How do the Existing Fairness Metrics and Unfairness Mitigation Algorithms contribute to Ethical Learning Analytics?

With the widespread use of learning analytics (LA), ethical concerns about fairness havebeen raised. Research shows that LA models may be biased against students of certaindemographic groups. Although fairness has gained significant attention in the broadermachine learning (ML) community in the last decade, it is only recently that attentionhas been paid to fairness in LA. Furthermore, the decision on which unfairness mitigationalgorithm or metric to use in a particular context remains largely unknown. On thispremise, we performed a comparative evaluation of some selected unfairness mitigationalgorithms regarded in the fair ML community to have shown promising results. Using a3-year program dropout data from an Australian university, we comparatively evaluatedhow the unfairness mitigation algorithms contribute to ethical LA by testing for somehypotheses across fairness and performance metrics. Interestingly, our results show howdata bias does not always necessarily result in predictive bias. Perhaps not surprisingly,our test for fairness-utility tradeoff shows how ensuring fairness does not always lead todrop in utility. Indeed, our results show that ensuring fairness might lead to enhanced utilityunder specific circumstance. Our findings may to some extent, guide fairness algorithmand metric selection for a given context.

A Fusion Of Sensors Information On Path Tracking For Autonomous Driving Control Of An Electric Vehicle (EV)

Depending on an intellectual level and experience, each human may make judgments and respond to situations autonomously. The driver is alerted and knows what to do in a specific circumstance while driving. This research aims to see how individuals act when driving an electric car down a predetermined path. An electric buggy car is built with equipment and sensors called an Electric Vehicle (EV) in experiments. Individuals who meet specified requirements are chosen to analyse their driving behaviours, and data is collected using various sensors. The speed, steering wheel angle, heading, and position of the buggy car are recorded throughout the human navigation trials. After the tests, data on human behaviour while driving straight and turning left and right are collected.

The emerging possibility of the use of geniposide in the treatment of cerebral diseases: a review

With the advanced discoveries in the field of pathogenesis, a series of cerebral diseases, such as cerebral ischaemia, Alzheimer's disease, and depression, have been found to have multiple signalling targets in the microenvironment. Only a few existing agents have been shown to have curative effects due to this specific circumstance. In recent decades, active ingredients isolated from natural plants have been shown to be crucial for original drug development. Geniposide, mainly extracted from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, is representative of these natural products. Geniposide demonstrates various biological activities in the treatment of cerebral, cardiovascular, hepatic, tumorous, and other diseases. The multiple protective effects of geniposide on the brain have especially drawn increasing attention. Thus, this article specifically reviews the characteristics of current models of cerebral ischaemia and illustrates the possible effects of geniposide and its pathogenetic mechanisms on these models. Geniposide has been shown to significantly reduce the area of cerebral infarction and alleviate neuronal damage and necrosis mainly by inhibiting inflammatory signals, including NLRP3, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β. Neuronal protection was also involved in activating the PI3K/Akt and Wnt/catenin pathways. Geniposide was able to increase autophagy and inhibit apoptosis by regulating the function of mTOR in treating Alzheimer's disease. Geniposide has also been shown to act as a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist to reduce amyloid plaques and inhibit oxidative stress to alleviate memory impairment as well as synaptic loss. Moreover, geniposide has been shown to exert antidepressant effects primarily by regulating the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Detailed explorations have shown that the biological activities of inhibiting inflammatory cytokine secretion, alleviating oxidative stress, and suppressing mitochondrial damage are also involved in the mechanism of action of geniposide. Therefore, geniposide is a promising agent awaiting further exploration for the treatment of cerebral diseases via various phenotypes or signalling pathways.

Role of soil microbiota in soil fertility

Long- term adoption of total agricultural approach which negatively influences the soil prolificacy, soil microbiome and may compromise the feature and amount of crop mass production. In agriculture, soil is a critical part, in which the original sources of nutrients for grow crops and the microorganisms is very important to improve soil texture or soil health for healthy growing crops. Soil microbiota are an energetic component of soil and showed varieties useful activities in the soil system. Soil richness is the characteristic limit of a soil to give the fundamental plant supplements in sufficient sums and legitimate extents for plant development. There is an enormous chance to upgrade soil ripeness through microorganisms, as organisms are “inherent” soil controllers and impetuses adding to reusing of supplements into accessible inorganic structures and give early admonition of land corruption. The core interest of this part is on the possibility of utilizing organisms as decomposers of (cellulose, protein and lignin), formers (humus, nitrate and nitrite), nitrogen fixers, ammonifiers, oxidizers (iron, hydrogen and sulfur), phosphorus solubilizers and denitrifiers. In this specific circumstance, the components viz., natural toxins and environmental change that limit the improvement of soil richness. Today’s, there is great trial for the agricultural system in which growing the human population is a great problem in the land breakdown and decrease the microbial population that’s why enhance the soil fertility and plant growth rate decreases. Therefore, in this review we describe the benefits of soil microbiota to maintain soil fertility.

Advance requests for MAiD in dementia: Policy recommendations emerging from a mixed-methods study of the views of the Canadian public and MAiD practitioners

BackgroundThe Canadian public has repeatedly expressed its desire for advance requests for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) after dementia diagnosis, yet MAiD practitioners’ willingness to accede to such advance requests is unknown. This study explores the extent and nature of any gap between the public’s desire for, and practitioners’ willingness to provide MAiD, and identifies policies to ameliorate such a gap.MethodsTwo complementary mixed-method surveys gathered data from convenience samples of 83 Canadian adults and 103 MAiD practitioners. The public survey asked participants which of five specific circumstances commonly encountered in dementia they would include in their advance requests. The practitioner survey queried the validation level participants would require before providing MAiD in each specific circumstance. Participants’ reasons were probed using thematic analysis of open-ended questions.ResultsOn average, 77% of public participants indicated they definitely or probably would include each of the five specific circumstances in their advance requests for MAiD. As validation level decreased from patient consent to patient assent, family assent, or advance request alone, the magnitude of the gap between the public’s desire and practitioners’ willingness increased. The practitioners’ qualitative data contained many practical insights from which emerged seven policy recommendations to ameliorate this gap and increase the likelihood of honouring patient requests.InterpretationThe study provides evidence of a gap between public desire for, and practitioner willingness to provide MAiD in dementia. The policy recommendations are relevant to consideration of legislation for advance requests for MAiD.

