cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Electrospinning of a Nanocomposite Nanofibrous Membrane for Chemical and Biological Protective Clothing Application
Creators: Kaviannasab, Elham
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

This research explores the integration of nanotechnologies to enhance protective clothing, focusing on developing a nanofibrous membrane that offers effective protection against chemical and biological hazards while maintaining breathability. Current solutions often compromise wearer comfort, prompting the need for innovative approaches. The study utilizes nanofibrous webs produced through electrospinning, which, owing to their high porosity, surface area, and filtration efficiency, provide an improved balance between protection and comfort. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is used as the polymer matrix for the nanofibres (NFs) due to its electrospinning ease, physical characteristics, filtration quality, and versatility across a range of temperatures. To augment the protective efficiency of the nanofibrous membrane, the research incorporates chemically and biologically active nanoparticles, magnesium oxide (MgO), into the NFs.

The research had three main objectives. The first objective was developing the electrospinning capacity in the Human Ecology Department: it led to the construction of a humidity-controlling chamber. We also identified the importance of storing nanoparticles (NPs) in a dry environment. In the second phase, traditional textile measurement techniques were adapted to allow for assessing the performance of the nanofibrous structures, for example, tensile strength and bending ability. Finally, the electrospinning parameters of the PAN/MgO NP nanocomposite nanofibrous membrane were optimized based on the morphology and size distribution of the NFs and the distribution of the MgO NPs in the NFs. The assessment of the membrane’s antibacterial activity, comfort, and durability revealed excellent flexibility and high water vapor permeability and air permeability. On the other hand, no antibacterial activity was detected, which was attributed to the low concentration of MgO NPs on the surface of the NFs. The membrane also displayed low abrasion resistance and strength, insufficient for an application as clothing. Solutions were identified to overcome these weaknesses in future studies.

If improvement is still needed in terms of self-detoxification efficiency and durability, his research holds transformative potential for individuals exposed to chemical and biological hazards, aiming to redefine protective clothing by prioritizing thermophysiological comfort and health. By addressing the conventional trade-off between protection and the wearer’s well-being, the project seeks to provide a groundbreaking solution to enhance the overall safety and comfort of those facing chemical and biological hazards in various settings.
Towards Community Search in Uncertain Graphs
Creators: Talebirad, Yashar
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

The representation of real-world relationships and entities through nodes and edges in a network has found wide applicability across diverse scientific fields. At the core of network analysis are the tasks of community detection and community search, which aim to identify distinct groups within a graph. While community detection partitions the graph on a global scale, community search focuses on a specific node or group of nodes to discover a cohesive subgraph in their vicinity. Traditionally, these networks were represented as deterministic graphs with clearly defined nodes and edges. However, as networks grow in scale, analyzing these networks becomes more challenging.

Coupled with this, the emergence of uncertainty in data collection has necessitated a shift towards probabilistic modeling of these relationships, presenting a suite of new complexities and challenges. In response to these challenges, this thesis first focuses on enhancing the SIWO algorithm, initially designed for community mining in deterministic graphs, to make it suitable for processing very large graphs. We introduce a methodology to convert large graphs into a format that is more manageable by local community search algorithms, ensuring efficient processing without the need to store entire networks in main memory. This is complemented by the development of data structures and optimization techniques specifically designed to manage and process large-scale network data efficiently. Building upon these enhancements, we then present USIWO, a scalable and local algorithm for community search in unweighted uncertain graphs with edge uncertainty. USIWO starts from a single node or set of nodes and incrementally adds “suitable” adjacent nodes one at a time, until it rapidly finds the core of a community even in very large uncertain networks.
Response Pattern to First Critical Session in Metacognitive Therapy as Predictor of Treatment Outcome in Anxiety
Creators: name: Bouwman, Vera
name: Helmich, Marieke A.
name: Johnson, Sverre Urnes
name: Mobach, Lynn
name: Salemink, Elske
Publisher: name: OSF Registries
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Clinical Psychology
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: Anxiety
subject: Anxiety disorder
subject: Detached Mindfulness
subject: Dynamic Systems Theory
subject: Metacognitions
subject: Metacognitive Therapy
subject: critical session
subject: critical slowing down
subject: mental health
subject: negative beliefs about worry
subject: predictor
subject: psychopathology
subject: psychotherapy
subject: response pattern
subject: treatment responder

