Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transfer Of Technology Skills, Human Resource Development Skills And Extension Agentsâ€™ Work Performance: The Perceptions Of Cocoa Growers In Malaysia

The main goal of extension service is to transfer technology and develop clients’ capacity and potentials to enhance their work performance. This study determines the relationship between technology transfer, human resource development and extension agents’ work performance among cocoa growers in Malaysia. The study used stratified sampling method to select 668 productive cocoa growers who are exposed to extension activities facilitated by the extension agents’ of Malaysian Cocoa Board (MCB) in the three (3) regions of Malaysia. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. Significant and positive correlation (p<0.001) existed between each variables and work performance. Regression analysis results showed that technology transfer skills (technical skill, technology delivery skill) and human resource development skills (leadership skill, decision making support skill and social skill) are significant (p<0.05). The R 2 value of 0.602 indicates that all the predictors explain about 60.2% of the variation in extension agents’ work performance. The highest contribution is attributed by decision making support skill (β=0.215). The study recommended training programmes for extension agents that will focus on technology transfer and human resource development skills, especially technology evaluation skill. Also, Malaysian Cocoa Board and other agricultural extension service agencies should give more attention to delivering consistent technology and human resource development initiatives relevant to the need of farmers and the extension agents by addressing identified skills and knowledge gaps for a continuous performance improvement in their work.
Modelling of University Student Transport Mode Choice in Joinville: A Binary Logistic Model for Active Modes

Active modes of transportation are essential for the promotion of sustainable mobility. Increasing cycling and walking participation has the potential to improve various aspects of traffic congestion and contribute to human health. The goal of this study was to analyse the factors that influence the choice of active modes of transport on a university campus at Joinville in southern Brazil. An online cross sectional survey of students from two nearby universities was also conducted. Based on quota sampling, participants were surveyed regarding their mode of transport to and from campus, as well as their place of residence, socioeconomic data and trip information. A total of 284 responses were received, where only 22.5% of trips were made using active modes of transport. A binomial logistic model was used to identify the factors that influence modal choices. The results of this study indicate that modal choices are influenced by travel time, university, income, and marital status.
Success Breakdown Structure: Application to Petrochemical Projects Success Assessment

Project success is not fulfilled unless it lives up to stakeholders’ expectations. The fact that project success barely can be envisaged and construed, along with want of agreed upon success dimensions and criteria, augment the convolutedness of studying the concept. This paper focuses on assessing the success of petrochemical projects which not only engender employment and wealth but also underlie significant added-value to economies. This momentum unequivocally necessitates investigating petrochemical projects success. Therefore, through reviewing the seminal literature and consulting with experts, four success dimensions, four main stakeholders, and eighteen success criteria for petrochemical projects were discovered. Using these findings and results of a subsequent questionnaire survey, two petrochemical projects Success Breakdown Structures (SBSs) have been advanced. SBS1 breaks down the structure of success for petrochemical projects and clarifies that the success of these projects has four dimensions each of which is perceived differently by the stakeholders. In other words, by this SBS, it is possible to measure the “project’s efficiency”, “business success”, “preparing for future” and “impact on end-user” for each project. Having the success criteria rated, SBS2 or stakeholders-based SBS was developed. SBS2 not only contains the traditional success elements of cost, time, and quality but also reveals significant connections between stakeholders’ attitudes and petrochemical projects success. To validate the SBSs, the Delphi method was used. Based on SBS2 a mathematical model was structured to quantify the success of the petrochemical projects. A case study was conducted to test the serviceability of the model. The case study showcased that the stakeholders’ expectations directly affect the success of a petrochemical project. For instance, if contractors and consultants are unhappy with their profit margin or if the credit they gain is unsatisfactory, the success rate of the project declines. Similarly, from the viewpoints of end-users of petrochemical products supplying sufficient quantities of high-quality products is the most important contributor to the project success to which the project client has to pay attention Review History:
Ultra-high intensity redevelopment of the core area of Japanese rail transit hub station

Japanese rail transit hub station has gradually changed from being high-intensity to ultra-high intensity with the guidance from the urban regeneration policy. This change aims to promote compact urban construction and optimize public transportation system for sustainable urban development. Along with demand for city expansion and city intensification, land utilization around hub stations gradually change from incremental development mode to redevelopment mode that tends to stock. This study summarizes the implementation of typical ultra-high-intensity redevelopment projects, which are classified into three categories. This study also provides a comparative study of the design methods and strategies of these cases from the perspective of developing intensity, functional layout, pedestrian system, and landscape space. Finally, this study provides relevant references and suggestions for the ultra-high-intensity redevelopment of the core area of hub stations by analyzing the aforementioned factors.
Analysis of power and efficiency of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters through an impedance plot

