Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Material Characterization of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) ABS by Designed Experiments

Rapid Prototyping (RP) technology has been advanced to fabricate initial prototypes from various materials. Stratasys’ Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one of the typical RP processes that provide functional prototypes of ABS plastic. In order to predict the behavior of final ABS parts, it is critical to understand the material properties of the raw FDM process material, and the effect that FDM build parameters have on composite material properties. In this paper, we seek t the properties of ABS parts fabricated by the FDM 1650. Using the Design of Experiment (DOE) approach, the process parameters of FDM, such as raster orientation, air gap, bead width, color, and model temperature were examined. Tensile strengths of crisscross specimens, [45 °/-45°], cross specimens, [0 °/90°], and directionally fabricated tensile specimens ([0°] and [90 °]) were measured and compared with the injection molded FDMABS P400 material. For the FDM parts made with a –0.003” air gap, the typical tensile strength ranged between 65 percent and 72 percent of the strength of injection molded ABS P400. From the experiment s, several build rules for designing FDM parts were obtained.
Microtubule-targeting-dependent reorganization of filopodia

Interaction between the microtubule system and actin cytoskeleton has emerged as a fundamental process required for spatial regulation of cell protrusion and retraction activities. In our current studies, analysis of digital fluorescence images revealed targeting of microtubules to filopodia in B16F1 melanoma cells and fibroblasts. We investigated the functional consequence of targeting on filopodia reorganization and examined mechanisms by which microtubules may be guided to, or interact with, filopodia. Live cell imaging studies show that targeting events in lamellipodia wings temporally correlated with filopodia turning toward the lamellipodium midline and with filopodia merging. Rapid uncoupling of targeting with nocodazole decreased filopodia merging events and increased filopodia density. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy identified microtubules near the ventral surface and upward movement of targeted filopodia. The role of adhesion sites and microtubule plus-end proteins in targeting was investigated. Correlation of adhesion sites with microtubule targeting to filopodia was not observed and depletion of microtubule plus-end proteins did not significantly alter targeting frequency. We propose that microtubules target filopodia, independent of focal adhesions and plus-end proteins, causing filopodia movement and microtubules regulate filopodia density in lamellipodia wings through filopodia merging events.
EEG Responses to Auditory Stimuli for Automatic Affect Recognition

Brain state classification for communication and control has been well established in the area of brain-computer interfaces over the last decades. Recently, the passive and automatic extraction of additional information regarding the psychological state of users from neurophysiological signals has gained increased attention in the interdisciplinary field of affective computing. We investigated how well specific emotional reactions, induced by auditory stimuli, can be detected in EEG recordings. We introduce an auditory emotion induction paradigm based on the International Affective Digitized Sounds 2nd Edition (IADS-2) database also suitable for disabled individuals. Stimuli are grouped in three valence categories: unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant. Significant differences in time domain domain event-related potentials are found in the electroencephalogram (EEG) between unpleasant and neutral, as well as pleasant and neutral conditions over midline electrodes. Time domain data were classified in three binary classification problems using a linear support vector machine (SVM) classifier. We discuss three classification performance measures in the context of affective computing and outline some strategies for conducting and reporting affect classification studies.
Nonparametric density estimation: A comparative study

Motivated by finance applications, the objective of this paper is to assess the performance of several important methods for univariate density estimation focusing on the robustness of the methods to heavy tailed target densities. We consider four approaches: a fixed bandwidth kernel estimator, an adaptive bandwidth kernel estimator, the Hermite series (SNP) estimator of Gallant and Nychka, and the logspline estimator of Kooperberg and Stone. We conclude that the logspline and adaptive kernel methods are superior for fitting heavy tailed densities. Evaluation of the convergence rates of the SNP estimator for the family of Student-t densities reveals poor performance, measured by Hellinger error. In contrast, the logspline estimator exhibits good convergence independent of the tail behavior of the target density. These findings are confirmed in a small Monte-Carlo experiment.
Research Library Publishing Services: New Options for University Publishing.

