bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Understanding Insanity: Pellagrous Insanity in Italy and General Paralysis of the Insane in the United Kingdom
Authors: Gentilcore David , Priani Egidio
Published: April 2023

In this chapter we examine the contemporary medical understanding of pellagrous insanity, and the conceptual and diagnostic challenges this posed. We do this by comparing debates surrounding pellagrous insanity in Italy with those waged around the same time in the United Kingdom vis-à-vis general paralysis of the insane (GPI). The latter disease was eventually linked to syphilis, even if the exact relationship between syphilis and insanity remained ambiguous—much like the body-mind link in pellagra and pellagrous insanity. We compare the two illnesses by examining how doctors classified them, sought to identify their causation and pathogenesis, and how this influenced diagnosis and treatment during the second half of the nineteenth century. Although pellagra and general paralysis were acknowledged as specific and distinct clinical entities, they nevertheless both lacked a recognised and precise aetiology and pathogenesis. As a result, the diagnostic process gave room to doubts, uncertainties and questions. Together, they provide us with historical and conceptual evidence of the need to subject ‘diagnostic reason’ to constant criticism.
Experiencing the Asylum
Authors: Gentilcore David , Priani Egidio
Published: April 2023

Here (and in Chapter 9), we shift our gaze to the asylum experience of pellagra, focusing on Venice’s two insane asylums: San Servolo (for men) and San Clemente (for women). The two chapters are organised around the ‘life cycle’ of male and female sufferers at the two asylums: from local referral and admission, through to treatment, and ending either with release back into the community or death. Being photographed upon admission became a standard part of the patient experience and we shall see how the patient photograph became a clinical tool. The photographic record can help us restore patient agency to the asylum experience. Who were the pellagrous insane represented in these sometimes harrowing photographs? What can a patient typology tell us about the nature of the disease and how it compares to ‘regular’ or non-pellagrous insanity? To answer these questions we look at the gendering of pellagrous insanity, as well as other factors such as age, social status and geographical origins, before turning to the treatments offered—diet, medicines and work-related activities—and the notion of ‘curability’.
Introduction
Authors: Haben Stephen , Voss Marcus , Holderbaum William
Published: April 2023

This chapter introduces the context and motivation for this book as well as some of the best ways to use it.
Probabilistic Forecast Methods
Authors: Haben Stephen , Voss Marcus , Holderbaum William
Published: April 2023

The previous two chapters were concerned with point forecasts which only produce a single estimate for each time step in the forecast horizon, i.e. one value $$L_t$$

L
t

for each of the time periods $$t=N+1, N+2, \ldots , N+k$$

t
=
N
+
1
,
N
+
2
,
…
,
N
+
k

(assuming a forecast horizon of length k steps ahead starting at forecast origin N). Point estimates are limited in their description of the future demand, especially when the underlying data has a large degree of uncertainty. A more detailed picture of the possible values of the demand can be produced by estimating the distribution of the demand for each period in the forecast horizon. Forecasts which estimate the spread of the distribution are often called probabilistic forecasts. That is the subject of this chapter.
Load Forecast Process
Authors: Haben Stephen , Voss Marcus , Holderbaum William
Published: April 2023

The previous chapters have discussed all of the aspects of developing and testing a short term load forecast.
Selected Applications and Examples
Authors: Haben Stephen , Voss Marcus , Holderbaum William
Published: April 2023

Forecasts are very rarely produced for their own sake, and are vital for the optimal performance of a number of applications. This chapter summarises a few such applications as well as some adjacent areas which will use some of the similar techniques and methods presented in this book. The main focus will be for battery storage control which is presented in detail in the following section.
Primer on Distribution Electricity Networks
Authors: Haben Stephen , Voss Marcus , Holderbaum William
Published: April 2023

This chapter gives a brief overview of the electricity distribution network. This knowledge is important to understand some of the core features of the network and the corresponding data, what are the main of applications, and how to create an appropriate forecast model.
Primer on Statistics and Probability
Authors: Haben Stephen , Voss Marcus , Holderbaum William
Published: April 2023

Throughout this book, various concepts from statistics and probability will be used which are essential for understanding and constructing forecasts. In this section some of the fundamental tools and definitions will be presented. It is assumed that the reader knows some basic probability and statistical concepts, and this chapter is only intended as a refresher of the main ideas which will be used in other parts of the book. This chapter will go over basic definitions of distributions, methods for estimating them as well as introduce some important concepts such as autocorrelation and cross-correlation. For a more detailed description of basic statistics the authors recommend an introductory text such as [1] (In addition see the further reading material listed in Appendix D).
Load Forecasting Model Training and Selection
Authors: Haben Stephen , Voss Marcus , Holderbaum William
Published: April 2023