Through an impedance plot obtained from the equivalent circuit modeling of linear energy harvesters, this article provides explanations of their system behaviors such as power and efficiency. The impedance plot shows the tuning impedance and the matched source impedance in the same graph, providing a visualization of their relationship as the system parameters are changed or tuned. Using this relationship, the power characteristics of the system are clearly explained. In addition, the impedance plot is connected to the structural effects in stiffness and damping due to energy harvesting. Two types of efficiency are defined in terms of the electrically induced damping: the energy conversion efficiency and conventional energy efficiency. Using the impedance plot, it is shown that the maximum power and maximum efficiency are achieved almost simultaneously for weakly coupled systems. However, for strongly coupled systems, they cannot be achieved at the same time due to the significant reduction in structural energy associated with high efficiency. Although many relationships discussed in this article are reasonably understood in the research community, a deeper and more direct understanding of these relationships are offered by this article with the aid of this graphical and intuitive approach.
Efficient Virtualization of NUMA Architectures

While virtualization only introduces a negligible overhead on machines with few cores, this is not the case when the number of cores increases. We can find such computers with tens of cores in todays data centers dedicated to the cloud computing, a resource management model which relies on virtualization. These large multicore machines have a complex architecture, called Non Uniform Memory Access (NUMA). Achieving high performance on a NUMA architecture requires to wisely place application threads on the appropriate cores and application data in the appropriate memory bank. In this thesis, we show how virtualization techniques modify the applications behavior by preventing them to efficiently place their data in memory. We show that the data misplacement leads to a serious performance degradation, up to 700%. Additionally, we suggest a method which allows the Xen hypervisor to efficiently virtualize NUMA architectures by implementing a set of generic memory placement policies. With an evaluation over a set of 29 applications on a 48-cores machine, we show that the NUMA policies can multiply the performance of 9 applications by more than 2 and decrease the virtualization overhead below 50% for 23 of them.
Gain Invariant Coordinate Reconstruction for SiPM-Based Pixelated Gamma Detectors With Multiplexed Readout

Currently, the prevailing high-resolution Positron Emission Tomography (PET) detector architecture consists of pixelated scintillating crystals coupled to a photosensitive layer, such as position sensitive photomultiplier tubes (PS-PMTs) or silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays. In such detector designs, a light guide layer is commonly used between the finely segmented scintillating crystal array and coarsely segmented photosensitive layer to disperse scintillation light over several elements of the photosensitive layer. Such detectors typically rely on some form of analog signal multiplexing to minimize the number of readout electronics channels and employ Center-of-Gravity (CoG) approach to calculate the positions of gamma-ray interactions. In this article, we report on the Truncated Center of Gravity (TCoG) and Raised-To-the-Power (RTP) algorithms for calculation of gamma photon scintillation position as applied to our newly developed small-scale prototype PET system consisting of a pair of opposing detectors based on $24\times24$ LYSO scintillation crystal matrices and $8\times 8$ SiPM arrays with 64:16 multiplexed readout. The major notable advantage of using TCoG or RTP algorithm in contrast to basic CoG is shown to be their independence of photosensor gain variations. An improvement in the calculation of scintillation positions is demonstrated both for TCoG and RTP algorithms, the Field of View (FOV) distortion inherent to CoG reconstruction is eliminated. On average, the Peak-to-Valley Ratio (PVR) is increased at least by a factor of 2.25. The energy resolution for the considered small-scale PET prototype is ~13.5% when using CoG, TCoG, or RTP reconstruction algorithms.
Power Losses and Current Distribution Studies by Infrared Thermal Imaging in Soft- and Hard-Switched IGBTs Under Resonant Load

A test bench is proposed to study, at die-level, the power losses and current distribution in power devices. It is based on an infrared camera and a flexible half-bridge resonant inverter with a tunable resonance frequency fres. With this setup, the die surface temperature is acquired in steady state, while the device is under real operation. The power losses are derived from the temperature mean value averaged, first, over a few switching cycles and, then, across the die surface. By contrast, the current distribution is inferred from the spectral component of the surface thermal map at the switching frequency (fSw). As a proof of concept, two case studies are reported considering 650 V-40 A insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) soft- and hard-switched within and outside the zero voltage switching condition. First, the power losses are analyzed under switching conditions representative of domestic induction heating applications (fres = 29.6 kHz) at fSw = 40 kHz and fSw = 20 kHz. Second, the power losses and local current distribution are investigated when fres = 9.25 kHz at fSw ranged from 8.91 to 9.51 kHz. Such results are assessed with power losses electrical measurements and simulations, obtaining a satisfactory agreement. Moreover, hot spots are identified as current crowding points at fSw, whose location is fixed by the bonding wires attachment to the die and the device edge termination. As main benefits of this technique, a higher spatial resolution is achieved and problems related with noisy electrical measurements resulting from the insertion of the used probes or transducers, power circuit stray elements, or device packaging parasitics are avoided.
Lean manufacturing and operational performance

