Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do We Know Enough to Save European Riverine Fish?—A Systematic Review on Autecological Requirements During Critical Life Stages of 10 Rheophilic Species at Risk

Modeling of fish population developments in the context of hydropower impacts and restoration planning requires autecological information on critical life stages (especially on juvenile stages and reproduction). We compiled and examined the current data availability in peer-reviewed and grey literature on autecological requirements of ten rheophilic fish species at risk, belonging to the salmonid, cyprinid, and cottid families. In total, 1725 data points from 223 sources were included. Economically important salmonids and the common nase were the most studied species. Grey and peer-reviewed data showed similar dispersion and variance and contributed nearly equally to the data pool of the specific species. An in-depth analysis on seven ecological parameters revealed no significant differences between both sources in terms of data availability and quality. We found substantial deficits in the data for about a quarter of the reviewed ecological parameters, in particular on individual densities in the habitats, egg development and information about juvenile stages despite the necessity of such data for more advanced population analyses. To secure fish populations in the long term, more data on basic autecological parameters is needed and grey literature might add valuable information, particularly if it relies on standardized methodologies.
Investigating the supply chain drivers and barriers in the tourism industry in Pretoria

Background: The cross-cutting nature of the tourism industry is one of the defining features or characteristics of the sector. There is a high rate of interdependence in the tourism industry; hence, it is dubbed to be having a multiplier effect (direct, indirect and induced). Objectives: The aim of the study is to investigate the supply chain (SC) drivers and barriers of the businesses operating in the tourism industry in Pretoria. Method: A self-administered questionnaire was used to identify the drivers and barriers within the tourism SC (TSC). Convenience sampling was implemented among 179 businesses operating in Pretoria. Results: The results revealed that customer relationship management is an SC driver for tourism operation in Pretoria. The barriers incorporate issues such as being insensitive to the environment, not developing environmental-friendly SCs and logistics practices and not being able to assess the performance against criteria defined in the organisation’s policy. Moreover, the study presents the mitigation plan approach to deal with the TSC barriers in the near future. Conclusion: Innovation that strengthens inter-sectoral planning and collaboration is pivotal for effective coordination.
Predicting Layoff among Fragile Families

The loss of a job is the loss of a major social and economic role and is associated with long-term negative economic and psychological consequences for workers and families. Modeling the causal effects of a social process like layoff with observational data depends crucially on the degree to which the model accounts for the characteristics that predict loss. We report analyses predicting layoff in the Fragile Families data as part of the Fragile Families Challenge. Our model, grounded in empirical social science research on layoff, did not perform substantially worse than the best-performing model using data science techniques. This result is not fully unforeseen, given that layoff functions as a relatively exogenous shock. Future work using the results of the Challenge should attend to whether small improvements in prediction models, like those we observe across models of layoff, nevertheless significantly increase the validity of subsequent models for causal inference.
Modelling and analysis of complex products design based on supernetwork

Purpose Because of the multiple design elements and complicated relationship among design elements of complex products design, it is tough for designers to systematically and dynamically express and manage the complex products design process. Design/methodology/approach To solve these problems, a supernetwork model of complex products design is constructed and analyzed in this paper. First, the design elements (customer demands, design agents, product structures, design tasks and design resources) are identified and analyzed, then the sub-network of design elements are built. Based on this, a supernetwork model of complex products design is constructed with the analysis of the relationship among sub-networks. Second, some typical and physical characteristics (robustness, vulnerability, degree and betweenness) of the supernetwork were calculated to analyze the performance of supernetwork and the features of complex product design process. Findings The design process of a wind turbine is studied as a case to illustrate the approach in this paper. The supernetwork can provide more information about collaborative design process of wind turbine than traditional models. Moreover, it can help managers and designers to manage the collaborative design process and improve collaborative design efficiency of wind turbine. Originality/value The authors find a new method (complex network or supernetwork) to describe and analyze complex mechanical product design.
The Japanese corporate board network