Chapters 5 and 6 have shown how to define a time series forecast, how to prepare the data, and how to generate inputs for the models. Chapters 9 to 11 will show several methods for forecasting the demand. However, although Chap. 7 provided us the tools for measuring the accuracy of a forecast, the following questions remain largely unanswered: How do we train and select a model which will consistently produce accurate forecasts?. This chapter will investigate this question by looking at some of the most important aspects for creating a good forecast including proper utilisation of benchmarking, and how to use cross-validation to properly train your model. Underlying cross-validation is one of the most important aspects of a creating a good forecast, the so-called bias-variance trade-off principle, discussed in Sect. 8.1.2. This ensures that the model is not over (or under-) trained and allows the model to better generalise to new, unseen data.
Benchmark and Statistical Point Forecast Methods
Authors: Haben Stephen , Voss Marcus , Holderbaum William
Published: April 2023

The previous sections have described in detail the steps required to develop a time series forecast including: how to generate useful explanatory variables; how to train the model; how to avoid overfitting; and how to evaluate the accuracy of the model. What has not been investigated is the models themselves. This chapter will be the first of three chapters looking at a wide range of models and some of their properties.
Posthumanizing Relaxation in Science-Fiction ASMR
Authors: Łapińska Joanna
Published: April 2023

Steven Shaviro has asked what it feels like to live in the early twenty-first century, an era in which the concept of the human as a superior being towering over all others has become obsolete. It may produce a sense of dread about the unknown future, or it may fill us with joyful anticipation. A posthuman sensibility, which is both pro-active toward and affirmative of human and non-human coexistence in today’s world, surfaces in contemporary intermedia phenomena and post-cinematic art forms, such as autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze so-called post-cinematic affect, a specific emotional structure revealed through the science-fiction imagery used in ASMR videos. This structure is co-created through various post-cinematic techniques, which include non-human viewpoints, roles, and perspectives along with fragmentary and non-linear narratives. Science-fiction ASMR seeks to capture the posthuman experience of a reality in which humans, rather than being central, are merely a part of the various “arrangements, attunements and practices of being” (Willis in Fast forward: the future(s) of the cinematic arts, Wallflower Press, London and New York, p. 87, [2]). In ASMR, this experience does not cause fear, but surprisingly breeds contentment and relaxation.
Differences in the Comprehension of the Limit Concept Between Prospective Mathematics Teachers and Managerial Mathematicians During Online Teaching
Authors: Slavíčková Mária , Vargová Michaela
Published: April 2023

The paper deals with university student's understanding of a limit process. We involved two groups of students with different specializations in the research: a group of pre-service mathematics teachers (PMTs) and a group of students of managerial mathematics (MNGs). Since the objectives for learning higher mathematics, particularly mathematical analysis, differ significantly, we expected a significant difference in reasoning between these groups. Therefore, we identified (literature- and empirical-based) the most common obstacles and misconceptions when learning a concept of limit. A teaching series was prepared, enacted, and analyzed. When analyzing students’ solutions, we applied codes from the literature with minor changes. We used two-dimensional contextual analysis to work with students’ answers and provided explanations: type of argument (based on Stylianides’s work) and representation. Our findings confirm the problems identified in the literature when we looked at the groups without distinguishing them. Moreover, we identified and discussed some specific outcomes in the group of PMTs and MNGs separately.
Empirically Investigating Virtual Learning Companions to Enhance Social Media Literacy
Authors: Theophilou Emily , Schwarze Veronica , Börsting Johanna , Sánchez-Reina Roberto , Scifo Lidia , Lomonaco Francesco , Aprin Farbod , Ognibene Dimitri , Taibi Davide , Hernández-Leo Davinia , Eimler Sabrina
Published: April 2023

Social media platforms provide opportunities for users across the world to connect and communicate between them and engage into acts of social support and entertainment. Yet it can also bring negative consequences as it has been associated with poor mental health and life dissatisfaction. This underlines the importance of delivering social media literacy (SML) interventions that raise awareness of the dangers and threats that are hidden within. To this date, SML initiatives have shown their benefits towards the acquisition of SML skills through the forms of school interventions and mini-games. However, studies on promoting SML through social media platforms need to be also encouraged and innovative approaches to provide interactive scenarios with hands-on experiences need to be formulated. Hence, the project COURAGE introduces a new approach towards SML by proposing the integration of educational opportunities within a controlled social media platform. To provide students the opportunity to learn whilst they naturally explore social media we propose the integration of virtual learning companions. In this paper we report seven empirical approaches towards SML skills acquisition powered by virtual learning companions. The paper concludes with a discussion towards the benefits and limitations of using this type of SML interventions.
How Covid-19 Affected the Slovak and Czech Mathematics and Physics Teachers’ Use of Resources
Authors: Michal Jakub , Kiss Tünde
Published: April 2023

The paper describes a study realized with Slovak and Czech teachers of mathematics and physics. The pandemic and the sudden appearance of new types of resources, which appears in the preliminary results of the pilot study of the Horizon 2020 MaTeK project (in which are authors of this paper involved) implied the need to explore if teachers’ behavior in resource use was changed due to Covid-19 pandemic in a long-term or only during the time of lockdown and shortly afterward. Therefore, a questionnaire study focused on different use of resources with two lines of interest: differences between countries and differences between mathematics and physics teachers. The result of this study provides some crucial information about how teachers dealt with lockdowns and what the critical points and gaps in resource use are. Some of these factors can be starting points for further research or can provide helpful information for authors of curricular resources.
Analysis of MOOC Features in a Regional Platform: Design and Delivery of Courses
Authors: De Santis Annamaria , Sannicandro Katia , Bellini Claudia , Minerva Tommaso
Published: April 2023

At least two motivations make relevant research on regional MOOC providers: (1) they are Learning at scale environments where a large amount of data is produced, the high number of learners can show different approaches to learning, the whole population can be analysed, teaching and instructional design methods can be compared; (2) regional platforms reach the interests and needs of population groups that have only sometimes registered in international platforms.

Therefore, we conducted a study at a large scale on EduOpen, an Italian MOOCs platform to which 28 institutions joined. The research aims to describe the current situation on EduOpen MOOCs, identify a latent model for the design and delivery of courses, and detect points of interest to enhance the platform’s procedure. We used courses as statistical units and identified three groups of variables: basic features, design features, and delivery features. We used multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) with descriptive statistics to answer the research questions. MCA is a method for data reduction for qualitative variables in which the categories assumed by the variables play a central role in defining a smaller number of dimensions.

We found two dimensions that define the structure that underlies the design process – course density and content attainability, and the delivery process – diffusion and participation. Some focal points that EduOpen members can consider improving strategies in the design of the courses are related to the organization of activities and content, the scheduling of activities and whole courses, the levels of interaction in the courses, and the definition of qualified professional figures for design and tutoring.
The “Courage Companion” – An AI-Supported Environment for Training Teenagers in Handling Social Media Critically and Responsibly
Authors: Aprin Farbod , Malzahn Nils , Lomonaco Francesco , Donabauer Gregor , Ognibene Dimitri , Kruschwitz Udo , Hernández-Leo Davinia , Fulantelli Giovanni , Hoppe H. Ulrich
Published: April 2023

The provision of toxic content and misinformation is a frequent phenomenon in current social media with specific impact and risks for younger users. We report on efforts taken in the project Courage to mitigate and overcome these threats through dedicated educational technology inspired by psychological and pedagogical approaches. The aim is to empower adolescents to confidently interact with and utilize social media and to increase their awareness and resilience. For this purpose, we have adopted approaches from the field of Intelligent Tutoring Systems, namely the provision of a virtual learning companion (VLC). The technical system is a browser-based environment that allows for combining a controllable social media space with a VLC as a plugin. This environment is backed by an API that bundles Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing algorithms for detecting and classifying different types of risks. The pedagogical scenarios that are supported by this technical environment and approach range from chat-based dialogues to more complex narrative scripts.
Intrinsic Motivation for Social Media Literacy, a Look into the Narrative Scripts
Authors: Lobo-Quintero René , Sánchez-Reina Roberto , Theophilou Emily , Hernández-Leo Davinia
Published: April 2023

Social media embodies the idyllic representation of the information society providing users opportunities to connect and communicate. Likewise, it can represent humanity’s worst nightmare with a plethora of negative phenomena. Different forms of media literacy interventions have been designed as preventative tools to counteract the negative phenomena of social media. One such approach, the narrative scripts, sees the integration of a social media intervention within a controlled social media platform. With an importance to design engaging educational tools to get learners attention without limiting the educational deliverables, the narrative scripts approach sees the implementation of gamifying elements to help deliver the learning material and motivate learners to participate. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed motivational properties of the narrative scripts, a descriptive exploratory study was designed. In total 124 adolescents participated in a social media literacy workshop powered by the narrative scripts. During the workshop students completed missions assigned by a virtual learning companion and participated in collaborative learning activities. To measure the motivation levels of the students, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory was applied. Results demonstrate that adolescents found the narrative scripts an interesting and enjoyable activity. Qualitative analysis supported the findings with adolescents describing the activities as dynamic and entertaining. The results from this study provide insights towards the motivational aspects of the narrative scripts as a social media intervention tool.
Harvesting Metadata for XR Digital Learning Objects
Authors: Psyrra Georgia , Mangina Eleni
Published: April 2023

The current work is a proposal for Moodle administrators who aim to provide content creators and teachers with capabilities to describe in a semi-automatic way their learning resources with LOM-based metadata and make these metadata available to search service providers so that other stakeholders can easily find and retrieve them. It was composed within ARETE project to support reusability and discoverability of 3D/AR and other types of educational resources included in the project’s Moodle digital repository.

Aiming on utilizing previous work on this domain, the code of two existing plugins was modified and enriched to serve the project’s needs. This paper aims to demonstrate in detail two plugins that will be utilized in ARETE’s Moodle digital repository to support the discoverability of learning resources by creating and exposing their metadata to make them available for harvesting. The content in the ARETE repository is particularly relevant to 3D/AR learning activities created through an XR authoring toolkit. Nevertheless, educational content in other formats continues to be supported by the aforementioned plugins.

The integration of IEEE-LOM and OAI-PMH standards to a Moodle repository seems to be a feasible way to enhance the development of learning content by utilizing relevant already existing resources that can be easily found and retrieved. However, the difficulty of finding service providers that could support the collection of learning resource metadata and be willing to build search engines on top of them suggests the need to consider different approaches.
Psychological Outcomes and Effectiveness of a Collaborative Video-Based Learning Tool for Synchronous Discussions
Authors: Straßmann Carolin , Helgert André , Lingnau Andreas
Published: April 2023

In the context of digitization and the COVID-19 pandemic, online teaching comes more and more into focus of higher education. Various online learning methodologies such as using videos as a teaching method are promising, but can also create problems in the area of social relations or learning habits. The concept of collaborative learning, especially in an online environment, could counteract these problems. This paper presents a collaborative online learning tool that allows students to get together in learning groups to watch educational videos together. Various functions, such as a chat, help students to communicate with each other. A psychological evaluation was conducted to investigate the effects on students. The evaluation demonstrated positive effects of the tool, since it enhances important psychological processes (like flow and cognitive load) within the learning process. Moreover, its usability was rated as good and participants showed a high usage intention for the tool. Nevertheless, further investigations in long-term learning courses are needed to finally confirm the tool’s effectiveness.
Thinking Groups and the Development of Affective Problem-Solving Competencies in Online Learning Environments at the University Level
Authors: Miranda Annamaria
Published: April 2023

We present the first findings of an online problem-solving experience for undergraduate students attending a topology course within a Bachelor of Mathematics course. The aims were to promote the construction of problem-solving competencies by using cognitive roles within Thinking Groups (TG) with a magnifying lens on the affective level. We define the notion of Thinking Groups and the derived TG model and present an application. The key idea behind personifying cognitive functions with cognitive roles in a problem-solving process represents the starting point of ongoing research into the construction of the problem-solving competencies of undergraduate students and began with an analysis of some metacognitive aspects that students experienced by playing these roles. Each individual role corresponds to a cognitive function coming into play when a mathematician faces a problem. In turn, each collective role corresponds to a problem-solving thinking process performed by a Thinking Group. To shed the light on the emotional outcomes of students and on the impact of the use of online learning environments on the affective dimension, we focused our qualitative analysis on the emotional experience of students both with respect to structured problem-solving activities and digital tools, to understand if and how they fostered the conditions for developing emotional competencies according to Goldin’s idea of affective competencies.
Einleitung
Authors: Odermatt Anastas
Published: April 2023

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Zusammenhänge zwischen Religion und Religiosität, freiwilligem Engagement und sozialem Vertrauen in der Schweiz und liefert einen Beitrag zur Klärung dieser wechselseitigen Beziehungen. Die Einleitung führt in die Fragestellungen ein und beschreibt das Vorgehen und den Aufbau der Studie.
Konzepte und Begriffe
Authors: Odermatt Anastas
Published: April 2023

In diesem ersten Theoriekapitel führe ich in die zentralen Konzepte Religion und Religiosität und Sozialkapital ein. Ziel ist, die verwendeten Begriffe und Konzepte zu definieren, damit sie in der Folge valide gemessen und analysiert werden können. Um das Konzept Sozialkapital von anderen Konzepten abzugrenzen, setze ich es in Bezug zu jenen der Zivilgesellschaft, des sozialen Zusammenhalts und des «Dark Social Capital», das heisst der dunklen Seite von Sozialkapital.
Datengrundlage
Authors: Odermatt Anastas
Published: April 2023

Die empirischen Daten für die vorliegende Studie stammen aus dem KONID Survey 2019.  In diesem Kapitel werden der Datensatz und die verwendeten Operationalisierungen vorgestellt und diskutiert.
Methoden und Modelle
Authors: Odermatt Anastas
Published: April 2023

Die Forschungsfragen werden mittels Analyse quantitativ erhobener Daten beantwortet. Analog zu den Schritten der Datenbearbeitung werde ich nach einem kurzen Hinweis auf den Unterschied zwischen Korrelation und Kausalität einige Anmerkungen zur uni- und bivariaten Datenanalyse machen und dann die logistische Regression inklusive Mehrebenenmodellierung vorstellen.
Religion und Religiosität in der Schweiz
Authors: Odermatt Anastas
Published: April 2023

Dieses Kapitel bereitet inhaltlich und statistisch auf die Folgekapitel 7 und 8 vor, in denen die Forschungsfragen bearbeitet werden. Ich gehe zuerst auf die kontextuellen Faktoren und im Rahmen eines kurzen religionshistorischen Abrisses auf ihre Entstehungsbedingungen ein. Anschliessend wende ich mich der Individualebene zu. Dabei werde ich neben der univariaten Darstellung und Charakterisierung der einschlägigen Variablen auch einen Blick auf die unkontrollierten, bivariaten Zusammenhänge mit Sozialkapital, das heisst mit freiwilligem Engagement und sozialem Vertrauen werfen. Dies bereitet die Ergebnisse der multivariaten Modelle vor.
Soziales Vertrauen und seine Voraussetzungen
Authors: Odermatt Anastas
Published: April 2023

In diesem dritten und letzten Ergebniskapitel beantworte ich die zwei weiteren Forschungsfragen, die das soziales Vertrauen betreffen: Welchen Einfluss haben Religion und Religiosität auf soziales Vertrauen in der Schweiz? Und welchen Einfluss hat freiwilliges Engagement auf soziales Vertrauen? Die entsprechenden Ergebnismodelle werden vorgestellt und diskutiert.
Ergebniszusammenfassung und Diskussion
Authors: Odermatt Anastas
Published: April 2023

In diesem letzten Diskussionskapitel fasse ich in einem ersten Teil die Ergebnisse zusammen. In einem zweiten Teil gehe ich auf die Limitierungen der Studie und der Ergebnisse ein. Im abschliessenden dritten Teil diskutiere ich die Ergebnisse mit Blick auf ihre wissenschaftliche und gesellschaftspolitische Relevanz. Dabei wage ich einen Ausblick in die Zukunft und mache aufmerksam auf neue, aber auch (noch) nicht beantwortete Fragen.
Perspectives of managers and workers on the implementation of automated-guided vehicles (AGVs)—a quantitative survey
Authors: Kopp Tobias , Baumgartner Marco , Seeger Mike , Kinkel Steffen
Published: April 2023

Automated-guided vehicles (AGVs) are considered as an advanced technology for improving intralogistics in manufacturing companies. However, diverging perspectives between management and operational staff on the implementation of AGVs in existing production environments can lead to a lack of employee acceptance and highlight the need for appropriate organizational change management initiatives. At present, there is a lack of knowledge about the success factors for deploying AGVs in manufacturing companies, including human factors such as worker acceptance. We therefore conducted a quantitative survey among production and logistics workers, project leaders, and managers (n = 89) in ten German companies that have already introduced AGVs in their production in order to investigate and compare their perspectives and to derive implications for successful AGV implementation projects. Our findings reveal that workers consider some of the most important acceptance factors as insignificantly addressed by the project management. In addition, we found significant differences in the perspectives of logistics and production workers on the implementation of AGVs, with logistics workers being less satisfied and significantly more concerned about job security. Furthermore, project leaders’ ability to accurately anticipate their employees’ perspective (perspective taking accuracy) positively influences employees’ satisfaction with the implementation of the AGV system. These findings have theoretical implications for research on organizational change and practical implications for AGV implementation projects.
Sexual function is impaired in women and men with pulmonary hypertension
Authors: Hendriks Paul M. , Staal Diederik P. , Pastoor Hester , Kolpa Corine I. A. , van den Bosch Annemien E. , Post Marco C. , Boomars Karin A.
Published: April 2023

Background

Sexual health related quality of life (SHRQoL) is an important pillar of health related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this study was to investigate sexual functioning in men and women with pulmonary hypertension (PH).

Methods and results

In this cross-sectional study, a total of 78 patients were included, 49 were diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension and 29 with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (median age 53 [IQR: 46–67 years], 66.7% female). All patients completed SHRQoL questionnaires; for women: ASEX, FSFI, and FSDS and for men: ASEX and IIEF. A PH-specific SHRQoL questionnaire was created based on 4 semi-structured interviews to investigate PH-specific barriers in sexuality. More than half of the patients experienced symptoms during sexual activity, mainly dyspnea (52.6%) and palpitations (32.1%). Sexual dysfunction was present, according to the FSFI-questionnaire, in 63.0% of women. All of the men experienced at least mild dysfunction in one of the domains of the IIEF and erectile dysfunction was present in 48.0%. Sexual dysfunction occurred more often in both men and women with PH than in the general population. PAH-specific medication was not associated with sexual dysfunction, nor was subcutaneous or intravenous pump therapy (OR 1.14, 95%-CI: 0.75–1.73). Diuretics were associated with sexual dysfunction in women (OR 4.01, 95%-CI: 1.04–15.41). Of all patients committed in a relationship, 69.0% would like to discuss sexuality with their healthcare provider.

Conclusion

This study showed a high prevalence of sexual dysfunction in men and women with PH. It is important for healthcare providers to discuss sexuality with patients.

Graphical abstract
Early detection of COPD patients’ symptoms with personal environmental sensors: a remote sensing framework using probabilistic latent component analysis with linear dynamic systems
Authors: Kolozali Şefki , Chatzidiakou Lia , Jones Roderic , Quint Jennifer K. , Kelly Frank , Barratt Benjamin
Published: April 2023

In this study, we present a cohort study involving 106 COPD patients using portable environmental sensor nodes with attached air pollution sensors and activity-related sensors, as well as daily symptom records and peak flow measurements to monitor patients’ activity and personal exposure to air pollution. This is the first study which attempts to predict COPD symptoms based on personal air pollution exposure. We developed a system that can detect COPD patients’ symptoms one day in advance of symptoms appearing. We proposed using the Probabilistic Latent Component Analysis (PLCA) model based on 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional spectral dictionary tensors for personalised and population monitoring, respectively. The model is combined with Linear Dynamic Systems (LDS) to track the patients’ symptoms. We compared the performance of PLCA and PLCA-LDS models against Random Forest models in the identification of COPD patients’ symptoms, since tree-based classifiers were used for remote monitoring of COPD patients in the literature. We found that there was a significant difference between the classifiers, symptoms and the personalised versus population factors. Our results show that the proposed PLCA-LDS-3D model outperformed the PLCA and the RF models between 4 and 20% on average. When we used only air pollutants as input, the PLCA-LDS-3D forecasting results in personalised and population models were 48.67 and 36.33% accuracy for worsening of lung capacity and 38.67 and 19% accuracy for exacerbation of COPD patients’ symptoms, respectively. We have shown that indicators of the quality of an individual’s environment, specifically air pollutants, are as good predictors of the worsening of respiratory symptoms in COPD patients as a direct measurement.
Crop yield prediction algorithm (CYPA) in precision agriculture based on IoT techniques and climate changes
Authors: Talaat Fatma M.
Published: April 2023

Agriculture faces a significant challenge in predicting crop yields, a critical aspect of decision-making at international, regional, and local levels. Crop yield prediction utilizes soil, climatic, environmental, and crop traits extracted via decision support algorithms. This paper presents a novel approach, the Crop Yield Prediction Algorithm (CYPA), utilizing IoT techniques in precision agriculture. Crop yield simulations simplify the comprehension of cumulative impacts of field variables such as water and nutrient deficits, pests, and illnesses during the growing season. Big data databases accommodate multiple characteristics indefinitely in time and space and can aid in the analysis of meteorology, technology, soils, and plant species characterization. The proposed CYPA incorporates climate, weather, agricultural yield, and chemical data to facilitate the anticipation of annual crop yields by policymakers and farmers in their country. The study trains and verifies five models using optimal hyper-parameter settings for each machine learning technique. The DecisionTreeRegressor achieved a score of 0.9814, RandomForestRegressor scored 0.9903, and ExtraTreeRegressor scored 0.9933. Additionally, we introduce a new algorithm based on active learning, which can enhance CYPA's performance by reducing the number of labeled data needed for training. Incorporating active learning into CYPA can improve the efficiency and accuracy of crop yield prediction, thereby enhancing decision-making at international, regional, and local levels.
Physics-based parametrization of a FAS nonergodic ground motion model for Central Italy
Authors: Sgobba Sara , Lanzano Giovanni , Colavitti Leonardo , Morasca Paola , D’Amico Maria Clara , Spallarossa Daniele
Published: April 2023

We propose a new fully nonergodic ground motion model for Central Italy, which is one of the most sampled areas in the world after the occurrence of the last seismic sequences of 2009 and 2016–2017. The model predicts 69 ordinates of the Fourier Amplitude Spectrum in the magnitude range 3.2–6.5 and is constrained on a dense set of seismological and geophysical parameters (i.e. stress-drop$$\Delta \sigma$$Δσ, shear-wave velocity in the uppermost 30 m,VS,30and high-frequency attenuation parameter at source$${\kappa }_{source}$$κsourceand site$${\kappa }_{0}$$κ0) made available from a non-parametric generalized inversion technique (GIT). The aim of this work is to capture the underlying physics of ground motion related to different source energy levels, as well as to the crustal and geological structure of the region, thus providing less uncertain predictions. Calibration is performed using a stepwise regression approach which has the advantage of taking a more complex functional form (advancedmodel) when all physical parameters are known while returning a simpler form (basemodel) when physical data are missing. As a result, the advanced model reproduces the reference rock motion of the region in case the site additional proxies are set to their average values (VS,30 = 1100 m/s,$${\kappa }_{0}$$κ0=15 ms). We show that the inclusion of the set of physically-based explanatory variables in the regression has a beneficial effect in constraining the uncertainty, leading to a reduction of the high-frequency variability of about 70% on the between-event and 35% on the site-to-site. This reduction can be viewed as the result of the combination of a more effective physical description through the incorporation of the additional proxies and a calibration embedded in a completely nonergodic framework.
Technology education in primary schools: addressing teachers’ perceptions, perceived barriers, and needs
Authors: Pappa Christina Ioanna , Georgiou Despoina , Pittich Daniel
Published: April 2023

