Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding Growth-at-Risk: A Markov Switching Approach

We show that a Markov-switching model with endogenous transition probabilities can replicate a common finding in the Growth-at-Risk literature, that is that the (conditional) mean and volatility of future growth are negatively correlated. The model also provides an intuitive interpretation of macroeconomic risk: (endogenous) regime uncertainty generates tail risk. The higher the regime uncertainty, the starker are the differences in the growth outlook between a normal and a bad state of the economy. The model is a new tool to assess the risk of tail events, such as recessions, and to evaluate the likelihood of point forecasts. We also propose real-time measures of financial conditions and economic activity for the United States and use these measures to construct conditional quantiles and predictive distributions of average GDP growth over the next 12 months. We find that periods of high macroeconomic and financial distress, such as the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, are associated with low average future growth, high uncertainty, and risks tilted to the downside.
ruBTS: Russian Sentence Simplification Using Back-translation

Automatic text simpliﬁcation is a crucial task enabling to reduce text complexity while preserving meaning. This paper presents our solution to the Russian Sentence Simpliﬁcation Shared Task (RSSE) based on a back-translation technique. We show that applying the simple back-translation approach for sentence simpliﬁcation can give competitive results with the other methods without ﬁne-tuning or training.
Effects of soil amendments on pH and aggregate stability of saline sodic soil and acid sulfate soil in Mekong delta, Viet Nam

Acid sulfate soils and salt-affected soils are widely distributed in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam. As well as the improvement of chemical properties, it is essential to minimize soil structural degradation. However, relatively little research has been conducted on behaviors of aggregates in the Mekong Delta. In the present study, saline and sodic soil (SS), alluvial soil (AS), and acid sulfate soil (ASS) were collected from the Mekong Delta. First, aggregate stability tests were conducted on them. Base on the aggregate stability test, dry clods of 2–5 mm in size under fast wetting process were used to evaluate aggregate stability of the soils after incubation with soil amendments. Chicken manure was used as a compost and eggshell-CaCO3 was an alternative for lime. Soil and amendments were mixed and incubated in a glass bottle for 45 days at a constant temperature of 25 ◦C. During the incubation, CO2 concentration in the headspace of the glass bottle was periodically measured. After incubation, soil pH and aggregate stability were evaluated. Mean weight diameter (MWD) was used to evaluate aggregate stability. Eggshell application increased the pH of all three soils. Compost raised the pH of SS and AS but it was less effective at raising pH of ASS. The combination of compost and eggshell was the most effective at increasing soil pH. Rapid increases in CO2 emission rate after eggshell application suggested that the CaCO3 rapidly reacted with the H+ in the soils. Correlations between soil pH and CO2 emission suggested that microbial activity increased with increasing in soil pH. Eggshell application alone destabilized soil aggregates, whereas the compost and the compost-eggshell combination improved aggregate stability.
RuShiftEval: a shared task on semantic shift detection for Russian

We present the ﬁrst shared task on diachronic word meaning change detection for the Russian. The participating systems were provided with three sub-corpora of the Russian National Corpus — corresponding to pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet periods respectively — and a set of approximately one hundred Russian nouns. The task was to rank those nouns according to the degrees of their meaning change between periods. Although RuShiftEval is in many respects similar to the previous tasks organized for other languages
Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon Sensors to Document Handheld Magnifier Use at Home by People with Low Vision

We explored the feasibility of using Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon sensors to determine when individuals with low vision (LV) use handheld magnifiers at home. Knowing the frequency and duration of magnifier use would be helpful to document increased magnifier use after successful rehabilitation training, or conversely, to know when someone has abandoned a magnifier and requires assistance. Estimote Sticker BLE beacon sensors were attached to the handles of optical handheld magnifiers and dispensed to eight LV subjects to use at home. Temperature and motion data from the BLE beacon sensors were collected every second by a custom mobile application on a nearby smartphone and transmitted to a secure database server. Subjects noted the date and start/end times of their magnifier use in a diary log. Each of the 99 diary-logged self-reports of magnifier use across subjects was associated with BLE beacon sensor recordings of motion (mean 407 instances; SD 365) and increased temperature (mean 0.20 °C per minute; SD 0.16 °C) (mean total magnitude 5.4 °C; SD 2.6 °C). Diary-logged duration of magnifier use (mean 42 min; SD 24) was significantly correlated with instances of motion (p < 0.001) and rate of temperature increase (p < 0.001) recorded by the BLE beacon sensors. The BLE beacon sensors reliably detected meaningfully increased temperature, coupled with numerous instances of motion, when magnifiers were used for typical reading tasks at home by people with LV.
Resident connection to nature and attitudes towards tourism: findings from three different rural nature tourism destinations in Poland

