Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors influencing willingness to use fitness apps during COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from China

During the novel coronavirus pandemic, many people stopped going to the gym, and lack of exercise is likely to cause physical and mental health problems such as decreased immunity, in turn making them vulnerable to infection. Fitness apps can help people exercise at home by providing online professional guidance and supervision. This study explored the factors influencing fitness the intention to use apps during the epidemic in China. A new variable named epidemic crisis risk perception was added to the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model to reflect the impact of the epidemic. Performance expectation has the greatest impact on the willingness to use fitness apps. Therefore, developers must pay close attention to the needs of the public and improve the functions of apps to improve their satisfaction. In addition, the risk perception of epidemic crisis positively correlates with the willingness to use such apps, indicating that the novel coronavirus pandemic indeed affected public psychology and behavioural intention.
The challenges confronting the training needs assessment in Saudi Arabian higher education

This research examines the problems encountered by the Training Needs Assessment (TNA) system from the perspective of faculty members and Human Resources (HR) managers in emerging public universities in the Saudi Arabian Higher Education sector. It aims to understand how problems with this will affect the success rate of Training and Development (T&D) curriculums. The research comprises an analytical study using a case study method of analysis. Qualitative data collection was carried out using semi-structured interviews with 75 senior managers and faculty members of four selected universities, selected using purposive non-random sampling. The data was analysed using Thematic Analysis (TA). The results highlight the insufficiency of the TNA techniques applied to ascertain training requirements. The primary obstacles to successful TNA were inadequate HR processes, insufficiently experienced HR directors, poor engagement, and favouritism concerning the selection of candidates for T&D. These issues affect the enthusiasm of those in the department. Additionally, resources required for T&D, particularly time and money, are misused, which could influence the growth potential of the universities against the country’s Vision 2030 plan. The findings indicate procedural differences in selecting and approving staff requests for Human Resource Development (HRD) support, managerial discretion in selecting participants for HRD programmes, and selective or restricted access to HRD programmes for foreign-born employees, which raises significant questions about equality policies. This study is unique as a contribution to the literature in exploring the challenges faced by the TNA process in Saudi Arabian Higher Education, therefore broadening understanding in the field as a whole, especially concerning the developing countries and Gulf Cooperation Council of Nations. The study concludes that there is currently unsatisfactory commitment in determining the staff training needs by the HR departments of Saudi Arabian public universities, which damages morale and leads to a lack of faith between HR directors and departmental staff. Finally, this study contributes to the area of policy decision-making by reporting the present situation surrounding the issues related to the application of TNA in T&D.
Experience Measuring Full Scale Squat of Full Form Vessels at Australian Ports

The existence of ship squat has been known for many years and is a major factor in shallow water navigation and underkeel clearance (UKC). However there is still a great deal of uncertainty within the shipping community regarding the magnitude and location of maximum ship squat. The importance of being able to accurately predict ship squat is of increasing concern, as ships become larger and the need to sail with deeper drafts grows. With new technology advances in the area of Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) it has become possible to measure full-scale ship squat with sub-decimeter accuracy. Such measurements have been performed with excellent results, which help to dispel some of the myths regarding ship squat and increase the degree of confidence ship handlers have in squat prediction, and hence the UKC available to them.
Online Education as an Active Learning Environment in the New Normal

This study examined the students’ perception on the collaborative-constructivist learning experience in the online education of the Laguna State Polytechnic University (LSPU) during the ‘new normal’ learning modality due to COVID-19 pandemic. The study utilized the descriptive-survey research using the Online Learning Environment Survey (OLLES) questionnaire comprising the seven (7) components namely: student collaboration, computer competence, active learning, teacher support, information design and appeal, material environment, and reflective thinking and the Community of Inquiry (COI) survey on the online learning experiences on social, teaching, and cognitive presence. The data were gathered from the 106 fourth year students of the College of Teacher Education (CTE) through Google Form. The findings proved that the respondents have a favorable perception on their online learning environment in terms of collaboration, computer competence, active learning, teacher support, information design and appeal, material environment, and reflective thinking. The outcomes exhibited a positive perception of learners towards social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence in their learning experiences. The findings of the current investigation also pointed that there is a significant relationship between learners' online learning environment and their learning experiences in the new normal education. Through this, educators will be able to deliver a collaborative-constructivist learning experience among learners.
Correlation between Genetic Characteristics, Cell Structure and Material Properties of Moso Bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis (Carriere) J. Houzeau) in Different Areas of China

