Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A review of explicit approximations of Colebrook's equation

The most common explicit correlations for estimation of the friction factor in rough and smooth pipes are reviewed in this paper. Comparison of any friction factor equation with the Colebrook's equation was expressed trough the mean relative error, the maximal positive error, the maximal negative error, correlation ratio and standard deviation. The statistical comparison of different equations was also carried out using the 'Model selection criterion' and 'Akaike Information Criterion'. It was found that the equation of Zigrang and Sylvester provides the most accurate value of friction factor, and that Haaland's equation is most suitable for hand calculations.
Multi-input transcutaneous neuromuscular electrical stimulation for control of the lower limb

Muscle contractions in the body are caused by electrical impulses that reach the muscle through nerves. These impulses ordinarily originate from within the body, for example, from the brain. Muscle contractions can also be induced artificially by applying electric current near a nerve. It can even be applied non-invasively through a pair of electrodes, the active and reference, placed on the surface of the skin near the targeted muscle, a technique termed transcutaneous neuromuscular electrical stimulation (TNMES). TNMES is even applicable to individuals suffering paralysis so long as nerve innervation to the muscle is intact. This is often still the case after spinal cord injury or stroke. Thus, a major clinical application of TNMES is to induce muscle contractions in such individuals for functional tasks such as grasping and walking. This coordinated use of TNMES requires precise modulation of pulsed electric currents and is termed functional electrical stimulation (FES). It can have both orthotic and therapeutic benefits for individuals. Three major challenges in the widespread use of FES in the lower limb are overcoming muscle fatigue, providing better control of limb motion, and integration of voluntary effort in a safe environment to improve therapeutic outcomes. Each of these challenges is addressed in one of the three parts of this thesis. The first part of this thesis addresses the limitation of the rapid onset of muscle fatigue during FES caused by localized high frequency stimulation of muscle fibers. To mitigate this fatigue, a technique termed spatially distributed sequential stimulation (SDSS) is used. During SDSS, the area of stimulation is sequentially changed, pulse by pulse, using multiple surface electrodes that cover the same area as would be covered by the one active electrode during conventional single electrode stimulation (SES). Three studies showing the effectiveness and elucidating the physiological mechanism of SDSS are presented. The first study in this part demonstrates the effective use of SDSS in paralyzed triceps surae muscles of an individual with complete spinal cord injury. The second study extends this finding to the four major lower limb muscle groups in able-bodied individuals, as well as in individuals with spinal cord injury. The fatigue-reducing ability of SDSS is observed in all muscles except knee flexors of able-bodied individuals, and in all muscles tested in individuals with SCI. The third study elucidates the mechanism underlying SDSS. In particular, electromyography (EMG) is used to show that, as hypothesized, different sets of muscle fibers are indeed being activated alternately by different stimulation electrodes. The second part of this thesis addresses the lack of effective methods to precisely control limb motions during FES. Experiments are carried out to investigate the effectiveness of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control in controlling ankle dorsiflexion. This controller
Effect of organic fertilizers used in sandy soil on the growth of tomatoes

In order to reveal the regulating capacity of organic fertilizers on sandy soil, pots experiments were carried out. The growth of tomatoes planted on sandy soil amended by organic fertilizers was measured. Organic fertilizers can be helpful to improve the plant height, stem diameter, the aerial parts fresh weight, root fresh weight, leaf photosynthetic rates and photosynthesis, and lay a good foundation for the growth of tomatoes. The effect of organic fertilizer is the most significant. Among all the treatments of adding 2.5%, 5%, 10% organic fertilizers, adding 10% organic fertilizers are the best. It can significantly enhance the growth and photosynthesis of tomatoes, and it is among the best of these three soil treatments for sandy soil.
ON THE CYPHOPHTHALMI ( ARACHNIDA , OPILIONES ) TYPES FROM

