This study sets the objective to involve undergraduate students in the evaluation of radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology programmes in Sudanese universities. Based on the analysis of survey results in w...This study sets the objective to involve undergraduate students in the evaluation of radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology programmes in Sudanese universities. Based on the analysis of survey results in which the participants (BSc students undertaking radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology programmes at university level) are asked to answer both closed and open-ended questions, the study seeks to reveal the participants’ perceptions and introspections about the radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology programmes in Sudan. It also attempts to explore the participants’ suggestions and recommendations as to enhance the quality of these programmes with an eye to helping syllabus designers to improve these programmes, thereby bettering healthcare services for the larger good to the community. A brief cross-sectional survey is completed by a total of 105 radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology students, i.e. 39 (37.1%) third-year students and 66 (62.9%) fourth-year students. The majority of participants is satisfied with the programmes, indicating that they are up-to-date and ran abreast with the latest developments in the field. Very few suggest that the programmes should be reviewed for revision, implying that there is room for improvement. Some participants recommend that more training hours in modern imaging modalities (e.g. MRI, CT and U/S) should be introduced. Only one participant recommends the introduction of advanced training centres.展开更多
Climate change is a major global environmental and developmental challenge and climate proofing of vulnerable sectors, programmes, natural systems and communities by integrating adaptation and mitigation options into ...Climate change is a major global environmental and developmental challenge and climate proofing of vulnerable sectors, programmes, natural systems and communities by integrating adaptation and mitigation options into planning process are increasingly becoming an integral part of development. The basic premises on which this could happen are the national and sectoral policies that govern any programmes and actions implemented on ground. This study reviews existing policies, plans and programmes and their implications for climate change. Based on the analyses, key areas of research, policy initiatives and institutional and capacity development needs have been identified, to facilitate climate change adaptation. The forest policies formulated so far in India have been broadly aimed at conservation, reduction of pressure on forests and provisioning of biomass to the large forest dependent population for their fuel and fodder needs apart from generating revenue through production and sale of timber. However, these have not been formulated with climate change as a consideration and therefore may become less effective as climate change and its impacts become increasingly evident. The study clearly identifies that the current policies and programmes have elements/features and activities that directly or indirectly contribute positively towards adaptation, although the primary implications are towards biodiversity and to some extent ecosystem functioning. It finally highlights the need for incorporating climate change concerns in forest sector development programmes and also to address the issue of climate change.展开更多
Many issues and challenges are faced by the managers programmes today. Although many previous researches on and professionals in managing sport and recreation service quality provided by the organizations had been exp...Many issues and challenges are faced by the managers programmes today. Although many previous researches on and professionals in managing sport and recreation service quality provided by the organizations had been explored, very few studies pertaining to service quality in sport and recreation programmes in local hotels and resorts have been emphasized. This study aims to assess customers' perceptions of service quality in sport and recreation programmes and to determine the differences between customers' perceptions of service quality in terms of their gender and nationality. A total of 450 respondents from the hotels and resorts located in coastal areas of the northern Peninsular Malaysia participated in the survey. They were asked to respond to a series of the adapted service quality (SERVQUAL) items to measure five dimensions of service quality including tangibles, assurance, responsiveness, reliability, and empathy. Results from this study revealed that the customers' perceptions of the overall services in sport and recreation programmes provided by the hotels and resorts were satisfactory. It was also indicated that there was no significant difference between male and female customers' perceptions of service quality in sport and recreation programmes. Conversely, the results revealed that there was a significant difference between local and foreign customers' perceptions of sport and recreation services provided. These findings had implications on sport and recreation programmes in relation to designing effective management and marketing strategies at hotels and resorts.展开更多
