Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Infiltration Model for Furrow Irrigation

Infiltration rates of soils are spatially and temporally variable, which complicates surface irrigation management. The variability is magnified when water supplies are limited because crops in some portions of the field are intentionally stressed. Soil water content and soil cracking effects need to be considered to better model deficit irrigation with surface systems. A two-dimensional (2D) infiltration model that incorporates the effects of surface sealing, soil cracking, and initial soil water content was developed. The model was compared with a finite difference solution of the Richards equation for vertical infiltration for two surface seal conditions. To further test the model, simulated data were compared with field experiments. Including infiltration through cracks provided a better agreement between observed and simulated data than when cracks were ignored. Simulations showed that the majority of the infiltration through cracks took place during the first few minutes of infiltration. In the future the infiltration model will be combined with other models to simulate deficit irrigation management for surface irrigation systems.
GaN n- and p-type Schottky diodes: Effect of dry etch damage

The reverse breakdown voltage (V/sub B/) and forward turn-on voltage (V/sub F/) of n- and p-GaN Schottky diodes were used to examine the effects of Cl/sub 2//Ar and Ar plasma damage. Even short plasma exposures (4 secs) produced large changes in both V/sub B/ and V/sub F/, with ion mass being a critical factor in determining the magnitude of the changes. The damage depth was established to be 500-600 /spl Aring/ and the damaged material could be removed in boiling NaOH solutions, producing a full recovery of the diode properties. Annealing at 700 to 800/spl deg/C under N/sub 2/ produced only a partial recovery of V/sub B/ and V/sub F/.
SAFT imaging using immersed capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers

Micromachined ultrasonic transducers (cMUTs) capable of operating in immersion mode have been designed and fabricated. As with previously reported airborne results, these immersable transducers possess extremely wide bandwidths, with operation typically ranging from low MHz extending beyond 10 MHz in water. Such wide bandwidths are of interest for many imaging applications. A range of transducer arrays have been fabricated with individual element sizes ranging from 200 /spl mu/m - 1 mm. The transducers are fabricated using an electronics-compatible micromachining process, which would allow analogue front-end electronics and transducers to be implemented on the same silicon substrate. Results will be presented from small aperture synthetic line arrays of cMUT receivers, which have been used in conjunction with a series of piezoelectric sources to allow images to be presented of reflective targets. The data is processed using a 2D Synthetic Aperture Focussing Technique (SAFT) algorithm.
Validity of the Friedrich Short Form of the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress in Parents of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

There is insufficient knowledge about the psychometric properties of the Friedrich short form of the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress (QRS-F) used to measure the caregiving burden of caregivers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study, therefore, aimed to confirm the validity of the QRS-F. The data selected using the systematic sampling method were analyzed to verify the factor structure of the QRS-F on parents of individuals with ASD. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were employed to confirm the validity and the factor structure of the scale. The Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated to verify the relation with other measures. The original factor model was not appropriate to assess the caregiving burden on parents of individuals with ASD because the models did not show adequate fit indices. The evaluation of results based on a total score was explored, which demonstrated the expected association between depression severity and caregiving time. Overall, this study supports the use of the QRS-F for measuring the caregiving burden of parents of individuals with ASD by comparing the total score with other related variables.
Combining ERP, Lean Philosophy and ICT: An Industry 4.0 Approach in an SME in the Manufacturing Sector in Spain

Abstract This study aims to identify the impact of a work methodology that combines ERP with the benefits of using lean philosophy. A sectored approach takes into account highly traditional manufacturing SMEs, such as metal fabrication, that are particularly vulnerable to new market trends. In addition, from these vulnerabilities new challenges have to be faced regarding the Industry 4.0 concept and the strategies toward their digital manufacturing workshop transformation, focusing not only on producing improved manufacturing processes but also on gaining added value. A case study was conducted on a Spanish company aiming at showing and analyzing its transformation model. The results showed greater management capacity and efficiency improvements in production-related processes.
Air concentrating nozzles: a promising option for wind turbines

