weights for VSRDCNN on the other three QPs . At last, the trained CNNs are used to replace the in-loop ﬁlter in HEVC to get better restoration performance. The proposed VS-RDCNN is validated both subjectively and objectively via extensive experiments on HEVC standard test sequences. Experimental results show that the proposed VSRDCNN outperforms HEVC 0.30 dB on BDpsnr and 0.51% reduction on BDrate , and achieves the lowest BDrate compared with the state-of-the-art work.
Compact CPW-fed rotated square-shaped patch slot antenna with band-notched function for UWB applications

A novel coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed slot antenna with bandstop characteristics is presented for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. The proposed antenna consists of a rotated square-shaped patch and a 50Ω CPW feed line. By embedding an inverted V-shaped slot with folded ends, the band rejection property is achieved. Also, etching two slots on the ground plane leads to an improvement in impedance bandwidth. The proposed antenna covers the frequency range of 3.04–20.22 GHz for VSWR < 2, and rejects 5–6 GHz. The total size of the antenna is 20 × 18 × 1.6mm3, which is smaller than many of the designed slot antennas and covers wider bandwidth. For the fabricated antenna, an omnidirectional pattern is observed over the whole UWB frequency range.
MANAGEMENT OF NEW MEXICO’S RIPARIAN AREAS

Terrell T. “Red” Baker is an Assistant Professor and Extension Riparian Management Specialist with the Cooperative Extension Service and Range Improvement Task Force at NMSU. Red is responsible for Cooperative Extension Service programmatic efforts related to riparian ecology and management, with an emphasis on livestock management in riparian habitats. He also maintains a significant research appointment through which he conducts research designed to eliminate gaps in understanding related to livestock management in southwestern riparian areas. Red received a Ph.D. in forest biology from Auburn University in August 1998, an M.S. in forest resources from Clemson University in 1994, and a B.A. in economics with a concentration in natural resources from the University of the South in 1989.
Genetic diversity analysis revealed possible long migration of Black sharkminnow (Labeo chrysophekadion) along the Mekong River

This study evaluated levels of genetic diversity of L. chrysophekadion, one of the important migratory cyprinid species in the Mekong River using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Fish samples were collected from four populations comprising three populations in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam (An Giang, Can Tho and Dong Thap provinces) and one population in Lao PDR. Seven ISSR primers were selected to analyze 90 individuals (19-24 individuals/ population), yielding 275 bands (sizes from 400 bp to 2,900 bp). Results showed that four populations of L. chrysophekadion had high levels of genetic diversity with the percentage of polymorphic loci from 81.7–85.9%, expected heterozygosity 0.276–0.306, number of effective alleles 1.47–1.54, and Shannon index 0.415–0.451. Four populations in Laos and Viet Nam had low genetic differentiation (Nei’s genetic distance range: 0.016 – 0.022), suggesting a long migratory distance, approximately 1,200 km, of this species.
Integrated high-speed DFB light source and narrow-bandwidth RCE photodetector for WDM fiber communication network application

Electroabsorption (EA) modulator integrated with partially gain coupling distributed feedback (DFB) lasers have been fabricated and shown high single mode yield and wavelength stability. The small signal bandwidth is about 7.5 GHz. Strained Si1-xGex/Si multiple quantum well (MQW) resonant-cavity enhanced (RCE) photodetectors with SiO2/Si distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) as the mirrors have been fabricated and shown a clear narrow bandwidth response. The external quantum efficiency at 1.3 micrometer is measured to be about 3.5% under reverse bias of 16 V. A novel GaInNAs/GaAs MQW RCE p-i-n photodetector with high reflectance GaAs/AlAs DBR mirrors has also been demonstrated and shown the selectively detecting function with the FWHM of peak response of 12 nm.
Political trust and support in diverse democracies

While political support is shown to be lower among ethnic minorities, it is unclear whether this due to psychological “sore loser” effects or lacking representation. This paper examines the link with World Value Survey data in 49 countries over four waves. We use an original operationalization of ethnic group status by combining WVS data with information from the Ethnic Power Relations dataset, which codes ethnic groups worldwide with regard to their political relevance and status. Preliminary multilevel analyses suggest that the ethnic gap in political attitudes remains even when controlling for political affiliation but that it is stronger for trust and perceptions of electoral integrity than for satisfaction with democracy. Introduction Attitudinal research on political trusts and support consistently shows that electoral losers are less satisfied with the way democracy works in their country than electoral winners, and that the effect is stronger if respondents lose repeatedly. Marginalized ethnic groups are, by their very definition, consistently “losing” the electoral contest – either because they are in the minority or because they are excluded from participation – which is expected to undermine their political trust and support for the political system. In the absence of a voice in the process, they may turn to exit the democratic political realm. But while the political science literature has often warned of such dire consequences, we lack reliable evidence of the link between ethnic group membership and attitudinal outcomes like political trust and support. This paper makes two contributions towards filling this gap: it directly examines the link with large-scale survey data, and in doing so proposes a novel operationalization of ethnic group membership that takes political relevance into account. We test the “ethnic loser” hypothesis in an analysis of ethnic power relations and individual attitudes in 49 countries over the four latest waves of the World Values Survey (WVS), conducted between 1995 and 2014. In contrast to many other large-scale survey efforts, the WVS includes a variety of democracies in different world regions, covering, for example, Australia, Canada, and Spain but also Ecuador, Ghana, and the Philippines. We examine three dependent variables to capture the nuances of political support: first, respondents’ confidence in political institutions, in particular in parliaments and governments, as well as, second, their satisfaction with the way democracy works in their country. Third, we also make use of a new battery of items on perceptions of electoral integrity asked in a
Total Phenolic Content, Antioxidant, and Sunscreen Activities of Daemonorops draco Resin Extracts from Extraction at Various Ethanol Concentrations and Resin-Solvent Ratio

This research aimed to determine the yield, total phenolic content (TPC), in vitro sunscreen (SPF), and antioxidant activities (AA) of Damonorops draco resin (DDR). The DDR was macerated with ethanol at various concentration (EC) namely 100% (E100), 90% (E90), 80% (E80), and 70% (E70) and the DDR:solvent ratio (D:S) were 1:5, 1:10, and 1:15. This research showed that the interaction between the EC and D:S affected AA, SPF, and TPC of DDR extract (DDRE), but it didn’t affect the DDRE yield. The DDR extraction with E70, E100, and D:S of 1:15 produced the highest DDRE yield. The extraction with E70 and three different D:S produced DDRE with the highest TPC. The highest AA of DDRE was obtained from extraction with E80 and D:S 1:10 (E80-10), E70-15, and E90-5 respectively. The highest SPF of DDRE was obtained from the extraction with E90-15, E70-15, E90-5, and E70-10, respectively. The extraction with E70 and D:S of 1:15 is the best extraction condition because it produces DDRE with a yield of 17.4±3.9%-20.71±1.6%; TPC of 263.93±5.25 mg GAE/g DDRS; AA with an IC value of 78.3±0.3 ppm, and sunscreen with an SPF value of 33.1±0.0.
Identification of argumentative sentences in Russian scientific and popular science texts

In this study we analyze the applicability of specific machine learning algorithms to the task of detecting sentences containing argumentation in Russian text. We employ a collection of scientific and popular science texts with manually annotated argumentation to evaluate the quality of identifying argumentative sentences in terms of precision, recall, and F-measure. The experiment involves three algorithms: MNB, SVM, and MLP. The bag of words model is used for representing texts. Lemmas of words in analyzed sentences serve as features for the classification. We perform the automatic selection of informative features in accordance with Variance and χ2 criteria combined with the weight-based filtration of lemmas (via TF*IDF and EMI). The training set includes around 800 sentences, while the test set contains 180. The MNB algorithm demonstrates the highest F-measure and recall scores on almost all feature sets (maximal values reached equal 68.7% and 89% respectively), while the MLP algorithm shows the best precision for about half of feature selection variations (the maximal value is 72.5%).
Multijunction thermal converters by commerical CMOS fabrication

New multijunction thermal converters (MJTCs) fabricated in a commerical CMOS foundry are described. The MJTC is a cantilever structure with a suspended, resistance heating element and thermocouple hot junctions located near the heater on the cantilever. The pit etched below is 150 /spl times/ 150 /spl mu/m in size. The heater structure is composed of a polysilicon resistor and the thermocouples are made of aluminum-polysilicon. The results of measurements of their AC-DC transfer characteristics are given. <<ETX>>