We analyze the dynamics of the Japanese board network from 2004 until 2013. We find that the network exhibits some clustering with visible firm conglomerates. Ties between firms are rather persistent, despite noticeable churning among directors. Ownership relations explain only a small fraction of board links. Besides densely connected conglomerates, some tendency of within-sector linkages and linkages to financial institutions can be confirmed. We further investigate the increase in the number of outside directors and find that sectoral differences as well as shareholder characteristics explain to large extend the variation in board composition. The connectivity of firms in the ownership and board network is sometimes related to firm profitability. Firms that are linked to peers with above average profitability are likely also more profitable than firms in other ownership relationships.
Knowledge management at Unilever South America – enabling conditions and their interaction with the SECI model

This paper describes the organizational knowledge taxonomy, comprising management of an existing knowledge and creation of a new knowledge, portraying the theoretical path of the field with emphasis on some oppositions such as tacit-explicit and exploration-exploitation and their impact into the organizations. It presents the case study of Unilever South America by analyzing the company’s enabling conditions for knowledge creation and the integration with the SECI (socialization, externalization, combination, internalization) process, in which we identify how the company manages to cope with knowledge creation and sharing as a strategic resource for the product innovation activities of marketing and R&D project teams, thereby aiming to portray features of the organizational knowledge as a strategic resource and its use dimensions in the product development process. The results pointed to advances in the efforts for the dissemination of knowledge by the top management of the company; however, it also shows that some team integration is missing, so that knowledge is shared due to the working structure rather than for individual or collective initiatives, which leads us to conclude that the strategic objectives and efforts of the organization to extend the reach the generated knowledge within the business does not reflect completely in the reality of the working groups.
Multi-Population Artificial Bee Colony (MPABC) Algorithm for Numerical Optimization

This paper aims to propose a variant artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC), called multi-population artificial bee colony (MPABC) algorithm so as to optimize numerical functions with single and/or multiple solutions where the global optimization can be achieved. In MPABC, the solution space (i.e., food source) is partitioned into some subspaces in which a subpopulation of bees are parallel produced and employed to search the local optimization. Among these local optimizations, the ones with highest adaptability are taken as the global optimizations in each iteration step, and the corresponding local solutions are thus the global solutions. With a reasonable partition of solution space, all the global optimization and all the associated global solutions can be found by using MPABC. This property can not be committed by the ABC, as the ABC is interested in finding the global optimization with one solution in one running time. In addition, the MPABC holds higher abilities on convergence speed and accuracy than the ABC. Some experiments were conducted with some numerical functions so as to validate such conclusions.
Sorption of cesium and cobalt ions onto novel zirconium silicophosphate/polyacrylamide nanocomposite

ABSTRACT The ion exchange properties of a novel nanocomposite (nano zirconium silicophosphate/polyacrylamide) were tested against Cs+ and Co2+. Batches were constructed for kinetic and thermodynamic investigations. The highest achievable sorbed amounts of both metal ions were obtained within 120 min. Sorption kinetics of Cs+ and Co2+ followed the pseudo first- and second-order equations, respectively, and was controlled by the chemical sorption mechanisms. Diffusion of both metal ions into particles of the synthesized nanocomposite was the rate determining step. Both metal ions were weakly bonded to sorbent active sites where low values of activation energy (<42 kJ/mol) were obtained. Linear correlation of the sorption isotherm data to Langmuir and Freundlich equations confirmed the favorability of sorption processes. Raising temperature increased both of the monolayer and relative sorption capacities. The maximum sorbed amounts of Cs+ and Co2+ were calculated to be 2.06 and 8.75 mmol/g, respectively, with mean free energies reflecting the ion exchange mechanism. All sorption processes were endothermic and were occurred spontaneously where positive and negative quantities were obtained, respectively, with higher randomness of Cs+ than of Co2+.
Security Attacks in Named Data Networking of Things and a Blockchain Solution

The Internet of Things (IoT) is visioned to connect everything in the world by a common networking technique. In spite that Internet protocol is the most prevailing networking solution, it is difficult to adapt to IoT which is born with scalability, heterogeneity, and dynamics. Thanks to the content-centric communication paradigm, it exerts data-naming strategy to incorporate the heterogeneity and dynamics so as to apply for IoT, composing Named Data Networking (NDN) of Things. However, the paradigm also introduces new types of security attacks. In this paper, the NDN of Things architecture will be illustrated and the security analysis is conducted. Furthermore, the potential security attacks of NDN of Things are categorized and the performance impact caused by security attacks is evaluated. Finally, the solutions for NDN of Things security attacks are discussed and a blockchain solution is illustrated.
Research of O2O website based consumer purchase decision-making model

ABSTRACT This research is based on the consumer purchase decision-making model and O2O (Online to Offline) website features, in which we analyze the intrinsic relationship of various critical variables through data analytics. The impact of different online features includes the discount promotion and word-of-mouth on O2O conversion motives, the effects of online factors on O2O conversion motives and O2O purchase intentions. In this study, the O2O decision-making model was constructed based on the consumer purchase decision model. The case study research method was used to conduct a cross-experiment design that exam the impact of online characteristic factors and perceived risk on the consumers’ purchase intention. Analytical results reveal that under the high perceived risk, the O2O conversion motivation for word-of-mouth is significantly higher than the O2O conversion motivation for discount promotion. Based on such findings derived from this study, a number of recommendations on product/service design are offered.
Exploring GPU-Accelerated Routing for FPGAs

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are reconfigurable architectures able to provide a good balance between energy efficiency and flexibility with respect to CPUs and ASICs. The main drawback in using FPGAs, however, is their timing-consuming routing process, significantly hindering the designer productivity. An emerging solution to this problem is to accelerate the routing by parallelization. Existing attempts of parallelizing the FPGA routing either do not fully exploit the parallelism or suffer from an excessive quality loss. Massive parallelism using GPUs has the potential to solve this issue but faces non-trivial challenges. To cope with these challenges, this paper explores GPU-accelerated routing approach for FPGAs. We leverage the idea of problem size reduction by limiting the single-net routing in a small subgraph rather than in an entire graph, further enabling the GPU-friendly shortest path algorithm to be used in FPGA routing. We maintain the convergence after problem size reduction by using the dynamic expansion of the routing resource subgraph, where the routing region of subgraph will be progressively expanded to find a feasible solution to each net. In addition, we are based on a GPU platform to explore the fine-grained single-net parallel routing in three ways and propose a hybrid approach to combine the static and dynamic parallelization for better speedup in FPGA routing. To explore the coarse-grained multi-net parallelization, We propose a dynamic programming-based partitioning algorithm to parallelize the routing of multiple nets while generating the equivalent routing results as the original single-net routing. Experimental results show that our proposed approach can provide an average of about 21.53× speedup on a single GPU with a tolerable loss in the routing quality and maintain a scalable speedup on large-scale routing resource graphs. To our knowledge, this is the first work to demonstrate the effectiveness of GPU-accelerated routing for FPGAs.
Understanding spirit possession in the Philippines: a social representations approach

ABSTRACT Where there are diverse professionals and curers dealing with possession, differences in representations exist. This study uses social representations theory as a frame to examine both the representational overlaps and differences in possession among various Filipino health professionals and the lay distinctly socialised in Western biomedical and psychological lenses and in local religious and traditional folk beliefs. Themes were extracted from 12 individual interviews. Results showed five representational themes, namely: possession as sinakluban, as a vulnerability, as a disease, as kulam, and as being chosen. Findings were discussed in relation to the interface among religion, indigenous beliefs, psychopathological frame, and the Western biomedical model.
UV illumination for electron and ion beam microscopy and nanofabrication

The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has become the major imaging technique of choice over many fields of science, providing resolution down to a few nanometers. To reduce surface charging, low beam currents and a few-nm-thick highly conductive metal (Au, Pt) coatings are used. The conceptual problem with the metal coating is that it conceals the sample features which it aims to reveal and the characterised samples are altered. A novel approach to control surface charging in SEM via the photoelectric effect is shown. The technique uses deep-UV co-illumination during SEM imaging. Photons of the deep-UV light have sufficient energy to liberate electrons from the sample surface reducing strong charge gradients. In addition, the method provides a new material dependent contrast modality in SEM. Deep-UV illumination also improves nanoscale 3D structuring using focused ion beam milling. Instead of the metal coating for electron/ion imaging, the newly introduced “coating by light” is introduced. Load-lock mountable sample holder with a deep-UV multiwavelength illumination is conceptualised.
Analysis of the Role and Process of Emotion Regulation in Relation with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

