Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Papers please: Predictive factors for the uptake of national and international COVID-19 immunity and vaccination passports

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are introducing digital passports that allow citizens to return to normal activities if they were previously infected with (immunity passport) or vaccinated against (vaccination passport) SARS-CoV-2. To be effective, policy decision makers must know whether immunity and vaccination passports will be widely accepted by the public, and under what conditions? We collected representative samples across six countries – Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to assess attitudes towards the introduction of immunity passports. Immunity passport support was moderate-to-low, ranging from 51% in the UK and Germany, down to 22% in Japan. Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects modelling controlling for each country showed neoliberal world views, personal concern and perceived virus severity, the fairness of immunity passports, and willingness to become infected to gain an immunity passport, were all predictive factors of immunity passport support. By contrast, gender (woman), immunity passport concern, and risk of harm to society predicted a decrease in support for immunity passports. Minor differences in predictive factors were found between countries. These findings will help policy makers introduce effective immunity passport policies in these six countries and around the world.
Analyzing Social Media Activities at Bellingcat

Open-source journalism emerged as a new phenomenon in the media ecosystem, which uses crowdsourcing to fact-check and generate investigative reports for world events using open sources (e.g., social media). A particularly prominent example is Bellingcat. Bellingcat is known for its investigations on the illegal use of chemical weapons during the Syrian war, the Russian responsibility for downing flight MH17, the identification of the perpetrators in the attempted murder of Alexei Navalny, and war crimes in the Russo-Ukraine war. Crucial for this is social media in order to disseminate findings and crowdsource fact-checks. In this work, we characterize the social media activities at Bellingcat on Twitter. For this, we built a comprehensive dataset of all N = 24,682 tweets posted by Bellingcat on Twitter since its inception in July 2014. Our analysis is three-fold: (1) We analyze how Bellingcat uses Twitter to disseminate information and collect information from its follower base. Here, we find a steady increase in both posts and replies over time, particularly during the Russo-Ukrainian war, which is in line with the growing importance of Bellingcat for the traditional media ecosystem. (2) We identify characteristics of posts that are successful in eliciting user engagement. User engagement is particularly large for posts embedding additional media items and with a more negative sentiment. (3) We examine how the follower base has responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here, we find that the sentiment has become more polarized and negative. We attribute this to a ∼ 13-fold increase in bots interacting with the Bellingcat account. Overall, our findings provide recommendations for how open-source journalism such as Bellingcat can successfully operate on social media.
Fighting Disinformation: Overview of Recent AI-Based Collaborative Human-Computer Interaction for Intelligent Decision Support Systems

: Methods for automatic disinformation detection have gained much attention in recent years, as false information can have a severe impact on societal cohesion. Disinformation can influence the outcome of elections, the spread of diseases by preventing adequate countermeasures adoption, and the formation of allies, as the Russian invasion in Ukraine has shown. Hereby, not only text as a medium but also audio recordings, video content, and images need to be taken into consideration to fight fake news. However, automatic fact-checking tools cannot handle all modalities at once and face difficulties embedding the context of information, sarcasm, irony, and when there is no clear truth value. Recent research has shown that collaborative human-machine systems can identify false information more successfully than human or machine learning methods alone. Thus, in this paper, we present a short yet comprehensive state of current automatic disinformation detection approaches for text, audio, video, images, multimodal combinations, their extension into intelligent decision support systems (IDSS) as well as forms and roles of human collaborative co-work. In real life, such systems are increasingly applied by journalists, setting the specifications to human roles according to two most prominent types of use cases, namely daily news dossiers and investigative journalism.
Temporary Protection in Times of Crisis: The European Union, Canada, and the Invasion of Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a major displacement crisis. In an unprecedented move, the European Union activated the 2001 Temporary Protection Directive to give those fleeing the conflict temporary protection, marking the first use of the directive in 20 years. Meanwhile, Canada announced its readiness to accept an unlimited number of Ukrainians and launched the Canada–Ukraine Authorization of Emergency Travel to fast-track their arrival. This article compares the policy responses of the EU and Canada to the crisis in Ukraine, focusing on the two temporary protection schemes and differentiating between their overarching goals, policy instruments, and settings. While the policies may seem similar at first, we show that a closer examination reveals underlying disparities, contradictions, and complexities, particularly when analyzing the precise policy instruments and settings. Considering that contemporary policy trajectories are informed by the past, we suggest that while the two programs build on the respective regions’ historical and political contexts, crises also create opportunities for change, raising questions about the future direction of immigration policy in both regions.
Exploring the cultural and creative promotion performance in Taiwan: a network-based ranking approach

ABSTRACT Since the last few years, the Taiwanese government has been promoting the cultural and creative industries, causing the industries in Taiwan to grow rapidly. This study utilizes data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the cultural and creative promotion performance of cities/counties in Taiwan. Furthermore, the DEA and network-based approach are combined not only to identify the most important inputs/outputs, but also to identify cities/counties that can be treated as benchmarks. This study confirms the effect of the economic gap between urban and rural areas on the promotion and development of the cultural and creative industries in Taiwan. The cultural and creative promotions in the urban areas are found to be superior to those in the rural areas in Taiwan. In addition, the cultural and creative industries in the northern Taiwan are found to be superior to those in the other areas in Taiwan. This study offers some recommendations for managers in cultural and creative departments in their decision-makings; following which will mitigate the gap between resources available in urban and rural areas and facilitate balanced development of the cultural and creative industries in Taiwan.
Impact of Climate Change on Fruit Production: Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies in Northeast Himalayan Region

Numerous horticulture crops, both well-known and less well-known underutilized fruit crops native to this region, are grown in abundance in the north-eastern Himalayan region. If grown to their full capacity, these crops will produce significant revenue and contribute to the local economy. There is however, a decrease in their availability even before being fully exploited due to losses resulting from many factors including climate change and related variability. The primary consequence of climate change, among many others, is the changes in the agro-ecological region that are observable in some places where there is the replacement of native fruits, many of which originated at higher elevations, with low chilling-required fruits. In the Ukhrul district of Manipur (Northeast India), the abundance of many local temperate crops of the Prunus species such as peaches, plums, cherries, pears, bird cherry (Prunus nepalensis) and others like walnut, wild apple (Docynia indica), Pyrus pashia, Myrica spp. , Rhus semialatus, Rubus spp. , Eleagnus spp. , Elaeocarpus floribundus, Spondias axillaris, etc. are reduced and being replaced by low chilling requiring crops like kiwi, avocado, low chilling apples (Anna, Golden Dorsett, HRMN 99) and area under these crops particularly kiwi is increasing. In household gardens at higher altitudes, tropical fruits like mango, banana and guava are now thriving; in the past, the harsh winter frosts made it impossible even for the seedlings to survive. Despite employing rootstocks that are more resistant to higher temperature, kiwi is replacing the apple-growing regions in the foothills of Bomdila and Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh, since the requisite quality is not achieved.
Laboratory and field tests and distinct element analysis of dry granular flows and segregation processes

Abstract. Natural as well as fill slopes are commonly found in Hong Kong, China, and many other countries, and slope failures with the subsequent debris flows have caused a serious loss of life and property in the past until now. There are various processes and features associated with debris flow which engineers need to know so as to design for the precautionary measures. In this study, experiments on flume tests, friction tests, deposition tests, and rebound tests were carried out for different sizes of balls to determine the parameters required for the modelling of dry granular flow. Different materials and sizes of balls are used in the flume tests, and various flow pattern and segregation phenomena are noticed in the tests. Distinct element modelling (DEM) of dry granular flow is also carried out for the flow process. It is found that for simple cases, the flow process can be modelled reasonably well by DEM, which is crucial for engineers to determine the pattern and impact of granular flow, which will lead to further study in more complicated debris flow. From laboratory tests, large-scale field tests, and numerical simulations of single- and multiple-material tests, it is also found that the particle size will be the most critical factor in the segregation process during granular flow. It is also found from the laboratory tests and numerical simulations that a jump in the flume can help to reduce the final velocity of the granular flow, which is useful for practical purposes.
Modeling Contagious Severity of the Stock Markets

This paper modeled the evolution of the contagious severity of the stock markets combing with the cross-market correlation coefficients, the market capitalizations and the functions of self-remedy into the time-varying coefficients of the epidemic kinetics model. Then we used the data of United States, Russia, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Hong Kong and Japan during the 2007-2009 stock market crisis periods for simulated analysis. The result shows that the epidemic model is alive and can describe the evolution of the contagious severity of the stock markets, and we give the economic meanings of the important parameters.
The Longitudinal Changes of National Identity in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan Before, During and After the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games

The present study examined longitudinal changes in Asian (i.e. Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) school students’ national identity before, during and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Participants were 946 secondary students aged 12–17 years from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This study revealed that residence, especially the hosting city, acted as the most significant factor in longitudinal changes and contribution to the national identity among the three regions. The time factor (before, during and after the Games) was only significant when it interacted with residence. These findings suggest that residence (hosting city) provided the greatest contribution in national identity before, during and after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Finding a New Vision of Gifted Education: An Interview with David Yun Dai

David Yun Dai is an associate professor of educational psychology and methodology at University at Albany, State University of New York, and a Zijiang lecture professor of education and psychology at East China Normal University. He received his doctoral degree in psychology from Purdue University and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut. He taught psychology for 2 years at Central Missouri State University before he moved to Albany, New York, in 2001. Dr. Dai was born and grew up in Shanghai, China. Before he came to the United States in 1991, he received a BA and an MA in Chinese from East China Normal University and taught at Shanghai University. Dr. Dai has published seven books and over 70 journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book and article reviews in general psychology, educational psychology, and gifted education. His published and upcoming books include The Nature and Nurture of Giftedness; Gifted Education in the United States (in Chinese); and Paradigms of Gifted Education: A Guide for Use-Inspired Research. He has made over 40 presentations at national and international professional conferences and has given keynote or invited speeches in many countries and regions, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Australia, Tunisia, and Portugal. Dr. Dai was the recipient of the Early Scholar Award in 2006 conferred by the National Association for Gifted Children and was a Fulbright Scholar to China during 2008–2009. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, and the Roeper Review.
Genetic Diversity of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing Family Based on SNP and VNTR Typing Profiles in Asian Countries

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) Beijing strain is highly virulent, drug resistant, and endemic over Asia. To explore the genetic diversity of this family in several different regions of eastern Asia, 338 Beijing strains collected in Taiwan (Republic of China) were analyzed by mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) typing and compared with published MIRU-VNTR profiles and by the Hunter-Gaston diversity index (HGDI) of Beijing strains from Japan and South Korea. The results revealed that VNTR2163b (HGDI>0.6) and five other loci (VNTR424, VNTR4052, VNTR1955, VNTR4156 and VNTR 2996; HGDI>0.3) could be used to discriminate the Beijing strains in a given geographic region. Analysis based on the number of VNTR repeats showed three VNTRs (VNTR424, 3192, and 1955) to be phylogenetically informative loci. In addition, to determine the geographic variation of sequence types in MTB populations, we also compared sequence type (ST) data of our strains with published ST profiles of Beijing strains from Japan and Thailand. ST10, ST22, and ST19 were found to be prevalent in Taiwan (82%) and Thailand (92%). Furthermore, classification of Beijing sublineages as ancient or modern in Taiwan was found to depend on the repeat number of VNTR424. Finally, phylogenetic relationships of MTB isolates in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan were revealed by a minimum spanning tree based on MIRU-VNTR genotyping. In this topology, the MIRU-VNTR genotypes of the respective clusters were tightly correlated to other genotypic characters. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that clonal evolution of these MTB lineages has occurred.
Regional differences in subduction ground motions

A few ground-motion prediction models have been published in the last years, for predicting ground motions produced by interface and intraslab earthquakes. When one must carry out a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in a region including a subduction zone, GMPEs must be selected to feed a logic tree. In the present study, the aim is to identify which models provide the best fit to the dataset M6+, global or local models. The subduction regions considered are Japan, Taiwan, Central and South America, and Greece. Most of the data comes from the database built to develop the new BCHydro subduction global GMPE (Abrahamson et al., submitted). We show that this model is among best-fitting models in all cases, followed closely by Zhao et al. (2006), whereas the local Lin and Lee (2008) is well predicting the data in Taiwan and also in Greece. The Scherbaum et al. (2009) LLH method prove to be efficient in providing one number quantifying the overall fit, but additional analysis on the between-event and within-event variabilities are mandatory, to control if median prediction per event and/or variability within an event is within the scatter predicted by the model.
Understanding environmentalism in six Asian countries : an analysis of the world values survey

approved: _____________________________________________________________________ Brent S. Steel This dissertation focuses on a central question for six countries in Asia: what factors affect environmentalism? Numerous studies have proposed mixed theoretical explanations for the relationship between diverse values and beliefs regarding environmentalism. Although these diverse studies propose theories for the fast-growing and multifaceted environmentalism in Asia, here it is argued that the theories only partly explain environmentalism in Asia due to lack of empirical studies of this region. Thus, it is questioned whether Asian countries demonstrate the kinds and levels of environmentalism that would be expected according to these theories. Drawing upon the newest wave of the World Values Survey (WVS), this dissertation analyzes environmentalism in China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, and Malaysia. It begins by assessing descriptive features of environmental measurement among these countries’ publics. Using bivariate and OLS regression analysis, relationships between three sets of dependent variables (environmental participation, local environmental concern, and global environmental concern), and three sets of independent variables (postmaterial factors, cultural and sociodemographic factors) are analyzed. Analyses found that there are weak connections between postmaterialism and environmental participation and environmental concern in these countries. In addition, the divisions between local and global environmental concern were inconsistent. It was found that more affluent countries had greater concern for global environmental problems, but it was not evident that less affluent countries placed more weight on local environmental problems than on global problems. The results contradict the major theories in environmentalism, and offer the view that the conventional associations of environmental values and their influential factors may not work the same way in Asian countries. In the end, it is proposed that environmentalism in Asia did not originate from certain homogenized values; thus, further studies should focus on addressing how multifaceted environmental values develop into a society’s environmentalism.
Human Factors in Green Office Building Design: The Impact of Workplace Green Features on Health Perceptions in High-Rise High-Density Asian Cities

There is a growing concern about human factors in green building, which is imperative in high-rise high-density urban environments. This paper describes our attempts to explore the influence of workplace green features (such as green certification, ventilation mode, and building morphology) on health perceptions (personal sensation, sensorial assumptions, healing performance) based on a survey in Hong Kong and Singapore. The results validated the relationship between green features and health perceptions in the workplace environment. Remarkably, participants from the air-conditioned offices revealed significant higher concerns about health issues than those participants from the mixed-ventilated offices. The mixed-ventilation design performs as a bridge to connect the indoor environment and outdoor space, which enables people to have contact with nature. Additionally, the preferred building morphology of the workplace is the pattern of a building complex instead of a single building. The complex form integrates the configuration of courtyards, podium gardens, green terrace, public plaza, and other types of open spaces with the building clusters, which contributes to better health perceptions. This research contributes to the rationalization and optimization of passive climate-adaptive design strategies for green buildings in high-density tropical or subtropical cities.
Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu. Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania. Religion and Global Politics Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. 288 pp. $55.00, cloth.Given that 2007 signalled a turning point for the Romanian Orthodox Church, it could hardly have been more appropriate timing for the publication of the first comprehensive study dedicated to understanding its relationship to Romania's transition to democracy and its accession into the European Union in January 2007. Two major recent events have challenged the image of the church and created internal turmoil in a venerable institution that is, by turns, both respected and contested. The first, which generated a strong defensive reaction in the church, was provoked by the negative assessment in the recent report issued by the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of Communist Dictatorship in Romania, released in January 2007, of its role during the communist regime (1945-1989) through its collaboration with the state and support for government repression. The second was the death of the Patriarch Teoctist in July and the subsequent election of Patriarch Daniel as head of the church in September 2007, as its sixth leader since 1925. Intramural factional disputes resulted. But it is the problematic relationship between state and religion both before and after 1989, as well as the challenges faced by the Orthodox Church in functioning in a society increasingly shaped by the values of a liberal democracy, which is primarily addressed by Stan and Turcescu.Based on a well documented analysis of a wide range of topics - which includes the relationship between religion and nationalism, the manner in which the Orthodox Church is now confronting its past, its relationship with the Greek Catholic Church after 1989, the interplay between religion and electoral politics, religious education, the church's position in respect to sexuality and gender and, lastly, its attitude towards the European Union - the authors make a compelling argument that the relation between state and church after December 1989 has lagged behind the liberal democratic project. Instead, successive governments have adopted a "managed quasi-pluralistic model" of church-state relations in which government representatives have simultaneously interfered in the internal affairs of the church and encouraged its emancipation. This model was chosen by political elites as a compromise between the pressure for a strict separation between church and state and the support for religious diversity and tolerance. This was advocated by some segments of civil society and the European Union on the one hand, yet on the other the Orthodox Church demanded that it be recognized as the state church and elevated above other denominations. …