Although the use of wind turbines has become necessary in many parts of the world, the actual developments in wind turbines do not concern countries where the average wind speeds are low. The paper introduces a new vertical axis wind rotor using a convergent nozzle for low wind speed areas. This paper brings a detailed theoretical and practical study of air concentrating nozzle and the optimum nozzle dimensions have been analysed in detail. A research programme involving wind tunnel tests of five different nozzle models has also been conducted. The length and the outlet area of the nozzle were changed periodically to see their effect on the increase of wind speed. The variation of the output speed with different values of input wind speed, different input areas of nozzle and different lengths of nozzle placed at different distances from the wind tunnel have been outlined in the paper. Results of additional study of the new rotor's performance characteristics using concentrating nozzles have also been outlined.
Improving the visibility of bicycle infrastructure

The visual characteristics of road infrastructure play a major role in a substantial number of single-bicycle crashes. The focus of this research was on finding the most common situations that result in a poorly visible bicycle infrastructure, and investigating how to improve these conditions for vulnerable cyclist populations, specifically the visually impaired and the older cyclist. Three studies were performed, a questionnaire study amongst visually impaired cyclists, focus group discussions with older cyclists, and an experiment on a closed track where participants’ vision, in particular their contrast sensitivity, was impaired. The results from the questionnaire study and the focus group discussions revealed that bollards, kerbs, and cycle path markings/shoulders are the most critical visual elements in the road infrastructure. In addition, cycling performance and cyclists’ feelings of safety worsened in conditions where the visibility of obstacles and the road’s course were the poorest. Visibility can be enhanced by placing red-white bollards, painting kerbs white, by enhancing clearness of the road’s shoulder, or by applying high contrast road markings on the side of the cycle path/road.
INELASTIC LARGE DISPLACEMENT BEHAVIOR AND BUCKLING OF COOLING TOWER

Inelastic, large displacement behavior of reinforced concrete hyperbolic cooling towers is studied using a finite-element program developed on the Cray Y-MP supercomputer. The large displacement effects are formulated based on the Lagrangian approach in which the displacements are measured from the original configuration of the structure. The concrete cracking is modeled using the rotating smeared crack approach and the bending deformation is represented using the layering technique. The concrete constitutive behavior is represented by a biaxial inelastic material model. The tension stiffening of concrete is modeled using gradual linear unloading of the stress strain curve of concrete. Several nonlinear analyses of the Grand Gulf cooling tower are performed. Unlike the results of previous investigations that attribute the failure of the cooling tower to the yielding of the meridional reinforcement, the results of this investigation show that the failure occurs due to the circumferential buckling in the vi.
Early soft and flexible fusion of electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging via double coupled matrix tensor factorization for multisubject group analysis

