Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Decision Support System for Optimal Building Cold Source Selection

Building energy consumption is increasingly becoming a matter of global concern. A key aspect of this is the nature of building cold source systems and their effectiveness. However, choosing the cold source for a building is a complex decision-making process. The traditional evaluation method is relatively simple, and it is difficult to comprehensively consider multiple factors and their mutual influences, and it is even more difficult to increase the consideration of the whole life-cycle cost on this basis. Especially in China, the cost of extra-large public projects invested and constructed by the government plays a significant role in the decision-making process, and it should not be affected by other factors to change the decision-making. Therefore, this paper proposes a new decision-making system, which is based on value engineering (VE) and combined with analytic network process (ANP) to conduct a comprehensive study of project decision-making. Based on existing approaches to construction project evaluation and the selection of cold source systems, we establish an evaluation index for building cold source system functional models and network structures. This approach can take into account the impact of cost on decisions. We then present the results of a simulation-based case study of potential central air-conditioning cold source system solutions for the new Xiang’an New Airport in Xiamen, China. The corresponding value coefficients for conventional electric refrigeration, ice storage, and water storage were found to be 0.8262, 1.0049, and 1.2442, respectively. This suggests that water storage-based cooling offers the best technical and economic benefits for this project. It also confirms that the proposed decision support system can identify the modes with the highest value coefficients, which is one of the most effective methods for selecting a building cold source system scheme. Therefore, the system has the potential to support the effective selection of other building cold source schemes.
Contribution of voice quality to prediction of turn-taking events

This paper evaluates the contribution of acoustic voice quality measures to prediction of upcoming ﬂoor change and retention. In order to minimize the inﬂuence of vocal tract resonances, the measures were calculated from miniature accelerometers attached to the tracheal wall. Overall, speaker changes accom-panied by silence were characterized by lower periodicity and steeper spectral slope than turn-holds and speaker changes in-volving overlapping speech. When used on their own, voice quality features contributed to prediction of turn-taking category, this was particularly true of smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS). At the same time, their importance was limited when used in combination with fundamental frequency and intensity, especially compared to the joint effect of these two predictors.
How the technologies underlying cyber-physical systems support the reconfigurability capability in manufacturing: a literature review

Nowadays, manufacturing firms need the reconfigurability capability to be responsive in the current context characterised by unpredictable and frequent market changes and the reduction of product life cycle. Despite the relevance of the subject, a challenge for practitioners is the development of a strategy aimed to increase the level of reconfigurability with long-term goals of customisation and responsiveness. Moreover, traditional manufacturing paradigms are disrupted by the transformation of manufacturing systems in cyber-physical systems (CPS), thus introducing innovative means also to increase the level of reconfigurability in manufacturing systems. This study investigates how the technologies underlying CPS support the reconfigurability capability along system life cycle. Thus the technologies underlying CPS are classified into seven categories and it is shown how they enable the sequence of utilisation of the reconfigurability characteristics (modularity, integrability, diagnosability, scalability, convertibility and customisation) along the system life cycle. The results of the study can guide practitioners in developing reconfigurability as a strategic capability. Moreover, different directions for future research can be considered, as discussed in the conclusion.
Impactos da Covid-19: Percepção dos Profissionais de Contabilidade e Gestores de Micro e Pequenas Empresas do Município de João Pessoa – PB

Os efeitos da pandemia da COVID-19 não se limitaram às questões de saúde pública, incidiram também sobre as relações sociais e econômicas em escala global. A retração da atividade econômica experimentada no ambiente doméstico, em função das medidas de isolamento social, gerou impactos danosos para a economia como um todo e no segmento das micro e pequenas empresas (MPE), é possível que eles tenham se revelado de forma bastante particular, devido aos problemas preexistentes na gestão dessas entidades. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar a percepção de profissionais de contabilidade e de proprietários/gestores de MPE, do município de João Pessoa-PB, quanto ao papel da informação contábil na gestão dessas entidades no contexto da pandemia da Covid-19. A pesquisa foi operacionalizada por meio de um questionário estruturado on-line, onde foram obtidas as percepções desses atores. Com base nas respostas recebidas, foi possível verificar que, em relação ao nível de compreensão das informações contábeis, 42% dos proprietários/gestores das microempresas e 64% dos proprietários/gestores das empresas de pequeno porte possuiriam um nível de compreensão da informação contábil que pode ser considerado elevado. Já considerando um cenário pós-pandemia, tem-se que 58% e 64% desses gestores, respectivamente, responderam que procurariam consultores ou pessoas com experiência em área comum a contabilidade. Diante dos resultados obtidos, constatou-se uma aparente incompatibilidade entre as percepções, o que levanta questões sobre se os proprietários/gestores, de fato, compreenderiam as informações contábeis que lhes são fornecidas ou se, por outro lado, os profissionais de contabilidade estariam, de fato, fornecendo informações úteis.
HeartMate: A Competitive and Motivational Fitness Application for iOS Devices

Smartphones today are more advanced than they have ever been before with hardware sensors built into them to detect location, motion, as well ways to communicate with third party hardware through bluetooth, and the internet through cellular or wifi. With the introduction of Apple’s App Store, and the Google Play store smartphone devices have been given features one would not think possible on a cell phone. One of the target categories for app developers is health, due to the sensors provided in current smartphones an application can be developed to track a user’s health. The apps currently on the market motivate users through mostly goal based challenges between themselves or their friends. HeartMate is an iOS mobile application that utilizes the sensors in the iPhone, and the use of a Bluetooth LE connected heart rate monitor to create a new competitive, motivational, real time social experience using heart rates as a performance measure. HeartMate calculates and keeps track of target workout zones that are specific to the user’s fitness level. HeartMate has a social component and can be used to challenge friends to a run by streaming their heart rate data in real time. HeartMate also features the ability to challenge past running workouts of friends or oneself. HeartMate fills the hole missing from motivational / competitive fitness applications on smartphones.
Barriers to Research Utilization in Nursing: A Systematic Review (2002–2021)

Introduction There is an existing gap between what people learned from theory and what they clinically practiced, as revealed in research studies in nursing. This gap is primarily due to identified barriers in utilizing the research findings in actual nursing practice. Objective To present a scientific mapping of the Scopus-indexed literature published from 2002 to 2021, which studied barriers to research utilization in nursing using the BARRIER scale. Methods This systematic review utilized bibliometric analysis. One hundred seventy-nine extracted literature from Scopus was manually reviewed, and the study included 53 documents for further analysis. Results Remarkably, almost three-fourths of the documents identified setting-related factors as the most common barrier to research utilization in nursing (n = 39, 73.58%). This is followed by presentation-related factors (n = 16.98%) and nurse-related factors (n = 5, 9.43%), respectively. Findings revealed that insufficient time at work in implementing new ideas was perceived as the top barrier in research utilization in nursing. Conclusion It is crucial to determine the hindrances to the utilization of research findings. The results of this study establish the connection between research and evidence-based practice which stimulates in meeting the gap in the current nursing practice. Future studies must include research utilization studies that apply tools other than the BARRIER scale.
Evaluating Ventures Fast and Slow: Sensemaking, Intuition, and Deliberation in Entrepreneurial Resource Provision Decisions

We examine the decision process of individuals evaluating whether to support an entrepreneurial endeavor. Such decisions are made by individuals under conditions of ambiguity and equivocality. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for resource providers to adopt a purely rational evaluative process in assessing a venture. Building on insights from sensemaking and social and cognitive psychology, we elaborate a theoretical model combining sensemaking, intuition, and deliberation to account for how entrepreneurial support decisions are made. The model reflects individual and social factors that impact this decision process and provides a basis for understanding entrepreneurial support decisions across diverse actors and contexts.
On Becoming a 21st Century Engineering Educator: Building Competencies and Acquiring Needed Skills

The paper explores ways to effective professional development of junior engineering educators, to enable them to assume the roles they are entrusted with. The purpose here is to offer a new way to think about the development of the professional engineering educator. The paper focuses on:(i) the cognitive processes that faculty would tend to follow as they learn more about teaching, (ii) the discipline-based industrial/practical experience they need to acquire to add to their repertoire as “practitioners”, and (iii) the institutional initiatives, including: administrative support, and resources. What is needed is a change in culture within the institution, i.e., the department or college, to generate a comprehensive integrated set of components: articulated expectations, a reward system aligned with expectations, and opportunities for professional development to occur. Ultimately, to identify what educators and their institutions can do to generate more powerful and responsive forms of education that improves the quality of student learning.
A Huge Mesenteric Lymphangioma Presenting as a Small Bowel Volvulus in a Paediatric Patient: A Case Report

Lymphangioma is a benign tumor characterized by proliferation of thin-walled lymphatic spaces. Lymphangioma of the small-bowel mesentery is rare, with an incidence of 1 : 250,000, representing less than 1% of all lymphangiomas. The predilection of the tumor is in the head and neck (70%), axillary (20%), and internal organs (10%). They are usually asymptomatic but can cause acute abdominal symptoms due to complications such as volvulus, bleeding, or lymphangioma rupture that require emergent surgery. Here, we report a case of mesenteric lymphangioma (ML) of a small bowel in a paediatric patient who presented with pain abdomen on and off which increased in severity and later had features of subacute intestinal obstruction. He underwent explorative laparotomy, and the mass was excised completely along with the part of small intestine. Pathological analysis of the surgical specimen confirmed the diagnosis of ML of the small intestine. The postoperative recovery was uneventful, and the patient was discharged after ten days of hospital stay. Though benign in nature, ML may cause acute abdominal symptoms that require emergent surgery. Therefore, it has to be kept in differential diagnosis of the acute abdominal condition.
A comparison of three models on air infiltration for residential building energy simulation

ABSTRACT To evaluate potential air infiltration model improvement for residential building energy simulation, three infiltration models have been developed and implemented into AccuRate, a housing energy star rating tool widely used in Australia. This paper presents a comparison of the calculated air infiltration rates and building energy performance using the three models. Case studies are made for eight houses with various envelope leakages under different weathers Australia (Melbourne – heating dominated, Sydney – balanced heating and cooling, and Cairns – cooling dominated). The results show that there are up to 37% differences in the calculated average infiltration rates between these three models for both Melbourne and Sydney, and 40% in Cairns. Up to 13% and 6.7% differences were observed in the modelled annual energy needs for space heating/cooling in Melbourne and Sydney, respectively, among the three models, and up to 20% differences in the simulated energy needs for cooling in Cairns. The simple approaches ignored impact factors such as system operation, envelope leakage and stack effect variation due to indoor–outdoor temperature differences. The multizone model accounted all these factors and should be used for predicting infiltration in the future. However, the executing speed using multizone model will need to be improved.
Visible lexical stress cues on the face do not influence audiovisual speech perception

Producing lexical stress leads to visible changes on the face, such as longer duration and greater size of the opening of the mouth. Research suggests that these visual cues alone can in-form participants about which syllable carries stress (i.e., lip-reading silent videos). This study aims to determine the influence of visual articulatory cues on lexical stress perception in more naturalistic audiovisual settings . Participants were presented with seven disyllabic, Dutch minimal stress pairs (e.g., VOORnaam [first name] & voorNAAM [respectable]) in audio-only (phonetic lexical stress continua without video), video-only (lip-reading silent videos), and audiovisual trials (e.g., phonetic lexical stress continua with video of talker saying VOORnaam or voorNAAM ). Categorization data from video-only trials revealed that participants could distinguish the minimal pairs above chance from seeing the silent videos alone. However, responses in the audiovisual condition did not differ from the audio-only condition. We thus conclude that visual lexical stress information on the face, while clearly perceivable, does not play a major role in audiovisual speech perception. This study demonstrates that clear unimodal effects do not always generalize to more naturalistic multimodal communication, advocating that speech prosody is best considered in multimodal settings.
Having skin in the game: How players purchase representation in games

Microtransactions are a relatively new feature of video game software involving the purchase of in-game items, often using real money. Players may use these transactions to purchase in-game advantages, or cosmetic features such as ‘skins’, which change the way a player’s avatar looks without influencing gameplay mechanics. Skins may be an opportunity for developers to offer – and players to purchase – alternative demographic appearances. In this article we examine some of the potential costs associated with skins beyond their price tag, especially those felt by players of color, given a normative – free – white default. While previous research has looked at player identity, representation in gaming media and players’ purchasing practices individually, few scholars have looked at the intersection between all three. We analyze this intersection within the practices of selling and purchasing skins in games. We distributed a survey through social media and to gaming communities online and analyzed 158 responses. We identify quantitative differences in responses of participants of color and White participants, such as participants of color spending more on average than white participants on skins in the games they play. We discuss qualitative themes we describe as quasi-acceptance and privileged allyship, that build on previous literature about how players of color interact with – and may feel resigned about – representation in games.
Odor Standards in Squeeze-Bottle Kits for Matching Quality and Intensity

A valuable adjunct to flavor profile analysis, wastewater odor evaluation, and ambient air quality surveying is an array of reference odor standards for side-by-side comparisons with the unknown samples. Sets of convenient, nonspill squeeze-bottle standards have been developed for these purposes. Many of the required odor chemicals are stable in character up to six months in mineral-oil dilution and can provide hundreds of sniff-tests without significant loss of intensity. The author recently proposed a generalized “decismel scale” for describing odor threshold and odor level (by analogy with the decibel scale for sound). Prototype kits are suggested that demonstrate an odor intensity scale and a tentative selection of odor qualities.
U.S. and Global Wood Energy Outlook under Alternative Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

There has been a significant increase in the use of wood pellets for energy in the past decade due in large part to their climate mitigation potential. Because of this, the demand for wood pellets is largely driven by policy, as well as socioeconomic development, making projections of future wood energy markets highly uncertain. The aim of this study is to provide projections of future wood energy market trends under five distinct socioeconomic scenarios based on the assumed future evolution of gross domestic product, population, technological change, trade openness, and bioenergy preferences using the FOrest Resource Outlook Model. In four out of the five scenarios considered, it is projected that the use of roundwood and mill chips, particles, and residuals will rise in order to produce a growing output of wood pellets in the United States and globally. In terms of international markets, the global dominance of Europe’s demand for wood, to help that continent achieve its own climate goals, further explains the sustained and growing supply position of the U.S. South regions to meet that demand. Taken together, the projections suggest emerging bioenergy markets will drive increased competition for inputs with other manufacturers, particularly in the U.S. South regions.
The use and value of scenario planning for systems engineering

Projects are often approached with the assumption that requirements are known and stable before system design can begin. Systems can be designed for multiple anticipated operating conditions by using use cases and scenarios, which explore di erent ways in which users may seek to interact with the system under development depending on their needs and the circumstances. It is generally assumed, however, that the operating environment and the corresponding set of scenarios is static - that it doesn't change over time. This may work reasonably well for short-lived systems, and systems that are designed to be relatively independent in their behaviour (such as buildings, bridges and power stations), but for systems that contribute to systems of systems such as military aircraft, a more exible view of the future operating scenarios is needed. Furthermore, long-life systems and systems with long development times also need to creatively anticipate the future business environment. Only by doing this can the system continue to add value to its supersystem (or the enterprise for whose bene t it was designed). This paper evaluates scenario planning as an approach for managing the uncertainty of the future business environment. The history of scenario planning is explored, as well as its use and value in a range of industry sectors including defence, space and energy (oil and gas). The role of scenario planning in the development of new technology is discussed, nding that scenario planning could usefully be added to the systems design toolkit.
Catalytic Conversion of Levulinic Acid in Higher Added Value Products: Sustainable Routes for Esters Production

The current increase in demand for chemical products has searched for new sources of non-fossil raw material, particularly lignocellulosic biomass, and oilseed biomass. The use of lignocellulosic raw materials can bring benefits to countries with large territorial extensions and high biomass productivity, among which Brazil occupies a prominent place. Biomass is a cheap, renewable raw material that can be used to produce different chemical products, including levulinic acid, which is obtained from the acid hydrolysis of lignocellulose carbohydrates. Levulinic acid is an excellent starting point to produce various chemical products of high value-added, such as g -valerolactone, aminolevulinic acid, N -5-methyl-2-pyrrolidones or alkyl levulinate. This review will present the catalytic routes to obtain alkyl levulinate from the esterification reaction of levulinic acid with alcohols as well as the application of the esters as additives to fuels and lubricants.
Metabolomics Analysis and Antioxidant Potential of Endophytic Diaporthe fraxini ED2 Grown in Different Culture Media

Endophytic fungi are a promising source of bioactive metabolites with a wide range of pharmacological activities. In the present study, MS-based metabolomics was conducted to study the metabolomes variations of endophytic Diaporthe fraxini ED2 grown in different culture media. Total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, 2,2-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays were conducted to assess the antioxidant potential of the fungal extracts. Multivariate data analysis (MVDA) was employed in data analysis and interpretation to elucidate the complex metabolite profile. The supplemented culture medium of D. fraxini fungal extract stimulated the production of metabolites not occurring in the normal culture medium. Antioxidant activity studies revealed the potential of supplemented cultured fungal extract of D. fraxini as a source of antioxidants. The present findings highlight that fungal culture medium supplementation is an effective approach to unravelling the hidden metabolome in plant-associated fungal diversity.
Communication compartmentalisation by Australian tertiary students

ABSTRACT Research into the increasing range of communication has largely focused around the idea of ‘communications choices’, examining why one technology is preferred over another. This study examined how two groups of Australian undergraduate students organised their use of multiple communication technologies, with the groups coming from similar academic backgrounds but separated by five years. Utilising a diary-based approach, it found that the participants used a wide range of communication technologies, from landline phones to short message services, suggesting that choice is contextual. The students used particular communications technologies for particular purposes and with particular correspondents, compartmentalising their communications by technology, person, and purpose. It also found that the way they compartmentalised their communications changed significantly over time. This is explored through the concept of communications genres.