Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Service Quality: The Gap in the Australian Consulting Engineering Industry

Service quality is generally considered to be an intangible and as such, it has received relatively little serious attention from managers and, until recently, researchers have not conducted rigorous studies in this field. Involves a detailed empirical analysis of service quality issues. The survey frame was a model of the gaps between service expectations and perceptions of services as delivered. “Service quality” was decomposed into a set of key attributes and gaps were identified which become a useful basis for considering how to focus service improvement initiatives.
Numerical Analysis on the Factors Affecting the Hydrodynamic Performance for the Parallel Surfaces With Microtextures

A numerical analysis on the factors affecting the hydrodynamic performance for parallel surfaces with microtextures is presented in this paper. The semianalytical method and fast Fourier transform technique are implemented in the analysis. The numerical procedure is validated by comparing the results from the present model with the analytical solutions for the lubrication problem in an infinitewide sliding bearing with step-shaped textures. The numerical results show that the hydrodynamic performance can be greatly affected by the factors, such as the boundary conditions, cavitation pressure, microtextures, surface deformation, etc. This study can be of a great help for better understanding the mechanism of hydrodynamic pressure generated between parallel surfaces and realistically evaluating the improvement of tribological performance caused by textures. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4026060]
Shape and Texture Recognition for Automated Analysis of Pathology Images

This research project is concerned with automated analysis of microscopic images used in clinical pathology for diagnosing disease. Application of computer vision methods can improve the accuracy, reliability and availability of tests, reduce the associated costs and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Three different areas of pathology are covered: 1. identification of clustered nuclei and detection of chromosomal abnormalities in DAPI-stained samples, 2. diagnosis of auto-immune diseases from indirect immuno fluorescence (IIF) images, and 3. detection of dividing nuclei in H&E stained histopathology sections. Despite the diversity of these application domains, the techniques used for their analysis are similar. For cluster identification in DAPI images we focus on object shape and extend existing methods of shape analysis with novel measurements of the boundary profile which detect notches between overlapping nuclei in a cluster. For abnormality detection we focus on texture and develop a novel decision-tree dictionary for patch quantisation. We continue to focus on texture for IIF images, developing suitable isotropic measurements as well as exploring the connections between classification of individual cells and whole patient samples. Detection of dividing cells in tissue sections requires a combined assessment of shape, texture and colour in order to fully represent all relevant facets of the object. Here we develop a method for stain normalisation which efficiently compensates for batch variations in stain strength and proportions, followed by a full pipe-line of segmentation, feature extraction and classification, resolving issues of class imbalance implicit in detection of rare objects. We develop an efficient and effective segmentation method, which is free of weight parameters and adaptable for use in different imaging modalities. We explore a variety of classifer types and ensemble structures, and suggest promising directions of future development in the broad application area of pathology image analysis.
gendering of healthy diets

Gendered identities are communicated in places as frequent and ordinary as food packaging, becoming mundane features of everyday life as they sit on supermarket shelves, in cupboards and on office desks. Multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) allows us to investigate how such identities are buried in packaging in relation to health and fitness. Despite observed broader changes in gendered representations of the body in advertising, in particular relating to the arrival of ‘power femininity’, the products analysed in this article are found to carry fairly traditional and prototypical gender representations, and products marketed at both men and women highlight the need for more precise body management. For women, however, this precision is related to managing the demands of everyday life, packaged as a moral imperative to be healthy, responsible and successful.
Proactive coaching for employee development and improved business results

With 300 Green Belts trained but business results not delivered as targeted, Agilent Technologies, Inc. needed to understand the root causes and develop methods to raise their Six Sigma Green Belts up the ladder of development. Agilent has an excellent training programme for Six Sigma Belts with effective tools for instruction and learning assessment. However, the quality advocates believed a more highly developed programme of proactive coaching was necessary for Green Belts to achieve a higher level of maturity, improve the contribution to the business, and to attain industry recognised certification. A Six Sigma Project was instituted with two goals; (1) develop a measureable process with associated methods and tools to coach Green Belts to the desired level of cognitive and affective maturity; and (2) improve that process using Six Sigma methodology to reduce variation in the quality and effectiveness of the coaching process. This article discusses the four-step coaching process developed by Agilent. It describes the goals associated with Agilent's expectations of its Green Belts on the cognitive and affective rungs of the ladder of development. It reports the project's results and what was learned during the journey with regard to the key relationships for Green Belt development. Lastly, it proposes recommendations for further development of Green Belt coaching and improved business results.
Project Selection Considering Risk

