bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effects of adding Sophora alopecuroides to high concentrate diet on rumen fermentation parameters and microbial diversity of sheep
Authors: An Yawen , Wang Hairong , Zong Zichao , Gao Zhixiong , Shi Caixia , Li Shufang , Khas-Erdene  
Published: August 2023

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different doses of Sophora alopecuroides (SA) on the rumen fermentation and microbial diversity of sheep.MethodsA total of 32 healthy Dumont crossbred male lambs weighing 25.73 ± 2.17 kg were randomly assigned to 4 treatment groups with 8 replicates each: a control group (CG) fed a basal diet with a concentrate-to-forage ratio of 7:3 and three experimental groups - the 0.1% group(TG1), 0.3% group (TG2), and 0.5% group (TG3), which were fed the same basal diet but supplemented with increasing doses of SA.Results(1) Increasing the SA dose led to a significant linear increase (p-&lt; 0.05) in acetate, propionate, butyrate, and total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) concentrations in the rumen, as well as a significant quadratic effect (p-&lt; 0.05) on the propionate concentration. In contrast, there was a significant linear decrease (p-&lt; 0.05) in the NH3-N concentration in the rumen. (2) At the level of rumen bacterial phyla, the abundance of Bacteroidetes in the rumen increased, and that of Firmicutes decreased (p = 0.08). At the genus level, the rumen abundances of Ruminococcus and Phocaeicola of sheep in the three experimental groups were significantly higher than in the control group (p-&lt; 0.05), and the abundances of Clostridiales and Candidatus-Hepatincola were significantly increased in the 0.1% and 0.3% groups (p &lt; 0.05). (3) Regarding rumen anaerobic fungi, the differences between the control group and experimental groups at the phylum level and genus level were not significant (p &gt; 0.05), but the relative abundances of Neocallimastigomycota and Piromyces in the 0.1% group were significantly higher than that in the control group.ConclusionSA addition to a high grain diet could increase the VFA concentration and pH in the sheep rumen, reduce the NH3-N concentration in the rumen and improve rumen fermentation function. Although there was no significant change in rumen bacterial or fungal diversity, SA addition increased the rumen abundances of Bacteroidetes, Ruminococcus, Phocaeicola, Clostridiales, Neocallimastigomycota and Piromyces, decreased the rumen abundance of Firmicutes, and had a positive effect on the rumen microbiota to improve sheep health.
Patients’ views and experiences of delayed diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease: a qualitative study
Authors: Cross Eleanor , Prior James A , Farmer Adam D , Saunders Benjamin 
Published: August 2023

BackgroundDiagnosing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be challenging. Patients have been found to experience significant diagnostic delay, which can lead to poorer clinical outcomes. The reasons for this delay are not fully understood, and exploring patients’ perspectives can offer important insights.AimTo explore the views and experiences of patients who self-report a delay in IBD diagnosis.Design & settingQualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews. Participants were recruited via social media and a national IBD charity.MethodInterviews were conducted by telephone between December 2018 and February 2019. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and drawing on the constant comparison method.ResultsSixteen interviews were carried out. Ten participants were female and six were male; participants were aged 20–65 years. Four main themes were identified: patient factors contributing to delay; primary care factors contributing to delay; systemic factors contributing to delay; and perceived consequences of delayed diagnosis. Participants reported initially not seeking help due to embarrassment or normalising their symptoms. Having consulted, participants reported further delay in receiving a diagnosis due to their perception that GPs had either mislabelled symptoms, expressed uncertainty, or not taken symptoms seriously. Systemic factors, including lack of access to test results and communication issues across primary and secondary care, were also cited as contributing to delayed diagnosis. Several participants felt that their delayed diagnosis led to poorer clinical outcomes.ConclusionThese findings can support patients and GPs in their conversations about symptoms that may indicate IBD, and potentially contribute to reducing diagnostic delay, as well as informing future primary care interventions.
PENGARUH PENERAPAN ACTIVITY BASED COSTING (ABC) TERHADAP MANAJEMEN BIAYA PRODUKSI, PRODUKTIVITAS PERUSAHAAN, DAN EFISIENSI PERUSAHAAN
Authors: Tahang Mohamad , Hakim Melati Puspita 
Published: August 2023

<p align="justify">This study aims to analyze the influence of the implementation of activity-based costing (ABC) on the management of production costs, productivity and efficiency of the company. The research method used is qualitative with case studies in several manufacturing companies that have implemented the ABC system. Data collection is done through in-depth interviews with production managers, analysis of financial statements and direct observation of the production process. This study was conducted for 6 months, from January to June. The results show that the implementation of ABC has a significant impact on the company's production cost management. With ABC, companies can more accurately determine the cost of production for each activity involved, helping to make resource allocation decisions and control costs more accurately. Furthermore, the adoption of ABC is also associated with increasing the company's productivity. With a better understanding of production costs, companies can optimize production processes and improve overall operational efficiency. However, this study has some limitations, including limited case study and focus on qualitative data. The implication of this study is the importance of how companies view the implementation of ABC as a tool to improve cost management, productivity and operational efficiency in order to gain a competitive advantage. </p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Activity Based Costing, Production Cost Management, Company Productivity, Company Efficiency </p>
Chat GPT como Recurso para el Aprendizaje del Pensamiento Crítico en Estudiantes Universitarios
Authors: Atencio-González Rously Eddyah , Bonilla-Ron Diego Esteban , Miles-Flores Marco Vinicio , López-Zavala Saúl Álvaro 
Published: August 2023

A nivel universitario, la educación digital, cada día gana más y más terreno. Por tanto, el empleo de la tecnología en la educación ya no es una opción, en estos momentos es un recurso de primer orden necesario para innovar. La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo describir el ChatGPT como recurso viable para el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en estudiantes universitarios. Refiere, a una investigación descriptiva de tipo documental con diseño bibliográfico. Como conclusión, se precisa resaltar que todo elemento creado que pueda contribuir para el desarrollo integral del hombre será siempre un recurso válido, por tanto, el ChatGPT como herramienta tecnológica e innovadora cala perfectamente como un recurso innovador, para que le hombre mejore y potencie su modo de pensar de forma crítica y analítica, esto siempre y cuando sepa emplearlo de manera ética y moral en sociedad.
Comparative study of tricuspid valve repair using ring vs. synthetic band in severe functional tricuspid valve regurgitation
Authors: Elnahas Ashraf , Shaheen Yousry , Afifi Dina , Emara Ahmed 
Published: August 2023

Background: Functional tricuspid valve regurgitation secondary to left-sided valve disease remains a common problem. There are different surgical techniques for tricuspid valve repair; however, the superiority of one approach over the other has not been proven. Our objective was to compare the short-term results of ring versus synthetic band annuloplasty to repair functional severe tricuspid regurgitation in patients with left-sided valve lesions.
Methods: This retrospective study includes 60 patients who underwent left-sided valve replacement with concomitant tricuspid valve repair for severe tricuspid regurgitation. Patients were divided into group A (n= 30), patients with rigid rings, and group B (n= 30), patients with synthetic bands.
Results: The preoperative demographic and clinical data were non-significant between both groups. In the preoperative data, the tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was significantly higher in the ring group (2.84 ± 0.53 vs. 2.3 ± 0.4, P< 0.001). Hospital stay was more prolonged in group B (10.05 ± 1.57 vs. 11.7 ± 2.76 days, P=0.006). There were no differences in other operative and postoperative data between groups. After a six-month follow-up, both groups had no significant difference regarding the clinical data or the degree of tricuspid valve regurgitation.
Conclusion: Tricuspid valve annuloplasty with a rigid ring or synthetic band for tricuspid regurgitation could have a good short-term outcome.
Early results of combined aortic arch debranching and thoracic endovascular re-pair
Authors: Osama Abdullah , Dawoud Omar 
Published: August 2023

