cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Internet Island: Architectures and Algorithms for Self-Managed IoT in Developing Regions
Creators: name: Abubakar, Abdullahi Kutiriko
Publisher: name: University of Surrey
Year: 2024
Subjects: Internet Island,
Sustainable development goals
sharing economy
Gateway placement
Delay tolerant networks
Internet of Things

description:
 Connectivity challenges persist in today's interconnected world, especially in rural and remote communities with limited access to backhaul infrastructure. These challenges are significant obstacles to leveraging connectivity for a variety of essential applications and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Addressing this, we developed the Internet Island, a novel architecture designed to tackle the challenges of inadequate backhaul. It achieves this by enabling backhaul-oblivious applications at the network’s edge, creating an island of high bandwidth and sophisticated applications. These applications encompass the so-called sharing economy services, which connect geographically bounded users—such as Artisan Services, Dating Services, Market Services, and Transport Services—as well as IoT applications supported by local connectivity without relying on centralised services located at a distance.
The inherently edge-based nature of the Internet Island architecture and the sparse nature of disconnected communities necessitate a strategic placement of Service Gateways (GWs). These GWs are not just physical infrastructures; they represent the crucial nodes or locations where the Internet Island is established within a community, serving as the linchpin for local and, potentially, global connectivity. Their optimal placement is essential for maximising coverage and ensuring equitable access to the services provided.
To enhance the GW placement in these communities, we developed Geo K-means, a spatially-constrained variant of the traditional K-means clustering algorithm. Geo K-means optimises the placement of the GW within communities, ensuring equitable coverage while minimising costs. We explore Geo K-means in LoRaWAN for local connectivity applications and Low Earth Orbit satellite communication systems for applications that require global coverage. Through this strategic placement, the algorithm enhances the reach and performance of the applications supported by the Internet Island. Collectively, this thesis offers a comprehensive solution for enabling connectivity in remote locations by introducing Internet Island architecture, and developing a novel Geo K-means algorithm for gateway placement within these remote communities. It contributes to academic discourse and provides practical insights for real-world applications, thereby advancing our steps towards achieving global SDGs.
Persiapan Belajar ke Luar Negeri: Bagian Kedua
Creators: name: Wekke, Ismail Suardi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: belajar
persiapan
luar negeri

description: Diskusi, hari kedua, Beasiswa dan Belajar di Asia. Yayasan Insancita Bangsa, 2 Agustus 2020.
"Una sorta di intelligenza iconica". Immagine e conoscenza intuitiva
Creators: name: Conte, Pietro
Publisher: name: Lebenswelt. Aesthetics and philosophy of experience.
Year: 2012

description: After outlining some theoretical key points in the correspondence between Gottfried Boehm and Thomas Mitchell, this essay aims at examining how the act of seeing can lead to an intuitive form of knowledge. Particular attention will be paid to the concept of «iconic» developed by Max Imdahl and to Robert Rosenblum’s attempt to apply Panofskian iconology to non-objectual art.
description: Lebenswelt. Aesthetics and philosophy of experience., N° 2 (2012)
Supplementary document for Easy-to-make-and-use gold nanotrench arrays for surface-enhanced Raman scattering - 5427738.pdf
Creators: name: Wi, Jung-Sub
name: Chung, Choong-Heui
name: Na, Hee-Kyung
name: Oh, Tae-Sik
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2025
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Details of SERS measurements
Pre-scritto alla logica di una scienza delle immagini
Creators: name: Di Monte, Michele
Publisher: name: Lebenswelt. Aesthetics and philosophy of experience.
Year: 2012

description: According to Gottfried Boehm and W.J.T. Mitchell the science of images is not yet ready to write its own history. However, the present paper tries to focus and discuss some controversial points that we have to take as preliminary ontological and epistemological conditions for any kind of Bildwissenschaft: the close relationships between definition and identification of images, their theoretical and historical identity, the cognitive status of their perception and content, the epistemic dimension of image experience.
description: Lebenswelt. Aesthetics and philosophy of experience., N° 2 (2012)
Synthesis and characterisation of peptide-polymer conjugate hydrogels for biomedical applications.
Creators: name: Mai, Cuc
Publisher: name: University of Surrey
Year: 2020

