Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How to Measure Co-Creation in the Digital Environment of Higher Education?

Co-creation, as a form of collaborative innovation, has been a topic of growing interest in Higher Education (HE). Regardless of the industry, engaging end-users in the design of products and services has been assessed as important for the success of the initiatives and is often considered a means to increase competitive advantage. As all markets face digital transformation impetus that permanently alters product and service delivery, the physical aspect of the delivery becomes secondary in many cases. Namely, most services nowadays are delivered exclusively online, and the area of (higher) education is no exception. New generations of learners belonging to Gen Z are connected 24/7, their digital experiences and expectations have evolved, and are prepared to engage with the product or service providers. In that regard, previously developed research instruments focusing on general services (as opposed to digital ones) comprising of two dimensions (customer participation and citizenship behaviour), need validation in the new context. This study aimed to test it in the digital service environment of HE with more than 550 students (as end-users) from different HE institutions in Croatia. To that end, confirmatory analysis using structural equation modelling confirmed that not all subdimensions are relevant in the digital context.
A Review Paper on Contour Estimation Techniques in High-Resolution Automotive Radars

By 2024, the market for automated driving systems is anticipated to reach $20 billion, growing at a 25.7 percent annual pace between 2016 and 2024. Contour estimation through High-Resolution radars is one of the key functionalities of these growing industries and many techniques have been used for it. KNN-DBSCAN, Generalized Hough Transform, and brute force approach are some of the techniques studied. Size of encountered Radar cross-section (RCS), dependency on heuristics, accuracy, and computational expensive are some of the parameters against which comparison of the various techniques is done. Although these parameters are studied in-depth, there are parameters like interference and contamination of RADAR that have not been studied extensively in the literature.
A Compact All-MOSFETs PVT-compensated Current Reference with Untrimmed 0.88%-(σ/μ)

An excessive sensitivity to PVT variations may represent a considerable issue of a Current Reference (CR) circuit, possibly resulting in poor reliability of CR-supplied systems. CR area occupation is also critical in size-constrained designs. In this work, we present and analyze a compact all-MOSFETs CR topology. Implemented in 0.18 $\mu\mathrm{m}$ CMOS, the proposed design generates a 946 nA reference current. Simulated temperature coefficient and line sensitivity are equal to 318 ppm/°C and 5.12%/V, respectively. Besides, based on process sensitivity analyses, the reference current exhibited a relative standard deviation equal to 0.88%, which is competitive with state-of-the-art solutions.
ADPL: Adaptive Dual Path Learning for Domain Adaptation of Semantic Segmentation

To alleviate the need for large-scale pixel-wise annotations, domain adaptation for semantic segmentation trains segmentation models on synthetic data (source) with computer-generated annotations, which can be then generalized to segment realistic images (target). Recently, self-supervised learning (SSL) with a combination of image-to-image translation shows great effectiveness in adaptive segmentation. The most common practice is to perform SSL along with image translation to well align a single domain (source or target). However, in this single-domain paradigm, unavoidable visual inconsistency raised by image translation may affect subsequent learning. In addition, pseudo labels generated by a single segmentation model aligned in either the source or target domain may be not accurate enough for SSL. In this paper, based on the observation that domain adaptation frameworks performed in the source and target domain are almost complementary, we propose a novel adaptive dual path learning (ADPL) framework to alleviate visual inconsistency and promote pseudo-labeling by introducing two interactive single-domain adaptation paths aligned in source and target domain respectively. To fully explore the potential of this dual-path design, novel technologies such as dual path image translation (DPIT), dual path adaptive segmentation (DPAS), dual path pseudo label generation (DPPLG) and Adaptive ClassMix are proposed. The inference of ADPL is extremely simple, only one segmentation model in the target domain is employed. Our ADPL outperforms the state-of-the-art methods by large margins on GTA5<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\rightarrow$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mo>→</mml:mo></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="wei-ieq1-3248294.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>Cityscapes, SYNTHIA <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\rightarrow$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mo>→</mml:mo></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="wei-ieq2-3248294.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> Cityscapes and GTA5<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\rightarrow$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mo>→</mml:mo></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="wei-ieq3-3248294.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>BDD100K scenarios. Code and models are available at <uri>https://github.com/royee182/DPL</uri>.
Documents de Travail du Centre d ’ Economie de la Sorbonne Strategic Communication Networks

We consider situations in which individuals would like to choose an action which is close to that of others, as well as close to a state of nature, with the ideal proximity to the state varying across agents. Before this coordination game is played, a cheap-talk communication stage is offered to the individuals who decide to whom they reveal their private information about the state. The information transmission occurring in the communication stage is characterized by a strategic communication network. We provide an explicit link between players’ preferences and the equilibrium strategic communication networks. A key feature of our equilibrium characterization is that whether communication takes place between two agents not only depends on the conflict of interest between these agents, but also on the number and preferences of the other agents with whom they communicate. Apart from some specific cases, the equilibrium communication networks are quite complex despite our simple one-dimensional description of preference heterogeneity. In general, strategic communication networks cannot be completely Pareto-ranked, but expected social welfare always increases as the communication network expands. Résumé : Cet article étudie des situations stratégiques dans lesquelles chaque individu cherche à choisir une action à la fois proche des actions choisies par les autres individus et proche d’un état de la nature, la proximité idéale à cet état variant entre les agents. Avant que ce jeu de coordination soit joué, une étape de communication gratuite est offerte aux individus qui peuvent alors décider à qui ils révèlent les informations privées qu’ils détiennent sur l’état. La transmission d’information qui a lieu au cours de l’étape de communication est caractérisée par un réseau de communication stratégique. Nous caractérisons explicitement les réseaux de communication stratégique qui peuvent émerger à l’équilibre en fonction des préférences des joueurs. Le fait que deux agents communiquent dépend non seulement de leur conflit d’intérêts mais également du nombre et des préférences des autres individus avec lesquels ils communiquent. En dehors de cas spécifiques, les réseaux de communication d’équilibre ont une structure complexe malgré la description uni-dimensionnelle de l’hétérogénéité des préférences. En général, les réseaux de communication stratégique ne peuvent pas être complètement ordonnés au sens de Pareto, mais le bien être social espéré augmente toujours lorsque le réseau de communication s’agrandit.
Control of the Electroporation Efficiency of Nanosecond Pulses by Swinging the Electric Field Vector Direction

Reversing the pulse polarity, i.e., changing the electric field direction by 180°, inhibits electroporation and electrostimulation by nanosecond electric pulses (nsEPs). This feature, known as “bipolar cancellation,” enables selective remote targeting with nsEPs and reduces the neuromuscular side effects of ablation therapies. We analyzed the biophysical mechanisms and measured how cancellation weakens and is replaced by facilitation when nsEPs are applied from different directions at angles from 0 to 180°. Monolayers of endothelial cells were electroporated by a train of five pulses (600 ns) or five paired pulses (600 + 600 ns) applied at 1 Hz or 833 kHz. Reversing the electric field in the pairs (180° direction change) caused 2-fold (1 Hz) or 20-fold (833 kHz) weaker electroporation than the train of single nsEPs. Reducing the angle between pulse directions in the pairs weakened cancellation and replaced it with facilitation at angles <160° (1 Hz) and <130° (833 kHz). Facilitation plateaued at about three-fold stronger electroporation compared to single pulses at 90–100° angle for both nsEP frequencies. The profound dependence of the efficiency on the angle enables novel protocols for highly selective focal electroporation at one electrode in a three-electrode array while avoiding effects at the other electrodes. Nanosecond-resolution imaging of cell membrane potential was used to link the selectivity to charging kinetics by co- and counter-directional nsEPs.
Who was in Harold Bluetooth's army? Strontium isotope investigation of the cemetery at the Viking Age fortress at Trelleborg, Denmark

The circular fortress of Trelleborg on Zealand in Denmark is well known as a military camp with a key role in the formation of the Danish state under Harald Bluetooth in the tenth century AD. Taking a sample of 48 burials from the fort, strontium isotope analysis once again demonstrates its ability to eavesdrop on a community: at Trelleborg, the young men in its cemetery were largely recruited from outside Denmark, perhaps from Norway or the Slavic regions. Even persons buried together proved to have different origins, and the three females sampled were all from overseas, including a wealthy woman with a silver casket. Trelleborg, home of Harald Bluetooth's army, was a fortress of foreigners with vivid implications for the nature of his political mission.
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES BANK FAILURES AND OUTPUT DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

We thank Jaron Cordero, Linxi Wu, and Stephanie Hurder for superb research assistance. John Lapp, Randall Parker, Greg Mankiw, Tom Sargent, Kate Waldock and participants at the Wake Forest conference “The Federal Reserve Was a Bad Idea” provided helpful comments on an earlier draft. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
2 1 M ay 2 01 3 Fidelity of the quantum delta-kicked accelerator

The sensitivity of the fidelity in the kicked rotor to an acceleration is experimentally and theoretically investigated. We used a Bose-Einstein condensate exposed to a sequence of pulses from a standing light wave followed by a single reversal pulse in which the standing wave was shifted by half a wavelength. The features of the fidelity “spectrum” as a function of acceleration are presented. This work may find applications in the measurement of temperature of an ultra-cold atomic sample.
Improvement of ε-Poly-l-lysine Production by Co-Culture Fermentation Strategy

