Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of neural information content from the phase component of a 32-channel frequency-domain fNIRS system

We present a 32-transmitter, 32-receiver dual-wavelength frequency-domain (FD) fNIRS system comprised of commercially available avalanche photodiodes, laser drivers and laser mounts. The custom frequency domain (FD) fNIRS system is used to interrogate cerebral tissue with optodes positioned at the posterior occipital region of the head. Data are collected from human subjects watching movie scenes with no sound. We applied cross-validated PCA to identify the number of dimensions retained in the neural signal recorded using FD-fNIRS for the magnitude, phase, and FD (magnitude and phase combined) components of the recorded signal. Importantly, a comparison of the cross-validation error for each signal allows us quantify the dimensionality of the linear subspace spanned by each data type. The number of principal components producing the minimum cross-validation error for the held-out test runs represents the number of orthogonal signal dimensions preserved across training and held-out test data runs. We find that the FD signal captures a higher dimensional space compared to the magnitude or phase signals in isolation. Previous theoretical and empirical work suggest that signals extracted using FD-fNIRS contain higher fidelity neural information than CW-fNIRS in isolation. The findings reported here further support this hypothesis and extend beyond the findings reported in the literature, demonstrating that a higher dimension linear subspace is covered by FD-fNIRS above and beyond the baseline signal captured using traditional CW-fNIRS, assuming other optical performance metrics such as optical dynamic range, noiseequivalent power and cross-talk are comparable. This work was funded by a research contract under Facebook’s Sponsored Academic Research Agreement.
How moral outrage affects consumer’s perceived values of socially irresponsible companies

Abstract The research about responsible consumption began during the 70’s decade, but recently it became extremely relevant due to global warming and increasing social demands. In this regard, our research tries to determine the effects of moral outrage on consumers’ perceived values of socially irresponsible companies. Once we introduce our research problem, we conduct in the first stage a literature review, to construct a conceptual model for responsible consumption. In the second section, we verified our previous conceptual model at a practical level, applying a quantitative approach through structural equations. Specifically, we verify the effects of the moral outrage, on consumers’ perceived values, in the context of a price cartel, that operated for more than 14 years, involving the biggest five producers of toilet paper, napkins, diapers, and handkerchiefs in Colombia. The findings show that the moral outrage due to corporate social irresponsibility, affect the consumer’s perceived values, related to (i) the consumer loyalty, and (ii) the consumer social and economic costs. Based on these findings, we suggest some implications for marketing practitioners, public policy-makers, shareholders and CEOs. Furthermore, we also recommend the future inclusion of the control mechanisms, and the technical cycle for products and services, in the responsible consumption studies.
“We Participate, Silently”: Explicating Thai University Students’ Perceptions of Their Classroom Participation and Communication

This study explores Thai university students’ perceptions of their reluctance in verbal classroom participation especially in situations where English is used as the medium for instruction. It is generally perceived that non-native learners particularly from high context cultures such as Thailand have the tendency to remain silent during discussion sessions or when they are asked to participate in activities related to expressing their opinions. By investigating this phenomenon through focus group meetings with Thai university students, this study reveals reasons that cause students to be hesitant speakers in class through the eyes of students themselves. The results confirm that though students agree to the common perception of Asian students being quiet learners, they did not agree that they were passive learners; they emphasized the fact that they used ‘silence’ as a tool to quietly yet attentively participate. The study also highlights that students’ silence can be seen as a way to harmonize with the environment and situation which is the cultural norm in the Thai context.
Reversible Luminescence Vapochromism and Crystal-to-Amorphous-to-Crystal Transformations of Pseudopolymorphic Cu(I) Coordination Polymers

Four solvent-responsive one-dimensional copper(I) coordination polymers (CPs), namely, {[Cu4I4L(MeCN)2]·CH2Cl2}n (1), {[Cu4I4L(MeCN)2]·CHCl3}n (2), {[Cu4I4L(MeCN)2]·0.5p-xylene}n (3), and [Cu4I4L(MeCN)2]n (4), were prepared by reaction of CuI with N,N′-bis[2-(cyclohexylthio)ethyl]pyromellitic diimide (L) via self-assembly under varying solvent conditions. CPs 1–4, which are pseudopolymorphic supramolecular isomers derived from solvent molecules, are composed of Cu4I4 cubane clusters. The ligands in CPs 1–3 adopted a syn-conformation, whereas in CP 4 they were observed in the anti-conformation. This occurred via syn to anti transitions upon heating, followed by exposure to MeCN vapor. In addition, a reversible anti to syn transition was achieved by agitating in mixed organic solvents. It was shown that ligand transition from the syn- to the anti-conformation occurred through crystal-to-amorphous-to-crystal transformations. Furthermore, CPs 1–3 exhibited reversible solvent exchange and crystal transformatio.
Impacts of Consolidation Time on the Critical Hydraulic Gradient of Newly Deposited Silty Seabed in the Yellow River Delta