The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale ‘‘Giacomo Doria,’’ Genoa, hosts one of the most important historical collections of the Opiliones suborder Cyphophthalmi, including all the known specimens for the type species of the genera Leptopsalis (Stylocellidae), Miopsalis (Stylocellidae), and Parogovia (Neogoveidae), as well as several other types in the families Ogoveidae and Stylocellidae (it is unclear whether specimens in Pettalidae and Sironidae constitute types). These specimens were recently made available to us for study, and given their importance, we discuss and illustrate them here. Study of this collection allows confirmation of the validity of Leptopsalis, considered a synonym of Stylocellus for more than a century, and of Miopsalis, considered a nomen dubium in the most recent catalogue of the group. It furthermore helps to clarify the identity of several other species in the family Stylocellidae. Here we formally resurrect the genera Miopsalis Thorell, 1890, and Leptopsalis Thorell, 1882, and transfer several species to these genera: M. collinsi (Shear, 1993) comb. nov.; M. gryllospeca (Shear, 1993) comb. nov.; M. lionota (Pocock, 1897) comb. nov.; M. sabah (Shear, 1993) comb. nov.; M. silhavyi (Rambla, 1991) comb. nov.; M. tarumpitao (Shear, 1993) comb. nov.; L. dumoga (Shear, 1993) comb. nov.; L. hillyardi (Shear, 1993) comb. nov.; L. javana Thorell, 1882; L. lydekkeri (Clouse & Giribet, 2007) comb. nov.; L. modesta (Hansen & Sørensen, 1904) comb. nov.; L. novaguinea (Clouse & Giribet, 2007) comb. nov.; L. ramblae (Giribet, 2002) comb. nov.; L. sulcata (Hansen & Sørensen, 1904) comb. nov.; L. tambusisi (Shear, 1993) comb. nov.; L. thorellii (Hansen & Sørensen, 1904) comb. nov.; L. weberii (Hansen & Sørensen, 1904) comb. nov.
Assessment of Occupational Health Hazards Awareness and Common Practices amongst Barbers and Hairdressers in Cameroon

Background: Barbers and hairdressers are exposed to several health hazards in their workplace. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and perceptions of barbers and hairdressers in YaoundA© VI, Cameroon on occupational hazards, and evaluate the influence of common workplace habits on exposures of these workers to chemical hazards. Â Methods: We conducted a workplace-based cross-sectional study by randomly selecting 118 participants (barbers=54 and hairdressers=64) who were examined using structured questionnaires between March and May 2015. Â Results: Over 95% of the participants (96% barbers and 97% hairdressers) were aware of the workplace hazards. HIV/AIDS was the most frequently reported disease that can be transmitted through workplace practices (mentioned by 50% barbers and 66% hairdressers). The most commonly used protective measure was instrument sterilization (by 69% barbers and 75% hairdressers), followed by avoidance of cross-usage of blades, 15.4% and 12.5%, and the use of protective equipment, 7.7% and 6.3%, respectively. Â Conclusions: Barbers and hairdressers were aware of workplace hazards, but do not routinely perform risk assessment of the hazards to protect themselves and their customers. Training on proper handling of cosmetic products and chemicals and improving occupational health and safety risk assessment are urgently needed to reduce workplace exposures in Cameroon.
Bond–slip behavior of fiber-reinforced polymer/concrete interface in single shear pull-out and beam tests

It has been assumed that the fiber-reinforced polymer/concrete interface is subjected to in-plane shear condition when intermediate crack debonding failure occurs. Therefore, the single shear pull-out test results are often used to predict the intermediate crack debonding failure in beams. In this study, the behavior of fiber-reinforced polymer-strengthened concrete beams and single shear pull-out specimens were studied experimentally and numerically. The bond–slip behavior of the fiber-reinforced polymer/concrete interface was obtained by single shear pull-out and beam tests. In all beam specimens, a concrete wedge located at the edge of the notch detached with the fiber-reinforced polymer debonding failure. This phenomenon shows that the initiation of debonding is due to a diagonal crack formation close to the major flexural/shear crack inside the concrete. The diagonal crack formation is due to a local moment at the tip of the notch. This causes the different stress state and slip of the fiber-reinforced polymer/concrete interface of beam specimens from that of the pull-out specimens. It is found that the bond–slip relation obtained from the pull-out test does not represent the bond–slip relation of the fiber-reinforced polymer/concrete interface in the fiber-reinforced polymer-strengthened concrete beams, and it cannot be directly used for predicting the load capacity of the fiber-reinforced polymer-strengthened concrete beams.
Characteristics of target areas selected by the ensemble transform Kalman filter for medium-range forecasts of high-impact winter weather