Antibiotic usage and increasing antimicrobial resistance(AMR) mount significant challenges to patient safety and management of the critically ill on intensive care units(ICU). Antibiotic stewardship programmes(ASPs) a...Antibiotic usage and increasing antimicrobial resistance(AMR) mount significant challenges to patient safety and management of the critically ill on intensive care units(ICU). Antibiotic stewardship programmes(ASPs) aim to optimise appropriate antibiotic treatment whilst minimising antibiotic resistance. Different models of ASP in intensive care setting, include "standard" control of antibiotic prescribing such as "de-escalation strategies"through to interventional approaches utilising biomarkerguided antibiotic prescribing. A systematic review of outcomes related studies for ASPs in an ICU setting was conducted. Forty three studies were identified from MEDLINE between 1996 and 2014. Of 34 nonprotocolised studies, [1 randomised control trial(RCT), 22 observational and 11 case series], 29(85%) were positive with respect to one or more outcome: These were the key outcome of reduced antibiotic use, or ICU length of stay, antibiotic resistance, or prescribing cost burden. Limitations of non-standard antibiotic initiation triggers, patient and antibiotic selection bias or baseline demographic variance were identified. All 9 protocolised studies were RCTs, of which 8 were procalcitonin(PCT) guided antibiotic stop/start interventions. Five studies addressed antibiotic escalation, 3 de-escalation and 1 addressed both. Six studies reported positive outcomes for reduced antibiotic use, ICU length of stay or antibiotic resistance. PCT based ASPs are effective as antibiotic-stop(de-escalation) triggers, but not as an escalation trigger alone. PCT has also been effective in reducing antibiotic usage without worsening morbidity or mortality in ventilator associated pulmonary infection. No study has demonstrated survival benefit of ASP. Ongoing challenges to infectious disease management, reported by the World Health Organisation global report 2014, are high AMR to newer antibiotics, and regional knowledge gaps in AMR surveillance. Improved AMR surveillance data, identifying core aspects of successful ASPs that are transferable, and further well-conducted trials will be necessary if ASPs are to be an effective platform for delivering desired patient outcomes and safety through best antibiotic policy.展开更多
It has been suggested that the success of an ER project can largely rely on several elements,such as the selection of appropriate materials,establishment of management system,workshop for training teachers. Among thos...It has been suggested that the success of an ER project can largely rely on several elements,such as the selection of appropriate materials,establishment of management system,workshop for training teachers. Among those,teachers play an indispensable role due to the fact that it is the teachers who are capable of turning conceptions into actions,who get students engaged and bridge and gap between the goals of the programme and the reality in classroom. This paper is an attempt to outline a detailed picture to demonstrate how to offer effective training courses which can enable teachers to play"multiple roles"to make great contribution to the development of an ER project.展开更多
The analysis is targeted on the financial impact of non-compliance to rules for European Union (EU) funding in thefield of research in quantitative terms, by examining statistical documents prepared by the European ...The analysis is targeted on the financial impact of non-compliance to rules for European Union (EU) funding in thefield of research in quantitative terms, by examining statistical documents prepared by the European Commissionwhich are available for the public and relate to the period 2008-2016. It is to be noted that these statisticaldocuments use the terminology of irregularity instead of error and it is seen as any breach of rules that may lead toa financial impact and to damage on the budget of the European Union. Details related to error and irregularityterms are included in this paper. In the research on the impact of irregularities for EU research funding, severaltasks were accomplished, such as highlighting the evolution of irregularities during the period under study, acomparison between reported irregularities in the research field and other EU policy areas for one year where thefinancial impact is the highest and an analysis of the types of irregularities identified by the statistical evaluationdocuments on irregularities.展开更多
The paper presents findings from a study carried out to assess the contribution of stakeholders’participation on the performance of the national agricultural farmers’extension services programme in Uganda known as O...The paper presents findings from a study carried out to assess the contribution of stakeholders’participation on the performance of the national agricultural farmers’extension services programme in Uganda known as Operation Wealth Creation(OWEC).Specifically,the study sought to establish how participatory planning,budgeting,monitoring and evaluation(M&E)respectively contributed to the performance of OWC in selected district in central Uganda.The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design using both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques and employed both questionnaires and interview guides on key participants in the programme.Findings of the study indicated positive relationships between stakeholders’participation and programme performance with participatory planning,budgeting and M&E all having positive significant effects on the performance of OWC programme.The study concluded that indeed stakeholders’participation contributed to improved performance of the OWC programme.The study recommends increased funding and M&E of the agricultural extension programmes for improved performance.展开更多
This study analysed the socio-economic contributions of N-Power programme amongst the beneficiaries of the scheme in Benue State.Prior to the introduction of N-Power programme,successive administrations in Nigeria hav...This study analysed the socio-economic contributions of N-Power programme amongst the beneficiaries of the scheme in Benue State.Prior to the introduction of N-Power programme,successive administrations in Nigeria have made concerted efforts towards improving the standard of living of the citizenry through the execution of various welfare or social intervention programmes,but not much successes were recorded.Learning from the mistakes of the past regimes,and by way of deliberate state policy,the Buhari’s government initiated a multi-pronged social investment policy,one of which is the N-power programme that came onboard in 2016,which also doubles as the subject of this study.To achieve the goal of this study,a combination of desktop research and survey design was employed.Questionnaires were administered to 390 respondents through a combination of stratified and random sampling techniques.The results of the survey were matched with that of the secondary data obtained through online websites and other related sources.The result indicated that N-Power made positive contributions to the socio-economic life of the beneficiaries in Benue State:specifically,the scheme contributed in poverty eradication,employment generation,skills acquisitions and capacity building.However,some aspect of our findings revealed that the programme has a number of challenges such as:inadequate cash support,delay in monthly cash transfer to beneficiaries,distance participants had to move to their work stations,absence of posting in N-Teach scheme,and lack of adequate working tools amongst others.To salvage this problem the paper recommended the following solutions:expansion of the scheme to cover N-Teach and other aspects,increment in the monthly cash transfer to cushion the high rate of inflation,support for the participants/beneficiaries in transportation and logistics,enrolment of more youth into the various schemes,proper monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the schemes amongst others.展开更多
Research on international students’learning experiences pays much less attention to those studying semester and/or year-long programmes in a country that differs significantly from their home country with respect to ...Research on international students’learning experiences pays much less attention to those studying semester and/or year-long programmes in a country that differs significantly from their home country with respect to culture and the education system.Adopting transformative learning theory as the theoretical framework,this paper explores the learning effectiveness of students on such programme in a Chinese and in a UK university.It analyses the narratives of 27 students in relation to their cognitive and behavioural activities and also their self-reflective and collaborative reflective activities.The findings indicate that these students only partially achieved transformative learning.The main reasons are:(1)the duration of this type of programme was not long enough to achieve a full transformation and(2)both host universities did not include reflection in the learning process properly.This paper makes a contribution to cross-border learning literature in the Chinese and the UK contexts.展开更多
In the process of programmable networks simplifying network management and increasing network flexibility through custom packet behavior,security incidents caused by human logic errors are seriously threatening their ...In the process of programmable networks simplifying network management and increasing network flexibility through custom packet behavior,security incidents caused by human logic errors are seriously threatening their safe operation,robust verificationmethods are required to ensure their correctness.As one of the formalmethods,symbolic execution offers a viable approach for verifying programmable networks by systematically exploring all possible paths within a program.However,its application in this field encounters scalability issues due to path explosion and complex constraint-solving.Therefore,in this paper,we propose NetVerifier,a scalable verification system for programmable networks.Tomitigate the path explosion issue,we developmultiple pruning strategies that strategically eliminate irrelevant execution paths while preserving verification integrity by precisely identifying the execution paths related to the verification purpose.To address the complex constraint-solving problem,we introduce an execution results reuse solution to avoid redundant computation of the same constraints.To apply these solutions intelligently,a matching algorithm is implemented to automatically select appropriate solutions based on the characteristics of the verification requirement.Moreover,Language Aided Verification(LAV),an assertion language,is designed to express verification intentions in a concise form.Experimental results on diverse open-source programs of varying scales demonstrate NetVerifier’s improvement in scalability and effectiveness in identifying potential network errors.In the best scenario,compared with ASSERT-P4,NetVerifier reduced the execution path,verification time,and memory occupation of the verification process by 99.92%,94.76%,and 65.19%,respectively.展开更多
The rapid growth of distributed data-centric applications and AI workloads increases demand for low-latency,high-throughput communication,necessitating frequent and flexible updates to network routing configurations.H...The rapid growth of distributed data-centric applications and AI workloads increases demand for low-latency,high-throughput communication,necessitating frequent and flexible updates to network routing configurations.However,maintaining consistent forwarding states during these updates is challenging,particularly when rerouting multiple flows simultaneously.Existing approaches pay little attention to multi-flow update,where improper update sequences across data plane nodes may construct deadlock dependencies.Moreover,these methods typically involve excessive control-data plane interactions,incurring significant resource overhead and performance degradation.This paper presents P4LoF,an efficient loop-free update approach that enables the controller to reroute multiple flows through minimal interactions.P4LoF first utilizes a greedy-based algorithm to generate the shortest update dependency chain for the single-flow update.These chains are then dynamically merged into a dependency graph and resolved as a Shortest Common Super-sequence(SCS)problem to produce the update sequence of multi-flow update.To address deadlock dependencies in multi-flow updates,P4LoF builds a deadlock-fix forwarding model that leverages the flexible packet processing capabilities of the programmable data plane.Experimental results show that P4LoF reduces control-data plane interactions by at least 32.6%with modest overhead,while effectively guaranteeing loop-free consistency.展开更多
