Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Government Subsidies on the R & D Investment and Business Performance of GEM Enterprises in China

Based on the data of China's GEM companies from 2015 to 2017, this paper uses linear regression analysis model to verify the relationship among government subsidies, R&D investment and business performance. The results show that government subsidies have no significant impact on business performance, but when the intensity of government subsidies increases, the R & D investment of GEM enterprises also increases significantly. On this basis, we also concluded that the existence of R & D investment makes the government subsidies to be positively correlated with the business performance. Therefore, there is a mediating effect of R & D investment between government subsidies and business performance.
Optimal Selection and Location of BESS Systems in Medium-Voltage Rural Distribution Networks for Minimizing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This paper explores a methodology to locate battery energy storage systems (BESS) in rural alternating current (AC) distribution networks fed by diesel generators to minimize total greenhouse gas emissions. A mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is formulated to represent the problem of greenhouse gas emissions minimization, considering power balance and devices capabilities as constraints. To model the BESS systems, a linear relationship is considered between the state of charge and the power injection/consumption using a charging/discharging coefficient. The solution of the MINLP model is reached through the general algebraic modeling system by employing the BONMIN solver. Numerical results in a medium-voltage AC distribution network composed of 33 nodes and 32 branches operated with 12.66 kV demonstrate the effectiveness of including BESS systems to minimize greenhouse gas emissions in diesel generators that feeds rural distribution networks.
Investigation on life-like 3D printed prosthetic hand

A prosthetic hand is an artificial device which is designed for disabled people who lose their hands through trauma or congenitally. In recent decades, unaffordable price, high weight and bad appearance of metal-based prosthetic hands cannot meet the requirement of customers. Owing to the development of 3D printing technology, designing sophisticated mechanisms for a life-like 3D printed prosthetic hand is meaningful. In this project, life-like appearance of prosthetic hand is produced by 3D scanning technology. And all the designs are done within the solid hand file generated by 3D scanning machine. Moreover, two prototypes which have four different mechanisms are printed from flexible materials-Tango Plus. Finally, analysis and improvements done on last prototype demonstrate a functional design.
The therapeutic effects of FGF21 on diabetic nephropathy are realized by augmenting autophagy via AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway

Accumulating evidence demonstrates that FGF21 plays a preventive role in the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, little is known about the therapeutical effects of FGF21 on DN and underlying mechanism. In this study, FGF21 significantly ameliorated blood glucose, HbAlc, insulin resistance, renal function and histopathological change in DN mice (BKS-Leprem2Cd479/Gpt), which develop abnormalities in renal morphology and function. Our results showed that administration of FGF21 upregulated the autophagy related genes LC3Ⅱ and BCL-1 mRNA and protein expression levels. D-glucose was used for high glucose (HG) model in mesangial cells. The results showed that treatment with FGF21 reduced the levels of ROS, AGEs and inflammatory cytokines and significantly downregulated the protein expression of PCNA. Meanwhile, FGF21 significantly enhanced the expression of LC3Ⅱ and BCL-1. Besides, Our studies showed that administration of FGF21 significantly upregulated the phosphorylation of AMPK and downregulated phosphorylation of mTOR. Meanwhile, the effects of FGF21 on autophagy were reversed by siRNA against β-klotho. In conclusion, The therapeutic effects of FGF21 on diabetic nephropathy are realized and FGF21 ameliorates mesangial cell glucotoxicity and abnormal proliferation in vitro by augmenting autophagy via AMPK/mTOR pathway. These results suggest that FGF21 can be a therapeutic target against DN.
Rearrangement Kinetics of the Liquid—Liquid Immiscible Microphases in Alkali Borosilicate Melts

Probability calculations are presented which show the high degree of mutual intersection within a population of spheres grown from randomly placed nuclei. It is proposed that the observed networklike structures of the phases of certain liquid—liquid immiscible systems may be due to this statistical lumping. It is further proposed that interfaces of opposite curvature facilitated by this structure rather than polydispersisity give rise to transport phenomena resulting in observable rearrangements in these systems. Equations for a number of transport models are derived.Liquid—liquid phase separation was induced in alkali borosilicate melts by cooling below immiscibility temperature. Progressive stages of the geometric rearrangements within the microdisperse phases were arrested by undercooling. The kinetics of the decrease in interfacial area between the phases was studied by gas adsorption on the isolated silica‐rich phase. It is found that interfacial area is proportional to the reciprocal of the square r.
Getting Inspired by Bebras Tasks. How Italian Teachers Elaborate on Computing Topics

The Bebras challenge offers pupils and teachers an engaging opportunity to discover informatics, by solving small tasks that aim at promoting computational thinking. Explanations and comments that reveal the computing concepts underlying the tasks are published after the contest, and teachers are encouraged to use this material in their school practice. In this paper we present an exploratory study aimed at investigating how teachers can make use of Bebras material; in particular our interest is understanding whether teachers are able to identify, comprehend, and apply the computing concepts implied by Bebras tasks, and how they can integrate them into their teaching practice. We qualitatively analyzed teaching projects developed by Italian teachers during a workshop on computing education and based on Bebras tasks; the analysis shows that teachers are in general able to build upon the tasks soundly, but it also raises some critical issues.
Synthesis of Both Enantiomers of Flavanone and 2-Methylchromanone

An efficient enantiospecific synthesis of the (R)- and (S)-enantiomers of flavanone and 2-methylchromanone is described. The key steps are a C,C-bond formation by ring opening of a chiral epoxide with a dithiane anion, followed by a Mitsunobu cyclization. The products obtained have high enantiomeric purity.
Adapting realist evaluation for Made in Africa evaluation criteria

Background: Globally, the theory and practice of evaluation largely emerged from Euro-Western worldviews and continue to evolve in a manner that addresses the needs of Euro-Western interests. The extent to which the closely held values and general outlook of diverse stakeholders underpins how evaluation is processed and designed is interrogated, given the global and multicultural nature of evaluation. Objectives: We summarised contemporary debates on Made in Africa evaluation and reflected on what these debates might mean for evaluation practice. We also reflected on what it might mean to adapt a quintessentially Euro-Western evaluation method as an integral part of indigenising evaluation theory and practice in African contexts. Method: Research that adopted a case study approach and a realist evaluation meta-analysis framework was conducted in South Africa, which aimed to provide better understanding of the methodologies and approaches used in past programme impact evaluations. The aim was to reflect on the usefulness of evaluation findings to policy decision makers and to determine the suitability of the realist evaluation method in the implementation of evaluations. Results: While potential constraints were involved in its application, the realist evaluation held promise in addressing some of the requirements of Made in Africa evaluation. A model of an adapted realist evaluation cycle was presented. It was suggested that the model might enable better implementation of the realist evaluation framework in some African contexts. Conclusion: Adaptation of evaluation models, theories and instruments, towards contextual relevance and cultural appropriateness was a progressive continuum towards originating indigenous African evaluation approaches.
Expectant mothers’ value drivers at the maternity hospital: evidences from a monocentric study.

Background – Patient experience is recognized as one of the key elements of quality control within healthcare organizations, becoming crucial for a competitive growth strategy. In fact, delivering patient-centered healthcare experiences is seen as one of the basic requirements of good quality care. Women have been largely invisible in patient centered satisfaction research, especially if considering women needs during pregnancy and labor. The aim of this paper is to understand the experiential value drivers of expectant mothers through a holistic experiential marketing perspective. This paper enlightens the elements of in-hospital stays from different perspectives, contributing to a better and more exhaustive understanding of the patient’s needs and preferences.Methods – Three studies were designed and conducted referring to a maternal and child health hospital: two focus groups involving expectant and new mothers (study 1), a qualitative analysis to understand the online overall sentiment regarding hospital experiences during pregnancy (study 2) and a survey with collected data analyzed through SEM to identify the most influential and significant factors affecting women’s overall satisfaction in the in-hospital stay (study 3). Results – The qualitative research returned some valuable insights on the role of interaction with staff, information quality and brand. Sentiment analysis revealed the relevance of online patient experience. Finally, the quantitative SEM analysis confirmed that the relationship between patients and staff and patient empowerment impact the most on the overall satisfaction. Furthermore, the brand value plays a mediating role in this positive relationship.Conclusions – Results suggest to prioritize the establishment of strong human relationships between clinical staff and patients, based on the availability of high quality clinical information. The conducted studies through their main finding, could support an improvement in the process of care based on expectant mothers’ needs and behaviours.
INTERCULTURALIDADE NO ENSINO DE LÍNGUAS - CONTEXTOS POLONO-BRASILEIROS

A abordagem intercultural surgiu no ensino de línguas no fim do século XX, como resultado de mudanças socioeconômicas que levaram a transformações na educação. A noção de que percebe a cultura estrangeira através do prisma da cultura nativa influenciou o ensino e a aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras e passou-se a dar importância a ambas as culturas. Essa espécie de “diálogo entre culturas” resulta na criação de uma “terceira cultura” que se torna o espaço de atuação de professores e alunos. Encontrar-se em um espaço de interculturalidade é um desafio árduo para ambas as partes envolvidas no processo didático. O desenvolvimento da competência comunicativa intercultural exige – além de conhecimentos linguísticos – que o professor desempenhe o papel de mediador cultural. Papel este que consiste na mediação entre duas culturas e exige usar materiais e técnicas de ensino adequados durante o processo didático visando à preparação dos aprendizes, para que eles observem as semelhanças e diferenças, percebam de forma objetiva a própria cultura e a cultura estrangeira, conscientizando-se da alteridade. Este artigo discute a essência da abordagem intercultural, bem como os objetivos e a especificidade de uma didática intercultural. As considerações teóricas aqui apresentadas trazem respostas para perguntas, como: Por que se deve ensinar com base na abordagem intercultural? Com a ajuda de que tipo de materiais e métodos? Quais procedimentos o professor-mediador deve pôr em prática? As propostas de soluções práticas no campo do ensino intercultural se adéquam ao contexto do ensino de polonês para brasileiros.
Inferring extinction date of a species using non‐homogeneous Poisson processes with a change‐point

Bayesian methods have been developed for inferring the true year of extinction of a species from sighting records that have both certain and uncertain sightings. These methods typically make the restrictive assumption that all sighting types (i.e. certain, valid uncertain, invalid uncertain) derive from constant rate Poisson processes. In this study, the constant rate assumption in the homogeneous Poisson process is relaxed by allowing certain and uncertain sightings to follow independent non‐homogeneous Poisson processes. The model can thus identify whether any of the sighting rates were increasing, decreasing or constant. In addition, a change‐point is introduced to model the uncertain sightings, where the sighting rates before and after the change‐point vary. We have used Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling to generate the posterior distributions for model parameters including species extinction time. The proposed method was applied to the sighting records of the black‐footed ferret Mustela nigripes and the ivory‐billed woodpecker Campephilus principalis (IBW) species. Based on a hypothesis test, the results of the model indicate that the species both went extinct in the years 1988 and 1956 respectively. Moreover, a decline in the certain sighting rate was also inferred for both these species, possibly indicating the decrease in the species abundance as it converges to extinction. Thus, earlier models that assume a constant sighting rate may well be biased. Uncertain sighting rates for the IBW were found to increase before extinction (indicating possibly some additional ecological attention received near extinction) and remained constant after extinction.
Design of Experiments vs. TOPSIS to Select Hyperparameters of Neural Attention Models in Time Series Prediction

Attention models are used in neural machine translation to overcome the challenges of classical encoder-decoder models. In the present research, design of experiments and TOPSIS methods are used to select hyperparameters of a neural attention model for time series prediction. The configurations selected by both methods are compared with out-of-sample data in time interval between January 2020 and April 2020 when global economies were significantly impacted due to Covid-19 pandemic. Results demonstrated that both selection methods outperformed each other in terms of different output features. On the other hand, our results with more than 95 % coefficient of determination and less than 0.23 % MAPE verified that neural attention models had strong capabilities in exchange rate prediction even in extraordinary situations in global economies.
Spectral Characterization of Bennu Analogs Using PASCALE: A New Experimental Set‐Up for Simulating the Near‐Surface Conditions of Airless Bodies

We describe the capabilities, radiometric stability, and calibration of a custom vacuum environment chamber capable of simulating the near‐surface conditions of airless bodies. Here we demonstrate the collection of spectral measurements of a suite of fine particulate asteroid analogs made using the Planetary Analogue Surface Chamber for Asteroid and Lunar Environments (PASCALE) under conditions like those found on Earth and on airless bodies. The sample suite includes anhydrous and hydrated physical mixtures, and chondritic meteorites (CM, CI, CV, CR, and L5) previously characterized under Earth‐ and asteroid‐like conditions. And for the first time, we measure the terrestrial and extra‐terrestrial mineral end members used in the olivine‐ and phyllosilicate‐dominated physical mixtures under the same conditions as the mixtures and meteorites allowing us better understand how minerals combine spectrally when mixed intimately. Our measurements highlight the sensitivity of thermal infrared emissivity spectra to small amounts of low albedo materials and the composition of the sample materials. As the albedo of the sample decreases, we observe smaller differences between Earth‐ and asteroid‐like spectra, which results from a reduced thermal gradient in the upper hundreds of microns in the sample. These spectral measurements can be compared to thermal infrared emissivity spectra of asteroid (101955) Bennu's surface in regions where similarly fine particulate materials may be observed to infer surface compositions.
Marketing tourism and hotel management schools in the context of higher education globalization and student mobility through improved curriculum and industrial training offerings

Recent research from international statistics indicate an important flow of student mobility all over the world, creating a need to provide comprehensive information regarding educational institutions involved in the process. This study examines and compares tourism and hotel management (THM) programs at different levels, including the nature of programs offered, their curriculum, and internship components. A particular focus was given to the industrial training requirement as a core component of THM programs. Results showed both similarities and differences worldwide within the framework of the institutions compared. The findings may help all stakeholders in the education systems, including professionals, educators, students, and decision-makers alike.
TAHMİN ET - GÖZLE - AÇIKLA YÖNTEMİ DESTEKLİ ETKİNLİKLERİN LİSE ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN ÜST BİLİŞ FARKINDALIKLARINA ETKİSİNİN ARAŞTIRILMASI

