Mainstream Systems Research Articles

When Mainstream and Alternative Media Integrate: A Polysystem Approach to Media System Interactions

In a diverse media ecosystem of transitions and integrations, this research uses polysystem theory to conceptualize the integration of alternative media systems within their mainstream media counterparts. These interactions are examined using interviews and participant observations through three case studies—(1–2) Integration of two independent web-content creator groups into mainstream Israeli television system and (3) integration of ultra-Orthodox filmmakers into mainstream Israeli cinema system. The findings show that stiff and flexible systems are two main forms of characterizing relations between alternative and mainstream systems—defined based on the specific interests and implications for each media system, including integrated content, producer perceptions, and audience reception. It includes themes of recognition, conservatism, novelty, freedom, and authenticity. The interactions reveal processes of diffusion or symbiosis of the source system’s products. The findings contribute to a theoretical model of media interactions that offers ways of examining and defining the characteristics of media system interactions.

An Integrative Review of Barriers and Facilitators Associated With Mental Health Help Seeking Among Indigenous Populations.

Indigenous populations, compared with majority populations, have a reduced likelihood of receiving professional help for mental health, contributing to health disparities. To increase use of and access to mental health services for Indigenous people, specific factors that affect service use need to be examined. An integrative review was undertaken of the barriers to and facilitators of help seeking and service use for Indigenous populations in Canada, the United States, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Five databases-PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, Social Services Abstracts, and Bibliography of Native North Americans-and gray literature were searched to identify original studies with data specific to Indigenous people. A qualitative analysis of common themes among the studies was conducted, along with a quality appraisal of included articles. Of the 1,010 records identified, the final synthesis included 41 articles. Six main themes emerged: informal supports, which were often used as a first choice for help seeking compared with formal services; structural obstacles and supports; stigma and shame; self-reliance and uncertainty about services; cultural factors and mistrust of mainstream services; and the need for outreach and information regarding mental illness and services. Policy implications include needed structural changes to decrease mistrust of mainstream systems and services and increased funding and resource availability. Along with technology-facilitated treatment, programs for Indigenous people, families, and communities that enhance education and foster positive relationships can serve as a first step toward Indigenous people becoming comfortable with the idea of talking about mental health and with seeking treatment.

A new lock-in amplifier-based deep-level transient spectroscopy test and measurement system for solar cells

A new, widely-used, lock-in amplifier-based deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) test and measurement system has been developed that efficiently digitizes and analyzes through conventional DLTS methods. The fundamental principle of DLTS, using the n+p diode, is introduced first. Part of the DLTS system setup is discussed in terms of the accuracy, optimization, and processing of measurement results. The established system is subsequently applied to study deep-level traps in the antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) and the Copper Indium Gallium Selenium (CIGS) thin-film solar cell. One electron trap and one hole trap were found in each of the two solar cells, and the calculated results are within a reasonable range compared with previous reports. It is shown experimentally that the DLTS system can be employed in a variety of test scenarios and the results are fundamentally in agreement with the mainstream system performance.

Experimental Study on Hydrate Safe Flow in Pipelines under a Swirl Flow System.

With the development of oil and gas resources gradually extending to the deep sea, the blockage of gas hydrate is attracting more and more attention. How to inhibit hydrate blockage efficiently and economically in oil and gas gathering transportation pipelines and ensure the safe operation has become a hot and difficult point in the field of oil and gas gathering and transportation research. At present, the research on the safe flow of gas hydrate is still in the exploratory stage, and applying swirl flow to hydrate risk control technology has a great engineering application value. A systematic experimental study on the safe flow of gas hydrate in a swirl flow system is carried out herein. The experimental results show the following: (1) The laws of gas hydrate flow, transport, deposition, and pipe plugging under various experimental conditions of the swirl flow system are obtained, the safe flow region of hydrate under the swirl flow system in the pipeline is obtained, and the safe flow boundary of hydrate is expanded. (2) Beginning with the theoretical analysis of the safe flow of gas hydrate in a pipeline, the flow characteristics of gas hydrate in the flow system are described; the special flow form of swirl flow has a great influence on the safe flow law of hydrate. (3) The growth and coalescence mechanisms of spiral hydrate in two mainstream systems of separated flow and dispersed flow are explored and researched. The critical tangential velocity of flow is taken as the standard of criterion.