Metamaterials programmed with target rate-dependent mechanical properties are efficient platforms for realizing advanced functionalities.Yet,the loading rate-dependent mechanical property programming has received limi...Metamaterials programmed with target rate-dependent mechanical properties are efficient platforms for realizing advanced functionalities.Yet,the loading rate-dependent mechanical property programming has received limited attention.Here,the“stair-building”strategy is employed in the rate domain by combining the bistability with viscoelasticity.An arbitrary target curve in the programmable space can be approximated by a“stair”built by two kinds of“bricks”.The“bricks”can be realized by a dual-bistable unit,constructed by two bistable structures in series.The dual-bistable unit can switch between two efficient stable phases without inducing changes in the global morphology.Such a unit exhibits N-shaped stress-strain curves at both efficient stable phases with different peak values,resulting in different heights of“bricks”.Moreover,the N-shaped curves have rate-dependent peak values,indicating that the heights of“bricks”change with loading rate.The“stair-building”strategy is realized by array-structured mechanical metamaterials based on dual-bistable units.Different stress-strain curves under various loading rates can be reprogrammed in the same piece of metamaterial by intentionally selecting the efficient stable phases of units.Besides,the rate effect of the metamaterial can also be tuned by reprogramming stress-strain curves under both low and high loading rates,respectively.This reprogrammable metamaterial is promising in smart vibration isolators and adaptive energy absorbers.展开更多
Ceramic 4D printing,which integrates dynamic deformation with additive manufacturing,demonstrates significant potential in intelligent manufacturing,on-demand shaping of complex structures,and multifunctional device d...Ceramic 4D printing,which integrates dynamic deformation with additive manufacturing,demonstrates significant potential in intelligent manufacturing,on-demand shaping of complex structures,and multifunctional device development.Its core advantage lies in endowing materials with environmentally responsive dynamic deformation capabilities.However,current technologies still face limitations in responsiveness,reversibility,and mechanical performance.To address these challenges,this study proposes a programmable ceramic precursor system based on synergistic reinforcement of phase-separating hydrogels and shape memory polymers,combined with a nano-ceramic particle enhancement strategy.Using stereolithography 3D printing,high-precision fabrication of complex structures was achieved.By adjusting precursor composition,programming time,and structural thickness,the phase-separation kinetics-driven delayed recovery mechanism was elucidated,enabling precise control over recovery onset time.Furthermore,the thermal response mechanism of the precursor materials is explored,along with their potential for multi-shape transformation in biomedical applications,which is further extended to shape memory polymer systems.By employing a layered printing strategy,the autonomous reversible deformation of ceramic precursors is realized,providing new possibilities for specific applications.展开更多
The von Neumann bottleneck in conventional computing architectures presents a significant challenge for data-inten-sive artificial intelligence applications.A promising approach involves designing specialized hardware...The von Neumann bottleneck in conventional computing architectures presents a significant challenge for data-inten-sive artificial intelligence applications.A promising approach involves designing specialized hardware with on-chip parameter tunability,which directly accelerates machine learning functions.This work demonstrates a continuously tunable mixed-kernel function physically realized within a van der Waals heterostructure.We designed and fabricated a MoTe_(2)/MoS_(2)type-Ⅱvertical heterojunction phototransistor,which exhibits a non-monotonic,Gaussian-like optoelectronic response owing to its unique inter-layer charge transfer mechanism.This intrinsic physical behavior directly maps to a mixed-kernel function combining Gaussian and Sigmoid characteristics.Furthermore,the hardware kernel can be continuously modulated by in-situ tuning of external opti-cal stimuli.The mixed-kernel exhibited exceptional performance,achieving precision,accuracy,and area under the curve(AUC)values of 95.8%,96%,and 0.9986,respectively,significantly outperforming conventional kernels.By successfully embedding a complex,adaptable mathematical function into the intrinsic physical properties of a single device,this work pioneers a novel pathway toward next-generation,energy-efficient intelligent systems with hardware-level adaptability.展开更多
Saud Khan,a Pakistani physician,collected his work and residence permits at the Yangpu Government Service Centre in Danzhou City,Hainan Province,on 18 December 2025.Khan had arrived in Hainan three months earlier to p...Saud Khan,a Pakistani physician,collected his work and residence permits at the Yangpu Government Service Centre in Danzhou City,Hainan Province,on 18 December 2025.Khan had arrived in Hainan three months earlier to participate in a medical training programme at Hainan Western Central Hospital.By the time the programme concluded,he had made up his mind to stay and broaden his professional experience and long-term career prospects in Hainan.展开更多
With the widespread adoption of digital equipment in intelligent substations,testing digital signals in power systems has become an important role for relay protection test equipment.Testing and calibrating digital si...With the widespread adoption of digital equipment in intelligent substations,testing digital signals in power systems has become an important role for relay protection test equipment.Testing and calibrating digital signals require high accuracy.However,existing methods have low precision,cannot be calibrated at full range for all indexes,and have complex configuration,making them unsuitable for routine calibration work.To solve the above problems,a novel calibration method is designed and implemented using field programmable gate array(FPGA)to achieve accurate input and output time control.Accurate calibration relies on multiple forms of traceability including theoretical value traceability based on waveform comparison,time scale value traceability based on accurate time stamps,and algorithm traceability based on typical algorithms.Compared with other existing methods,the proposed approach reduces the mean absolute error of action time and time measurement by 92.88%,effectively addressing a key industry challenge and offering a valuable reference for further research,application,and standardization.展开更多