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis (Carriere) J. Houzeau), native to China, is one of the most economically and ecologically important bamboo species. Since the economic interests and the strong clonality, it has been widely cultivated in southern China, which inevitably reduces the natural stands and leads to gene loss in this species. In this study, three natural populations of Moso bamboo distributed in Anhui, Guangxi, and Zhejiang province, were used to analyze the correlation between phenotypic traits, cell structure, and material properties from the perspective of phenotypic, genetic, and environmental. Among those traits and properties, fiber width was correlated with wall thickness at breast height and average nodes length under branch positively. Leaf length was correlated positively with fiber lumen diameter and parenchyma lumen diameter. Furthermore, it showed a very close correlation between moisture content, bending strength, modulus of elasticity, and diameter at breast height, clear height, and leaf length. The lumen diameter of fiber cell wall thickness is positively correlated with bending strength and modulus of elasticity. Density is positively correlated with parenchyma cell wall thickness. The experimental design is relatively detailed and representative, and the workload is huge. This study reflects the research objectives with scientific and rational experiments and data. This study will analyze the differences of various indicators from the perspective of genetic to build a bridge between micro-structure and macro-structure for rational utilization of the whole area of Moso bamboo resources in China.
Nanotechnologies in Delivery of DNA and mRNA Vaccines to the Nasal and Pulmonary Mucosa

Recent advancements in the field of in vitro transcribed mRNA (IVT-mRNA) vaccination have attracted considerable attention to such vaccination as a cutting-edge technique against infectious diseases including COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. While numerous pathogens infect the host through the respiratory mucosa, conventional parenterally administered vaccines are unable to induce protective immunity at mucosal surfaces. Mucosal immunization enables the induction of both mucosal and systemic immunity, efficiently removing pathogens from the mucosa before an infection occurs. Although respiratory mucosal vaccination is highly appealing, successful nasal or pulmonary delivery of nucleic acid-based vaccines is challenging because of several physical and biological barriers at the airway mucosal site, such as a variety of protective enzymes and mucociliary clearance, which remove exogenously inhaled substances. Hence, advanced nanotechnologies enabling delivery of DNA and IVT-mRNA to the nasal and pulmonary mucosa are urgently needed. Ideal nanocarriers for nucleic acid vaccines should be able to efficiently load and protect genetic payloads, overcome physical and biological barriers at the airway mucosal site, facilitate transfection in targeted epithelial or antigen-presenting cells, and incorporate adjuvants. In this review, we discuss recent developments in nucleic acid delivery systems that target airway mucosa for vaccination purposes.
DNA Methylation Changes and Its Associated Genes in Mulberry (Morus alba L.) Yu-711 Response to Drought Stress Using MethylRAD Sequencing

Drought stress remains one of the most detrimental environmental cues affecting plant growth and survival. In this work, the DNA methylome changes in mulberry leaves under drought stress (EG) and control (CK) and their impact on gene regulation were investigated by MethylRAD sequencing. The results show 138,464 (37.37%) and 56,241 (28.81%) methylation at the CG and CWG sites (W = A or T), respectively, in the mulberry genome between drought stress and control. The distribution of the methylome was prevalent in the intergenic, exonic, intronic and downstream regions of the mulberry plant genome. In addition, we discovered 170 DMGs (129 in CG sites and 41 in CWG sites) and 581 DMS (413 in CG sites and 168 in CWG sites). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis indicates that phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, spliceosome, amino acid biosynthesis, carbon metabolism, RNA transport, plant hormone, signal transduction pathways, and quorum sensing play a crucial role in mulberry response to drought stress. Furthermore, the qRT-PCR analysis indicates that the selected 23 genes enriched in the KEGG pathways are differentially expressed, and 86.96% of the genes share downregulated methylation and 13.04% share upregulation methylation status, indicating the complex link between DNA methylation and gene regulation. This study serves as fundamentals in discovering the epigenomic status and the pathways that will significantly enhance mulberry breeding for adaptation to a wide range of environments.
Interference alignment in space, time and frequency: achievable DoF analysis

It is well established that the employment of interference alignment (IA) in the interference channel can enhance the achievable degrees of freedom (DOF) significantly. The feasibility of IA in a multi-carrier time-extended interference channel is considered. A new IA scheme is introduced that jointly performs the alignment over space, time and frequency. An asymmetric case is considered where the users are equipped with a different number of transmit/receive antennas. In the wake of this asymmetry, the feasible DoF of each user can be different. A closed-form necessary condition on the feasibility of asymmetric achievable DoF in the proposed scheme is derived.
Nanomedicine Strategies for Management of Drug Resistance in Lung Cancer

Lung cancer (LC) is one of the leading causes of cancer occurrence and mortality worldwide. Treatment of patients with advanced and metastatic LC presents a significant challenge, as malignant cells use different mechanisms to resist chemotherapy. Drug resistance (DR) is a complex process that occurs due to a variety of genetic and acquired factors. Identifying the mechanisms underlying DR in LC patients and possible therapeutic alternatives for more efficient therapy is a central goal of LC research. Advances in nanotechnology resulted in the development of targeted and multifunctional nanoscale drug constructs. The possible modulation of the components of nanomedicine, their surface functionalization, and the encapsulation of various active therapeutics provide promising tools to bypass crucial biological barriers. These attributes enhance the delivery of multiple therapeutic agents directly to the tumor microenvironment (TME), resulting in reversal of LC resistance to anticancer treatment. This review provides a broad framework for understanding the different molecular mechanisms of DR in lung cancer, presents novel nanomedicine therapeutics aimed at improving the efficacy of treatment of various forms of resistant LC; outlines current challenges in using nanotechnology for reversing DR; and discusses the future directions for the clinical application of nanomedicine in the management of LC resistance.
THE PROBLEM OF THE SURGICAL TREATMENT OF NON-SPECIFIC CHRONIC PLEURAL EMPYEMA: LITERATURE REVIEW

Despite the rapid development of thoracic surgery, the problem of the surgical treatment of non-specific chronic pleural empyema remains relevant. The variability of the proposed treatment methods: puncture and drainage interventions aimed at pleural cavity sanitation, minimally invasive videothoracoscopic surgeries and traditional lung decortication, dictates the need for case-by-case surgical tactics and determining the stages and duration of the above methods. Treatment outcomes are significantly worsened by the presence of bronchial fistulas, which either cause the development of chronic pleural empyema or develop as a result of its presence and late treatment. Some answers to these key questions are provided in this paper, which aims to identify them in the Ukrainian and foreign literature.
Influence of Psychological Supervision on Athletes’ Compliance, Mental Elasticity Characteristics and Acute Stress Disorder in Traumatic Fracture Rehabilitation Training

Background: We aimed to explore the effect of psychological supervision on rehabilitation training compliance, mental elasticity characteristics, and acute stress disorder. Methods: From March 2018 to March 2020, 128 athletes with traumatic fractures in Zhoukou Sports Club in China were divided into two groups using the random number table method, The intervention group (64 athletes) received psychological supervision during the rehabilitation training, while the control group (64 athletes) without psychological supervision. The rehabilitation training compliance in the two groups was observed, and the mental elasticity characteristics and acute stress disorder changes were compared between the two groups before and post-intervention. Results: The compliance rate during postoperative rehabilitation training in the intervention group is 92.19%, which was significantly higher than 73.44% in the control group (P<0.05). Compared with the scores before intervention, the CD-RISC score and SASRD score of the two groups were significantly lower than the scores post-intervention. The SMFA function and vexation indexes of the intervention group in three months after operation were significantly lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). The QOL scores of the intervention group in social, environmental, psychological, and physiological fields were significantly higher than those of the control group in three months after operation (P<0.05). Conclusion: The implementation of psychological supervision for athletes with traumatic fractures could improve rehabilitation training compliance, increase the level of mental elasticity, and relieve acute stress disorder.
Application of Trust in Recommender Systems - Utilizing Naive Bayes Classifier

Receiving a recommendation for a certain item or a place to visit is now a common experience. However, the issue of trustworthiness regarding the recommended items/places remains one of the main concerns. In this paper, we present an implementation of the Naive Bayes classifier, one of the most powerful classes of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms in existence, to improve the accuracy of the recommendation and raise the trustworthiness confidence of the users and items within a network. Our approach is proven as a feasible one, since it reached the prediction accuracy of 89%, with a confidence of approximately 0.89, when applied to an online dataset of a social network. Naive Bayes algorithms, in general, are widely used on recommender systems because they are fast and easy to implement. However, the requirement for predictors to be independent remains a challenge due to the fact that in real-life scenarios, the predictors are usually dependent. As such, in our approach we used a larger training dataset; hence, the response vector has a higher selection quantity, thus empowering a higher determining accuracy.
Microstructural Dynamics of the Myocardium: Orientation of the Muscle Fibers and Occurrence of Cardiomyopathies

This paper considers the Holzapfel–Ogden (HO) model to examine the behavior of the left ventricle myocardium. At the tissue level, we analyze the contributions of the orientation angle of muscle fibers (MFs) and investigate their effects on the occurrence of certain cardiomyopathies and congenital diseases at the organ level. Knowing the importance of myocardial microstructure on cardiac function, we vary the angle between the direction of collagen sheets and MFs in all layers of the myocardium (from epicardium to endocardium) to model the effects of tilted MFs. Based on the HO model in which the directions of the fibers are orthogonal and using the strain energy of HO, we construct a tensile-compression test and simulate the dynamics of a cubic sample. We recover the authors’ results exhibiting the existence of residual stresses in various directions. Then, we modify the energy of HO slightly to assess the impact of the same stress states on the system with tilted MFs. A numerical tensile-compression test performed on this new cubic sample shows that, in certain directions, the heart tissue is more resistant to shear deformations in some planes than in others. Moreover, it appears that the residual stress is smaller as the angle of orientation of the MFs is small. Furthermore, we observe that the residual stress is greater in the new model compared to the normal HO model. This could affect the heart muscle at the organ level leading to hypertrophied/dilated cardiomyopathy.
High Throughput Graphene Oxide in Modified Hummers Method and Annealing Effect on Different Deposition Method

Graphene sheets offer extraordinary thermal, electronic and mechanical properties which could enhance the performance of the device for various applications. However, a large quantity production and the direct dispersion of graphene or graphite sheets in water without the assistance of dispersing agent has been considered to be a challenging issue. In this study, we reported that by introducing the functional group on the graphene basal plane started from natural graphite can readily form stable graphene oxide (GO) solution in a large quantity through modified hummers method. Structural and physiochemical properties of the GO were investigated with help of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The effects of the annealing treatment on a GO surface were analyzed using a Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer (SPA) in order to obtain the electrical resistance measurement. Based on the thermal reduction results, the resistance of drop casting is greater than spray coating which indicates that, the drop casting method is more reliable to be used in any application.
Using bycatch data to inform ecosystem-based fisheries management: a case study of a Scottish Nephrops trawl fishery in receipt of MSC accreditation

Eco-labelling schemes that focus on sustainable fisheries have the potential to influence behavioural changes in fishing practices, which hopefully lead to the long term goal of productive, environmentally sound and sustainable fisheries. This thesis presents a case study of a Nephrops trawl fishery. Despite being a bottom trawl fishery, it has been certified as sustainable and well managed by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a leading wild capture fisheries certification programme for sustainable seafood. In addition this thesis presents an overview of seafood eco-labelling schemes and discusses how bycatch data obtained through a partnership between science and industry can inform fisheries management. The research on the fished ecosystem comprised an analysis of random sub-samples received from the fleet of certified trawlers. This involved evaluating a self-assessment scheme that was initially implemented to provide additional bycatch data across the whole fleet. Analysis showed that the scheme could produce robust results, conditional on the quantity and quality of the sub-samples collected by the fishermen being maintained at specified levels. Biological processing of the sub-samples also allowed the establishment of an extensive database, quantitatively detailing the amount of bycatch typically produced by a Nephrops trawl vessel in the region. Overall, the bycatch represented 37% of the whole catch by weight, with low catch rates of two sensitive species, Atlantic cod and Spurdog being recorded. The results from analyses of these sub-samples compare well with those from previous studies on this fishery in which the entire catch had been analysed. Similarity of the catch compositions found in the sub-samples also suggests a high degree of uniformity in the fishing process across this fleet. Two small studies on spurdog survivability and on fishing gear interactions with the sea pen Funiculina quadrangularis provided biological information relevant to satisfying the conditions of certification. This case study highlights how the MSC approach can be an effective tool for fisheries management and has the potential to generate more benefits than current non-participatory legislation.
Safety Assurance And Quality Enhancement Of Juices By The Application Of Traditional Thermal Treatments And Nonthermal Processes

Numerous outbreaks involving fresh juices contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 have occurred in the US and around the world, raising the concern for the safety of these products. Until now only a few studies regarding the thermal tolerance of this pathogen in acidic juices over a wide range of pH values have been published. Therefore, the effect of varying the pH with different organic acids on the thermal inactivation of non-acid adapted and acid-adapted E. coli O157:H7 (strain C7927) was determined. The decimal reduction times (D-values) and the change in temperature required for the thermal destruction curve to traverse one log cycle (z-values) were calculated for non-acid adapted E. coli in an apple-carrot juice blend (80:20) adjusted to three pH values (3.3, 3.5, and 3.7) by addition of lactic, malic, or acetic acid, and at a pH of 4.5 adjusted with NaOH. Thermal parameters were also determined for acidadapted cells in juices acidified with malic acid. The effect of soluble solids content on the thermal tolerance was studied in samples with a pH of 3.7 at 9.4 to 11.5°Brix. The D-values were determined at 54, 56, and 58°C, and trials were conducted in triplicate. Non-acid-adapted E. coli exhibited the highest thermal tolerance at pH 4.5 (D-value at 54°C [D54°C] of 20 ± 4 min and z-value of 6.2°C), although on average the D-values increased significantly (P < 0.01) due to acid adaptation. In acidified juices, the highest tolerance was observed in acid-adapted E. coli in samples adjusted to pH 3.7 with malic