Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Group polarisation among location-based game players: an analysis of use and attitudes towards game slang

PurposeThis study investigates how game design, which divides players into static teams, can reinforce group polarisation. The authors study this phenomenon from the perspective of social identity in the context of team-based location-based games, with a focus on game slang.Design/methodology/approachThe authors performed an exploratory data analysis on an original dataset of n = 242,852 messages from five communication channels to find differences in game slang adoption between three teams in the location-based augmented reality game Pokémon GO. A divisive word “jym” (i.e. a Finnish slang derivative of the word “gym”) was discovered, and players' attitudes towards the word were further probed with a survey (n = 185). Finally, selected participants (n = 25) were interviewed in person to discover any underlying reasons for the observed polarised attitudes.FindingsThe players' teams were correlated with attitudes towards “jym”. Face-to-face interviews revealed association of the word to a particular player subgroup and it being used with improper grammar as reasons for the observed negative attitudes. Conflict over (virtual) territorial resources reinforced the polarisation.Practical implicationsGame design with static teams and inter-team conflict influences players' social and linguistic identity, which subsequently may result in divisive stratification among otherwise cooperative or friendly player-base.Originality/valueThe presented multi-method study connecting linguistic and social stratification is a novel approach to gaining insight on human social interactions, polarisation and group behaviour in the context of location-based games.
Metal oxide semiconductor 3D printing: preparation of copper(II) oxide by fused deposition modelling for multi-functional semiconducting applications

A CuO semiconductor was successfully prepared by fused deposition modeling (FDM) and sintering technique. A 1.75 mm high-loading Cu composite was extruded and printed into a desired size and shape. The sample was sintered and calcined to transform Cu powder to CuO semiconductor. The 3-dimensional (3D) printed CuO had a scaffold structure with a half density of bulk CuO. It had a mechanical characteristic like a scaffold ceramic although prepared by FDM machine. van der Pauw measurement and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy were used to determine the electrical and optical properties of the 3D printed CuO respectively. The 3D printed CuO was used as an example of a 3D semiconductor which has a response to light, pressure, and temperature. This technique has a potential to be applied in any FDM machine which might allow anyone to print semiconductor or other related materials.
Managing Uncertainty in Geological CO2 Storage Using Bayesian Evidential Learning

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been increasingly looking like a promising strategy to reduce CO2 emissions and meet the Paris agreement’s climate target. To ensure that CCS is safe and successful, an efficient monitoring program that will prevent storage reservoir leakage and drinking water contamination in groundwater aquifers must be implemented. However, geologic CO2 sequestration (GCS) sites are not completely certain about the geological properties, which makes it difficult to predict the behavior of the injected gases, CO2 brine leakage rates through wellbores, and CO2 plume migration. Significant effort is required to observe how CO2 behaves in reservoirs. A key question is: Will the CO2 injection and storage behave as expected, and can we anticipate leakages? History matching of reservoir models can mitigate uncertainty towards a predictive strategy. It could prove challenging to develop a set of history matching models that preserve geological realism. A new Bayesian evidential learning (BEL) protocol for uncertainty quantification was released through literature, as an alternative to the model-space inversion in the history-matching approach. Consequently, an ensemble of previous geological models was developed using a prior distribution’s Monte Carlo simulation, followed by direct forecasting (DF) for joint uncertainty quantification. The goal of this work is to use prior models to identify a statistical relationship between data prediction, ensemble models, and data variables, without any explicit model inversion. The paper also introduces a new DF implementation using an ensemble smoother and shows that the new implementation can make the computation more robust than the standard method. The Utsira saline aquifer west of Norway is used to exemplify BEL’s ability to predict the CO2 mass and leakages and improve decision support regarding CO2 storage projects.
Bayesian analysis of the chronology of the Lynch site (25BD1) and comparisons to the Central Plains Tradition and Central Plains Oneota

This paper presents a series of new radiocarbon dates on the Lynch site (25BD1), an Initial Coalescent site in northeastern Nebraska, and takes a Bayesian approach to examining them in three contexts. First, we consider what they tell us about the chronology of occupation at the site itself. Second, we combine them with dates on other sites in the Ponca Creek drainage to consider the chronological pattern of horticultural settlement there. Finally, we compare the Ponca Creek dates to the radiocarbon chronologies for the Central Plains tradition and Central Plains Oneota. Our analysis indicates that people settled Lynch from east to west and abandoned it from west to east between roughly AD 1250 and 1350. At its maximum extent, farmers appear to have occupied the full 80 ha extent of the site. As farmers settled Lynch, closely related people settled upstream on Ponca Creek. People abandoned these communities shortly before they abandoned Lynch. Farmers settled on Ponca Creek as a whole shortly after the major expansion of Central Plains tradition (CPt) ways of life and the appearance of Central Plains Oneota towns and abandoned that area a generation or two before CPt communities disappeared. Central Plains Oneota communities persisted into the mid 1400s. The Lynch/Ponca Creek pattern is consistent with the movement of Central Plains populations into the southern portion of the Middle Missouri in the early 1300s.
Fish farmers’ welfare and climate change adaptation strategies in southwest, Nigeria: Application of multinomial endogenous switching regression model