In a pivotal moment for global conservation policy,UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere(MAB)Programme has endorsed the Hangzhou Strategic Action Plan(HSAP)2026–2035(UNESCO,2025),a decade-long roadmap that positions the Wo...In a pivotal moment for global conservation policy,UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere(MAB)Programme has endorsed the Hangzhou Strategic Action Plan(HSAP)2026–2035(UNESCO,2025),a decade-long roadmap that positions the World Network of Biosphere Reserves(WNBR)as central actors in delivering biodiversity,climate and sustainable-development goals(SDGs).The plan—developed and opened for global consultation in the runup to the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves—articulates strategic directions,measurable action targets and practical instruments to strengthen biosphere reserves as living laboratories for people and nature(Ma,2025).展开更多
文摘This study sets the objective to involve undergraduate students in the evaluation of radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology programmes in Sudanese universities. Based on the analysis of survey results in which the participants (BSc students undertaking radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology programmes at university level) are asked to answer both closed and open-ended questions, the study seeks to reveal the participants’ perceptions and introspections about the radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology programmes in Sudan. It also attempts to explore the participants’ suggestions and recommendations as to enhance the quality of these programmes with an eye to helping syllabus designers to improve these programmes, thereby bettering healthcare services for the larger good to the community. A brief cross-sectional survey is completed by a total of 105 radiologic sciences and medical imaging technology students, i.e. 39 (37.1%) third-year students and 66 (62.9%) fourth-year students. The majority of participants is satisfied with the programmes, indicating that they are up-to-date and ran abreast with the latest developments in the field. Very few suggest that the programmes should be reviewed for revision, implying that there is room for improvement. Some participants recommend that more training hours in modern imaging modalities (e.g. MRI, CT and U/S) should be introduced. Only one participant recommends the introduction of advanced training centres.
文摘Climate change is a major global environmental and developmental challenge and climate proofing of vulnerable sectors, programmes, natural systems and communities by integrating adaptation and mitigation options into planning process are increasingly becoming an integral part of development. The basic premises on which this could happen are the national and sectoral policies that govern any programmes and actions implemented on ground. This study reviews existing policies, plans and programmes and their implications for climate change. Based on the analyses, key areas of research, policy initiatives and institutional and capacity development needs have been identified, to facilitate climate change adaptation. The forest policies formulated so far in India have been broadly aimed at conservation, reduction of pressure on forests and provisioning of biomass to the large forest dependent population for their fuel and fodder needs apart from generating revenue through production and sale of timber. However, these have not been formulated with climate change as a consideration and therefore may become less effective as climate change and its impacts become increasingly evident. The study clearly identifies that the current policies and programmes have elements/features and activities that directly or indirectly contribute positively towards adaptation, although the primary implications are towards biodiversity and to some extent ecosystem functioning. It finally highlights the need for incorporating climate change concerns in forest sector development programmes and also to address the issue of climate change.
文摘Many issues and challenges are faced by the managers programmes today. Although many previous researches on and professionals in managing sport and recreation service quality provided by the organizations had been explored, very few studies pertaining to service quality in sport and recreation programmes in local hotels and resorts have been emphasized. This study aims to assess customers' perceptions of service quality in sport and recreation programmes and to determine the differences between customers' perceptions of service quality in terms of their gender and nationality. A total of 450 respondents from the hotels and resorts located in coastal areas of the northern Peninsular Malaysia participated in the survey. They were asked to respond to a series of the adapted service quality (SERVQUAL) items to measure five dimensions of service quality including tangibles, assurance, responsiveness, reliability, and empathy. Results from this study revealed that the customers' perceptions of the overall services in sport and recreation programmes provided by the hotels and resorts were satisfactory. It was also indicated that there was no significant difference between male and female customers' perceptions of service quality in sport and recreation programmes. Conversely, the results revealed that there was a significant difference between local and foreign customers' perceptions of sport and recreation services provided. These findings had implications on sport and recreation programmes in relation to designing effective management and marketing strategies at hotels and resorts.
文摘Antibiotic usage and increasing antimicrobial resistance(AMR) mount significant challenges to patient safety and management of the critically ill on intensive care units(ICU). Antibiotic stewardship programmes(ASPs) aim to optimise appropriate antibiotic treatment whilst minimising antibiotic resistance. Different models of ASP in intensive care setting, include "standard" control of antibiotic prescribing such as "de-escalation strategies"through to interventional approaches utilising biomarkerguided antibiotic prescribing. A systematic review of outcomes related studies for ASPs in an ICU setting was conducted. Forty three studies were identified from MEDLINE between 1996 and 2014. Of 34 nonprotocolised studies, [1 randomised control trial(RCT), 22 observational and 11 case series], 29(85%) were positive with respect to one or more outcome: These were the key outcome of reduced antibiotic use, or ICU length of stay, antibiotic resistance, or prescribing cost burden. Limitations of non-standard antibiotic initiation triggers, patient and antibiotic selection bias or baseline demographic variance were identified. All 9 protocolised studies were RCTs, of which 8 were procalcitonin(PCT) guided antibiotic stop/start interventions. Five studies addressed antibiotic escalation, 3 de-escalation and 1 addressed both. Six studies reported positive outcomes for reduced antibiotic use, ICU length of stay or antibiotic resistance. PCT based ASPs are effective as antibiotic-stop(de-escalation) triggers, but not as an escalation trigger alone. PCT has also been effective in reducing antibiotic usage without worsening morbidity or mortality in ventilator associated pulmonary infection. No study has demonstrated survival benefit of ASP. Ongoing challenges to infectious disease management, reported by the World Health Organisation global report 2014, are high AMR to newer antibiotics, and regional knowledge gaps in AMR surveillance. Improved AMR surveillance data, identifying core aspects of successful ASPs that are transferable, and further well-conducted trials will be necessary if ASPs are to be an effective platform for delivering desired patient outcomes and safety through best antibiotic policy.
文摘It has been suggested that the success of an ER project can largely rely on several elements,such as the selection of appropriate materials,establishment of management system,workshop for training teachers. Among those,teachers play an indispensable role due to the fact that it is the teachers who are capable of turning conceptions into actions,who get students engaged and bridge and gap between the goals of the programme and the reality in classroom. This paper is an attempt to outline a detailed picture to demonstrate how to offer effective training courses which can enable teachers to play"multiple roles"to make great contribution to the development of an ER project.
文摘The analysis is targeted on the financial impact of non-compliance to rules for European Union (EU) funding in thefield of research in quantitative terms, by examining statistical documents prepared by the European Commissionwhich are available for the public and relate to the period 2008-2016. It is to be noted that these statisticaldocuments use the terminology of irregularity instead of error and it is seen as any breach of rules that may lead toa financial impact and to damage on the budget of the European Union. Details related to error and irregularityterms are included in this paper. In the research on the impact of irregularities for EU research funding, severaltasks were accomplished, such as highlighting the evolution of irregularities during the period under study, acomparison between reported irregularities in the research field and other EU policy areas for one year where thefinancial impact is the highest and an analysis of the types of irregularities identified by the statistical evaluationdocuments on irregularities.
文摘The paper presents findings from a study carried out to assess the contribution of stakeholders’participation on the performance of the national agricultural farmers’extension services programme in Uganda known as Operation Wealth Creation(OWEC).Specifically,the study sought to establish how participatory planning,budgeting,monitoring and evaluation(M&E)respectively contributed to the performance of OWC in selected district in central Uganda.The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design using both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques and employed both questionnaires and interview guides on key participants in the programme.Findings of the study indicated positive relationships between stakeholders’participation and programme performance with participatory planning,budgeting and M&E all having positive significant effects on the performance of OWC programme.The study concluded that indeed stakeholders’participation contributed to improved performance of the OWC programme.The study recommends increased funding and M&E of the agricultural extension programmes for improved performance.
文摘This study analysed the socio-economic contributions of N-Power programme amongst the beneficiaries of the scheme in Benue State.Prior to the introduction of N-Power programme,successive administrations in Nigeria have made concerted efforts towards improving the standard of living of the citizenry through the execution of various welfare or social intervention programmes,but not much successes were recorded.Learning from the mistakes of the past regimes,and by way of deliberate state policy,the Buhari’s government initiated a multi-pronged social investment policy,one of which is the N-power programme that came onboard in 2016,which also doubles as the subject of this study.To achieve the goal of this study,a combination of desktop research and survey design was employed.Questionnaires were administered to 390 respondents through a combination of stratified and random sampling techniques.The results of the survey were matched with that of the secondary data obtained through online websites and other related sources.The result indicated that N-Power made positive contributions to the socio-economic life of the beneficiaries in Benue State:specifically,the scheme contributed in poverty eradication,employment generation,skills acquisitions and capacity building.However,some aspect of our findings revealed that the programme has a number of challenges such as:inadequate cash support,delay in monthly cash transfer to beneficiaries,distance participants had to move to their work stations,absence of posting in N-Teach scheme,and lack of adequate working tools amongst others.To salvage this problem the paper recommended the following solutions:expansion of the scheme to cover N-Teach and other aspects,increment in the monthly cash transfer to cushion the high rate of inflation,support for the participants/beneficiaries in transportation and logistics,enrolment of more youth into the various schemes,proper monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the schemes amongst others.
