Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do construction companies need to match employees' expectations?

Commitment of employees is relatively low in construction. This problem is exasperated by companies inability to attract, motivate, and retain talent that is then often channelled into other more attractive industrial sectors where the prospects, conditions and rewards are perceived to be much higher. The purpose of this study is thus primarily to develop a generic model to maximise employees' engagement, improve their motivation and increase the retention levels. To achieve this aim, the investigation looks into how perceived employment obligations and expectations impact commitment and through that organisational performance. The study is based on the postulations of Luhmann's theory of social systems with communication viewed as a constitutive element of a social system. Consequently expectations of a particular party in an employment relationship are represented in a communicative space requiring the other party's understanding in order to align expectations of both sides in the relationship. Explicitly, alignment of by an employee perceived manager's expectations determines his/ her commitment to fulfil obligations towards the manager. The result of this first stage of research is a conceptual model developed following the substantial supporting evidence in the literature and it forms the framework for mitigation of low commitment, motivation and retention of employees. The model particularly focuses on factors affecting employees' perceived expectations like reneging, incongruence and the process of communication. In the future the model will be validated using empirical data from a combination of observational and enquiry-based research. Once completed, the model will provide a framework for informing Human Resource Management policies with the aim to improve commitment of employees, increase the levels of retention and consequently improve the performance of construction organisations.
The effect of a male-oriented computer gaming culture on careers in the computer industry

If careers in the computer industry were viewed, it would be evident that there is a conspicuous gender gap between the number of male and female employees. The same gap can be observed at the college level where males are dominating females as to those who pursue and obtain a degree in computer science. The question that this research paper intends to show is: Why are males so dominant when it comes to computer related matter? I have traced this question back to the computer game. Computer games are a fun medium and provide the means for an individual to become computer literate through the engagement of spatial learning and cognitive processing abilities. Since such games are marketed almost exclusively to males, females have a distinct disadvantage. Males are more computer literate through the playing of computer games, and are provided with an easy lead-in to more advanced utilization of computers such as programming. Females tend to be turned off due to the male stereotypes and marketing associated with games and thus begins the gender gap.
International Regions and the International System: A Study in Political Ecology.

law under the changing conditions of the times. As Professor of International Law at Queens College, The City University of New York, he has set a high standard in the textbook field which calls urgently for scholars to meet the critical problems before us. A Foreword by our distinguished colleague, Quincy Wright, correctly emphasizes that the new international law of the United Nations Charter and the establishment of the organizations and procedures necessary to keep it in effect may be the price of survival in the atomic age.
Tiered licensed-assisted access with paid prioritization: A game theoretic approach for unlicensed LTE

The network congestion is caused by the rapidly growing data traffic and the limited wireless radio resources. In addition to the licensed spectrum, the access to unlicensed spectrum (e.g., LAA) brings hope for the service provider (SP) to mitigate the deficiency of radio resources. The premium peering deal with the content providers (CPs) can be an approach to efficiently allocate the scarce radio resources to the CPs with higher traffic load and QoS requirement. This work contributes to a content premium pricing framework for one SP and several CPs, where the SP possesses both LTE and LAA. Through the four-stage Stackelberg game, job market signaling game and second price auction, we derive the optimal bandwidth demand of each CP, the optimal amounts of licensed bandwidth and unlicensed bandwidth required by the SP, the premium access fee and basic access fee. Analysis shows that the CPs and the SP all benefit from the premium access deal. Furthermore, there is a tradeoff between improvement and variability of the SP's profit when introducing LAA.
Longitudinal effects on presence : Suspension of disbelief or distrust of naive belief ?

We propose two models of how a subject’s growing experience in a medium affects presence: The Spin model (based on Spinoza) which predicts that subjects begin as present and then learn to become non-present; and the SoD model (based on Coleridge) which predicts that subjects expend effort to suspend their disbelief during presence. In a longitudinal study, 47 subjects (divided randomly into an attention-focussing and attention-neutral group) were exposed to the same VE over three days, and measured with the ITC-SOPI after the first and final exposures, and then again after a 72 hour delay. The data show the attentionneutral subjects experienced a slight increase in spatial presence, while the attention-focussed subjects showed no change over time. After the delay, the attention-focussing group experiences an increase in spatial presence and the attention-neutral group remains unchanged. We argue that this is, within the limits of the study, evidence for the Spin model. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and measurement implications of the models and results. Keywords--Presence, Content, Cognition, Memory,
Modeling High-Capacity Multilane Roundabouts

RODEL and SIDRA are two of the most common macroscopic roundabout operational analysis tools being used in the United States. One significant drawback of the macroscopic tools is that they cannot address complex interactions between roundabouts being analyzed and any adjacent intersections. Analysis of interaction between the operations of closely-spaced intersections becomes critical in urban settings where peak-hour traffic volumes are high. Only microscopic traffic modeling tools can analyze such interactions. However, due to a large set of parameters that affect driver behavior in these models, their application and acceptability of results from roundabout analysis is still not predominant. This paper attempts to provide some guidelines for multi-lane roundabout operational analysis using the popular microscopic traffic simulation tool, VISSIM. Comparison of results from VISSIM to those from RODEL and SIDRA is also provided.
Recall Latency Following Pure- and Mixed-Strength Lists: A Direct Test of the Relative Strength Model of Free Recall

Strong items (e.g., (hose studied for a longer period of time) are not recalled faster than weak items in pure-strength lists. Although counterintuitive, this result is consistent with a relative strength model of free recall. In mixed-strength lists, by contrast, the relative strength model requires that strong items be recalled significantly faster than weak items. A considerable body of recent research on this issue suggests that, if anything, the opposite may be true. Four experiments reported here measured free-recall latency following pure- and mixed-strength lists. Recall latency for strong items was consistently shorter than that for weak items, but in mixed lists only. Moreover, as uniquely predicted by a relative strength model, in mixed lists, strong items were recalled more quickly than items from a pure-strength list of the same size, and weak items were recalled more slowly by a corresponding amount. The idea that stronger memories come to mind more quickly and easily than weaker ones has been around for a long time. Evidence consistent with this idea was reported by Marbe (see Bousfield, Cohen, & Silva, 1956) around the turn of the century and by Bousfield (Bousfield & Barclay, 1950; Bousfield et al, 1956; Bousfield, Whitmarsh, & Esterson, 1958) in the 1950s. As intuitively obvious as this result may seem, it is clearly incorrect under certain conditions (cf. MacLeod & Nelson, 1984). For example, Rohrer and Wixted (1994) showed that strengthening words on a list by allowing extra study time increased the number of items recalled but did not affect the average time to recall. They also showed that under the right conditions (namely, a long list of strong items vs. a short list of weak items), strong items were recalled more slowly than weak items. When are intuitions about the relationship between memory strength and recall latency correct and when are they incorrect? Wixted and Rohrer (1994) argued that relative strength models of free recall effectively guide thinking about this issue.
Observations of Ultracool White Dwarfs

We present new spectroscopic and photometric measurements of the white dwarfs LHS 3250 and WD 0346+246. Along with F351-50, these white dwarfs are the coolest ones known, all with effective temperatures below 4000 K. Their membership in the Galactic halo population is discussed, and detailed comparisons of all three objects with new atmosphere models are presented. The new models consider the effects of mixed H/He atmospheres and indicate that WD 0346+246 and F351-50 have predominantly helium atmospheres with only traces of hydrogen. LHS 3250 may be a double degenerate whose average radiative temperature is between 2000 and 4000 K, but the new models fail to explain this object.
FPGA Implementation of MPPT Using Variable Step-Size P&O Algorithm for PV Applications

This paper describes FPGA implementation of a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for photovoltaic (PV) applications. By slightly modifying the original algorithm, an improved variable step-size P&O algorithm is realized and efficiently implemented using a hardware description language (VHDL). Subsequently, the new MPPT algorithm integrated with a solar-powered battery charging system is implemented on the XC2C384 FPGA without external sensor unit requirement. Experimental results with a commercial PV array show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional controller in terms of tracking speed and mitigation of fluctuation output power in steady state operation. The overall system efficiency is well above 96%
Digital Calibration Algorithm for 2-Stage Cyclic ADC used in 33-Mpixel 120-fps CMOS Image Sensor

– This paper proposes a digital calibration algorithm for a 2-stage cyclic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with 12-bit resolution used in a 33-Mpixel 120-fps CMOS image sensor. A simulation was performed to verify the algorithm with the large values of errors that we set. Results showed that the maximum differential nonlinearity (DNL) was improved to 0.49 LSB from 4.5 LSB, and that the integral nonlinearity (INL) improved to +0.23/−0.27 LSB from +6.27/−1.92 LSB.
INTRODUCING MULTIMODAL SEQUENTIAL EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIONS FOR VIRTUAL CHARACTERS

In this paper we present a system which allows embodied conversational agent to display multimodal sequential expressions. Recent studies show that several emotions are expressed by a set of different nonverbal behaviors which include different modalities: facial expressions, head and gaze movements, gestures, torso movements and posture. Multimodal sequential expressions of emotions may be composed of nonverbal behaviors displayed simultaneously over different modalities, of a sequence of behaviors or of expressions that change dynamically within one modality. This paper presents, from the annotation to the synthesis of the behavior, the process of multimodal sequential expressions generation as well as the results of the evaluation of our system.
Partially coherent distributed detection under total power constraint

In this paper, we consider the problem of power constrained partially coherent distributed detection over fading multi-access channel. The deflection coefficient maximization (DCM) is used to optimize the performance of detectors. Two cases of the channel gain information are considered separately at the fusion center, one case with perfect channel gain (the corresponding method is referred to as PC-DCM, with PC being the abbreviation for “partially coherent”), the other case with statistical information of channel gain (the corresponding method is referred to as PC-DCM-CS, with CS being the abbreviation for “channel statistics”). We derive the closed-form solutions to the considered problems. Monte-Carlo simulations are carried out to verify the performance of the proposed methods. Simulation results show that the proposed new methods could significantly improve the detection performance of the fusion system at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
Sexual Functioning in Spanish and Portuguese Young Adults: Initial Validation of the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale

ABSTRACT Objectives: The authors conducted an initial validation of the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale (ASEX) and examined the sexual function of Spanish and Portuguese young adults. Methods: Participants were 523 Spanish and 595 Portuguese heterosexual young adults who completed a background questionnaire, the ASEX, and measures of sexual sensation seeking, excitation, and inhibition. Results: The ASEX showed good reliability and validity. Participants reported good sexual function. The most prevalent difficulties in men were related to desire and orgasm, and to orgasm and satisfaction in women. Conclusions: This is a psychometrically sound instrument to assess sexual functioning in Spanish and Portuguese young adults.
Size of coefficients of lexicographical Groöbner bases: the zero-dimensional, radical and bivariate case

This work is limited to the zero-dimensional, radical, and bivariate case. A lexicographical Gröbner basis can be simply viewed as Lagrange interpolation polynomials. In the same way the Chinese remaindering theorem generalizes Lagrange interpolation, we show how a triangular decomposition is linked to a specific Gröbner basis (not the reduced one). A bound on the size of the coefficients of this specific Gröbner basis is proved using height theory, then a bound is deduced for the reduced Gröbner basis. Besides, the link revealed between the Gröbner basis and the triangular decomposition gives straightforwardly a numerical estimate to help finding a lucky prime in the context of modular methods.
**title** Asp Conference Series, Vol. **volume***, **year of Publication** **names of Editors** Morphological Evolution of Dwarf Galaxies in the Local Group

The dwarf galaxies of the Local Group can be separated in three morphological groups: irregular, elliptical and spheroidal. As in the large galaxy clusters, there seems to be a morphology-position relationship: irregular galaxies are preferentially found in the outskirts (low density regions) of the Local Group, whereas dwarf ellipticals and spheroidals are more frequent in the central, high density regions. To cast light on the nature and origin of dwarf galaxies in the Local Group, Mayer et al.(2001) have suggested that a dwarf irregular galaxy tidally interacting with a galaxy of much larger mass may be reshaped into a dwarf spheroidal or elliptical object. In this paper we check by means of N-Body Tree-SPH simulations whether this is possible for a selected sample of galaxies of the Local Group. Using the best data available in literature to fix the dynamical and kinematical status of a few dwarf galaxies in the Local Group, we follow the evolution of an ideal satellite, which supposedly started as an irregular object during its orbital motion around the Milky Way. We find that the tidal interactions with the Milky Way remove a large fraction of the mass of the dwarf irregular and gradually reshape it into a spherical object. We set up the initial conditions for the orbital motion of a dG around a galaxy of larger mass (the MW in our case). This task is hampered by the very small number of galaxies for which good determinations of the proper motions from direct observations are currently available (Irwin 1998). The original sample of more than 40 galaxies belonging to the LG drastically reduce to 5, all of them satellites of the MW. The orbital parameters for this small group of objects are listed in Table 1. The dIrr galaxy, whose dynamical structure is tested against the gravita-tional interaction with a large mass object, is supposed to have been formed in the past and to be made of three components: DM, gas, and stars in suitable proportions. The total mass of the galaxy is given by the sum of the three components M G = M s + M g + M DM with obvious meaning of the symbols. The rotation curves (Hoffman et al. 1996) and cosmological arguments (Mateo 1998 and reference therein) have clearly indicated that galaxies (the dwarf ones in particular) are DM dominated. Therefore we assume that M DM =
Perspective on Decision Analysis Applications, 1990 - 2001

