Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online learners’ interactions and social anxiety: the social anxiety scale for e-learning environments (SASE)

ABSTRACT Social sharing in virtual learning environments differs from real environments, resulting in a need for a specialized data collection tool related to social anxiety in these environments. This study seeks to develop a scale to identify the levels of social anxiety experienced in e-learning. The study group consists of 275 students who have previously experienced an online or a blended learning environment. The data were analyzed through exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, convergent and divergent validity tests. The interpersonal interactions of learners in online environments were considered in developing the tool. Two subscale forms were created to identify the levels of social anxiety in learner-learner interaction and learner-instructor interaction. Each subscale of the Social Anxiety Scale for E-Learning Environments (SASE) consists of 23 items and three subfactors. These sub-factors are called negative evaluation, somatic symptoms and avoidance of interaction. The analyses indicate that the SASE is a reliable and valid measurement tool useful for assessing the social anxiety levels of online learners.
UDK 619:612.017.12 IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL DISTRIBUTION OF NEUROPEPTIDE Y AND NEUROPEPTIDE Y Y1 RECEPTOR IN THE RAT LUMBAR SPINAL CORD

A N terminal sequence of the rat neuropeptide Y (NPY) Y1 receptor was used as a novel antigen to raise polyclonal antisera in rabbits. Immunocytochemical staining was used to compare the distribution of NPY and NPY Y1 receptors in the rat’s lumbal spinal cord. The NPY Y1 receptor antibody stained a narrow band in lamina (L) II of the superficial dorsal horn. The pattern of staining was more widespread being particularly clear in deeper laminae (LIII-IV). By comparison with the localization of the receptor, neuropeptide Y was more widely distributed throughout the dorsal horn. Normally, primary afferent fibres do not contain neuropeptide Y. Several neuropeptide Y receptors have been identified and our results suggest that neuropeptide Y released in the dorsal horn acts as neuropeptide Y receptorss in addition to Y1.
The critical pressures of gas vesicles in Planktorhrix rubescens in relation tothe depth of winter mixing in Lake Zürich, Switzerland

The vertical distribution of the cyanobacterium Planktothrix (Oscillatoria) rubescens in Lake Zurich was investigated from March 1993 to June 1995 by collecting filaments on filters and measuring them by epifluorescence microscopy and computer image analysis. The initial population, which began to stratify in April, decreased by up to 99% by June. During the summer, the population peaked at depths of 8—15 m; it reached a maximum areal filament-volume concentration of -60 cm3 m~2 of lake surface in early September and was then entrained in the deepening surface layer. It became mixed progressively deeper, to the lake bottom in the cold winter of 1993-94, but less completely in the milder winter of 1994-95. Most of the filaments remained viable during the winter. At the end of the mild winter of 1994-5, 70% of filaments in the water column retained buoyancy, but after the cold winter of 1996-7 only 22% were buoyant. Few remained buoyant below 80 m, where the hydrostatic pressure caused gas vesicle collapse. The proportion that remain buoyant decreases with the depth and duration of winter mixing, and increases with the critical collapse pressure (pc) of the gas vesicles, which provide buoyancy. Strains of P.rubescens isolated from Lake Zurich differed in mean pc of their gas vesicles, from 0.9 to 1.1 MPa, the highest values in freshwater cyanobacteria. Allowing for a turgor pressure of 0.2 MPa, these strains would remain buoyant at depths down to 70 and 90 m, respectively. Natural selection for gas vesicles of high pc will operate by increasing the proportion of filaments that remain buoyant in the upper parts of the water column after circulation to various depths during the winter because only buoyant filaments will form the inoculum for the following season.
The Protective Effect of Amino-guanidine, An Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibitor, on Aluminium Sulphate Neuro-toxicity in The Rat (Wistar albino) Cerebellar Purkinje Cells: Stereological Study