文摘Research on international students’learning experiences pays much less attention to those studying semester and/or year-long programmes in a country that differs significantly from their home country with respect to culture and the education system.Adopting transformative learning theory as the theoretical framework,this paper explores the learning effectiveness of students on such programme in a Chinese and in a UK university.It analyses the narratives of 27 students in relation to their cognitive and behavioural activities and also their self-reflective and collaborative reflective activities.The findings indicate that these students only partially achieved transformative learning.The main reasons are:(1)the duration of this type of programme was not long enough to achieve a full transformation and(2)both host universities did not include reflection in the learning process properly.This paper makes a contribution to cross-border learning literature in the Chinese and the UK contexts.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2023YFB2903902in part by the Science and Technology Innovation Leading Talents Subsidy Project of Central Plains under Grant 244200510038.
文摘In the process of programmable networks simplifying network management and increasing network flexibility through custom packet behavior,security incidents caused by human logic errors are seriously threatening their safe operation,robust verificationmethods are required to ensure their correctness.As one of the formalmethods,symbolic execution offers a viable approach for verifying programmable networks by systematically exploring all possible paths within a program.However,its application in this field encounters scalability issues due to path explosion and complex constraint-solving.Therefore,in this paper,we propose NetVerifier,a scalable verification system for programmable networks.Tomitigate the path explosion issue,we developmultiple pruning strategies that strategically eliminate irrelevant execution paths while preserving verification integrity by precisely identifying the execution paths related to the verification purpose.To address the complex constraint-solving problem,we introduce an execution results reuse solution to avoid redundant computation of the same constraints.To apply these solutions intelligently,a matching algorithm is implemented to automatically select appropriate solutions based on the characteristics of the verification requirement.Moreover,Language Aided Verification(LAV),an assertion language,is designed to express verification intentions in a concise form.Experimental results on diverse open-source programs of varying scales demonstrate NetVerifier’s improvement in scalability and effectiveness in identifying potential network errors.In the best scenario,compared with ASSERT-P4,NetVerifier reduced the execution path,verification time,and memory occupation of the verification process by 99.92%,94.76%,and 65.19%,respectively.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2022YFB2901501in part by the Science and Technology Innovation leading Talents Subsidy Project of Central Plains under Grant 244200510038.
文摘The rapid growth of distributed data-centric applications and AI workloads increases demand for low-latency,high-throughput communication,necessitating frequent and flexible updates to network routing configurations.However,maintaining consistent forwarding states during these updates is challenging,particularly when rerouting multiple flows simultaneously.Existing approaches pay little attention to multi-flow update,where improper update sequences across data plane nodes may construct deadlock dependencies.Moreover,these methods typically involve excessive control-data plane interactions,incurring significant resource overhead and performance degradation.This paper presents P4LoF,an efficient loop-free update approach that enables the controller to reroute multiple flows through minimal interactions.P4LoF first utilizes a greedy-based algorithm to generate the shortest update dependency chain for the single-flow update.These chains are then dynamically merged into a dependency graph and resolved as a Shortest Common Super-sequence(SCS)problem to produce the update sequence of multi-flow update.To address deadlock dependencies in multi-flow updates,P4LoF builds a deadlock-fix forwarding model that leverages the flexible packet processing capabilities of the programmable data plane.Experimental results show that P4LoF reduces control-data plane interactions by at least 32.6%with modest overhead,while effectively guaranteeing loop-free consistency.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12225201,12372126,12002016,and 12172026)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2020YFB1313003)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities are gratefully acknowledged.
