Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
COVID-19 and the arts and cultural sectors: investigating countries’ contextual factors and early policy measures

ABSTRACT The present study entails an analysis of the early measures and policies developed by five smaller and medium-sized European countries (the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland) in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. In order to enable such a comparison, data was collected and categorised on government measures that could affect cultural and creative organizations and workers, issued by departments as diverse as economy and business, social affairs, education, and culture. By using interpretative argumentative techniques, and consideration of selected context factors, possible explanatory patterns of how and why countries have implemented which types of measures are discussed. The findings highlight that early policy measures have been developed against the backdrop of a complex interplay of public policy priorities over the last years. In these priorities the intensity of state involvement, the economic situation before the pandemic and the propensity of self-employment in society are key to understanding the adoption of specific policy measures across countries.
Chaos in positive ion–negative ion magnetized plasmas

The dynamical behaviour of weakly nonlinear, low-frequency sound waves are investigated in a plasma composed of only positive and negative ions incorporating the effects of a weak external uniform magnetic field. In the plasma model the mass (temperature) of the positive ions is smaller (larger) than that of the negative ions. The dynamics of the nonlinear wave is shown to be governed by a novel nonlinear equation. The stationary plane wave (analytical and numerical) nonlinear analysis on the basis of experimental parameters reveals that the nonlinear wave does have quasi-periodic and chaotic solutions. The Poincarè return map analysis confirms these observed complex structures.
Impact Energy and Angular Dependence of L X-ray Emission from a Thick Polycrystalline Tungsten Element Induced by 15–25 keV Electrons

The impact energy and angular dependence of L X-rays of a thick polycrystalline tungsten (W; atomic number, Z = 74) target induced by 15–25 keV electrons has been measured at different angles varying from 15° to 75° at intervals of 5° using a Si PIN photodiode detector. The variation of measured relative intensity of Ll, Lα, Lβ and Lγ characteristic lines as a function of incidence angle is found to be anisotropic and the measured variation compares well with the PENELOPE simulation results. The angular variation of intensity ratio of Ll/Lα and Lβ/Lα shows anisotropic distribution, whereas the angular variation of the Lγ/Lα ratio exhibits almost isotropic distribution within the uncertainty of measurements. These measured ratios are found to be in good agreement with Monte Carlo (MC) calculations. The measured intensity ratios of Lβ/Lα and Lγ/Lα at a given incidence angle show a linear dependence with impact energy and exhibit good agreement with simulation results; however, the measured intensity ratio of Ll/Lα shows a non-linear variation with the impact energy and yields poor agreement with theoretical calculations.
Simple Preparation of Ceramic-Like Materials Based on 1D-Agx(x=0, 5, 10, 20, 40 mM)/TiO2 Nanostructures and Their Photocatalysis Performance

Vertical Agx/TiO2 nanorods were successfully grown by a simple oxidation method of a Ti-Ag coating. The samples were grown in the phase of ceramic-like materials, which can be reusable for many cycles for photocatalysis applications. These ceramic-like Agx/TiO2 nanostructures were prepared by the spin-coating of silver nitrate onto Ti sheets. The presence of silver on the surface of the Ti sheet during the oxidation process helped in the growth of one-dimensional nanostructures. The physical properties of the fabricated ceramic-like nanostructures were studied by varying the concentration of silver on the Ti-sheet before the oxidation. One-dimensional nanostructures with an average size varying within the range of 200–500 nm were grown. The presence of silver made the nanostructure vertically directed. The nanorods were dense at the low and medium concentrations of 5, 10, and 20 mM of silver in contrary to high silver concentrations, where the nanorods were very sparse at 40 mM. Structural analysis showed the anatase and rutile structure of pure TiO2 with distinguishing diffraction lines A(101) and R(110); however, Agx/TiO2 showed a dominant orientation of A(101), confirming the 1D growth. Raman spectra confirmed the presence of TiO2 via the observation of its corresponding phonon modes. The photocatalysis properties of the fabricated ceramic-like nanostructures were performed on methylene blue (MB) as a known target dye. The low- and medium-silver-concentration samples showed a high photocatalytic activity compared to the pure and high-silver-concentration samples.
State Landlord–Tenant Policy and Eviction Rates in Majority-Minority Neighborhoods

ABSTRACT This article assesses (a) the extent to which state landlord–tenant legislation may influence local evictions and (b) whether those laws may influence eviction-related outcomes within communities of color. This analysis uses an original data set combining 2016 state- and block group-level data from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, the American Community Survey, and landlord-tenant policy typologies, based on state statutes related to landlord-tenant law. Using multilevel mixed-effects models, we find that neighborhoods in states with more tenant-friendly policy environments were associated with lower eviction and filing rates compared with those in states with more landlord–friendly policies. However, compared with majority-White neighborhoods, eviction and filing rates in communities of color and majority-Black neighborhoods remained significantly higher—even in states with more tenant-friendly policies. In other words, tenant-friendly policies appear to support the reduction of eviction disparities but not the elimination of them. These findings suggest state housing policy environments matter for eviction-related outcomes broadly and for communities of color. We propose that eliminating racial disparities should include a focus on the implicitly racialized nature of housing and landlord–tenant policy, specifically.
Crisis? What crisis? Interpreting student feedback on assessment

