Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Community engagement, greening, and violent crime: A test of the greening hypothesis and Busy Streets

Researchers have documented that vacant lot greening can reduce community-level crime and violence. Busy Streets Theory (BST) suggests that residents who are involved in the greening process can help to improve physical environments and build social connections that deter crime and violence. Yet few researchers have explored how community engagement in the greening process may affect crime and violence outcomes. We applied BST to test the effects of community-engaged vacant lot greening compared to vacant lots that received either professional mowing or no treatment, on the density of violent crime around study lots. Using mixed effects regression models, we analyzed trends in violent crime density over the summer months from 2016 to 2018 at 2102 street segments in Youngstown, OH. These street segments fell within 150 meters of an intervention parcel that was classified as one of three conditions: community-engaged maintenance, professional mowing, or no treatment (control). We found that street segments in areas receiving community-engaged maintenance or professional mowing experienced greater declines in violent crime density than street segments in areas receiving no treatment, and more decline occurred in the community-engaged condition compared to the professional mow condition. Our findings support BST and suggest that community-engaged greening of vacant lots in postindustrial cities with a concentrated vacancy can reduce crime and violence.
A Maximal Correlation Framework for Fair Machine Learning

As machine learning algorithms grow in popularity and diversify to many industries, ethical and legal concerns regarding their fairness have become increasingly relevant. We explore the problem of algorithmic fairness, taking an information–theoretic view. The maximal correlation framework is introduced for expressing fairness constraints and is shown to be capable of being used to derive regularizers that enforce independence and separation-based fairness criteria, which admit optimization algorithms for both discrete and continuous variables that are more computationally efficient than existing algorithms. We show that these algorithms provide smooth performance–fairness tradeoff curves and perform competitively with state-of-the-art methods on both discrete datasets (COMPAS, Adult) and continuous datasets (Communities and Crimes).
School Principals’ Work Participation in an Extended Working Life—Are They Able to, and Do They Want to? A Quantitative Study of the Work Situation

The objective of this study is to increase the knowledge regarding school principals’ work situations by examining the associations between various factors and the school principals’ assessments of their ability or wish to work until 65 years of age or longer. The 1356 participating school principals in this study were aged between 50 and 64 years of age. Individual and work factors were evaluated in relation to two dichotomized outcomes: i.e., can work and want to work beyond 65 years of age, respectively. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) models were used to specify bivariate and multivariate cross-sectional logistic regression models that accounted for repeated measurements. The results showed that, both in 2018 and 2019, about 83% of the school principals stated that they could work and about 50% stated that they wanted to work until 65 years of age and beyond. School principals’ exhaustion symptoms and experiences of an excessive burden were statistically significantly associated with whether they both could not and did not want to work beyond 65 years of age. Additionally, the school principals’ experiences of support from the executive management in the performance of their managerial duties was of primary importance for whether the school principals wanted to work until 65 years of age and beyond. To conclude, it is important that school principals receive sufficient support from the management to cope with their often very stressful leadership tasks so that they have the opportunity to be able and willing to continue working their entire working life. The study strengthens the robustness of the theoretical SwAge model regarding the investigated factors related to determinant factors for a sustainable working life and as a basis for developing practical tools for increased employability for people of older ages.
Incubation mound building by the Australian megapode (malleefowl, Leipoa ocellata) creates novel, resource‐rich patches in a semi‐arid woodland

Desert ecosystems are characterised by a patchy distribution of resources. Nutrient sinks associated with landscape modulators (trees) differ markedly from the resource‐poor interpatch matrix. Fauna can also act as landscape modulators, modifying patch dynamics by redistributing resources via ‘ecosystem engineering’. In semi‐arid woodlands, malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata: Megapodiidae) reconfigure surface characteristics by scavenging leaf litter to construct large incubation mounds. The extent to which this movement of resources creates a novel patch and alters extant patches is largely unknown. Ecosystem engineering effects by megapodes have been little studied, but are potentially great, particularly in drylands, where mammalian engineers are known to enhance ecosystem function and drive restoration. We measured vegetation, ground cover and soil chemistry at malleefowl mounds and four extant microsites (trees and open areas close to, and far from, mounds) and predicted that: (1) malleefowl mounds would represent enriched, yet novel, microsites; (2) the characteristics of tree and open patches close to the mounds would differ from those away from the mounds, because of the diminishing intensity of disturbance; and (3) effects at tree and open patches close to the mound would be shorter term, compared to the more substantial high‐resource patch formation occurring at the mound, but we expected all effects would diminish with time since malleefowl activity. We found that: (1) malleefowl mounds were novel microsites with soil chemistry more similar to tree‐modulated patches, and groundcover and vegetation variables more similar to the open, interpatch matrix; (2) effects extended to tree and open patches near the mound, but most effects were short lived; and (3) some novel mound attributes (e.g. soil pH, phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon) were greater at mounds, irrespective of their age, while less plant cover and richness on young mounds dissipated with age. Synthesis. Mound‐building megapodes can modulate the distribution of locally derived resources and create a novel microsite. Engineering effects can enhance spatial heterogeneity and ecosystem function over broad spatial and temporal scales, and may assist with ecological restoration, particularly in depauperate, arid systems.
State of agile contracting in the software industry and the public sector, results of a systematic mapping of the literature

Context: Agile approaches are the answer to the rigid framework for traditional software development. These focus on creating products based on communication and continuous collaboration between the client and supplier, which are detailed characteristics in documents; it is also true that the contractual agreements for such approaches continue to be structured according to the restrictions of the traditional development of software products. Meticulous specifications and restrictions such as time, cost and scope are just some of the fixed conditions of the contractual agreement. In this sense, traditional contracts do not respond adequately to agile software development and, for this reason, agile contracts emerge as a framework of agreement that stipulates the conditions that are clearly necessary to allow development under these approaches. Methodology: a systematic mapping of the literature is presented that aims to show a current panorama of agile contracting for software development and its application in different sectors of the economy with an emphasis on the public sector. Results: The results obtained show few examples of the application of agile contracts, especially in the public sector; suggesting research opportunities and the generation of proposals in this context. Conclusions: It has been concluded that the contracting methods used by public institutions can be an obstacle to agile approaches. In addition, this document presents recommendations for adjusting contracts that seek to facilitate developments approached from the perspective of agile approaches in the public sector.
Confidentiality attacks against encrypted control systems

ABSTRACT Encrypted control systems were introduced to enhance the security of cyber-physical systems, which outsource control action computations to a third-party platform. To protect the confidentiality of the transmitted data, homomorphic encryption schemes are particularly appealing for their capability of allowing computations on encrypted data. By considering the popular ElGamal and Paillier encryption schemes, this paper shows that encrypted control systems are vulnerable to attackers leveraging the inherently small domains of the plaintext data in control systems and the randomisation process required to make the utilised ciphers semantically secure. Finally, we present some countermeasures to defend against these attacks.
Investigation of gut microbiota and short-chain fatty acids in Strongyloides stercoralis-infected patients in a rural community

Intestinal parasitic infections can change gut microbiota and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). We aimed to study the interaction among Strongyloides stercoralis, human gut microbiota, and serum SCFAs in a community. Fifty-two subjects in Donchang sub-district, Khon Kaen Province, northeastern Thailand, were included based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Characteristics of the participants were matched between those positive for S. stercoralis infection alone (no other intestinal parasites; Ss+, n=26) and uninfected controls (infection status confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR); Ss−, n=26). Serum short-chain fatty acids were evaluated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. DNA was extracted from individual faecal samples and then pooled into two groups (Ss+ and Ss−) for amplification and sequencing of the V3–V4 region of the 16S gene with next-generation technology. We explored the impact of infection with S. stercoralis on the faecal microbiota: individuals infected with this parasite exhibited increased alpha diversity of bacteria. At the genus level, gut microbiota in Ss+ patients showed high abundances of Escherichia-Shigella and Bacteroides but low abundances of the genera Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and Blautia. PCR of individual samples to identify certain species of interest gave results consistent with those from next-generation sequencing of pooled samples and showed that significantly more Ss+ samples contained Bacteroides fragilis. Intriguingly, a major SCFA, acetic acid, was significantly decreased in S. stercoralis infection. In conclusion, S. stercoralis infection caused an imbalance of gut microbiota and decreased acetic acid in serum. This information adds to the knowledge concerning the effect of intestinal nematode-related chronic diseases.
Facile Preparation of Chitosan-Based Composite Film with Good Mechanical Strength and Flame Retardancy