description: Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental health disorders (Kessler et al., 2010). There are effective psychological treatments available, like Metacognitive Therapy (MCT; Wells, 2009) (Normann & Morina, 2018). However, not everyone benefits (Bystritsky, 2006; Solem et al., 2021). So far, no consistent predictors of psychotherapy outcome have been identified (Eilertsen & Eilertsen, 2023; Schneider et al., 2015). This study investigates a novel predictor of treatment outcome early on in MCT. Namely, the individual response pattern to a specific therapy session where a drop in symptoms (i.e., a gain) can be expected due to the introduction of the critical working element of MCT (i.e., intervention targeting negative beliefs about worry and introducing detached mindfulness). We refer to this as the “critical session”, which takes place at the second session of MCT. Following the current perspective that psychopathology can be seen as a dynamic complex system, relevant information can be extracted from changes over time to predict who is likely to benefit from treatment (Bringmann et al., 2023; Hayes & Andrews, 2020). Zooming in on the specific mechanism (negative beliefs about worry) that is being targeted in the critical session can give an indication of how receptive a patient is to incorporate change, and thus to benefit from treatment. Inspired by the phenomenon of critical slowing down (Van Nes & Scheffer, 2007), it is expected that patients who hold on longer to what they have gained after the critical session, also show better overall treatment outcome after MCT. Examining this novel predictor is clinically relevant as it can provide therapists and patients insights into whether the patient is sensitive to positive changes during an early stage of treatment. This study integrates theory, namely focusing on the response to a therapy session that is designed to intervene on the theorized working mechanism of the therapy, together with looking at individual response patterns over time to hopefully better predict treatment outcome during an early stage of therapy.
X-Shooting ULLYSES: Massive Stars at Low Metallicity
Creators: name: Vink, Jorick S.
name: Crowther, Paul
name: Fullerton, Alex
name: Garcia, Miriam
name: Martins, Fabrice
name: Morrell, Nidia
name: Oskinova, Lida
name: Louis, Nicole St.
name: ud-Doula, Asif
name: Sander, Andreas
name: Sana, Hugues
name: Bouret, Jean-Claude
name: Kubatova, Brankica
name: Marchant, Pablo
name: Martins, Lucimara P.
name: Wofford, Aida
name: van Loon, Jacco
name: Telford, O. Grace
name: Götberg, Ylva
name: Bowman, Dominic
name: Erba, Christi
name: Kalari, Venu
name: Collaboration, The XShootU
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The Hubble Space Telescope has devoted 500 orbits to observing 250 massive stars with low metallicity in the ultraviolet (UV) range within the framework of the ULLYSES program. The X-Shooting ULLYSES (XShootU) project enhances the legacy value of this UV dataset by providing high-quality optical and near-infrared spectra, which are acquired using the wide-wavelength-coverage X-shooter spectrograph at ESO's Very Large Telescope. XShootU emphasises the importance of combining UV with optical spectra for the consistent determination of key stellar parameters such as effective temperature, surface gravity, luminosity, abundances, and wind characteristics including mass-loss rates as a function of metallicity. Since uncertainties in these parameters have implications across various branches of astrophysics, the data and modelling generated by the XShootU project are poised to significantly advance our understanding of massive stars at low metallicity. This is particularly crucial for confidently interpreting JWST data of the earliest stellar generations, making XShootU a unique resource for comprehending individual spectra of low-metallicity stars.
description: 6 pages, 6 figures. ESO Large Programme Overview
Boysidia hupeana
Creators: name: Gojšina, Vukašin
name: Hunyadi, András
name: Sutcharit, Chirasak
name: Tongkerd, Piyoros
name: Auffenberg, Kurt
name: Grego, Jozef
name: Vermeulen, Jaap J.
name: Reischütz, Alexander
name: Páll-Gergely, Barna
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Stylommatophora
Hypselostomatidae
Boysidia
Boysidia hupeana

description: Boysidia hupeana (Gredler, 1901)
Figs 109
Hypselostoma hupeanum Gredler, 1901: 151.
Boysidia (Paraboysidia) hupeana — Pilsbry 1917: 206; Haas 1937: 8–9.
Paraboysidia hupeana — van Benthem Jutting 1950: 38; Zilch 1984: 165.
Paraboysidia kitteli Maassen, 1999: 123, figs 5–7. syn. nov.
Boysidia (Paraboysidia) hubeina [sic] — Chen and Zhang 2002: 692.
Boysidia (Boysidia) gongyaoshanensis Yang, Zhang & Chen, 2012: 550 (English description), 550–551 (Chinese description), figs 1–3. syn. nov.
Type material examined.
Indonesia • 1 paratypes of P. kitteli; from the type locality; 17 Aug. 1993; ex. coll. Hemmen, Wiesbaden; coll. PGB • 1 paratype of P. kitteli; from the type locality; 16 June 1990; ex. coll. Hemmen, Wiesbaden; coll. PGB • 4 paratypes of P. kitteli; from the type locality; Aug. 1993; ex. coll. W. J. M. Maassen; coll. PGB.
Additional material examined.
China • 1 shell; Badung, Hubei, coll. Moellendorff; SMF 10775.
Type localities.
“ Südwest Hupé ”, China (B. hupeana); “ Gongyao Hill, Xingyi County (25°N, 104°08'E), Guizhou province, China ” (B. gongyaoshanensis); “ N. Sumatra, Karo Highlands, Kuta Buluh, 40 km N of Brastagi, near the entrance of the cave Liangdehar in leaf litter at the foot of limestone rocks ” (B. kitteli).
Remarks.
Boysidia (Boysidia) gongyaoshanensis, described from Gongyao Hill, Xingyi County (25°N, 104°08'E), Guizhou province, China, is herein treated a junior synonym of B. hupeana since no morphological differences were noticed. Also, no differences in shell morphology were noticed between B. kitteli and B. hupeana even though they are described from localities which are ca 3200 km from each other. Even though the distance is enormous, they are treated conspecific due to the lack of conchological differences. Both new synonyms were not compared to B. hupeana in their respective original descriptions (Maassen 1999; Yang et al. 2012).
description: Published as part of Gojšina, Vukašin, Hunyadi, András, Sutcharit, Chirasak, Tongkerd, Piyoros, Auffenberg, Kurt, Grego, Jozef, Vermeulen, Jaap J., Reischütz, Alexander & Páll-Gergely, Barna, 2025, A new start? Revision of the genera Anauchen, Bensonella, Gyliotrachela and Hypselostoma (Gastropoda, Eupulmonata, Hypselostomatidae) of Southeast Asia with description of 46 new species, pp. 1-338 in ZooKeys 1235 on pages 1-338, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1235.145281
Megachile beniensis Cockerell, new comb.
Creators: name: Raw, Anthony
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2002
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Megachilidae
Megachile
Megachile beniensis