Evaluation of Chinese Natural Language Processing System Based on Metamorphic Testing

A natural language processing system can realize effective communication between human and computer with natural language. Because its evaluation method relies on a large amount of labeled data and human judgment, the question of how to systematically evaluate its quality is still a challenging task. In this article, we use metamorphic testing technology to evaluate natural language processing systems from the user’s perspective to help users better understand the functionalities of these systems and then select the appropriate natural language processing system according to their specific needs. We have defined three metamorphic relation patterns. These metamorphic relation patterns respectively focus on some characteristics of different aspects of natural language processing. Moreover, on this basis, we defined seven metamorphic relations and chose three tasks (text similarity, text summarization, and text classification) to evaluate the quality of the system. Chinese is used as target language. We extended the defined abstract metamorphic relations to these tasks, and seven specific metamorphic relations were generated for each task. Then, we judged whether the metamorphic relations were satisfied for each task, and used them to evaluate the quality and robustness of the natural language processing system without reference output. We further applied the metamorphic test to three mainstream natural language processing systems (including BaiduCloud API, AliCloud API, and TencentCloud API), and on the PWAS-X datasets, LCSTS datasets, and THUCNews datasets. Experiments were carried out, revealing the advantages and disadvantages of each system. These results further show that the metamorphic test can effectively test the natural language processing system without annotated data.

Evaluation of public health surveillance systems in refugee settlements in Uganda, 2016\u20132019: lessons learned

BackgroundCivil wars in the Great Lakes region resulted in massive displacement of people to neighboring countries including Uganda. With associated disease epidemics related to this conflict, a disease surveillance system was established aiming for timely detection of diseases and rapid response to outbreaks. We describe the evaluation of and lessons learned from the public health surveillance system set up in refugee settlements in Uganda.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey using the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems and the Uganda National Technical Guidelines for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response in four refugee settlements in Uganda—Bidibidi, Adjumani, Kiryandongo and Rhino Camp. Using semi-structured questionnaires, key informant and focus group discussion guides, we interviewed 53 health facility leaders, 12 key personnel and 224 village health team members from 53 health facilities and 112 villages and assessed key surveillance functions and attributes.ResultsAll health facilities assessed had key surveillance staff; 60% were trained on Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response and most village health teams were trained on disease surveillance. Case detection was at 55%; facilities lacked standard case definitions and were using parallel Implementing Partner driven reporting systems. Recording was at 79% and reporting was at 81%. Data analysis and interpretation was at 49%. Confirmation of outbreaks and events was at 76%. Preparedness was at 72%. Response was at 34%. Feedback was at 82%. Evaluate and improve the system was at 67%. There was low capacity for detection, response and data analysis and interpretation of cases (< 60%).ConclusionThe surveillance system in the refugee settlements was functional with many performing attributes but with many remaining gaps. There was low capacity for detection, response and data analysis and interpretation in all the refugee settlements. There is need for improvement to align surveillance systems in refugee settlements with the mainstream surveillance system in the country. Implementing Partners should be urged to offer support for surveillance and training of surveillance staff on Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response to maintain effective surveillance functions. Functionalization of district teams ensures achievement of surveillance functions and attributes. Regular supervision of and support to health facility surveillance personnel is essential. Harmonization of reporting improves surveillance functions and attributes and appropriation of funds by government to districts to support refugee settlements is complementary to maintain effective surveillance of priority diseases in the northern and central part of Uganda.