A number of procedures have been formulated in recent years for evaluating engineering, procurement and construction projects based on an established set of objectives. These procedures, however, have generally considered either multi-objectives without the risk associated with each objective or a single objective with some form of risk assessment. Decision aid methodologies that permit the consideration of both multi-objectives and risk have generally been associated with complex mathematics and high computational effort. The purpose of this paper is to present a simple, yet comprehensive methodology for the selection of a project under risk, avoiding time consuming analyses. The method considers multi-objective decision criteria and takes into account the uncertainties associated with each individual objective. The method is based on multi-attribute utility theory for modelling the selection criteria and treats uncertainty in a similar way to that used in Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT).
The Suitability for the Work‐Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Checklist Assessment in the Semiconductor Industry: A Case Study

Musculoskeletal disorders and symptoms are common among workers in the semiconductor and related industries. Ergonomic‐related checklists are used to identify musculoskeletal disorder risk factors in the workplace. This study explores the suitability of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) checklist for use in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Six companies were enrolled in the current study, and 122 subjects, ranging in age from 21 to 54 years old, were evaluated through a questionnaire survey and field observation using the OSHA MSDs checklist. The observers were administered an ergonomics‐based checklist training course with a duration of 36 hours. Experimental results demonstrated that nearly 50% of subjects reported physical discomfort, with shoulder symptoms (38.5%) being the most common complaint. In addition, the aggregated sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values for the MSDs checklist in the six companies were 47.3%, 62.4%, and 30.0%, respectively. This study concluded that the OSHA MSDs checklist appeared to contain better estimates for capturing musculoskeletal discomfort and found that the OSHA MSDs checklist provided an easily administered, proactive surveillance instrument to assist in early identification of musculoskeletal discomfort. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Applying optical design methods to the development of application specific photonic crystal fibres

Photonic Crystal Fibres (PCFs) are well known for allowing the implementation of specific waveguiding features that cannot be achieved with conventional optical fibres. This results from the design flexibility of the holey structure in the PCF cladding and/or core regions. Today PCFs have found applications for example in supercontinuum generation, optical sensing and fibre lasers. They are now also being combined with fibre Bragg gratings, more specifically in the fields of optical fibre sensing and all-fibre laser applications. In this contribution we discuss how we applied micro-optical design methods based on commercially available software such as MODE Solutions and FDTD Solutions from Lumerical Solutions, Inc. and COMSOL Multiphysics® combined with MATLAB® scripting and additional optimization methods to develop microstructured fibres for three different purposes, i.e. PCF structures that facilitate Bragg grating inscription, PCF structures that enable temperature insensitive pressure measurements and bendable PCFs with a very large mode area for high power short pulse fibre lasers. For the three cases we describe the fibre design methods and property simulations as well as the tolerance studies that take into account manufacturing imperfections as well as possible variations in material parameters.
Bioclimatic housing design to desert architecture: A case study of Ghadames, Libya

This article assesses the most common architectural and environmental strategies in Ghadames housing in Libya. Preliminary data were collected through field surveys undertaken in July 2013, the hottest and driest season in Ghadames. The surveys investigated the indoor thermal environment and efficiency of energy use in Ghadames housing. The actual mean vote scale was used to investigate occupants’ thermal feeling coupled with recording physical environment and also actual measurements of a number of existing houses. Additionally, objective surveys were conducted to (a) verify the subjective data, (b) provide an overall view of the residents’ life style in the old town, and (c) understand the most significant techniques employed in old dwellings. The subjective survey “questionnaire” distributed among nine new and eight old houses shows that the majority of respondents is satisfied with the number of architectural issues in modern housing design. This general satisfaction excludes the inherited identity of the traditional architecture embedded within the society. On the other hand, occupants are more satisfied with old buildings in regard to indoor environmental conditions, energy consumption, and construction materials. The occupants of old houses expressed their thermal satisfaction with the indoor comfort conditions, but the predicted mean vote, based on measurements and ISO 7730, implied discomfort (hot). The survey also carried out interviews with a number of locals, underlining their personal impressions and preference toward the change of the existing built environment. Findings indicate that, occupants’ satisfaction and perception toward the built environment have not been achieved in new housing developments of Ghadames owing to the lack of understanding of the sociocultural needs of the local community. In addition, a 3D digital model was created for the old town and imparted a full understanding of the building dynamics and physics, explicating the complexity of the compactness of its urban morphologies. The results also showed subjects were feeling neutral to slightly warm in old buildings even when indoor air temperatures reached 32°C.
In-Plane Behavior of Clay Masonry Walls: Experimental Testing and Finite-Element Modeling

Extensive experimental research aimed at defining the in-plane cyclic behavior of three types of load-bearing masonry walls, assembled with perforated clay units, and various types of head and bed joints was carried out. Experimental behavior was modeled with four types of nonlinear finite-element models. Both macromodeling and micromodeling strategies, implementing either isotropic or orthotropic material laws, were adopted. Two simplified criteria were proposed for calibrating the models, one for defining orthotropic properties starting from perforated unit geometry and the other for defining expanded unit and interface element properties in micromodels. The procedures adopted for model calibration established the reliability of various modeling strategies. Results allow some conclusions to be drawn about the reliability of diagonal compression tests for large unit masonry, the stress distribution and different behaviors of masonry made with different head and bed joints, and the influence of unit strength on the in-plane behavior of masonry.
Autonomous vehicle control systems — a review of decision making

A systematic review is provided on artificial agent methodologies applicable to control engineering of autonomous vehicles and robots. The paper focuses on some fundamentals that make a machine autonomous: decision making that involves modelling the environment and forming data abstractions for symbolic processing and logic-based reasoning. Most relevant capabilities such as navigation, autonomous path planning, path following control, and communications, that directly affect decision making, are treated as basic skills of agents. Although many autonomous vehicles have been engineered in the past without using the agent-oriented approach, most decision making onboard of vehicles is similar to or can be classified as some kind of agent architecture, even if in a naïve form. First the ANSI standard of intelligent systems is recalled then a summary of the fundamental types of possible agent architectures for autonomous vehicles are presented, starting from reactive, through layered, to advanced architectures in terms of beliefs, goals, and intentions. The review identifies some missing links between computer science results on discrete agents and engineering results of continuous world sensing, actuation, and path planning. In this context design tools for ‘abstractions programming’ are identified as needed to fill in the gap between logic-based reasoning and sensing. Finally, research is reviewed on autonomous vehicles in water, on the ground, in the air, and in space with comments on their methods of decision making. One of the main conclusions of this review is that standardization of decision making through agent architectures is desirable for the future of intelligent vehicle developments and their legal certification.
Ratio of Embedded Depth of Multi-Pivots Retaining Walls to Excavation Depth in Suzhou Subway Stations in China

The embedded depth ratio of multi-pivot retaining walls is a very important parameter in the design of deep excavations. Taking an excavation in the Suzhou subway as an example, the relationship between the deformation and internal forces and the embedded depth of the retaining wall was analyzed for the purpose of determining the rational embedded depth. The maximum lateral displacement of retaining walls and the maximum surface settlement does not reduce endlessly with deepening the embedded depth. It is little affected by the increase of embedded depth when the embedment reaches a certain depth. The internal forces of the retaining structure increase or decrease first and then stabilize when the embedded depth ratio reaches a certain value. Based on these analyses, the ratio of wall embedded depth to excavation depth in Suzhou City was proposed in the range of 0.7 to 0.8. This reference range not only can guarantee the stability of deep excavation, but also can reduce the construction cost.
Pattern recognition of partial discharge in XLPE cables using a neural network

Describes an experimental study on pattern recognition of a partial discharge (PD) in a cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cable by using a neural network (NN) system. The NN adopted was a three-layer artificial neural system with feedforward connections, and its learning method was a back-propagation algorithm incorporating an external teacher signal. Input information of the NN was a combination of the discharge magnitude, the number of pulse counts, and the phase angle of the PD. The PD measurement was carried out using a 66 kV XLPE cable with an artificial defect under an AC applied voltage of 38 kV. After learning 30 typical input patterns, the NN discriminated unknown patterns, with and without PD, with an accuracy of 90%. In a long-term performance test of a 66 kV XLPE cable with a defect, the NN alarm processor was able to recognize the presence of a PD about one hour before breakdown of the cable, and successfully alerted the operator. <<ETX>>
A Three-Dimensional Deterministic Model for Rough Surface Line-Contact EHL Problems

This paper reports the development of a novel three-dimensional (3D) deterministic model (3D L-EHL) for rough surface line-contact mixed-elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) problems. This model is highly demanded because line contacts are found between many mechanical components, such as various gears, roller and needle bearings, cams and followers, and work rolls and backup rolls in metal-forming equipment. The macro aspects of a line-contact problem can be simplified into a two-dimensional (2D) model; however, the topography of contacting rough surfaces, microasperity contacts, and lubricant flows around asperities are often three-dimensional. The present model is based on Hu and Zhu 's unified 3D mixed-EHL model (Hu and Zhu, 2000, "Full Numerical Solution to the Mixed Lubrication in Point Contacts, " ASME J. Tribal., 122(1), pp. 1-9) originally developed for point contacts and the mixed fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based approach for deformation calculation formulated by Chen et al. (2008, "Fast Fourier Transform Based Numerical Methods for Elasto-Plastic Contacts With Normally Flat Surface," ASME J. Appl. Mech., 75(1), 011022-1-11). It is numerically verified through comparisons with results from the line-contact Hertzian theory and the conventional 2D line-contact smooth-surface EHL formulas. Numerical examples involving 3D sinusoidal and digitized machined surfaces are also analyzed. Sample cases indicate that transverse roughness may yield greater film thickness than longitudinal roughness. This observation is qualitatively in agreement with the trend predicted by Patir and Cheng's stochastic model (1978, "Effect of Surface Roughness on the Central Film Thickness in EHL Contacts, " Proceedings of the Fifth Leeds-Lyon Symposium on Tribology, London, pp. 15-21). However, the roughness orientation effect does not appear to be quantitatively as great as that shown in the work of Patir and Cheng for the same range of λ ratio.
Improved online sequential extreme learning machine: OS-CELM

: Online learning methods (OLM) have been gaining traction as a solution to classification problems because of rapid renewal and fast growth in volume of available data. ELM-based sequential learning (OS-ELM) is one of the most frequently used online learning methodologies partly due to fast training algorithm but suffers from ineﬀicient use of its hidden layers due to the random assignment of the parameters of those layers. In this study, we propose an improved online learning model called online sequential constrained extreme learning machine (OS-CELM), which replaces the random assignment of those parameters with better generalization performance using the CELM method based on the distance between classes. We compare the performance and training times of OS-ELM, ELM, and the proposed models for four different data sets. The results indicate that the proposed model has better generalization and accuracy performance.
Four-Tier Diagnostic Test Assisted Website for Identifies Misconceptions Heat and Temperature

Misconceptions get special attention in educational research because they are inhibiting students in learning. Misconceptions often occur in learning physics, especially the concept of heat, and nearly every sub-concept of physics on students experience various misconceptions. One of them is defining heat. Many students believe that temperature is considered as a unit of measure for the amount of heat. This is a wrong conception. Thus, it needs to be identified using appropriate diagnostic test instruments to reduce students’ misconceptions. Four-tier diagnostic tests can detect students’ misconceptions because they can dig deeper into understanding students’ conceptions. Unfortunately, the diagnostic tests of student misconception are still rarely applied at most schools. The reason is time constraints in the implementation and correction of the diagnostic tests. Therefore, here we report digital four-tier diagnostic test instruments of student misconception on heat and temperature through a helpful website and can be accessed anywhere.
Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics for Simulation of Drying Processes: A Review

In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used increasingly to improve process design capabilities in many industrial applications, including industrial drying processes. Drying of food and beverage products, industrial and municipal wastewater sludge, and other manufacturing and environmental products is done regularly in order to enhance the quality and life span of these products and to facilitate their use, storage, and transportation. With recent advancements in mathematical techniques and computer hardware, CFD has been found to be successful in predicting the drying phenomenon in various types of industrial dryers, which utilize all forms of drying operations including spray, freeze, and thermal drying techniques. The CFD solutions are being used to optimize and develop equipment and processing strategies in the drying industry, replacing expensive and time-consuming experimentations. However, a comprehensive review on the application of CFD for the design, study, and evaluation of industrial dryers is not yet available. A comprehensive review of the current literature on the use of CFD models in both industrial and lab-scale drying applications is presented in this article. The use of Eulerian-Eulerian and Eulerian-Lagrangian models in the study of the drying kinetics for gas–solid multiphase flow systems is fully discussed. Merits and disadvantages of using various CFD models in the design of industrial dryers are illustrated and the scope of their applicability is also discussed.
Compact formulas for least-squares design of digital differentiators

New compact and simple formulas for the design of digital differentiators based on the least squares method are proposed. The new expressions allow a very fast and precise computation of the filter coefficients. Furthermore, using the proposed analytical solution, the need to solve the system of linear equations for the case of fullband differentiators is avoided.