Background: The hybrid technique for managing aortic arch diseases has been introduced recently into the surgical armamentarium. We aimed to evaluate the early postoperative outcomes after aortic arch debranching and endovascular repair (TEVAR) of aortic arch aneurysms or dissection.
Methods: Between March 2015 and September 2020, 17 patients underwent elective aortic arch debranching concomitant with TEVAR. Thirteen patients had aortic arch aneurysms, and four had chronic dissection. Study outcomes were early postoperative complications such as stroke, paraplegia, renal insufficiency, and 30-day mortality.
Results: The mean age of our patients was 61.2± 7.6 years; 12 of them were males (70.6%). Five patients underwent total debranching (29.4%). All debranching procedures were followed with TEVAR. 30-day mortality, stroke, permanent paraplegia, and renal failure occurred in one patient (5.9%), while transient neurological deficit occurred in two patients (11.8%).
Conclusion: Hybrid management of aortic arch pathologies showed encouraging early results. The combination of surgical aortic arch debranching and TEVAR could be an option for managing aortic arch diseases. However, larger studies with longer follow up are recommended.
Stress dependent impedance spectroscopy of niobium based ceramics
Authors: Tanaka Hideki , Nozaki Takumi , Martin Alexander , Webber Kyle G. , Kakimoto Ken-ichi 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
In this study, stress-dependent impedance spectra were characterized as a function of uniaxial compressive stress up to –300 MPa for Zr-doped (Na0.5K0.5)(Nb1−x/125Zr
x/100)O3−δ
(x = 5, 10 mol%). This allowed for the evaluation of the stress-induced changes in the grain and grain boundary capacitance. The grain capacitance from equivalent circuit fitting exhibited decreasing behavior with increasing uniaxial compressive stress increased, which is attributed to hindered domain wall movement reducing the extrinsic contributions. Interestingly, NKNZ10 showed a more significant degradation in grain capacitance than NKNZ5. One possible explanation is the difference in oxygen vacancies, and by extension defect dipoles, when introducing Zr into the lattice. As such, this study reveals the amplifying effect of oxygen vacancies to the mechanical suppression of domain wall movement.
Assessing Grid Strength of 100% Inverter-Based Power Systems
Authors: Ma Fuyilong , Xin Huanhai , Wu Di , Liu Yun , Chen Xia 
Published: August 2023

<p> The increasing integration of renewable resources via power electronic inverters is shifting a modern power system toward a 100% inverter-based power system (IBPS). To maintain the stable operation of a 100% IBPS, it is important to identify the small-signal stability issues resulting from the interaction between the power network and inverter-based apparatuses. Due to the complexity of the interaction in a large-scale power system with many inverter-based apparatuses, grid strength assessment is a useful tool for fast identifying the stability issues. However, existing methods are not applicable to the 100% IBPS composed of grid-following (GFL) and grid-forming (GFM) inverters. To fill this gap, the paper proposes a method for fast assessing grid strength in terms of small-signal stability in the 100% IBPS. First, we formulate a multi-inverter system modeling for the small-signal stability analysis of the 100% IBPS. According to the analysis results, a measure and its threshold are then defined to characterize the gird strength of such a system. Also, an analytical expression is derived to determine the threshold and differentiate the impacts of GFL and GFM inverters on the stability boundary. Based on the defined measure and its threshold, our method is proposed and then validated on the modified IEEE 39-bus system and a realistic power grid with high wind penetration. </p>
Design and Development of a Secure and Efficient Authentication System for Mobile Devices
Authors: Adhikari Tapomoy 
Published: August 2023