Abstract The characteristics of “target” locations of tropospheric wind and temperature identified by a modified version of the ensemble transform Kalman filter (ETKF), in order to reduce 0–7-day forecast errors over North America, are explored from the perspective of a field program planner. Twenty cases of potential high-impact weather over the continent were investigated, using a 145-member ensemble comprising perturbations from NCEP, ECMWF, and the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC). Multiple targets were found to exist in the midlatitude storm track. In half of the cases, distinctive targets could be traced upstream near Japan at lead times of 4–7 days. In these cases, the flow was predominantly zonal and a coherent Rossby wave packet was present over the northern Pacific Ocean. The targets at the longest lead times were often located within propagating areas of baroclinic energy conversion far upstream. As the lead time was reduced, these targets were found to diminish in importance, with downstre.
I Was Banging My Head Against a Brick Wall: Exclusionary Power and the Gendering of Sport Organizations

The under-representation of women in sport management has increasingly been recognized by government and nongovernment organizations, and there has been some attempt to redress the imbalance. Research has indicated, however, that the gendering of sport organizations is not simply a numbers’ game. The purpose of this study was to analyze the exercise of exclusionary power as an aspect of gender relations within a six member volunteer Board of Directors of an Australian local, grass-roots sport organization. Data were gathered using semistructured interviews, participant observation and documentary evidence over a 15-month period. This study identified that, although numerical under-representation of men or women on this Board was not an issue for either sex, exclusionary power was exercised in a number of overlapping ways which ultimately limited the participation, input, and influence of its female members.
Nonconvex Variance Reduced Optimization with Arbitrary Sampling

We provide the first importance sampling variants of variance reduced algorithms for empirical risk minimization with non-convex loss functions. In particular, we analyze non-convex versions of SVRG, SAGA and SARAH. Our methods have the capacity to speed up the training process by an order of magnitude compared to the state of the art on real datasets. Moreover, we also improve upon current mini-batch analysis of these methods by proposing importance sampling for minibatches in this setting. Surprisingly, our approach can in some regimes lead to superlinear speedup with respect to the minibatch size, which is not usually present in stochastic optimization. All the above results follow from a general analysis of the methods which works with arbitrary sampling, i.e., fully general randomized strategy for the selection of subsets of examples to be sampled in each iteration. Finally, we also perform a novel importance sampling analysis of SARAH in the convex setting.
Control Charts for Variables with Specified Process Capability Indices

Control charts, also known as Shewhart charts in statistical process control are the statistical tools used to determine whether a manufacturing process is in a state of statistical control or not. If analysis of the control chart indicates that the process is currently under statistical control (i.e. is stable, with variation only co ming fro m sources common to the process) then no corrections or changes to process control parameters are needed or desirable. In addition, data fro m the controlled process can be used to predict the future performance of the process with the help of process capability indices. That is, the suitability and the performance of the manufacturing process are assessed in two stage processes namely control charts and process capability indices. Th is paper deals with the techniques namely, capability based control charts which combines the two stage processes into a single stage process in industrial applicat ions for on line process control. The relative performance of the capability based control charts for variables is assessed with that of existing usual control charts for variables, namely Charts X − and Charts R − . It is observed that the proposed method is simp le to apply and does not warrant any tedious computations both for control charts and for co mputing process capability indices. Fo r the sake o f convenience we have presented the control charts constants for constructing capability based Charts R − and Charts X − . The proposed method is also illustrated with the help of a numerical examp le.
The fates of Solar system analogues with one additional distant planet

