Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soil Restoration through the Application of Organic Mulch Following Skidding Operations Causing Vehicle Induced Compaction in the Hyrcanian Forests, Northern Iran

In this study an attempt was made to assess how different mulches affect the soil environment. In particular, different organic mulches such as leaf litter, straw and sawdust were tested in order to assess their capacities to amend the soil conditions. These analyses were carried out in the Hyrcanian mixed broadleaved forest. Organic mulches can compensate the litter layer loss on compaction-induced soil and accelerate the restoration process of soil properties, which takes from a few years to several decades without mulching. However, comprehensive knowledge on the effects of organic mulch on soil quality in terms of compaction-induced soil in the scientific literature is still scarce and inadequate. The main aim of the study was to examine the effects of three organic mulches (leaf litter, straw and sawdust) on the restoration of forestry vehicle-induced soil properties in the skid trail over a 2-year period. The results showed as the values of soil physical and chemical properties in litter, straw and sawdust treatments were significantly restored as compared with the values in the untreated soil. In general, leaf litter supplies nutrients at higher rates than the straw and sawdust mulches. However, according to the current results, a 2-year period is not enough to return the soil physical and chemical properties to pre-traffic levels. Furthermore, the present study shows that organic mulch spread on the surface of mineral soil in the skid trails after machine traffic acts as a fertilizer to accelerate the decomposition of organic matter.
Non-linear free and forced vibrations of piezoelectric laminated shells in thermal environments

This article is concerned with the non-linear free vibration and transient response of laminated composite cylindrical and spherical shells with piezoelectric layers in thermal environments. The theoretical formulations are based on the first-order shear deformation theory and the von Kármán-type non-linear kinematics. The analysis is carried out using the quadratic C 0 eight-noded isoparametric element. The governing non-linear equations are solved by using the direct iteration method for the eigenvalue problem for free vibration and the Newmark average acceleration method in time integration in conjunction with the modified Newton-Raphson iteration scheme for the transient analysis. The validity of the numerical model is demonstrated by comparing the present results with those available in the literature. The effects of temperature, voltage, curvature, thickness, number of layers and boundary conditions on the non-linear free vibration and transient response of piezoelectric laminated cylindrical and spherical shells are investigated.
Numerical Performance Analysis of Constructal I and Y Finned Heat Exchanging Modules

Thermal conductance and loss of pressure are among the most relevant parameters based on which a heat exchanger has to be chosen. Starting from this observation this study treated and compared the performances of different exchanging systems, always in condition of forced convection of air in laminar flow. The study parameters were two fin shapes, four modules (shapes), and four duct geometries (depending on the parameter shape ratio, defined in Sec. 3). The approach chosen was that of Bejan's Constructal theory numerically implemented by the finite element code COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS.The results showed the importance of considering not the heat removing performance alone as a decisional parameter and proved that the "classic" I-shaped finned systems very often are not the best performing ones, while optimized Y profiles may offer better perspectives. Having demonstrated the relevance of the present approach, future developments of this research will have to put together the different evaluation criteria presented in an only performance parameter.
Model for Predicting Architect's Performance in Building Delivery Process

The aim of this study is to construct a model that can be used to predict the architect's overall performance in the Nigeria building delivery process and to provide adequate understanding of the criteria which constitute the model. Architect performance criteria were identified from existing literature within the domain of architect responsibilities and developed into a two‐part questionnaire survey. The survey involves clients of recently completed building projects in Nigeria. The first part of the questionnaire survey consists of 71 clients which were used to construct the model while the second part consists of another 17 clients which were used to validate the model. Based on this data, a predictive discriminant analysis model of two‐group cases (good and poor performance) was developed. The model shows that the predicted architect's overall performance is significantly correlated with the actual validated client ratings (0.783 at 99% confidence interval). The results show that if architects want to achieve good performance, they should give a high level of performance to ‘effective communication of design to contractor and other participants’; ‘effective constructability review’; ‘assistance in quality management strategies and clarity and consistency of specification with drawings’. The study would give architects a fore knowledge on how to ensure good performance in their future enterprise.
Segmentation Analysis of Commuters Accessing Transit: Mumbai Study

The paper presents the segmentation analysis of commuters accessing suburban rail transit in Mumbai City, India. The emphasis is given to the identification of most influencing variables. The commuters are segmented based on household characteristics like type of accommodation, household income, and dependency level in the household, and personal characteristic like occupation level of the commuter. The data are collected through household survey and logit models are developed under all the four above-mentioned categories. Significant difference in the model specifications is observed across segments. The most significant and highly influencing variables describing the behavior of the commuter are observed to be time of start, relationship to household head, gender, dwelling unit, detour factor and access mode availability distance. The subjective value of travel time is found lower than the average hourly wage rate of the commuters’ in a specified category. This varied logically across segments. Categori.
Tubing Buckling--The State of the Art

Almost unique in engineering analysis is the problem of tubing buckling in wellbores. In general, structures loaded above their critical load fail catastrophically. Yet, both tubing and drillstrings are commonly operated above the critical load. These tubing strings do not fail because the wellbore provides the necessary support for “post-buckling” equilibrium. The two fundamental questions about tubing buckling are • What is the critical load? • What is the post-buckled configuration? The critical load tells us if the tubing will buckle. Euler solved the problem for “short” columns, but these results rarely have application in a wellbore because the pipes in a wellbore are usually very long (Timoshenko and Gere 1961). The first stability criterion that considered the stabilizing effect of weight on long pipes in inclined wellbores was developed by Dawson and Paslay (1984). The post-buckled configuration tells us about tubing movement, bending stresses, contact forces, and axial-load distributions. The original buckling analysis by Lubinski et al. (1962) proposed a helical configuration in a vertical wellbore and used the method of virtual work to determine a specific constant pitch for that helix as a function of the axial force and bending stiffness. These two works set the following themes for further analysis of tubing buckling: • What is the critical buckling load in curved, 3D wellbores? • How does torque affect the critical buckling load? • How do tapered strings affect the critical buckling load? • What is the buckling configuration in inclined wellbores? • How do the boundary conditions affect the configuration? • How do tapered strings buckle? • How does torque affect the buckling configuration? • What effect does friction play in tubing buckling? Many of these questions have been, at least, partly answered in the past three decades. This paper will examine the technical fundamentals of the tubing-buckling problem; summarize the most useful, new results from these papers, and discuss the remaining challenges in tubing-buckling analysis.
MEAT CONSUMPTION PRACTICE IN CHINA: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON ELASTIC THEORY

Meat consumption elasticity coefficient can reflect the processing traces of living standard. This paper analyzes these coefficients of urban and rural residents in China with the AIDS (Almost Ideal Demand System Model). Meat consumption structure of residents has begun to show signs of adjustment following their respective trajectories, which has been discussing in academic but lacks theoretical proof for decade years. Based on elastic theory, we have provided favorable evidence for this fact, and we found: (1) Elasticity coefficients show both urban and rural residents have been all sensitive to price, especially the city dwellers. The Urban residents is more sensitive to poultry than others. Rural residents have long been more interested in pork, though the mutton has been the trustiest. (2) Income and meat price are two main causes affect meat consumption, but there is no significant positive correlation between meat consumption and disposable income in Urban, different from Rural. With the income increasing, the kinds and quality of meat in basket of different residents are changing. (3) Furthermore, meat consumptions between urban and rural residents are not synchronized, and even sometimes the trends show the opposite directions because of income, habits, etc. The results show that all series are stationary.
Healthcare services utilization by respiratory tract infections patients attending primary healthcare centers in Qatar

Background: Respiratory-tract-infections (RTIs) are a common indication, and responsible for most of the healthcare services use at primary care. The study aimed to investigate the utilization and determinants of a number of healthcare services use by local Qatari patients presented at selected primary health centers in Qatar. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using an electronic database that captured RTI-related healthcare services use from selected primary care health centers in Qatar during July 2015 to December 2017. Trends in monthly rates of healthcare services utilization were investigated via a linear regression, while patient-level count data on utilization were used to estimate a negative binomial regression to identify determinants of each of the four healthcare services use. Results: In total, 171447 RTI-related visits were made by 58786 patients during July 2015 to December 2017. The mean age (± SD) of participants is 24.80 (±18.5) years, and 48.91% of them are male. The highest number of patients with a comorbidity was diabetes (12.85%), followed by hypertension (10.54%). There was a small but statistically significant decreasing trend in the monthly rates of antibiotics consumption and an increasing trend in the rates of tests/investigations done, with less number of utilization during summer months. Healthcare services utilization varied significantly across age-categories and whether patients had one of the five comorbidities. Age and comorbidity status appeared to be important predictors for patient-level healthcare services utilization. Conclusion: The study produces results on selected primary healthcare services utilization by local RTI patients, which are in line with evidence from the literature. It facilitates an evidence-base for policymakers to comprehend the scale of the problem and plan a better management of RTIs at primary care setting in Qatar.
Power dissipation in automotive suspensions

For a standard quarter-car vehicle model and a road disturbance whose velocity profile is white noise, it is shown that the power dissipated in the suspension is proportional to the tyre vertical stiffness and the noise intensity, but is independent of all masses and suspension parameters. The dependence of this result on the modelling assumptions is explored. It is shown that the road disturbance model is ill-posed for the computation of power dissipation in the tyre and a modification is suggested. Computational results then indicate that the total power dissipation is still very insensitive to variations in vehicle and suspension parameters, but not tyre parameters, even though the suspension power dissipation and the tyre power dissipation vary individually. The extension of the result to half-car vehicle models is also considered. For both the pitch-plane and roll-plane models, it is found from numerical examples that the broad conclusion of large dependence of the total power dissipation on tyre parameters and small dependence on all other parameters remains. A brief discussion is included on the contribution to power loss due to rolling resistance.
Sustainable construction: principles and a framework for attainment - comment

Hill, R.C. and Bowen, P. (1997) Construction Management and Economics, 15, 223-239 discuss the evolution of the concepts of ‘environmentalism’ and ‘sustainability’, highlighting their importance in today's context. They relate these concepts, especially the latter, to construction, and provide a framework for environmental management in the construction process. This is a comment on the contents of Hill and Bowen, and endorses their stress on the importance of environmental considerations in the construction process. The paper suggests that other areas relating to the subject of sustainability in construction also require attention, and highlights, in particular, the need to take cognisance of the perspective of developing countries.
Human Resource Risk and Knowledge Workers: Propositions for Theory and Research

This article advocates further development of Human Resource Risk as an area of study in human resource management and offers related propositions in the context of knowledge workers. While human resource management practices have traditionally been characterized to improve efficiency through scientific management principles or employee optimization practices, the strategic risks knowledge workers remain less addressed. To address this gap, this paper discusses Human Resource Risk as an emerging and useful area of study, elaborates upon literature that address risk, and offers recommendations for theoretical development and further research.
Trigeminocerebellar Projection in the Carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Tract-tracing methods were used in our research to observe the fibrae connection between cyprinoid nucleus sensorius nervi trigemini and cyprinoid cerebellum. After biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) was injected into cyprinoid principal nucleus sensorius nervi trigemini, the direct motioned extremity sensorius nervi fibers of trigeminal nerves was observed exist in hibateral cerebellum nucleus lateralis valvulae, principally distributed in the contralateral hibateral cerebellum nucleus lateralis valvulae. No extremity sensorius nervi fibers of trigeminal nerves was marked. If BDA was injected into regressed motioned extremity sensorius nervi fibers of trigeminal nerves of cyprinoid hibateral principal nucleus sensorius nervi trigemini and trigeminal nerves descended nucleus, most of them were observed in opposite side. The direct motioned marked extremity sensorius nervi fibers were observed in cerebellum and valvula cerebelli. Most of the cerebellum label neurons injected by BDA existed in tautomeral nucleus lateralis valvulae, only a few of them were in opposite side. The results of our research proved that centrifugal fibers of cyprinoid nucleus sensorius nervi trigemini project indirectly onto cerebellum through nucleus lateralis valvulae .
FURTHER STUDIES ON THE VARIATION OF SPRAY DEPOSITS IN VINEYARDS WITH AIRFLOW RATE AND VOLUME RATE