description: beniensis Cockerell, new comb.
Megachile beniensis Cockerell 1927a: 19 ­20. Male. Type locality: Huachi, Beni, Bolivia. Type repository: USNM 29088. Examined.
Megachile (Leptorachis) beniensis Mitchell 1934: 302.
description: Published as part of Raw, Anthony, 2002, New combinations and synonymies of leafcutter and mason bees of the Americas (Megachile, Hymenoptera, Megachilidae), pp. 1-43 in Zootaxa 71 (1) on page 3, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.71.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/155887
MUTE: A Program for High-Precision Calculations of Underground and Underwater Muon Intensities
Creators: Woodley, William J.
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

High-energy atmospheric muons originating from cosmic ray interactions in Earth's atmosphere have played a vital role in the field of astroparticle physics for nearly a century. Because the properties of the muons reflect the primary cosmic rays that produce them, they serve as a unique probe for understanding the cosmic ray spectrum as well as hadronic interactions at energies beyond the reach of current accelerator experiments. However, these muons also pose a significant challenge in rare event search experiments aiming to detect dark matter and neutrinos. These experiments are typically placed deep underground to escape atmospheric muons, using the rock overburden as natural shielding. However, while travelling through the rock, high-energy muons can induce backgrounds that mimic signals of interest in these detectors. Therefore, large-scale rare event search experiments rely on precise calculations of underground muon fluxes in order to properly characterise their expected backgrounds to develop effective shielding strategies.

This work presents a computational code, MUTE (MUon inTensity codE), which calculates forward-predictions for underground and underwater muons by combining the latest computational tools available: MCEq and DAEMONFLUX for surface muon fluxes, and the Monte Carlo code PROPOSAL for transport through matter. The computational scheme is explained, outlining how MUTE achieves a full description of underground and underwater muons up to depths of 14 km.w.e., including calculations for muon intensities, energy spectra, angular distributions, and total fluxes. This method achieves excellent agreement with experimental data from a wide variety of detectors around the world, with precision surpassing previous error estimates. Applications of the MUTE code are also discussed, including its functionality in cross-checking data analyses and its ability to compute high-precision seasonal variations of total underground muon fluxes.
Modelling Mountain Pine Beetle Abundance and Distribution in Novel Hosts and Changing Climate
Creators: Xie, Xiaoqi
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae, Hopkins 1902), an invasive bark beetle native to North America, has expanded its habitat from central British Columbia to Northern Alberta. This expansion poses an immediate threat to jack pine forests, which extend from Alberta to Nova Scotia. Past studies have revealed the beetle’s successful attacks on jack pines, and laboratory research has indicated that jack pine possesses limited defensive capabilities. These findings have heightened concerns about the potential range expansion of the beetle and underscore the need to quantify potential risks in jack pine forests. Additionally, lodgepole pine, the primary host of the beetle, has been substantially infested in Alberta. The impacts of climate change could increase the frequency and severity of these infestations in lodgepole pine forests, leading to significant economic and ecological losses. Therefore, studying the effects of climate change on beetle’s dynamics is imperative.

In this thesis, we addressed concerns regarding the susceptibility of jack pine and the potential impacts of climate-related covariates on infestations in lodgepole pine forests under climate change. In Chapter 2, we discussed the environmental and ecological covariates significant for mountain pine beetle population dynamics in Alberta and selected a suitable model using these covariates to examine these biological questions. Our results indicated that the hierarchical model outperforms others. Employing this model, Chapter 3 discussed the risk of infestations in jack pine and compared the reproduction rate of jack pine to that of lodgepole pine. The model revealed a low likelihood of infestations in jack pine forests, accompanied by a weaker reproduction rate. Chapter 4 introduced the influence of climate-related covariates on the presence and abundance of infestations in lodgepole pine forests under climate change. We analyzed the potential influence of each covariate individually and their combined impact on the overall trends in the presence and abundance of infestations. The results underscored the significant role of degree days and overwinter survival rate, indicating an increase in the frequency and severity of infestations.
Towards Faster k-Nearest-Neighbor Machine Translation
Creators: name: Shi, Xiangyu
name: Liang, Yunlong
name: Xu, Jinan
name: Chen, Yufeng
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Computation and Language (cs.CL)
subject: Neural and Evolutionary Computing (cs.NE)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Recent works have proven the effectiveness of k-nearest-neighbor machine translation(a.k.a kNN-MT) approaches to produce remarkable improvement in cross-domain translations. However, these models suffer from heavy retrieve overhead on the entire datastore when decoding each token. We observe that during the decoding phase, about 67% to 84% of tokens are unvaried after searching over the corpus datastore, which means most of the tokens cause futile retrievals and introduce unnecessary computational costs by initiating k-nearest-neighbor searches. We consider this phenomenon is explainable in linguistics and propose a simple yet effective multi-layer perceptron (MLP) network to predict whether a token should be translated jointly by the neural machine translation model and probabilities produced by the kNN or just by the neural model. The results show that our method succeeds in reducing redundant retrieval operations and significantly reduces the overhead of kNN retrievals by up to 53% at the expense of a slight decline in translation quality. Moreover, our method could work together with all existing kNN-MT systems. This work has been accepted for publication in the jornal Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (ISSN: 2582-9793). The final published version can be found at DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.54364/AAIML.2024.41111
description: 7 pages
Markov-bridge generation of transition paths and its application to cell-fate choice
Creators: name: Treut, Guillaume Le
name: Ancheta, Sarah
name: Huber, Greg
name: Orland, Henri
name: Yllanes, David
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)
subject: Quantitative Methods (q-bio.QM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: We present a method to sample Markov-chain trajectories constrained to both the initial and final conditions, which we term Markov bridges. The trajectories are conditioned to end in a specific state at a given time. We derive the master equation for Markov bridges, which exhibits the original transition rates scaled by a time-dependent factor. Trajectories can then be generated using a refined version of the Gillespie algorithm. We illustrate the benefits of our method by sampling trajectories in the Müller-Brown potential. This allows us to generate transition paths which would otherwise be obtained at a high computational cost with standard Kinetic Monte Carlo methods because commitment to a transition path is essentially a rare event. We then apply our method to a single-cell RNA sequencing dataset from mouse pancreatic cells to investigate the cell differentiation pathways of endocrine-cell precursors. By sampling Markov bridges for a specific differentiation pathway we obtain a time-resolved dynamics that can reveal features such as cell types which behave as bottlenecks. The ensemble of trajectories also gives information about the fluctuations around the most likely path. For example, we quantify the statistical weights of different branches in the differentiation pathway to alpha cells.
description: 12 pages, 7 figures, code available at: github.com/czbiohub-sf/markov-bridges
Boysidia gittenbergeri Gojšina & Hunyadi & Sutcharit & Tongkerd & Auffenberg & Grego & Vermeulen & Reischütz & Páll-Gergely 2025, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Gojšina, Vukašin
name: Hunyadi, András
name: Sutcharit, Chirasak
name: Tongkerd, Piyoros
name: Auffenberg, Kurt
name: Grego, Jozef
name: Vermeulen, Jaap J.
name: Reischütz, Alexander
name: Páll-Gergely, Barna
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Stylommatophora
Hypselostomatidae
Boysidia
Boysidia gittenbergeri

description: Boysidia gittenbergeri (Maassen, 2008) comb. nov.
Paraboysidia gittenbergeri Maassen, 2008: 237–239, figs 5, 6.
Paraboysidia gittenbergeri — Inkhavilay et al. 2016: 215–216, figs 1, 2 A – C, 4 A, tables 1, 2; Inkhavilay et al. 2019: 61, fig. 27 A.
Material examined.
None.
Type locality.
“ NW Laos, province Luang Namtha, district Vieng Phouka, Oung (= Khama word for cave) Pra Ngiene, 500 m SE of Ban (= village) Phou Lek, at the entrance of the cave ”.
Remarks.
We have excluded this species from Bensonella and classified it in the genus Boysidia due to the combination of the following traits: i) large shell size (nearly 6 mm); ii) absence of the palatal tubercle typical for Bensonella; iii) shell shape more similar to some Boysidia species (e. g., B. chiangmaiensis, B. tholos, B. lamothei).
description: Published as part of Gojšina, Vukašin, Hunyadi, András, Sutcharit, Chirasak, Tongkerd, Piyoros, Auffenberg, Kurt, Grego, Jozef, Vermeulen, Jaap J., Reischütz, Alexander & Páll-Gergely, Barna, 2025, A new start? Revision of the genera Anauchen, Bensonella, Gyliotrachela and Hypselostoma (Gastropoda, Eupulmonata, Hypselostomatidae) of Southeast Asia with description of 46 new species, pp. 1-338 in ZooKeys 1235 on pages 1-338, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1235.145281
CERN for AI: A Theoretical Framework for Autonomous Simulation-Based Artificial Intelligence Testing and Alignment
Creators: name: Bojic, Ljubisa
name: Cinelli, Matteo
name: Culibrk, Dubravko
name: Delibasic, Boris
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Computers and Society (cs.CY)
subject: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
subject: Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: This paper explores the potential of a multidisciplinary approach to testing and aligning artificial intelligence (AI), specifically focusing on large language models (LLMs). Due to the rapid development and wide application of LLMs, challenges such as ethical alignment, controllability, and predictability of these models emerged as global risks. This study investigates an innovative simulation-based multi-agent system within a virtual reality framework that replicates the real-world environment. The framework is populated by automated 'digital citizens,' simulating complex social structures and interactions to examine and optimize AI. Application of various theories from the fields of sociology, social psychology, computer science, physics, biology, and economics demonstrates the possibility of a more human-aligned and socially responsible AI. The purpose of such a digital environment is to provide a dynamic platform where advanced AI agents can interact and make independent decisions, thereby mimicking realistic scenarios. The actors in this digital city, operated by the LLMs, serve as the primary agents, exhibiting high degrees of autonomy. While this approach shows immense potential, there are notable challenges and limitations, most significantly the unpredictable nature of real-world social dynamics. This research endeavors to contribute to the development and refinement of AI, emphasizing the integration of social, ethical, and theoretical dimensions for future research.
description: 32 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables
Megachile costaricensis Friese, new comb
Creators: name: Raw, Anthony
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2002
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Megachilidae
Megachile
Megachile costaricensis

description: costaricensis Friese, new comb.
Megachile costaricensis Friese 1916: 341. Female. Type locality: San José/ San Mateo, Costa Rica. Type repository: Humboldt Museum, Berlin. The combination is based on examination of a cotype female labeled paratype in USNM.
description: Published as part of Raw, Anthony, 2002, New combinations and synonymies of leafcutter and mason bees of the Americas (Megachile, Hymenoptera, Megachilidae), pp. 1-43 in Zootaxa 71 (1) on page 3, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.71.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/155887
title: Effectiveness of teaching English pronunciation with Lingua Franca core goals to Chinese adult learners
Creators: name: Ru, Yi
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2024

description: Jenkins (2000) proposed the lingua franca core (LFC), a set of pronunciation features that 
she claimed to be the key contributors to intelligibility in the context of English as a lingua 
franca (ELF). While the LFC has been widely discussed in the field of applied linguistics, 
empirical studies directly testing its application in teaching practices and evaluating outcomes 
with solid evidence are sparse. This gap is particularly pronounced in the context of China.
Hence, this study assessed the impact of LFC-oriented versus RP-targeted pronunciation 
instruction on intelligibility among 60 adult English learners divided into two groups of 30 at 
an English language school in Shanghai, China. It compared learners' pretest, posttest, and 
delayed posttest performances, focusing on their production of English pronunciation in terms 
of intelligibility, comprehensibility and other relevant constructs about pronunciation. 
The results indicated significant gains in productive pronunciation competence, especially 
in intelligibility, for both groups, with no major difference in overall performance, yet with 
specific advantages for the LFC group in certain areas. Furthermore, learners’ LFC competence 
shows a strong positive correlation with intelligibility and comprehensibility, suggesting LFC-based instruction's potential for improving productive pronunciation skills without the necessity 
of minimising accents.
This research contributes to the fields of ELF and English language teaching by providing 
empirical evidence supporting LFC-oriented teaching in enhancing pronunciation competence 
with a primary focus on intelligibility.
Megachile dilatata Mitchell, new comb.
Creators: name: Raw, Anthony
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2002
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Megachilidae
Megachile
Megachile dilatata

description: dilatata Mitchell, new comb.
Megachile dilatata Mitchell 1928 [“issued March 1929 ”]: 344. Gynandromorph. Type locality: Corumbá, Brazil, April. Type repository: ANSP 4108. Examined.
description: Published as part of Raw, Anthony, 2002, New combinations and synonymies of leafcutter and mason bees of the Americas (Megachile, Hymenoptera, Megachilidae), pp. 1-43 in Zootaxa 71 (1) on page 3, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.71.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/155887
Inactivation of Salmonella enterica in 3D Printed Ready-to-eat Pudding
Creators: Barsukova, Yuliya
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Three-dimensional (3D) food printing is a rapidly developing technology that transforms digital data as input to create a 3D edible physical product as output. It has the potential to change the food industry by offering highly customizable nutritional profiles and designs, while reducing food waste and the cost of manufacturing. The most widespread 3D printing method is extrusion-based, and it requires ingredients fluid enough to be extruded and viscous enough to hold their shape after deposition. As a result, many of these ingredients have high moisture content and some are meant to be consumed immediately after preparation as ready-to-eat products. Microbial food safety is an important consideration for these high moisture ready-to-eat 3D printed food products. Despite the technological advancements in 3D food printing, microbial safety aspect of 3D printed foods has not been fully investigated.

In this study, inactivation rate of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in a printed 3D square made of pudding was assessed. Before and during printing the pudding was heated at selected time-temperature combinations inside the 3D food printer. The temperature profiles evaluated were A (56.9°C), B (60.3°C), C (63.3°C) and D (66.7°C) and time increments were 10, 20, 30 and 40 min. Inactivation of Salmonella increased with temperature and heating time, with the highest reduction of >7 log CFU/g after 40 min at temperature profiles C and D. Inactivation of Salmonella after 10 min treatment at all the temperatures was not significantly different, and 40 min treatment at profile B was not significantly different from profiles C and D at 30 min. To preserve quality and nutritional parameters of 3D printed foods, lower temperature-longer time treatment may be preferred.

The second part of this study focused on the simulation of the heating of pudding in the plastic extrusion syringe inside the 3D printer by finite element modeling using axisymmetric 2D model. The experimental time-temperature relationships at the selected locations of the syringe including at the center and the gap between the syringe and 3D printer’s stainless-steel barrel during the heating of pudding were compared with simulation results. Overall, the predicted temperature changes were in good agreement with the experimental values. In addition, there was no considerable difference in the heating profiles of syringe quarter points, however, the contour plots showed heat loss due to convection at the top of the syringe. These results indicate the potential of finite element analysis to be used in conjunction with 3DFP as a useful tool for analyzing heat transfer and distribution in a closed system.
Intelligent user-specific motion planning and control of lower-limb exoskeletons
Creators: Khodaei Mehr, Javad
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Recent strides in lower-limb exoskeleton development have significantly enhanced the potential for more effective rehabilitation and assistance for individuals with mobility impairments. Despite these advancements, the widespread adoption of exoskeletons demands improvements in both hardware and software design to enhance user comfort and safety. This doctoral research addresses this need by focusing on the implementation of personalized and safe locomotion patterns, addressing a critical shortfall in existing exoskeleton designs.

To empower users with the ability to modify gait trajectories during walking, a novel adaptable gait trajectory shaping method is introduced, leveraging adaptable central pattern generators (ACPGs). These ACPGs are synchronized across various joints and dynamically updated in response to the physical interaction between the human and the robot. Expanding on this, a fusion of reinforcement learning and ACPGs is proposed, enabling the generation of user-specific locomotion trajectories. This innovative approach reads the user's physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) over time, facilitating the achievement of desired gait patterns, such as step length and walking velocity. Experimental validation on able-bodied individuals using the Indego lower-limb exoskeleton demonstrates the capability of refining exoskeleton gait trajectories in real-time.

To elevate safety levels, an algorithm is introduced to assess postural stability during changes in exoskeleton trajectories governed by ACPGs. An extended model for the divergent component of motion (DCM) is tailored for multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) exoskeletons. Leveraging this algorithm, the exoskeleton gains the ability to ensure postural stability and the viability of locomotion in pHRI by employing a DCM-based hip correction strategy to adjust the upper body position. The effectiveness of this intelligent controller for ensuring safe and stable locomotion is rigorously investigated through experimental studies conducted on the Indego lower-limb exoskeleton.
Megachile eburneipes Vachal, new comb.
Creators: name: Raw, Anthony
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2002
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Megachilidae
Megachile
Megachile eburneipes

description: eburneipes Vachal, new comb.
Megachile eburneipes Vachal 1904: 13. Male. Type locality: Tucuman [Argentina]. Type repository: MNHN. Examined.
Megachile bernardina Schrottky 1913a: 209 ­210. Male. Type locality: Jundiay [=Jundiaí], São Paulo, [Brazil]. Type repository: MZSP. NEW SYNONYMY.
Megachile (Acentron) bernardina Mitchell 1943: 663.
description: Published as part of Raw, Anthony, 2002, New combinations and synonymies of leafcutter and mason bees of the Americas (Megachile, Hymenoptera, Megachilidae), pp. 1-43 in Zootaxa 71 (1) on page 3, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.71.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/155887
Study of cognitive component of auditory attention to natural speech events
Creators: name: Nguyen, Nhan D. T.
name: Mikkelsen, Kaare
name: Kidmose, Preben
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC)
subject: Signal Processing (eess.SP)
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering

description: Event-related potentials (ERP) have been used to address a wide range of research questions in neuroscience and cognitive psychology including selective auditory attention. The recent progress in auditory attention decoding (AAD) methods is based on algorithms that find a relation between the audio envelope and the neurophysiological response. The most popular approach is based on the reconstruction of the audio envelope based on EEG signals. However, these methods are mainly based on the neurophysiological entrainment to physical attributes of the sensory stimulus and are generally limited by a long detection window. This study proposes a novel approach to auditory attention decoding by looking at higher-level cognitive responses to natural speech. To investigate if natural speech events elicit cognitive ERP components and how these components are affected by attention mechanisms, we designed a series of four experimental paradigms with increasing complexity: a word category oddball paradigm, a word category oddball paradigm with competing speakers, and competing speech streams with and without specific targets. We recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG) from 32 scalp electrodes and 12 in-ear electrodes (ear-EEG) from 24 participants. A cognitive ERP component, which we believe is related to the well-known P3b component, was observed at parietal electrode sites with a latency of approximately 620 ms. The component is statistically most significant for the simplest paradigm and gradually decreases in strength with increasing complexity of the paradigm. We also show that the component can be observed in the in-ear EEG signals by using spatial filtering. The cognitive component elicited by auditory attention may contribute to decoding auditory attention from electrophysiological recordings and its presence in the ear-EEG signals is promising for future applications within hearing aids.
description: 15 pages, 11 figures
Investigating Feature Importance In Educational Data, Towards Handling Data Missingness in Classification Tasks
Creators: Obinwanne, Ndidi M
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

The problem of missing data is unavoidable in many research fields, especially in education where data can be missing for justifiable reasons. Missing data causes bias in analysis, and traditional methods like complete case analysis and single imputation are suboptimal yet typically used to address the problem. These methods place emphasis on achieving complete datasets prior to attempting classification tasks. The consequences are a reduction in sample size, loss of statistical power, and loss of representation in the data. In this work, we investigate a simple approach to missing data and build upon the multiple imputation method. This simple approach avoids imputation and instead concatenates information about which features have missing values in an education dataset. This concatenation approach deprioritizes the estimation of values in order to provide an alternative to data completion. As a first attempt to demonstrate this approach is feasible, we conducted an investigation of how these methods for handling missing data affect two neural network architecture’s ability to predict time to completion. To support this task, we first perform feature investigation using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to understand which features contain meaningful information. Results from this analysis showed that features containing data about student demography, high school performance details, English language skills, and university program details were important in understanding and explaining students’ time to completion. We used SEM-identified features as input to a prediction task implemented with versions of the data that relied on current simple imputation techniques (zero imputation [ZNet], mean imputation [Mean], and iterative imputation [Iterative]) and one that used the non-imputation technique concatenation (Cat). We conducted training on two neural network architectures - SmallNets and MediumNets - and compared model performance across techniques. The results show that the non-imputation technique Cat, achieved comparable or higher performance to that achieved by each of the three imputation techniques. Statistical tests in the SmallNets and MediumNets architecture showed differences existed between Cat and each of Mean and Iterative at different missingness levels. Cat outperformed Mean and Iterative with missingness levels at 10% and 80% in the SmallNets architecture. In the MediumNets architecture, it outperformed Mean and Iterative when missingness was at 40% and 80%. This indicates that Cat outperformed the imputation techniques Mean and Iterative at increasing missingness levels, and can perform better when used with a larger network. Our work provides a case study of the analysis and prediction of learner success even when data contains missingness, and it highlights that the simple concatenation approach might be sufficient for classification tasks with missing data.
Potential Factors (De)Motivating English Majors’ Autonomous Language Learning beyond the Classroom at a Public Higher Education Institution in Vietnam
Creators: Phan, Duy Thanh Anh
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

This study explores factors that might motivate or demotivate English majors' autonomous language learning beyond the classroom (ALLBC) at a Vietnamese public higher education institution (HEI) from the perspectives of both students and their instructors.  Purposive sampling was used, and data were obtained using three tools: a survey using Google Forms (with students and staff), student-solicited diaries, and semi-structured interviews conducted in Vietnamese by the researcher with six staff and four students. Interviews were conducted by audio call on a social medium, recorded, transcribed verbatim, translated into English by the researcher, and then verified by an EFL Vietnamese instructor and doctoral graduate from the University of Alberta.

The study uses an interpretative multimethod research design with sequential data gathering. Four theoretical lenses are used to interpret the data: self-determination theory (SDT), self-determined learning theory (SDLT), sociocultural theory (SCT), and the L2 motivational self system (The L2MSS).  Students' engagement in ALLBC is studied considering the following factors: learners’ self-awareness; availability of and access to technological tools; students’ involvement in selecting their program of study; matters of assessment; learners’ perceptions of their imaginary future; as well as other personal and contextual factors. Students’ recommendations with respect to ways to increase their ALLBC, including boosting their excitement and self-confidence, are also analyzed.

The interview data from students is also compared to those from the staff, revealing similarities and differences regarding reasons for (dis)engagement in ALLBC, factors (de)motivating ALLBC. A particular attention is paid to the roles of the instructors in the teaching and learning process.