In primary schools, the benefits of incorporating technology in curricula have been addressed by several studies; however, technology integration as experienced by teachers is often overlooked. Teachers’ lack of confidence teaching STEM and technology subjects, their lack of appropriate preparation along with unclear curricula frameworks in technology education, and the ambiguity of the definition of technology education have scarcely been discussed in the literature. This study explored teachers’ experiences with the current integration of technology and identified challenges to the integration of technology and areas where support is needed. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and were analyzed using content analysis. Content knowledge, proper training, and professional development programs on the integration of technology along with the need for clear and unanimous curricula standards have been perceived as important factors in the integration of technology education. Participants also acknowledged the need for the establishment of teaching communities wherein they can learn from one another. Our study discusses implications for research and practice and provides a knowledge base for the establishment of well-structured professional development courses based on teacher needs.
Kyoto Fusioneering’s Mission to Accelerate Fusion Energy: Technologies, Challenges and Role in Industrialisation
Authors: Baus Colin , Barron Paul , D’Angiò Andrea , Hirata Yosuke , Konishi Satoshi , Mund Jasmine , Nagao Taka , Nakahara Daisuke , Pearson Richard , Sakaguchi Masatsugu , Sakamoto Keishi , Seko Kiyoshi , Takeda Shutaro , Wilson Andy , Yoshioka Yuto
Published: April 2023

Making fusion power viable both technologically and commercially has been a challenge for decades due to the great complexity of the science and engineering challenges. In recent years, changes in both government policies and the emergence of private fusion companies have ushered a newfound push to accelerate fusion energy development. Kyoto Fusioneering (KF) is a privately funded fusion engineering start-up, founded to accelerate the development of high performance, commercially viable technologies that will be required for a fusion power plant, specifically those associated with heating and current drive systems, power generation, and the tritium fuel cycle. The company is focused on supporting the rapid expansion of the budding fusion industry. This paper provides a high-level description of some of the technical and industrial challenges it is tackling in developing a commercial fusion reactor, in particular in relation to: plasma heating with gyrotrons, tritium handling and breeding, energy conversion, and fusion materials. It provides an overview of KF's activities in finding solutions to challenges in each of these areas, including via its new testing facility now under construction, UNITY (Unique Integrated Testing Facility). KF’s core capabilities and areas of R&D focus are discussed, with reference to how they benefit the development of a new fusion industry as a whole and bring the technology closer to industrialisation, including via UNITY and through collaboration with external partners. The importance of industrialisation and subsequently commercialisation is also discussed, through KF’s assessment of the newly emerging fusion ecosystem, and where KF as a company sits within it.
A Few Close Friends? Adolescent Friendships’ Effect on Internalizing Symptoms Is Serially Mediated by Desire for More Friends and Social Goal Orientation
Authors: Walsh Reubs J. , Lee Nikki C. , Lemmers-Jansen Imke L. J. , Hollarek Miriam , Sijtsma Hester , van Buuren Mariët , Krabbendam Lydia
Published: April 2023

Interpersonal connection is a fundamental human motivation, and the extent to which it is fulfilled is a strong predictor of symptoms of internalizing disorders such as social anxiety and depression, perhaps especially during the “social reorienting” period of adolescence. However, little is known about the contribution to this effect of the individual’s social motivations, which are intensified during adolescence. Furthermore, social goal orientation – an individual’s priorities and intentions in social interactions – is an important predictor of vulnerability to internalizing symptoms. Adolescents spend most of their waking lives in classrooms, bounded social networks with a limited pool of candidates for befriending. This study investigated whether friendships within one’s class protects against internalizing symptoms in part by reducing the desire for more classmate friendships, which may tend to promote maladaptive social goals. Participants were 423 young adolescents (M age = 13.2, sd = 0.52 years; 49.4% girls). As predicted, adolescents’ number of reciprocated classroom friendships had a protective effect on internalizing symptoms which was serially mediated by desire for more such friendships, and social goal orientation. However, only demonstration-avoidance goals significantly predicted internalizing symptoms. Unreciprocated friendship nominations were unexpectedly associated with stronger desire and more social anxiety symptoms. The results suggest that the effect of number of friends is mediated by the individual’s thoughts and feelings about their number of friendships, such that a strong desire for more friendships promotes maladaptive goals, oriented toward social status and consequently less oriented toward the cultivation of interpersonal intimacy with the friends they already have.
Reconsidering Newtonian Temporality in the Context of Time Pressures of Higher Education
Authors: Impola Jarkko Tapani
Published: April 2023

This article concerns the problem of time pressures in higher education from the perspective of Newtonian (clock)time and pedagogical action. While most recent critiques of contemporary time pressures turn to alternative time theories in place of Newtonian temporality, the current paper outlines a way to conceive education from a Newtonian time perspective while also retaining theorizations of education as a form of cyclical and uncertain interaction. Time is theorized as changes in the immediate present which transform an uncertain and potential future to an evident and permanent past in a Newtonian-linear temporal framework. Education, on the other hand, is defined as pedagogical influence to foster student’s human growth, demonstrated in a teaching–studying–learning relationship. Slow education theories and strategies are proposed as a way to reclaim time for education from the accelerative time policies of HE from within a linear time perspective instead of having to propose alternative time theories to ‘free’ education from its rootedness in the temporality of past, present, and future.
Hierarchical dynamic workload scheduling on heterogeneous clusters for grid search of inverse problems
Authors: Kyriakopoulos Christos , Gallopoulos Efstratios , Venetis Ioannis E.
Published: April 2023

Inverse problems occur in many scientific fields. Albeit grid search, where points of a regular grid are tested as possible solutions, is a straightforward and robust method to numerically solve inverse problems, it is computationally intensive and becomes prohibitive when the problem has a high dimensionality. Heterogeneous clusters are a viable and cost-effective solution to exploit the combined computational power of multiple available computers. In this paper, we present a computing framework that supports efficient grid search for inverse problems on heterogeneous clusters. Scheduling the workload on such systems might be challenging, especially when nodes are comprised of CPUs and GPUs with different computational speeds. The framework dynamically schedules computations on the processing elements of the cluster according to a selected performance index, which is determined at run-time. The framework is extensible, as it allows easy integration of additional inverse problems.
Tribological Performance of Gd-DLC and Eu-DLC Coatings in the Presence of Synthetic Oils Containing Ionic Liquid Additives
Authors: Omiya T. , Fontes M. , Vuchkov T. , Cruz S. , Cavaleiro A. , Ferreira F.
Published: April 2023

The lubrication of gadolinium-doped diamond-like carbon (Gd-DLC) and europium-doped diamond-like carbon (Eu-DLC) coatings with trihexyltetradecylphosphonium bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate ([P66614][DEHP]) ionic liquid (IL) as 1 wt% additive in polyalphaolefin (PAO) 8 was studied. The results of the friction tests under boundary lubrication conditions showed that Gd-DLC and Eu-DLC coatings in the presence of the IL exhibit a friction reduction, especially with the high atomic concentration of doped metal. Later, the surface observation after the long-term wear test indicated that Gd-DLC coatings have less abrasive wear and higher anti-wear properties compared to Eu-DLC coatings due to the enhanced formation of tribofilms derived from the phosphorus of the IL on the steel ball as the counter body. From these results, we have concluded that the friction reduction and the anti-wear property in the presence of the IL can be improved by changing the type and the concentration of the doped metals. This clearly shows that the novel lubrication system combining the Gd-DLC and Eu-DLC coatings with the IL allows for guiding future research and development.

Graphical abstract
Wie verändert die regelmäßige Nutzung von Gesundheitsportalen das Verhalten von Patient*innen? – Ergebnisse einer Befragungsstudie
Authors: Wangler Julian , Jansky Michael
Published: April 2023

Hintergrund

Gesundheitsportale bieten die Möglichkeit, sich ausführlich über Gesundheits- und Krankheitsthemen zu informieren, weiterführenden Rat einzuholen oder Verweisen zu anderen, spezialisierten Informationsportalen zu folgen. Die hohe Zahl an Nutzer*innen, die sich in den Online-Communities der etablierten Gesundheitsportale herausgebildet hat, spricht dafür, dass solche Portale verbreiteten Informations- und Austauschbedürfnissen entgegenkommen.

Ziel der Arbeit

Bislang liegen nahezu keine empirischen Befunde vor, in welcher Weise die intensive Nutzung solcher Dienste das Gesundheitshandeln beeinflusst. Im Zuge dieser Studie wurden regelmäßige Nutzer*innen großer Gesundheitsportale u. a. zu ihren Motiven befragt und welche Veränderungen des Arzt-Patient-Verhältnisses sie seit ihrer regelmäßigen Nutzung an sich beobachten.

Material und Methoden

Mittels einer Online-Befragung wurden im Jahr 2022 insgesamt 936 Nutzer*innen von 13 großen Gesundheitsportalen anonymisiert befragt. Zur Feststellung von signifikanten Unterschieden zwischen zwei Gruppen kam ein t‑Test bei unabhängigen Stichproben zum Einsatz.

Ergebnisse

Gesundheitsportalen wird von den Befragten ein beachtliches Vertrauen entgegengebracht wird. Die Ergebnisse lassen darauf schließen, dass die regelmäßige Nutzung deutliche Folgen für das Arzt-Patient-Verhältnis hat. Die Auswirkungen reichen von einem kompetenteren, reflektierteren und kritischeren Umgang mit Ärzt*innen bis hin zu einem häufigeren Arztwechsel oder sogar einer gänzlichen Abkehr von Ärzt*innen. Zudem bekunden viele Befragte, nach Online-Recherchen oftmals einen Mangel an Orientierung und Entscheidungsunsicherheit zu verspüren.

Schlussfolgerung

Im Lichte der Resultate ergeben sich neue Anforderungen an die Arzt-Patient-Beziehung. Nicht-kommerzielle Portale zur Gesundheitsinformation sollten weiter gestärkt werden. Auch sollte darüber nachgedacht werden, Maßnahmen zur Verbesserung der Qualität und Transparenz von Gesundheitsportalen zu ergreifen.