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The cosmological constant is normally introduced as an additional term entering the Einstein–Hilbert (EH) action. In this letter, we demonstrate that, instead, it appears naturally from the standard EH action as an invariant term emerging from spacetime symmetries. We then demonstrate that the same constraint emerging from this invariant suppresses the short wavelength modes and it favors the long wavelength ones. In this way, inside the proposed formulation, the observed value for the vacuum energy density is obtained naturally from the zero-point quantum fluctuations.

The mutual information method has demonstrated to be very useful for deriving the potential order parameter of a system. Although the method suggests some constraints which help to define this quantity, there is still some freedom in the definition. The method then results inefficient for cases where we have order parameters with a large number of constants in the expansion, which happens when we have many degenerate vacuums. Here, we introduce some additional constraints based on the existence of broken symmetries, which help us to reduce the arbitrariness in the definitions of the order parameter in the proposed mutual information method.

The aim of this study is to examine the online learning experiences of university students with Special Educational Needs (SEN), and how their experiences might differ from their typically developing peers. Fifty typically developing students (mean age = 22; 29 females) and 31 students with SEN (mean age = 22; 15 females) from a local

Theories and models try to describe the complexity of how people embrace and make use of innovations. The determinants of behavior concerning battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have traditionally revolved around factors such as vehicles’ price and range. Surprisingly, despite being small and one of the wealthiest territories in the world, Macau SAR faces challenges in BEV market penetration, underscoring the need to explore alternative causes of behavioral intention. To explain the adoption of technologies, this paper focuses on technology show-off (TS), which combines Rogers’ (2003) concepts of visibility and trialability of technology in a single construct as a determinant of behavioral intention. Therefore, when individuals perceive technology as more visible and available for trial, their behavioral intention to adopt it strengthens. Using structural equation modeling for quantitative analysis, this study examines the significance of TS in terms of the intention to adopt battery electric vehicles. The findings highlight the salience of the technology show-off construct in explaining behavioral intention, underscoring its significance in the context of modern society’s characteristics. This study contributes to advances in understanding technology acceptance and highlights the importance of incorporating experiential aspects (such as TS) into the traditional technology acceptance models.

<jats:p>Detecting emotions is a growing field aiming to comprehend and interpret human emotions from various data sources, including text, voice, and physiological signals. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a unique and promising approach among these sources. EEG is a non-invasive monitoring technique that records the brain’s electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp’s surface. It is used in clinical and research contexts to explore how the human brain responds to emotions and cognitive stimuli. Recently, its use has gained interest in real-time emotion detection, offering a direct approach independent of facial expressions or voice. This is particularly useful in resource-limited scenarios, such as brain–computer interfaces supporting mental health. The objective of this work is to evaluate the classification of emotions (positive, negative, and neutral) in EEG signals using machine learning and deep learning, focusing on Graph Convolutional Neural Networks (GCNN), based on the analysis of critical attributes of the EEG signal (Differential Entropy (DE), Power Spectral Density (PSD), Differential Asymmetry (DASM), Rational Asymmetry (RASM), Asymmetry (ASM), Differential Causality (DCAU)). The electroencephalography dataset used in the research was the public SEED dataset (SJTU Emotion EEG Dataset), obtained through auditory and visual stimuli in segments from Chinese emotional movies. The experiment employed to evaluate the model results was “subject-dependent”. In this method, the Deep Neural Network (DNN) achieved an accuracy of 86.08%, surpassing SVM, albeit with significant processing time due to the optimization characteristics inherent to the algorithm. The GCNN algorithm achieved an average accuracy of 89.97% in the subject-dependent experiment. This work contributes to emotion detection in EEG, emphasizing the effectiveness of different models and underscoring the importance of selecting appropriate features and the ethical use of these technologies in practical applications. The GCNN emerges as the most promising methodology for future research.</jats:p>

The potential of blockchain technology extends beyond cryptocurrencies and has the power to transform various sectors, including accounting and auditing. Its integration into auditing practices presents opportunities and challenges, and auditors must navigate new standards and engage with clients effectively. Blockchain technology provides tamper-proof record-keeping and fraud prevention, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and security in domains such as finance, insurance, healthcare, education, e-voting, and supply chain management. This paper conducts a bibliometric analysis of blockchain technology literature to gain insights into the current state and future directions of blockchain technology in auditing. The study identifies significant research themes and trends using keyword and citation analysis. The Vosviewer software was used to analyze the data and visualize the results. Findings reveal significant growth in blockchain research, particularly from 2021 onwards, with China emerging as a leading contributor, followed by the USA, India, and the UK. This study provides valuable insights into current trends, key contributors, and global patterns in blockchain technology research within auditing practices, and future research may explore thematic areas in greater depth.

This article reports a case study of older adults learning English in China. It indicates how, founded on consequentialist ethics, risk analysis, and safeguarding, it was decided to use covert research, drawing on the confluence of risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk management, safeguarding, research ethics, and important contextual and cultural features. Ethical principles of nonmaleficence, beneficence, safeguarding, and protection were addressed, and account was taken of the strength, likelihood, and consequences of risks, safeguards, and benefits, informed by Chinese cultural contexts, values, behaviors, and features of teaching and learning based on andragogy and geragogy. Implications are drawn for teaching and learning with older adults, advocating significant account to be taken of contextual factors.