The Impact of Slavery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: From the Communal to the Individual

Slavery is a state of extraordinary physical, scholarly, passionate, and otherworldly hardship, a sort of terrible life. This paper targets investigating how the way of life of white bigotry endorsed official frameworks of separation as well as a perplexing code of discourse, conduct, and social practices intended to make racial domination genuine as well as normal and inescapable. In her magnum opus, Beloved (1987), Toni Morrison depicts the dehumanizing impacts of subjection on the past and memory of her courageous woman. Morrison has committed her scholarly profession to guaranteeing that dark experience under, and because of, subjection would not be left to understandings exclusively at the directs of whites. This investigation shows how Toni Morrison has prevailing with regards to uncovering the physical and mental harm perpetrated on African American individuals by the ruthless brutality that comprised American subjugation. The paper, in this specific circumstance, researches how the memory and the past of the courageous woman go about as destroyers of her protective presence.

Beyond PS-LTE: Security Model Design Framework for PPDR Operational Environment

National disasters can threaten national security and require several organizations to integrate the functionalities to correspond to the event. Many countries are constructing a nationwide mobile communication network infrastructure to share information and promptly communicate with corresponding organizations. Public Safety Long-Term Evolution (PS-LTE) is a communication mechanism adopted in many countries to achieve such a purpose. Organizations can increase the efficiency of public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) operations by securely connecting the services run on their legacy networks to the PS-LTE infrastructure. This environment allows the organizations to continue facilitating the information and system functionalities provided by the legacy network. The vulnerabilities in the environment, which differ from commercial LTE, need to be resolved to connect the network securely. In this study, we propose a security model design framework to derive the system architecture and the security requirements targeting the restricted environment applied by certain technologies for a particular purpose. After analyzing the PPDR operation environment’s characteristics under the PS-LTE infrastructure, we applied the framework to derive the security model for organizations using PPDR services operated in their legacy networks through this infrastructure. Although the proposed security model design framework is applied to the specific circumstance in this research, it can be generally adopted for the application environment.

Examining the relationship between unwillingness to translate and personality type of Iranian translation students

The current study was set to investigate the relationship between unwillingness to translate and personality type of Iranian translation students. To this end, 100 Iranian EFL students studying English translation at Emam Reza and Tabaran Universities in Mashhad, Iran, were randomly selected. The participants aged from 20 to 57 years old. Two research instruments were utilized, namely unwillingness to translate (UWTT) questionnaire and personality questionnaire. The data were gathered during the second semester of the academic year. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics correlation coefficient. The findings revealed that Perceiving personality type had a significant negative effect on participants' UWTT. Actually, perceiving personality type is in negative direction with Factor 3 of UWTT (low salary and lack of translation motivation). In addition, the situational level UWTT is regarded as a state-specific variable which is a transient influence dependent on specific circumstance i.e., low salary and open to changes that is to say lack of translation motivation. While state-level or situational WTC empowers language learners to initiate communication within a specific context, state-level UWTT disables language learners to initiate communication within a specific context.

THE DEFINING MOMENTS OF BUSINESS SUCCESS AMONG WOMEN MICRO-ENTREPRENEURS

Empirical studies indicate that the unprecedented number of women who engaged in entrepreneurial endeavors is significantly increasing and their participation in entrepreneurship was fueled by their experiences, role at home, and societal norms. This paper defines the business success and illuminates its meaning from the perspective of women micro-entrepreneurs. A systematic literature review approach was employed in using pre-determined keywords. For the purpose of this study, these literatures are limited within the scope of women micro-entrepreneurship which are published in peer reviewed journals from 2001 to 2019. Findings of this literature review showed that women micro-entrepreneurs used subjective terms to define and interpret success instead of solely using quantitative criteria. From the selected readings, the definition of success has been refined and illuminated and expressed such in specific circumstance that translates to ‘moments of success’. Among the moments that define their success are autonomy, personal contentment, enjoyment, being able to control destiny, survival during hard times, and the skills developed. These moments further have afforded them to attain empowerment allowing them to gain status in the society. Philosophically, most of these researches are considered within post-positivist and constructivist worldviews and it is suggested that future studies, in view of multiple realities and innovative approach, a pragmatist view may be considered.

Spirituality and Quality of Life Among University Students During Covid-19 Pandemic

This research is aimed to examine the quality of students’ life during the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, we want to explore how much spiritual wisdom the students possess which enables them to successfully face the catastrophe. To measure the quality of student life, WHOQoL-BREF questionnaire which is short questionnaire consists of 26 items version of World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment (WHOQoL-100), with some amendments, will be employed. The scope of this cross-sectional study is confined to students who are taking university courses in semester 2, 2019/2020, with the total of 160 samples. This research is considered important because spirituality not only allows humans to respond appropriately in a specific circumstance or scenario, but also to analyze why they are in that state, and how they can adapt, accept and adjust to the situation. Spirituality is the intelligence of the soul, the wisdom with which we can heal ourselves and make ourselves whole, full of sense, intent and value, particularly in times of pandemic, adversity and uncertainty like COVID-19 in relation to the link between superpower, oneself, others and nature