ε-poly-l-lysine (ε-PL) has been routinely used as a natural and safe preservative for many years in the food industry. However, most existing production methods struggle to achieve low cost and high production simultaneously. In this work, we present a co-culture fermentation strategy to enhance ε-PL production. Specifically, we screened a strain from five different strains that could be co-cultured with Streptomyces albulus to raise the production of ε-PL. Subsequently, a single factor experiment and response surface design were used to optimize the conditions of co-culture fermentation to further improve the production of ε-PL. Moreover, the optimal fermentation process was successfully verified in a 2-L fermentor with fed batch fermentation. The production of ε-PL reached 27.07 ± 0.47 g/L by 144 h. Compared with single strain (S. albulus) fermentation, the production of ε-PL was increased by 31.47%. At the same time, the amount of bacteria increased by 19.62%, which means that the ε-PL synthesis ability of bacteria had been improved. All the obtained results showed great potential for co-culture fermentation in large-scale ε-PL production and provide a new fermentation strategy for ε-PL biosynthesis.
Antiradical Activity Studies of Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction of Total Flavonoids from Sanghuangporus vaninii Fruit Bodies

Flavonoids are a class of secondary metabolites present in many plant species. Flavonoids are important active components in Sanghuangporus vaninii. It has attracted widely attention because of its unique antitumor, antioxidation, immunomodulatory, bacteriostatic, and other biological activities. In this study, the Sanghuangporus vaninii fruit bodies are used as raw materials to study the optimal extraction technology of the Sanghuangporus flavonoids. In addition, the antioxidant and bacteriostatic abilities of Sanghuangporus vaninii are analyzed through antioxidant and bacteriostatic experiments. Ultrasound-assisted ethanol extraction is used to extract Sanghuangporus flavonoids. The optimum extraction process was determined by single factor test and response surface analysis, namely, ratio of material to liquid 1 : 60, ethanol concentration 80%, ultrasonic temperature 70°C, and ultrasonic time 40 min. Under these conditions, the flavonoids content is 90.24 ± 0.89 mg/g (on dry weight basis). Using VC as the reference substance, the total flavonoid concentration was tested for its ability to scavenge free radicals such as DPPH, ABTS+, OH, and O2-. The reducing power of total crude flavonoids, the scavenging ability of NO2- , and the antibacterial and anti-inflammatory abilities are also used as evaluation indicators for this experiment. The results showed that the best scavenging rates of Sanghuangporus vaninii flavonoids for DPPH, ABTS+,· OH, and O2-. were, respectively, 92.17 ± 1.33%, 92.49 ± 1.55%, 94.85 ± 1.39%, and 86.01 ± 1.21%. In terms of reducibility, the absorbance of Sanghuangporus vaninii flavonoids at 0.008 mg/ml was 2.65 ± 0.04, which was higher than that of positive control VC at 0.90 ± 0.05. Sanghuangporus vaninii flavonoids at 200 μg/mL could effectively inhibit the NO2- content in vitro to 9.38 ± 0.23 pg/ml. The inhibitory rates of Sanghuangporus vaninii flavonoids on Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus subtilis were 79.48 ± 1.57%, 85.64 ± 1.22%, and 80.29 ± 0.04%. When the concentration of Sanghuangporus vaninii flavonoids was 200 μg/mL, the concentration of NO was 9.38 ± 0.23 pg/ml.
An Analytical Model of Active Layer Depth Under Changing Ground Heat Flux

Improved modeling of permafrost active layer freeze‐thaw plays a crucial role in understanding the response of the Arctic ecosystem to the accelerating warming trend in the region over the past decades. However, modeling the dynamics of the active layer at diurnal time scale remains challenging using the traditional models of freeze‐thaw processes. In this study, a physically based analytical model is formulated to simulate the thaw depth of the active layer under changing boundary conditions of soil heat flux. Conservation of energy for the active layer leads to a nonlinear integral equation of the thaw depth using a temperature profile approximated from the analytical solution of the heat transfer equation forced by ground heat flux. Temporally variable ground heat flux is estimated using non‐gradient models when field observations are not available. Validation of the proposed model conducted against field data obtained from three Arctic forest and tundra sites demonstrates that the model is able to simulate both thaw depth and soil temperature profiles accurately. The model has the potential to estimate regional variability of the thaw depth for permafrost related applications.
Unlocking the Power of Mitochondrial Function: Real-time Assessment of Mitochondrial ATP contents and Response Against Inhibiting and Stimulating Substrates (MitoRAISE)