Objective: Aluminium (Al) is quite abundant in nature and humans are frequently exposed to Al in daily life. Aluminium salts can exist in different forms and they may have toxic impacts on several tissues including brain. In this study, potential preventive effects of amino-guanidine (AG) (100 mg/kg, i.p.), an inducible nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, on neuron damage to be created by aluminium sulphate (3 mg/kg, i.c.v.) in cerebellar Purkinje cells were determined. Methods: 24 female Wistar albino rats were divided into 4 groups with 6 rats in each: Control (C), Sham (S), Aluminium sulphate ( Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 ), Aluminium sulphate + Amino-guanidine ( Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 +AG). A single aluminium sulphate (3 mg/kg) dose dissolved in 0.9% NaCl was injected intracerebroventricularly to aluminium sulphate and aluminium sulphate + amino-guanidine groups at the beginning of experiments. Following aluminium sulphate injection, amino-guanidine (100 mg/kg) dissolved in distilled water was injected to aluminium sulphate + amino-guanidine group intraperiteonally for 15 days. Nothing was administered to control group, a single dose of 0.9% (3 mg/kg, i.c.v.) sodium chloride (NaCl) was administered to sham group at the beginning of experiments. Cerebellum tissues of the rats were removed 15 days after treatments and they were assessed histopathologically and stereologically. Results: Stereological optic fractionation method revealed cerebellar total number of Purkinje cells as 417615±16238,8 in control group; 378650±20171,6 in Sham group; 272945±15499,5 in Aluminium sulphate group; 324581±16324,8 in Aluminium sulphate + Amino-guanidine group. Conclusion: It was concluded based on present findings that amino-guanidine reduced aluminium induced Purkinje cell loss through nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition.
Managing the collective intelligence of local communities for the sustainable utilisation of estuaries in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that managing the collective intelligence of the community, that is, tacit and explicit knowledge is key to the sustainable utilisation of resources. Studies have shown that sharing knowledge is problematic in most organizations, whether they are formal or informal. In that regard, a study was conducted to determine how knowledge was shared and distributed in an "open" system such as the Tyolomnqa Estuary in the Eastern Cape. Secondary data was gathered from the existing literature, whereas questionnaires, interviews and focus groups were used to collect primary data. The study revealed that knowledge sharing among the communities using the Tyolomnqa Estuary was fragmented. A model to facilitate the sharing of knowledge on the management of estuaries in the Eastern Cape based on communities of practice and storytelling is suggested.
Miniaturization of patch antenna based on hybrid topology optimization

A hybrid topology optimization method that combines the scalar isotropic material with penalization and the level set method is utilized to achieve the miniaturization of patch antennas while maintaining good radiation and polarization characteristics. In order to achieve this goal, the Heaviside projection filter is applied to obtain topologies that are more complex. Both the radiation power and the reflection coefficient of the antenna are utilized as sub‐objectives. Besides, by setting the radiation patch to be symmetrical, not only the numbers of optimization variables and optimization sub‐objectives are reduced, but also the cross‐polarization level is suppressed effectively, so that the optimization is accelerated. The optimized patch antenna achieves good performance in patch size, impedance matching, radiation pattern, gain, and polarization characteristics. Compared with the reference patch antenna, the patch size of the optimized antenna is reduced by 63%, while the maximum realized gain and efficiency remain basically unchanged, achieving more than 5.9 dBi and 90%, respectively. Due to its very small size patch, the antenna is particularly suitable for compact multi‐antenna and antenna array applications.
Chapter 2 The Visual Touch Regime : Real-Time 3 D Image-Guided Robotic Surgery and 4 D and “ 5 D ” Scientific Illustration

Abstract Emerging multidimensional imaging technologies (3D/4D/“5D”) open new ground for exploring visual worlds and rendering new image-based knowledge, especially in areas related to medicine and science. 3D imaging is defined as three visual dimensions. 4D imaging is three visual dimensions plus time. 4D imaging can also be combined with functional transitions (i.e., following radioactive tracer isotope through the body in positron emission tomography). 4D imaging plus functionality is defined as “5D” imaging. We propose the idea of “visual touch”, a conceptual middle ground between touch and vision, as a basis for future explorations of contemporary institutional standards of image-based work. “Visual touch” is both the process of reconciling the senses (human and artificial) and the end result of this union of the senses. We conclude that while new multi-dimensional imaging technology emphasises vision, new forms of image-based work using visual materials cannot solely be classified as “visual”.
Geomicrobial Investigations of Colored Outer Coatings from an Ethiopian Rock Art Gallery

