ethicalabs/Research-Intent-Collab huggingface dataset:
Knowledge Query Network: How Knowledge Interacts with Skills

Knowledge Tracing (KT) is to trace the knowledge of students as they solve a sequence of problems represented by their related skills. This involves abstract concepts of students' states of knowledge and the interactions between those states and skills. Therefore, a KT model is designed to predict whether students will give correct answers and to describe such abstract concepts. However, existing methods either give relatively low prediction accuracy or fail to explain those concepts intuitively. In this paper, we propose a new model called Knowledge Query Network (KQN) to solve these problems. KQN uses neural networks to encode student learning activities into knowledge state and skill vectors, and models the interactions between the two types of vectors with the dot product. Through this, we introduce a novel concept called \textit{probabilistic skill similarity} that relates the pairwise cosine and Euclidean distances between skill vectors to the odds ratios of the corresponding skills, which makes KQN interpretable and intuitive.   On four public datasets, we have carried out experiments to show the following: 1. KQN outperforms all the existing KT models based on prediction accuracy. 2. The interaction between the knowledge state and skills can be visualized for interpretation. 3. Based on probabilistic skill similarity, a skill domain can be analyzed with clustering using the distances between the skill vectors of KQN. 4. For different values of the vector space dimensionality, KQN consistently exhibits high prediction accuracy and a strong positive correlation between the distance matrices of the skill vectors.
Palliative care experts’ relative importance of end-of-life care quality indicators: Findings from a discrete choice experiment

Background:                     End-of-life care delivery is shaped by subject matter experts who influence treatment decisions, policies, and programs and set guidelines that inform end-of-life care practices. However, little is known about what these experts view as most important when delivering high quality end-of-life care.                                                           Aim:                     To quantify the relative value that experts place on 13 key indicators of care quality at end-of-life and to assess whether preferences vary across high- and low/middle income countries.                                                           Design:                     Cross-sectional survey using a discrete choice experiment that asks respondents to trade-off between three hypothetical care providers with varying ratings across indicators, based on a five-star rating system. Mixed logit regression analysis was used to estimate the relative importance for each indicator, such that the sum across indicators totals 100%.                                                           Participants:                     A total of 193 experts from 121 countries.                                                           Results:                     Experts placed greatest relative importance on managing pain and discomfort (19.0%), quality of life extending treatments (10.0%), treating patients kindly (9.1%), and ensuring costs are not a barrier to treatment (8.7%). They placed least emphasis on non-medical concerns (3.7%) and spiritual needs (2.2%). No differences were found between respondents from high- and low/middle income countries.                                                           Conclusion:                     These results reinforce the importance of pain management as the most important indicator of end-of-life quality. Results further suggest that excessive emphasis on life extension may not be the best use of scarce resources and greater value may be achieved by focusing on other aspects of end-of-life care quality. These results hold for both high- and low/middle income countries.
Information Richness and Crisis Communication Effectiveness: The Roles of Emotion, Risk Perception and Government Trust

During public emergencies, the rapid spread of online misinformation intensifies public anxiety and amplifies social risks, challenging governments’ crisis communication capacity. While existing literature emphasizes response timeliness and source credibility, the mechanisms through which information richness—a critical dimension of government communication—influences public perceptions and behaviors remain underexplored. Drawing on cognitive-behavioral theory and dual-process theory, this study develops a dual-pathway model that examines how information richness in government crisis responses affects public risk perception, satisfaction, and rumor-sharing intentions. Using three pre-post experimental designs (N=370), we find that: (1) Information-rich government responses directly enhance public satisfaction and reduce rumor dissemination, while indirectly mitigating risk perception through both affective pathways (reducing negative emotions) and cognitive pathways (leveraging government trust); (2) Government trust positively moderates the relationship between information richness and risk perception, with higher trust amplifying response effectiveness. These findings illuminate the psychological mechanisms underlying effective crisis communication and offer evidence-based insights for governments to optimize their emergency response strategies. The study contributes to the crisis communication literature by integrating dual-process perspectives and demonstrating the multifaceted role of information richness in shaping public responses during emergencies.
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT: A TOOL FOR A SUSTAINABLE PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN THE BUILDING INDUSTRY

Journal of Environmental Management and Safety, Vol. 3 No. 3 (2012)
Advancing Farmer Education for Green Technology in Agriculture: Implication for Sustainable Food Security in Nigeria

Escalating food demands placed on farmers in recent times have brought the need for alternative sustainable means of producing food at lower cost and, at the same time, meeting food demands without causing harm to the environment. This alternative means educating the farmers. The study therefore explored Farmer education as a tool to accelerate the attainment of food security through the use of green technology to increase food production in Nigeria. The content analysis methodology was adopted to examine the narrative content of various scholars, and the inductive approach was used to further x-ray the emerging challenges facing food security, innovative green technologies that are needed by farmers, the importance of Farmer education and the implication it has on sustainable food security in Nigeria. Innovative green technologies such as precision agriculture, automated irrigation systems, genetically modified crops, and animal tracking collars, among others, are technologies that farmers need to know more about because of the benefits they can offer. The study concludes that Farmer education is critical to green technology utilisation and attainment of food security. Based on this narrative, the study recommended that farmers should make use of all available platforms to gather information about green technology suitable for their farming activities; reconsider innovative eco-friendly methods in their farming activities to increase their productive capacity, among other things.
Additional file 3 of Acupuncture for combat post-traumatic stress disorder: trial development and methodological approach for a randomized controlled clinical trial

Additional file 3. Original Funding Documentation. Merit Review Award Letter.
3D Printing of Inconel 718 by Meam (Metal Extrussion Additive Manufacturing)

Mentre que en els últims anys s'ha avançat molt en la distribució de tecnologies d'impressió 3D com FDM, poc s’ha avançat en solucions de baix cost per utilitzar metalls mitjançant la fabricació additiva. L'objectiu d'aquest projecte és presentar una solució que utilitzi una impressora FDM modificada, així com un equip mínim d'alta gamma, per poder fabricar peces de superaliatge amb base de níquel: Inconel 718 Aquest treball ésla continuació de projectes anteriorsrealitzats en la mateixa unitat del departament. L'objectiu principal era fabricar mostres de tracció amb una mida més gran per a treballar amb mostres similars als componentsimpresos en 3D de la vida real que es poden trobar a la indústria. A més,s’han incorporat una sèrie de millores en el procés de impressió que permeten treballar amb mostres més grans i amb més fiabilitat. S’han imprimit mostres per assatjos de tracció de fins a 80 mm de llargada i amb un gruix de 8 mm, sense mostrar defectes amb una inspecció visual. Els aglutinants es van eliminar amb un primer debinding de l’agluitinantsoluble a 50‐60ºC durant 20 h i un posterior debinding tèrmic a 600ºC durant una hora. Finalment es va fer un sinteritzat a temperatures entre 1295‐1310°C amb uns temps de 4-6h No es van podertrobarmillores en les propietatsmecàniquesja que es va trobar que lesmostrestenien defectes importants a l’interior. La causa més probable d’aquest defectes podria estar al procés de debinding on no es va eliminar de manera efectiva tot l’aglutinant, que va afectar al sinteritzat de les mostres. S’han provat una àmplia gamma de suportsi configuracions per garantir el màxim rendiment durant la sinterització, de manera que s’ha trobat un compromís per limitar la deformació a l’eix longitudinal o torcejat i mantenir una bona qualitat del sinteritzat. Això s’ha fet afegint un pes a la part superior de les mostres durant la sinterització, així com posant les mostres en un suport. Aquest suport assegura el màxim de conducció directa de calor entre el suport i el tub del forn. S’han realitzat assaigs demicroduresa I de tracció amb videoextensometria. Les mostress’han analitzat mitjantçant microscopia electrónica i s’ha estudiat la fractografia. Es va aconseguir una bona repetibilitat amb els nous paràmetres d'impressió, el que ha permès imprimir peces de gran mida de forma constant. Elsresultats de densitat mostren que malgrat els valorssón més baixos que en treballs anteriors, són més homogenis i constants en totes les mostres. No es poden treure conclusions clares sobre el tractament tèrmic final de precipitació , ja que el material base presentava unes pobres propietats. Llavors, caldrà realitzar futurs estudis.
Modern graph neural networks do worse than classical greedy algorithms in solving combinatorial optimization problems like maximum independent set

The recent work ``Combinatorial Optimization with Physics-Inspired Graph Neural Networks'' [Nat Mach Intell 4 (2022) 367] introduces a physics-inspired unsupervised Graph Neural Network (GNN) to solve combinatorial optimization problems on sparse graphs. To test the performances of these GNNs, the authors of the work show numerical results for two fundamental problems: maximum cut and maximum independent set (MIS). They conclude that "the graph neural network optimizer performs on par or outperforms existing solvers, with the ability to scale beyond the state of the art to problems with millions of variables."   In this comment, we show that a simple greedy algorithm, running in almost linear time, can find solutions for the MIS problem of much better quality than the GNN. The greedy algorithm is faster by a factor of $10^4$ with respect to the GNN for problems with a million variables. We do not see any good reason for solving the MIS with these GNN, as well as for using a sledgehammer to crack nuts.   In general, many claims of superiority of neural networks in solving combinatorial problems are at risk of being not solid enough, since we lack standard benchmarks based on really hard problems. We propose one of such hard benchmarks, and we hope to see future neural network optimizers tested on these problems before any claim of superiority is made.
The Cycle of Transparency, Accountability, Corruption, and Administrative Performance: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper investigates the correlation amongst transparency, accountability, corruption, and public administration performance in Vietnam using data from the Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index survey in 2012. The Generalised Canonical Analysis is applied to evaluate the meaning of the ‘Don’t Know’ answer which often exists in response to questions on perception of corruption. The results reveal that ‘Don’t Know’ implies corruption. The paper then, shows that a high level of transparency is accompanied with a low level of perception of corruption while impacts of accountability on corruption are mixed. Furthermore, corruption is a critical factor that deteriorates the administration performance whereas transparency and accountability are ineffective in being translated into the quality of administrative services. The results raise the need to closely examine the de-facto forms of transparency and accountability as well as the political will in the fight against corruption to improve the quality of public administrative services in Vietnam.
IVOA Recommendation: Spectrum Data Model 1.1

We present a data model describing the structure of spectrophotometric datasets with spectral and temporal coordinates and associated metadata. This data model may be used to represent spectra, time series data, segments of SED (Spectral Energy Distributions) and other spectral or temporal associations.
The international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the rule of law in international relations

The aim of this study has been to explore the political and legal significance of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, both within the territory of the former Yugoslavia and beyond. Within these parameters, the overall purpose of the study has been to examine, firstly, whether the ICTY has contributed to the restoration of peace and security in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and secondly, whether, using the experience of the ICTY, it is reasonable to expect that the newly established International Criminal Court (ICC) will make a similar contribution to international peace and security and the rule of law in international relations more generally. Therefore, the academic aim of the thesis is to use the results of the empirical research on the ICTY as a basis for reasoned speculation about the ICC. In seeking to answer whether the ICTY has contributed to peace and security in the former Yugoslavia, the thesis analyses the cooperation of the actors within and outside the former Yugoslavia, both state and non-state, arguing that the ICTY has not achieved its main objective. Using the lessons of the ICTY, the thesis seeks to modify expectations about the potential of the ICC to contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security by helping to manage similar conflicts in the future. In answering whether the ICTY has contributed to the rule of law in international relations, the thesis has contextualised the ICTY within the history of similar attempts to use international law and international institutions to prohibit and/or regulate the use of force in international relations. The overall conclusion is that the ICTY has not achieved this goal either.
Linking models of human behaviour and climate alters projected climate change

Although not considered in climate models, perceived risk stemming from extreme climate events may induce behavioural changes that alter greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we link the C-ROADS climate model to a social model of behavioural change to examine how interactions between perceived risk and emissions behaviour influence projected climate change. Our coupled climate and social model resulted in a global temperature change ranging from 3.4–6.2 °C by 2100 compared with 4.9 °C for the C-ROADS model alone, and led to behavioural uncertainty that was of a similar magnitude to physical uncertainty (2.8 °C versus 3.5 °C). Model components with the largest influence on temperature were the functional form of response to extreme events, interaction of perceived behavioural control with perceived social norms, and behaviours leading to sustained emissions reductions. Our results suggest that policies emphasizing the appropriate attribution of extreme events to climate change and infrastructural mitigation may reduce climate change the most. Human behaviour is an important driver of emissions. A system-dynamics model that couples a psychological model of behaviour with a model of emissions and climate change shows that behaviour can influence global temperature in the year 2100 by up to 1.5 °C.
Vloga gozdov pri ohranjanju biotske pestrosti na krajinski ravni - nekatera izhodišča za krajinskoekološko tipizacijo: The role of forests in biodiversity conservation on the landscape level - some starting points for landscape ecological typifying:

