Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Universal Metrics for Climate Change Adaptation Finance? A Cautionary Tale

Climate change adaptation is receiving ever more attention in the literature and in practice. Since available funds are not meeting adaptation needs, the question of how to allocate scarce resources becomes pressing. Universal adaptation metrics promise to facilitate the allocation process ex ante and the evaluation of projects ex post. Two such metrics have been proposed recently: Saved Wealth (SW), measured in terms of money, and Saved Health (SH), gauged in terms of disability adjusted life-years (DALYs). The paper analyzes this SWSH approach and shows that it is replete with unresolved conceptual and normative-ethical problems, which are exemplary for universal metrics seeking to combine concerns for equity and efficiency at once. The paper’s aim is to uncover these issues, and its conclusion is modest: universal metrics such as SW and the DALY have to be designed and used with great caution and further research is necessary.
Tailoring electrospun nanofibrous materials for oil/water emulsion separation

Abstract The pollution arising from emulsified oil/water mixtures is an issue of great concern owing to its fatal impact on the ecosystems and human health, which has stimulated one to develop advanced separation materials. Electrospun nanofibrous materials featured with controllable wettability, diverse pore structures, and excellent pore connectivity have received tremendous attention. Here we mainly focus on the systematic design and construction of nanofibrous materials by electrospinning for oil/water emulsion separation. Firstly, a comprehensive understanding of emulsion separation is provided, and then we discuss the considerations for nanofibrous materials to realize emulsion separation. Then, the materials will be categorized into three types, involving membranes with small pore size, membranes with hierarchical fibers, and aerogel with tortuous microchannels. In each section, we introduce the representative work, preparation strategies, and the relationship between fibrous structure, material wettability, and separation performance. Finally, the promising perspectives and challenges in the field are summarized.
A novel electrolyte additive for gel type valve regulated lead acid batteries: Sulfur doped graphene oxide

In this work, sulfur‐doped graphene oxide powders, prepared in one step and at room temperature by chronoamperometry, were used as an additive in the fumed silica‐based gel electrolyte of a valve‐regulated lead‐acid battery. The amount of additives and parameters that affected the performance of the gelled electrolyte was optimized by using electrochemical methods such as cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and corrosion tests. Optimum amount of sulfur‐doped graphene oxide was determined as 0.6 wt%. Stirring rate and agitation time were also determined as 250 rpm and 60 minutes, respectively. Battery performances of the gelled electrolytes were investigated by cyclic charge‐discharge tests. Discharge capacities of the aqueous electrolyte, bare fumed silica‐based gel electrolyte, and fumed silica‐based gel electrolyte with sulfur‐doped graphene oxide were determined as 0.70, 16—, and 30 mAh.cm−2 at 20 mA.cm−2 charge and discharge current densities, respectively.
Design of an origami bendy straw for robotic multistable structures

This paper presents a soft cylindrical multi-stable origami structure based on “bendy straws”, consisting of multiple conical frusta mimicking the structure of a flexible drinking straw. These frusta are connected in such a way that the whole structure is axially multi-stable, having a stable compressed state in which its smallest frustum is collapsed. The bendy straw structure can also be modified so that the smallest frustum collapses only partially, keeping the structure in a bent state. We studied the geometry of a similar structure consisting of polygonal frusta instead of conical ones, and used this geometry to design a non-rigidly foldable origami pattern folding into a similar origami bendy straw structure. Most of the origami structures presented so far have been modeled from rigidly foldable origami patterns: these origami structures do not rely on deformation, and cannot use it to their advantage; whereas the non-rigid origami structure presented here features multi-stability. We have established that this origami structure is not only axially multi-stable, but that it can also be kept in a bent state, thanks to the use of pop-through defects (PTDs). The origami bendy straws studied here were made from paper (with a density of 90g/m2) bi-laminated with a 42.5-micron thick plastic film. A digital dynamometer was used to study the forces required to compress and expand a single origami bendy straw, create and reverse a PTD, and bend an origami bendy straw using PTDs.
Calcium-Channel-Blocker-Influenced Gingival Enlargement: A Conundrum Demystified

The aim of the article is to discuss the development of calcium channel blocker (CCB) influenced gingival enlargement. Data and Sources: MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Search databases. The article reviews contemporary and classic literature with a focus on pathophysiology, clinical presentation, and risk factors associated with this condition. The application of various treatment options is also discussed. Study selection: Clinical studies, systematic reviews, in vitro studies, and case reports. Conclusion: Dental plaque, genetic predisposition, and type of drug used are critical in the development of drug-influenced gingival enlargement (DIGE). The surgical technique employed to treat the pathosis plays an important role in long term success of therapy. There has been an upward trend in occurrence of CCB-influenced gingival enlargement due to the unbridled use of CCBs. Due to the cosmetic and functional ramifications; the review underscores the importance of clinical research on prevention, treatment, and causes of recurrence of CCB-influenced gingival enlargement.
Mining Domain Terminologies Using Search Engine's Query Log

Domain terminologies are a basic resource for various natural language processing tasks. To automatically discover terminologies for a domain of interest, most traditional approaches mostly rely on a domain-specific corpus given in advance; thus, the performance of traditional approaches can only be guaranteed when collecting a high-quality domain-specific corpus, which requires extensive human involvement and domain expertise. In this article, we propose a novel approach that is capable of automatically mining domain terminologies using search engine's query log—a type of domain-independent corpus of higher availability, coverage, and timeliness than a manually collected domain-specific corpus. In particular, we represent query log as a heterogeneous network and formulate the task of mining domain terminology as transductive learning on the heterogeneous network. In the proposed approach, the manifold structure of domain-specificity inherent in query log is captured by using a novel network embedding algorithm and further exploited to reduce the need for the manual annotation efforts for domain terminology classification. We select Agriculture and Healthcare as the target domains and experiment using a real query log from a commercial search engine. Experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms several state-of-the-art approaches.
Human herpesvirus DNA occurrence in intracranial aneurysmal wall: illustrative case

BACKGROUND Subarachnoid hemorrhages secondary to intracranial aneurysms (IAs) are events of high mortality. These neurological vascular diseases arise from local and systemic inflammation that culminates in vessel wall changes. They may also have a possible relationship with chronic viral infections, such as human herpesvirus (HHV), and especially Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), which causes several medical conditions. This is the first description of the presence of HHV deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in a patient with IA. OBSERVATIONS A 61-year-old woman with a downgraded level of consciousness underwent radiological examinations that identified a 10-mm ruptured aneurysm in the anterior communicating artery. A microsurgery clip was performed to definitively treat the aneurysm and occurred without surgical complications. Molecular analysis of the material obtained revealed the presence of EBV DNA in the aneurysm wall. The patient died 21 days after admission due to clinical complications and brain swelling. LESSONS This is the first description of the presence of herpesvirus DNA in a patient with IA, presented in 2.8% of our data. These findings highlight that viral infection may contribute to the pathophysiology and is an additional risk factor for IA formation, progression, and rupture by modulating vessel wall inflammation and structural changes in chronic infections.
Effect of Storage on Quality of Spirulina Snack Bars

— Ready to eat snack and health bars have sturdily occupied space in the global market and are high in demand as nutritional supplements for people on the go and weight watchers especially people consuming calorie-controlled diets. Spirulina is a unicellular micro alga grown in water bodies containing 50-70% protein including all essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. The soy protein isolate is good source with high bioavability of protein (90%) and it is easily digestible too. Bengal gram is an old pulse with high protein ratio about 80% with several vitamins like vitamin A, C, E, K and B-complex and minerals like phosphorous and magnesium. Peanuts are essential source of protein, lipid and fatty acids and called as poor man’s protein due to its low price. It contains essential vitamins and minerals useful for healthy immune system, nerve function, blood coagulation mechanism, bones and teeth formation. In present investigation snack bars prepared with bengal gram, peanut, oats, puffed rice, desiccated coconut, soy isolate, spirulina, cardamom powder and binding syrup were analyzed for organoleptic properties and stored at room temperature after packaging with butter paper and polypropylene pouch for 90 days to record changes in nutritional, functional, organoleptic and microbial quality attributes. The results showed increase in moisture content whereas decrease in ash, fat, protein and fiber content in stored snack bars. The microbial count (Total plate count, yeast and mould) was increased throughout storage period at room temperature from 45th day of storage and sensory score for all the sensory parameters (Colour and appearance, flavour, taste, texture and overall acceptability) was decreased with the advancement in storage period. The snack bars with spirulina could be stored for the period of 90 days in polypropylene pouch at room temperature in good condition.
Efficient tuning of zinc phthalocyanine-based dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells: a detailed DFT study

The growing energy demand speed up the designing of competent photovoltaic materials. Herein, five zinc phthalocyanine-based donor materials T1–T5 are designed by substituting various groups (isopropoxy, cyano, fluoro, methoxycarbonyl, and dicyanomethyl) around zinc phthalocyanine. B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) level density functional theory (DFT) was used to investigate the optoelectronic properties of five zinc phthalocyanine-based dyes T1–T5 for dye-sensitized solar cells. The designed molecule T1 shows maximum absorption wavelength (λmax) in the absorption spectrum at 708.89 and 751.88 nm both in gaseous state and in THF (tetrahydrofuran) solvent. The Eg value of T1 (1.86 eV) is less than reference R, indicating a greater charge transfer rate for T1 among the molecules. The values of open-circuit voltages achieved with acceptor polymer PC71BM are higher than R except for T1 and are 0.69 V, 1.95 V, 1.20 V, 1.44 V, and 1.84 V for T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5, respectively. The lower the reorganization energy, the higher the charge transfer for T1 due to its lower hole mobility (0.06297 eV) than R. Thus, the designed T1–T5 molecules are expected to exhibit superior performance in dye-sensitized solar cells.
Identification of Microbial Populations in Blends of Worm Castings or Sugarcane Filter Mud Compost with Biochar

Soil amendments are used to improve soil quality, thereby enhancing plant growth and health. Efforts have been made to replace synthetic chemical enhancers. It is also preferable to not use natural products such as peat moss, the harvesting of which can be harmful to marine ecosystems. Viable replacements include worm castings, which can contribute beneficial microbes, as well as physicochemical amendments. Another potential soil amendment is the compost produced from sugarcane processing byproducts. While the texture of these two materials is not ideal for even dispersal onto fields, the addition of biochar improves the texture. Previous work demonstrated that blending them with biochar from sugarcane byproducts added physicochemical benefits, while not quantitatively reducing the microbial load, even after storage. Microbial populations of the blends in the present study were found to (1) contain taxonomic groups that contribute to plant health and (2) not contain human pathogens. Based on the quantitative and qualitative microbial analyses, it has been determined that 50% or less biochar in a blend will allow maintenance of beneficial microbes in stored samples.
Whose relevance? Web search engines as multisided relevance machines

This opinion piece takes Google's response to the so‐called COVID‐19 infodemic, as a starting point to argue for the need to consider societal relevance as a complement to other types of relevance. The authors maintain that if information science wants to be a discipline at the forefront of research on relevance, search engines, and their use, then the information science research community needs to address itself to the challenges and conditions that commercial search engines create in. The article concludes with a tentative list of related research topics.
The Challenge of a Prominent Position: Decomposing Shopping Goals in Sponsored Search Advertising

Abstract Some sponsored search advertisers might benefit from a top ranking for its primary effect, while others might suffer a loss when their product advertising is located in less prominent positions. This phenomenon could also reduce the efficiency of consumer decisions, leading to disadvantage in terms of product information. Thus, exploring strategies that reduce advertisers’ reliance on the position effect is important. Drawing on shopping goals theory, this study explores the moderating effect of consumers’ shopping goals through product type, promotion information, and keyword specificity. It tests the hypothesized structural model through hierarchical linear modeling, using a unique data set from a well-known Chinese e-commerce platform. The results show that both click-through and conversion rates decrease with the drop in advertising position. However, keyword specificity and the promotion information embedded in keywords, as well as experience (vs. search) products, can reduce the effect of position rank on both click-through and conversion rates. Additional analyses provide valuable insights for managers to improve their advertising effectiveness and apply efficient keyword strategies.
Prediction of Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Czech Adults: Normative Values and Association with Cardiometabolic Health

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is a strong independent predictor of morbidity and mortality. However, there is no recent information about the impact of CRF on cardiometabolic risk specifically in Central and Eastern Europe, which are characterized by different biological and social determinants of health. In this cross-sectional study normative CRF values were proposed and the association between CRF and cardiometabolic outcomes was evaluated in an adult Czechian population. In 2054 participants (54.6% females), median age 48 (IQR 19 years), the CRF was predicted from a non-exercise equation. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regressions were carried out to determine the associations. Higher CRF quartiles were associated with lower prevalence of hypertension, type 2 diabetes (T2D) and dyslipidemia. Comparing subjects within the lowest CRF, we see that those within the highest CRF had decreased chances of hypertension (odds ratio (OR) = 0.36; 95% CI: 0.22–0.60); T2D (OR = 0.16; 0.05–0.47), low HDL-c (OR = 0.32; 0.17–0.60), high low-density lipoprotein (OR = 0.33; 0.21–0.53), high triglycerides (OR = 0.13; 0.07–0.81), and high cholesterol (OR = 0.44; 0.29–0.69). There was an inverse association between CRF and cardiometabolic outcomes, supporting the adoption of a non-exercise method to estimate CRF of the Czech population. Therefore, more accurate cardiometabolic studies can be performed incorporating the valuable CRF metric.
Augmented Reality for Autistic Children to Enhance Their Understanding of Facial Expressions

