Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lecturers’ Experiences of the Blurring of Time and Space during Covid-19 in a South African ODeL University

Education has been greatly impacted by the current Covid-19 pandemic. With countries worldwide experiencing unprecedented extended lockdowns, higher education providers have sought innovative technological ways of effectively delivering tuition and support to diverse students. This has, however, also increased the blurring of the work–home boundaries. This paper reports on the way in which Covid-19 facilitated the blurring of the work–home boundaries of academics in the College of Education at the University of South Africa, a distance education institution. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 15 lecturers via Microsoft Teams. The results showed that, owing to a lack of workspace at their homes, many academics were forced to work beyond normal office hours. Inexplicit expectations from the employer exacerbated the blurring of work–home interfaces for many academics. The results of this study can be used for future research to seek ways in which the management of the University of South Africa or employers of other higher education institutions can help to reduce the blurring of work–home boundaries.
To Quell Childhood Obesity: The Pacific Ending Childhood Obesity Network’s Response

The need to accelerate collective and concerted action to combat Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and childhood obesity is particularly relevant in the Pacific context. In October 2017, the country-driven Pacific Ending Childhood Obesity Network (Pacific ECHO) was established1, and all twenty-two Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) became members of the Network. Several regional and international plans and strategies have outlined key proven populations-based measures to address this epidemic including the WHO Report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (ECHO) [1], the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020 [2], the Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition 2012 [3] and the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025 [4].
Interferon-α-A (IFN-α-A) Diversity in Domestic Yak (Bos grunniens) of Pakistan

Among the various species of livestock, the domestic yak (Bos grunniens) belongs to the class Bovidae and is specially adapted for survival at high altitudes under extreme climatic conditions. Yak is a very useful species due to the multiple products it provides, such as meat, hide, milk and other dairy products. Like other livestock species, domestic yak is also in danger of infection by microbial infections. However, multiple immunity genes encode special protein products to fight infection. One of these immunity genes is interferon-α-A (IFN-α-A), which encodes proteins that belongs to cytokines and fights viral infections. The current study analysed the genetic variation and phylogenetic analysis of the IFN-α-A gene in domestic yak, with comparisons to other mammalian species to investigate immune diversity level, with the aim of designing molecular selection strategies for better disease resistant animals.
Contraction and intracellular calcium transport in epicardial and endocardial ventricular myocytes from streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global health problem. According to the International Diabetes Federation, 424.9 million people suffered from DM in 2017 and this number is expected to rise to 628.6 million by 2045. Although diabetes can affect every organ in the body, cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death and disability in people with diabetes. Diabetic patients frequently suffer from systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Within the ventricles, the electromechanical properties of cardiac myocytes vary transmurally. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate contraction and Ca2+ transport in epicardial (EPI) and endocardial (ENDO) myocytes from the left ventricle in the streptozotocin (STZ) – induced diabetic rat heart. Materials and Methods: Experiments were performed 5-6 months after STZ treatment. Ventricular myocytes were isolated by enzymic and mechanical dispersal techniques from EPI and ENDO regions of the left ventricle. Contraction and free intracellular Ca2+ concentration [Ca2+]i were measured by video edge detection and fluorescence photometry techniques, respectively. Results: Myocyte length and calculated surface area were smaller in EPI-STZ compared to EPI-CON. Time to peak (TPK) shortening was prolonged in EPI-STZ compared to EPI-CON and in ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON myocytes. Time to half (THALF) relaxation of shortening was prolonged in EPI-STZ compared to EPI-CON. TPK Ca2+ transient was prolonged in EPI-STZ compared to EPI-CON, ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON, ENDO-STZ compared to EPI-STZ and in ENDO-CON compared to EPI-CON myocytes. THALF decay of the Ca2+ transient was prolonged in ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON. Fractional release of Ca2+ was increased in ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON and in ENDO-STZ compared to EPI-STZ. Recovery of the Ca2+ transient was prolonged in ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON. Conclusion: In conclusion the kinetics of contraction and Ca2+ transient and fractional release of Ca2+ from the sarcoplasmic reticulum are altered to different extents in EPI and ENDO myocytes from STZ-induced diabetic rat.
CHALLENGES FOR SOCIAL WORKERS DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

This article provides an overview of various important aspects of the work of the social workers in day care centers during the coronavirus pandemic. It explores how the activity of social workers is being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the impact of the use of online platforms for communication on the relationship of assistance. Interviews were conducted with 10 social workers working at 5 day care centers in Cluj-Napoca to explore the challenges they faced in order to prevent school dropout, in pandemic context. It were exemplified the ways in which the responsibilities of social workers are adapted to the context and measures imposed in the pandemic context. A low motivation for learning from students was emphasized as well as socioeconomic difficulties at the family level and the importance of face-to-face communication with beneficiaries was also stressed.
Analysis of Accuracy and Loss Performance According to Hyperparameter in RNN Model