The silty seabed in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) is exposed to deposition, liquefaction, and reconsolidation repeatedly, during which seepage flows are crucial to the seabed strength. In extreme cases, seepage flows could cause seepage failure (SF) in the seabed, endangering the offshore structures. A critical condition exists for the occurrence of SF, i.e., the critical hydraulic gradient (icr). Compared with cohesionless sands, the icr of cohesive sediments is more complex, and no universal evaluation theory is available yet. The present work first improved a self-designed annular flume to avoid SF along the sidewall, then simulated the SF process of the seabed with different consolidation times in order to explore the icr of newly deposited silty seabed in the YRD. It is found that the theoretical formula for icr of cohesionless soil grossly underestimated the icr of cohesive soil. The icr range of silty seabed in the YRD was 8–16, which was significantly affected by the cohesion and was inversely proportional to the seabed fluidization degree. SF could “pump” the sediments vertically from the interior of the seabed with a contribution to sediment resuspension of up to 93.2–96.8%. The higher the consolidation degree, the smaller the contribution will be.
Nanoparticle Precursor into Polycrystalline Bi2Fe4O9: An Evolutionary Investigation of Structural, Morphological, Optical, and Vibrational Properties

Mullite-type Bi2Fe4O9 was synthesized using a polyol-mediated method. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) revealed that the as-synthesized sample is nanocrystalline. It transformed into a rhombohedral perovskite-type BiFeO3 followed by a second transformation into mullite-type Bi2Fe4O9 during heating. Each structural feature, from as-synthesized into crystalline phase, was monitored through temperature-dependent XRD in situ. The locally resolved high resolution transmission electron micrographs revealed that the surface of some heated samples is covered by 4–13 nm sized particles which were identified from the lattice fringes as crystalline Bi2Fe4O9. XRD and Raman spectra demonstrate that the nucleation of both BiFeO3 and Bi2Fe4O9 might simultaneously commence; however, their growth and ratios are dependent on temperature. The diffuse UV/vis reflectance spectra showed fundamental absorption edges between 1.80(1) and 2.75(3) eV. A comparative study between the “derivation of absorption spectrum fitting method” .
Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Doped Polyaniline for Enhancing the Electrochemical Sensitivity of Mercury Ions

Polyaniline (PANi) was electro-synthesized on the surface of screen-printed carbon electrodes in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a dopant. The complex of aniline and SDS created a conductive (PANi-SDS) film at lower aniline concentration. The PANi-SDS film contained negative charge due to the anionic head of SDS. The PANi-SDS modified electrode was integrated into a poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic chip as an electrochemical sensor for mercury detection. The presence of SDS in the polyaniline film enhanced the possibility of mercury ions uptake, and therefore, increased the peak current of square wave anodic stripping in the mercury detection. The mercury sensor exhibited a dynamic range from 6 to 35 nM with detection limit of 2.4 nM.
Industry 4.0 technologies: critical success factors for implementation and improvements in manufacturing companies

Abstract The impact of Industry 4.0 and its opportunities are expected to be significant for manufacturers. A lack of empirical studies creates the need for academic contributions on the critical success factors of Industry 4.0 implementations and their resultant improvements for manufacturing businesses. This research uses case studies of eight implementations of Industry 4.0 technologies in Italy to supplement existent literature. An original data set was constructed using a purposely defined research protocol using plant visits and structured interviews. Continuous improvement/lean management emerged as a critical success factor for implementation, together with quality and flexibility-based competition, top management leadership, establishment of inter-functional teams, conducting of preparatory activities, project planning and training activities. Incremental/evolutionary and radical/revolutionary improvements in business model elements are possible outcomes of implementations, while addressing customers’ needs emerges as an antecedent to radical/revolutionary improvements. Managers will benefit from understanding how to achieve successful implementations and business improvements.
Statistical Analysis of the Internal Distances of Helical Pairs in Protein Molecules