To improve on the poor strength and flame retardancy of a chitosan (CS)-based functional film, cellulose nanofiber (CNF) was taken as the reinforced material and both ammonium polyphosphate (APP) and branched polyethyleneimine (BPEI) as the flame-retardant additives in the CS matrix to prepare the CS/CNF/APP/BPEI composite film by simple drying. The resulting composite film showed good mechanical strength, with a tensile strength reaching 71.84 Mpa due to the high flexibility of CNF and the combination of CS, CNF and BPEI through strong hydrogen bonding interactions. The flame retardant-performance of the composite film greatly enhanced the limit oxygen index (LOI), up to 32.7% from 27.6% for the pure film, and the PHRR intensity decreased to 28.87 W/g from 39.38% in the micro-scale combustion calorimetry (MCC) test due to the ability of BPEI to stimulate the decomposition of APP, releasing non-flammable gases such as CO2, N2, NH3, etc., and forming a protective phosphating layer to block the entry of O2. Based on the good flame retardancy, mechanical strength and transparency, the CS/CNF/APP/BPEI composite film has a great potential for future applications.
Novel Hepta-band Coupled-fed Antenna for WWAN/LTE Metal-ring-frame Smartphone Applications

A novel hepta-band coupled-fed antenna is presented for WWAN/LTE metal-ring- frame (MRF) smartphone applications in this paper. Unlike the conventional solutions simply removing the redundant resonances generated by the metal ring, A creative couple-fed scheme is utilized in this proposed antenna to take full advantage of the metal ring resonances. With com- pact size occupation and wide band coverage, the proposed antenna for smartphones enhances the bandwidth coverage, as well as user experience of cosmetic appearance and mechanical strength.
The impact of employee empowerment on organizational performance: A mediating role of employee engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour

Purpose:The aim of the study is to assess the mediating role of employee engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour on the relationship between employee empowerment (structural, psychological) and organisational performance in non-commercial banks in Ghana.Design/Methodology/ approach: SEM (EQS) was used to test the proposed hypothesis based on 304 employees selected from eight non-commercial banks in the Bono Region, Ghana.Findings: Organisational citizenship behaviour was a significant mediator on the relationship between employee empowerment (structural and psychological) and organisational performance. However, employee engagement showed no positive effect on the relationship between employee empowerment (structural, psychological) and organisational performance.Research limitations/Implications: This study assists managers and leaders to understand how employee empowerment influences organisational performance in the current business environment. The study was conducted in a particular area; Ghana, making it difficult to generalise the results across other countries. Practical implication: The study provides practical knowledge to managers and leaders on the role of organisational citizenship behaviour and employee engagement on the relationship between employee empowerment (structural, psychological) and organisational performance that facilitates the decision-making process.Originality and value: The originality of the present study relays on the interaction among structural and psychological empowerment, organisational citizenship behaviour, employee engagement and organisational performance in a developing economy where this research has not been done before.
Exploring UK media’s influences on public perceptions of LGBTQIA+ representations at pride festivals

ABSTRACT Pride and festivals have contributed significantly to social change by increased visibility and campaigning for gay rights, highlighting the importance of the events industry in enhancing the LGBTQIA+ movement’s representation. This has not been reflected in research with a lack of convergence between queer, social-cognitive behaviour and communication theories. This study addresses this gap by investigating the UK? news media’s representations of Pride and their impact on public perceptions of the LGBTQIA+ community. ‘Sentiwordnet’ opinion mining software was used to analyse media representations of pride in eight UK newspapers. Selected images and headlines were then embedded into a survey to understand image perception, headline correlation and exposure to different media types. The study found limited influence of traditional news media on participants’ perceptions of pride, despite some negative framing. Fifth estate journalism emerges as positive and influential, revealing a shift in media representation influences. The paper proposes a revised framework incorporating the Fifth estate when measuring public perceptions of LGBTQIA+.
Neural network to investigate gaming addiction and its impact on health effects during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Playing games become a serious issue and may have adverse effects on the quality of life of children. The research aims at identify in the factors and degree of influence which lead to gaming addiction and its impact on the quality of life of world children employing a comprehensive. Our method collects 2,526 children and adults’ data for five significant regions globally contain schools and universities in municipal and non-municipal areas. The research also aims to investigate the effect that gaming addiction has on the quality of life of children. Structural equation test and the (NNM) were uutilized to analyze the data. The results indicate some differences between boys and girls as to what factors lead to gaming addiction. The average Root Means Square Error (RMSE) of the neural network model is relatively low (.0103 for male training data and .0113 for male examining data, while for females it was .0103 for exercising data and .0104 for examining data), But gaming addiction was found to harm the life for both genders. Discussions comprising both academic as well as practical perspectives are also presented. © 2022
The assessment culture of mathematics in Finland: a student perspective