Abstract Much is made of students generally rating assessment lower than other aspects of their educational experience. It is frequently cited in research literature as evidence for a general crisis in assessment, and it strongly influences institutional enhancement efforts and media coverage of student feedback. Focusing on the UK’s National Student Survey, this paper draws on a range of published empirical research to argue against the idea that relatively low scores for assessment-related survey questions indicate a general problem with assessment. Students tend to rate the quality of assessment lower when they are unhappy with the assessment outcome, and students tend to be unhappy with assessment outcomes. We therefore shouldn’t be surprised at the relatively low scores for assessment-related questions. This does not mean that there isn’t a general problem with assessment in higher education, just that low scores for assessment questions in student surveys aren’t good evidence for it. Researchers should cite better evidence of problems with assessment quality; institutions should think more carefully before focusing enhancement efforts on assessment; and we should all generally be much more cautious about interpreting the results of quantitative student surveys.
Assessment of Building Vulnerability to Tsunami Hazard in Kamari (Santorini Island, Greece)

Santorini Island, located in the Southern Aegean Sea, is prone to tsunamis due to its proximity to the Hellenic subduction zone, which is one of the major tsunamigenic areas. Characteristic events, such as those of 365 A.D. and 1303 A.D. greatly affected the coasts of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, causing significant loss of life and construction damage. Tsunami disaster risk is nowadays significantly higher due to the increased exposure of the buildings as a result of the economic and touristic growth of the Aegean Islands. This study focuses on the eastern coast of Santorini, since its morphology and human presence amplify the necessity to assess its building vulnerability. After conducting an exposure analysis at the settlements of the eastern coast, Kamari poses the highest physical, social and economic relative exposure to any potential natural hazard. The main objective of this research is to quantify the building stock’s vulnerability to tsunami hazard. For this purpose, a “worst-case run-up scenario” was developed. Considering the history of tsunamis in the Aegean Sea, an extreme sea-level rise after a 10 m a.s. l. tsunami run-up, caused by an earthquake with Mw~8.5, was assumed. The relative vulnerability of the buildings in Kamari was calculated via the application of the Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment (PTVA-4) analytic model. The results indicate that 423 buildings are within the inundation zone, 58% of which are characterized as highly and very highly vulnerable to tsunamis, revealing the problematic characteristics of the building stock, offering important information to the decision-makers to mitigate a possible future tsunami impact.
Configuring the Drivers and Carriers of Process Innovation in Manufacturing Organizations

In today’s hyper-competitive manufacturing world, the rapidly changing landscape has put new demands on organizations, and they need to reinvent themselves by injecting new strategies in order to stay ahead of the competition. Therefore, to achieve world-class performance and competitiveness in the global environment and competition, there is immense pressure on manufacturing organizations with limited resources to invariably pursue main drivers to enable them to improve process innovation. In this backdrop, this questionnaire-based study investigates the impact of various enabling practices on process innovation of manufacturing organizations. The questionnaire package included scales of lean manufacturing (LM), organizational culture (OC), human resource management (HRM), total quality management (TQM), supply chain management (SCM) and process innovation (PI). The data were collected through convenient sampling technique from presidents, CEO’s, directors, managers and senior supervisors of different functional areas of large-scale organizations. The theoretical model was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS®. The key findings revealed positive and significant relationships of LM, HRM and OC as drivers with TQM and SCM. The results also demonstrated affirmative and significant associations of TQM and SCM with PI. Similarly, the outcomes indicated that TQM and SCM, as carriers, partially mediate the relationships of LM, HRM and OC with PI. Overall, the findings elucidate the imperativeness for manufacturing organizations to reinforce their mediators (TQM and SCM practices) while effectively implementing LM, HRM and OC practices as drivers of PI. The study has important implications for the organizations seeking to determine the relative importance of various practices as an effective source of process innovation.
Observer Design for Nonlinear Invertible System from the View of Both Local and Global Levels