Executive Summary To foster a deeper understanding of an emerging research library role as publishing service provider, in late 2007 the Association of Research Libraries surveyed its membership to gather data on the publishing services they were providing. Following the survey, publishing program managers at ten institutions participated in semi-structured interviews to delve more deeply into several aspects of service development: the sources and motivations for service launch, the range of publishing services, and relationships with partners. The survey verified that research libraries are rapidly developing publishing services. By late 2007, 44% of the 80 responding ARL member libraries reported they were delivering publishing services and another 21% were in the process of planning publishing service development. Only 36% of responding institutions were not active in this arena. These libraries are publishing many kinds of works, but the main focus is journals; 88% of publishing libraries reported publishing journals compared to 79% who publish conference papers and proceedings, and 71% who publish monographs. Established journal titles dominate this emerging publishing sector and are the main drivers of service development, although new titles are also being produced. Although the numbers of titles reported represent a very thin slice of the scholarly publishing pie, the survey respondents work with 265 titles: 131 are established titles, 81 are new titles, and 53 were under development at the time of the survey. On average, these libraries work with 7 or 8 titles with 6 currently available. In the search for transformative approaches to scholarly publishing, research library publishing programs are intentionally exploring the boundaries of what several program managers conceptualize as a service core. The challenge is to provide the basic service suite by reallocating resources, partnering, seeking synergies with related services, and developing modest revenue streams. The aspirations of libraries to replicate traditional publishing services are modest to non-existent. Libraries are focusing on the capabilities and possibilities of new models rather than slavishly duplicating or simply automating traditional models. At the same time, they seek to identify the most promising new kinds of services that are needed to support authors and editors. Peer reviewed works dominate library publishing programs and editors or acquisitions committees typically maintain their traditional roles in identifying quality content. Libraries often provide technical support for streamlined peer review workflows, but they are not providing peer review itself. The manuscript handling services provided by some publishing programs were a significant …
Reassessing the Role of Book-Tax Conformity

Book-tax conformity refers to the legal link between financial and tax accounts, and is an institutional feature of many continental European countries and countries like Japan that follow continental European traditions. Many studies argue that book-tax conformity impedes earnings informativeness. However, book-tax-conformity is required for single accounts but not for group accounts, which are used to inform capital markets. Previous research has not properly used this distinction. The absence of a formal link between group income and taxable income makes a causal empirical relationship between legal book-tax conformity and resulting cross-country differences in group earnings properties much less compelling. We argue that studies documenting this relationship suffer either from an omitted variable problem (i.e., failure to sufficiently control for differences in reporting incentives) or sample selection bias (inclusion/noninclusion of single accounts in the test sample). We reassess cross-country differences in asymmetric earnings timeliness and find that legal book-tax conformity does not affect cross-country differences in group earnings properties when the institutional environment is adequately controlled for. Instead, group accounting follows typical reporting incentives even in countries where there is high book-tax conformity for single accounts. Furthermore, we show that even “tax-dominated” single accounts are responsive to nontax reporting incentives.
Predicting Body Composition in College Students Using the Womersley and Durnin Body Mass Index Equation

Purpose When assessing fitness levels, body composition is usually measured. The purpose of this study was to determine the overall efficacy of a body mass index (BMI) equation for predicting body composition with respect to college aged participants. Methods Body composition was measured using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and was estimated using the Womersley and Durnin BMI prediction equation. Results There was no significant (P=0.8) percent body fat (%BF) difference between the BMI prediction equation and DXA (BMI Predicted=25 (10) [min=6; max=52] %BF vs DXA=25 (6) [min=10; max=45] %BF). In addition, a significant correlation was found between the two approaches (r=0.791, P=0.001). However, both the standard error of estimate (6.32 %BF) and total error (6.63 %BF) were outside acceptable ranges for prediction equations. Conclusion The Womersley and Durnin equation for estimating %BF was not found to be a good estimate. Therefore, although the BMI predicted %BF has been previously found to predict skinfold estimated %BF, it does not appear valid in estimating %BF from DXA.
Managing Organizational Tensions: A Multi-Level Perspective on Exploration, Exploitation and Ambidexterity

markdownabstract__Abstract__ "This dissertation draws on organizational learning and paradox theory to develop fine-grained insights at the individual, unit, and organizational level that contribute to the theoretical development of the exploration-exploitation framework. The four studies included in this dissertation reveal the nature of the tensions emerging in pursuit of ambidexterity at different levels and examine based on quantitative and qualitative data how organizations and their members can manage these tensions effectively in order to foster ambidextrous behaviors, to balance exploration and exploitation, and to be strategic, yet agile across emerging and established markets. First, using meta-analytic techniques I assess which and how contingency factors influence the association of exploration and exploitation and clarify how conceptual choices and study context influence the generalizability and interpretations of primary studies in ambidexterity research. Second, at the individual level antecedents and outcomes of managers’ ambidextrous behaviors are uncovered and tested. This study indicates that tenure is a double-edge sword; organizational tenure increases managers’ ambidextrous behaviors, while functional tenure undermines such behaviors. Managers’ ambidexterity is particularly valuable when work contexts are characterized by uncertainty and interdependence. Third, I put forward a multi-actor model investigating middle managers’ personal interactions with their peers in other business units and top managers in relation to unit ambidexterity. This study uncovers complementarities and trade-offs among middle managers’ horizontal and vertical interpersonal processes. Fourth, at the organizational level I delve into the foundations and drivers of strategic agility and into how the inherent tensions can be managed in a multi-market context.
African Politics in Comparative Perspective: References