Madaris in Pakistan: Religious and Social Challenges

Purpose: The nature and extent of religious and social challenges posed by the madaris have been studied by scholars on a micro level, but there is a need of methodologically investigating of the problems on a macro and global levels by using a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach to readdress these issues. The purpose of this research paper is to find out the role of for causing militancy in Pakistan and to recommend measures/strategies for de-radicalization in Pakistan.&#x0D; Design/Methodology/Approach: Agenda setting, priming and farming theories were used in this study. Qualitative content analysis method was used in this study to analyze the editorial policy of these three newspapers.&#x0D; Findings: The results revealed that all these three newspapers gave significant coverage to the peace talks issue but Nation gave more coverage to the issue. Findings also revealed that Dawn and The News, most of the time showed neutral behavior but tilted towards unfavorable position regarding peace talks. Nation showed strongly unfavorable behavior regarding peace talks.&#x0D; Implications/Originality/Value: So it is concluded that the government should take steps to take madaris in main stream education system in Pakistan. The funding should be checked and audited.

Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Pelagic Catfish Larvae Drifting in Lowland Rivers of Eastern Ecuador (Pisces: Siluriformes)

This study investigated larval catfish abundance and diversity in various fluvial habitats in the Amazon lowlands of eastern Ecuador. It assessed the relationship between spawning behavior and the hydrological cycle, identified a potential spawning site, and elucidated community assemblages based on larval diversity among river tributaries with differing water chemistry profiles. Sampling sites included the mainstreams of the Napo and Aguarico Rivers and lower reaches of three tributaries. Drift samples were taken before, during, and after strong, rain-induced flooding occurred. Results suggest a strong peak of larval abundances in April, coinciding with the start of the flood period. In the Napo mainstream, samples were dominated by larvae of large migratory pimelodid catfishes, Pseudoplatystoma spp., which were caught between the upriver site in the foothills (254 m a.s.l.) and the downstream Peruvian frontier (175 m a.s.l.). Back-calculations based on water velocity and larval growth rate suggest that most of these larvae originated in the lowlands between those two locations, where the riverbed transitions from rocky to sandy/silty substrate. Thus, it appears that most spawning occurred over sandy substrates rather than the rocky substrates that were dominant above the upriver site. Comparisons of samples taken by day and night at the same sites revealed significantly higher larval abundances at night; thus, larvae must either preferentially drift at night, actively avoid the nets by day, or may do diel vertical migrations (e.g., related to predation pressure or pursuit of prey items). Dominant larval taxa in the whitewater mainstreams differed from those dominating samples from a blackwater mainstream system, and catfish larval assemblages in each of those habitats were distinct from those drifting in small, blackwater tributaries. These results provide key life-history information for catfish species in the Napo River, including for important commercial species, such as Pseudoplatystoma spp. Identification and protection of discrete spawning sites, such as those identified here, are critical to conservation efforts for these species.

“We Respect Them, and They Respect Us”: The Value of Interpersonal Relationships in Enhancing Student Engagement

Attempts to understand the patterns behind student disengagement and early school leaving have traditionally focussed on early school leavers’ individual characteristics. More recently, however, studies have begun to focus on the extent to which early school leaving is shaped by school-level factors, and in particular the central role of teachers and pedagogy, in (dis)engaging students. Studies have consistently shown how negative teacher–student relations can dominate the lives of young people, leading to poor attendance and behavioural issues which often culminate in them disengaging, leaving or being expelled from school. Furthermore, there is a growing interest in the role of pedagogical strategies in enhancing teacher–student relations, increasing student engagement and bringing about more socially just systems of education. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with staff working in a school engagement programme aimed at preventing early school leaving (the School Completion Programme) and young people who have left school early and who are now participating in an alternative education setting in Ireland as well as staff in those settings (the National Youthreach Programme), this paper provides a unique comparison of two approaches to learner engagement. Findings highlight the centrality of caring and respectful relationships between teachers and students across the two programmes. This paper suggests that aspects of the ‘productive pedagogies’ framework are being used to overcome barriers by placing equal emphasis on student wellbeing and formal learning. However, both programmes operate outside ‘mainstream’ education, with little scope for integration with the mainstream system. This paper concludes that at the micro level, the programmes are effective in re-engaging young people with education but argues that this has little impact at a broader level, where mainstream school practices impacting on student disengagement and early school leaving remain unchanged.

Centralized iron-dosing into returned sludge brings multifaceted benefits to wastewater management

Iron salts (i.e. FeCl3) are the most used chemicals in the urban wastewater system. Iron is commonly dosed into sewage or the mainstream system, which provides multiple benefits such as enhanced phosphorus removal and improved sludge settleability/dewaterability. This study reported and demonstrated a new approach that dosed FeCl3 into returned sludge in order to bring two more benefits to wastewater management: short-cut nitrogen removal via the nitrite pathway and less biomass production. This approach is achieved based on our findings that with similar amount of FeCl3, centralized iron dosing into a sidestream sludge unit generated iron concentration two orders of magnitude higher than the common mainstream dosing (e.g. 10–40 mg Fe/L-wastewater), leading to sludge acidification (pH = 2.1) with Fe (III) hydrolysis. Together with accumulated nitrite in the supernatant of the sludge, ppm-level of free nitrous acid was generated and thus enabled sludge disintegration, cell lysis, and selective elimination of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). Long-term effects on nitrifying bacteria and overall reactor performance were evaluated using two laboratory reactor experiments for over one year. The experimental reactor showed stable nitrite accumulation with an average NO2−/(NO2− + NO3−) ratio above 80% and ∼30% observed biomass yield reduction compared to those in control reactors. In addition, the centralized sludge dosing strategy still provided benefits such as improved settleability and dewaterability of sludge and enhanced phosphorus removal.

Modular Information Management: Using AUSTLANG to Enhance the Classification of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Resources

ABSTRACT This research explores the potential for AUSTLANG – a database of Australian Indigenous languages – to enhance the identification of Australian Indigenous languages in MAchine Readable Cataloguing (MARC) bibliographic records. At present, it is acknowledged in the discipline of Library and Information Sciences (LIS) that material relating to Indigenous peoples are improperly and/or insensitively classified using mainstream library systems such as Dewey Decimal Classification. AUSTLANG was approved as a MARC language source code in November 2018 and has given libraries the ability to identify Australian Indigenous languages with standardised, culturally sensitive identifiers. The following research considers the variety of orthographies, codes and synonyms available for a sample of four Australian Indigenous languages as listed in AUSLANG and contrasts these with the single, authoritative AIATSIS reference names and codes contributed by the database. This research also considers how AUSTLANG can contribute to the classification of Indigenous Knowledge resources. Currently there is only a small body of technical information available on AUSTLANG and little focussed academic research, making it difficult to ascertain the success and characteristics of its implementation. This research represents an exploratory academic contribution and calls for a wider research effort.

Alternative education in Aotearoa New Zealand

Secondary students who become disenfranchised from mainstream schools are directed to attend Alternative Education (AE) centres. AE was a grassroots’ initiative in the 1990s led by youth organisations, iwi, community social service agencies and churches to meet the education and pastoral needs of rangatahi. Due to the tenuous links held between AE and the mainstream system and with no government policy work occurring within the sector for the decade prior to 2009, the sector struggled for adequate resourcing and professional recognition. Through a poetic inquiry approach this paper explores three key AE government policy directions over a ten-year period, from 2009 to 2019. Unbuckling prose found within official documents, concrete (visual) poems were created to perform a critical reading of policy. The policy poems form a narrative arc that show the discrediting of AE providers and demonising of students in AE has recently given way to more hopeful directions in policy.&#x0D;

Conflict and Supplement between Formal and Informal Institutions of Prepackaged Food Labeling

Scholars have been paying contiguous attention to the topic of discussion of the relationship between the formal institution and the informal institution in the academic community. Through the case study and practical investigation, this paper discusses the integrated present of the boundary and relationship between food label system and informal system. The boundary between a dominant formal system and a hidden informal system is not static and the informal system may be transformed into a formal one, provided that the informal system must be based fully on indigenous cultural characteristics. The relationship between the formal and informal institutions is not simply one kind of relationship existing, but the integrated presence of complex relationships. On the one hand, the formal system excludes the informal system, squeezing the space for informal institutional practice and impacting local knowledge. On the other hand, the informal system practices protect small-scale producers, maintain local knowledge and build other trust systems that are different from the mainstream system. Informal food labeling practice is supplement to formal system.

Nobody left behind? Equity and the drivers of stunting reduction in Vietnamese ethnic minority populations

Vietnam has successfully reduced population stunting, but ethnic minority groups are being systematically left behind, limiting progress on national reductions. This mixed methods study aims to understand how policy drivers of stunting reduction differ between ethnic majority and minority communities. We used decomposition analysis to explain key determinants of stunting change between 2000 and 2010; and framework analysis to qualitatively assess changes in policy, actors and narratives that have underpinned these over decades. Our analysis shows that stunting reductions are associated with increased household wealth (accounting for 61% of change), improved access to specific health services (16%), and changes in level of maternal education (12%). Despite multiple actors involved in change and a large set of policies designed to address inequities, many among Vietnam’s defined ethnic minority groups are not finding themselves able to effectively engage with central government plans for their communities, and central policies often do not consider their preferences or limitations. This in turn impacts the nutrition of minority groups through the determinants above. Vietnam has achieved the easier portion of stunting reduction through national economic growth and sustained commitment to socially-oriented policy. In order to tackle the remaining pockets of high malnutrition, more attention, thought and funding will need to focus on marginalised ethnic minority communities. The current national development discourse aims to incorporate minorities into mainstream majority systems. This paper argues that policy should rather take into account their particular needs and preferences to address and overcome the identified determinants of malnutrition.

Nutrient removal and phosphorus recovery performance of an anaerobic side-stream extraction based enhanced biological phosphorus removal subjected to low dissolved oxygen

An enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) system based on anaerobic side-stream phosphorus recovery was operated to investigate the nutrient removal performance of the mainstream system under low dissolved oxygen (DO = 1.0, 0.6, 0.2 mg L−1) and the corresponding phosphorus recovery efficiency with different extracting ratio (m = 0, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2) of anaerobic supernatant within 310 days. The results showed that the nutrient removal efficiency remained stable even though DO was extremely low. Nevertheless, phosphorus removal performance was found to deteriorate as side-stream ratio increased to 1/3 at DO = 0.2 mg L−1, suggesting that extracting a higher ratio of supernatant was not favorable for phosphorus removal in the mainstream process at ultra-low DO. The stoichiometric ratios of Prelease/HAcuptake during anaerobic phase which decreased from 0.125 to 0.020 P-mol/C-mol as DO decreased with increasing side-stream ratio were lower than that of typical PAO metabolism. It was very likely that the metabolic mode of PAOs changed due to long-term deprivation of phosphate. Consequently, the mainstream EBPR system failed to remove phosphorus efficiently. It was also observed that phosphorus recovery efficiency was considerable at DO ≥ 0.6 mg L−1 coupled with high side-stream ratio. Therefore, it was feasible and energy-saving to extract appropriate ratio of anaerobic supernatant for recovering phosphorus and removing nutrient efficiently in an EBPR process under low DO.

Designing a tangible tabletop installation and enacting a socioenactive experience with TangiTime

Contemporary computational technology (tangible and ubiquitous) are still challenging the mainstream systems design methods, demanding new ways of considering the interaction design and its evaluation. In this work, we draw on concepts of enactivism and enactive systems to investigate interaction and experience in the context of the ubiquity of computational systems. Our study is illustrated with the design and usage experience of TangiTime: a tangible tabletop system proposed for an educational exhibit. TangiTime was designed to enable a socioenactive experience of interaction with the concept of “deep time.” In this paper, we present the TangiTime design process, the artifacts designed and implemented, in its conceptual, interactional, and architectural aspects. Besides that, we present and discuss results of an exploratory study within an exhibition context, to observe how socioenactive aspects of the experience potentially emerge from the interaction. Overall, the paper contributes with elements of design that should be considered when designing a socioenactive experience in environments constituted by contemporary computational technology.

Intelligent flow control algorithm for microservice system

In microservice systems, availability can be ensured through a variety of measures, such as fault tolerance and flow limiting, which are collectively called the flow control. In the current mainstream system design, the flow control rules are usually fixed and set manually, which cannot be dynamically adjusted according to the flow shape. The performance of the system is thus not fully explored. To mitigate this problem, an adaptive dynamic flow control algorithm is proposed. Based on the system's monitoring data and current flow, the algorithm calculates the flow-limiting threshold in real time, and then it implements fine-grained service adaptive flow control to improve the resource utilization. Experimental results show that the performance of the adaptive automatic flow control is better than that of the traditional static method on resource utilization.