The open rock shelter of Yabelo in Ethiopia hosts diverse Holocene paintings of great cultural importance. The paintings are characterized by the presence of different mineral coatings, whose features have not been studied yet. Our goal was to understand whether different rock samples from the Yabelo paintings collected in close proximity may reveal coatings with different minerology and biology. Thus, elemental analyses combined with microscopic and molecular investigations were performed on two coatings, one whitish (sample 1) and one reddish (sample 2). Although both samples were dominated by heterotrophic bacteria, the two coatings showed distinct mineralogical and microbiological characteristics. Sample 1 contained higher amounts of Ca and P than sample 2, which was likely related to the presence of organic matter. Sample 1 hosted bacterial genera that are potentially involved in biomineralization processes, metal redox cycles and metal resistance. In contrast, sample 2 showed mainly pathogenic and commensal bacteria that are characteristic of animal and human microbiota, and other microorganisms that are involved in nitrogen and metal biogeochemical cycles. Overall, our results indicated that the bacterial communities were particular to the coating mineralogy, suggesting a potential role of the biological components in the crust genesis.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Dynamic Query Modeling for Related Content Finding

While watching television, people increasingly consume additional content related to what they are watching. We consider the task of finding video content related to a live television broadcast for which we leverage the textual stream of subtitles associated with the broadcast. We model this task as a Markov decision process and propose a method that uses reinforcement learning to directly optimize the retrieval effectiveness of queries generated from the stream of subtitles. Our dynamic query modeling approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines for stationary query modeling and for text-based retrieval in a television setting. In particular we find that carefully weighting terms and decaying these weights based on recency significantly improves effectiveness. Moreover, our method is highly efficient and can be used in a live television setting, i.e., in near real time.
Near-Horizon Geodesics for Astrophysical and Idealised Black Holes: Coordinate Velocity and Coordinate Acceleration

Geodesics (by definition) have an intrinsic 4-acceleration zero. However, when expressed in terms of coordinates, the coordinate acceleration d 2 x i / d t 2 can very easily be non-zero, and the coordinate velocity d x i / d t can behave unexpectedly. The situation becomes extremely delicate in the near-horizon limit—for both astrophysical and idealised black holes—where an inappropriate choice of coordinates can quite easily lead to significant confusion. We shall carefully explore the relative merits of horizon-penetrating versus horizon-non-penetrating coordinates, arguing that in the near-horizon limit the coordinate acceleration d 2 x i / d t 2 is best interpreted in terms of horizon-penetrating coordinates.
Testing the Hypothesis of J Curve for Turkish Economy

The purpose of this paper is to find the relationship between balance of foreign trade and real exchange rate in econometrics concept by using time series method. The authors used annual data of foreign trade deficit, real exchange rate, gross domestic product (GDP) of Turkey from 1989 to 2014, and analyzed the long-term relation of them by using ARDL bound testing method. By the result of test method; although there was a long-term relationship between balance of foreign trade, real exchange rate, GDP of Turkey and of the world, the coefficient of real exchange rate was insignificant in terms of statistical methods. Turkey and the world as well as being statistically significant coefficient of GDP, it was concluded that there was significant relationship with the economic aspects.
Synthesis of a Novel Family of Polysilsesquioxanes Having Oligothiophenes with Well-Defined Structures

Our recent results on the synthesis and properties of a novel family of polysilsesquioxanes having oligothiophenes were reviewed. The polymers anchored on SiO2 or ITO substrates showed excellent mechanical hardness due to the formation of a three-dimensional siloxane network structure and chemical linkage between polymer and the surface of metal-oxide substrates. Optical, electrochemical, and electrical properties of polymers were also investigated.
Short communication: Landlab v2.0: a software package for Earth surface dynamics

Abstract. Numerical simulation of the form and characteristics of Earth's surface provides insight into its evolution. Landlab is an open-source Python package that contains modularized elements of numerical models for Earth's surface, thus reducing time required for researchers to create new or reimplement existing models. Landlab contains a gridding engine which represents the model domain as a dual graph of structured quadrilaterals (e.g., raster) or irregular Voronoi polygon–Delaunay triangle mesh (e.g., regular hexagons, radially symmetric meshes, and fully irregular meshes). Landlab also contains components – modular implementations of single physical processes – and a suite of utilities that support numerical methods, input/output, and visualization. This contribution describes package development since version 1.0 and backward-compatibility-breaking changes that necessitate the new major release, version 2.0. Substantial changes include refactoring the grid, improving the component standard interface, dropping Python 2 support, and creating 31 new components – for a total of 58 components in the Landlab package. We describe reasons why many changes were made in order to provide insight for designers of future packages. We conclude by discussing lessons about the dynamics of scientific software development gained from the experience of using, developing, maintaining, and teaching with Landlab.
Construction and validation of the Scale for the Evaluation of the Perception of Counterproductive Behaviors in Organizations (EPCBO)

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale for the perception of counterproductive work behaviors. Employees from four independent samples filled in the questionnaire (total N=390). Two studies were conducted. The first study aimed to item construction and exploratory factor analysis, whereas the second aimed to instrument validation and confirmatory factor analysis. The results confirmed a four factor scale (misuse of information, production deviance, absenteeism and withdrawal, as well as interpersonal counterproductive behavior). The scale has 20 items and can be applied to a wide range of organizations. Implications for managers and future research are also discussed.
Privacy and Security of Data in Cloud using Homomorphic Encryption

Cloud computing is a technology that is growing in popularity as it reduces the investment burden for infrastructure, software, hardware or any kind of resource in an organization. However, one of the biggest issues in implementing cloud remains data security. To ensure security, there are lots of traditional encryption algorithms such as play fair cipher and DES, but these algorithms are only used to encrypt plain text into cipher text in communication. For processing on cloud, it requires to convert cipher text into plain text which can become an easy target for hackers. This issue can be overcome with a popular algorithm, namely, homomorphic encryption. It is a technique which ensures secure transmission and secure processing of data on cloud without compromising privacy. In this paper, we have discussed the concept and significance of homomorphic encryption through examples. By using a case, the RSA algorithm is done and the practical use of partial homomorphic encryption technique is demonstrated. Also, the performance of RSA partial homomorphic encryption algorithm is compared with that of Paillier algorithm in terms of encryption and decryption time.
Low Vision Predicting Visual Acuity From Visual Field Sensitivity in Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Citation: Denniss J, Baggaley HC, Astle AT. Predicting visual acuity from visual field sensitivity in age-related macular degeneration. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2018;59:4590–4597. https:// doi.org/10.1167/iovs.18-24861 PURPOSE. To investigate how well visual field sensitivity predicts visual acuity at the same locations in macular disease, and to assess whether such predictions may be useful for selecting an optimum area for fixation training.
Regulation of the flowering time of Arabidopsis thaliana by thylakoid ascorbate peroxidase

Flowering time of higher plants is precisely controlled by various exogenous and endogenous factors. Recent researches implied that H2O2 is a potential flowering initiation factor. In order to confirm this hypothesis, thylakoid ascorbate peroxidase (tAPX) overexpressing Arabidopsis, the mutant line containing a T-DNA insertion and the wild type have been analyzed in this study, since APX was an important enzyme scavenging H2O2 in plant cells. It was found that during the vegetative growth stage there was no phenotypic difference among the three lines under common conditions, but 3,3’diaminobenzidinetetrahydrochloride (DAB) staining showed that the endogenous H2O2 content varied: the mutant line had the highest content; the wild type took the second place, while the tAPXoverexpressing line had the lowest H2O2 content. This trend was in accordance with the bolting and flowering time during the following reproductive growth stage: the mutant bolted and flowered first, followed by the wild type, and the overexpressing line bolted and flowered last. This correlation confirmed the previous hypothesis that “H2O2 is a possible factor in flowering induction”.
Active control of sound using a parametric array

The parametric array uses two ultrasonic sources to generate an audible sound wave by non-linear interaction. The frequency of the audible sound wave is equal to the difference between the two ultrasonic carrier frequencies. This scattered wave is far more directional than would be generated by a conventional transducer operating at the same frequency. This paper is reports a theoretical study into the use of the parametric array as a secondary source for active noise control. It is shown that a highly directional zone of quiet can be produced. A study of the required source strengths and carrier frequencies with respect to secondary source authority and frequency bandwidth is reported. The high levels of ultrasound required to create useful secondary field levels are noted and the safety of such fields discussed. 1 THE PARAMETRIC ARRAY The parametric array is created by the non-linear interaction between two high level ultrasonic sound fields. The resulting scattered sound field contains components at the sum and difference of the carrier wave frequencies. The sum component is quickly absorbed in air, being of a much higher frequency, however the difference component forms a highly directional beam which propagates. The beam could be used as a secondary source to create local zones of quiet which can then track an individual as they move through the sound field, while not adversely affecting the majority of the field outside the directional beam. This approach relies on the following concepts: 1. The interaction between the secondary and primary fields remains linear at the zone of quiet.