In this paper, a statistical analysis of a distribution of interhelical distances in the helical pairs of known proteins is carried out. A set of helical pairs of the protein molecules which was selected from the Protein Data Bank according to certain rules was subdivided into three subsets according to the criterion of crossing helix projections onto parallel planes passing through the helical axes. It is shown that the distributions of the distances for the helical pairs not having crossing projections have more long-range character than those whose projections cross. Using regression analysis we analyze the character of distributions, in particular, we show that in the subsets which do not have crossing projections, distributions of different distances between helical axes are gamma distributions. It is demonstrated that in the subsets having crossing projections, the ratio between the minimum distance and the interplane one is likely to be small as distinct from the subset not having crossing projections where the opposite is the case. The conclusion is proved that helical pairs having crossing axes projections are additionally stabilized due to internal interactions.
The students’ perspectives of platforms used in virtual learning environment: a survey study in COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 has been the pandemic in Indonesia since March 2020. Drastically, it impacts on educational segment; therefore, the platforms of digital tools are able to be the best alternative way to overwhelm this issue and to strengthen the material delivery conducted by educational institution including universities. They can be beneficial tools in COVID-19 pandemic condition as teachers’ assistance. Due to these issues, this study was conducted to determine students’ perspective on the implementation of platforms in virtual learning environment during Covid-19 pandemic. This study involved 105 participants of the sixth semester students of English department of Universitas Pamulang. To obtain the data, the writer distributed a survey consisting 3 major questions (the platform reference, the advantages and the challenges); the students handed the reflective notes in to all questions related to the implementation of virtual learning in COVID-19 pandemic situation. The findings revealed that the students prefer having screen recording in learning activity (38.10%), Google Meeting (28.57%), Kahoot (19.04%), and Ed Puzzle (14.29%). Furthermore, the advantages of the platforms are time flexibility, effective platforms, less quota, interaction, fun application, the mastery of grammar; however, the challenges are monotonous activity, the students’ boredom, difficult to create an account, poor responses, poor internet connection and inequivalent schedule.
Encapsulation of Opiorphin in Polymer-coated Alginate Beads for Controlled Delivery and Painkilling

Opiorphin (Oph) is a naturally produced endogenous peptide with a strong analgesic effect, superior to that of morphine, and without the severe side effects that morphine and morphine-like drugs exert. However, despite its strong therapeutic potential, the short duration of action, probably due to its low chemical stability and rapid degradation by the peptidases in the bloodstream, represents a serious obstacle to the Oph use into clinical practice. In this work a novel approach to construct Oph-loaded particles as a platform for its delivery has been developed. Gel beads loaded with Oph were synthesized from alginate, a naturally occurring biodegradable anionic polysaccharide, and coated with polyelectrolyte multilayers (from natural polyelectrolytes (chitosan and hyaluronic acid) and synthetic polyelectrolytes (poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and poly(styrene sulfonate)) or hybrid polyelectrolyte-graphene oxide multilayers. All coated Oph-loaded alginate beads show prolonged drug release compared to the non-coated ones, but the extent of the prolongation depends on the type of the coating. We expect that the successful encapsulation of opiorphin in biodegradable particles will provide an opportunity for the development of adequate drug delivery system with effective and prolonged analgesic activity and will offer a new alternative for pain management.
Robust Ancova: Heteroscedastic Confidence Intervals that Have Some Specified Simultaneous Probability Coverage

California Abstract: The paper deals with robust ANCOVA when there are one or two covariates. Let Mj (Y |X) = β0j + β1j X1 + β2j X2 be some conditional measure of location associated with the random variable Y , given X, where β0j , β1j and β2j are unknown parameters. A basic goal is testing the hypothesis H0: M1(Y |X) = M2(Y |X). A classic ANCOVA method is aimed at addressing this goal, but it is well known that violating the underlying assumptions (normality, parallel regression lines and two types of homoscedasticity) create serious practical concerns. Methods are available for dealing with heteroscedasticity and non-normality, and there are well-known techniques for controlling the probability of one or more Type I errors. But some practical concerns remain, which are reviewed in the paper. An alternative approach is suggested and found to have a distinct power
Evaluating criminal justice reform during COVID-19: The need for a novel sentiment analysis package