Acknowledgements 1. The study of politics in Africa 2. The movement legacy 3. The problematic state 4. The economy of affection 5. Big man rule 6. The policy factor 7. The agrarian question 8. Gender and politics 9. Ethnicity and conflict 10. The external dimension 11. So what do we know? 12. Quo vadis Africa? References Index.
Western of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health The Shock Index as a Predictor of Vasopressor Use in Emergency Department Patients with Severe Sepsis

Introduction: of non-coronary identification and risk stratification difficult because there is limited ability to predict escalation of care. In this study we evaluated if a sustained shock index (SI) elevation in the ED was a predictor of short-term cardiovascular collapse, defined as vasopressor dependence within 72 hours of initial presentation. Methods: Retrospective dual-centered cross-sectional study using patients identified in the Yale-New Haven Hospital Emergency Medicine sepsis registry. Results: We included 295 patients in the study with 47.5% (n ¼ 140) having a sustained SI elevation in the ED. Among patients with a sustained SI elevation, 38.6% (54 of 140) required vasopressors within 72 hours of ED admission contrasted to 11.6% (18 of 155) without a sustained SI elevation (p ¼ 0.0001; multivariate modeling OR 4.42 with 95% confidence intervals 2.28-8.55) . In the SI elevation group the mean number of organ failures was 4.0 6 2.1 contrasted to 3.2 6 1.6 in the non-SI elevation group (p ¼ 0.0001). Conclusion: ED patients with severe sepsis and a sustained SI elevation appear to have higher rates of short-term vasopressor use, and a greater number of organ failures contrasted to patients without a sustained SI elevation. An elevated SI may be a useful modality to identify patients with severe sepsis at risk for disease escalation and cardiovascular collapse. Emerg 2014;15(1):60–66. ]
Fixed Channel Assignment Optimization for Cellular Mobile Networks

SUMMARY The optimization of channel assignment in cellular mobile networks is an NP-complete combinatorial optimization problem. For any reasonable size network,only sub-optimal solutions can be obtained by heuristic algorithms. In this paper,six channel assignment heuristic algorithms are proposed and evaluated. They are the combinations of three channel assignment strategies and two cell ordering methods. What we found are (i) the of cells is a more efficient ordering method than the ; (ii) the is more suitable for systems with highly non-uniformly distributed traffic,and the strategy is more suitable for systems with less nonuniformly distributed traffic; and (iii) the strategy with is the most efficient algorithm. The frequency spans obtained using the proposed algorithms are much lower than that reported in the literature,and in many cases are equal to the theoretical lower bounds.
Emotion recognition from speech using prosodic features

Emotion recognition, a key step of affective computing, is the process of decoding an embedded emotional message from human communication signals, e.g. visual, audio, and/or other physiological cues. It is well-known that speech is the main channel for human communication and thus vital in the signalling of emotion and semantic cues for the correct interpretation of contexts. In the verbal channel, the emotional content is largely conveyed as constant paralinguistic information signals, from which prosody is the most important component. The lack of evaluation of affect and emotional states in human machine interaction is, however, currently limiting the potential behaviour and user experience of technological devices. In this thesis, speech prosody and related acoustic features of speech are used for the recognition of emotion from spoken Finnish. More specifically, methods for emotion recognition from speech relying on long-term global prosodic parameters are developed. An information fusion method is developed for short segment emotion recognition using local prosodic features and vocal source features. A framework for emotional speech data visualisation is presented for prosodic features. Emotion recognition in Finnish comparable to the human reference is demonstrated using a small set of basic emotional categories (neutral, sad, happy, and angry). A recognition rate for Finnish was found comparable with those reported in the western language groups. Increased emotion recognition is shown for short segment emotion recognition using fusion techniques. Visualisation of emotional data congruent with the dimensional models of emotion is demonstrated utilising supervised nonlinear manifold modelling techniques. The low dimensional visualisation of emotion is shown to retain the topological structure of the emotional categories, as well as the emotional intensity of speech samples. The thesis provides pattern recognition methods and technology for the recognition of emotion from speech using long speech samples, as well as short stressed words. The framework for the visualisation and classification of emotional speech data developed here can also be used to represent speech data from other semantic viewpoints by using alternative semantic labellings if available.
An Experimental Study of Antecedents and Consequences of Online Ad Intrusiveness