This paper analyzes the role of emotion regulation in patients diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Although there are various types of emotion regulation, this paper studies cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression specifically because of their prevalence and imperative role in the behavioral aftermath of emotion. Cognitive reappraisal is studied as an antecedent-focused strategy to control and modify the meaning of a situation, whereas expressive suppression is analyzed as a response-focused strategy that alters behaviors associated with situations that elicit emotion. Patients diagnosed with GAD use emotion regulation as both a defensive strategy and a coping mechanism. Through this understanding, the role of Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) in conjunction with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is depicted. Emotion Regulation Therapy is also proposed as an alternative to CBT because of its ability to cater specifically to individuals with anxiety disorders. This paper studies the implications of the usage of emotion regulation both as a coping mechanism that is self-employed and therapeutically used by health professionals.
Sustainable Technology Innovation Path Recognition: An Evaluation of Patent Risk of International Trade

Patent protection is a critical aspect of sustainable technology innovation, which is currently facing the challenge of patent risk. This study aimed to help enterprises prevent and avoid patent risk in a global view of technology innovation, and to propose a systematic evaluation model for patent risk. By combining the entropy method with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), this study constructed an analytic hierarchy model of patent risk. Some indexes in the model were selected based on the summary of prior literature, and other indexes were selected according to experts’ communication, which helped us to generalize the patent risk as comprehensively as possible. The AHP evaluation results determined the weight and relative materiality for each risk factor, which were contained in a criteria layer and a sub-criteria layer. The entropy method integrated the evaluation weights of different experts’ opinions. By dividing the risk factors into three categories, namely “high”, “medium”, or “low”, according to the priority degree, the risk priority ranking was obtained. Suggestions are discussed regarding support for enterprises in dealing with patent risk that may occur during international trade or other commercial activities.
A pooled mean group approach to the joint effects of oil price changes and environmental risks on non-performing loans: evidence from organisation of the petroleum exporting the countries

This paper revisits the work of Idris and Nayan (2016a) on the joint effects of oil price volatility and environmental risks on Non-performing loans (NPLs). Therefore, the current paper uses evidence from 13 Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting countries spanning 1996-2015. The present situation of worldwide NPLs is persistent and on the rise which indicates a global deterioration of loans qualities. The NPLs is more pronounced amongst the OPEC countries whose average ratio of NPLs is on the verge of the banking crisis. This directly affects further loan creation, banks’ liquidity, investment and productivity. Notwithstanding, the different measures put in place by regulatory authorities in OPEC countries to tackle the situation, the problem persists. The motivation of this paper is to examine the impact of systematic risks factors of oil price changes and environmental risks on NPLs by employing Pooled Mean Group (PMG) methods. The results reveal that oil price changes significantly but inversely affect NPLs while environmental risks factor is found to be significantly and positively affecting NPLs. The policy implications of the findings are that for the OPEC countries to achieve financial stability they should reduce the impact of systematic risks on their financial systems. Therefore, for a continuous minimization of bad loans, the OPEC economies should efficiently increase their earnings from the oil exportation or alternatively through increased diversification of the OPEC economies from the monoculture economic activity of oil exportation. Furthermore, environmental risks should be mitigated through strong legislation for all businesses and economic units in the countries to be covered by adequate insurance covers against these calamities. Finally, OPEC governments should ensure that their prudential guidelines cover lending to business activities that are prone to such systematic risks.
Physicochemical and Mechanical Performances of Technical Flax Fibers and Biobased Composite Material: Effects of Flax Transformation Process

In France, the use of flax fibers as reinforcement in composite materials is growing exponentially in the automotive sector, thanks to their good physicochemical properties, environmental reasons, health neutrality and due to the European Council Directives on the reuse, recycling and valorization of car components and materials. The aim of our study is to investigate biochemical, physicochemical, and mechanical properties of technical flax fibers to evaluate the impact of transformation processes (scutching, hackling, and homogenization) on final properties of associated composite materials. Different chemical analysis such as Van Soest (biochemical fraction measurement), FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy), and XRD (X-ray diffraction) were carried out on different process modalities and show that there is no significant difference in terms of biochemical fraction and crystallinity index. By the same token, mechanical behavior shows that Young’s modulus is not affected by the transformation process. This result is also observed for thermal behavior. The results highlight the fact that the transformation processes of technical fibers do not really affect their physicochemical and mechanical performances.