Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting Self-declared Movie Watching Behavior Using Facebook Data and Information-Fusion Sensitivity Analysis

The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility of predicting whether yes or no a Facebook user has self-reported to have watched a given movie genre. Therefore, we apply a data analytical framework that (1) builds and evaluates several predictive models explaining self-declared movie watching behavior, and (2) provides insight into the importance of the predictors and their relationship with self-reported movie watching behavior. For the ﬁrst outcome, we benchmark several algorithms (logistic regression, random forest, adaptive boosting, rotation forest, and naive Bayes) and evaluate their performance using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. For the second outcome, we evaluate variable importance and build partial dependence plots using information-fusion sensitivity analysis for different movie genres. To gather the data, we developed a custom native Facebook app. We resampled our dataset to make it representative of the general Facebook population with respect to age and gender. The results indicate that adaptive boosting outperforms all other algorithms. Time-and frequency-based variables related to media (movies, videos, and music) consumption constitute the list of top variables. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the ﬁrst to ﬁt predictive models of self-reported movie watching behavior and provide insights into the relationships that govern these models. Our models can be used
The Risks of Visualization: A Classification of Disadvantages Associated with Graphic Representations of Information

In this paper, we review and classify the disadvantages and risks associated with the use of visual representations of information. We complement a review of literature with expert interviews and focus group results on the practical negative experiences with the use of visual representations of information. Based on these two sources, we distinguish between social, cognitive, and emotional risks of visualization that can be viewed from two perspectives: from the point of view of the user and from the point of view of the designer of a graphic representation. We discuss implications of the identified disadvantages and ways of overcoming or avoiding them. The paper concludes by providing an outlook on overlooked or emergent risks of visualization.
The Russian University Excellence Initiative: Is It Really Excellence that Is Promoted?

We estimate the effect of the Russian University excellence program (Project 5-100) initiated by the Government in 2013 on research performance of top Russian universities which received, on a competitive basis, substantial financial support within this program. To do so we use an econometric analysis of longitudinal data applying a linear growth model with mixed effects, with different characteristics of research output as dependent variables. We demonstrate that there is a significant positive effect of Project 5-100 which appeared from the very first years of its implementation – that is, the universities receiving financial support demonstrate a substantial, steady increase in publications both measured in total numbers and per capita when compared to universities from the control group. An analysis of the structure of publication output allows us to demonstrate that not only quantitative but also qualitative growth has taken place, although the impact of Project 5-100 on quality is heterogeneous across universities and disciplines. Finally, we examine to what extent the change in the structure of research output may be attributed to changes in research collaboration patterns.
The Effects of Schooling on Costless Health Maintenance: Overweight Adolescents and Children in Rural China

Obesity is an important global health problem. Although obesity is not directly related to access to health care or constrained by resource deprivation, overweight status is predominantly found in poor, less-educated populations. This paper seeks to identify the causal role of schooling in affecting obesity among children and adolescents, using new estimation methods that exploit unique panel data on young twins in China. The estimates indicate that higher levels of schooling negatively affect being overweight and positively affect healthy behavior, with a large component of the causal effects due to increased information on the benefits of maintaining a healthy weight. There is also evidence that the higher-income associated with increased schooling increases incentives to invest in health.
Study on barium titanate and graphene reinforced PVDF matrix for 4D applications

This article reports the experimental investigations of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrix-based composite feedstock filament (reinforced with barium titanate (BTO) and graphene (Gr) for possible 4-D printing applications) using fused deposition modeling (FDM). The mechanical, rheological, thermal, and morphological properties of in-house prepared FDM filament are also reported. The FDM feedstock filament was prepared with a twin-screw extruder (TSE). The process parameters of TSE for preparation of smart material-based filament with uniform dispersion of reinforcement (BTO and Gr) in the PVDF matrix have also been explored. Finally, the prepared filament has been used on FDM setup (without any change in hardware/software) for printing piezoelectric sensor with 4-D capabilities. The results of the study suggest that BTO and Gr have significant effect on the melt flow index of PVDF. The composite prepared with reinforcement of BTO and Gr shows a continuous flow, along with better thermal stability (based upon differential scanning calorimetry analysis), when 10–20 wt% BTO was added to the PVDF matrix. The observed maximum peak and break strength of the PVDF composite was 29.57 MPa and 26.50 MPa, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis results reveal that the filament prepared with 20% BTO and extruded at 200°C with a screw speed of 40 r/min has better dispersion of reinforcement among the selected parametric settings. Finally, a piezoelectric response of 20 pC/N has been measured on the FDM-printed thermally stable sample suitable for 4-D applications.
BIOMASS-DERIVED ACTIVATED CARBONS FOR ELECTRICAL DOUBLE LAYER SUPERCAPACITORS: PERFORMANCE AND STRESS EFFECT