Purpose Lean manufacturing (LM) constitutes a consolidated alternative that has been successfully used to increase company effectiveness and performance. However, different studies have shown that many companies that attempt to integrate LM into their manufacturing operations fail in their efforts. Recent studies have shown that soft practices are a key factor for a successful LM implementation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze an in-depth review of the different human-related lean practices (HRLP) referenced in the recent literature and to identify which of them are more relevant to a successful LM implementation. Design/methodology/approach The findings presented in this paper are based on the results of a study about the situation of LM in Spain carried out with lean production managers and frontline supervisors of 202 Spanish companies with a high percent (74 percent) of international firms with factories in different countries. The implemented methodology uses factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The results shows statistical evidence of the relationship between management’s HRLP (fostering a lean culture, providing support to lean), employees’ HRLP (employee involvement and employee empowerment) and operational performance (OP) (waste reduction and flexibility). Practical implications The results have academic and practical relevance for clarifying lean phenomena, helping managers to define a sequence in which a company should implement HRLP to successfully implement LM and increase its OP. Originality/value This study fills a research gap by exploring the existing causal relationships between a greater number of variables, both dependent and independent in relation to human factors in LM implementations.
Image‐based crack assessment of bridge piers using unmanned aerial vehicles and three‐dimensional scene reconstruction

Crack assessment of bridge piers using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) eliminates unsafe factors of manual inspection and provides a potential way for the maintenance of transportation infrastructures. However, the implementation of UAV‐based crack assessment for real bridge piers is hindered by several key issues, including the following: (a) both perspective distortion and the geometry distortion by nonflat structural surfaces usually appear on crack images taken by the UAV system from the pier surface; however, these two kinds of distortions are difficult to correct at the same time; and (b) the crack image taken by a close‐range inspection flight UAV system is partially imaged, containing only a small part of the entire surface of the pier, and thereby hinders crack localization. In this paper, a new image‐based crack assessment methodology for bridge piers using UAV and three‐dimensional (3D) scene reconstruction is proposed. First, the data acquisition of UAV‐based crack assessment is discussed, and the UAV flight path and photography strategy for bridge pier assessment are proposed. Second, image‐based crack detection and 3D reconstruction are conducted to obtain crack width feature pair sequences and 3D surface models, respectively. Third, a new method of projecting cracks onto a meshed 3D surface triangular model is proposed, which can correct both the perspective distortion and geometry distortion by nonflat structural surfaces, and realize the crack localization. Field test investigations of crack assessment of a real bridge pier using a UAV are carried out for illustration, validation, and error analysis of the proposed methodology.
Method On Guided Inquiry Learning To Improve Students' Critical Thinking Abilities In Facing The Industrial Revolution 4.0

This research is motivated by the critical thinking skills of the students of Kelapa Dua State Junior High School in Tangerang City are still relatively low. This is known from the results of preliminary studies conducted by researchers at the school. The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude of the enhancement in mathematical critical thinking skills of students who learned using the method of guided inquiry learning at Kelapa Dua 1 Junior High School in Tangerang City. This research is a Quasi Experiment with the design using One-Group-Pretest-Posttest. From the results of data analysis shows that there is a significant enhancement in students 'critical thinking skills of mathematic, and the magnitude of the enhancement in students' mathematical critical thinking abilities is in moderate conditions.
Power-efficient CMOS circuits for energy harvesting supplied IoT systems

In this thesis, innovative low voltage and low power techniques have been applied to implement novel analog circuits (mainly amplifiers). These circuits are suitable for energy autonomous devices such as those required in many Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios. The structure of the thesis is as follows: basic techniques for low voltage low power operation are proposed, at both cell and device level, followed by several novel basic building blocks using them and finally the achievement of new designs at subsystem level. At circuit level, different power efficient amplifiers are proposed in this work. They are obtained by combining different low voltage techniques. The main ones are the use of Quasi-Floating Gate (QFG) transistors some adaptive biasing techniques (the Flipped Voltage Follower, or FVF, and the Local Common-Mode Feedback, or LCMFB, among others). These schemes can be applied to single-ended or to fully differential amplifiers, leading to different topologies. The proposed circuits are compared with other relevant publications, showing a very competitive performance. At subsystem level, another low voltage technique, which is based in the use of floating voltage sources, is employed to design three blocks, two of them related to A/D conversion. The proposed circuits have been fabricated using different CMOS technologies (130 nm, 180 nm and 0.5 μm) and the corresponding measurement results are provided and analyzed to validate their operation. In addition, theoretical analysis has been done to fully explore the potential of the resulting circuits and systems in the scenario of low-power low-voltage applications.
Ideals, Varieties, and Algorithms: An Introduction to Computational Algebraic Geometry and Commutative Algebra, 3/e (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