The health and safety of incarcerated persons and correctional personnel have been prominent in the U.S. news media discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Examining changing attitudes toward the health of the incarcerated population is imperative to better assess the extent to which the general public favors criminal justice reform. However, existing natural language processing lexicons that underlie current sentiment analysis (SA) algorithms may not perform adequately on news articles related to criminal justice due to contextual complexities. News discourse during the pandemic has highlighted the need for a novel SA lexicon and algorithm (i.e., an SA package) tailored for examining public health policy in the context of the criminal justice system. We analyzed the performance of existing SA packages on a corpus of news articles at the intersection of COVID-19 and criminal justice collected from state-level outlets between January and May 2020. Our results demonstrated that sentence sentiment scores provided by three popular SA packages can differ considerably from manually-curated ratings. This dissimilarity was especially pronounced when the text was more polarized, whether negatively or positively. A randomly selected set of 1,000 manually scored sentences, and the corresponding binary document term matrices, were used to train two new sentiment prediction algorithms (i.e., linear regression and random forest regression) to verify the performance of the manually-curated ratings. By better accounting for the unique context in which incarceration-related terminologies are used in news media, both of our proposed models outperformed all existing SA packages considered for comparison. Our findings suggest that there is a need to develop a novel lexicon, and potentially an accompanying algorithm, for analysis of text related to public health within the criminal justice system, as well as criminal justice more broadly.
Effectiveness of a Home-Based Exercise Intervention in the Fitness Profile of Hispanic Survivors of Breast Cancer

Background: Home-based exercise interventions might be a desirable long-term option for breast cancer survivors to enhance compliance and long-term health benefits. Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of a home-based intervention aimed at helping survivors of breast cancer meet the physical activity guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine. Methods: Eighty-nine women (age: 55.4 ± 10 years; body mass index: 31 ± 6.5 kg/m2) from 2 cancer centers serving Hispanic women participated in this study. Women underwent a baseline assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle endurance and strength, flexibility, range of motion, and extremity disability. After baseline measures, women were randomized into a control or exercise group. The exercise intervention consisted of a walking program, elastic band strengthening, and flexibility exercises performed at home. The outcome measures were reassessed 16 weeks after baseline measures. Results: The intervention showed a strong effect of time on muscle strength and shoulder range of motion, and time and group for self-reported disability. There were no differences in sedentary behavior, physical fitness, and disability measures across intervention groups, including both exercise groups combined and changes over time between intervention groups. Conclusion: It appears that a home-based intervention affects only upper-body strength and related disability, indicating that other components might need closer monitoring for significant changes to occur across time.
Knowledge Management, Information Technology, and Acceptance Students ‘Readiness for Industrial Revolution 4.0

—The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of knowledge management, information technology and soft skills , information sources, and personal problems on students' readiness to face accounting issues in industrial revolution 4.0. The research sample was 150 accounting students at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo, Surabaya, and Gresik East Java, Indonesia. The results of the study are knowledge management, information technology and accounting student soft skills, students' personal problems partially affect the readiness of students to face accounting issues in industrial revolution 4.0 while the source of information has no effect.
Religious identity and politics: Exploring the causes of the political persecution of religious minorities in Kohat District, Pakistan

Religious minorities are victims of political isolation and persecution in societies, where they are subject to violence and discrimination. This study was undertaken in a terrorism-affected area to explore those elements that subjugate and suppress religious minorities’ political participation and representation. To conduct an in-depth analysis, a qualitative inquiry was used for data collection and analysis. The researcher interviewed 13 Christians, seven Hindus, and six Sikhs, using a purposive sampling technique and a semi-structured interview guide. The primary data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. The researcher found that some of the underlying factors behind the political persecution are leadership vacuum, political neglect, post-election negligence, vote dislocation, political ignorance, and political subordination. This study presented a framework for policymakers to solve minorities’ political problems, and for researchers to better understand the minorities’ political oppression on local and international levels.
Adaptive Deadlock Control for a Class of Petri Nets With Unreliable Resources

In an automated manufacturing system (AMS), resources are, in general, subject to unpredictable failures, which invalidate many existing deadlock control strategies. In this article, we propose an adaptive deadlock control policy for an AMS with multiple types of unreliable resources. The considered AMS is modeled with a system of simple sequential processes with resources. First, based on an elementary siphon control method, monitors are added for elementary siphons and some particular dependent siphons to ensure the liveness of a system if there are no resource failures. By considering the fact that an unreliable resource may fail in a system, recovery subnets are added to describe the resource failures and recoveries. Since a monitor added for a siphon may not be able to guarantee that the corresponding siphon is always marked if the failure of a resource in the siphon occurs, the concept of switch controllers is presented so as to make the siphon always remarked if it is emptied by resource failures. It is verified that the adaptive controller proposed in this article can guarantee the liveness of the controlled system no matter whether unreliable resources break down or not. More importantly, if there is no resource failure, the system can maintain predefined production without degrading planned system performance. Finally, examples are presented to illustrate the validity of the proposed method.