The concept of biodiversity is not new to the natural sciences. In forestry, too, it has been present for such a long time that it sometimes requires redefining. Clear definitions are prerequisite for an efficient integration ofthe idea of biodiversity into contemporary forestry. As in the case of cultural landscapes the majority of biodiversity is a dynamic anthropogenic category - from gene to ecosystem and higher levels. Until now, forestry has primarily paid attention to the species, partly gene biodiversity. It neglected somehow higher biodiversity levels, recently being discovered by theidea of landscape forestry. This can be proven by a series of internationaldocuments - from the Helsinki to Lisbon resolutions. Nevertheless, the fact has to be accepted that all biodiversity levels and conservation thereof are inseparably connected. Typifying forest landscapes can be considered as one of the means of forest related biodiversity conservation. Contrary to previous cases such typifying is not based solely onthe physical presence of the forest (area, distribution patterns). It is based primarily on forest properties that are biodiversity friendly and renderpossible communications of organisms - from gene level to migratory movements. The new paradigm of sustainable forest management for biodiversity will require that forestry actively take part in complying with many obligations related to international documents.
Two faces of vulnerability: Distinguishing susceptibility to harm and system resilience in climate adaptation

AbstractIn the climate adaptation literature, we can distinguish two seemingly distinct frameworks for the concept of vulnerability. We might think of vulnerability in terms of susceptibility to harm. Some discussions of vulnerability accordingly focus on the risk posed to well‐being. Alternatively, we might think of vulnerability in terms of a system's responsiveness to adverse conditions, often spelled out in terms of resilience. This article highlights and distinguishes these frameworks through a brief survey of climate adaptation literature. Understanding the relationship between these two frameworks is vital not only for conceptual clarity, but also for developing adaptation strategies that respond to the different sorts of vulnerabilities posed by climate change. Mitigating the vulnerability of an individual at risk of harm might well complicate efforts at mitigating the vulnerabilities of systems in which that individual is embedded. Humans are clearly at risk of harm from a changing climate, and changing climate challenges the resilience of systems on which humans depend. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the vulnerabilities that arise from the dissociation of people from their environments. Dissociation, whether through the migration of people or through changes to environmental background conditions not only makes clear the dual nature of vulnerabilities, but also serves as a lens through which we might consider the prospects for integrating a more cohesive account of vulnerability into successful climate adaptation strategies.This article is categorized under: Climate, Nature, and Ethics &gt; Ethics and Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change &gt; Values‐Based Approach to Vulnerability and Adaptation
Detection of X-Ray Polarized Emission and Accretion-disk Winds with IXPE and NICER in the Black Hole X-Ray Binary 4U 1630−47

Abstract                We detect a high level of polarization in the X-ray emission of the black hole binary 4U 1630–47 in an observation with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. The 2–8 keV polarization degree is 8% at a position angle of 18°, with the polarization degree increasing significantly with energy, from ∼6% at ∼2 keV to ∼11% at ∼8 keV. The continuum emission in the spectrum of simultaneous observations with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is well described with only a thermal disk spectrum, with stringent upper limits to any Comptonized emission from the corona. Together with the lack of significant variability in the Fourier power spectrum, this suggests that the source was in the high soft state at the time of these observations. The NICER spectrum reveals the presence of several absorption lines in the 6–9 keV band that we fit with two ionized absorbers, providing evidence of the presence of a strong disk wind, which supports the idea that the source was in the soft state. Previous measurements of X-ray polarization in other sources in harder states were associated with the corona or the jet in those systems. Given that the corona is significantly absent in this observation of 4U 1630–47, and that the jet in black hole binaries is quenched in the high soft state, we speculate that in this observation of 4U 1630–47, the polarization likely arises from the direct and reflected radiation of the accretion disk in this source.
Responding to Human Rights Violations in Africa: Assessing the Role of the African Commission and Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

This article examines the main achievements and challenges of Africa’s two regional bodies established to ensure the implementation of human rights in Africa. It makes an assessment of the role of Africa’s oldest regional human rights body, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) in the last 31 years of its operation (from 1987–March 2018). It also considers the judicial role of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) in the last 12 years of its operation (from 2006–March 2018). The increasing contribution of both the Commission and the Court to the protection of human rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights is rarely subjected to scrutiny in mainstream human rights literature. The article is limited to the consideration of the Commission’s contribution with respect to: (i) decisions on admissibility of communications concerning mainly exhaustion of domestic remedies; (ii) decisions on merits of communications; (iii) adoption of resolutions, principles/guidelines, general comments, model laws and advisory opinions; (iv) special rapporteurs and working groups to deal with thematic human rights issues; (v) consideration of State reports and conducting on-site visits; and (vi) referral of communications to the African Court involving unimplemented interim measures, serious or massive human rights violations, or the Commission’s findings on admissibility and merits.