Bu arastirmanin amaci, 9. sinif kimya dersi ogretim programinda yer alan “maddenin hâlleri” konusunda tahmin et - gozle - acikla (TGA) yontemine uygun calisma yapraklari gelistirmek ve calisma yapraklari yardimiyla yapilan TGA etkinliklerinin ogrencilerin ust bilissel farkindaliklarina etkisini incelemektir. Arastirmanin calisma grubunu 2016-2017 egitim-ogretim yilinda Ankara Mehmet Rustu Uzel Mesleki Anadolu Lisesinde 9. sinif subesinde ogrenim goren 99 ogrenci olusturmaktadir. Arastirma bir karma yontem calismasidir. Arastirmanin nicel kismi on test - son test deney ve kontrol gruplu desen kullanilarak gerceklestirilirken, nitel kismi ise odak grup gorusmesi teknigi ile yurutulmustur. Arastirmada veri toplama araci olarak Bilisotesi Farkindalik Envanteri kullanilmistir. Ogrencilerin Bilis Otesi Farkindalik Envanteri ve alt boyutlarindan elde ettikleri puanlarin analizleri icin betimsel istatistikler, cok degiskenli varyans analizi (MANOVA) ve bagimli gruplar t testi uygulanmistir. Arastirmanin sonucunda TGA yontemine gore hazirlanmis etkinliklerin deney grubundaki ogrencilerin iki alt boyut haricinde (prosedurel bilgi - degerlendirme) diger tum alt boyutlarla karakterize edilen ust bilissel farkindaliklarini arttirdigi sonucuna varilmistir. Odak grup gorusmesiyle ortaya cikan sonuclarin hangi olcude nicel sonuclari acikladigi degerlendirilmis ve yorumlanmistir.
When your data has COVID-19: how the changing context disrupts data collection and what to do about it

ABSTRACT Global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, change the context for research and bring with them many professional challenges for IS researchers – not the least of which is disrupting carefully thought-out data collection efforts. In this confessional tale, we describe how moving from an “open research ecosystem” to a “socially distanced research ecosystem” has affected a long-planned data collection effort. While government orders to socially distance and physically isolate may have made the world “stand still” for some, we found that these orders had dynamic and consequential effects for our in-process research. Against the backdrop of significant threats posed by the contextual change to our data collection, we explain how the crisis also opened up opportunities to invigorate our understanding of how the environment affects how we conduct research. We conclude our tale with guidelines for how to successfully respond when your research is interrupted by a change of context.
Characterisation of a multi-view fringe projection system based on the stereo matching of rectified phase maps

Multi-view fringe projection systems can be effective solutions to address the limitations imposed by the limited field of view, line-of-sight issues and occlusions when measuring the geometry of complex objects, associated with single camera–projector systems. However, characterisation of a multi-view system is challenging since it requires the cameras and projectors to be in a common global coordinate system. We present a method for characterising a multi-view fringe projection system which does not require the characterisation of the projector. The novelty of the method lies in determining the correspondences in the phase domain using the rectified unwrapped phase maps and triangulating the matched phase values to reconstruct the three-dimensional shape of the object. A benefit of the method is that it does not require registration of the point clouds acquired from multiple perspectives. The proposed method is validated by experiment and comparison with a conventional system and a contact coordinate measuring machine.
Not Everything Requires a Psychiatry Consult: Subdural Hematoma as a Cause of Transient Acute Quadriplegia

While subdural hematoma (SDH) is a commonly encountered emergent pathology that is often in the setting of trauma, its ability to present with a wide variety of symptoms, or no symptoms at all, may delay diagnosis. SDH symptoms progress in a stepwise manner, potentially resulting in rapid neurological degeneration and can result in irreversible damage. Here we describe a case of an elderly woman with bilateral chronic SDH with mass effect who initially presented with severe headaches and a mild altered mental status, notably without a history of head trauma. Diagnosis was achieved through radiographic imaging. Within 24 hours, the patient suddenly became quadriplegic. Emergent bilateral evacuation of SDH was performed. Full neurological recovery of both arms and legs was achieved without delay, demonstrating the ability of this approach to reverse the development of acute quadriplegia attributed to SDH in such patients. Comprehensive and timely medical screening on initial presentation accompanied by radiographic studies, especially of patients presenting with altered mental status is crucial for identifying any underlying pathology, such as SDH. Altered mental status without head trauma is not always psychologic in nature and a psychiatric consult is insufficient in identifying lesions of the central nervous system (CNS). Altered mental status encompasses a broad differential diagnosis that seeks to find organic causes of altered state. While mortality from symptomatic chronic SDH is high, especially in the geriatric patient population, our findings support the position that rapid diagnosis and intervention to reverse neurological deterioration is an essential component of improving patient outcomes.