In this paper, in order to obtain the optimization of the RNN model used for sentiment analysis, the correlation of each model was studied by observing the trend of loss and accuracy according to hyperparameter tuning. As a research method, after configuring the hidden layer with LSTM and the embedding layer that are most optimized to process sequential data, the loss and accuracy of each model were measured by tuning the unit, batch-size, and embedding size of the LSTM. As a result of the measurement, the loss was 41.9% and the accuracy was 11.4%, and the trend of the optimization model showed a consistently stable graph, confirming that the tuning of the hyperparameter had a profound effect on the model. In addition, it was confirmed that the decision of the embedding size among the three hyperparameters had the greatest influence on the model. In the future, this research will be continued, and research on an algorithm that allows the model to directly find the optimal hyperparameter will continue.
EFFECT OF ELECTRICAL STUNNING ON QUALITY OF BROILER CARCASSES

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of electrical stunning on quality of broiler carcasses. Two hundred of apparently healthy broiler Ross 208, 2kg weight, 37 old day from the same flock were divided into two groups, each group of 100 broiler; the first on slaughtered without stunning while the second one was stunned in water bath stunner at 40 voltage for 10 seconds voltage. The results of this study showed that the sensory evaluation including color, texture, appearance, odor and general acceptance were7, 6, 5, 7, and 6 in non- stunned carcasses while in stunned one they were 8,8,7,7, and 7,5, respectively. The mean total bacterial counts were 4.3x105 ±1.07x105 in non stunned carcasses and 3.30 x105 ±1.01 x 105 in stunned carcasses. The good effect of electrical stunning were occurred in carcasses quality because of grade B carcasses were decreased from 15% in non- stunned to 8%in stunned carcasses due to decrease of defects of brocken bone, red wing, wing bleeding spots, from 5%, 4% and, 4% in non stunned carcasses to 1%, 0% and 1% in stunned on although increase of breast bleeding spots from 2% in no stunned carcasses to 6% in stunned one. There is no detectable effect for low voltage water bath electrical stunning on chemical composition of meat (moisture, fat, protein and ash) with increase of pH. In-addition to non-significant increase in anti-oxidants enzymes of slaughtered carcasses. From these study results, we recommend using the electrical stunning before broiler slaughter as it improves the carcasses quality through decreasing the manufacture defects as broken boned and not affects the chemical composition of carcasses meat.
Jaringan Sensor Nirkabel: Studi dan Evaluasi Kinerja LoRa Transmitter dan Long Range Radio Frekuensi (RF) Pada Luar Ruang

Transmitter merupakan tulang punggung komunikasi pada Jaringan Sensor Nirkabel. Sebagian besar transmitter menggunakan frekuensi ism band sehingga jangkauan komunikasinya terbatas sejauh 100 m. Beberapa jenis transmitter yang memiliki kemampuan komunikasi jarak jauh adalah nRF24 1 km dan LoRa. Paper ini melaporkan studi komperasi antara nRF24 1 km dan LoRa dalam komunikasi data, konsumsi daya dan ketahanan terhadap halangan. Hasil studi menunjukkan bahwa LoRa memiliki kemampuan jangkauan 1,6 km dan nRF24 memiliki kemampuan pengiriman sejauh 1 km. NRF24 1 km lebih cocok digunakan untuk komunikasi jarak jauh yang membutuhkan kecepatan yang tinggi dan juga tahan terhadap halangan nonline of sight.
Heterogeneous Control Platform Design for Power Conversion Systems

Digitally controlled switch-mode power conversion systems require an embedded computing platform to execute, in real-time (RT), closed-loop algorithms that regulate the power flow. Since legacy control software design is traditionally rooted to single-core processors, recent trends in power electronics toward faster switching devices and multilevel topologies will challenge their computational capacity and reliability to meet RT deadlines. With Internet-of-Things driving down the cost of a general-purpose system-on-chip (SoC), combining a multicore application processor and a field-gate programmable array (FPGA) on single device, this article introduces a codesign workflow and a runtime architecture for the heterogeneous deployment of multirate control algorithms. Code migration toward the FPGA exploits high-level synthesis, while a Linux-Xenomai dual-kernel operating system manages the synchronization and the parallel execution of the tasks. Following sections will describe and benchmark the selected key technologies and validate them on a small-scale grid-connected converter emulator.
Sulfamethoxazole sorption in eutrophic Regolithic Neosol

ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate sulfamethoxazole sorption kinetics and isotherms using batch method. The experiment was carried out in typic eutrophic Regolithic Neosol (0-20 and 20-60 cm layers) located in the private reserve of the Riacho do Papagaio farm, in São João, PE, Brazil. The tests were carried out under laboratory conditions at 24 ºC and sulfamethoxazole concentration was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The sorption experiment through the batch method used sulfamethoxazole solutions with concentrations of 10-3, 5.10-4, 10-4, 5.10-5, 10-5 and 5.10-6 mol L-1 to obtain the analytical curve. For this soil, sulfamethoxazole sorption kinetics was best described by a second-order model and the sorption isotherms were linear. Sulfamethoxazole predominantly interacts with organic matter in this type of soil. The results obtained in this study show that the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole exhibits low adsorption, posing a higher risk of contamination to the groundwaters in this region at pH ≈ 7.
Basic Study on Presentation Attacks against Biometric Authentication using Photoplethysmogram

Several kinds of biometric authentications have been used as countermeasures against identity spoofing. Recently, some approaches have utilized time-series biosignals for biometrics, and one of the approaches is photoplethysmogram (PPG)-based authentication. PPG sensing has the advantage of fewer restric-tion of measurement sites than other time-series physiological signals. Moreover, it can connect the authentication and the healthcare applications seamlessly with one sensor. However, identity spoofing against PPG-based authentication may occur by exploiting this advantage. To develop a PPG-based authentication system with countermeasures, we propose the feasibility of a presentation attack against PPG-based authentication. The attack stealthily records PPGs on non-genuine measurement sites, and transmits the signals to the authentication device, thereby utilizing the advantage of PPG sensing in which signals can be recorded on various sites of a subject ʼ s body. We conducted an experiment to investigate the feasibility of the attack. We developed a PPG-based authentication system comprising a PPG sensing system including PPG sensors for multiple measurement sites, and an authentication algorithm based on an existing PPG-based identification algorithm. We recorded PPGs on three measurement sites on the subjects ʼ bodies using the developed system. Then, we investigated the feasibility of the attack by inputting the feature values extracted from the PPGs recorded on non-genuine measurement sites to the classifier generated by the values from the PPGs recorded on genuine measurement sites. The results indicate that the attack can occur within a short time without any mapping under an ideal condition. Therefore, countermeasures such as liveness detection and utilization of unique information of measurement sites are required against the attack. implemented PPG-based authentication. The values are extracted from each PPG segment.
Studies on the Properties of Photo/Bio-Degradable Ldpe with Benzophenone and Hydrolysed Starch

Maize starch was acid hydrolyzed at 50–60°C for 6 hours. Reduced viscosity for raw starch, hydrolyzed starch (HS) and glucose were determined. DSC tests were done to determine the melting point of the modified starch. LDPE of MFI 2 g/10 min was blended with this hydrolyzed starch at various proportions of 3–20% (wt%), photo-degradable additive – benzophenone (3%) and glycerol (3%) as compatibilizer using a twin screw extruder. The formulations made using HS were easy for processing and since the MFI was increased, the starch added, proved to be hydrolyzed, Tubular blown film was extruded using blown film extruder. LDPE with hydrolysed starch are processable into thin films (< 250 microns). The films obtained were tested for various mechanical tests like tensile strength, elongation at break, etc. The mechanical properties like tensile strength and elongation at break were lowered. Tear strength and dart impact strength were lowered. Also accelerated UV weathering and compost biodegradation tests were done on all the samples. Scanning Electron Microscope images were taken before and after UV weathering and also after biodegradation to determine the morphological changes on the samples. The samples were highly photo/biodegradable and hence will not pollute the environment.
Generative Probabilistic Wind Speed Forecasting: A Variational Recurrent Autoencoder Based Method

In this paper, a novel framework for probabilistic wind speed forecasting (PWSF) based on variational recurrent autoencoders (VRAEs) via a generative perspective is proposed. Compared with a traditional optimization objective maximizing the conditional likelihood of the target wind speed directly, a novel optimization objective maximizing the likelihood of the complete wind speed sequence is proposed to better model the temporal relationship within the complete wind speed sequence. As directly maximizing the proposed objective is intractable, we show that it can be alternatively achieved via the help of the VRAE learning principle. The framework of the proposed VRAE based PWSF is composed of two phases, training a VRAE with maximizing the variational lower bound of the likelihood of the complete wind speed sequence and forecasting the target wind speed from the generative perspective through the approximate posterior learned by the VRAE. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other benchmarking deterministic and probabilistic forecasting models in terms of the negative form of continuous ranked probability score (CRPS*). Compared with other benchmarking models for probabilistic forecasting, the proposed method achieves better sharpness and overall quality of prediction intervals (PIs) as well as a comparable reliability. Results verify advantages of the proposed VARE based PWSF method.
Low birth weight and lead exposure: An etiological approach