Abstract This study examined the impact of climate change adaptation strategies on the welfare status of aquaculture fish farmers in Southwest, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used in the selection of 288 respondents. To account for selection bias due to both observable and unobservable factors where more than two options arise, the multinomial endogenous switching regression model was used to analyze the collected data. The empirical findings revealed that level of education brought about increase in the probability of adopting bore-hole construction, stocking time adjustment and embankment creation as adaptation strategies to climate change. Also, adoption of stocking time adjustment and embankment creation by the adopters increased food security index by 106.1 and 16.9%, respectively. Furthermore, adoption of stocking time adjustment in the adopters’ category reduced the poverty gap by 87.2%. It is, therefore, recommended that policies which promote adoption of climate change adaptation strategies (especially stocking time adjustment and bore-hole construction being the strategies with the highest impact) should be formulated since they are capable of increasing welfare of aquaculture fish farmers.
Unifying inference for semiparametric regression

In the literature, a discrepancy in the limiting distributions of least square estimators between the stationary and nonstationary cases exists in various regression models with different persistence level regressors. This hinders further statistical inference since one has to decide which distribution should be used next. In this paper, we develop a semiparametric partially linear regression model with stationary and nonstationary regressors to attenuate this difficulty, and propose a unifying inference procedure for the coefficients. To be specific, we propose a profile weighted estimation equation method that facilitates the unifying inference. The proposed method is applied to the predictive regressions of stock returns, and an empirical likelihood procedure is developed to test the predictability. It is shown that the Wilks theorem holds for the empirical likelihood ratio regardless of predictors being stationary or not, which provides a unifying method for constructing confidence regions of the coefficients of state variables. Simulations show that the proposed method works well and has favourable finite sample performance over some existing approaches. An empirical application examining the predictability of equity returns highlights the value of our methodology.
The Role of Various Chlorides on Xylose Conversion to Furfural: Experiments and Kinetic Modeling

In this paper, the catalytic activity of thirteen different metal chlorides in aqueous solution for the conversion of xylose into furfural was studied in comparison with both the auto‐ and HCl‐catalyzed reactions. A maximum furfural yield of 60.3 mol % was reached with the addition of FeCl3 to the aqueous xylose solution. However, the catalytic efficiency of FeCl3 decreased on use of birch hydrolysate as a raw material, resulting in 43.5 mol % furfural yield. The obtained experimental results were incorporated in a kinetic modeling study. The assessed reaction rates for xylose dehydration to furfural and xylose decomposition to byproducts, in the presence of AlCl3 and CrCl3 are significantly higher than during acid‐catalyzed conversion. The logarithms of the reaction rates show a linear correlation with the ionization energy as well as with the acidity of the metal ions.
Comparative Study of Environmental Disclosure in Indonesia and Malaysia: Testing Company Characteristics

There are two purposes of this study. The first is to compare the environmental disclosure practices in the annual report of Indonesian and Malaysian manufacturing companies. The second is to test the impact of firm characteristics on environmental disclosure, both in Indonesia and Malaysia. Firm characteristics are represented by firm size, profitability, liquidity, firm age, and audit firm size. Under the Slovin’s Formula and purposive sampling method, 82 Indonesian and 167 Malaysian manufacturing companies are selected. Dichotomy approaches are used to measure the dependent variable of environmental disclosure. There are 9 main aspects which include 30 items of environmental according to Sustainable Reporting Guidelines version 3.1. Different proxies consist of the natural logarithm of total assets, return on equity ratio, current ratio, the natural logarithm of firm age, and audit firm size (BIG 4 and Non-Big 4) is used as a measurement of the independent variable of firm characteristics. Comparison and relation in this study tested by analysis of descriptive statistics, t-test, and multiple regression. A score of environmental disclosure both in Indonesia and Malaysia is only 18,33%. The result indicates that the environmental awareness of businessmen in manufacturing companies still low. The result of the t-test shows that there is a difference in environmental disclosure between Indonesia and Malaysia. The multiple regression analysis shows that firm size, audit firm size, and firm age are significant predictors of environmental disclosure both in Indonesia and Malaysia. Profitability and liquidity show no influence on environmental disclosure in both countries.
Serum Adiponectin, Body Adiposity and Metabolic Profile in Relation to Obesity among Egyptian Children with Down Syndrome