ABSTRACT This study outlines the assessment culture of mathematics in Finnish basic education (grades 6 and 9) based on a nationally-sampled dataset (N = 673). The study draws on the theoretical framework of assessment cultures as defined through cultures of learning, compliance and fear. We approach the assessment culture of mathematics through the student perspective. Students responded to a survey of how often summative and formative assessment practises were used in mathematics, and how useful they perceived them to be. A cluster analysis was conducted to understand the various student sub-groups on the basis of their perceptions of assessment. Overall, the results highlight the dominating role of exams as the backbone of mathematics assessment. Based on these findings, we conclude that in Finland, where assessment in basic education is mainly low-stakes, and where there are no national tests at this level, the assessment culture of mathematics largely represents a culture of compliance.
Computing driver tiredness and fatigue in automobile via eye tracking and body movements

The aim of this paper is to classify the driver tiredness and fatigue in automobile via eye tracking and body movements using deep learning based Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm. Vehicle driver face localization serves as one of the most widely used real-world applications in fields like toll control, traffic accident scene analysis, and suspected vehicle tracking. The research proposed a CNN classifier for simultaneously localizing the region of human face and eye positioning. The classifier, rather than bounding rectangles, gives bounding quadrilaterals, which gives a more precise indication for vehicle driver face localization. The adjusted regions are preprocessed to remove noise and passed to the CNN classifier for real time processing. The preprocessing of the face features extracts connected components, filters them by size, and groups them into face expressions. The employed CNN is the well-known technology for human face recognition. One we aim to extract the facial landmarks from the frames, we will then leverage classification models and deep learning based convolutional neural networks that predict the state of the driver as 'Alert' or 'Drowsy' for each of the frames extracted. The CNN model could predict the output state labels (Alert/Drowsy) for each frame, but we wanted to take care of sequential image frames as that is extremely important while predicting the state of an individual. The process completes, if all regions have a sufficiently high score or a fixed number of retries are exhausted. The output consists of the detected human face type, the list of regions including the extracted mouth and eyes with recognition reliability through CNN with an accuracy of 98.57% with 100 epochs of training and testing.
EVALUATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF HIGH PERFORMANCE REAL-TIME SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR RAYLEIGH SCATTERING BASED QUENCH DETECTION FOR HIGH FIELD SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETS

YBCO coated conductors are one of the primary options for generating the high magnetic fields needed for future high energy physics devices. Due to slow quench propagation, quench detection remains one of the primary limitations to YBCO magnets. Fiber optic sensing, based upon Rayleigh scattering, has the potential for quench detection with high spatial resolution. This paper discusses the potential of multi-core CPUs and GPUs to accelerate the signal processing demands associated with Rayleigh scattering based quench detection systems in a real-time environment. This technology study was made possible by LabVIEWGPU Analysis Toolkit and the LabVIEW Multicore Analysis and Sparse Matrix Toolkit [1,2].
Process Parameter Prediction and Modeling of Laser Percussion Drilling by Artificial Neural Networks

Finding process parameters for laser-drilled blind holes often relies on an engineer’s experience and the trial-and-error method. However, determining such parameters should be possible using methodical calculations. Studies have already begun to examine the use of neural networks to improve the efficiency of this situation. This study extends the field of research by applying artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict the required parameters for drilling stainless steel with a certain depth and diameter of blind holes, and it also pre-simulates the drilling result of these predicted parameters before actual laser processing. The pre-simulated drilling results were also compared with real-world observations after drilling the stainless steel. These experimental findings confirmed that the proposed method can be used to accurately select laser drilling parameters and predict results in advance. Being able to make these predictions successfully reduces time spent, manpower, and the number of trial-and-error shots required in the pre-processing phase. In addition to providing specific data for engineers to use, this method could also be used to develop a set of reference parameters, greatly simplifying the laser drilling process.
Productive Gaming and the Case for Historiographic Game-Play

This chapter examines the potential of video games as a learning tool given their productive capacity for content creation and dissemination. Based on the findings from a longitudinal, two-year design-based research study investigating the potential of learning communities constructed around using Civilization III (a turn-based historical simulation-strategy game), the chapter argues that historical model construction is a compelling way to mediate one’s understandings about history. Participants in this game-based learning program developed new identities as producers as well as consumers of historical simulations. Two distinct trajectories of expertise were found to be emerging: one that developed around expert, systemic gaming (orienting toward the experience as a game system), and another that we call historical gaming, orienting to the game experience as a form of “replaying history. ” Both forms have value, emphasizing different aspects of the game system. We believe that a community tying these two forms of gaming together (and other ones, as they emerge) is key for building robust learning environments.