Low birth weight (LBW) is a worldwide public health problem as it is the most important cause of infant deaths and contributes significantly to the burden of childhood problems. There are many studies that have investigated the relationship between LBW and lead exposure, but the mechanism underlying lead exposure and increased risk of LBW are still unknown. In our study, we aimed to determine the effect of lead on endothelial dysfunction by investigating the relationship between the severity of exposure, birth weight and methylated arginines in pregnant women. The study was carried with 165 pregnant women. Placental methylated arginines (ADMA, SDMA, L-NMMA), arginine, citrulline, homoarginine cadmium and lead levels were analyzed. Pb level was significantly higher in the 25% and below percentile group compared with other groups. There was a negative correlation between birth weight and Pb levels. A statistically significant correlation was found between Pb and birth length, Cd, ADMA and SDMA. It is possible to say that the underlying mechanism in fetal growth retardation due to lead exposure can be linked to placental endothelial dysfunction.
Real-Time Adaptation of Driving Time and Rest Periods in Automated Long-Haul Trucking: Development of a System Based on Biomathematical Modelling, Fatigue and Relaxation Monitoring

Hours of service regulations govern the working hours of commercial motor vehicle drivers, but these regulations may become more flexible as highly automated vehicles have the potential to afford periods of in-cab rest or even sleep while the vehicle is moving. A prerequisite is robust continuous monitoring of when the driver is resting (to account for reduced time on task) or sleeping (to account for the reduced physiological drive to sleep). The overall aims of this paper are to raise a discussion of whether it is possible to obtain successful rest during automated driving, and to present initial work on a hypothetical data driven algorithm aimed to estimate if it is possible to gain driving time after resting under fully automated driving. The presented algorithm consists of four central components, a heart rate-based relaxation detection algorithm, a camera-based sleep detection algorithm, a fatigue modelling component taking time awake, time of day and time on task into account, and a component that estimates gained driving time. Real-time assessment of driver fitness is complicated, especially when it comes to the recuperative value of in-cab sleep and rest, as it depends on sleep quality, time of day, homeostatic sleep pressure and on the activities that are carried out while resting. The monotony that characterizes for long-haul truck driving is clearly interrupted for a while, but the long-term consequences of extended driving times, including user acceptance of the key stakeholders, requires further research.
Collision-Probability-Aware Human-Machine Cooperative Planning for Safe Automated Driving

In this paper, we investigate a novel collision probability-aware human-machine cooperative planning and tracking method for enhancing safety of automated vehicles. Firstly, a long-term trajectory prediction is obtained by using Gaussian mixture models with vehicle historical data. After that, a novel risk assessment system based on the dynamic potential field (DPF) and the fuzzy inference system (FIS) is proposed to evaluate the risk level of the human driver's behaviors. Based on the assessed human driving risk, the human-machine cooperation is activated adaptively during the trajectory planning. A novel human-machine cooperative trajectory planning algorithm, named as HM-<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p$</tex-math></inline-formula>RRT, is proposed and used to incorporate the driver's intent and automation's corrective actions during trajectory planning. Testing results show that the proposed HM-<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p$</tex-math></inline-formula>RRT algorithm is able to simultaneously mitigate collision and provide a safe trajectory, effectively ensuring the safety of the vehicle and reducing conflicts during human-machine interactions.
Innri breytileiki og málsnið: Athugun á mismunandi textum eins málnotanda

Athugun á innri breytileika hjá Gísla Marteini Baldurssyni í tístum hans, vefpistlum og sem stjórnanda í sjónvarpsþáttaviðtölum sýnir hvernig hann nýtir málnotkunarhæfni sína til að beita, skipta um og aðlaga málsnið sitt í breytilegu samhengi. Fram kemur breytilegt orðaval, tilbrigði í setningaformgerðum, mismunandi gerðir segða og fleiri þættir. Breytileikinn ræðst af mismunandi málaðstæðum, eðli textategunda, væntanlegum hugmyndum um lesendur eða áhorfendur, hinni félagslegu merkingu tjáningarinnar og þeim mismunandi hlutverkum sem Gísli Marteinn byggir upp og birtir í hinum mismunandi textum.
Aspirin use in chronic kidney disease: Is cardiovascular risk reduction worth the risk?

Chronic kidney disease patients are at increased risk of atherothrombotic cardiovascular disease but are also at high risk of bleeding complications. Aspirin is an overall safe and efficacious therapy for the secondary prevention of CVD in certain populations. However, its use as primary prevention has not been proven to be of benefit and is counterbalanced by high risk of adverse events in patients with kidney disease. In this review, we present relevant differences in pathophysiology of CVD in patients with impaired kidney function and discuss the balance between benefit and harm and review controversial aspects of aspirin therapy for both primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in patients with CKD.