The present research, continuing that reported in [2], deals with the spray application subject, so to investigate as volume rate and airflow rate, forward speed being equal, affect the foliar deposition in an espalier vineyard. Experimental trials were carried out by means of an air assisted towed sprayer, equipped with “Albuz ATR” nozzles. To take into account the influence of the development of the trees, the field trials were replicated in two phenological stages with an interval of about one month: “Inflorescences fully developed” (stage 1) and “Beginning of berry touch” (stage 2). A full factorial experiment was carried out for each growth stage, with two airflow rates (3.9 and 7.5 m3/s), three volume rates (103, 216, and 276 L/ha in the first growth stage and 154, 330 and 432 L/ha in the second growth stage), and four replicates, arranged according to a randomised complete block design. Working pressure (1.2 MPa) and forward speed (1.4 m/s) were kept unchanged for all the trials. The foliar deposition was measured by means of a spectrophotometric technique. The leaves were sampled on two depth layers and two or three heights, according to the trees’ development. The results showed that volume rate did not significantly influence the mean foliar deposition in both the two growth stages, while the highest deposits were obtained with the lowest airflow rate. The airflow rate × volume rate interaction, though not statistically significant, showed that low volume rates together with high airflow rates, result in a noticeable reduction in foliar deposition (29% with respect the grand mean), due to an increase of the spry drift, especially at the first growth stage, when the foliar development is little. These second tests, unlike those described in [2], did not show any positive influence of the airflow rate on the foliar deposition in the inner part of the canopy, so further investigations could be necessary to better understand the results. The whole results suggest to operate in field at low airflow rates (some 3.9 m3/s) and low volume rates (some 25 L/ha per active nozzle), so to reduce the power requirements and increase the promptness of intervention.
Application of Problem-Based Learning to Teaching the Critical Path Method

AbstractThis paper investigates the application of a problem-based learning (PBL) teaching methodology to a course on engineering project scheduling, which introduces the critical path method (CPM). During this course, students solved real-life civil engineering problems using PBL to compare PBL with traditional problem-solving methods. In the experimental design, the students were randomly divided into two groups. Traditional teaching sessions were imparted to the first group, which was designated as the control group, whereas the CPM was taught to the second group via the PBL teaching methodology. After the classroom sessions, an evaluation tool was applied: responses were analyzed using Wilcoxon and Fisher statistics, and a set of open-ended questions were qualitatively analyzed via a pattern-matching technique. The results for the group that utilized PBL were favorable; this finding demonstrated the efficiency of this tool for teaching CPM. In addition, the results for the students that applied PBL me.
The Best Interests of the Child?

The common policy of the Australian and Canadian governments of removing Aboriginal children from their families and placing them in institutions is now well documented. The key basis for such removals was a policy of assimilation. As a consequence of these revelations, litigation has been undertaken by members of the stolen generations in both Canada and Australia. This article considers the key cases in Canada and Australia in regard to three entwined strands of such claims: vicarious liability, non-delegable duties and duty of care. While the plaintiffs in the leading Canadian cases were ultimately successful under at least one of their heads of claim, the approaches in these cases in regard to the Crown’s liability for breach of the duty of care and non-delegable duties is inconsistent. Thus, even in Canada, key legal issues pertaining to the Crown’s liability for the Aboriginal residential school experience continues to be unresolved. Within this framework, the article also considers the key Australian decisions where the plaintiffs’ claims against the Crown for vicarious liability and breaches of duty of care were rejected. The discussion in this article indicates that the doors for legal redress are not closed to members of the Australian stolen generation. This article also focuses on whether there was a breach of any such alleged duty of care arising out of the Canadian and Australian removal policies. This is potentially important in both jurisdictions, not just Australia, as the plaintiffs in the Canadian cases that have been determined to date were physically and/or sexually abused whilst detained in institutions pursuant to this removal policy. Thus the main focus in those cases has been on whether the assaults constituted actionable breaches.
Significant Waning of Active Cases of Covid-19 With High Recovery After Three Months of Complete Lockdown: Plausible Implication On Emergence of Herd Immunity in The Population

COVID-19 is fast spreading around the globe in a highly contagious manner. Until date there are no therapeutic agents/vaccines developed which could control this highly infectious virus from spreading among human population. Our earlier studies showed that implementation of prolonged lockdown had a profound effect on the rate of spread of COVID-19 in the population. The observed increase in doubling time of COVID-19 with a high recovery rate following complete Lockdown reflected that protective immunity may be present in the population. In this article, the data from three months following completion of Lockdown was considered. The results reflected that there was a significant down trend in the rate of COVID-19 with high recovery rate reaching up to 83% of the affected cases of COVID-19 by September 30, 2020. The projection made from the data up to 30 November, 2020, pointed towards continued decrease in active cases of COVID-19. Concomitant with this result, the recovery from COVID-19 reached to ~90% by end of October, 2020. The significance of the above mentioned results with rapid fall in active cases from end of September 30, 2020, in spite of increased testing for COVID-19 in generating immunity against COVID-19 is discussed.