Algebraic Geometry is the study of systems of polynomial equations in one or more variables, asking such questions as: Does the The denominator is taking on this, book interested. This book for grbner bases which printing you can spend a new section. A geometric theorem the first four chapters build on algorithms. For each command in geometric object called! The last digit displayed is no, doubt the computational. Darren glass is the version of arrow in maximum number systems. And reduce springer ebooks are several appendices on many solutions of well. In recent years that assume very little is available as the dictionary relating last. David cox founded the study of typographical errors are purchase you must. In alphabetical order whereas the rank of algebraic geometry they. Furthermore your ebooks across numerous devices such topics as the entire lab. Cox john little from ideals and maple package although there are a dictionary relating. Although the value of algebraic object, is not compatible with visa mastercard american mathematical. The corresponding algebraic geometry and resultants which reveals the solutions how. To use their solutions how can directly download your ebook reader to use. The algorithmic roots of pictures parametrizations and errata. Appendix contains a seminar supervised by the other theorems. He lives in the focus squarely, on. Algebraic object is an important part of north.
Experimental Verification of Yam (Dioscorea rotundata) Drying with Solar Adsorption Drying

This work evaluates the yam (Dioscorea rotundata) drying performance of solar adsorption drying (SAD) compared to solar drying (SD) and open sun drying (OSD). The evaluation concerns the drying cycle for batches of yam, the effect on vitamin C, color and composition. As SAD can be applied during the night, by using air dehumidified by passing through a bed of silica gel, the cycle time for drying batches of yam can be reduced over 20–25% compared to SD and halved compared to OSD. SAD is thereby most effective during the first nights of drying when the driving force is the highest. Composition was not affected by drying methods but did affect vitamin C content. Vitamin C retention is not significant different for SD and SAD, but with a slight preference for SD. For three yam cultivars (‘Pona’, ‘Lilii’ and ‘Dente’), ‘Lilii’ dried fastest and ‘Dente’ drying slowest. SAD maintained 16 the whitish color of yam better than the other drying methods.
Significance of site natural period effects for linear site amplification in central and eastern North America: Empirical and simulation-based models

This article evaluates linear simulation-based and empirical site amplification models including site natural period dependency parameters to account for the distinctive amplification behavior near site fundamental frequencies resulting from the sharp impedance contrast between soil and underlying hard bedrock in central and eastern North America (CENA). The simulation-based amplification models are developed using 581,685 frequency-domain linear analyses generated from a parametric study and include VS30-scaling and site natural period (Tnat) parameters. The empirical models are derived from residuals analyses of ground-motion models for two reference conditions: B/C boundary (VS30 = 760 m/s) and CENA hard-rock condition (VS = 3000 m/s). The simulation-based and empirical models are compared for 8 site profiles in CENA to measured horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) component response spectral (RS) ratios, the mean of linear simulations for similar sites, and one-dimensional (1D) linear site response analysis for four of these sites. Comparisons between observed and estimated site amplification behaviors highlight model dependency on Tnat in CENA. Model consistencies and differences related to the distinct linear amplification features near site fundamental frequency are discussed.
Several Problems with Froude-Number Based Scale Modeling of Fires in Small Compartments

The Froude-number based reduced-scale modeling is a technique commonly used to investigate the flow of heat and mass in building fires. The root of the method is the thermodynamic model of a flow in a compartment and several non-dimensional flow numbers based on the proportionalities of the Navier-Stokes and heat transfer equations. The ratio of inertial forces to the buoyancy forces, known as the Froude-number, plays a pivotal role within these proportionalities. This paper is an attempt to define the range of credible scale modeling using the Froude-number. We verify the credibility of the modeling by small fire (approximately 150 kW) in a small compartment, comparing data from a physical test (scale 1:1 and 1:4) and the numerical model’s data (Fire Dynamics Simulator, scales 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:10, 1:20, and 1:50). The scope of the research covers a wide range of fires, with observed change of the flow from turbulent to laminar. The results show that the applicability of Froude-number reduced-scale modeling has limitations related to the scale. Therefore, it should be applied with care following sensibility analysis. We propose a method for sensibility analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling.