Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Badging the Teacher. An Experimental Study about Gamification Effects on a Sharing Platform for Educational Resources

: Despite increasing needs for shared educational resources, only few users of digital sharing platforms such as Lehrermarktplatz.de (LMP) frequently upload own material. The implementation of gamification elements may increase users’ engagement and motivation to share. In this paper, we discuss the effects of a digital badge system on LMP. With the help of user tracking ( N = 2083) and an online survey ( n = 150), only few minor differences were detected between experimental (badge system) and control group (no badge system) regarding user engagement. There were no significant differences in motivations to share. Participants stated manifold reasons for sharing, especially intrinsic motivations and monetarisation
EvoSets: Tracking the Sensitivity of Dimensionality Reduction Results Across Subspaces

Dimensionality reduction is commonly used for identifying and analyzing patterns in the visual analysis of multi-dimensional datasets. The selection of subspaces is a core building block in projecting high-dimensional data to low-dimensional space, which is usually illustrated as a scatterplot for analysts to easily understand and explore. This process involves human prior knowledge and domain-specific requirements. Thus, quantifying and tracking the changes of dimensionality reduction results across subspaces remain challenging. Existing methods can neither quantify the subsets-based changes of dimensionality reduction results when switching subspaces, nor automatically and comprehensively display the overall and subtle differences among dimensionality reduction results. To address this, we developed EvoSets, a novel visual analytics system designed to help users understand how subspaces affect dimensionality reduction results. The effects are quantified based on the distribution of subsets within projections to tracking the sensitivity of dimensionality reduction results across subspaces. In addition, the system supports the exploration of the overall evolution of the dimensionality reduction results for helping users track the convergence and divergence behavior changes of subsets based on an extended Bubble Sets visualization. Similarities are intuitively illustrated, and dissimilarities are highlighted among the generated dimensionality reduction results across subspaces based on different layout constraints. The usefulness and effectiveness of the system are further evaluated with a user study and two case studies on multi-dimensional datasets.
When Does It Pay to Be Good? A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Green Innovation and Financial Performance

A rapid increase in environmental concerns has prompted firms to engage in green innovation. However, previous studies have found contradictory results for the relationship between green innovation and financial performance, thus offering us an opportunity to revisit the relationship using a meta-analysis method. By analyzing a sample size of 20 503 observations from 80 studies, in this article, we find a positive relationship between green innovation and financial performance. Moreover, the relationship is stronger in fast-clockspeed and close-to-consumer industries than in others and stronger in countries with a strong control of corruption and a long-term cultural orientation than in others. This article advances the understanding of the green innovation–financial performance relationship as well as of the role of research context as a moderator of that relationship.
Truthful Incentive Mechanism for Budget-Constrained Online User Selection in Mobile Crowdsensing

Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) has attained much attention for gathering distributed mobile users to complete large-scale sensing tasks. To ensure the task completion, enough users should be motivated to participate in sensing tasks. Thus, much research in MCS focuses on proposing incentive mechanism, and these works usually focus on the offline scenario, where the information of all users is available to the platform. However, we argue that the actual MCS is usually an online scenario, where the platform does not know the user's information until they establish connections with the platform. Meanwhile, mobile users connect to the platform randomly and will cut off the connection at any time. Hence, when accessed by a user, the platform needs to make an irrevocable decision instantly about whether to select the user or not, and decides a remuneration for the user without knowing future information. In this paper, we first propose a reverse-auction framework to model the interaction between the platform and mobile users. Then, we present an online truthful incentive mechanism (OTIM) to motivate users, including online winner selection and remuneration determination strategies. Finally, massive simulations are conducted based on three real traces, and the simulation results illustrate that OTIM achieves truthfulness, individual rationality, computational efficiency and an approximately full budget utilization.
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO ASSESS EVAPORATIVE COOLING UNDER FORCED AIR FLOW

Air blast is one of the most employed industrial chilling methods. It can be enhanced, i.e., increasing heat transfer and reducing cooling time, by superficial evaporative phenomena. This work reports a methodology, including experimental setup and mathematical modelling, to quantify the air chilling enhancement by wetting the surface of the object to be chilled. A spherical metal model was covered by a cotton tissue (wet or dry) and placed into a cold chamber. The effective heat transfer coefficient was determined at different temperature, air velocity, and relative humidity from time-temperature profiles into the sphere. Under the same air conditions, the effective coefficient between sphere and air was increased threefold by moistening the cotton tissue on the sphere surface. Furthermore, comparing a dry and wet surface showed that evaporative cooling resulted in much shorter chilling times. The proposed approach was able to assess evaporative heat transfer by measuring only the time-temperature profile, and is suitable for industrial applications.
Bioinspired Anisotropic Hydrogel Actuators with On–Off Switchable and Color‐Tunable Fluorescence Behaviors

An effective approach to develop a novel macroscopic anisotropic bilayer hydrogel actuator with on–off switchable fluorescent color‐changing function is reported. Through combining a collapsed thermoresponsive graphene oxide‐poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (GO‐PNIPAM) hydrogel layer with a pH‐responsive perylene bisimide‐functionalized hyperbranched polyethylenimine (PBI‐HPEI) hydrogel layer via macroscopic supramolecular assembly, a bilayer hydrogel is obtained that can be tailored and reswells to form a 3D hydrogel actuator. The actuator can undergo complex shape deformation caused by the PNIPAM outside layer, then the PBI‐HPEI hydrogel inside layer can be unfolded to trigger the on–off switch of the pH‐responsive fluorescence under the green light irradiation. This work will inspire the design and fabrication of novel biomimetic smart materials with synergistic functions.
Glucose oxidase kinetics using MnO2 nanosheets: confirming Michaelis–Menten kinetics and quantifying decreasing enzyme performance with increasing buffer concentration

MnO2 nanosheets and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) absorbance spectroscopy are used to study glucose oxidase (GOx) kinetics. Glucose oxidation by GOx produces H2O2, which rapidly decomposes the nanosheets and reduces their absorption. This direct approach for monitoring glucose oxidation enables simpler, real time kinetics analysis compared to methods that employ additional enzymes. Using this approach, the present study confirms that GOx kinetics is consistent with the Michaelis–Menten (MM) model, and reveals that the MM constant increases by an order of magnitude with increasing buffer concentration. Since larger MM constants imply higher enzyme substrate concentrations are required to achieve the same rate of product formation, increasing MM constants imply decreasing enzyme performance. These results demonstrate the facility of using MnO2 nanosheets to study GOx kinetics and, given the widespread applications of enzymes with buffers, the important sensitivity of enzyme–buffer systems on buffer concentration.
Increased level of Histamine in keloid Tissue

Background: Keloid and hypertrophic scars (HTS) caused by an imbalance between the production and destruction of collagen during wound healing with an unknown underlying pathophysiological mechanism. This study was designed to evaluate the histamine level in the Keloid and HTS and comparison of results with normal skin. Materials and Methods: This pilot study included 36 participants, aged from 18 to 70 years with keloid (n=11), HTS (n=13) and normal (n=12) skin. The level of histamine in the skin samples was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Histamine level in keloid samples was significantly higher than in the normal (p=0.0012) or HTS (p=0.0028) groups. However, there was no significant difference between the normal and HTS samples (p=0.92). Conclusion: The increased histamine level in the keloid tissue may contribute to its pathogenesis and the application of anti-histamines could be of benefit for the prevention and treatment of keloids.
Will Coal Price Fluctuations Affect Renewable Energy Substitution and Carbon Emission? A Computable General Equilibrium-Based Study of China

Changes in the energy price system will determine the direction of evolution of the energy industry structure. As a country where coal is the dominant energy source, what is the effect of coal price fluctuations on China’s industry development costs and energy consumption structure? To investigate this problem, this paper utilized an economy–energy–environment computable general equilibrium model. In this study, four aspects were analyzed: Energy supply side, proportion of renewable energy consumption, macroeconomy, and changes in CO2 emissions. The results of this study show that an increase of 10%–20% in coal prices contributes to a shift into using renewable energy, which leads to energy saving and emission reduction. Renewable energy and clean energy rose by 0.57%–4.47% in the energy structure, but this has a certain negative impact on the macroeconomy. The gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.07%–0.18%. As a result, the decline in coal prices became an obstacle to renewable energy substitution and energy conservation. In addition, we put forward policy suggestions according to the results in energy, economic, and environmental effects.
Reactive Thrombocythemia in Children with Iron Deficiency Anemia in Sulaimania province

Thrombocytosis in children can occur due to various causes leading to serious thromboembolic complications. Thrombocytosis is a commonly encountered clinical scenario, with a large proportion of cases discovered incidentally. By far the most common cause of thrombocytosis in general medical populations is a reactive or secondary process. From the non-infectious causes of secondary thrombocytosis, iron deficiency is a common one, since it is the single most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. The fact that thrombocytosis is more frequent in children up to 2 years of age is partly due to the higher incidence of iron deficiency in this age group. The mechanism for thrombocytosis in iron deficiency anemia remains unclear. (3, 4) With this back-ground in mind the present work was planned to study the incidence of thrombocytosis in pediatric age group with iron deficiency anemia.
Memristive Rulkov Neuron Model With Magnetic Induction Effects

The magnetic induction effects have been emulated by various continuous memristive models but they have not been successfully described by a discrete memristive model yet. To address this issue, this article first constructs a discrete memristor and then presents a discrete memristive Rulkov (m-Rulkov) neuron model. The bifurcation routes of the m-Rulkov model are declared by detecting the eigenvalue loci. Using numerical measures, we investigate the complex dynamics shown in the m-Rulkov model, including regime transition behaviors, transient chaotic bursting regimes, and hyperchaotic firing behaviors, all of which are closely relied on the memristor parameter. Consequently, the involvement of memristor can be used to simulate the magnetic induction effects in such a discrete neuron model. Besides, we elaborate a hardware platform for implementing the m-Rulkov model and acquire diverse spiking-bursting sequences. These results show that the presented model is viable to better characterize the actual firing activities in biological neurons than the Rulkov model when biophysical memory effect is supplied.
Microplastics as an emerging hazard to terrestrial and marine ecosystems: Sources, Occurrence and Analytical Methods

Microplastics (MPs) with particles lower than 5mm in size, are crucial pollution of increasing ecotoxicological concern in the environments. Lately, studies on MPs have been documented globally due to increasing awareness of the potential risks for human health and for the environment. However due to limitations of different analytical methods and environmental assessment risk, MPs distribution and biological effects are still database topics. To clarify this gap, this study brings out a wide range of scientific literature related to MPs studies in different environmental compartments as well as sediments, oceans, coastlines, uptake and the health effect. The environmental and health risk related to microplastic contamination is still unclear.
Perception of biotech trees by Slovak university students – a comparative survey

Abstract Acceptance of genetically modified plants is restricted in EU by legislation, while the attitude of public is not favourable as well. Surveys show that knowledge about GM plants is getting increased. Newly developed strategies on GM safety for environment can be a crucial aspect for the (partial) acceptance in future. GM trees as non-edible plants might appear as more admissible, however, are relatively rarely discussed. We performed a comparative survey on knowledge and perception of GM forest trees among students at four Slovak universities. We also compared their responses between as well as with the outcome of similar cross-country survey in frames of the COST Action FP0905. The results point to very similar attitude of Slovak students when compared with students from other countries, no significant difference between responses of males and females, but also influence of age as well as orientation of their study (natural sciences vs. economy) on view of GM tree safety and placing on the market.
Gondomono (Hedycium spicatum) Ethanol Exstract Anti-Proliferation, Apoptosis and P53 Cancer Cell Line

The incidence of cancer from year to year continues to increase. Some of the causes of this incident include an unhealthy lifestyle, smoking, a diet high in fat and low in fiber. The Gondomono plant (Hedychium spicatum) are the most studied species. Interesting compounds have been identified like coronarin D, which possesses antibacterial, antifungal and antitumor activities, as well as isocoronarin D, linalool and villosin that exhibit better cytotoxicity towards tumor cell lines than the reference compounds used, with villosin not affecting the non-tumor cell line. This study aims to obtain scientific evidence that Gondomono extract (Hedychium spicatum) is proven to be anti-cancer. The impact obtained will be utilized by local Indonesian plants that can be processed or produced as functional food and herbal medicine for anti-cancer bioactivity toxicity with various tests including the making gondomono (Hedycium spicatum) flour, ethanol extraction method, insilico analysis and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, then the second stage test, namely the MTT test, P53 test and apoptosis test. The research design was experimental. Gondomono extract when compared to anticancer ingredients was indeed very far away, gondomono extract was starting to be able to act as apoptosis, it requires a fairly high concentration, from 200 to 400 ppm. As conclusion, the higher the dose of gondomono extract, the higher the expression of p53 protein, the higher. Gondomono extract as a cancer cell killer requires a minimum dose of 368.51 ppm. Keywords: gondomono; Hedycium spicatum; anti-proliferasi; cancer cell line
Modeling of torrefaction of small biomass particles

ABSTRACT A simple single-step kinetic model consisting of two parallel reactions is proposed for torrefaction of small biomass particles. The model is validated against experimental data on torrefaction of poplar wood fines. Comparison of experimental data and model prediction shows that the results predicted by the proposed simplified model are as accurate as those from the models of Di Blasi and Lanzetta (1997) and Rousset et al. (2006) which involve larger numbers of model parameters – eight and sixteen, respectively – compared to four in the proposed model. This makes it suitable for incorporation into the overall reactor model. At 493 and 553 K, the relative mean errors are found to be 0.056, 0.080, 0.051 and 0.050, 0.100, 0.048 for the proposed model, Rousset et al.’s (2006) model and Blasi and Lanzetta's (1997) model, respectively. The effect of particle size, temperature and residence time on torrefaction of biomass is investigated. A transformation of rate-controlling regime from kinetic to heat transfer is identified with an increase in particle size and temperature. Sensitivity analysis shows that the dimensionless groups such as pyrolysis number, dimensionless heat of reaction and dimensionless activation energy have significant influence on the particle temperature and torrefaction behaviour.
FE Simulation Investigation of Magnesium Alloy by Equal Channel Angular Processing