description: This study involved two separate projects, both of which explored the application of RAFT polymerisation for the synthesis of well-defined star polymer-peptide conjugates and developed hydrogels from synthesised star polymer conjugates. The first project aimed to develop an in situ forming hydrogel from star poly(N-(2hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide) (PHPMA) via covalent cross-linking, catalysed by Sortase A enzyme (SrtA). The use of SrtA as a cross-linking enzyme for hydrogel-based tissue engineering has been only reported previously by Broguiere et al., Arkenberg and Lin. 1,2 Both groups employed mutant enzymes with enhanced kinetics to achieve fast gelation whereas a wild type SrtA was employed in this work. Well defined star PHPMA (Ð<1.30) were successfully functionalised with SrtA-peptide substrates via a two-step synthesis consisting of an aminolysis and followed by a radical thiol-ene addition reaction. Unfortunately, cross-linking of 4-arm star PHPMA conjugations mediated by SrtA did not yield gelation which could be due to the slow kinetics of wild type SrtA. The second project focused on developing thermo-responsive hydrogels of the selfassembling peptide CFEFEFKFKK by doping the hydrogels with star (2-, 3-, and 4- arm) poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)/CFEFEFKFKK conjugates (C, cysteine; F, phenylalanine; E, glutamic acid; K, lysine). The work was based on a study by Maslovskis et al. who created the novel composite hydrogels containing FEFEFKFK peptide and linear PNIPAM-FEFEFKFK conjugates.3 Well-defined star PNIPAM (Ð<1.25) were modified via a three step synthesis consisting of an aminolysis, a vinylsulfone functionalisation, and finally Michael thiol-ene addition with CFEFEFKFK. The doping was found to introduce thermoresponsiveness to the peptide hydrogels with a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) around 36 °C. This suggested that the hydrogels a potential application in human body. The hydrogels doped with 3-arm conjugate 46 kDa, 4-arm conjugate 17 kDa, or 2-arm conjugate 4 kDa exhibited higher elasticity. This indicated that the peptides on the conjugates took part in the self-assembly with the free peptides and that the polymer chains anchored and interacted with the peptide fibres through hydrogen bonding.
“There are still a lot of things that I need”: a qualitative study exploring opportunities to improve the health services of First Nations People with arthritis seen at an on-reserve outreach rheumatology clinic
Creators: name: Loyola-Sanchez, Adalberto
name: Pelaez-Ballestas, Ingris
name: Crowshoe, Lynden
name: Lacaille, Diane
name: Henderson, Rita
name: Rame, Ana
name: Linkert, Tessa
name: White, Tyler
name: Barnabe, Cheryl
Publisher: name: BioMed Central
Year: 2020

description: Background: Arthritis is a highly prevalent disease and leading cause of disability in the Indigenous population. A novel model of care consisting of a rheumatology outreach clinic in an on-reserve primary healthcare center has provided service to an Indigenous community in Southern Alberta since 2010. Despite quality assessments suggesting this model of care improves accessibility and is effective in meeting treatment targets, substantial improvements in patient-reported outcomes have not been realized. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the experiences of Indigenous persons with arthritis and healthcare providers involved in this model of care to inform the development of health service improvements that enhance patient outcomes. Methods: This was a narrative-based qualitative study involving a purposeful sample of 32 individuals involved in the Indigenous rheumatology model of care. In-depth interviews were conducted to elicit experiences with the existing model of care and to encourage reflections on opportunities to improve it. A two-stage analysis was conducted. The first stage aimed to produce a narrative synthesis of concepts through a dialogical method comparing people with arthritis and health providers’ narratives. The second stage involved a collective effort to synthesize concepts and propose specific recommendations to improve the quality of the current model of care. Triangulation, through participant checking and discussion among researchers, was used to increase the validity of the final recommendations. Results: Ten Indigenous people with arthritis lived experience, 14 health providers and 8 administrative staff were interviewed. One main overarching theme was identified, which reflected the need to provide services that improve people’s physical and mental functioning. Further, the following specific recommendations were identified: 1) enhancing patient-provider communication, 2) improving the continuity of the healthcare service, 3) increasing community awareness about the presence and negative impact of arthritis, and 4) increasing peer connections and support among people living with arthritis. Conclusions: Improving the quality of the current Indigenous rheumatology model of care requires implementing strategies that improve functioning, patient-provider communication, continuity of care, community awareness and peer support. A community-based provider who supports people while navigating health services could facilitate the implementation of these strategies.
The use of Inverse Neural Networks in the Fast Design of Printed Lens Antennas
Creators: name: Gosal, Gurpreet Singh
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2015
Subjects: ANN (Artificial Neural Network)
INN (Inverse Neural Network)
Forward neural network
Design database
S-parameter database
Printed Lens
Transmitarray
Engineered Surfaces
Inversion
Oblique Incidence
Unit cell
Training data
Test data
Neural network learning
Electric field
Polarization
Transmission coefficient
Transmission phase
Transmission amplitude
Incidence angle
Feed
Aperture

description: In this thesis the major objective is the implementation of the inverse neural network concept in the design of printed lens (transmitarray) antenna. As it is computationally extensive to perform full-wave simulations for entire transmitarray structure and thereafter perform optimization, the idea is to generate a design database assuming that a unit cell of the transmitarray is situated inside a 2D infinite periodic structure. This way we generate a design database of transmission coefficient by varying the unit cell parameters. Since, for the actual design, we need dimensions for each cell on the transmitarray aperture and to do this we need to invert the design database. The major contribution of this thesis is the proposal and the implementation of database inversion methodology namely inverse neural network modelling. We provide the algorithms for carrying out the inversion process as well as provide check results to demonstrate the reliability of the proposed methodology. Finally, we apply this approach to design a transmitarray antenna, and measure its performance.
Part A: Exploring How Those with Bile Acid Malabsorption (BAM) Experience their Wellbeing: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis using Photovoice Part B: Investigating the Relationship Between Bile Acid Malabsorption (BAM) and Quality of Life, Anxiety and Depression
Creators: name: Martin, Louise Jayme
Publisher: name: University of Surrey
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Gastroenterology
subject: Health Psychology
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology

description: Individuals with gastrointestinal (GI) conditions often experience poor mental health and low QoL. However, research has seldom investigated the impact of Bile Acid Malabsorption (BAM) and Bile Acid Diarrhoea (BAD), specific GI conditions, on these outcomes. This thesis aimed to understand the impact of BAM / BAD on mental health and wellbeing. Part one of this portfolio presents a qualitative empirical paper that investigated the lived experience of those with the condition. It employed a photovoice methodology and was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The findings suggest that several aspects of the condition can impact upon wellbeing, namely the diagnostic process, the GI symptoms, and the need to manage a stigmatised identity. Part two presents a quantitative empirical paper that demonstrated the high prevalence of anxiety, depression and low quality of life in those with BAM / BAD. The findings also suggest that greater GI symptom severity is associated with greater anxiety and depression, alongside poorer quality of life in this population. Greater diarrhoea severity was shown to predict greater anxiety symptoms, whilst greater diarrhoea and indigestion severity predicted greater depression symptoms.
Cellulose Nanocrystals: Particle Size Distribution and Dispersion in Polymer Composites
Creators: name: Leng, Tianyang
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2016
Subjects: Cellulose Nanocrystals
AFM

description: This thesis describes the characterization of the particle size distribution of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), the synthesis and characterization of fluorescent CNCs, and the development of a fluorescence microscopy method to probe the distribution of fluorescent CNCs in polymer composites. In this thesis, several methods are used to characterize the size of CNC particles. Size distribution measurements by single particle counting methods (Transmission electron microscopy, Atomic force microscopy) are compared to an ensemble method, Dynamic lighting scattering (DLS) and differences between the various methods will be discussed. The effect of sonication on the CNC size distributions measured by AFM and DLS is examined. Furthermore, a reliable and reproducible method for re-dispersing dry CNC powder will be explored in this chapter since CNC is often stored in a dry environment due to its stability. Rhodamine B isothiocyanate (RBITC) and 5-(4,6-dichlorotriazinyl) amino fluorescein (DTAF) were selected for labelling CNCs. These dyes have the advantage of being cheap and readily available and compatible with relatively simple synthetic chemistry. The photophysical properties of all dye labeled CNCs were studied in more detail than in previous studies. The focus is on understanding the most appropriate labeling efficiency to maximize the ability to detect individual CNCs while minimizing the amount of dye used to avoid modifying the CNC properties. The characterization methods include ensemble methods such as UV-Vis absorption and scattering measurements, fluorescence spectroscopy and single molecule methods such as Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and correlated TIRFM/AFM measurements. All of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages. After characterization, the most suitable dye labeled CNC sample was selected for development of a fluorescence microscopy method to characterize CNC distribution in CNC/polymer composites. The dye labeled CNC has been incorporated into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films and studied by fluorescence microscopy. These experiments demonstrated that the level of CNC agglomeration varies significantly for different film preparation methods, indicating that fluorescence microscopy is a useful and easily accessible method for optimizing film preparation. The self-quenching of the dye in the film was also measured and discussed and is an important consideration for choice of the dye loading and CNC content in the films.
Podocytopenia in Diabetic Nephropathy: A Role for the Thromboxane A2 TP Receptor
Creators: name: Bugnot, Gwendoline Carine Denise
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2013
Subjects: Podocyte
Diabetic nephropathy
TP receptor
Thromboxane A2
Proteinuria
SQ29548
Arachidonic acid

description: Although the etiology of diabetic nephropathy is still uncertain, proteinuria due to podocyte injury and loss (podocytopenia) are early features of the disease. Significant increases in thromboxane A2 (TXA2) production as well as expression of its receptor in animal models of diabetic nephropathy led to the hypothesis that TXA2 acting via its thromboxane-prostanoid (TP) receptor induces podocytopenia resulting in proteinuria. Systemic infusion of a TP antagonist demonstrated an important role of TXA2/TP signalling in our model of streptozotocin induced type-1 diabetic nephropathy by reducing kidney damage including proteinuria. Podocyte specific TP overexpressing mice did not demonstrate more pathologic or dynamic kidney damage than non-transgenic mice in STZ-induced diabetic nephropathy. Further assessment of the TP transgene functionality in this mice line is necessary to validate those results. Whereas the importance of TXA2/TP signalling is undeniable in diabetic nephropathy, it appears that podocyte TP receptors might not be directly targeted.
On the computational power of spiking neural P systems with self-organization
Creators: name: Wang, Xun
name: Song, Tao
name: Gong, Faming
name: Zheng, Pan
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: Neural-like computing models are versatile computing mechanisms in the field of artificial intelligence. Spiking neural P systems (SN P systems for short) are one of the recently developed spiking neural network models inspired by the way neurons communicate. The communications among neurons are essentially achieved by spikes, i. e. short electrical pulses. In terms of motivation, SN P systems fall into the third generation of neural network models. In this study, a novel variant of SN P systems, namely SN P systems with self-organization, is introduced, and the computational power of the system is investigated and evaluated. It is proved that SN P systems with self-organization are capable of computing and accept the family of sets of Turing computable natural numbers. Moreover, with 87 neurons the system can compute any Turing computable recursive function, thus achieves Turing universality. These results demonstrate promising initiatives to solve an open problem arisen by Gh Pa un.
Scoring the European Citizen in the AI Era
Creators: name: Genicot, Nathan
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Computers and Society (cs.CY)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Social scoring is one of the AI practices banned by the AI Act. This ban is explicitly inspired by China, which in 2014 announced its intention to set up a large-scale government project - the Social Credit System - aiming to rate every Chinese citizen according to their good behaviour, using digital technologies and AI. But in Europe, individuals are also scored by public and private bodies in a variety of contexts, such as assessing creditworthiness, monitoring employee productivity, detecting social fraud or terrorist risks, and so on. However, the AI Act does not intend to prohibit these types of scoring, as they would qualify as 'high-risk AI systems', which are authorised while subject to various requirements. One might therefore think that the ban on social scoring will have no practical effect on the scoring practices already in use in Europe, and that it is merely a vague safeguard in case an authoritarian power is tempted to set up such a system on European territory. Contrary to this view, this article argues that the ban has been drafted in a way that is flexible and therefore likely to make it a useful tool, similar and complementary to Article 22 of the General Data Protection Regulation, to protect individuals against certain forms of disproportionate use of AI-based scoring.
description: 19 pages
Applications of Circulations and Removable Pairings to TSP and 2ECSS
Creators: name: Fu, Yao
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2014
Subjects: travelling salesman problem
approximation algorithm
minimum 2-edge-connected subgraph problem
circulations
T-joins
integrality gap

description: In this thesis we focus on two NP-hard and intensively studied problems: The travelling salesman problem (TSP), which aims to find a minimum cost tour that visits every node exactly once in a complete weighted graph, and the 2-edge-connected spanning subgraph problem (2ECSS), which aims to find a minimum size 2-edge-connected spanning subgraph in a given graph. TSP and 2ECSS have many real world applications. However, both problems are NP-hard which means it is unlikely that polynomial time algorithms exist to solve them, so methods that return close to optimal solutions are sought. In this thesis we mainly focus on k-approximation algorithms for the two problems, which efficiently return a solution within k times of the optimal solution. For a special case of TSP called graph TSP, using ideas from Momke and Svensson, we present a 25/18-approximation algorithm for a special class of graphs using circulations and T-joins, which improves the previous known best bound of 7/5 for such graphs. Moreover, if the graph does not contain special nodes, our algorithm ensures the ratio of 4/3. For 2ECSS, given any k-edge-connected graph G=(V,E), |V|=n, |E|=m, we present an approximation algorithm that gives a 2-edge-connected spanning subgraph with the number of edges at most n+(m-n)/(k-1)-(k-2)/(k-1) with a novel use of circulations, which improves both the approximation ratio and the simplicity of the proof compared to a result by Huh in 2004.
Local Part Model for Action Recognition in Realistic Videos
Creators: name: Shi, Feng
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2014
Subjects: bag-of-features (BoF)
action recognition
random sampling
local part model
multi-channel SVM

description: This thesis presents a framework for automatic recognition of human actions in uncontrolled, realistic video data such as movies, internet and surveillance videos. In this thesis, the human action recognition problem is solved from the perspective of local spatio-temporal feature and bag-of-features representation. The bag-of-features model only contains statistics of unordered low-level primitives, and any information concerning temporal ordering and spatial structure is lost. To address this issue, we proposed a novel multiscale local part model on the purpose of maintaining both structure information and ordering of local events for action recognition. The method includes both a coarse primitive level root feature covering event-content statistics and higher resolution overlapping part features incorporating local structure and temporal relationships. To extract the local spatio-temporal features, we investigated a random sampling strategy for efficient action recognition. We also introduced the idea of using very high sampling density for efficient and accurate classification. We further explored the potential of the method with the joint optimization of two constraints: the classification accuracy and its efficiency. On the performance side, we proposed a new local descriptor, called GBH, based on spatial and temporal gradients. It significantly improved the performance of the pure spatial gradient-based HOG descriptor on action recognition while preserving high computational efficiency. We have also shown that the performance of the state-of-the-art MBH descriptor can be improved with a discontinuity-preserving optical flow algorithm. In addition, a new method based on histogram intersection kernel was introduced to combine multiple channels of different descriptors. This method has the advantages of improving recognition accuracy with multiple descriptors and speeding up the classification process. On the efficiency side, we applied PCA to reduce the feature dimension which resulted in fast bag-of-features matching. We also evaluated the FLANN method on real-time action recognition. We conducted extensive experiments on real-world videos from challenging public action datasets. We showed that our methods achieved the state-of-the-art with real-time computational potential, thus highlighting the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed methods.
The Acoustics of Abolition: Recovering the Evangelical Anti–Slave Trade Discourse Through Late-Eighteenth-Century Sermons, Hymns, and Prayers
Creators: name: Gilman, Daniel
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2013
Subjects: William Wilberforce
Abolition
Human rights
Slave Trade
Charles Simeon
John Newton
Evangelicalism
Nineteenth Century England
Eighteenth Century England
Slavery
History
Social Change
Abolitionists
Antislavery
Theology
Antislavery movements
Anglicanism
Gospel
Atonement
Providentialism
Clapham Sect
Evangelical Anglicans
Eschatology
Wilberforce
Great Awakening
John Wesley
Anti-Slave Trade
Act to Abolish the Slave Trade
Amazing Grace
Sermons
Prayers
Hymns
History of sermons
Church
British History
Roger Anstey
Ford K. Brown
Boyd Hilton

description: This thesis explores the late-eighteenth-century movement to end Britain’s transatlantic slave trade through recovering one of the major discourses in favour of abolition, namely that of the evangelical Anglicans. This important intellectual milieu has often been ignored in academia and is discovered through examining the sermons, hymns, and prayers of three influential leaders in this movement: Member of Parliament William Wilberforce, pastor and hymn writer John Newton, and pastor and professor Charles Simeon. Their oral texts reveal that at the heart of their discourse lies the doctrine of Atonement. On this foundation these abolitionists primarily built a vocabulary not of human rights, but of public duty. This duty was both to care for the destitute as individuals and to protect their nation as a whole because they believed that God was the defender of the enslaved and that he would bring providential judgement on those nations that ignored their plight. For the British evangelicals, abolishing the slave trade was not merely a means to avoid impending judgement, but also part of a broader project to prepare the way for Jesus’s imminent return through advancing the work of reconciliation between humankind and God as they believed themselves to be confronting evil in all of its forms. By reconfiguring the evangelical abolitionist arguments within their religious framework and social contexts, this thesis helps overcome the dissonance that separates our world from theirs and makes accessible the eighteenth-century abolitionist discourse of a campaign that continues to resonate with human rights activists and scholars of social change in the twenty-first-century.
DPNet: Dynamic Pooling Network for Tiny Object Detection
Creators: name: Gong, Luqi
name: Chen, Haotian
name: Chen, Yikun
name: Yao, Tianliang
name: Li, Chao
name: Zhao, Shuai
name: Han, Guangjie
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: In unmanned aerial systems, especially in complex environments, accurately detecting tiny objects is crucial. Resizing images is a common strategy to improve detection accuracy, particularly for small objects. However, simply enlarging images significantly increases computational costs and the number of negative samples, severely degrading detection performance and limiting its applicability. This paper proposes a Dynamic Pooling Network (DPNet) for tiny object detection to mitigate these issues. DPNet employs a flexible down-sampling strategy by introducing a factor (df) to relax the fixed downsampling process of the feature map to an adjustable one. Furthermore, we design a lightweight predictor to predict df for each input image, which is used to decrease the resolution of feature maps in the backbone. Thus, we achieve input-aware downsampling. We also design an Adaptive Normalization Module (ANM) to make a unified detector compatible with different dfs. A guidance loss supervises the predictor's training. DPNet dynamically allocates computing resources to trade off between detection accuracy and efficiency. Experiments on the TinyCOCO and TinyPerson datasets show that DPNet can save over 35% and 25% GFLOPs, respectively, while maintaining comparable detection performance. The code will be made publicly available.
description: 15 pages, 12 figures Haotian Chen and Luqi Gong contributed equally to this work
Channel evolution in the lower reach of paleo Fen River: evidence from detrital apatite petrochronology and zircon geochronology
Creators: name: Wang, Zhongmei
name: He, Honglin
name: Shi, Feng
name: Zhuang, Qitian
Publisher: name: Geological Society of London
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 3705
subject: Geology
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences

description: Supplementary Table 3.
Effects of the gender role attitude and gender power on chinese couples’ tourism decision making
Creators: name: Liang, Tingyu
Publisher: name: University of Surrey
Year: 2024
Subjects: couple decision making
tourism consumer behaviour
gender role attitude
gender power

description: Gender issues have always been a concern around the world. Judging from the existing research on power-related gender roles in romantic relations of Chinese families, power is still unequally distributed between men and women (Glick & Fiske, 1996). At the family level, different gender roles lead to different power distribution within the family. However, most extant research is based on daily married life, work, and consumption, and there is a need for more research in tourism regarding this issue. Therefore, this study aims to understand how gender role attitudes and gender power affect tourism-related decision-making among Chinese couples.The study adopted a sequential exploratory mixed methods design with a quantitative focus. Regarding sample selection, a total of 24 couples were selected for qualitative data collection. The second stage was the quantitative analysis, where data were collected through an online survey with 418 respondents (196 females and 222 males) in China. Correlation tests, t-tests, and ANOVA were used to determine statistical relationships between gender role attitudes, perceived gender power, travel decision-making, and the corresponding gender differences. The data were then analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) based on the established theoretical framework using partial least squares (PLS) estimation.The study confirms that joint decision-making in couples’ travelling decisions has become a trend among young adults. The more equal the gender role attitudes, the more equal the power couples have to make travel decisions, resulting in more joint travel decisions. Similarly, the more equal the overall gender power distribution, the more equal the power of the couple to make travel decisions, leading to more joint travel decisions. In addition, the moderating effect of gender shows that men’s gender role attitudes have a higher impact on travel decision-making power than women's. In comparison, women’s gender power has a more substantial impact on travel decision-making power. Finally, on the theoretical aspect, this research fills the gap in the social perspective of couples’ tourism decision-making regarding gender equality, and the proposed model can also provide a reference for further in-depth research. For practical implications, the joint decision-making shown in the research results is a trend in young Chinese couples’ travelling, which can suggest ways of developing and promoting tourism products, e.g., gender-neutral advertising strategies are more accepted by consumers.
CONUL 2024: Building Community to Coordinate Ireland's Fragmented Open Repository Network
Creators: name: Loughnane, Christopher
name: Joy, Cillian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: This talk details a transformative two-year initiative led by the University of Galway, a key player of the National Open Research Forum (NORF) National Open Research Action Plan. Focused on aligning Ireland's open repositories with international best practices, the project adopts a sustainable, community-centric approach. With the aim of transitioning from a fragmented to a cohesive repository approach, the project emphasises collaboration and integration, both nationally and internationally. Findings underscore the critical need for metadata alignment to support ambitious open research goals. The survey reveals a fragmented landscape, necessitating comprehensive national cooperation and coordination. Challenges include disparities in staffing, resource allocation, and reliance on external hosting providers, highlighting the urgent need for dedicated personnel and robust resource management.

The talk outlines recommendations, advocating for collaborative initiatives, training, metadata standardisation, and national alignment. It highlights the importance of shared infrastructure, technical support, and advocacy to address challenges and enhance open repository networks in Ireland. As the project progresses into its next phase, it stands as a compelling case study for networks aspiring to strengthen their open repository landscape guided by international best practices. We show a data-driven exploration of Ireland's journey, contributing significantly to the global advancement of open repositories.
Design and Evaluation of a Variable Resistance Orthotic Knee Joint
Creators: name: Herbert-Copley, Andrew
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2015
Subjects: KAFO
SCKAFO
Orthosis
Biomechanics
Knee
Hydraulic

description: At the author’s request, the abstract has been removed due to the confidential nature of the thesis. It will be added once the embargo period has passed.
Analisis JETS dan IJOST Juni 2020: melihat dibalik angka kuartil
Creators: name: Irawan, Dasapta Erwin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: kuartil
quartile
scimago
scopus
cite score
citation based metric
metrik berbasis sitasi

description: Minggu ini kita ramai membicarakan jurnal-jurnal yang masuk kategori Q1 Scimago. Pemeringkatan Scimago sendiri hanya berbasiskan data jumlah sitasi secara time series dari Scopus yang dikembangkan dengan berbagai perhitungan lainnya yang juga berbasis data sitasi untuk membentuk nilai akhir komposit. Nilai komposit tersebut diurutkan dari tinggi ke rendah, kemudian dibagi menjadi empat kuartil. Kuartil 1 (Q1) adalah kuartil tertinggi dan Q4 adalah kuartil terendah. Berikut ini sebagian analisis saya untuk melihat dibalik angka. Sampelnya JETS ITB Q2 dan IJOST UPI Q1. Isi repositori ini: salindia (slide) dalam format pptx dan pdf, raw-dataset.zip: berisi dataset metadata yang ditarik dari Scopus, dalam format csv dan ris, jets-analysis.zip: berisi berbagai grafik visualisasi JETS, ijost-analysis.zip: berisi berbagai grafik visualisasi IJOST. serba-serbi-sitasi-Q1.pptx/pdf: berisi komparasi berbagai kondisi sitasi. Akses Scopus menggunakan fasilitas dari Institut Teknologi Bandung. Penarikan data dilakukan pada tanggal 14 Juni 2020, pukul 04.00. Dokumen dan data diedarkan menggunakan lisensi CC-BY, bebas digunakan ulang dengan menyebutkan sumbernya.
Signals Theory for Dummies: An AAR/SBL Parable
Creators: name: Bilby, Mark G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Benford's Law
Connected: The Hidden Science of Everything
Latif Nasser
American Academy of Religion
Society of Biblical Literature
Gospel of Marcion
Signals theorem of the gospels
Digital Bodhisattva