Purpose The objective is to develop a real-time Mitochondrial ATP contents and Response Against Inhibiting and Stimulating Substrates (MitoRAISE) assay and assess its potential to evaluate the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation function. Methods MitoRAISE measures the total ATP contents, ATP synthesis capacity, and the response to inhibitory substrates. The measurements were all quantified with an ATP standard curve and validated with in vitro testing. MitoRAISE was then applied using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 35 healthy volunteers and 20 breast cancer patients. Result Results from isolated mitochondria, cells with different permeabilization percentages, and cells with damaged mitochondria demonstrated the ability of capturing ATP signals specifically from the mitochondria. Breast cancer PBMCs exhibited a significant increase in glutamic acidand malic acid-induced mitochondrial ATP synthesis capacity yet a significant decrease in mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA CN) compared to healthy PBMCs. Furthermore, breast cancer PBMCs mostly showed negative correlation between mtDNA CN and parameters from MitoRAISE but healthy individuals showed positive correlation. Conclusion We developed a quick and easy method to detect real-time mitochondrial activity in live cells. Monitoring mitochondrial ATP synthesis capacity and sensitivity to inhibitory substrates could aid in assessing the functional status of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation.
Correction of renal ischemia/reperfusion injury with the Combination of Infliximab and the erythropoietin-derived peptide mimetic pHBSP

Introduction: Due to the high social and economic value of acute kidney injury, the scientific community is focused on methods of diagnosis and treatment of this pathology. A number of studies have already revealed cytoprotective effects of the helix B–derived erythropoietin peptide and infliximab in simulated ischemia/ reperfusion injury of liver, myocardium, and nervous tissue. The aim of this research was to study the renoprotective effects of the combination of pHBSP and infliximab on the renal ischemia/reperfusion injury. Materials and Methods: The experiment was performed in 230 white male Wistar rats. The animals were treated with pHBSP and infliximab. Under anesthesia, a unilateral right nephrectomy was performed and the contralateral renal pedicle was clamped. Functional tests were performed and tissue samples were taken for laboratory studies 5 minutes, 24 hours and 72 hours after reperfusion. Results and Discussion: The results obtained confirm the dose-dependent renoprotective activity of the helix B–derived erythropoietin peptide and infliximab. The nephroprotective activity of the combination of pHBSP at a dose of 25 mcg/kg and infliximab at a dose of 10 mg/kg significantly exceeded the effect of a single-drug therapy. This is evidenced by the normalization of renal tubule function, a significant increase in the microcirculation level, the absence of rough lesion during pathomorphological examination, as well as a decrease in the expression of TNF-α by 54% and IL-1β by 65% in comparison with the ischemia/reperfusion group according to immunohistochemistry examination. The important role of ATP-sensitive potassium channel in the renoprotective activity of pHBSP has been confirmed. Conclusion: The renoprotective activity of the helix B–derived erythropoietin peptide and infliximab has been confirmed, and the advantage of their combined administration for the correction of morphofunctional disorders in simulated renal ischemia/reperfusion injury due to the multimodal effect on pathogenetic processes has been established. Academic editor: Oleg Gudyrev ♦ Received 22 February 2023 ♦ Accepted 25 May 2023 ♦ Published 19 June 2023 Copyright Netrebenko AS et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Research Results in Pharmacology 9(2): 85–97 86
A dark side of conservation biology: Protected areas fail in representing subterranean biodiversity

Biodiversity conservation is a central imperative of the 21st century. Subterranean ecosystems deliver critical nature's contributions to people and harbour a broad diversity of poorly understood specialised organisms. However, the subterranean biome is still largely overlooked in global biodiversity targets. We assessed how well subterranean biodiversity is represented in protected areas (Natura 2000 and Emerald networks) in two global hotspots of subterranean biodiversity (the Pyrenees and the Alps). For this, we used two comprehensive databases of terrestrial subterranean taxa, that is, leiodids (beetles) from the Pyrenees and spiders from the Alps, and identified priority areas in each region using both species richness and geographic rarity patterns. Our results show the incapacity of surface‐protected area networks to represent subterranean biodiversity, as more than 70% and 90% of the identified priority areas (and 40% and 22% of the species) are not effectively covered by protected areas in the Pyrenees and the Alps, respectively. These findings call for developing an urgent plan for subterranean biodiversity conservation within the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.
Risk-aware curriculum generation for heavy-tailed task distributions

Automated curriculum generation for reinforcement learning (RL) aims to speed up learning by designing a sequence of tasks of increasing difﬁ-culty. Such tasks are usually drawn from probability distributions with exponentially bounded tails, such as uniform or Gaussian distributions. However, existing approaches overlook heavy-tailed distributions. Under such distributions, current methods may fail to learn optimal policies in rare and risky tasks, which fall under the tails and yield the lowest returns, respectively. We address this challenge by proposing a risk-aware curriculum generation algorithm that simultaneously creates two curricula: 1) a primary curriculum that aims to maximize the expected discounted return with respect to a distribution over target tasks, and 2) an auxiliary curriculum that identiﬁes and over-sam-ples rare and risky tasks observed in the primary curriculum. Our empirical results evidence that the proposed algorithm achieves signiﬁcantly higher returns in frequent as well as rare tasks compared to the state-of-the-art methods.