Magnesium alloy is one of the structure metals of great potential. The hcp structure makes its plasticity is poor at room temperature, which severely limits the development of magnesium alloy. Magnesium alloy plastic problem can be resolved through grain refinement method, and equal channel angular processing is one of the more effective methods of grain refinement. In this paper, two-dimensional dynamic simulation of equal channel angular processing for magnesium alloy were done with the finite element software. The deformation of magnesium alloy was analyzed when die angle and die corner angle were different. The results show that: in the main deformation zone, when die angles were different, the sample deformation in the horizontal direction is very uniform. But in the sample longitudinally direction, the greater the die angle, the more uniform the sample deformation. Die corner angle has no significant effect on the uniformity of the longitudinally deformation of the sample, but its affects the size of the dead zone and sample warpage.
Tsunami risk perception in Central and Southern Italy, 2021

<p>The tsunami risk perception survey is promoted by the Tsunami Alert Centre of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, operating within the Italian System for Tsunami Alert (SiAM) with the Civil Protection Department and ISPRA, and acting as Tsunami Service Provider in the NEAMTWS. </p><p>Conducting studies on tsunami risk perception is important in order to obtain data on population&#8217;s knowledge and awareness, and understanding people&#8217;s perception of tsunami risk. These data are going to be added to those from two previous surveys on tsunami risk perception being issued in 2018 and 2020, to integrate the available knowledge on these issues and will provide publics, experts and policy makers with relevant tools to <strong>implement risk mitigation policies</strong>. &#160;</p><p>The third phase of the survey was completed in January 2021, administering a <strong>total of 4,207 questionnaires</strong> to the population living on the coastal areas of <em>Sicily, Campania, Latium and Sardinia</em>, <strong>in addition to the 1,635 interviewees</strong> considered in previous surveys. </p><p>The survey used a semi-structured questionnaire consisting of 27 items, with closed alternative questions, and four sets of Likert scale questions. The questionnaire was optimized for <em>CATI</em> administration, taking into account the need for conciseness and comprehensibility of the questions. </p><p>All the studied regions are located in the central Mediterranean basin (including central and southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Sardinian Sea, Sicily Channel), some of which are characterized by <strong>high tsunami hazard</strong>, and in some cases they have been affected by recorded tsunamis in a close or distant past. Some regions are located in areas where potential seismic tsunami sources are present, others surround waters where active volcanoes exist, both on islands (such as <em>Stromboli</em>, Vulcano) and below the sea (<em>Marsili, Palinuro</em>). &#160;</p><p>In addition, the four studied regions have a <strong>high risk exposure</strong> due to the <strong>high density of population living on</strong>, or visiting the coastal areas for tourism. In the areas where the questionnaire was administered, five highly populated regional capitals are located, including <em>Palermo, Messina, Naples, Rome and Cagliari</em>, together with other important towns (such as <em>Catania, Siracusa, Trapani, Salerno, Olbia</em> etc.). Moreover, the coastal shores involved in the survey, live of a <strong>significant tourist affluence</strong> in the summer period (and not only), with many tourist facilities and large hotels located along the coasts. </p><p>The survey's main aim is to analyze the perception of tsunami risk by the coastal population and to correlate levels of tsunami risk perception with scientific data from <em>probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment</em> (PTHA) for the considered coastal area. We will present some preliminary results of this last survey, with a comparison with the previous analyses on other regions in southern Italy. </p>
Necessary and sufficient conditions for stability of fractional discrete-time linear state-space systems

In the paper the problems of practical stability and asymptotic stability of fractional discrete-time linear systems are addressed. Necessary and sufficient conditions for practical stability and for asymptotic stability are established. The conditions are given in terms of eigenvalues of the state matrix of the system. In particular, it is shown that (similarly as in the case of fractional continuous-time linear systems) in the complex plane exists such a region, that location of all eigenvalues of the state matrix in this region is necessary and sufficient for asymptotic stability. The parametric description of boundary of this region is given. Moreover, it is shown that Schur stability of the state matrix (all eigenvalues have absolute values less than 1) is not necessary nor sufficient for asymptotic stability of the fractional discrete-time system. The considerations are illustrated by numerical examples.