Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Leadership Opportunities for Students with Disabilities in Co-Curriculum Activities: Insights and Implications

ABSTRACT The leadership opportunities for students with disabilities are dependent on school leaders and teachers as they are advocates and provide natural support in fostering their leadership development. However, the leadership opportunities for students with disabilities remain relatively overlooked. Students with disabilities have a right to participate and lead in the co-curriculum activities just as their able peers do. Therefore, this study aims to explore the leadership opportunities for students with disabilities to lead in co-curriculum activities. A qualitative phenomenological case study approach was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the school’s senior assistant and four special education teachers in a public secondary school located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using ATLAS.ti 8. Findings indicate students are given opportunities to lead in co-curriculum activities in various capacities. In addition, suggestions to further improve the leadership opportunities for students with disabilities were discussed. Hence, this study contributes to the scarce body of literature on leadership opportunities for students with disabilities by providing empirical evidence leading to new knowledge and a better understanding on the types of leadership development and opportunities for students with disabilities generally in the Southeast Asian region.
Integration of various scales for measurement of insomnia

Background Scales for evaluating insomnia differ in number of items, response format, and result in different scores distributions and score ranges and may not facilitate meaningful comparisons. Objectives Transform ordinal item-scores of three scales of insomnia to continuous, equidistant, monotonic, normally distributed scores, avoiding limitations of summative scoring of Likert scales. Methods Equidistant item-scores by weighted sum using data-driven weights to different levels of different items, considering cell frequencies of Item-Levels matrix, followed by normalization and conversion to [1, 10]. Equivalent test-scores (as sum of transformed item- scores) for a pair of scales were found by Normal Probability curves. Empirical illustration given. Results Transformed test-scores are continuous, monotonic and followed Normal distribution with no outliers and tied scores. Such test-scores facilitate ranking, better classification and meaningful comparison of scales of different lengths and formats and finding equivalent score combinations of two scales. For a given value of transformed test-score of a scale, easy alternate method avoiding integration proposed to find equivalent scores of another scales. Equivalent scores of scales help to relate various cut-off scores of different scales and uniformity in interpretations. Integration of various scales of insomnia is achieved by finding one-to-one correspondence among the equivalent score of various scales with correlation over 0.99 Conclusion Resultant test-scores facilitated undertaking analysis in parametric set up. Considering the theoretical advantages including meaningfulness of operations, better comparison, use of such method of transforming scores of Likert items/test is recommended test and items, Future studies were suggested.
Competition Among Limestone Depressions Leads to Self‐Organized Regular Patterning on a Flat Landscape

Self‐organized pattern formation is widespread and functionally significant. Scale‐dependent feedback in space (short‐distance positive feedback coupled with long‐distance negative feedback) has been embraced as an arguably universal mechanism of ecological self‐organization. Recently, intraspecific territorial competition has been proposed as a complementary mechanism contributing to spatial self‐organization in ecology. In geomorphology, regular patterning is also widespread and has often been attributed to competition among geomorphic features. This mechanism has never been integrated into the framework of ecological pattern formation. Using the regularly patterned landscape of Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida as a case study, we formalize a third mechanism of spatial self‐organization: competition among pattern elements of finite amplitude stabilized by scale‐dependent feedback in time. Depressions first accelerate their expansion rate via the positive feedback between depression volume and weathering rate. Later negative feedbacks become stronger, and eventually stabilize the size of depressions. While scale‐dependent feedback in time provides a mechanism to stabilize individual depressions, it is the competition among depressions that induces spatial regularity. A relatively smaller depression could have a greater expansion rate than larger ones in its development. Higher weathering rate on the side of a divide toward the smaller depression causes migration of the divide to the larger depression. Consequently, the smaller depression expands its catchment area while the catchment area of the neighboring larger depression contracts, resulting in depressions achieving similar size and distance from each other. The diversity of regular patterns dictates the need to integrate perspectives from multiple disciplines.
A Qualitative Analysis of Factors Affecting the Successful Completion of Postgraduate Studies

Purpose: The study aims to highlight the current learning approaches used by postgraduate students to complete their postgraduate studies on time, as studies have shown many students have failed to finish their studies as planned. In particular, this study focuses on factors and methods that are perceived to be most effective by students to help them complete their studies on time. Methodology: Thisstudy was based on a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews. The study sample consisted of 14 postgraduate students and one lecturers as respondents. The research instrument was based on interview questions to elicit relevant information on their demography and learning practices. Data were collected and organized into four themes and were subsequently analyzed descriptively. Findings: The findings showed that face-to-face discussions were the most popular practice adopted by the respondents. The findings also showed several factors had significant impacts on student learning, such as interpersonal relationships between students and supervisors, commitment, financial commitment, and moral support, which needs to be taken into account in helping students to complete on time. Significance: The research findings can inform all the stakeholders, notably students, supervisors, and administrative officers, factors that have profound impacts on postgraduate students’ efforts to graduate on time.
Photocatalytic Degradation of Eriochrome Black Dye in a Rotating Corrugated Drum Photocatalytic Reactor

Advanced oxidation processes have been investigated as a viable means of treatment for the degradation and removal of dye-containing effluents. In this work, the degradation of an azo dye, Eriochrome black, was studied using a novel photocatalytic reactor in which TiO2 is immobilized on a rotating corrugated drum. The degradation of the dye via the photocatalytic method was confirmed, and degradation rates were compared using different drum designs. Catalyst deactivation was observed, and this process of irreversibility was found to increase with increasing initial dye concentration in the water. A Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic analysis was applied, and it was found to agree well with the data in the initial parts of the reaction but diverged with increasing time. The discrepancy was thought to be due to the presence of unquantified reaction intermediates which may only be broken down slowly by the photocatalytic process.
Effect of Allium senescens Extract on Sorafenib Resistance in Hepatocarcinoma Cells

Although Allium species are involved in bioactivity, to the best of our knowledge, there is no research on the effects of Allium senescens on drug resistance in hepatocarcinoma. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography was used to determine the concentration of several bioactive compounds in A. senescens extract; flow cytometry, reverse transcription–quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and siRNA-mediated knockdown to estimate the levels of different markers in HepG2 cells. The quantity of p-coumaric acid in the extract was 4.7291 ± 0.06 μg/mL, and the protein of relevant evolutionary and lymphoid interest (PRELI) in the resistant cells decreased 2.1 times in the presence of p-coumaric acid. The resistant cells strongly downregulated the efflux transporters (ABCB1, ABCC2, and ABCG2) when exposed to the extract or p-coumaric acid and when PRELI was knocked down, in contrast to the influx proteins (OCT-1). Additionally, the extract induced mitochondrial apoptosis and suppressed autophagy. Consequently, the extract and p-coumaric acid attenuated drug resistance of HepG2 cells through the downregulation of PRELI, a key protein associated with the modulation of drug transporter expression, the activation of autophagy, and mitochondrial apoptosis. Our results indicate that A. senescens extract is beneficial in protecting cancer cells against drug resistance and sustaining the efficacy of sorafenib against liver cancer.
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction of Phenolic Compounds from Potato (Solanum tuberosum) Peels

In the last three decades, greener technologies have been used, aiming at extracting phenolic compounds from vegetable matrices due to the inherent advantages compared to organic solvent-based methodologies. In this work, supercritical CO2 was investigated for recovering phenolic acids from potato peels. Following screening runs for assessing the significant extraction parameters, a Central Composite Design of Experiments was carried out aiming at process optimization, with methanol concentration (MeOH, %) and CO2 flow rate (qCO2, g/min) as independent variables. Both parameters were deemed to impart a significant effect on the final response. Although the major phenolic acid in potato peels is chlorogenic acid (CGA), the main compound extracted was caffeic acid (CFA), present at a concentration of 0.75 mg/g dry peel in the extracts. The optimum extraction conditions were 80 °C, 350 bar, MeOH 20%, and flow rate of 18.0 g/min, which enabled a total phenolic recovery of 37% and a CFA recovery of 82%. The antioxidant activity of the supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) extracts was also measured, with the highest scavenging capacity reaching 73%. The need for using mixtures of water and organic solvents as co-solvents in SFE to enable CGA recovery seems necessary, possibly due to its better dissolution in aqueous solutions than in pure solvents.
Towards 3D LiDAR-based semantic scene understanding of 3D point cloud sequences: The SemanticKITTI Dataset

A holistic semantic scene understanding exploiting all available sensor modalities is a core capability to master self-driving in complex everyday traffic. To this end, we present the SemanticKITTI dataset that provides point-wise semantic annotations of Velodyne HDL-64E point clouds of the KITTI Odometry Benchmark. Together with the data, we also published three benchmark tasks for semantic scene understanding covering different aspects of semantic scene understanding: (1) semantic segmentation for point-wise classification using single or multiple point clouds as input; (2) semantic scene completion for predictive reasoning on the semantics and occluded regions; and (3) panoptic segmentation combining point-wise classification and assigning individual instance identities to separate objects of the same class. In this article, we provide details on our dataset showing an unprecedented number of fully annotated point cloud sequences, more information on our labeling process to efficiently annotate such a vast amount of point clouds, and lessons learned in this process. The dataset and resources are available at http://www.semantic-kitti.org.
Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) and Treadmill Training on Recovery of Motor Function in a Rat Model of Partial Spinal Cord Injury

Background This study aimed to investigate the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and treadmill training (TT) on motor function recovery in rats with partial spinal cord injury (SCI). Material/Methods Sixty rats with moderate partial SCI at the 9th thoracic vertebral level induced by a Louisville Injury System Apparatus impactor were randomly allocated to 5 groups: Sham surgery (Intact); Sham rTMS without TT (S-rTMS/Non-TT); Sham rTMS with TT (S-rTMS/TT); rTMS without TT (rTMS/Non-TT); and rTMS with TT (rTMS/TT). Interventions commenced 8 days after SCI and continued for 8 weeks. Outcomes studied were Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan locomotor scale scores, grid walking test, and biochemical analysis of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), synapsin I (SYN), and postsynaptic density protein-95 (PSD-95) in the motor cortex and spinal cord. Results The rTMS/TT contributed to greater Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan scores compared with the S-rTMS/Non-TT (P<0.01), S-rTMS/TT (P<0.05), and rTMS/Non-TT (P<0.05), and showed obviously reduced numbers of foot drops compared with the S-rTMS/Non-TT (P<0.05). The rTMS/TT significantly increased the expressions of BDNF, SYN, and PSD-95 compared with the S-rTMS/Non-TT, both in the motor cortex (P<0.01, P<0.01, P<0.001, respectively) and spinal cord (P<0.001, P<0.01, P<0.05, respectively). Conclusions In a modified rat model of SCI, combined rTMS with TT improved motor function, indicating that this combined approach promoted adaptive neuroplasticity between the motor cortex and the spinal cord. A combined app roach to improving motor function following SCI requires further evaluation to determine the possible clinical applications.
Spatial evolution of the global scientific collaborative network

ABSTRACT The edge-bundling algorithm is applied to visualize the spatial evolution of the international scientific collaborative network, which is reshaping the global scientific landscape. Our analysis finds that as scientific research in the Asia-Pacific region has grown, especially in China, global scientific cooperation across the Eastern and Western hemispheres has greatly increased, thus extending the core axis of global scientific cooperation to the Western Pacific.
Shadow organising as dwelling in the space of the ‘not-yet’

ABSTRACT This paper dwells on the metaphor of shadow organising for exploring what happens in the space of the ‘not-yet data’. It wonders what we do to ‘data’ and what ‘data’ do to us, to our subjectivities as professionals. It deals with elusive knowledges and how professionals construct what counts as ‘data’ and what is discarded as ‘no-data’. Taking a post-qualitative approach, the paper illustrates three instances of not-yet data. The first exemplifies a situation in which data are illegible: the researcher doesn’t know how to read the situation, or the data are invisible. The second focuses on the process of actively ignoring what is known, what is not-yet manufactured as data. The third relates to the agency of the technological infrastructure in which the indeterminacy of the not-yet data is shaped by power dynamics. The aim of the paper is to invite researchers and professionals to stay with the trouble/indeterminacy of data and to ‘slow down’ the quick framing of ‘data’ and the jump to evaluation and critique. Moreover, it argues against the seduction of evidence and it is an invitation to value the idea that things may always be otherwise and that there is space for shadow learning.
Stress Relief and Stimulation of Coal Reservoir by Hydraulic Slotting

Coal seam permeability is one of the key factors influencing the gas extraction efficiency, which is of great significance to reduce coal and gas dynamic disasters in gassy coal mines. Hydraulic slotting technique is an effective method to stimulate the coal reservoir, but the selection of slotting key parameters has great impact on gas extraction efficiency. For this reason, the hydraulic slotting model was established by using FLAC3D software to analyze the stress distribution before and after slotting. Then, the influence of borehole diameter, slotting width, and slotting length on coal seam stress relief is also discussed. The results show that the slotting width has a great influence on the stress relief of the coal seam, while the borehole diameter and slotting length have no obvious influence on that. Based on the results of numerical simulation, field tests were carried out in Sangshuping NO.2 coal mine. The results show that the coal seam stress can be fully released, resulting in the improvement of coal seam permeability. The gas extraction efficiency can be highly enhanced by hydraulic slotting. This research achievement provides the guidance basis for high-stress water jet slotting technology with adaptive selection of slotting parameters in different geological conditions.
Peculiar features of surface plasmon-polariton modulation instability in a metal film with varying thickness

Surface plasmon–polaritons (SPPs), propagating bound oscillations of electrons and light at a metal surface, exhibit the capacity for subwavelength field confinement and enhancement that make them a promising photonic platform at the nanometer scale. In this work we report the results of theoretical investigations of SPP propagation in metal film with varying thickness lying on a dielectric substrate. It is shown that the SPP propagation can be described by an equation of the type of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The main parameters of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation for the SPP − Kerr nonlinearity and dispersion coefficients− are derived from the basic SPP dispersion relation. The dependences of these coefficients on the film thickness are obtained. It is shown that the high-frequency SPP dispersive branch satisfies the conditions of the development of modulation instability. According to estimates, the magnitude of the modulation gain is sufficient to generate ultrashort pulse train from the initial modulated SPP wave on the propagation length of about 100 nm. The peculiar features of modulated SPP propagation in the metal film with varying thickness are studied. Analogies between the light wave propagation in a nonlinear dispersion decreasing fiber and SPP propagation in the metal film with increasing thickness are shown. Numerical simulations performed confirm the theoretically predicted generation of ultrashort pulse trains with THz an sub-THz repetition rates from an initially modulated SPP wave in a film with a longitudinally increasing thickness on propagation length of about 100-200 nm.
Tourism village development study: Lesson learned from Flory Village, Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta

Flory Village is one of the tourism villages based on ecotourism in Sleman Regency. The formation of Flory Village is inseparable from the role of tourism aware group (Pokdarwis). The existence of village tourism destinations has a positive impact on rural economic development and regional tourism. This study explores how Flory Village and the community manage tourism. This research used descriptive qualitative which were analyzed using the Miossec model through the components of transportation, facilities, attitudes towards tourists, and the role of stakeholders. The result is that there are two tourism village groups, namely Dewi Flory and Taruna Tani who have succeeded in developing their tourism potential based on their respective characteristics. Dewi Flory focuses on educational tourism, making salted eggs, nata de coco, vegetable gardening, and outbound tourism in three rides: water rides, dry rides, and mini forests. Furthermore, Taruna Tani focuses on agriculture, such as ornamental plants and fruits, and village culinary tours. The four lessons from the management of a tourism village by two Pokdarwis in Flory Village are consistent innovation, management commitment, utilization of local human resources, and collaboration with other parties.
From Flood to Drip Irrigation Under Climate Change: Impacts on Evapotranspiration and Groundwater Recharge in the Mediterranean Region of Valencia (Spain)

Agricultural irrigation is the major water consumer in the Mediterranean region. In response to the growing pressure on freshwater resources, more efficient irrigation technologies have been widely promoted. In this study, we assess the impact of the ongoing transition from flood to drip irrigation on future hydroclimatic regimes under various climate change scenarios, with a particular focus on actual evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge in the Mediterranean region of Valencia, Spain. Hydroclimatic predictions for the near‐term future (2020–2049) and the mid‐term future (2045–2074) were made under two emission scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) using a hydrological model that was forced with data from five GCM‐RCM combinations and field‐based irrigation volume and frequency observations. Our findings suggest that climate change could lead to statistically significant changes in the regional hydroclimatic regime despite projection uncertainties. Major changes include a statistically significant decrease in mean groundwater recharge of up to −6.6% under flood irrigation and −9.3% under drip irrigation and contrasting changes in mean actual evapotranspiration for flood and drip irrigation in the order of +1% and −2.1%, respectively. Since sustainably available water resources in the Valencia region are entirely allocated, the expected changes and associated uncertainties create a challenging context for future water management. Our simulations further indicate that, rather than climate change, the choice of irrigation technique may have a greater impact on actual evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge. Our findings therefore highlight the importance of considering both climate change and irrigation technique when assessing future water resources in irrigated Mediterranean agriculture.
Learning-free handwritten word spotting method for historical handwritten documents

Word spotting on degraded and noisy historical documents can become a challenging task considering the computational time and memory usage required to scan the entire document image. This paper proposes a new effective technique for multi-language word spot-ting using a two different feature extraction techniques, Histogram of Oriented Gradi-ents (HOG) and Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) features. First, regions of interest (ROIs) are extracted using a cross-correlation measure, and the extracted ROIs are re-ranked using feature extraction and matching methods. The algorithm handles two types of scenarios: Segmentation-based and segmentation-free. It also facilitates the search for words that occur once as well as multiple times in the image. Evaluations were conducted on the George Washington and HADARA datasets using a standard evaluation method. The proposed methodology shows improved performance over contemporary technologies currently being used in the word spotting research ﬁeld.
Pressure Loss for the Acceleration of Atomized Droplets

ベンチュリ・スクラバの圧力損失に関すゐ従来の研究の多くは実験的研究であるが, 上岡は液滴の噴霧加速を理論的に解析し, ベンチュリ・スクラパの圧力損失はほとんど液滴の加速に費されるこゐを述べている。 液滴の平均釜は従来より抜山・棚沢の実験式によって求められているが, これはノズル1本についにの実験結果である。 故に復数のノズルを用いたときにはこの式の液率には, ノズル1本当りの液率を用いねばならない。 又1個の液滴の抵抗エネルギより, 粒度分布を持った液滴群の加速圧力損失を求めるには, 補正した体面積平均径が用いられねばならぬことがわかった。 液滴の加速による圧力損失と, 壁面に附着した液による管摩擦による圧力損失の増加を考慮した圧力損失の計算結果は、実験結果とよく一致した。 又計算と実験結果から。 拡がり角度が約4-5°において拡がり部の圧力損失が最小となることがわかった。