This paper emphasizes the importance of the influences of local dynamics on the global dynamics of a control system. By considering an actuator as an individual, nonlinear subsystem connected with a nonlinear process subsystem in cascade, a structure of interconnected nonlinear systems is proposed which allows for global and local supervision properties of the interconnected systems. To achieve this purpose, a kind of interconnected observer design method is investigated, and the convergence is studied. One major difficulty is that a state observation can only rely on the global system output at the terminal boundary. This is because the connection point between the two subsystems is considered unable to be measured, due to physical or economic reasons. Therefore, the aim of the interconnected observer is to estimate the state vector of each subsystem and the unmeasurable connection point. Specifically, the output used in the observer of the actuator subsystem is replaced by the estimation of the process subsystem observer, while the estimation of this interconnection is treated like an additional state in the observer design of the process subsystem. Expression for this new state is achieved by calculating the derivatives of the output equation of the actuator subsystem. Numerical simulations confirm the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed observer, which highlight the significance of the work compared with state-of-the-art methods.
Relationships among Permeability, Membrane Roughness, and Eukaryote Inhabitation during Submerged Gravity-Driven Membrane (GDM) Filtration

Gravity-driven membrane (GDM) filtration is one of the promising technologies for decentralized water treatment systems due to its low cost, simple operation, and convenient maintenance. The objective of this study was to evaluate the permeability of submerged GDM filtration with three different membranes, i.e., polyethersulfone and polyvinylidene difluoride ultrafiltration (PES-UF and PVDF-UF) and polytetrafluoroethylene microfiltration membrane (PTFE-MF). The GDM system was operated using lake water for about one year. The determined average permeability values were high for PVDF-UF (192.9 L/m2/h/bar (LMH/bar)) and PTFE-MF (80.6 LMH/bar) and relatively lower for PES-UF (46.1 LMH/bar). The observed higher permeability for PVDF-UF and PTFE-MF was thought to be related to the rougher surface of these two membranes compared to PES-UF. The fouling layers of PVDF-UF and PTFE-MF were characterized by high biomass and the presence of a number of nematodes, while PES-UF showed a thin fouling layer with no nematode. The relatively high and fluctuated permeability of PVDF-UF and PTFE-MF could thus be attributed to the high biological activity of nematodes making the fouling layer more loose and porous. This was supported by a good linear relationship among the permeability, biomass concentration, and the number of nematodes in the fouling layers. These results provide important insights into membrane selection as a critical factor affecting the flux performance of the GDM filtration system for a decentralized drinking water supply.
QUANTIFYING UNCERTAINTY IN CLASSIFIED POINT CLOUD DATA FOR GEOSPATIAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract. Classified Point Cloud data are increasingly the form of geospatial data that are used in engineering applications, smart digital twins and geospatial data infrastructure around the globe. Characterized by high positional accuracy such dense 3D datasets are often rated very highly for accuracy and reliability. However such data pose important challenges in semantic segmentation, especially in the context of Machine Learning(ML) techniques and the training data employed to provide classification codes to every point in massive point cloud datasets. These challenges are particularly significant since ML based processing of data is almost unavoidable due to the massive nature of the data that. We review different sources of uncertainty introduced by ML based classification and segmentation and outline concepts of uncertainty that is inherent in such automatically processed data. We also provide a theoretical framework for quantification of such uncertainty and argue that the standards of accuracy of such data should account for errors and omissions during auto segmentation and classification in addition to positional accuracy measures. Interestingly, the ability to quantify accuracies of ML based automation for processing such data is limited by the volume and velocity of such data.
Evaluation of a novel hybrid 6-phytase using an updated phosphorus deficiency model in broiler chickens

Abstract: One-day-old broiler chicks were used to investigate the optimal age to start feeding phosphorus (P)-deficient (PD) diets with two non-phytate P (nPP) concentrations in experiment 1, and 7-d-old broiler chicks were used to determine P equivalency of a hybrid 6-phytase to inorganic P in monocalcium phosphate (MCP) in experiment 2. In experiment 1, six treatments were prepared with 5, 6, or 7-d-old birds to start feeding PD diets with 1.3 or 1.5 g·kg−1 nPP. Age of birds to start feeding P-deficient diets tended to decrease (P = 0.052) mortality of birds during 14 d of feeding P-deficient diets. In experiment 2, twelve treatments including one basal diet, five diets supplied with 0.5, 0.9, 1.3, 1.7, or 2.1 g·kg−1 inorganic P, and six diets supplied with 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, or 2000 FTU·kg−1 phytase were fed to chickens from days 7 to 21 post hatching. Increasing phytase activity quadratically increased (P < 0.01) body weight gain, feed intake, and tibia ash of birds and apparent ileal digestibility and total tract retention of P. In conclusion, age of birds to start feeding PD diet affected their performance, and hybrid 6-phytase may partly replace MCP in a PD diet for broiler chickens.
SOLVING FUZZY ASSIGNMENT AND FUZZY TRAVELLING SALESMAN PROBLEMS USING R SOFTWARE

A BSTRACT . In this article an interesting procedure is proposed for fuzzy travel-ling salesman problems and assignment problems using " R" software packages such as "FuzzyNumbers" and "lpSolve" and fuzzy travelling salesman problems using "R" software packages "FuzzyNumbers" and "TSP" . To validate the procedure some numerical examples are illustrated and the results are compared with the contemporary procedures.
Meta-analysis of Genetic Diversity of the VP1 Gene Among the Circulating O, A, and SAT2 Serotypes and Vaccine Strains of FMD Virus in Egypt

Abstract Introduction Three strains of the FMD virus (A, O, and SAT 2) were recognised as causes of the FMD circulating in Egypt. The aims of this study were to trace the FMDV isolates from outbreaks in Egypt to understand their epidemiology and evolution and to understand the situation of the vaccine strains compared with the circulating serotypes. Material and Methods A meta-analysis was carried out by using the data available for FMD outbreaks in Egypt from GenBank and the World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (WRLFMD); a comparison was done with both data sets for the three serotypes. MEGA-X was used for the evolution analysis, through constructions of phylogenetic trees for all sequences recorded in GenBank for each serotype in different Egyptian outbreaks in different years and also within the same year. Additionally, nucleotide substitution rate, molecular clock, and mean evolutionary rates were estimated for the three serotypes to understand and compare their evolution. Results Absence of some records of certain serotype outbreaks from the WRLFMD database was noted as were subsequent missing appropriate vaccine programmes. Genetic variation was recorded among the virus isolates within the same years and also the vaccine strain was associated with up to 26 amino acid substitutions. The evolution rate of the SAT2 strain was the highest of the circulating strains. SAT2 had high amino acid substitution per year at an important immunogenic site (130–170), serotype A had less, and serotype O the least. Conclusion The need for different strategies for vaccine serotype selection is indicated.
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of parents’ experience of making sense of at risk mental state

ABSTRACT At Risk Mental State (ARMS) refers to people deemed at elevated risk of experiencing a first episode of psychosis. Family relationships often play a significant role in both the development and experience of early psychosis. How families make sense of problems influences their emotional experiences and relationships. To date there has been no research exploring how parents make sense of ARMS. Seven parents with a child meeting the ARMS criteria shared their experiences through semi-structured interviews and the data gathered were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings suggested that parents experienced three stages when making sense of the ARMS criteria: initial uncertainty, experience of getting support and the process of looking to the future. Parents felt they lacked the skills to help their child and often had difficulty accessing the right services. The research also demonstrated that carer beliefs about psychosis identified in carers of those who experienced a first-episode psychosis are present even prior to a diagnosis of psychosis. Future work could consider ways of including and supporting parents during this sense-making process as well as better promoting ARMS services.
Examining the ‘National Risk Assessment for Detention’ process: an intersectional analysis of detaining ‘dangerousness’ in Canada

ABSTRACT Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers use the National Risk Assessment for Detention (NRAD) process to evaluate the ‘riskiness’ of immigration detainees. The NRAD’s key tool is a 2-page document laying out ‘risk factors’ with corresponding points that add up to scores of ‘dangerousness’ allegedly posed by non-citizens. CBSA officers then recommend detention in either a provincial prison or a lower security ‘immigration holding centre’. In a national context of no legislated upper time limits on detention periods, and where telephonic and other access to incarceration sites is impeded, the NRAD form’s outcome portends serious, long-term consequences.
Expression profiles and polymorphic identification of the ACSL1 gene and their association with body size traits in Dezhou donkeys

Abstract Finding out the genetic mechanism of growth and development traits and the development of related molecular markers can help improve the breeding of livestock. The long-chain acyl coenzyme A synthase 1 (ACSL1) gene plays a major role in lipid synthesis and fatty acid catabolism. However, there are few studies on the ACSL1 gene polymorphism of Dezhou donkeys. This study analyzed the expression level of the ACSL1 gene in different tissues of young and adult Dezhou donkeys, as well as association analysis of four gene polymorphic loci in 450 individuals. The results showed that expression levels of the ACSL1 gene are higher in heart, liver, spleen, lung, renal, gastric and muscle tissues of adult donkeys than in those of young donkeys. In the association analysis between genotype and body size traits, the wild genotype DD at the ACSL1-1 locus in female and male donkeys was greater than the mutant genotype II (P<0.05); genotype II of ACSL1-2 was significantly higher than that of DD in withers height, body length, rump width and body weight of male donkeys (P<0.05); and ACSL1-3 showed a tendency for the wild genotype II to be greater than the mutant genotype DD in female and male donkeys (P<0.05). In addition, among the five haplotype combinations constructed, Hap3Hap3 (II-II-DD-DD) and Hap6Hap6 (DD-II-II-II) haplotype combinations were superior to other haplotype combinations in growth traits, which also indicated that the results of haplotype combination association analysis and genotype association analysis tended to be the same. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that the polymorphic loci of the ACSL1 gene can be used as candidate molecular markers for the growth and development of Dezhou donkeys, and provide a theoretical reference for the breeding of Dezhou donkeys.