文摘Metamaterials programmed with target rate-dependent mechanical properties are efficient platforms for realizing advanced functionalities.Yet,the loading rate-dependent mechanical property programming has received limited attention.Here,the“stair-building”strategy is employed in the rate domain by combining the bistability with viscoelasticity.An arbitrary target curve in the programmable space can be approximated by a“stair”built by two kinds of“bricks”.The“bricks”can be realized by a dual-bistable unit,constructed by two bistable structures in series.The dual-bistable unit can switch between two efficient stable phases without inducing changes in the global morphology.Such a unit exhibits N-shaped stress-strain curves at both efficient stable phases with different peak values,resulting in different heights of“bricks”.Moreover,the N-shaped curves have rate-dependent peak values,indicating that the heights of“bricks”change with loading rate.The“stair-building”strategy is realized by array-structured mechanical metamaterials based on dual-bistable units.Different stress-strain curves under various loading rates can be reprogrammed in the same piece of metamaterial by intentionally selecting the efficient stable phases of units.Besides,the rate effect of the metamaterial can also be tuned by reprogramming stress-strain curves under both low and high loading rates,respectively.This reprogrammable metamaterial is promising in smart vibration isolators and adaptive energy absorbers.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.52025053 and 52235006)the Jilin Provincial Scientific and Technological Development Program(20220204119YY)the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province(ZR2023ME154)。
文摘Ceramic 4D printing,which integrates dynamic deformation with additive manufacturing,demonstrates significant potential in intelligent manufacturing,on-demand shaping of complex structures,and multifunctional device development.Its core advantage lies in endowing materials with environmentally responsive dynamic deformation capabilities.However,current technologies still face limitations in responsiveness,reversibility,and mechanical performance.To address these challenges,this study proposes a programmable ceramic precursor system based on synergistic reinforcement of phase-separating hydrogels and shape memory polymers,combined with a nano-ceramic particle enhancement strategy.Using stereolithography 3D printing,high-precision fabrication of complex structures was achieved.By adjusting precursor composition,programming time,and structural thickness,the phase-separation kinetics-driven delayed recovery mechanism was elucidated,enabling precise control over recovery onset time.Furthermore,the thermal response mechanism of the precursor materials is explored,along with their potential for multi-shape transformation in biomedical applications,which is further extended to shape memory polymer systems.By employing a layered printing strategy,the autonomous reversible deformation of ceramic precursors is realized,providing new possibilities for specific applications.
基金co-supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.62222404,T2450054,62304084,62504087,62361136587 and 92248304)the National Key Research and Development Plan of China(Grant No.2021YFB3601200)+3 种基金the Major Program of Hubei Province(Grant No.2023BAA009)the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme(Grant No.PDFS2223-4S06)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project(Grant No.2025M770530)the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of CPSF(Grant No.GZB20250136).
文摘The von Neumann bottleneck in conventional computing architectures presents a significant challenge for data-inten-sive artificial intelligence applications.A promising approach involves designing specialized hardware with on-chip parameter tunability,which directly accelerates machine learning functions.This work demonstrates a continuously tunable mixed-kernel function physically realized within a van der Waals heterostructure.We designed and fabricated a MoTe_(2)/MoS_(2)type-Ⅱvertical heterojunction phototransistor,which exhibits a non-monotonic,Gaussian-like optoelectronic response owing to its unique inter-layer charge transfer mechanism.This intrinsic physical behavior directly maps to a mixed-kernel function combining Gaussian and Sigmoid characteristics.Furthermore,the hardware kernel can be continuously modulated by in-situ tuning of external opti-cal stimuli.The mixed-kernel exhibited exceptional performance,achieving precision,accuracy,and area under the curve(AUC)values of 95.8%,96%,and 0.9986,respectively,significantly outperforming conventional kernels.By successfully embedding a complex,adaptable mathematical function into the intrinsic physical properties of a single device,this work pioneers a novel pathway toward next-generation,energy-efficient intelligent systems with hardware-level adaptability.
文摘Saud Khan,a Pakistani physician,collected his work and residence permits at the Yangpu Government Service Centre in Danzhou City,Hainan Province,on 18 December 2025.Khan had arrived in Hainan three months earlier to participate in a medical training programme at Hainan Western Central Hospital.By the time the programme concluded,he had made up his mind to stay and broaden his professional experience and long-term career prospects in Hainan.
基金supported by the Key Technologies R&D Program of Henan Province(No.242102211065)Postgraduate Education Reform and Quality Im-provement Project of Henan Province(No.YJS2025GZZ36).
文摘With the widespread adoption of digital equipment in intelligent substations,testing digital signals in power systems has become an important role for relay protection test equipment.Testing and calibrating digital signals require high accuracy.However,existing methods have low precision,cannot be calibrated at full range for all indexes,and have complex configuration,making them unsuitable for routine calibration work.To solve the above problems,a novel calibration method is designed and implemented using field programmable gate array(FPGA)to achieve accurate input and output time control.Accurate calibration relies on multiple forms of traceability including theoretical value traceability based on waveform comparison,time scale value traceability based on accurate time stamps,and algorithm traceability based on typical algorithms.Compared with other existing methods,the proposed approach reduces the mean absolute error of action time and time measurement by 92.88%,effectively addressing a key industry challenge and offering a valuable reference for further research,application,and standardization.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China,China(2022YFE0209400).
文摘In a pivotal moment for global conservation policy,UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere(MAB)Programme has endorsed the Hangzhou Strategic Action Plan(HSAP)2026–2035(UNESCO,2025),a decade-long roadmap that positions the World Network of Biosphere Reserves(WNBR)as central actors in delivering biodiversity,climate and sustainable-development goals(SDGs).The plan—developed and opened for global consultation in the runup to the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves—articulates strategic directions,measurable action targets and practical instruments to strengthen biosphere reserves as living laboratories for people and nature(Ma,2025).