Consumer neuroscience analyzes individuals’ preferences through the assessment of physiological data monitoring, considering brain activity or other bioinformation to assess purchase decisions. Traditional marketing tactics include customer surveys, product evaluations, and comments. For product or brand marketing and mass production, it is important to understand consumer neurological responses when seeing an ad or testing a product. In this work, we use the bi-clustering method to reduce EEG noise and automatic machine learning to classify brain responses. We analyze a neuromarketing EEG dataset that contains EEG data from product evaluations from 25 participants, collected with a 14 channel Emotiv Epoch + device, while examining consumer items. Four components comprised the research methodology. Initially, the Welch Transform was used to filter the EEG raw data. Second, the best converted signal biclusterings are used to train different classification models. Each biclustering is evaluated with a separate classifier, considering F1-Score. After that, the H2O.ai AutoML library is used to select the optimal biclustering and models. Instead of traditional procedures, two thresholds are used. First-threshold values indicate customer satisfaction. Low values of the second threshold reflect consumer dissatisfaction. Values between the first and second criteria are classified as uncertain values. We outperform the state of the art with a 0.95 F1-Score value.

We demonstrate that the flavor oscillation when a neutrino travels through spacetime, is equivalent to permanent changes on the vacuum state condition perceived by the same particle. This can be visualized via the Quantum Yang Baxter equations (QYBE). From this perspective, the neutrino never breaks the symmetry of the ground state because it never selects an specific vacuum condition. Then naturally the Higgs mechanism cannot be the generator of the neutrino masses. The constraints emerging from this model predict a normal mass hierarchy and some specific values for the mass eigenvalues once we fix the mixing angles. Interestingly, the model suggests that the sum of the mix angles is equal to $\pi/2$.

Remote Learning's Impact on Students' Cognitive Development: Evidence from Time Series Assessment [Conference presentation]

After the Covid-19 Pandemic crisis in international economic relations it became evident that climate-smart aspects should be considered when re-establishing a new international trade order. International organizations have proclaimed that this momentum should be used to include climate-smart trade and investment provisions to enable sustainable development. It has been acknowledged that trade has an important role to play in the global response to climate change, providing economies with tools to draw on in their efforts to mitigate climate change and to adapt to its consequences. In this paper we focus the analysis on investigating the digital and sustainable component of trade facilitation measures applied in Western Balkans countries. To evaluate the importance of trade facilitation measures and their digital and sustainable components we apply standard gravity model with the data from UN Global Survey on digital and sustainable trade facilitation. The results show that trade facilitation measures are important for improving and increasing trade among the Western Balkans countries. Especially, measures connected to improving transparency procedures in trade and measures for alleviating trade formalities are most significant for increasing bilateral trade among Western Balkans countries. With a lower level of importance are the measures for improving cross-border paperless trade between these countries.

We demonstrate that black hole evaporation can be modeled as a process where one symmetry of the system is spontaneously broken continuously. We then identify three free parameters of the system. The sign of one of the free parameters governs whether the particles emitted by the black hole are fermions or bosons. The present model explains why the black hole evaporation process is so universal. Interestingly, this universality emerges naturally inside certain modifications of gravity.

Intended as an economic and development hub, the Hengqin Cooperation Zone aims to foster collaboration and integration between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao, serving as a platform for economic development and innovation among the three regions. The zone's development has increased demand for financial services, often offered through fintech. There is, however, a lack of interoperability between the fintech services currently used in Macao and Hengqin. This may hinder Macao users' adoption of the technology. Thus, our research objective is to identify the factors determining Macao residents' adoption of fintech services in the area and provide insights for service providers, developers, and policymakers. A framework based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used for this purpose. The responses of 103 Macao residents provided evidence that ease of use significantly and positively impacts the usefulness of the technology. This in turn influences attitudes towards fintech usage. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control positively impact fintech adoption intentions. The fintech industry and the governments of Macao and Hengqin can work on improving technology's ease of use and usefulness. They can also promote them to Macao users, and provide the resources required for better access to fintech in the zone

There are many systematic reviews on predicting stock. However, each reveals a different portion of the hybrid AI analysis and stock prediction puzzle. The principal objective of this research was to systematically review the existing systematic reviews on Artificial Intelligence (AI) models applied to stock market prediction to provide valuable inputs for the development of strategies in stock market investments. Keywords that would fall under the broad headings of AI and stock prediction were looked up in Scopus and Web of Science databases. We screened 69 titles and read 43 systematic reviews, including more than 379 studies, before retaining 10 for the final dataset. This work revealed that support vector machines (SVM), long short-term memory (LSTM), and artificial neural networks (ANN) are the most popular AI methods for stock market prediction. In addition, the time series of historical closing stock prices are the most commonly used data source, and accuracy is the most employed performance metric of the predictive models. We also identified several research gaps and directions for future studies. Specifically, we indicate that future research could benefit from exploring different data sources and combinations, while we also suggest comparing different AI methods and techniques, as each may have specific advantages and applicable scenarios. Lastly, we recommend better evaluating different prediction indicators and standards to reflect prediction models’ actual value and impact.

Government service mini-programs (GSMPs) in mobile payment have become integral to the eGovernment in China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA). The ubiquitous nature of WeChat and Alipay provides excellent flexibility for accessing public e-services. Yet, the determinants and mechanisms of adoption have not been identified. A convenience sample was collected from GBA core cities for statistical and SEM analysis. The findings suggest that service quality, trust in eGovernment, ubiquity, and social influence constitute the determinants. A structural model grounded on Self-Determination and Motivation theory is verified, where perceived value and intention contribute a high explanatory power. Benevolence, integrity, and competence are crucial indicators of trust, while social influence amplifies risk perception. Surprisingly, government support negatively moderates the impact of determinants on intention, indicating that over-intervention leads to inhibition. The mechanism illustrates the beneficial impact of GSMPs as the smart government channel and provides insights into addressing service homogeneity and policy applicability. Relevant theoretical and managerial implications are instructive to policymakers and practitioners of smart city innovation and in-depth integration in GBA.