<p>The proliferation of mobile technology has transformed the way I communicate, access information, and perform various activities. However, the increasing usage of mobile devices also introduces new challenges in terms of security and user authentication. Traditional password-based authentication mechanisms are often vulnerable to attacks such as brute-force, phishing, and dictionary attacks. Moreover, the limited input capabilities and small form factor of mobile devices impose additional constraints on authentication system design. </p>
<p>To address these challenges, I propose a novel authentication system specifically designed for mobile devices. Our system leverages the advantages of multi-factor authentication and biometric techniques to provide a robust and secure authentication mechanism. In this paper, I discuss the background and motivations for our research, review the existing literature on authentication systems, present the methodology and implementation details of our system, evaluate its performance, and conclude with insights and future research directions.</p>
Rapid Adaptive Matched Filter for Detecting Radar Targets with Unknown Velocity
Authors: Kononov Anatolii , Ka Min-Ho 
Published: August 2023

<p>This paper introduces a new Doppler domain localized (DDL) implementation of the adaptive matched filter (AMF) for radar target detection in severely heterogeneous clutter environments with limited training data. The proposed detector uses the concept of a region of possible target detection (RPTD), a small set of Doppler bins that captures most of the target signal power. This RPTD-based DDL-AMF detector outperforms an earlier suggested DDL implementation of the generalized likelihood ratio (GLR) test, which employs the region of detection improvement (RODI) concept. Unlike the RODI-based DDL-GLR detector, the proposed DDL-AMF detector requires no information on clutter spectrum parameters and no measurements to determine the number and locations of RODIs. Moreover, the RODI-based DDL-GLR detector’s performance falls far below the optimum when the target Doppler frequency is unknown. In contrast, the RPTD-based DDL-AMF detector ensures rapid adaptive detection with near-optimum performance under unknown target Doppler frequency and multimodal clutter spectra. </p>
Addressing Human Speech Natures in Single-Channel speaker Extraction Network
Authors: Yuan Zhaohui 
Published: August 2023

<p>The purpose of single-channel speaker extraction is to distill the pure speech of the target speaker from a multi-talker speech mixture. Typically, an auxiliary reference network is employed to obtain the voiceprint features of the speaker’s speech as the input stimulus for the main speech extraction network, improving the robustness of the speech extraction. However, current research has paid little attention to the time-series characteristics of speech signals, resulting in a mismatch between the receptive field and signal features. Additionally, commonly used speaker extraction models do not consider the spectral distribution characteristics of speaker speech. In this paper, we address these issues by extending the ConvNeXt model in image processing to TD-ConvNeXt model and combining it with TCN block to form the main body of our speech extraction network. We also revamp the ConvNeXt model to a new Spk block for the auxiliary network, which learns speaker identity information features from reference speech as embedding vectors. By utilizing this approach, we have achieved better results in speaker identification without compromising the quality of speech extraction. We also use multi-task learning to jointly train the extraction network and auxiliary reference network. Extensive experiments have been conducted to verify the significant single-channel target speech extraction performance improvements of our proposed model.</p>
Educational, Vocational and Career Orientation Pathways for High School Students
Authors: Ricchiardi Paola , Lattanzi Teodora 
Published: August 2023

This paper aims to illustrate the pathways of education to choose making built and implemented by the University of Turin as part of the actions foreseen by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan for Orientation (PNRR Orientamento) (Ministerial Decree No. 934/2022). The theoretical choices underlying the orientation model adopted (Crișan, 2020; Di Fabio & Venceslai, 2021; Savickas, 2015; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) are made explicit, as well as the outcomes of the survey conducted in Piedmont, Italy in early 2023 on a sample of 2575 high school students. The survey identified emerging orientation needs, which allowed to construct targeted pathways for different student groups. Then, the five educational guidance programs developed are described, which differ from one another in the extent of teacher involvement, in the expression means used and in the fruition modality.

Percorsi di educazione alla scelta e consulenziale per la scuola secondaria di secondo grado.
Il presente contributo intende illustrare i percorsi di educazione alla scelta costruiti e attuati dall’Università di Torino nell’ambito delle azioni previste dal PNRR Orientamento (Decreto Ministeriale n. 934/2022). Si espliciteranno le scelte teoriche sottostanti al modello di orientamento adottato (Crișan, 2020; Di Fabio & Venceslai, 2021; Savickas, 2015; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) e gli esiti dell’indagine condotta con un campione di 2575 studenti delle secondarie di secondo grado del Piemonte, a inizio 2023. L’indagine ha consentito di individuare i bisogni orientativi emergenti e quindi di costruire percorsi mirati per le diverse fasce di destinatari. Si descriveranno quindi i cinque percorsi di orientamento messi a punto, che si diversificano per l’entità del coinvolgimento degli insegnanti, per i linguaggi utilizzati e per l’intensità del percorso.
International Service-Learning for forest fire management and employability in higher education: a qualitative research
Authors: Galeotti Glenda , Clemente Chiara 
Published: August 2023

The paper introduces exploratory research that examines the effects of participation in interdisciplinary and international service-learning in forest fire management. Service-learning was interpreted as an educational device capable of supporting employability pathways within higher education. This theoretical proposition informed qualitative research that collected students’ perceptions of their service-learning experience. The research findings confirm the positive relationship between service-learning participation and the development of key soft skills. Moreover, the findings indicate how service-learning participation fosters labor market knowledge and skills, and opportunities for identifying and exploring academic and professional opportunities and cultivating authentic relationships.

Service-Learning internazionali per la gestione degli incendi boschivi e l’employability nell’alta formazione: una ricerca qualitativa.
Il contributo presenta una ricerca esplorativa che esamina gli effetti di partecipazione a progetti di service-learning interdisciplinari e internazionali sulla prevenzione degli incendi. Il service-learning è qui interpretato come un dispositivo educativo capace di sostenere percorsi di employability all’interno di contesti europei di alta formazione. Questa prospettiva teoretica è il punto di avvio di questa ricerca qualitativa che ha raccolto le percezioni degli studenti sull’esperienza di service-learning a cui hanno partecipato. I risultati dello studio confermano il rapporto positivo tra la partecipazione al service-learning e lo sviluppo di soft skills. Viene inoltre rilevato come questa partecipazione possa favorire l’acquisizione di conoscenze e competenze sul mercato del lavoro, per identificare ed esplorare opportunità accademiche e professionali post-laurea e coltivare relazioni autentiche utili alla pianificazione continua del proprio percorso professionale e personale.
Fostering academic success through Service Learning activities
Authors: Torre Emanuela M. , Ricchiardi Paola 
Published: August 2023

This article illustrates the Service Learning model developed by a research group of the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the University of Turin for the implementation of projects (Fenix, Nobody Stays Behind, Un Assist towards success, Peer Will, A playful course to introduce Italian Language), which actively involved numerous university students, to meet the learning needs of disadvantaged children and young people in their community (n=2.673). It is an original model, which integrates the quality elements of Service Learning identified by international studies, with peculiar characteristics, such as the need to balance the educational nature of the experience for university students with the quality of the intervention carried out and the systematic nature of the research monitoring. In this contribution, the impacts both on the direct beneficiaries and on the university students involved will be presented.

Promuovere il successo scolastico attraverso programmi di Service Learning.
Il presente articolo illustra il modello di Service Learning elaborato da un gruppo di ricerca del Dipartimento di Filosofia e Scienze dell’educazione dell’Università di Torino per la realizzazione di progetti (Fenix, Nessuno Resta Indietro, Un Assist verso il successo, Peer Will, Programma ludico per l’arricchimento linguistico), che hanno coinvolto attivamente numerosi studenti universitari, per far fronte ai bisogni di apprendimento di bambini e ragazzi svantaggiati della loro comunità di appartenenza (n=2.673). Si tratta di un modello originale, che integra gli elementi di qualità del Service Learning individuati da studi internazionali, con caratteristiche peculiari, quali l’istanza di bilanciamento del carattere formativo dell’esperienza per gli studenti universitari con la qualità dell’intervento condotto e la sistematicità del monitoraggio di ricerca. Verranno presentati in questo contributo gli impatti sia sui beneficiari diretti che sugli studenti universitari coinvolti.