OF DISSERTATION BIOMASS-DERIVED ACTIVATED CARBONS FOR ELECTRICAL DOUBLE LAYER SUPERCAPACITORS: PERFORMANCE AND STRESS EFFECT The vigorous development of human civilization has significantly increased the energy consumption in recent years. There is a great need to use renewable energy sources to substitute the depleting traditional fossil fuels, such as crude oil, natural gas and coal. The development of low-cost and high-performance energy storage devices (ESDs) and systems have drawn great attention due to their feasibility as backup power supply and their applications in portable electronics and electric vehicles. Supercapacitors are among the most important ESDs because of their long charging-discharging cycle life, high power capability and a large operating temperature range. In this thesis, high-performance activated carbons (ACs)-based SCs have been synthesized from two biomass materials in both “bottom-up” and “top-down” patterns, including high fructose corn syrup and soybean residues, which are economic and environmental friendly. Firstly, a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) physical activation method is presented to synthesize activated carbons from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The effect of the activation time on the geometrical and porous characteristics of the ACs is investigated. The electrochemical performance of the supercapacitor cells made from AC treated at 850oC for 4 hours are found as the best with a specific capacitance of 168 F/g at 0.2 A/g in 6 M KOH aqueous system. Secondly, a two-step HTC process followed by a physical activation to prepare activated carbons from soybean residue is presented. The effect of activation temperature on geometrical and porous characteristics of the ACs is studied. The ACs activated at 850oC are found partly crystallized and exhibit a specific capacitance of 227 F/g at 2 mV/s. To understand the effect of mechanical deformation of the electrode materials on the electrochemical performance of electrical double-layer supercapacitors, a series of compression tests of HFCS-based ACs are further conducted in both dry and wet conditions. The nominal stiffness of the compressed ACs is calculated from the unloading curves. For both dry and wet disks the stiffness get increased with increased compression load, where the wet ones get higher stiffness than that of the dry ones. A simple model of porous materials is used to explain the increase in the stiffness of a compressed disk with the increase of pressure. Lastly, the effect of mechanical deformation on the electrochemical impedance of HFCS-based ACs is studied. When increasing the mechanical pressure from 4 to 81.5 KPa, the system resistance shows a relatively stable trend around 1 ohm, while the charge transfer resistance shows a dramatic dependence on mechanical pressure decreasing from 420 ohms to 1.5 ohms.
RESOURCE ADEQUACY AND UTILIZATION FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

This study investigated the level of physical facilities adequacy and instructional resources utilization for teaching and learning effectiveness in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes. A quantitative research design was used, with a sample of 700 participants (85 lecturers and 615 students) which was randomly selected across three Federal Universities in South-South, Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from TVET lecturers and students. Mean, standard deviation and t-test were used for data analyses. Physical facilities were found to be inadequate for teaching and learning processes in TVET programmes. Also, instructional resources were found to be underutilized during teaching and learning in TVET programmes. One of the recommendations made for the study is that TVET managers should endeavour to collaborate with major stakeholders for the provision of funds that would assist in ensuring adequate provision of physical facilities for effective teaching and learning processes in TVET programmes. As such, this would further help to foster the conducive environment for teaching and learning of TVET courses, which in turn, would help in equipping students with the skills to pursue entrepreneurial careers and lifelong learning upon graduation.
Visibilising the invisible: three narrative accounts evoking unassessed graduate attributes in dance education

ABSTRACT Dance holds a unique place in academia. The creative, embodied, collaborative activities typical to dance learning offer fresh insight to cross-disciplinary literature on the graduate attributes – both visible and ‘invisible’ – all graduates from a given institution are expected to hold. This article presents findings from the research project Making the Invisible Visible. We engage narrative methodology to present a series of amalgam characters reflecting specific ways in which ‘invisible’ graduate attributes are embedded in pedagogies, student-teacher relationships and student understandings of their professional skills. Firstly, we aim to create narratives that evoke the complexity of ‘invisible’ graduate attributes in tertiary dance education. Secondly, we respond to the question; How might specific ‘invisible’ attributes be made explicit and embedded in tertiary dance pedagogy? We present a framework to articulate how ‘invisible’ attributes can be made explicit and embedded in tertiary Dance Pedagogy. This framework may be utilized beyond the field of dance to generic tertiary fields of study.
PMDA - Parallel Molecular Dynamics Analysis

MDAnalysis is an object-oriented Python library to analyze trajectories from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in many popular formats. With the development of highly optimized MD software packages on high performance computing (HPC) resources, the size of simulation trajectories is growing up to many terabytes in size. However efficient usage of multicore architecture is a challenge for MDAnalysis, which does not yet provide a standard interface for parallel analysis. To address the challenge, we developed PMDA, a Python library that builds upon MDAnalysis to provide parallel analysis algorithms. PMDA parallelizes common analysis algorithms in MDAnalysis through a task-based approach with the Dask library. We implement a simple split-apply-combine scheme for parallel trajectory analysis. The trajectory is split into blocks, analysis is performed separately and in parallel on each block ("apply"), then results from each block are gathered and combined. PMDA allows one to perform parallel trajectory analysis with pre-defined analysis tasks. In addition, it provides a common interface that makes it easy to create user-defined parallel analysis modules. PMDA supports all schedulers in Dask, and one can run analysis in a distributed fashion on HPC machines, ad-hoc clusters, a single multi-core workstation or a laptop. We tested the performance of PMDA on single node and multiple nodes on a national supercomputer. The results show that parallelization improves the performance of trajectory analysis and, depending on the analysis task, can cut down time to solution from hours to minutes. Although still in alpha stage, it is already used on resources ranging from multi-core laptops to XSEDE supercomputers to speed up analysis of molecular dynamics trajectories. PMDA is available as open source under the GNU General Public License, version 2 and can be easily installed via the pip and conda package
The Recursive Relationship between Substance Abuse, Prostitution, and Incarceration: Voices from a Long-Term Cohort of Women

ABSTRACT Relying on interview data from a cohort of drug-involved women originally released from prison in the 1990s and interviewed between 2010 and 2011, this paper examines the role that prostitution played in their lives. These women were arrested an average of 16 times in their lives, and their criminal records prevented them from obtaining legitimate employment, which resulted in nearly half of the sample engaging in “survival prostitution. ” Consistent with the Identity Theory of Desistance, narratives from those who successfully exited prostitution reveal the cognitive transformations that began when they envisioned their “feared self” (e.g. dying on the street). This research illuminates the complexities inherent in the desistance process for a contemporary sample of drug-involved adult women entrenched within the criminal justice system.
German adolescents’ homonegativity and the relationship to their religious denomination and gender role orientation

Abstract Although same-sex marriages are legally recognized in many Western societies, prejudices against gay men and lesbians remain and already appear in adolescents. Since a negative attitude toward gay men and lesbians is likely to foster malevolent behaviors, we investigated predictors of homonegativity in adolescents aged between 14 and 16 years. Regression analyses revealed that Muslim religious denomination – but not another or no religious denomination – and traditional gender roles substantially explained variance in homonegativity, followed by contact with gay and lesbians friends, religiosity, and gender. Migration background, socioeconomic status, and contact with homosexual family members were not found to be predictors of homonegativity. Implications of these findings are discussed, in particular, the importance of cautiously interpreting these correlational data that do not allow for a straightforward causal interpretation.
The Value of E-Sports Is in the Eye of the Beholder, But Can E-Sports Operators Influence What the Spectators See?

This article considers the societal discussion revolving around e-sports to be a reflection of the incommensurability of different means of value justification. The article seeks an answer to the question of how e-sports operators can demonstrate that their work entails aspects, i.e. propose value to aspects that are generally valued. The article presents a theory-guided analysis of the means of value justification in the world of e-sports. The theoretical basis builds upon modern economic sociology. The esteem of e-sports is not generated spontaneously but requires active measures by operators within the e-sports field. This calls for an ability to recognise various means of value justification and the related value categories and conflicts in one’s own work. The attractiveness of e-sports in the eyes of the corporate world as well as the general public is proportional to how credibly the e-sports operators are able to demonstrate aspects of their work that are in line with things that are generally valued. The present article contributes to the collaboration between e-sports operators and stakeholders by verbalising the tensions and possibilities related to such collaboration. The article aids in recognising the value-creating interfaces and in fortifying the collaboration and finding synergy benefits.
On the Sensitivity of the Devonian Climate to Continental Configuration, Vegetation Cover, Orbital Configuration, CO 2 Concentration, and Insolation