Children with Down syndrome (DS) have a higher risk for obesity. Adiponectin plays a crucial role in obesity-related cardiometabolic comorbidities. We aimed to determine whether body adiposity indicators, metabolic syndrome (MetS) components, serum adiponectin and insulin resistance indicies are different in "obese-DS" children compared to BMI-Z-score-matched "obese-control" and to clarify the usefulness of serum adiponectin as a biomarker for MetS in DS children. Cross-sectional study included 150 prepubertal children classfied into three groups; obese-DS (n = 50), obese-control (n = 50) and normal-weight-control (n = 50). Participants were evaluated for waist-circumference (WC), body adiposity, serum triglycerides, HDL-C, adiponectin and Homeostasis-Model-Assessment of Insulin-Resistance (HOMA-IR). MetS was defined using modified Adult Treatment Panel III-criteria. Obese-DS had significantly higher WC, %body fat, total-fat mass, trunk-fat mass, trunk/appendicular-FM ratio, triglycerides, insulin and HOMA-IR and significantly lower HDL-C values compared to obese-control. Higher prevalence of MetS and its components were observed in obese-DS that was evident at younger age. Serum adiponectin was significantly lower in obese-DS compared with obese-control and in obese-DS children with MetS compared to obese-control with MetS. The decrease in adiponectin with increasing grades of obesity was pronounced in obese-DS. Adiponectin exhibited strong correlations with body adiposity, several MetS components and HOMA-IR in obese-DS. Adiponectin performed better as a biomarker for MetS among obese-DS (AUC = 0.808) than among obese-control (AUC = 0.674). In conclusion, prepubertal obese-DS displayed excess body adiposity with pronounced central fat distribution, atherogenic lipid profile and higher insulin resistance compared to matched obese-control. Adiponectin performed better as potential biomarker of MetS in obese-DS than among obese-control.
Foundations of compositional models: inference

Compositional models, as an alternative to Bayesian networks, are assembled from a system of low-dimensional distributions. Thus the respective apparatus falls fully into probability theory. The present paper surveys the results supporting the design of computational procedures, without which the application of these models to practical problems would be impossible. The methods of inference cannot do without a possibility to focus on a part of the considered multidimensional model and to incorporate data describing the actual situation. Thus the paper shows how to compute marginals and conditionals of multidimensional models. Also, the paper briefly solves the problem of computing the effect of an intervention, in case the model is interpreted as a causal model.
Active lifestyle as a reflection of cognitive reserve: The Modified Cognitive Reserve Scale

Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to individual differences in cognitive processing that can protect from and compensate for functional decline related to ageing or brain pathology. The CR theory postulates that attaining an active and cognitively stimulating lifestyle can accumulate CR. The Cognitive Reserve Scale (CRS) is a questionnaire that measures lifelong attainment in leisure activities. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the usefulness, validity and reliability of a modified Finnish translation of the CRS, the Modified Cognitive Reserve Scale (mCRS). The mCRS consists of 20 questions concerning studying and information seeking, hobbies and social relationships during three age phases: young adulthood (18–35 years), adulthood (36–64 years) and late adulthood ( 65 years). A group of 69 neurologically healthy adults aged 26–78 filled the mCRS and completed a neuropsychological test battery. We examined the internal consistency of the mCRS and associations between the mCRS, demographical variables and cognitive performance. The mCRS was normally distributed and showed satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.81). It was significantly associated with occupation (ԑ 1⁄4 0.14) and education (rho 1⁄4 0.51) but not with age or gender. There were significant associations between the mCRS and verbal reasoning (rho 1⁄4 .306), visual reasoning (r 1⁄4 .319), learning (r 1⁄4 .293) and inhibition (rho 1⁄4 -.368). Our study suggests that the mCRS is a reliable and valid method to assess lifelong leisure activity. The mCRS is related to other factors that enhance CR, occupation and education, and associated with cognitive performance of healthy adults. It provides an easily administrable means to assess lifelong attainment in stimulating leisure activities.
Information Sharing and Decision-Making: Attempts by Ghanaian Return Migrants to Enter through Libya

This article examines the relationship between irregular migration, access to information and migration decisions. Using semi-structured interviews of thirty irregular return migrants who failed to reach their European destinations through Libya, I show that irregular return migrants from Ghana rely predominantly on interpersonal sources, including colleagues, neighbors, friends and relatives, for information on migration. Return migrants seek information from those who have relevant experience with that kind of migration. Existing research focuses on information from ‘formal’ sources such as traditional print media, social media, library or workshops. Here I argue that this focus on access to information conceals the activities and practices of irregular return migrants who perceive European destinations as ‘greener pastures’ and seek information to travel through dangerous routes. Most irregular return migrants interviewed in this study indicated they had access to information from ‘informal’ sources often shared as ‘jokes. ’ Although irregular return migrants perceive the information they gather through their everyday activities as reliable, their interactions involve complex and unstructured social processes.
Prevalence and correlates of contraceptive use among vocational schools adolescents in Northern Thailand

