Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Optical and Electrical Modeling of Dye Sensitized Solar Cell: Influence of the Thickness of the Photoactive Layer

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are used for photovoltaic applications. The paper presents a methodology for optical and electrical modeling of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In order to take into account the scattering process, the optical model is based on the determination of the effective permittivity of the mixture and the scattering coefficient using Mie and Bruggeman theories, considering spherical particles. Then, from the radiative transfer equation, the optical generation rate of cell is deduced. Coupling the output of the optical model (the dye generation rate) to an electrical model for charge generation, transport, and first-order (linear) recombination, allows determination of current density and maximum power output. Due to our model, the dependence effects of the thickness of the photoactive layer upon the optical generation rate, the short circuit photocurrent density and the maximum power output are evidenced. Moreover, we see that when the thickness of the photoactive layer increases the optical generation rate increases. While, the short circuit current density and the maximum power output increase until d =10 µm then remain constant. Thereby, it was found that 10 µm of thickness is enough for the best I-V characteristics. Our results agree with those found in the literature.
5,8-Dihydroxy-4 ′, 7-dimethoxyflavone Attenuates TNF-α-Induced Expression of Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 through EGFR/PKCα/PI3K/Akt/Sp1-Dependent Induction of Heme Oxygenase-1 in Human Cardiac Fibroblasts

Recently, we found that 5,8-dihydroxy-4′,7-dimethoxyflavone (DDF) upregulated the expression of heme oxygenase (HO)-1 via p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase/nuclear factor-erythroid factor 2-related factor 2 (MAPK/Nrf2) pathway in human cardiac fibroblasts (HCFs). However, the alternative processes by which DDF induces the upregulation of HO-1 expression are unknown. Activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt), and protein kinase C (PKC)α may initiate specificity protein (Sp)1 activity, which has been reported to induce expression of antioxidant molecules. Thus, we explored whether these components are engaged in DDF-induced HO-1 upregulation in HCFs. Western blotting, promoter-reporter analyses, and real-time polymerase chain reactions were adopted to measure HO-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 expressions in HCFs. Respective small interfering (si)RNAs and pharmacological inhibitors were employed to investigate the signaling components engaged in DDF-induced HO-1 upregulation. The chromatin immunoprecipitation assay was conducted to detect the binding interaction of Sp1 and antioxidant response elements (ARE) on the promoter of HO-1. An adhesion assay of THP-1 monocyte was undertaken to examine the functional effect of HO-1 on tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced VCAM-1 expression. DDF stimulated the EGFR/PKCα/PI3K/Akt pathway leading to activation of Sp1 in HCFs. The roles of these protein kinases in HO-1 induction were ensured by transfection with their respective siRNAs. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed the interaction between Sp1 and the binding site of proximal ARE on the HO-1 promoter, which was abolished by glutathione, AG1478, Gö6976, LY294002, or mithramycin A. HO-1 expression enhanced by DDF abolished the monocyte adherence to HCFs and VCAM-1 expression induced by TNF-α. Pretreatment with an inhibitor of HO-1: zinc protoporphyrin IX reversed these inhibitory effects of HO-1. We concluded that DDF-induced HO-1 expression was mediated via an EGFR/PKCα/PI3K/Akt-dependent Sp1 pathway and attenuated the responses of inflammation in HCFs.
'Tis better to give than to receive? Tracing operational improvements through the service-profit chain in a volunteer organization

Non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. rely on a steady stream of volunteers to not only provide labor, but also to provide monetary support and encourage others to donate. For this reason, keeping volunteers happy is critical to the survival of a non-profit in the long-term. This study evaluates the links in the service-profit chain in a volunteer tax preparation service at the University of Minnesota over 2012 and 2013 to determine the effectiveness of a training program on volunteer satisfaction, client satisfaction, and organizational performance. The training program implemented in 2013 focused on giving volunteers better hands-on experience prior to working in the office, and was intended to make them feel more prepared during the first 3 weeks. Through regression analysis, I determined that training increased client satisfaction and reduced throughput time but did not increase volunteers’ perceived preparedness. This indicates that internal service improvements such as training can empower workers without them realizing it.
Organizational Characteristics as Correlates of ICT adoption in Makerere University.

This paper reports on part of a survey of ICT adoption in Makerere University that sought to investigate the link between organizational characteristics, in particular, ability to absorb change; ICT culture; size; and leaders’ ICT change management style(s) on one hand; and ICT adoption in the university’s various schools, faculties, institutes and administrative departments on the other hand. The findings were that ICT adoption is linked to the units’ ability to absorb change and the goodness of their leaders’ ICT change management styles. Hence, recommendations towards making the units capable of absorbing change and improving their leaders’ ICT change management styles are made.
Effect of high-energy electron irradiation on the electronic properties of β-gallium oxide

Irradiation with high-energy electrons (HEE) at cryogenic temperatures is a subtle tool for shaping matter. Unlike irradiation with heavy particles, e.g. protons, neutrons, or ions, HEE irradiation produces very low local damage generating exclusively point lattice defects. In the interaction process, the primary high-energy electron transfers a minute quantity of energy to a lattice ion, just enough for displacing it from its lattice site. The concentration of induced vacancies depends on the irradiation dose and in this way can be carefully adjusted. Since the lattice defects can act as donor or acceptor states in semiconductors, electron irradiation enables accurately-controlled compensation of electrically-active impurities introduced in a semiconductor crystal during growth. In this article, we present a study of the evolution of electronic properties of β-gallium oxide with step-by-step compensation of initial n-type doping through controlled introduction of point defects (gallium vacancies) produced by a 2.5-MeV electron beam. Our analysis relies on a set of electron paramagnetic resonance, luminescence, and transport data obtained at different temperatures.
Formación inicial de docentes de ciencia: posibles aportes y tensiones de la modelización

El objetivo de esta investigación es conocer las percepciones de futuros docentes sobre la modelización como enfoque didáctico para la enseñanza de las ciencias identificando las tensiones didácticas que emergen entre sus preferencias metodológicas y la formación modelizadora vivida. Utilizando un cuestionario semiabierto analizamos la opinión de futuros docentes de dos contextos educativos distintos, 70 futuros docentes de primaria (de Cataluña) y 22 de secundaria (de Chile), sobre la formación vivida. Los resultados muestran que ambos grupos valoran la modelización como útil para aprender ciencias, aunque también valoran otros aspectos no propios de la modelización, con ciertas diferencias entre los dos grupos. Por último, identificamos cuatro tensiones didácticas que considerar en la planificación de cursos de formación inicial de docentes de ciencias.
Improving Student Attitudes Toward the Capstone Laboratory Course Using Gamification

Daniel Burkey is the associate head of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department at the University of Connecticut. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University in 1998, and his M.S.C.E. P. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000 and 2003, respectively. His primary areas of interest are chemical vapor deposition and engineering pedagogy.
The Effect of Embedding Formative Assessment on Pupil Attainment

Abstract Evidence suggests that adapting teaching responsively to pupil assessment can be effective in improving students’ learning. However, existing studies tend to be small-scale, leaving unanswered the question of how such formative assessment can operate when embedded as standard practice. In this study, we present the results of a randomized trial conducted in 140 English secondary schools. The intervention uses light-touch training and support, with most of the work done by teacher-led teaching and learning communities within schools. It is, therefore, well-suited to widespread adoption. In our pre-registered primary analysis, we estimate an effect size of 0.09 on general academic attainment in national, externally assessed examinations. Sensitivity analysis, excluding schools participating in a similar program at baseline, and complier analysis both suggest a larger effect size of 0.11. These results are encouraging for this approach to improving the implementation of formative assessment and, hence, academic attainment. Our findings also suggest that the intervention may help to narrow the gap between high and low prior attainment pupils, although not the gap between those from disadvantaged backgrounds and the rest of the cohort.
Konkani WordNet: Corpus-Based Enhancement using Crowdsourcing

Konkani is one of the languages included in the eighth schedule of the Indian constitution. It is the official language of Goa and is spoken mainly in Goa and some places in Karnataka and Kerala. Konkani WordNet or Konkani Shabdamalem (kōṁkanī śabdamālēṁ) as it has been referred to, was developed under the Indradhanush WordNet Project Consortium during the period from August 2010 to October 2013. This project was funded by Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL), Department of Electronics & Information Technology (Deity), and Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT). The work on Konkani WordNet has halted since the end of the project. Currently, the Konkani WordNet contains around 32,370 synsets. However, to make it a powerful resource for NLP applications in the Konkani language, a need is felt for research work toward enhancement of the Konkani WordNet via community involvement. Crowdsourcing is a technique in which the knowledge of the crowd is utilized to accomplish a particular task. In this article, we have presented the details of the crowdsourcing platform named “Konkani Shabdarth” (kōṁkanī śabdārth). Konkani Shabdarth attempts to use the knowledge of Konkani speaking people for creating new synsets and perform the quantitative enhancement of the wordnet. It also intends to work toward enhancing the overall quality of the Konkani WordNet by validating the existing synsets, and adding the missing words to the existing synsets. A text corpus named “Konkani Shabdarth Corpus”, has been created from the Konkani literature while implementing the Konkani Shabdarth tool. Using this corpus, 572 root words that are missing from the Konkani WordNet have been identified which are given as input to Konkani Shabdarth. As of now, total 94 users have registered on the platform, out of which 25 users have actually played the game. Currently, 71 new synsets have been obtained for 21 words. For some of the words, multiple entries for the concept definition have been received. This overlap is essential for automating the process of validating the synsets. Due to the pandemic period, it has been difficult to train and get players to actually play the game and contribute. We studied the impact of adding missing words from other existing Konkani text corpus on the coverage of Konkani WordNet. The expected increase in the percentage coverage of Konkani WordNet has been found to be in the range 20–27 after adding the missing words from the Konkani Shabdarth corpus in comparison to the other corpora for which the increase is in the range 1–10.
Incorporating the Maximum Entropy on the Mean Framework with Kernel Error for Robust Non-Blind Image Deblurring

Non-blind deblurring is crucial in image restoration. While most previous works assume that the exact blurring kernel is known, this is often not the case in practice. The blurring kernel is most likely estimated by a blind deblurring method and is not error-free. In this work, we incorporate a kernel error term into an advanced non-blind deblurring method to recover the clear image with an inaccurately estimated kernel. Based on the celebrated principle of Maximum Entropy on the Mean (MEM), the regularization at the level of the probability distribution of images is carefully combined with the classical total variation regularizer at the level of image/kernel. Extensive experiments show clearly the effectiveness of the proposed method in the presence of kernel error. As a traditional method, the proposed method is even better than some of the state-of-the-art deep-learning-based methods. We also demonstrate the potential of combining the MEM framework with classical regularization approaches in image deblurring, which is extremely inspiring for other related works.
Street Portals: Urban User Interface 'Test Bed' Prototype for Bike Shares

The objective of this research project is to develop a user interface “test bed” to measure the role of touchscreen kiosks with community connectivity. This interface test bed will apply the knowledge of interface design to the domain of public transit kiosks, with a particular focus on bike share stations. The value of this research is the ability to generate user feedback between community members using urban experiences. Safety, effectiveness and community connectivity of public transit is enhanced with this information interface. This report explains the test bed kiosk’s design, physical build, and hardware and software testing. User interaction studies for standards, accessibility and design criteria were done; 2D and 3D modeling, material sourcing and mockups were built. Hardware sensors for proximity included passive infrared (PIR), ultrasonic range finding and RGB-D technology using Microsoft Kinect. Tests measured interaction with user movement type, including the differentiation of pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. Observed interaction tests were performed with human subjects review approval. The interface test bed will allow for future tests using more advanced sensors and include user intercept surveys. The prototype test bed is a tool to test interface design for connecting urban design theory classifying urban experience information to enhance transit, firstly through the specific application of public bike share.
Scribble-Supervised Meibomian Glands Segmentation in Infrared Images

Infrared imaging is currently the most effective clinical method to evaluate the morphology of the meibomian glands (MGs) in patients. As an important indicator for monitoring the development of MG dysfunction, it is necessary to accurately measure gland-drop and gland morphology. Although there are existing methods for automatic segmentation of MGs using deep learning frameworks, they require fully annotated ground-truth labels for training, which is time-consuming and laborious. In this article, we proposed a new scribble-supervised deep learning framework for segmenting the MGs, which only requires easily attainable scribble annotations for training. To cope with the shortage of supervision and regularize the network, a transformation consistent strategy is incorporated, which requires the prediction to follow the same transformation if a transform is performed on an input image of the network. The proposed segmentation method consists of two stages. In the first stage, a U-Net network is used to obtain the meibomian region segmentation map. In the second stage, we concentrate on segmenting glands in the meibomian region. We utilize the gradient prior information of the original image at the decoder part of the segmentation network, which can coarsely locate the target contour. We automatically generate reliable labels using the exponential moving average of the predictions during training and filter out the unreliable pseudo-label by uncertainty threshold. Experimental results on a local MG dataset and two other public medical image datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed segmentation framework.
Length of preoperative hospital stay is the dominating risk factor for surgical site infection in neurosurgery: A cohort data-driven analysis

Background: The number of days of preoperative hospital stay (PHS) is a modifiable variable that has shown contradictory surgical site infection (SSI) risk factor results in neurosurgery. We sought to pinpoint the day of PHS length related with a marked increase of risk of SSI. Methods: From a tertiary teaching hospital, January 2015–December 2017, prospectively collected nonpercutaneous neurosurgery procedures with standard antibiotic prophylaxis and 1-year follow-up were evaluated. SSI risk factors were assessed through multiple logistic regression models with different thresholds of PHS. Results: A total of 1012 procedures were included in the study. Incidence of SSI was 4.4%. The median PHS was higher in those with SSI than in those without (1 day, interquartile range [IQR]: 7 vs. 0 days, IQR: 1, respectively, P = 0.002). By the amount of six days of PHS, this exposure risk past the threshold of significance for impact on wound infection (OR 2.8; CI 1.23–6.39, P = 0.014). Operative time past 4 h (OR 2.11; CI 1.12-3.98; P = 0.021), and in some models, previous surgery at same admission were also identified by multivariate analysis as increasing postoperative SSI risk. Conclusion: The gradual increase of the SSI OR associated with longer PHS days was the highest risk factor of SSI in our cohort of patients. Studies directed to reduce this complication should consider the PHS.
Cubesat Proximity Operations Demonstration (CPOD)

The CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstration (CPOD) project will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations and docking (RPOD) using two 3-unit (3U) CubeSats. Each CubeSat is a satellite with the dimensions 4 inches x 4 inches x 13 inches (10 centimeters x 10 centimeters x 33 centimeters) and weighing approximately 11 pounds (5 kilograms). This flight demonstration will validate and characterize many new miniature low-power proximity operations technologies applicable to future missions. This mission will advance the state of the art in nanosatellite attitude determination,navigation and control systems, in addition to demonstrating relative navigation capabilities.The two CPOD satellites are scheduled to be launched together to low-Earth orbit no earlier than Dec. 1, 2015.
Experimental Characterization of LLC Resonant DC/DC Converter for Medium Voltage Applications

Medium voltage (MV) power electronic transformers (PETs) are nowadays considered, for various industrial applications, as a viable replacement for bulky line-frequency operated transformers. In MV applications modularity in the converter design plays a very important role. In this paper a power electronic building block (PEBB) for PET, based on the LLC resonant DC-DC converter is presented. Soft-switching characteristics of a high voltage IGBT are investigated and experimental results, obtained from a full-power laboratory prototype in back-to-back (B2B) configuration, are presented.
Software development supported by knowledge management

Developing software systems is a knowledge intensive task. One needs to have a good understanding of the application domain, all the users' requirements, the software process used, technical details of the system architectures and system platforms can be used, how the system interacts with its environment, etc. All this knowledge is difficult and costly to gather. It is also difficult to store and usually lives only in the mind of the software engineers who worked on the past projects. In this paper, we submit that this lack of knowledge is one of the prominent problems in software development. To try to solve this problem, we adapted a knowledge extraction technique to the knowledge needs specific to software development. We explain how we explicit the knowledge discovered during development so that it may be recorded for future use. An application on industry software development project is reported.
Perceived Participation in Decision-Making on Primary Surgery and Associated Factors Among Early Breast Cancer Patients

Background Breast cancer patients wish to participate in the treatment decision-making, but the perceived participation was inconsistent with the willingness, leading to poor patient outcomes. Objective The aims of this study were to explore the perceived participation in the primary surgery decision-making among Chinese patients with early-stage breast cancer (BCa) and to analyze the relationships of demographic and clinical factors, participation competence, self-efficacy, social support, and doctors’ promotion of participation with the guidance of the capability, opportunity, motivation-behavior system (the COM-B system). Methods Paper surveys were used to collect data from 218 participants. The participation competence, self-efficacy, social support, and the doctor facilitation of involvement were evaluated to measure factors related to perceived participation among early-stage BCa. Results Perceived participation was low, and participants with a high level of participation competence, self-efficacy, and social support and who were employed and had a higher education level and higher family income perceived higher participation in primary surgery decision-making. Conclusions Perceived participation was low and may be facilitated by patients’ internal and external factors during the decision-making process. Health professionals should be aware that patient participation in decision-making is a type of self-care health behavior, and targeted decision support interventions should be provided to facilitate participation. Implications for Practice Patient-perceived participation may be evaluated from the perspective of self-care management behaviors among BCa patients. Nurse practitioners should emphasize their important roles in providing information, patient education, and psychological support to better contribute to the course of the treatment decision-making process for BCa patients who faced primary surgery.