Sprehod Irene Novak Popov po narečni beneški poeziji

The article focuses on studies of contemporary poetry from Beneška Slovenija/Slavia Friulana (Venetian Slovenia) by the literary historian Irena Novak Popov. Considering Venetian-Slovenian works as a subsystem within Slovenian literature, Irena Novak Popov recognises its distinct literary form and acknowledges its unique development, which is tied to a specific historical and social framework. She explores this subsystem as a distinct artistic and cultural phenomenon in relation to the mainstream system of Slovenian literature and strives to make the literature of the western edge of the ethnic Slovenian territory more visible in public literary discourse, establishing it as the subject of expert analysis. Through analyses of the individual poetics of a number of authors (Marina Cernetig, Viljem Černo, Aldo Klodič, Gabriella Tomasetig, Andreina Trusgnach and others), she suggests some peculiar components of Venetian-Slovenian writing. The present article highlights the special attitude of Venetian-Slovenian authors towards the local language and their heterogenous presentation of spatial reality.

DGT: A contribution-aware differential gradient transmission mechanism for distributed machine learning

Distributed machine learning is a mainstream system to learn insights for analytics and intelligence services of many fronts (e.g., health, streaming and business) from their massive operational data. In such a system, multiple workers train over subsets of data and collaboratively derive a global prediction/inference model by iteratively synchronizing their local learning results, e.g., the model gradients, which in turn generates heavy and bursty traffic and results in high communication overhead in cluster networks. Such communication overhead has became the main bottleneck that limits the efficiency of training machine learning models distributedly. In this paper, our key observation is that local gradients learned by workers may have different contributions to global model convergence and executing differential transmission for different gradients can reduce the communication overhead and improve training efficiency. However, existing gradient transmission mechanisms treat all gradients the same, which may lead to long training time.Motivated by our observations, we propose Differential Gradient Transmission (DGT), a contribution-aware differential gradient transmission mechanism for efficient distributed learning, which transfers gradients with different transmission quality according to their contributions. In addition to designing a general architecture of DGT, we have proposed a novel algorithm and a novel protocol to facilitate fast model training. Experiments on a cluster with 6 GTX 1080TI GPUs and 1Gbps network show that DGT decreases the model training time by 19.4% on GoogleNet, 34.4% on AlexNet and 36.5% on VGG-11 compared to default gradient transmission on MXNET. Its acceleration is better than the other two related transmission solutions. Besides, DGT works well with different datasets (Fashion-MNIST, Cifar10), different data distributions (IID, non-IID) and different training algorithms (BSP, FedAVG).

A rail detection algorithm for accurate recognition of train fuzzy video

ABSTRACT The research follows the mainstream physics and network system architecture. Aiming at the problem of poor data processing ability and poor robustness of traditional trajectory detection algorithms, a trajectory detection method that can be accurately extracted from the fuzzy video of a locomotive is proposed. Firstly, in order to ensure the accuracy of rail detection of trains in complex environments and improve the safety of driverless driving, the video image captured by on-board camera is stored as RGB video frame set, and then processed as single-channel greyscale image carrier set; Secondly, after the initial colour and brightness treatment, the redundant and useless noise features in the greyscale image carrier set still exist. After secondary Gaussian filtering and de-noising, canny operator is used to detect the track edge details of interest; Finally, the rail area is taken as the interested target for Hough line detection, the background subtraction method of adaptive mixed Gaussian background modelling is introduced, the structure element function and the morphologyEx theory of morphological transformation function are introduced, and the left and right tracks are fitted after the calculation and judgement of pixel coordinates. Algorithm for visual tracking experiments show that, rail detection algorithm has already meet need to detect rails in low-quality videos recorded by the on-board cameras of different models of trains at different speed. It not only can process large quantity of data from the on-board camera videos in real time, but also can accurately detect the target rails adaptively where rail conditions are complex with obstructive objects, which shows that this algorithm has very robust performance.