Abstract Despite the growing literature arguing for the consideration of community perspectives in tourism destination governance, little is understood about how residents' connection to nature affects their perceptions of and responses to tourism. This is especially relevant for rural areas rich in nature as many of them have become refugees for urban dwellers seeking recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study combines the Nature's Contributions to People framework and Weber's Theory of Formal and Substantive Rationality to shed light on how rural residents of three nature-based tourism destinations connect with nature and how this connection to nature affects perceptions of empowerment from tourism and ultimately support for tourism. Results provide credence to the importance of including measures of residents' connections to nature when examining attitudes towards tourism in nature areas with connections to nature having significant and positive influences on psychological empowerment and social empowerment at all three destinations and direct and positive effects on support for tourism across two of the three destinations. Furthermore, results suggest that understanding the role nature connection plays in how residents perceive changes within their community can help manage locally emerging conflicts within rural tourism-dependent communities.
A Comprehensive Study on LPWANs With a Focus on the Potential of LoRa/LoRaWAN Systems

The Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem emerges rapidly and paves the way towards collecting huge amounts of data that can feed innovative information-based systems. The connectivity infrastructure that will support the IoT ecosystem encompasses deployments that define the so-called Low-Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs). LPWANs are an attractive solution for IoT service provisioning, since they incorporate energy-efficient and cost-effective technologies. In this context, a comprehensive study is provided to assist in the currently increasing research and development interest on LPWANs. First, recent cloud-based and open-source approaches for data management are discussed, while the major key wireless technologies for network access are presented. Second, the potential of Long Range (LoRa) modulation and Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) protocol, as key LPWAN wireless technologies in unlicensed spectrum bands, is further analyzed. The fundamental principles of these technologies are presented, and a thorough study on the relevant research activities is conducted.
Control Chaos of a Unidirectionally Traffic Coupled Map Lattice Model

Spatiotemporal chaos is studied by using the unidirectional traffic coupled lattice model with hyperbolic tangent local map. The coupled map lattice (CML) model can simulate the complex traffic flow phenomenon which is similar to the traditional traffic flow model. The nonlinear feedback method is used to study the control of the chaotic system of the unidirectionally traffic coupled map lattice model. The stability of spatiotemporal chaos in the coupled map lattice is realized. The results of numerical simulation show that there is a relationship between control results and control parameters when controlling spatiotemporal chaos to a uniform stable state in a certain phase space compression parameter region.
Exploring the Knowledge and Perceptions of Local Communities on Illegal Hunting: Long-Term Trends in a West African Protected Area

Local communities in rural areas are dependent on hunting for their livelihoods and rely on their knowledge to understand wildlife ecology. Their knowledge and perceptions may be vital for forming effective and sustainable management plans related to wildlife conservation. We aimed to examine perceptions of local people living inside (n = 153 households) and outside (n = 178 households) the Kogyae Strict Nature Reserve (KSNR, Ghana) regarding bushmeat prevalence and long-term trends in illegal hunting, and to explore people’s knowledge about hunting tools, species, and reasons to hunt illegally. Perceptions of bushmeat sightings and illegal hunting trends were influenced by living inside or outside the protected area, gender, and residence time. Residents living inside the reserve perceived bushmeat and hunting as frequently present in their environment mainly due to frequent sightings of bushmeat and other wildlife products, while people living adjacent to the KSNR were more knowledgeable about the decrease in illegal hunting trends, probably because of awareness about penalties and biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, the perceptions of most residents about the decrease in hunting over time were validated by long-term KSNR law enforcement data. The perception in local communities that snares were the commonest form of hunting equipment used was also consistent with the ranger-based monitoring data. The need for money, bushmeat, unemployment, and retaliatory killings were the main drivers for illegal hunting. Our findings indicated that local people’s knowledge can have a valid relevance in protected area management and may assist in developing effective conservation strategies and in overall improvement of local socio-ecological systems.
MORPH: Enhancing System Security through Interactive Customization of Application and Communication Protocol Features

The ongoing expansion and addition of new features in software development bring inefficiency and vulnerabilities into programs, resulting in an increased attack surface with higher possibility of exploitation. Creating customized software systems that contain just-enough features and yet satisfy specific user needs is currently an extremely slow, build-to-order process. In this paper, we propose MORPH, an Interactive Program Feature Customization framework to provide broad capabilities for automated program feature identification and feature customization. Our preliminary results show that MORPH can identify program features at an average accuracy of 92.7% and swiftly generate variations of self-contained, customized programs in an unsupervised fashion.
Preparation of W/O Hypaphorine–Chitosan Nanoparticles and Its Application on Promoting Chronic Wound Healing via Alleviating Inflammation Block

Chronic wound repair is a common complication in patients with diabetes mellitus, which causes a heavy burden on social medical resources and the economy. Hypaphorine (HYP) has good anti-inflammatory effect, and chitosan (CS) is used in the treatment of wounds because of its good antibacterial effect. The purpose of this research was to investigate the role and mechanism of HYP-nano-microspheres in the treatment of wounds for diabetic rats. The morphology of HYP-NPS was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). RAW 264.7 macrophages were used to assess the bio-compatibility of HYP-NPS. A full-thickness dermal wound in a diabetic rat model was performed to evaluate the wound healing function of HYP-NPS. The results revealed that HYP-NPS nanoparticles were spherical with an average diameter of approximately 50 nm. The cell experiments hinted that HYP-NPS had the potential as a trauma material. The wound test in diabetic rats indicated that HYP-NPS fostered the healing of chronic wounds. The mechanism was through down-regulating the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α in the skin of the wound, and accelerating the transition of chronic wound from inflammation to tissue regeneration. These results indicate that HYP-NPS has a good application prospect in the treatment of chronic wounds.
Men-only support spaces in early years education: a step towards a gender diverse or a gender divided workforce?

ABSTRACT Currently, 3% of the early year's education workforce is male, a figure that has remained stubbornly resistant to change over the last four decades. Research has shown that support is key to increasing the number of male employees in this sector. In recent years, there has been an increase in the demand for male-only support activities, such as men-only training courses, or support groups. Whilst these methods are popular in order to establish gender-diverse workforces, an inherent danger is that single-sex support can exacerbate binary thinking and entrench gender differences. This paper explores the role of single-sex support in gender diversifying the early year's workforce and asks when, and for whom, such spaces may be effective or valuable. The discussion is based on data collected during the GenderEYE project, which aimed to look at strategies for, and understandings about, the recruitment and support of male early childhood education professionals.
Phytoindication assessment of the effect of reconstruction on the light regime of an urban park

The ecological restoration of urban parks is used to increase their recreational attractiveness, improve air quality, mitigate urban heat island effects, improve stormwater infiltration, and provide other social and environmental benefits. The dynamics of plant communities after urban forest restoration requires investigation. The study assessed the impact of urban park reconstruction on the state of grass cover, phytoindication of changes in light regime caused by park reconstruction and found out the dependence of reliability of phytoindication assessment on the number of species in the relevant area. The study was conducted in the recreational area of the Botanical Garden of the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University (Ukraine). A tree plantation was created after the Second World War in the location of a natural oak forest. In 2019, a 2.8 ha area of the park was reconstructed. The samples were taken within polygons, two of which were placed in the reconstruction area and two of which were placed in a similar section of the park where no reconstruction was performed. During the reconstruction process, walkways were rebuilt, shrubs were removed, old, damaged trees were removed, and tree crowns were trimmed. Juvenile trees were planted in place of the removed old trees. Old outbuildings, which greatly impaired the aesthetic perception of the park, were also removed. Transport and construction machinery was involved in the reconstruction. A total of 65 plant species were found within the studied polygons. The number of herbaceous species in the park area after reconstruction was higher than without reconstruction. The crown closure in the reconstructed area was significantly lower than that in the untreated conditions. The phytoindication assessment showed that the light regime varies from the conditions suitable for the scyophytes (plants of typical foliage forests) to the conditions suitable for the sub-heliophytes (plants of light forests and shrubberies, or high herbaceous communities; lower layers are in the shade). The light regime in the park area after reconstruction was statistically significantly different from the regime in the untreated park area. The lighting regime after the reconstruction was favourable to sub-heliophytes, and without reconstruction the regime favoured hemi-scyophytes. Tree canopy crown closure negatively correlated with grass height and herbaceous layer projective cover. The tree canopy crown closure, grass height, and herbaceous layer projective cover were able to explain 86% of the phytoindication assessment of the lighting regime variation. These parameters negatively affected the light regime. The prospect of further research is to investigate the dependence of indicative reliability of the assessment of other environmental factors with the help of phytoindication depending on the number of species. In addition to the indication of traditional ecological factors it is of particular interest to clarify the aspect of the dynamics of hemeroby indicators as a result of park reconstruction.
Focusing Fluids in Faults: Evidence From Stable Isotopic Studies of Dated Clay‐Rich Fault Gouge of the Alberta Rockies

Isotopic studies of Canadian Rocky Mountain thrust faults preserve the timing and identity of orogenic fluids and their fault zone pathways. Using previously dated samples, we measure the O‐ and H‐isotopic compositions of fault gouge. These nearly 100% neomineralized gouges and their associated damage zones act as primary orogenic fluid pathways. As such, they provide a specific and local look into the nature of the Late Jurassic to Early Eocene orogenic plumbing system in the Alberta Rockies. Considering clay polytype stability and regional temperature conditions, we obtain a range of geofluid isotopic compositions during Jurassic‐Eocene thrust faulting: δ18Ofluid ranged from ∼−3.3 to 9.2 ± 3.2‰; δDfluid ranged from −119 to −46 ± 13‰ VSMOW. The range of O‐ and H‐isotopic compositions reflects mixing of fluid sources, including the pervasive presence of surface‐sourced fluids (up to ∼90%). The interpreted prevalence of a surface fluid source in fault rocks is in agreement with regional isotopic trends previously observed in undated veins of fractured host rock. Our results confirm that thrust faults of the Alberta Rocky Mountains acted as major fluid‐focusing conduits during orogenic activity. We further show that these faults incorporated both deeply sourced and surface‐sourced fluids into zones of enhanced and dynamic permeability, heterogeneously distributing fluids along fault planes across the fold‐thrust belt, promoting the growth of fault‐zone weakening clay minerals.
An Architecture Design of Auto Channel Switching Unit for Hybrid Visible Light Communication System

The revolution in multimedia devices has promoted indoor wireless communication in the last decades. Wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) connections have expanded rapidly, and more than 5 billion devices have been connected to Wi-Fi each day since 2013, which causes system overloading. This bountiful usage of wireless devices has consumed an excessive amount of the radio spectrum, and the current standard for wireless communication is not able to provide enough capacity for indoor wireless traffic in the next decade. Wi-Fi currently holds 60% of the global traffic; however, secure communication for the internet of things (IoT) and spectrum congestion are two significant challenges for future communication development. Therefore, an affordable, secure, and fast medium for wireless communication is in urgent demand. It should be noted that the spectrum provided by visible light communication (VLC) can be thousands of times wider than the radio frequency (RF) spectrum. The challenge of spectrum congestion and the urgent demand for a high-speed medium can be solved through the application of visible light for indoor communication. It has been proved that each user can achieve a data rate of hundreds of Mbps in the congestion scenario through the application of VLC. But beside these advantages Li-Fi also have some limitations like unavailability in excess and in low light and also limited coverage due to walls and etc. To overcome these limitations the Wi-Fi and VLC hybrid network can be a good solution to continue using privileges of both technologies. A lot of research has been done to introduce a numerous techniques for such hybrid network but we are proposing Auto channel switching unit in this system which will be responsible for shifting and sharing data traffic on both Li-Fi and Wi-Fi channel.
Academic integrity in first-year nursing students: An intergrative review

Introduction: Studies relating specifically to first-year nursing students’ breaches of academic integrity are not readily identified within the literature. While work has, over the years reported on breaches in academic integrity, it has done so with many disciplines and varied student cohorts. Nevertheless, those that specifically relate to first-year nursing students are sparse. First-year undergraduate nursing students are generally included with the entire student nurse cohort, and not necessarily identified independently. Therefore, the integrative review aimed to discover how or if the incidence of plagiarism/cheating, specifically within first-year undergraduate nursing students, was addressed.Methods: An integrative review of the literature, incorporating quantitative and qualitative literature was undertaken between January 2021 – April 2021 using electronic data bases.Results: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. From the review, six main themes were extrapolated, (1) blurred boundaries of caring; (2) navigating the ethical highway; (3) factors influencing academic misconduct (4) early intervention (5) academic integrity policies and procedures and (6) inconsistencies amongst academics.Conclusions: The integrative review has identified a shortfall in research relating to how academic integrity has been addressed in first-year nursing students.
The effects of socio-scientific STEM activities on 21st century skills of middle school students

Accepted: 03.08. 2021 In this study, the effects of the STEM activities integrated with socioscientific issues on students' 21st century skills were investigated. In this research, nested mixed design was used. The study group of this research consisted of 16 middle school students who studied in the seventh grade of a public school in an eastern province of Turkey. Socio-scientific STEM activities were applied to the study group for 24 weeks in the first and second semesters. Students followed the engineering design stages for STEM activities. In the research, 21st Century Skills Scale, Interview Form, Perception of 21st Century Skills Form, Field Notes, and Informal Interview Notes were used as data collection tools. SPSS was used to analyze the quantitative data of the research, and content and descriptive analysis methods were used to analyze the qualitative data. The study results showed that STEM activities integrated with socio-scientific issues had a positive effect on students' 21st century skills. Also, as a result of the examination of the opinions of the students, it was determined that the application developed the “creativity and innovation” skills of the students the most. Furthermore, students’ social and intercultural entrepreneurship, self-management, leadership and responsibility, critical thinking, problem solving, communication and cooperation, creativity and innovation skills were enhanced/developed at the end of the study.