The findings contribute to the growing field of ALLBC research by providing some insights into this topic in the Vietnamese context. The findings and implications recommend professional development training for instructors on ALLBC, institutional changes and/or educational policies that might enhance the quality of English language education in HEIs in this area, and might have value for other Asian contexts.
SHaRPose: Sparse High-Resolution Representation for Human Pose Estimation
Creators: name: An, Xiaoqi
name: Zhao, Lin
name: Gong, Chen
name: Wang, Nannan
name: Wang, Di
name: Yang, Jian
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: High-resolution representation is essential for achieving good performance in human pose estimation models. To obtain such features, existing works utilize high-resolution input images or fine-grained image tokens. However, this dense high-resolution representation brings a significant computational burden. In this paper, we address the following question: "Only sparse human keypoint locations are detected for human pose estimation, is it really necessary to describe the whole image in a dense, high-resolution manner?" Based on dynamic transformer models, we propose a framework that only uses Sparse High-resolution Representations for human Pose estimation (SHaRPose). In detail, SHaRPose consists of two stages. At the coarse stage, the relations between image regions and keypoints are dynamically mined while a coarse estimation is generated. Then, a quality predictor is applied to decide whether the coarse estimation results should be refined. At the fine stage, SHaRPose builds sparse high-resolution representations only on the regions related to the keypoints and provides refined high-precision human pose estimations. Extensive experiments demonstrate the outstanding performance of the proposed method. Specifically, compared to the state-of-the-art method ViTPose, our model SHaRPose-Base achieves 77.4 AP (+0.5 AP) on the COCO validation set and 76.7 AP (+0.5 AP) on the COCO test-dev set, and infers at a speed of $1.4\times$ faster than ViTPose-Base.
description: Accepted to AAAI 2024
Boysidia lamothei Bavay & Dautzenberg 1912
Creators: name: Gojšina, Vukašin
name: Hunyadi, András
name: Sutcharit, Chirasak
name: Tongkerd, Piyoros
name: Auffenberg, Kurt
name: Grego, Jozef
name: Vermeulen, Jaap J.
name: Reischütz, Alexander
name: Páll-Gergely, Barna
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Stylommatophora
Hypselostomatidae
Boysidia
Boysidia lamothei

description: Boysidia lamothei Bavay & Dautzenberg, 1912
Boysidia lamothei Bavay & Dautzenberg, 1912: 21, pl. 3, figs 7–9.
Boysidia (Paraboysidia) lamothei — Pilsbry 1917: 202–203, pl. 35, figs 3–6; Schileyko 2011: 2.
Paraboysidia lamothei — van Benthem Jutting 1950: 39.
Type material examined.
Vietnam • syntype; MNHN -IM-2000-35160.
Type locality.
“ Ban-Lao ”, Vietnam.
Remarks.
This species is treated as a member of Boysidia due to the shell shape being more similar to some other congeners such as B. robusta and B. jinpingensis and a strong and oblique columellar lamella which extends to the expanding peristome.
description: Published as part of Gojšina, Vukašin, Hunyadi, András, Sutcharit, Chirasak, Tongkerd, Piyoros, Auffenberg, Kurt, Grego, Jozef, Vermeulen, Jaap J., Reischütz, Alexander & Páll-Gergely, Barna, 2025, A new start? Revision of the genera Anauchen, Bensonella, Gyliotrachela and Hypselostoma (Gastropoda, Eupulmonata, Hypselostomatidae) of Southeast Asia with description of 46 new species, pp. 1-338 in ZooKeys 1235 on pages 1-338, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1235.145281
Megachile florensis Mitchell, new comb.
Creators: name: Raw, Anthony
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2002
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Megachilidae
Megachile
Megachile florensis

description: florensis Mitchell, new comb.
Megachile florensis Mitchell 1943: 671. New name.
Megachile manaosensis Mitchell 1930: 203. Male. Type locality: Flores, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. (Not M. manaosensis Schrottky 1913a: 201. See Mitchell 1943: 671.) Based on the description the species is tentatively placed in this subgenus.
description: Published as part of Raw, Anthony, 2002, New combinations and synonymies of leafcutter and mason bees of the Americas (Megachile, Hymenoptera, Megachilidae), pp. 1-43 in Zootaxa 71 (1) on page 3, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.71.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/155887
Reality conditions for the KdV equation and exact quasi-periodic solutions in finite phase spaces
Creators: name: Bernatska, Julia
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Exactly Solvable and Integrable Systems (nlin.SI)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: Algebraic Geometry (math.AG)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 35Q53, 35B15, 30F10

description: In the present paper reality conditions for quasi-periodic solutions of the KdV equation are determined completely. As a result, solutions in the form of non-linear waves can be plotted and investigated.
 The full scope of obtaining finite-gap solutions of the KdV equation is presented. It is proven that the multiply periodic $\wp_{1,1}$-function on the Jacobian variety of a hyperelliptic curve of arbitrary genus serves as the finite-gap solution, the genus coincides with the number of gaps. The subspace of the Jacobian variety where $\wp_{1,1}$, as well as other $\wp$-functions, are bounded and real-valued is found in any genus. This result covers every finite phase space of the KdV hierarchy, and can be extended to other completely integrable equations. A method of effective computation of this type of solutions is suggested, and illustrated in genera $2$ and $3$.
description: 34 pages, 6 pictures