This article identifies, and provides perspective on, trends and developments in decision analysis applications, based primarily on an exhaustive survey of decision analysis applications published in the period 1990-2001 in major English-language operations research and closely related journals. It serves as a guide to those interested in recent applications in specific areas or in applications that illustrate the use of particular methods. We compare the characteristics of the applications articles surveyed here with those of applications articles appearing in a similar set of journals between 1970 and 1989 and conclude that the overall rate of publication of decision analysis applications has increased. In addition, we find that both the mix of application areas and the specific aspects of decision analysis that are emphasized in applications publications have shifted somewhat. We also identify and discuss noteworthy trends in, and developments affecting, published applications, including those in computer software and software-related tools, decision conferencing, stochastic trees, value-focused thinking, normative systems, organizational processes, and real options. We highlight several award-winning decision analysis applications and discuss formation of a new practitioner-oriented professional group. Finally, we present some concerns and thoughts on future needs for advancing decision analysis practice.
Interactions between Dispatchers and Truck Drivers in a High Turnover Context

The North American trucking industry has been facing chronic issues related to the retention of a skilled workforce since the end of the 1980s. These issues have both direct economic and social impact; for example, high driver turnover has been linked to higher accident rates. Research has revealed a clear link between the dispatcher’s role and driver turnover, yet little is known about the interactions of this relationship in day-to-day work experience. The aim of the present article, therefore, is to document the dynamic environment shaping interactions between dispatchers and truck drivers in addressing issues related to high turnover. In order to capture the daily interactions of these players, a qualitative approach was used, based on 17 individual interviews and three group discussions with dispatchers, truck drivers and labour and management representatives from 11 different Quebec-based organizations. The results reveal four key characteristics influencing the day-to-day dynamics of trucking operations: 1) the importance of dispatcher-driver interaction in efficient and quality work operations; 2) the precedence of customer satisfaction in these interactions; 3) the interdependent nature of the dispatcher-driver relationship; and lastly, 4) the role of listening and mutual respect. More specifically, the results suggest that dispatcher-driver interactions tend to occur in a high-pressure environment where work demands often necessitate prioritizing operational concerns over interpersonal ones. They also demonstrate that a bi-directional, “win-win” relationship based on constructive interactions, listening and mutual respect are essential conditions in achieving both work efficiency and job satisfaction. These results appear to confirm the findings of several previous studies and shed new light on understanding the relationship between these players.
Spherical Pendulum, Actions, and Spin

The classical and quantum mechanics of a spherical pendulum are worked out, including the dynamics of a suspending frame with moment of inertia θ. The presence of two separatrices in the bifurcation diagram of the energy−momentum mapping has its mathematical expression in the hyperelliptic nature of the problem. Nevertheless, numerical computation allows to obtain the action variable representation of energy surfaces and to derive frequencies and winding ratios from there. The quantum mechanics is also best understood in terms of these actions. The limit θ → 0 is of particular interest, both classically and quantum mechanically, as it generates two copies of the frameless standard spherical pendulum. This is suggested as a classical interpretation of spin.
Energy E ffi cient Reconfigurable SRAM Using Data-Dependency by Chuhong

The binary values processed and stored at the intermediary stages of an algorithm are often highly correlated. Motivated in part by this observation and the ever-increasing challenge of power density for Integrated Circuit (IC) systems, a novel reconfigurable memory framework is proposed in this thesis which builds upon traditional low power techniques such as voltage scaling in order to achieve up to 31% power savings for targeted applications. The general strategy underlying the presented low power memory innovation is to leverage global and local data correlation in order to make predictions so that the overall switching activity on the read bit-lines of the Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) is reduced with minimal area overhead. Additionally, multiple prediction schemes are incorporated into this framework wherein statistical data features are used to optimally configure each column of the proposed SRAM. Analysis tools for developing this type of reconfigurable low-power memories are provided. An example reconfigurable CP SRAM adhering to the proposed framework is presented which includes the novel designs of a 10-transistor (10T) bit-cell, a predictionbased conditional pre-charge scheme, and a column-wise reconfigurable dual prediction mode architecture. A 16kbit SRAM incorporating these innovations is implemented in a test chip using a 28nm FD-SOI CMOS process. Using post-layout simulations, the proposed SRAM is found to provide 14%-20%, 4%, and 31% reductions in read power as compared with a conventional 8T SRAM for three targeted applications: the coefficient SRAMs in a sparse Fast Fourier Transform (sFFT) implementation, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) weights SRAM in an objection detection system, and the Motion Estimation (ME) reference pixel SRAM in a video coding system, respectively. Thesis Supervisor: Anantha P. Chandrakasan Title: Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering