Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Model for Usability Evaluation of Learning Management Systems

Learning management systems (LMSs) are increasingly popular in education. The usability of these systems must be examined to ensure they meet the needs of both students and faculty. To address the limitations of existing models for evaluating the usability of LMS, this research proposes a new model that combines objective measures collected from eye-tracking with subjective measures collected from retrospective think-aloud protocols and questionnaires. This model evaluates the effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and learnability of LMSs. The proposed model was applied to study the usability of the LMS used at King Saud University (Blackboard) and was compared with other existing usability evaluation models. The findings indicate that the proposed model fulfilled its intended purpose and provided more comprehensive results than existing models.
Dual MPC for Adaptive Cruise Control with Unknown Road Profile

Inspired by the recent work on dual control for exploration and exploitation (DCEE), this paper presents a solution to adaptive cruise control problems via a dual control approach. Different from other adaptive controllers, the proposed dual model predictive control not only uses the current and future inputs to keep a constant headway distance between the leading vehicle and the ego vehicle but also tries to reduce the uncertainty of state estimation by actively learning the surrounding environment as well, which leads to faster convergence of the estimated parameters and better reference tracking performance. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed dual control framework outperforms a conventional model predictive controller with disturbance observer for adaptive cruise control with unknown road grade.
Estimation of Survival Rates from a Tag-Recapture Study with Tag Loss

A probability model is described for a mark-recapture study where animals are released annually and where animals may be recovered and identified by a permanent band or resighted and identified by a nonpermanent collar. Survival, capture, and sighting probabilities are assumed to depend on the year. Collar-retention probabilities are assumed to depend only on the age of the collar. Closed-form maximum likelihood estimates do not exist for the model but numerical solutions are easily obtained.
Experiences of Infection Prevention and Control Nurses (IPCNs) in performing their roles and duties in the Indonesia Army Central Hospital: A qualitative descriptive study

Background The Infection Prevention and Control Nurse (IPCN) is a professional nurse with a crucial role in promoting patient safety and service quality by preventing and controlling infections. However, little is known about their experiences regarding their roles and duties, particularly in Indonesia. Objective This study aimed to explore IPCNs’ experiences in performing their roles and responsibilities, including motivations and obstacles encountered, as well as organizational support while carrying out their jobs. Methods This research used a qualitative descriptive study design, collecting data through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with six purposively sampled participants in April 2021 at the Gatot Soebroto Army Central Hospital (RSPAD), Jakarta, Indonesia. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results Five themes were identified: 1) roles and duties of IPCNs, 2) conducive work environment, 3) constraints in carrying out tasks, 4) management support, and 5) hopes. Conclusion This study provides new insights into IPCN roles and duties that require collaboration and coordination with multiple professions, as well as management support to overcome obstacles that hinder fulfilling tasks and hopes of improving IPCN performance according to competency-based career paths to achieve patient safety, service quality, and job satisfaction.
Role of Chemerin and Perivascular Adipose Tissue Characteristics on Cardiovascular Risk Assessment by Arterial Stiffness Markers in Patients with Morbid Obesity

Background and objective: The development of arterial stiffness (AS) in obesity is a multifactorial and complex process. The pleomorphic actions of adipokines and their local activity in perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) are potential modulators of AS appearance and progression. We aimed to assess the correlations between two adipokines (chemerin, adiponectin), PVAT morphological changes (adipocyte size, blood vessel wall thickness) and AS parameters in the special subgroup of patients with morbid obesity. Material and methods: We enrolled 25 patients with morbid obesity and 25 non-obese patients, who were age- and gender-matched, untreated for cardiovascular risk factors, and admitted to hospital for laparoscopic surgical procedures (bariatric surgery for morbid obesity and non-inflammatory benign pathology surgery for non-obese patients). Before the surgical procedures, we evaluated demographic and anthropometric data and biochemical parameters including the studied adipokines. Arterial stiffness was evaluated using a Medexpert ArteriographTM TL2 device. In both groups, adipocyte size and vascular wall thickness as well as local adiponectin activity were analyzed in PVAT from intraoperative biopsies. Results: In our study, adiponectin (p = 0.0003), chemerin (p = 0.0001) and their ratio (p = 0.005) had statistically significant higher mean values in patients with morbid obesity compared to normal-weight patients. In patients with morbid obesity there were significant correlations between chemerin and AS parameters such as aortic pulse wave velocity (p = 0.006) and subendocardial viability index (p = 0.009). In the same group adipocyte size was significantly correlated with another AS parameter, namely, aortic systolic blood pressure (p = 0.030). In normal-weight patients, blood vessel wall thickness positively correlated with AS parameters such as brachial (p = 0.023) and aortic augmentation index (p = 0.023). An important finding was the negative adipoR1 and adipoR2 immunoexpression in PVAT adipocytes of patients with morbid obesity. Additionally, we found significant correlations between blood vessel wall thickness and blood fasting glucose (p < 0.05) in both groups. Conclusions: Chemerin and adipocyte size could be predictive biomarkers for AS in patients with morbid obesity. Given the small number of patients included, our results need further validation.
Simulation of Nine-point Circle Using Novel Computing Tools and Investigating the Associated Useful Properties

The point, line, triangle and circle are the first set of figures in the world of geometry. The geometries of lines, triangles and circles have been studied and analyzed to obtain some specific and useful results for a long period of time. The analysis and determining various facts in the form of theorems and findings have been carried out by innumerable learned scholars and researchers using the basic tools, logical agreement and testing the data about these figures. The combination of triangle and circle in form of circumscribing circle and in-circle has also been studied at depth. The third fabulous circle is popularly known as the nine-point circle or Feuerbach's circle or Euler circle. The nine-point circle brings in light many interesting and useful properties of the basic triangle. But the construction of the nine-point circle is little tedious and cumbersome. This is because of the facts associated with the nine point circle. Therefore; in this paper the authors have developed a dedicated program in the world famous software MATLAB®. It is attempted to create a large number of triangle data and use them for verifying the useful results in addition to the construction of nine point circle.
Mathematical Approaches to the NMR Peak-Picking Problem

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography are two experimental techniques used to determine the three-dimensional structures of proteins. NMR spectroscopy has the unique ability to capture proteins in vivo. Currently, protein structure determination by NMR follows the procedure proposed by Kurt Wüthrich in 1986 [1]. This procedure consists of peak picking, resonance assignment, nuclear overhauser effect (NOE) assignment and structure calculation steps. Among the four steps, peak picking is time consuming and requires extensive expert knowledge. Computational methods designed to automate and improve this step are still needed. The inputs to the peak picking problem are an NMR spectrum or a set of spectra, whereas the outputs are the lists of peaks (signals) identified from these spectra.
BIM Adoption for effective interface management in Indian construction industries

The contribution of the construction industry towards the development of the economy of an economy is inevitable. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an emerging information tool that supports interface management in construction projects based on intellectual digital illustration that provides a maximum number of benefits throughout the lifecycle of projects. A country like India has recently adopted the BIM tool, but it is not widely adopted by construction companies. Therefore, comprehensive and systematic analyses are essential for determining the factors influencing BIM adoption. In this study, a proposed model is employed using seven significant factors, namely, Organizational support (OS), Information Quality (IQ), System Quality (SQ), Service Quality (SRQ), usage (U), User Satisfaction (US), and Net Benefits (NB), to analyse the influence of these factors on BIM adoption. An experimental analysis was conducted based on the developed success model and the fitness of the model was estimated. The results of this model suggest that system quality plays a major role in BIM usage. Furthermore, a hypothesis test was performed to analyse the impact range of each independent factor over the dependent factors.
Model-free superhedging duality

In a model free discrete time financial market, we prove the superhedging duality theorem, where trading is allowed with dynamic and semi-static strategies. We also show that the initial cost of the cheapest portfolio that dominates a contingent claim on every possible path $\omega \in \Omega$, might be strictly greater than the upper bound of the no-arbitrage prices. We therefore characterize the subset of trajectories on which this duality gap disappears and prove that it is an analytic set.
ACR2UNet: Semantic Segmentation of Remotely Sensed Images using Residual-Recurrent UNet and Asymmetric Convolutions

Land-use and land-cover (LULC) mapping is one of the significant components in environmental monitoring. LULC mapping, necessary to manage the vital resource of land, has been achieved, in recent years, by segmenting remotely sensed images (RSIs). A standard paradigm for segmentation is UNet, and this paper proposes a novel asymmetric convolutional residualrecurrent UNet architecture, which utilizes the power of asymmetric convolutions as well as residual and recurrent techniques for mapping RSIs. The proposed methodology has a couple of additional advantages. First, asymmetric convolution operations strengthen the square kernels and enhance the semantic feature space. Further, a recurrent network assists in providing rich local contextual information with the help of residual inputs. The presented model is evaluated on the WHDLD dataset for LULC segmentation and is found to achieve an improvement of 1-2% in the mIoU score compared to state-of-the-art methods.
Occupational Exposure during the Production and the Spray Deposition of Graphene Nanoplatelets-Based Polymeric Coatings

Graphene-based polymer composites are innovative materials which have recently found wide application in many industrial sectors thanks to the combination of their enhanced properties. The production of such materials at the nanoscale and their handling in combination with other materials introduce growing concerns regarding workers’ exposure to nano-sized materials. The present study aims to evaluate the nanomaterials emissions during the work phases required to produce an innovative graphene-based polymer coating made of a water-based polyurethane paint filled with graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and deposited via the spray casting technique. For this purpose, a multi-metric exposure measurement strategy was adopted in accordance with the harmonized tiered approach published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As a result, potential GNPs release has been indicated near the operator in a restricted area not involving other workers. The ventilated hood inside the production laboratory guarantees a rapid reduction of particle number concentration levels, limiting the exposure time. Such findings allowed us to identify the work phases of the production process with a high risk of exposure by inhalation to GNPs and to define proper risk mitigation strategies.
Exploring usage, expected benefits and perceived usefulness of social media in travel agencies: an empirical investigation in Italy

PurposeThe purpose of the present study is to investigate travel agencies' social media usage and its perceived effectiveness by small- and micro-Italian travel agencies; the pre-pandemic period is compared to the forecasts for the post-Covid-19 period and different characteristics of firms and entrepreneurs are considered. Furthermore, the study analyses the expected benefits in terms of marketing objectives, such as improving brand image and/or personalizing the offer.Design/methodology/approachThe research was developed through a questionnaire administered electronically to travel agents (282 respondents). The resulting data was analyzed by applying the McNemar test, a pairwise t-test and the multivariate analysis of variance.FindingsThe results show that social media are strategically significant for travel agents, even though their adoption is influenced by different agency aims; the perceived effectiveness results are diversified according to varying agency typologies.Research limitations/implicationsThe two main limitations of the study are its focus on the Italian context only and the missing consideration of the consumer's point of view. The latter prevents an exhaustive assessment of future trends regarding the use of social media in the client–agency relationship.Originality/valueThe study, which focuses on a little debated topic concerning the relationship between social media and SMEs, organically explores various dimensions related to the adoption of social media by small agencies, also considering the impact of the Covid-19 on the perception of travel agents. As a further element of originality, the research takes into consideration the main social platforms separately rather than the set of tools as a whole.
Secrecy Outage Probability Analysis for Downlink RIS-NOMA Networks With On-Off Control

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been regarded as a promising technology since it has ability to create the favorable channel conditions. This paper investigates the secure communications of RIS assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks, where both external and internal eavesdropping scenarios are taken into consideration. More specifically, novel approximate and asymptotic expressions of secrecy outage probability (SOP) for the k-th legitimate user (LU) are derived by invoking imperfect successive interference cancellation (ipSIC) and perfect successive interference cancellation (pSIC). To characterize the secrecy performance of RIS-NOMA networks, the diversity order of the k-th LU with ipSIC/pSIC is obtained in the high signal-to-noise ratio region. The secrecy system throughput of RIS-NOMA networks is discussed in delay-limited transmission mode. Numerical results are presented to verify theoretical analysis that: i) The SOP of RIS-NOMA networks is superior to that of RIS assisted orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and conventional cooperative communication schemes; ii) As the number of reflecting elements increases, the RIS-NOMA networks are capable of achieving the enhanced secrecy performance; and iii) The RIS-NOMA networks have better secrecy system throughput than that of RIS-OMA networks and conventional cooperative communication schemes.
Growth of Invasive Lupinus polyphyllus (Fabaceae) is Not Affected by Site Invasion History

For invasive plant species that associate with mutualists, the presence of suitable partners or a lack thereof can be important to invasion success. We studied the effects of site invasion history and soil microbiota on the performance, folivore damage, and resistance to a fungal disease of the invasive legume Lupinus polyphyllus (Fabaceae). We discovered that the plant invader benefited from soil microbes: plants treated with an intact soil inoculum nodulated more than those grown in autoclaved soils, and tended to have higher biomass and a smaller relative investment in roots as compared with that in shoots. However, the origin of soil inoculum (previously invaded, uninvaded) had no effect on the invader's performance, the occurrence of folivory or resistance to fungal disease. Our results indicate that mutualistic associations in soils outweigh potential antagonistic interactions between plants and soil pathogens. Nevertheless, these mutualistic associations are not unique to previously invaded sites in the study area.
On the Helmholtz Theorem and Its Generalization for Multi-Layers

ABSTRACT The decomposition of a vector field to its curl-free and divergence-free components in terms of a scalar and a vector potential function, which is also considered as the fundamental theorem of vector analysis, is known as the Helmholtz theorem or decomposition. In the literature, it is mentioned that the theorem was previously presented by Stokes, but it is also mentioned that Stokes did not introduce any scalar and vector potentials in his expressions, which causes a contradiction. Therefore, in this article, Stokes’s and Helmholtz’s representations are examined in detail to reveal and emphasize their differences, similarities and important points. The Helmholtz theorem is obtained for all kinds of spaces by using the theory of distributions in a comprehensive and rigorous manner with detailed explanations, which also leads to a new surface version of the Helmholtz theorem or a new surface decomposition, resulting in the canonical form; hence, it is different than the one suggested previously in terms of two scalar functions. The generalized form of the Helmholtz theorem is also presented by employing the same approach when there is a multi-layer on the surface of discontinuity, which also corresponds to the extension of the theorem to fields with singularities of higher order.
Floer Homology and Rabinowitz-Floer homology

Let (M,ω) be a closed symplectic 2n-dimensional manifold that is symplectically aspherical with vanishing first Chern class. The (weak) Arnold conjecture states that the number of contractible periodic orbits P0(H) of the Hamiltonian vector field XH associated to a Hamiltonian H is bounded from below by the Betti numbers of the manifold:
Lightning Current Waveforms Inferred From Far-Field Waveforms for the Case of Strikes to Tall Objects

Electric and magnetic fields at far distances produced by lightning strikes to tall objects are different from those associated with lightning strikes to flat ground. Specifically, in the case of strikes to tall objects, the waveforms are oscillatory because of current reflections at the top and bottom of the tall object. In this article, a procedure to reconstruct the waveform of far electric field due to the lightning strike to flat ground from the corresponding waveform of far electric field due to a lightning strike to a tall object is proposed. Once the effect of tall strike object is removed from the measured field waveform, the channel-base current for the strike to flat ground is estimated. Further, the channel-base current waveform is used to find the waveform of current at any altitude along both the strike object and the lightning channel. Computations of far electric fields due to lightning strikes to tall objects are carried out using the finite-difference time-domain method in the two-dimensional cylindrical coordinate system. The lightning return stroke is represented by the transmission-line (TL) model, the modified TL model with linear current decay with height, or the modified TL model with exponential current decay with height.
Free vibration analysis of functionally graded composite rectangular plates reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs) using full layerwise finite element method

The current investigation is the first endeavor to apply the full layerwise finite element method (FEM) in free vibration analysis of functionally graded (FG) composite plates reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs). Unlike the equivalent single-layer (ESL) theories, the layerwise FEM focuses on all three-dimensional (3D) effects. Therefore, it can compute interlaminar stresses and other local effects with the same accuracy as 3D FEM, requiring a lower computational cost. The GPLs weight fraction is presumed invariable in each layer but varies through the plate thickness in a layerwise model. The modified Halpin-Tsai model is employed to acquire the effective Young’s modulus. The rule of mixtures is applied to specify the effective Poisson’s ratio and mass density. First, the current method is validated by comparing the numerical results with those stated in the available works. Next, a thorough numerical study is performed to examine how various factors involving the pattern of distribution, weight fraction, geometry, and size of GPLs, together with the thickness-to-span ratio and boundary conditions of the plate, affect its free vibration behaviors. Numerical results demonstrate that employing a small percentage of GPL as reinforcement considerably grows the natural frequencies of the pure epoxy. Also, distributing more square-shaped GPLs, involving a smaller amount of graphene layers, and vicinity to the upper and lower surfaces make it the most efficient method to enhance the free vibration behaviors of the plate.
Evaluating the Transition from Targeted to Exome Sequencing: A Guide for Clinical Laboratories

The transition from targeted to exome or genome sequencing in clinical contexts requires quality standards, such as targeted sequencing, in order to be fully adopted. However, no clear recommendations or methodology have emerged for evaluating this technological evolution. We developed a structured method based on four run-specific sequencing metrics and seven sample-specific sequencing metrics for evaluating the performance of exome sequencing strategies to replace targeted strategies. The indicators include quality metrics and coverage performance on gene panels and OMIM morbid genes. We applied this general strategy to three different exome kits and compared them with a myopathy-targeted sequencing method. After having achieved 80 million reads, all-tested exome kits generated data suitable for clinical diagnosis. However, significant differences in the coverage and PCR duplicates were observed between the kits. These are two main criteria to consider for the initial implementation with high-quality assurance. This study aims to assist molecular diagnostic laboratories in adopting and evaluating exome sequencing kits in a diagnostic context compared to the strategy used previously. A similar strategy could be used to implement whole-genome sequencing for diagnostic purposes.