During the Devonian (419 to 359 million years ago), life on Earth witnessed decisive evolutionary breakthroughs, most prominently the colonization of land by vascular plants and vertebrates. However, it was also a period of major marine extinctions coinciding with marked changes in climate. The cause of these changes remains unknown, and it is therefore instructive to explore systematically how the Devonian climate responds to changes in boundary conditions. Here we use coupled climate model simulations to investigate separately the influence of changes in continental configuration, vegetation cover, carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, the solar constant, and orbital parameters on the Devonian climate. The biogeophysical effect of changes in vegetation cover is small, and the cooling due to continental drift is offset by the increasing solar constant. Variations of orbital parameters affect the Devonian climate, with the warmest climate states at high obliquity and high eccentricity. The prevailing mode of decadal to centennial climate variability relates to temperature fluctuations in high northern latitudes which are mediated by coupled oscillations involving sea ice cover, ocean convection, and a regional overturning circulation. The temperature evolution during the Devonian is dominated by the strong decrease in atmospheric CO2. Albedo changes due to increasing vegetation cover cannot explain the temperature rise found in Late Devonian proxy data. Finally, simulated temperatures are significantly lower than estimates based on oxygen isotope ratios, suggesting a lower δ18O ratio of Devonian seawater.
On the dielectric properties and normalized radar cross-section of crude oil-contaminated sea ice

This thesis explores the effects of crude oil spilled beneath young sea ice on the dielectric properties and normalized radar cross-section of the ice at microwave (C-band) frequencies. The dielectric profile, also referred to as the complex permittivity profile, of sea ice is a governing factor in how the ice scatters incident electromagnetic waves, thus affecting its associated normalized radar cross-section. The dielectric profile of sea ice is dependent on both the geophysical and thermal properties of the ice. Crude oil contained beneath, within, or on the surface of young sea ice was expected to change these properties, thus impacting both the dielectric profile and normalized radar cross-section of the ice. Differences between the dielectric profile and normalized radar cross-section of uncontaminated and oil-contaminated sea ice is expected to facilitate detection of oil-contaminated sea ice through active microwave remote sensing technologies. As such, a discussion of the geophysical, thermodynamic, and electromagnetic properties of sea ice is presented, as well as an overview of the behaviour of oil in ice infested environments and the efforts undertaken to detect crude oil-contaminated sea ice. Following this, the details of a preliminary laboratory experiment conducted to explore the differences in the dielectric profiles of uncontaminated and contaminated sea ice are presented. Next, a comprehensive description of the meso-scale crude oil-in-sea ice experiment and the results, including the modelled dielectric profiles and measured normalized radar cross-sections of uncontaminated and oilcontaminated sea ice, is provided. Finally, a simulation study comparing the normalized radar cross-section for the uncontaminated and oil-contaminated cases is presented. Based on the experimental and simulation work conducted, the observed differences in the temperature profiles and normalized radar cross-sections of uncontaminated and oil-contaminated sea ice suggest that differentiation between uncontaminated and oil-contaminated young sea ice using microwave remote sensing technologies may be possible.
Blackboard Systems

The first blackboard system was the HEARSAY-II speech understanding system that evolved between 1971 and 1976. Subsequently, many systems have been built that have similar system organizations and run-time behavior. The objectives of this document are: (1) to define what is meant by "blackboard systems," and (2) to show the richness and diversity of blackboard system designs. The article begins with a discussion of the underlying concept behind all blackboard systems, the blackboard model of problem solving. In order to bridge the gap between a model and working systems, the blackboard framework, an extension of the basic blackboard model is introduced, including a detailed description of the model''s components and their behavior. A model does not come into existence on its own and is usually an abstraction of many examples. In section 2, the history of ideas is traced and the designs of some applications systems that helped shape the blackboard model are detailed. We then describe and contrast existing blackboard systems. Blackboard systems can generally be divided into two categories; application and skeletal systems. In application systems the blackboard system components are integrated with the domain knowledge required to solve the problem at hand. Skeletal systems are devoid of domain knowledge, and, as the name implies, consist of the essential system components from which application systems can be built by the addition of knowledge and the specification of control (i.e. meta-knowledge). Application systems will be discussed in Section 3, and skeletal systems will be discussed elsewhere. In Section 3.6, we summarize the features of the applications systems and in Section 4 present the author''s perspective on the utility of the blackboard approach to problem solving and knowledge engineering.
Economics of wastewater management in China's industry

Abstract This article provides an economic investigation into the underlying causes of industrial wastewater emissions. We examine the direct and the structural break-induced effect of national environmental regulation on industrial wastewater emissions. The results show that strict environmental regulation can partially offset the energy-induced effects imposed by the scale effects of foreign direct inflows and cause positive behavioral responses by either limiting coal usage or improving upon coal usage technology and shift towards clean energy sources. We find the absence of scale economies in the provision of environmental services in the industrial sector due to the poor nature of the technical processes of industries. We further highlight the importance of raising the investment in environmental treatment and embracing trade liberalization in the improvement of industrial wastewater management.