Internet advertising has shown signs of continued healthy growth in spite of the burst Internet bubble. Several types of ads have been used, and there are important generic characteristics that can be gleaned from these ads: whether they obscure content and whether users have the control to remove them. These factors were tested in a laboratory study with 258 student participants. It was hypothesized that the factors would predict intrusiveness, which would predict perceived irritation. This, in turn, would predict attitudes about the site and, finally, intentions to return. Intrusiveness was also predicted to directly relate to recognition of the ads. All hypotheses were supported at high levels of statistical significance using analysis of variance and structural equation modeling. Explained variance was very high for intrusiveness (42%) and irritation (63%), but very low explained variance for ad recognition (11%) resulted in an alternative model that doubled explained variance by removing intrusiveness as a mediator between the factors and ad recognition. The interaction between user control and obscuring of the content behaved as hypothesized, and interaction charts illustrate the effects as predicted. Future studies should continue to focus on characteristics rather than on types of ads and generalize the results to other types of participants and settings.
Causality analysis between climatic factors and dengue fever using the Granger causality

Dengue is a mosquito-bome tropical disease caused by one of the four serotypes of dengue virus. There are about 2,5 billion people living in endemic areas. The potential influence of environmental and climatic factors on the transmission of mosquito-bome diseases are expected in many situations but the exact real influences of climatic variables remain uncertain in most of the cases. In the present study, we applied the Granger causality to analyze the relation between climatic variables and the monthly incidences of dengue syndromes in Vietnam for 64 provinces from 1994 to 2010. The experimental results shows a close relationship between climatic factors and dengue incidence in each province and their neighbourhoods.
Social Work In Higher Education

Part 1 British social work education in context - policy change and professional education: British social work education social work - new paradigms and the professional debate higher education - changing policies and expectations professional education and knowledge. Part 2 Characteristics of contemporary social work education: social work in higher education - rationale, location and scope curricular and pedagogical characteristics research issues in social work education identity and careers of social work educators resources issues and change strengths, weaknesses and possible developments. Part 3 Back to the wider context - issues and prospects for social work education: social work - the discipline and the profession professional education in higher education. Appedix: research design and methodology Kolb-Biglan classification of academic knowledge JUC social work education committee profile of interviewees social work education diagram.
Performance Optimisation of Soft and Hard Spectrum Sensing Schemes in Cognitive Radio

Cognitive radios represent a promising technique to address the problem of efficient spectrum utilisation. However, their performance is limited by their capability to sense the spectrum. This letter proposes a fair comparison between soft and hard spectrum sensing schemes, based on the practical assumption of limited time resources, which was never explored in previous studies. By considering the achieved detection probability as the performance metric and the false alarm probability as constraint, this work analytically proves that the hard scheme can represent a favourable solution, especially in short sensing times and/or large numbers of users. The sufficient condition by which the soft scheme outperforms the hard scheme is also introduced. This condition is represented by the number of collected samples from the channel in a closed-form expression, which depends on the sensing time, the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR), the number of available users and the predefined false alarm probability threshold. All these factors are independently evaluated throughout this work. The analysis is carried out through mathematical equations and confirmed by simulation results.
On Newtons method and Halleys method for the principal p th root of a matrix

If A is a matrix with no negative real eigenvalues and all zero eigenvalues of A are semisimple, the principal pth root of A can be computed by Newton’s method or Halley’s method, with a preprocessing procedure if necessary. We prove a new convergence result for Newton’s method, and discover an interesting property of Newton’s method and Halley’s method in terms of series expansions. We explain how the convergence of Newton’s method and Halley’s method can be improved when the eigenvalues of A are known or when A is a singular matrix. We also prove new results on pth roots of M -matrices and H-matrices, and consider the application of Newton’s method and Halley’s method to find the principal pth roots of these special matrices. AMS classification: 65F30; 41A58; 15A48