The potential existence of a distant planet (“Planet Nine”) in the Solar system has prompted a re-think about the evolution of planetary systems. As the Sun transitions from a main sequence star into a white dwarf, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are currently assumed to survive in expanded but otherwise unchanged orbits. However, a sufficiently-distant and sufficiently-massive extra planet would alter this quiescent end scenario through the combined effects of Solar giant branch mass loss and Galactic tides. Here, I estimate bounds for the mass and orbit of a distant extra planet that would incite future instability in systems with a Sun-like star and giant planets with masses and orbits equivalent to those of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. I find that this boundary is diffuse and strongly dependent on each of the distant planet's orbital parameters. Nevertheless, I claim that instability occurs more often than not when the planet is as massive as Jupiter and harbours a semimajor axis exceeding about 300 au, or has a mass of a super-Earth and a semimajor axis exceeding about 3000 au. These results hold for orbital pericentres ranging from 100 to at least 400 au. This instability scenario might represent a common occurrence, as potentially evidenced by the ubiquity of metal pollution in white dwarf atmospheres throughout the Galaxy.
Influence of mineral fertilization on edaphic fauna in Acacia auriculiformis (A. Cunn) plantations

Fertilization and/or the accumulation of organic matter from plant residues can influence the composition of soil and litter community. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of P and K fertilization on total faunal and nematode faunal composition and richness in plant litter and soil for 360 days in an area reforested with Acacia auriculiformis (A. Cunn), located in the municipality of Conceicao de Macabu in the State of Rio de Janeiro. For each treatment (fertilized and unfertilized plots), samples of litter and soil (to a depth of 5 cm) were collected and transferred into a Berlese-Tullgren funnels for the extraction of fauna. Mesofauna and macrofauna were quantified, and the major taxa identified. Nematodes were extracted by centrifugal flotation in sucrose solution and identified according to feeding habits. Density (number of individuals m-2) of total fauna, microphages, social insects and saprophages varied significantly per treatment and sampling time in both litter and soil. The total number of individuals collected was 5,127, and the total number of nematodes 894. Phosphorus and potassium fertilization resulted in an increase in total fauna density and richness in the litter due to an increased abundance of social insects, saprophages and herbivores. In the soil, fertilization increased the saprophage and predator densities. Saprophages were the predominant taxa in the litter, while social insects (Formicidae) prevailed in the soil. Litter nematode populations were favored by mineral fertilization. Bacteriophages were the predominant nematode group in both litter and soil.
Dry Matter Biomass Productivity and Composition of Grasses along Grazing Gradient in Fenced and Unfenced Grazing Areas of the Gaborone North,Botswana

Objective: The present study was aimed at assessing and comparing grass species composition and biomass productivity along fenced and unfenced grazing gradient. Methods: For each study area 2 × 1000 m transects radiating from the water points (borehole) were used and sampling plots of size a total of 15 quadrants of size 1 m2 were systematically placed along each transect at intervals of 50 m for the first 500 m and the last 500 m the spacing interval was increased by 100 m. The total biomass of the selected plots was clipped, weighed; oven dried at 65EC for 48 h and weight again in order to express the weight by dry matter. Results: The grazing gradient in fenced area exhibited the highest dry matter biomass (P<0.05) for the grass species at 644.7 g/m2) as compared to the unfenced area at 155.9 g/m2. High-value species (341 g/m2) significantly dominated the dry matter biomass composition in the fenced gradients while in the unfenced it was dominated by medium value species (66.8 g/m2). Despite the fluctuation of biomass from one interval to another, logarithmic trend line estimations suggested an increasing plant biomass relative to the distance from the water point in both grazing gradients. Areas of high biomass were demonstrated at 900 m in both fenced (915 g/m2) and unfenced (433 g/m2) gradients. Dry matter biomass declined in areas close to and furthest from the watering points. The high biomass of the intermediate grass species dominated by E. rigidior suggests that it was highly unutilized. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that dry matter biomass productivity of fenced gradients was higher as compared to that of unfenced grazing area. Dry matter biomass in fenced was mainly composed of high value species especially U. trichopus Meanwhile E. rigidior mid value species contributed the largest share to the biomass in the unfenced gradient.
Vital steps toward success of endangered plant reintroductions

Reintroduction of endangered plants faces many challenges, but the survival of some species may depend on its success. What measures should practitioners take to ensure a successful project, and how should success be measured? Steps in the reintroduction process include planning and identification of objectives, finding source material, propagation, site selection, site preparation, outplanting, monitoring, evaluation and interpretation, feedback to improve protocols, communication with others, habitat maintenance, and repeated actions if necessary to meet objectives. Conducting reintroductions as designed experiments and applying the results through adaptive management will maximize the effectiveness of reintroductions.
Global changes in mean tidal high water, low water and range

ABSTRACT Mawdsley, R.J., Haigh, I.D. , Wells, N.C. , 2014. Global changes in tidal high water, low water and range. In: Green, A.N. and Cooper, J.A. G. (eds.), Proceedings 13th International Coastal Symposium (Durban, South Africa), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 70, pp. 343–348, ISSN 0749-0208. Impacts of extreme sea levels are increasing as the population and infrastructure in coastal zones increases. Extreme high sea levels generally increased at a similar rate to mean sea level through the twentieth century at most sites around the world, suggesting that the same mechanisms are driving both increases. However, the simplicity of this conclusion belies the fact that many mechanisms known to act on the different components of sea level, have been observed to change in local and regional studies. Using a ‘quasi-global’ dataset of sea level records, this paper investigates changes in the tidal component of sea level and shows that changes in mean high and low waters, and hence tidal range, are occurring over long-time scales at many sites around the world. Over half of the selected sites show significant trends in tidal range datums, but no clear spatial patterns of change exist, suggesting that mechanisms are affecting the tide on local scales. Trends are dependent on the tidal datum selected which has wide-ranging practical applications given the variety of uses of tidal datums.
Dealing with uncertainty in the probability of overtopping of a flood mitigation dam

In recent years, copula multivariate functions were used to model, probabilistically, the most important variables of flood events: discharge peak, flood volume and duration. However, in most of the cases, the sampling uncertainty, from which small-sized samples suffer, is neglected. In this paper, considering a real reservoir controlled by a dam as a case study, we apply a structure-based approach to estimate the probability of reaching specific reservoir levels, taking into account the key components of an event (flood peak, volume, hydrograph shape) and of the reservoir (rating curve, volume–water depth relation). Additionally, we improve information about the peaks from historical data and reports through a Bayesian framework, allowing the incorporation of supplementary knowledge from different sources and its associated error. As it is seen here, the extra information can result in a very different inferred parameter set and consequently this is reflected as a strong variability of the reservoir level, associated with a given return period. Most importantly, the sampling uncertainty is accounted for in both cases (single-site and multi-site with historical information scenarios), and Monte Carlo confidence intervals for the maximum water level are calculated. It is shown that water levels of specific return periods in a lot of cases overlap, thus making risk assessment, without providing confidence intervals, deceiving.
Structural Transformation of Cereal Markets in Ethiopia

Abstract We study cereal markets in Ethiopia over the last decade, a period that has been characterised by important local changes, including strong economic growth, urbanisation, improved road and communication infrastructure, and higher adoption of modern inputs in agriculture. These changes are associated with better spatial price integration as well as with significant declines in real price differences between supplying and receiving markets and in cereal milling and retail margins. In short, important improvements have occurred in Ethiopia’s cereal marketing system. This is especially important because dysfunctional cereal markets were previously identified as an important cause of food insecurity in the country.