Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Professional roles of caseworkers in citizen conversations

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to give an insight in the different professional roles that a caseworker has to carry when meeting the citizen in order to decide what help he or she needs and is entitled to. This work includes help and support, as well as control and sanctioning. Therefore, the professional role as a caseworker cannot be reduced to one. From analysis of citizen conversations the article extracts and discusses the use of six different but complementing roles of the caseworker: Guest/Host, Chairperson, Investigator, Midwife, Adviser and Judge. These roles have different purposes that are all important in balancing help and control in citizen conversations. The roles operate together and supply each other at different times within the same encounter. This article presents an analysis of a conversation between a caseworker and a citizen and his relative in order to illustrate the different roles of the caseworker during a conversation and how balancing the roles can support human symmetry in the relationship. The article is based on Kloster, Dahl, and Alrø (2019) that develops and discusses the six roles based on the analysis of a number of citizen conversations.
Windows and interpolation algorithms to improve electrical measurement accuracy

An FFT-based measurement technique, which can be easily used to determine accurately the frequency, amplitude, and phase of all the harmonic and interharmonic components of a distorted signal, is examined. Suitable windows and interpolation algorithms are examined in order to reduce undesirable effects due to spectral leakage caused by a sampling process that is not synchronized. Several results concerning the application of different windows on a set of simulated signals are compared to verify the capability of the proposed procedure. The influence of the noise is examined to study the filtering properties of the weighting functions. >
Recent warming reverses forty-year decline in catastrophic lake drainage and hastens gradual lake drainage across northern Alaska

Lakes represent as much as ∼25% of the total land surface area in lowland permafrost regions. Though decreasing lake area has become a widespread phenomenon in permafrost regions, our ability to forecast future patterns of lake drainage spanning gradients of space and time remain limited. Here, we modeled the drivers of gradual (steady declining lake area) and catastrophic (temporally abrupt decrease in lake area) lake drainage using 45 years of Landsat observations (i.e. 1975–2019) across 32 690 lakes spanning climate and environmental gradients across northern Alaska. We mapped lake area using supervised support vector machine classifiers and object based image analyses using five-year Landsat image composites spanning 388 968 km2. Drivers of lake drainage were determined with boosted regression tree models, using both static (e.g. lake morphology, proximity to drainage gradient) and dynamic predictor variables (e.g. temperature, precipitation, wildfire). Over the past 45 years, gradual drainage decreased lake area between 10% and 16%, but rates varied over time as the 1990s recorded the highest rates of gradual lake area losses associated with warm periods. Interestingly, the number of catastrophically drained lakes progressively decreased at a rate of ∼37% decade−1 from 1975–1979 (102–273 lakes draining year−1) to 2010–2014 (3–8 lakes draining year−1). However this 40 year negative trend was reversed during the most recent time-period (2015–2019), with observations of catastrophic drainage among the highest on record (i.e. 100–250 lakes draining year−1), the majority of which occurred in northwestern Alaska. Gradual drainage processes were driven by lake morphology, summer air and lake temperature, snow cover, active layer depth, and the thermokarst lake settlement index (R 2 adj = 0.42, CV = 0.35, p < 0.0001), whereas, catastrophic drainage was driven by the thawing season length, total precipitation, permafrost thickness, and lake temperature (R 2 adj = 0.75, CV = 0.67, p < 0.0001). Models forecast a continued decline in lake area across northern Alaska by 15%–21% by 2050. However these estimates are conservative, as the anticipated amplitude of future climate change were well-beyond historical variability and thus insufficient to forecast abrupt ‘catastrophic’ drainage processes. Results highlight the urgency to understand the potential ecological responses and feedbacks linked with ongoing Arctic landscape reorganization.
Profitability and Firm Value: Does Dividend Policy Matter for Indonesian Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI)-KEHATI Listed Firms?

This study investigates the potential factors explaining the inconsistent relationship between profitability and firm value. Specifically, it examines whether dividend policy contributes to the profitability–firm value relationship and determines the form of the moderating variables. We use a unique data set from the Indonesian capital market, with sustainable and responsible investment (SRI)-KEHATI-listed firms from 2010 to 2019. Adopting hierarchy moderating analysis, the results show a positive direct relationship between profitability and firm value. Moreover, the profitability–firm value relationship becomes stronger with a higher dividend policy ratio. We complement this with evidence that the dividend policy plays a role as a pure moderator in more sustainable and responsible firms. A sensitivity battery analysis and the endogeneity concern show consistent results as the baseline model, implying that the model is robust to different conditions. Additional tests revealed that the dividend policy is more prominent in low-leverage enterprises, low-intensity advertising firms, and during the financial service authority’s post-dividend policy regulation phase. The implication of our study is that corporate policy and country regulation play a role as a potential competitive strategy to increase shareholder value for SRI-KEHATI-listed firms.
Learning more from our buildings - or just forgetting less?

Introduction Interest in building performance assessment has been growing as part of a world-wide trend to performance-based approaches. Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) systematically evaluates the performance of occupied buildings. Those who study buildings in use regard such feedback as essential: it leads not only to better understanding, but also to rapid improvement – both to the building under study and to its management, and by all those involved in procuring and making it (including clients, designers, builders and project managers), in learning from their experience and so being able to do better next time.
Improving the Accuracy of Network Intrusion Detection with Causal Machine Learning

In recent years, machine learning (ML) algorithms have been approved effective in the intrusion detection. However, as the ML algorithms are mainly applied to evaluate the anomaly of the network, the detection accuracy for cyberattacks with multiple types cannot be fully guaranteed. The existing algorithms for network intrusion detection based on ML or feature selection are on the basis of spurious correlation between features and cyberattacks, causing several wrong classifications. In order to tackle the abovementioned problems, this research aimed to establish a novel network intrusion detection system (NIDS) based on causal ML. The proposed system started with the identification of noisy features by causal intervention, while only the features that had a causality with cyberattacks were preserved. Then, the ML algorithm was used to make a preliminary classification to select the most relevant types of cyberattacks. As a result, the unique labeled cyberattack could be detected by the counterfactual detection algorithm. In addition to a relatively stable accuracy, the complexity of cyberattack detection could also be effectively reduced, with a maximum reduction to 94% on the size of training features. Moreover, in case of the availability of several types of cyberattacks, the detection accuracy was significantly improved compared with the previous ML algorithms.
Associations between attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom remission and white matter microstructure: A longitudinal analysis

Abstract Background Attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with white matter (WM) microstructure. Our objective was to investigate how WM microstructure is longitudinally related to symptom remission in adolescents and young adults with ADHD. Methods We obtained diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) data from 99 participants at two time‐points (mean age baseline: 16.91 years, mean age follow‐up: 20.57 years). We used voxel‐wise Tract‐Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) with permutation‐based inference to investigate associations of inattention (IA) and hyperactivity‐impulsivity (HI) symptom change with fractional anisotropy (FA) at baseline, follow‐up, and change between time‐points. Results Remission of combined HI and IA symptoms was significantly associated with reduced FA at follow‐up in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus and the left corticospinal tract (CST; P FWE = 0.038 and P FWE = 0.044, respectively), mainly driven by an association between HI remission and follow‐up CST FA (P FWE = 0.049). There was no significant association of combined symptom decrease with FA at baseline or with changes in FA between the two assessments. Conclusions In this longitudinal DWI study of ADHD using dimensional symptom scores, we show that greater symptom decrease is associated with lower follow‐up FA in specific WM tracts. Altered FA thus may appear to follow, rather than precede, changes in symptom remission. Our findings indicate divergent WM developmental trajectories between individuals with persistent and remittent ADHD, and support the role of prefrontal and sensorimotor tracts in the remission of ADHD.
Integrated bio/chemical microsystems employing optical detection: the clip-on

The fabrication and test of a new integrated optical detection circuit, which can be coupled to external microcapillary analysis systems, is presented. Simple optical waveguide and photodiode circuits, as well as the system for coupling light through the external microcapillary chemical transport system, are included on the same silicon, `clip-on', chip. A chemical reaction taking place in the external microcapillary system, which gives rise to a change in absorbance or luminescence, is detected as the reaction front moves past the optical detection circuit. Mesa photodiode structures are butt coupled to multilayer glass optical waveguides and have responsivities of about 0.5 plus a broad spectral response. The buried optical waveguide structures, which are formed in low loss (0.5 dB ) germanium doped core glass, couple very effectively to the mesa diodes. Light is coupled to the waveguides via optical fibers which are fastened to the chip by means of simple connectors etched into the silicon. Fluids are transported to and from the chip by means of quartz microcapillary, similarly fastened to the chip by means of an integrated connector.
Optical Information Processing For NASA's Space Exploration

NASA's planning for the future exploration of the solar system includes missions requiring extremely powerful information processing systems. Optical information processing can play a key role in meeting these needs due to its high throughput and fault tolerance, low power consumption and weight. Several major optical information processing research projects such as optical pattern recognition, neural network, AOTF imaging spectrometer, spatial light modulator, and optical matrix processor, are under development at JPL, AMES, and JSC. These optical processing research efforts and their applications in NASA's various planetary exploration missions are discussed.
Chinese Undergraduates’ Performance in HOTS and LOTS EFL Reading Comprehension for Different Reading Materials According to Gender

Many studies indicate that Chinese undergraduates face problems in their HOTS comprehension. The objective of this study is to investigate Chinese EFL undergraduates’ HOST and LOTS reading comprehension according to gender. A descriptive research design was employed in this quantitative study. The researchers used an English reading comprehension test involving 5 different materials (education, economy, entertainment, technology and natural disaster) as the research instrument. Each material consists of 3 LOTS questions and 2 HOTS questions. All the comprehension questions were multiple choice in nature. The sample of the study consists of 411 second year undergraduate students (261 females and 150 males) from a university in Hunan Province, China. SPSS Program for Windows version 25 was used to analyze the data (Independent samples t-test). The findings of this current study indicated that the female students performed significantly better than their male counterparts for both LOTS and HOTS comprehension questions. The female students also outperformed their male students in their overall score for comprehension. As such, these results clearly revealed that female undergraduates performed significantly better than the males in their EFL reading comprehension skills. However, this research only involves participants from one university; as a result, future research should include a larger sample from different provinces in China to get a better insight of students’ performance in EFL comprehension.
Guidelines for habitat management: the influence of slope on population expansion of Euphorbia clivicola R.A. Dyer. a case study

Topographical factors such as slope aspect and position play a significant role in plant survival and community arrangement. Euphorbia clivicola is a rare and critically endangered plant species in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. This species tend to grow on northern slopes that are usually earmarked for urban development within its distribution area. The aim of this research was to assess the significance of slope on population structure. The occupied habitat was stratified into three positions: top slope, middle slope and bottom slope. Population structure and density of the plants were documented. Euphorbia clivicola plants gradually decreased in canopy size as the slope gradient decrease (from top to bottom). Thus the significance of slope on population structure is that; slope influences propagule dispersal and ultimately population structure through surface water runoff. Density was inversely proportional to canopy size, which suggests that colonisation of sites by E. clivicola is influenced by slope gradient. Conservators should discourage development on the northern aspects of habitats occupied by E. clivicola, as it will negatively affect the relief site of the population.
Intelligent Excavator Control System for Lunar Mining System

A major benefit of utilizing local planetary resources is that it reduced the need and cost of lifting materials from the Earth’s surface into Earth orbit. The location of the moon makes it an ideal site for harvesting the materials needed to assist space activities. Here, lunar excavation will take place in the dynamic unstructured lunar environment, in which conditions are highly variable and unpredictable. Autonomous mining (excavation) machines are necessary to remove human operators from this hazardous environment. This machine must use a control system structure that can identify, plan, sense, and control real-time dynamic machine movements in the lunar environment. The solution is a vision-based hierarchical control structure. However, excavation tasks require force/torque sensor feedback to control the excavation tool after it has penetrated the surface. A fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is used to interpret the forces and torques gathered from a bucket mounted force/torque sensor during excavation. Experimental results from several excavation tests using the FLC are presented here. These results represent the first step toward an integrated sensing and control system for a lunar mining system.
Behavioural response of alate Aphis craccivora Koch (Homoptera: Aphididae) to volatiles from different cowpea cultivars

The cowpea aphid, Aphis craccivora, is a major insect pest of cowpea in Africa. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) mediate plant–arthropod interactions that could be used in the management of insect pests. In this study, we established the VOC profile involved in the interaction between A. craccivora and four cowpea cultivars, namely Ex‐Luanda, Katumani 80, Machakos 66 and Ken Kunde 1. Behavioural assays were conducted to study host preference and gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for chemical analysis of volatiles. In preference assays, alate A. craccivora had no significant preference for any of the four cowpea cultivars tested. However, in the olfactometer assays, the aphids showed a significant preference for odours from cultivar Ex‐Luanda compared to Katumani 80. Machakos 66 and Ken Kunde 1 elicited neutral responses. In pairwise comparisons, alate A. craccivora did not distinguish between odours of respective cowpea cultivars. GC/MS analysis identified 23 compounds in the volatiles of the four cowpea cultivars. Not all compounds were detected in all cowpea cultivars, and the detected compounds amounts varied in each cultivar. Of these, only four compounds (hexanal, (E)‐2‐hexenal, 1‐octen‐3‐ol and p‐xylene) were emitted in significantly different quantities in the four cultivars. A blend of hexanal and (E)‐2‐hexenal added to cowpea cultivar Ex‐Luanda decreased its attractiveness to A. craccivora compared to the control. Our findings showed differential attractiveness of VOCs of cowpea cultivars to A. craccivora, suggesting that VOCs could be used in the management of A. craccivora.
Self-tuning in sliding mode control of high-precision motion systems

Abstract In high-precision motion systems, set-point tracking often comes with the problem of overshoot, hence poor settling behavior. To avoid overshoot, PD control (thus without using an integrator) is preferred over PID control. However, PD control gives rise to steady-state error in view of the constant disturbances acting on the system. To deal with both overshoot and steady-state error, a sliding mode controller with saturated integrator is studied. For large servo signals the controller is switched to PD mode as to constrain the integrator buffer and therefore the overshoot. For small servo signals the controller switches to PID mode as to avoid steady-state error. The tuning of the switching parameters will be done automatically with the aim to optimize the settling behavior. The sliding mode controller will be tested on a high-precision motion system.
A comparison of diceCT and histology for determination of nasal epithelial type

Diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced computed tomography (diceCT) has emerged as a viable tool for discriminating soft tissues in serial CT slices, which can then be used for three-dimensional analysis. This technique has some potential to supplant histology as a tool for identification of body tissues. Here, we studied the head of an adult fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) and a late fetal vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) using diceCT and µCT. Subsequently, we decalcified, serially sectioned and stained the same heads. The two CT volumes were rotated so that the sectional plane of the slice series closely matched that of histological sections, yielding the ideal opportunity to relate CT observations to corresponding histology. Olfactory epithelium is typically thicker, on average, than respiratory epithelium in both bats. Thus, one investigator (SK), blind to the histological sections, examined the diceCT slice series for both bats and annotated changes in thickness of epithelium on the first ethmoturbinal (ET I), the roof of the nasal fossa, and the nasal septum. A second trial was conducted with an added criterion: radioopacity of the lamina propria as an indicator of Bowman’s glands. Then, a second investigator (TS) annotated images of matching histological sections based on microscopic observation of epithelial type, and transferred these annotations to matching CT slices. Measurements of slices annotated according to changes in epithelial thickness alone closely track measurements of slices based on histologically-informed annotations; matching histological sections confirm blind annotations were effective based on epithelial thickness alone, except for a patch of unusually thick non-OE, mistaken for OE in one of the specimens. When characteristics of the lamina propria were added in the second trial, the blind annotations excluded the thick non-OE. Moreover, in the fetal bat the use of evidence for Bowman’s glands improved detection of olfactory mucosa, perhaps because the epithelium itself was thin enough at its margins to escape detection. We conclude that diceCT can by itself be highly effective in identifying distribution of OE, especially where observations are confirmed by histology from at least one specimen of the species. Our findings also establish that iodine staining, followed by stain removal, does not interfere with subsequent histological staining of the same specimen.
Numerical investigation of flow through an artificially roughened solar air heater

A numerical investigation is conducted to analyse the heat transfer and flow friction characteristics in an artificially roughened solar air heater having square-sectioned transverse ribs considered at underside of the top wall, where constant heat flux condition is applied. The effect of relative roughness pitch on average Nusselt number, average friction factor, and thermo-hydraulic performance parameter (THPP) has been investigated. This investigation covers relative roughness pitch in the range of 7.14≤P/e≤17.86 and relevant Reynolds numbers in the range of 3800≤Re≤18, 000. The two-dimensional steady, turbulent flow, and heat transfer governing equations are solved using the finite volume method with the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations algorithm. The THPP under the same pumping power constraint is calculated in order to examine the overall effect of the relative roughness pitch. For the present range investigated, the maximum THPP of 1.82 is achieved by the use of the ribs with P/e of 10.71.
Tainted by Stigma: The Interplay of Stigma and Moral Identity in Health Persuasion

The current research examines the interactive effect of consumers’ moral identity and risk factor stigma on health message effectiveness. The authors theorize that engaging in advocated health behaviors has moral associations; however, a stigmatized risk factor in a message “taints” the morality of the advocated health behavior. Thus, consumers with high (vs. low) moral identity are more likely to comply with health messages when risk factor stigma is low, and this positive moral identity effect is undermined when risk factor stigma is high. The authors test stigma's threat to moral identity by measuring defensive processing (Studies 1 and 2) and the attenuating effect of self-affirmation on the negative effect of stigma (Studies 3 and 4). They apply the stigma-by-association principle to develop and test a messaging intervention (Study 5). The studies suggest that, depending on whether a health message contains stigmatized risk factors, marketers could employ a combination of tactics such as activating moral identity, offering self-affirming message frames, and/or highlighting low-stigma risk factors to bolster message effectiveness.