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with contraceptive use among school-going adolescents. ,A cross-sectional study was conducted among vocational school students in Phitsanulok, Northern Thailand. The study employed a multistage random sampling technique to select 391 students from three schools that were purposively selected. ,The prevalence of contraceptive use during the most recent sexual intercourse was 75.8%. The condom was the most commonly used contraceptive method, followed by emergency pills and the rhythm/calendar method. Being male, in the second academic year, sexual communication with parents, sex with a casual partner or sex worker and contraceptive use at sexual initiation were significant risk factors for contraceptive use (p < 0.05). The preventive factors were subdistrict municipality area residency, extended family, medium or high income and partners who drank (p < 0.05). ,The authors found a high prevalence of contraceptive use among school-going adolescents. Maintaining and improving this trend would require a concerted effort from all stakeholders to promote early sexuality communication and ensure access and use of contraceptive services.
Evaluation of Vapor Intrusion Risk from Ethylene Dibromide Using the Vertical Screening Distance Approach

Vapor intrusion (VI) occurs when volatile contaminants in the subsurface migrate through the vadose zone into overlying buildings. The 2015 U.S. EPA petroleum VI guidance recommends that additional investigation of the VI risk from gasoline hydrocarbons at the underground storage tank (UST) sites is not necessary where the vertical distance between a building and a vapor source exceeds a recommended vertical screening distance. However, due to the lack of soil‐gas data on the attenuation of ethylene dibromide (EDB), additional VI investigations to evaluate VI risk from EDB are recommended at UST sites with leaded gasoline releases containing EDB. We analyzed soil‐gas and groundwater concentrations of EDB from eight petroleum UST sites using a new analytical method with soil‐gas detection limit <0.16 μg/m3 EDB (VI screening level at the 10−6 risk level). The analysis included (1) assessing the frequency of EDB detections ≤0.16 μg/m3 at various vertical separation distances and (2) predicting vertical screening distances for EDB using the U.S. EPA PVIScreen model for different soil types in the vadose zone above dissolved‐phase and LNAPL sources. Ranges of estimated aerobic biodegradation rate constants for EDB, air exchange rates for residential buildings, and source vapor concentrations for other constituents were combined with conservative estimates of EDB source concentrations as model inputs. Concentrations of EDB in soil‐gas indicated that the U.S. EPA recommended vertical screening distances are protective of VI risk from EDB. Conversely, vertical screening distances predicted by modeling were >6 ft (1.8 m) for sites with sand and loam soil above dissolved phase sources and >15 ft (4.6 m) for sites with sand soil above LNAPL sources. This predicted dependence on the vapor source type and soil type in the vadose zone highlights the importance of soil characterization for VI screening at sites with EDB sources.
Recovery of Soil-Denitrifying Community along a Chronosequence of Sand-Fixation Forest in a Semi-Arid Desertified Grassland

Revegetation on moving sand dunes is a widely used approach for restoring the degraded sandy land in northeastern China. The development of sand-fixation forest might improve the structures of soil microbial communities and affect soil N cycle. In the present study, the diversities of nitrite (nirS and nirK) and nitrous oxide (nosZ) reductase genes were investigated under a chronosequence of Caragana microphylla sand-fixation shrub forest (9- and 19-year), adjacent non-vegetated shifting sand-dune, and a natural forest dominated by C. microphylla. The dominant compositions and gene abundance were analyzed by a clone library technique and quantitative polymerase chain reaction, respectively. The compositions and dominant taxa of nirK, nirS, and nosZ communities under forest soil were all similar to those in the shifting sand-dune. However, the three gene abundances all linearly increased across forest age. Clones associated with known denitrifiers carrying nosZ, nirK, or nirS genes, such as members of Pseudomonas, Mesorhizobium, Rhizobium, Rhodopseudomonas, Azospirillum, and Cupriavidus, were detected. These denitrifiers were found to be abundant in soil and dominant in soil denitrification. Soil pH, total N, and available N affected the denitrifying communities by altering the relative abundance of dominant taxa. Overall, although soil attributes and forest age had no significant effects on the dominant constituents of nirK, nirS, and nosZ communities, revegetation on shifting sand-dunes facilitated the quantitative restoration of soil denitrifiers due to the increase in soil nutrients.
Vacation preferences in the COVID-19 era: an investigation of age-related effects

ABSTRACT This research examines how individuals’ vacation preferences may vary due to their reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it investigates the influence of age on the individuals’ negative affect felt during the lockdown period of the first contagion wave and their level of uncertainty subsequently perceived. A study conducted in Italy shows an inverse relationship between age and negative affect, which in turn enhanced perceived uncertainty. Furthermore, perceived uncertainty is inversely related to individuals’ preference for exciting vacations over relaxing ones. These findings suggest a potential change in vacation preferences and carry implications for tourism companies.