Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Text Readability Assessment in European Portuguese: A Comparison of Classification and Regression Approaches

The automatic assessment of text readability and the classification of texts by levels is essential for language education and language-related industries that rely on effective communication. In European Portuguese, most of the studies on this subject focus on identifying the level of texts used for proficiency evaluation purposes according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). However, the ordinal nature of the levels is not considered by the classification models used in those studies. In this paper, we address the problem as a regression task in an attempt to leverage that information. Our experiments using fine-tuned versions of a state-of-the-art foundation model for Portuguese show that addressing the problem as a regression task leads to improved performance in terms of adjacent accuracy and improved generalization ability to different kinds of textual data.
COMPRESSION EFFECTS IN HETEROGENEOUS MEDIA by

— We study in this paper compression effects in heterogeneous media with maximal packing constraint. Starting from compressible Brinkman equations, where maximal packing is encoded in a singular pressure and a singular bulk viscosity, we show that the global weak solutions converge (up to a subsequence) to global weak solutions of the two-phase compressible/incompressible Brinkman equations with respect to a parameter ε which measures effects close to the maximal packing value. Depending on the importance of the bulk viscosity with respect to the pressure in the dense regimes, memory effects are activated or not at the limit in the congested (incompressible) domain. Résumé (Effets de compression en milieux hétérogènes). — Nous étudions dans cet article des effets de compression dans des milieux hétérogènes soumis à une contrainte d’entassement maximal. Partant des équations de Brinkman compressibles où la contrainte maximale est prise en compte au sein d’une pression et d’une viscosité de volume toutes deux singulières, nous montrons que les solutions faibles globales convergent (à une sous-suite près) vers des solutions faibles globales d’un modèle biphasique de type compressible/incompressible quand le paramètre ε, mesurant l’intensité de la résistance à la compression au voisinage de l’entassement maximal, tend vers 0. En fonction de la prédominance relative de la viscosité de volume par rapport à la pression dans les régimes denses, nous mettons en évidence l’activation d’effets de mémoire à la limite dans le domaine congestionné (incompressible).
SENTRI: Jurnal Riset Ilmiah

: This study aims to obtain an overview of work stress in early adulthood who work in Desa Jatilor, Kecamatan Godong, Kabupaten Grobogan, Jawa Tengah. The method used in this research is a qualitative method with data collection techniques through interviews. Data collection involved 7 people with early adulthood who were working and came from Desa Jatilor, Kecamatan Godong, Kabupaten Grobogan, Jawa Tengah. The results showed that all subjects almost experienced the same response when experiencing work stress. Like their heart beats fast and their emotions become unstable. And responses that are not experienced by all subjects such as not reducing interactions with people, not delaying doing work, and the relationship of all subjects with subject friends does not establish when the worm experiences work stress.
VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF MACHINE LEARNING APPLICATIONS IN ADVANCED DRIVING ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS AND AUTOMATED DRIVING SYSTEMS

The verification and validation processes of machine learning applications in advanced driving assistance systems or automatic driving systems are presented, and the processes are implemented by using the forward collision warning of pedestrian automatic emergency braking. Supervised learning is one of the machine learning branches using image datasets to train the deep neural network for detecting or identifying the target object or scenario in a vision-based application. The verification process consists of specifying the requirements of a safety functionality, identifying the target objects in the Operation Design Domain (ODD) and pre-crash scenarios, and evaluating the quality and quantity of images based on safety requirements, also the coverage of ODD and pre-crash scenarios. The validation process consists of designing test procedures based on the specified ODD and pre-crash scenarios, conducting a sufficient number of tests, recording the test results, and evaluating the test results based on specified metrics. Eight published pedestrian datasets from 2010 to 2020 are reviewed. Three datasets contain the raining condition, but no dataset had images collected during snowing days. Fog or smoke images are not available in all datasets, and the headlight condition is not addressed in all datasets. The 3 datasets containing pedestrians in the nighttime did not label the vehicle’s headlight status as low or high beam. All reviewed datasets had no annotations of pre-crash scenarios that the subject vehicle is maneuvering or not. The validation of pedestrian detection uses the activation of forward collision warning as the evaluation metric. Eleven vehicles were tested in 4 pre-crash scenarios with different pedestrian orientations and speeds: the test pedestrian crossing from the nearside, crossing from the offside, stationary facing away, and walking away in front of the vehicle. The vehicle speed under test is 40 kph and the test pedestrian’s speed is 5 or 8 kph. The light conditions are daytime, nighttime with low beam, and nighttime with high beam without streetlighting in a test track. The statistical test results show that some vehicles under test behave inconsistently when the test pedestrian is crossing or not crossing. Test results in the nighttime with high beam are similar to that of the daytime; however, the test results in the nighttime show significant variations
Peri-urban agricultural land vulnerability due to urban sprawl – a multi-criteria spatially-explicit scenario analysis

ABSTRACT The loss of agricultural land at urban fringes is often monitored but rarely analysed under different scenarios of urban sprawl. This study adopts a multi-criteria spatially-explicit approach to investigate agricultural land vulnerability to urban sprawl under opposing policy directions in the Adelaide metropolitan area. Six land-use change parameters representing the socio-economic and land-use planning effects were analysed under the scenarios of; Business-As-Usual (BAU), Accelerated Economic Development (EDS) and a high Environmental Protection Scenario (EPS). The study shows higher agricultural land vulnerabilities in EDS and BAU scenarios that extends into rural areas displaying a leap-frog effect, which confirms the need to sacrifice farm land uses to maintain land supply for urban development. The LGA-based results enable transfer of farmland vulnerability knowledge into practice by identifying high priority areas for land management interventions and by specifying the types of agricultural land to be strategically managed in these urban fringe landscapes.
Conduction System Pacing in Pediatrics and Congenital Heart Disease: A Case Report and Literature Review

Conduction system pacing involving either His bundle pacing (HBP) or left bundle branch pacing (LBBP) is a modality that has been introduced as a safe and effective alternative to right ventricular (RV) pacing to help prevent pacemaker-associated cardiomyopathy. While HBP has been employed in the pediatric and congenital populations, several small studies have shown LBBP to be safe and effective in the pediatric population. We present a patient with congenital atrioventricular block and postoperative ventricular septal defect repair cardiomyopathy with subsequent left ventricular function improvement following a transition from an RV epicardial pacemaker system to an LBBP system. This case report serves as a foundation for a review of the current state of LBBP in pediatrics and congenital heart disease.
BPKEM: A biometric-based private key encryption and management framework for blockchain

The fundamental technology behind bitcoin, known as blockchain, has been studied and used in a variety of industries especially in finance. The security of blockchain is extremely important as it will affects the assets of the clients as well as it is the lifeline feature of the entire system that needs to be guaranteed. Currently, there is a lack of a methodical approach to guarantee the security and dependability of the private key during its whole life. Furthermore, there is no quick, easy, or secure way to create the encryption key. A biometric-based private key encryption and management framework (BPKEM) for blockchain is proposed not only to solve the private key lifecycle manag- ement problem, but also it maintains compatibility with existing blockchain systems. For the problem of private key encryption, a biometric-based stable key generation method is proposed. By using the relative invariance between facial and fingerprint feature points, this measure can convert feature points into stable and distinguishable descriptors, then using a reusable fuzzy extractor to create a stable key. The correct- ness and efficiency of the newly proposed biometric-based blockchain encryption tech- nique in this paper has been validated in the experiments.
Participation 3.0 in the implementation of the energy transition—Components and effectiveness of an interactive dialogue tool (Vision:En 2040)

The allocation of renewable energy plants, especially wind turbines, is stagnating in Germany. Although the citizens approve of the energy transition, they resist concrete local projects. In recent years, research has shown that interactive map applications support participatory planning through motivation, social interaction, and knowledge transfer. We aim to reduce biases against renewable energy (RE) and support informed decision making while accepting local responsibility. We hypothesized that finding a new gamified participation format, based on behavioral mechanisms, would strengthen the empowerment of people. To this end, we designed a dialogue tool and participation format, ’Vision:En 2040’, which combines: (i) a precise target electricity yield, (ii) an interactive map showing results of people’s actions, information about environmental impacts, and (iii) game rules which foster cooperation. In facilitated workshops, participants simulate the allocation of wind and photovoltaic power plants in their municipality to achieve a target electricity yield. The developed tool is based on methods of environmental planning and geoinformatics. ’Vision:En 2040’ was systematically tested with a technical test and a pre-test. In addition, its impact on participants was assessed through surveys and qualitative content analysis. The evaluation results show that the tool can influence the acceptance of the energy transition in terms of attitude. Through ’Vision:En 2040’, participants became aware of the community’s responsibility in the energy transition and expanded their knowledge. In addition, decision makers used the workshop results to plan RE sites. Our results indicate that ’Vision:En 2040’ is helpful for informal citizen participation in accelerating the energy transition.
Aerobic Exercise and Endocannabinoids: A Narrative Review of Stress Regulation and Brain Reward Systems

Aerobic exercise is a widely adopted practice, not solely for enhancing fitness and reducing the risk of various diseases but also for its ability to uplift mood and aid in addressing depression and anxiety disorders. Within the scope of this narrative review, we seek to consolidate current insights into the endocannabinoid-mediated regulation of stress and the brain's reward mechanism resulting from engaging in aerobic exercise. A comprehensive search was conducted across Medline, SPORTDiscus, Pubmed, and Scopus, encompassing data available until November 30, 2023. This review indicates that a bout of aerobic exercise, particularly of moderate intensity, markedly augments circulating levels of endocannabinoids - N-arachidonoyl-ethanolamine (AEA) and 2-acylglycerol (2-AG), that significantly contributes to mood elevation and reducing stress in healthy individuals. The current understanding of how aerobic exercise impacts mental health and mood improvement is still unclear. Moderate and high-intensity aerobic exercise modulates stress through a negative feedback mechanism targeting both the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system, thereby facilitating stress regulation crucial role in endocannabinoid synthesis, ultimately culminating in the orchestration of negative feedback across multiple tiers of the HPA axis, coupled with its influence over cortical and subcortical brain structures. The endocannabinoid has been observed to govern the release of neurotransmitters from diverse neuronal populations, implying a universal mechanism that fine-tunes neuronal activity and consequently modulates both emotional and stress-related responses. Endocannabinoids further assume a pivotal function within brain reward mechanisms, primarily mediated by CB1 receptors distributed across diverse cerebral centers. Notably, these endocannabinoids partake in natural reward processes, as exemplified in aerobic exercise, by synergizing with the dopaminergic reward system. The genesis of this reward pathway can be traced to the ventral tegmental area, with dopamine neurons predominantly projecting to the nucleus accumbens, thereby inciting dopamine release in response to rewarding stimuli.
A Multifaceted Approach to Seizure Management in a Patient With Down Syndrome, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and Hypothyroidism: A Case Report

In this case study, a 16-year-old male with Down syndrome (DS) faced persistent nocturnal seizures despite anti-seizure medications and treatment for concurrent hypothyroidism. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a common issue in patients with Down syndrome, was revealed as a trigger of the seizures. The implementation of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy along with medication adjustments led to a significant decrease in seizure frequency, highlighting the importance of a comprehensive approach to seizure management in patients with complex medical conditions.
Three cases of collared owlet depredation on the green‐backed tit within nest boxes

Abstract The main cause of the reproductive failure of cavity‐nesting birds is nest predation, even though cavity nests protect from numerous predators. To study the breeding biology of the green‐backed tit (Parus monticolus) and to promote the reproduction of some other avian cavity breeders, we placed 245 nest boxes in the Zixi Mountain, southwest China. We collected breeding data by regularly checking the artificial nest boxes, three cases of green‐backed tits being predated by collared owlet (Glaucidium brodiei) were confirmed by the video recordings. Larger mammals, chipmunks, squirrels, sparrowhawks, jays, and snakes have been identified as common predators of cavity‐nesting birds in high‐latitude regions of the northern hemisphere. Limited research in tropical and subtropical regions, particularly in Asia, has demonstrated squirrels and snakes as common predators of cavity‐nesting birds. A gap in avian predators to cavity‐nesting birds exists in the current knowledge. Hence the three cases of collared owlet's depredation reveal a new danger to green‐backed tits, broadening our knowledge of the dynamics of cavity‐nesting birds. In all three cases, the artificial box's entrance hole was only 5 × 5 cm in size and has not been expanded or poked. These findings provided evidence that the collared owlet is the predator of nestlings and adult green‐backed tit breeding in artificial boxes, which emphasized a reevaluation of predator–prey interactions. Therefore, for effective breeding of the green‐backed tit, we suggest to choose a hole size of 3 × 3 cm that is appropriate for its body size.
Novel sulfonamide derivatives as multitarget antidiabetic agents: design, synthesis, and biological evaluation

A series of new sulfonamide derivatives connected through an imine linker to five or seven membered heterocycles were designed and synthesized. All synthesized derivatives were characterized using a variety of spectroscopic methods, including IR, 1HNMR, and 13CNMR. In vitro α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibition activities, as well as glucose uptake were assessed for each of the synthesized compounds. Four sulfonamide derivatives namely 3a, 3b, 3h and 6 showed excellent inhibitory potential against α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 19.39, 25.12, 25.57 and 22.02 μM, respectively. They were 1.05- to 1.39-fold more potent than acarbose. Sulfonamide derivatives 3g, 3i and 7 (EC50 values of 1.29, 21.38 and 19.03 μM, respectively) exhibited significant glucose uptake activity that were 1.62- to 27-fold more potent than berberine. Both α-glucosidase protein (PDB: 2QMJ) and α-amylase (PDB: 1XCW) complexed with acarbose were adopted for docking investigations for the most active synthesized compounds. The docked compounds were able to inhabit the same space as the acarviosin ring of acarbose. The docking of the most active compounds showed an analogous binding with the active site of α-glucosidase as acarbose. The superior activity of the synthesized compounds against α-glucosidase enzyme than α-amylase enzyme can be rationalized by the weak interaction with the α-amylase. The physiochemical parameters of all synthesized compounds were aligned with Lipinski's rule of five.
Climatic and physiographic controls of spatial variability in surface water balance over the contiguous United States using the Budyko relationship

The geographic variability in the partitioning of precipitation into surface runoff (Q) and evapotranspiration (ET) is fundamental to understanding regional water availability. The Budyko equation suggests this partitioning is strictly a function of aridity, yet observed deviations from this relationship for individual watersheds impede using the framework to model surface water balance in ungauged catchments and under future climate and land use scenarios. A set of climatic, physiographic, and vegetation metrics were used to model the spatial variability in the partitioning of precipitation for 211 watersheds across the contiguous United States (CONUS) within Budyko's framework through the free parameter ω. A generalized additive model found that four widely available variables, precipitation seasonality, the ratio of soil water holding capacity to precipitation, topographic slope, and the fraction of precipitation falling as snow, explained 81.2% of the variability in ω. The ω model applied to the Budyko equation explained 97% of the spatial variability in long‐term Q for an independent set of watersheds. The ω model was also applied to estimate the long‐term water balance across the CONUS for both contemporary and mid‐21st century conditions. The modeled partitioning of observed precipitation to Q and ET compared favorably across the CONUS with estimates from more sophisticated land‐surface modeling efforts. For mid‐21st century conditions, the model simulated an increase in the fraction of precipitation used by ET across the CONUS with declines in Q for much of the eastern CONUS and mountainous watersheds across the western United States.
Learning shapes the development of migratory behavior

Significance Migratory decision-making is often conceptualized as reducing either time or energy expenditure; however, the importance of these currencies may shift throughout life. The exploration–refinement hypothesis suggests that information is an additional currency shaping the lifetime development of migration, predicting that exploration and information gain should be favored early in life. Using a unique early-life tracking dataset, we show that white storks incrementally refine migration timing and routes by innovating novel shortcuts during migration. Storks switch from energy-efficient exploration to rapid and directed movement as they age. Together, these results suggest that learning and early-life exploration play an important role in the ontogeny of migration in a long-lived migratory bird and that information is a critical currency shaping migration.
Evaluation of Novel Groups of Insecticides against Leaf Folder, Cnaphalcrocis medinalis (Guenee) in Rice Crop

Rice (Oryza sativa L.), is one of the most important staple food for nearly half of the world population. India has the world ’ s largest area under rice with 44.1 million ha and is the second largest producers 105.48 million tons in 2014-15, next to China (Anonymous, 2016). Various biotic and abiotic constraints encountered the rice production and productivity major biotic constraint that causes 21-40 per cent yield loss. Insects alone cause about 30% yield loss in rice every year by attacking almost all the aerial parts of the crop plants as well as root system in soil (Prakash and Rao, 2003). Among the various insect-pests damaging the rice crop stem borer, gall midge, brown plant hopper and leaf folder are major pest in India (Anonymous, 2003).
DNA methylation heterogeneity attributable to a complex tumor immune microenvironment prompts prognostic risk in glioma

ABSTRACT Gliomas are malignant tumours of the human nervous system with different World Health Organization (WHO) classifications, glioblastoma (GBM) with higher grade and are more malignant than lower-grade glioma (LGG). To dissect how the DNA methylation heterogeneity in gliomas is influenced by the complex cellular composition of the tumour immune microenvironment, we first compared the DNA methylation profiles of purified human immune cells and bulk glioma tissue, stratifying three tumour immune microenvironmental subtypes for GBM and LGG samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We found that more intermediate methylation sites were enriched in glioma tumour tissues, and used the Proportion of sites with Intermediate Methylation (PIM) to compare intertumoral DNA methylation heterogeneity. A larger PIM score reflected stronger DNA methylation heterogeneity. Enhanced DNA methylation heterogeneity was associated with stronger immune cell infiltration, better survival rates, and slower tumour progression in glioma patients. We then created a Cell-type-associated DNA Methylation Heterogeneity Contribution (CMHC) score to explore the impact of different immune cell types on heterogeneous CpG site (CpGct) in glioma tissues. We identified eight prognosis-related CpGct to construct a risk score: the Cell-type-associated DNA Methylation Heterogeneity Risk (CMHR) score. CMHR was positively correlated with cytotoxic T-lymphocyte infiltration (CTL), and showed better predictive performance for IDH status (AUC = 0.96) and glioma histological phenotype (AUC = 0.81). Furthermore, DNA methylation alterations of eight CpGct might be related to drug treatments of gliomas. In conclusion, we indicated that DNA methylation heterogeneity is associated with a complex tumour immune microenvironment, glioma phenotype, and patient’s prognosis.