description: A scientific parable about signals theory in conversation with the Netflix series Connected.
Agreement between self-reported pre-pregnancy weight and measured first-trimester weight in Brazilian women
Creators: name: Rangel Bousquet Carrilho, Thaís
name: M. Rasmussen, Kathleen
name: Rodrigues Farias, Dayana
name: Freitas Costa, Nathalia C
name: Araújo Batalha, Mônica
name: E. Reichenheim, Michael
name: O. Ohuma, Eric
name: Hutcheon, Jennifer A.
name: Kac, Gilberto
Publisher: name: BioMed Central
Year: 2020

description: Background: Self-reported pre-pregnancy weight and weight measured in the first trimester are both used to estimate pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) but there is limited information on how they compare, especially in low- and middle-income countries, where access to a weight scale can be limited. Thus, the main goal of this study was to evaluate the agreement between self-reported pre-pregnancy weight and weight measured during the first trimester of pregnancy among Brazilian women so as to assess whether self-reported pre-pregnancy weight is reliable and can be used for calculation of BMI and GWG. Methods: Data from the Brazilian Maternal and Child Nutrition Consortium (BMCNC, n = 5563) and the National Food and Nutritional Surveillance System (SISVAN, n = 393,095) were used to evaluate the agreement between self-reported pre-pregnancy weight and weights measured in three overlapping intervals (30–94, 30–60 and 30–45 days of pregnancy) and their impact in BMI classification. We calculated intraclass correlation and Lin’s concordance coefficients, constructed Bland and Altman plots, and determined Kappa coefficient for the categories of BMI. Results: The mean of the differences between self-reported and measured weights was < 2 kg during the three intervals examined for BMCNC (1.42, 1.39 and 1.56 kg) and about 1 kg for SISVAN (1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 kg). Intraclass correlation and Lin’s coefficient were > 0.90 for both datasets in all time intervals. Bland and Altman plots showed that the majority of the difference laid in the ±2 kg interval and that the differences did not vary according to measured first-trimester BMI. Kappa coefficient values were > 0.80 for both datasets at all intervals. Using self-reported pre-pregnancy or measured weight would change, in total, the classification of BMI in 15.9, 13.5, and 12.2% of women in the BMCNC and 12.1, 10.7, and 10.2% in the SISVAN, at 30–94, 30–60 and 30–45 days, respectively. Conclusion: In Brazil, self-reported pre-pregnancy weight can be used for calculation of BMI and GWG when an early measurement of weight during pregnancy is not available. These results are especially important in a country where the majority of woman do not initiate prenatal care early in pregnancy.
Tantalum CVD coatings: Process, properties, performance
Creators: name: Heard, Hollie N.
Publisher: name: University of Surrey
Year: 2020

description: Failure of current standard pipeline materials in chloride processing environments has a high environmental and economic impact. Tantalum (Ta) is resistant to attack in HCl environments due to its passive oxide layer. Solid and lined Ta components are, however, prohibitively expensive for large-scale deployment. Ta chemical vapour deposition (CVD) coatings on standard carbon steel pipeline materials offer an economic solution with superior properties but have been demonstrated to exhibit a dual phase nature with a metastable, hard, and brittle beta (β) phase, and a ductile alpha (α) phase, and also detrimental interfacial characteristics. This project describes the deposition of bulk α-Ta CVD coatings on standard 0.3 – 0.35 wt.%Cmax pipelines and components. The potential for tailoring of CVD processes such coatings were investigated using a hybrid statistical design of experiment approach. Deposition rate, phase fraction and Knoop hardness of coatings was measured in response to varying deposition temperature, reagent gas flows, and sample position and finish. Statistical analysis identified deposition temperature, hydrogen (H2) reagent and argon (Ar) carrier gas flows as dominant parameters. Optimal levels for the desired properties were obtained and then applied to newly installed large-scale equipment. Ta coatings on higher carbon content steels demonstrated reduced interfacial defects and a reduction in interdiffusion zone thickness. Optical micrographs using an alternate oxalic acid based etch and EBSD highlight the distribution of the deposited α/β-Ta phase within coatings. β-Ta shows preferential positioning at the surface and in the bulk, and α-Ta at the interface. XRD diffraction data is used to calculate approximate coating phase fractions that ranged from 5 – 96%. Heat treatments identified a β→α transition temperature of >950°C, correlated through exothermic peak detection in DSC analysis. Coating adhesion improved with the reduction of interfacial defects and the application of the heat treatment to minimise β-Ta content. Three-point bend testing investigated the performance of single/dual Ta coatings 20-80µm thick on A105 steel with varying post-deposition heat treatments. Single layer coatings, and those with singular heat treatments, suffered delamination on test. Samples with dual Ta coatings that had a heat treatment after both deposition processes had no visible or acoustic sign of failure after bending through 90° demonstrating ductility of the coating. Coating integrity was proved through HCl immersion testing with no measurable mass loss detected. Initial Ta coated mild steel had a corrosion rate of 11.4 MPY (0.26 mm/yr). Using the preferred two-stage deposition and heat treatment process C-ring corrosion testing of stressed A105 steel samples resulted in a ‘nil’ corrosion rate of 0.06 MPY (0.0014 mm/yr) equivalent to that of solid Ta.
Simvastatin Encapsulation in Alginate-Based Microspheres
Creators: name: Parsian, Ava
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2016
Subjects: Drug Delivery System
Alginate
Microspheres
Encapsulation
Simvastatin

description: Despite the great success of hip implant surgeries, wear particle-induced implant aseptic loosening still limits the implant longevity. Simvastatin, an FDA-approved cholesterol lowering statin, is a promising drug candidate for the treatment of implant aseptic loosening due to its anti-inflammatory properties as well as its ability to stimulate bone growth and inhibit bone resorption. In addition, alginate microspheres have been used extensively in drug delivery applications because of alginate properties, including biocompatibility and gelation in mild conditions. However, the hydrophobicity of simvastatin, as well as the large alginate microsphere pore size leading to the leakage of low molecular weight drugs are limiting factors for their use as a delivery system for simvastatin. Therefore, the objectives of this thesis were twofold: 1. To complex simvastatin with 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-βCD) in order to increase its solubility; and 2. To increase simvastatin encapsulation efficiency in alginate microspheres by coating the microspheres with chitosan, adding dextran sulfate in the alginate solution, and optimizing the gelation conditions used for the synthesis of the microspheres (e.g., volume of gelation medium, curing time, and addition of simvastatin in the gelation medium). Results showed that simvastatin complexation with HP-βCD increased with HP-βCD to simvastatin molar ratio, to a maximum of 97.6% at the molar ratio of 10. Results also showed that chitosan coating of the alginate microspheres increased simvastatin encapsulation efficiency (up to 10.6%), which was further improved (up to 14.0%) when adding 2.0% (w/v) dextran sulfate to the alginate solution. This increase was likely due to electrostatic interactions between dextran sulfate and chitosan in addition to alginate, resulting in a denser coating. Finally, the addition of simvastatin in the gelation medium was shown to also increase simvastatin encapsulation (up to 22.4%), likely because of a decrease in the diffusion of simvastatin out of the microspheres. Overall, this work completed the initial steps for the development of an alginate-based drug delivery system for simvastatin with the long-term goal of providing a local delivery of simvastatin to modulate implant aseptic loosening.
Supplementary document for Easy-to-make-and-use gold nanotrench arrays for surface-enhanced Raman scattering - 5427738.pdf
Creators: name: Wi, Jung-Sub
name: Chung, Choong-Heui
name: Na, Hee-Kyung
name: Oh, Tae-Sik
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2021
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Details of SERS measurements
A randomized clinical trial of a theory-based fentanyl overdose education and fentanyl test strip distribution intervention to reduce rates of opioid overdose: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Creators: name: Jacka, Brendan P.
name: Goldman, Jacqueline E.
name: Yedinak, Jesse L.
name: Bernstein, Edward
name: Hadland, Scott E.
name: Buxton, Jane A.
name: Sherman, Susan G.
name: Biello, Katie B.
name: Marshall, Brandon D. L.
Publisher: name: BioMed Central
Year: 2020

description: Background: Opioid overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly illicitly manufactured fentanyl, remain a substantial public health concern in North America. Responses to overdose events (e.g., administration of naloxone and rescue breathing) are effective at reducing mortality; however, more interventions are needed to prevent overdoses involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl. This study protocol aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a behavior change intervention that incorporates individual counseling, practical training in fentanyl test strip use, and distribution of fentanyl test strips for take-home use among people who use drugs. Methods: Residents of Rhode Island aged 18–65 years who report recent substance use (including prescription pills obtained from the street; heroin, powder cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine; or any drug by injection) (n = 500) will be recruited through advertisements and targeted street-based outreach into a two-arm randomized clinical trial with 12 months of post-randomization follow-up. Eligible participants will be randomized (1:1) to receive either the RAPIDS intervention (i.e., fentanyl-specific overdose education, behavior change motivational interviewing (MI) sessions focused on using fentanyl test strips to reduce overdose risk, fentanyl test strip training, and distribution of fentanyl test strips for personal use) or standard overdose education as control. Participants will attend MI booster sessions (intervention) or attention-matched control sessions at 1, 2, and 3 months post-randomization. All participants will be offered naloxone at enrolment. The primary outcome is a composite measure of self-reported overdose in the previous month at 6- and/or 12-month follow-up visit. Secondary outcome measures include administratively linked data regarding fatal (post-mortem investigation) and non-fatal (hospitalization or emergency medical service utilization) overdoses. Discussion: If the RAPIDS intervention is found to be effective, its brief MI and fentanyl test strip training components could be easily incorporated into existing community-based overdose prevention programming to help reduce the rates of fentanyl-related opioid overdose. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04372238 . Registered on 01 May 2020