Difficulty in understanding the feelings and behavior of other people is considered one of the main symptoms of autism. Computer technology has increasingly been used in interventions with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), especially augmented reality, to either treat or alleviate ASD symptomatology. Augmented reality is an engaging type of technology that helps children interact easily and understand and remember information, and it is not limited to one age group or level of education. This study utilized AR to display faces with six different basic facial expressions—happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger—to help children to recognize facial features and associate facial expressions with a simultaneous human condition. The most important point of this system is that children can interact with the system in a friendly and safe way. Additionally, our results showed the system enhanced social interactions, talking, and facial expressions for both autistic and typical children. Therefore, AR might have a significant upcoming role in talking about the therapeutic necessities of children with ASD. This paper presents evidence for the feasibility of one of the specialized AR systems.
Differences in muscle activity, kinematics, user performance, and subjective assessment between touchscreen and mid-air interactions on a tablet

ABSTRACT Research on gesture input modalities, including touchscreen and mid-air interactions, is getting more widespread. A few studies have compared these two input modalities according to subjective methods. However, there is no empirical research on their differences in physiological measures. The purpose of this study was to quantify the differences between touchscreen and mid-air interactions when performing swipe gestures in four orthogonal directions on a tablet combining the indices of electromyography (EMG), electrogoniometry, user performance, and subjective assessment. Our results indicated that mid-air interaction obtained significantly lower muscular loads in the upper limb, smaller wrist joint excursions, shorter task completion time, and better subjective ratings than touchscreen interaction when users with elbow support performed swipe gestures on a tablet. We also found that performing swipe gestures in the vertical direction tended to possess higher muscular loads than in the horizontal direction during touchscreen interaction. Besides, we revealed that swipe right had the largest radial/ulnar deviation, and swipe down had the largest flexion/extension excursion. Furthermore, swipe up brought the worst subjective ratings among the four gesture types. These findings could provide a scientific basis for guiding the appropriate selection and use of the two input modalities in the future HCI field.
Brand identity dynamics – reinforcement or destabilisation of a sport brand identity through the introduction of esports?

ABSTRACT Sport clubs introduce esports activities under their brand name. Discussions of that decision by fans in social media might reinforce or destabilise the identity of the brand. Fan identification with the club – an important driver of success – might be diminished. Marketing and sport management research concerning such strategic moves and their impact on brand identity is missing. The researchers analyse the discourse of fans of AS Monaco in social media during the first two years after the launch of esports to find out if the social mechanisms described by the literature on brand identity co-creation apply in this case. In contrast to extent literature, the findings show that the identity of a brand might neither be reinforced nor destabilised by the introduction of a new offer if the fans of the brand are not interested in the new sport nor feel disturbed by the fans of the added sport.
Data Transformation Schemes for CNN-Based Network Traffic Analysis: A Survey

The enormous growth of services and data transmitted over the internet, the bloodstream of modern civilization, has caused a remarkable increase in cyber attack threats. This fact has forced the development of methods of preventing attacks. Among them, an important and constantly growing role is that of machine learning (ML) approaches. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) belong to the hottest ML techniques that have gained popularity, thanks to the rapid growth of computing power available. Thus, it is no wonder that these techniques have started to also be applied in the network traffic classification domain. This has resulted in a constant increase in the number of scientific papers describing various approaches to CNN-based traffic analysis. This paper is a survey of them, prepared with particular emphasis on a crucial but often disregarded aspect of this topic—the data transformation schemes. Their importance is a consequence of the fact that network traffic data and machine learning data have totally different structures. The former is a time series of values—consecutive bytes of the datastream. The latter, in turn, are one-, two- or even three-dimensional data samples of fixed lengths/sizes. In this paper, we introduce a taxonomy of data transformation schemes. Next, we use this categorization to describe various CNN-based analytical approaches found in the literature.
Detection of Tetracycline Resistance Genes among Escherichia coli Isolated from Layer and Broiler Breeders in West Java, Indonesia

A major current problem in public health is the issue of antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli in humans and poultry. In Indonesia, multidrug-resistant E. coli are of specific concern since such E. coli may cause public health problems in humans. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant chicken E. coli strains and the E. coli resistance genes, which are tet(A) and tet(B) genes, were investigated in the present study. A total of 57 swabs were collected from layer and broiler breeder farms in West Java, Indonesia, and used in the experiment. Eighteen isolates were identified as E. coli by the disk diffusion method. The isolates classified as drug-resistant and intermediate were then identified using PCR for the antimicrobial resistance genes. The results showed that 18 isolates of E. coli from layer-breeder and broiler-breeder farms in West Java were resistant to ampicillin (100%), nalidixic acid (94%), tetracycline (88%), oxytetracycline (83%), gentamicin (27%), and chloramphenicol (22%). PCR identification of E. coli antimicrobial-resistant genes in 18 isolates showed tet(A) and tet(B) genes. This study reports antimicrobial resistance genes among E. coli on layer and broiler breeder farms in West Java. This present study showed that E. coli isolated from layers-breeder and broiler-breeder farms in West Java of Indonesia carried tet(A) and tet(B) genes, the multidrug-resistance genes.