Data fusion refers to the joint analysis of multiple datasets that provide different (e.g., complementary) views of the same task. In general, it can extract more information than separate analyses can. Jointly analyzing electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements has been proved to be highly beneficial to the study of the brain function, mainly because these neuroimaging modalities have complementary spatiotemporal resolution: EEG offers good temporal resolution while fMRI is better in its spatial resolution. The EEG–fMRI fusion methods that have been reported so far ignore the underlying multiway nature of the data in at least one of the modalities and/or rely on very strong assumptions concerning the relation of the respective datasets. For example, in multisubject analysis, it is commonly assumed that the hemodynamic response function is a priori known for all subjects and/or the coupling across corresponding modes is assumed to be exact (hard). In this article, these two limitations are overcome by adopting tensor models for both modalities and by following soft and flexible coupling approaches to implement the multimodal fusion. The obtained results are compared against those of parallel independent component analysis and hard coupling alternatives, with both synthetic and real data (epilepsy and visual oddball paradigm). Our results demonstrate the clear advantage of using soft and flexible coupled tensor decompositions in scenarios that do not conform with the hard coupling assumption.
Cardiac Autonomic Dysfunction Is Associated with Severity of REM Sleep without Atonia in Isolated REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) cardiac scintigraphy was performed to assess cardiac autonomic dysfunction and demonstrate its correlation with clinical and polysomnographic characteristics in patients with isolated rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder. All subjects including 39 patients with isolated REM sleep behavior disorder and 17 healthy controls underwent MIBG cardiac scintigraphy for cardiac autonomic dysfunction assessment. The isolated REM sleep behavior disorder was confirmed by in-lab overnight polysomnography. A receiver operating curve was constructed to determine the cut-off value of the early and delayed heart-to-mediastinum ratio in patients with isolated REM sleep behavior disorder. Based on each cut-off value, a comparison analysis of REM sleep without atonia was performed by dividing isolated REM sleep behavior disorder patients into two groups. MIBG uptake below the cut-off value was associated with higher REM sleep without atonia. The lower heart-to-mediastinum ratio had significantly higher REM sleep without atonia (%), both with cut-off values of early (11.0 ± 5.6 vs. 29.3 ± 23.2%, p = 0.018) and delayed heart-to-mediastinum ratio (9.1 ± 4.3 vs. 30.0 ± 22.9%, p = 0.011). These findings indicate that reduced MIBG uptake is associated with higher REM sleep without atonia in isolated REM sleep behavior disorder.
Clinical features and outcomes of JAK2 V617F-positive polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia according to the JAK2 V617F allele burden

Background JAK2 mutation status is a well-known risk factor for thrombosis in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. However, the clinical usefulness of JAK2 V617F allele burden is under investigation. Methods We retrospectively evaluated the impact of the JAK2 V617F allele burden on clinical characteristics and outcomes of JAK2 V617F-positive polycythemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocythemia (ET). The JAK2 V617F allele burden was measured using sequencing. Results Altogether, 127 patients with JAK2 V617F mutation (PV, N=61; ET, N=66) were included in this study. JAK2 V617F allele burdens were positively correlated with white blood cell counts, hemoglobin values, lactate dehydrogenase levels, and platelet counts. The median values of JAK2 V617F allele burden in patients with PV and ET were 58% and 30%, respectively. A JAK2 V617F allele burden of ≥30%, older age, and a higher hemoglobin level were risk factors for thrombotic events in ET. In patients with PV, older age was the only thrombotic risk factor. The 8-year probabilities of overall survival (OS) were 82.9% in all patients. A high JAK2 V617F allele burden (≥58%) was associated with poor OS in patients with PV. For the patients with ET, the difference in 8-year OS based on the JAK2 V617F allele burden was not significant. Conclusion The JAK2 V617F allele burden was correlated with hematologic parameters and clinical outcomes. Assessing the JAK2 V617F allele burden can be helpful in predicting the thrombotic risk and disease course in patients with JAK2 V617F-positive PV and ET.
Development of tools for handling and assembling microcomponents

The handling and assembling of microcomponents is usually considered as a bottleneck in the fabrication process of hybrid microsystems. This is especially true for very small components that require high positioning tolerances. In this paper we present gripping solutions for various applications concerning the handling and assembling of microcomponents as well as the major microgripper manufacturing technologies.
Challenges of justification of investment in organizational knowledge management

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the interrelation between the difficulty in justifying to executives the resources necessary for knowledge management (KM) in itiativesand the challenges in understanding the value of optimal KM. From in-depth personal interviews and group interviews with 41KM professionals, we reveal eight significant challenges that may explain the difficulty of understanding the true value of KM for knowledge-intensive organisations. We reveal that these challenges have a significant effect on the perceptions of the profitability of budget investments in tools and practices aimed at improving knowledge flow in organisations. Given that the present study is the antithesis of previous research, we suggest that future researchers deepen the research of the positions of senior executives regarding KM. This research is unique in its attempt to close the gap in the literature created by the lack of scientific studies on the challenges at the heart of the discipline.
Low Aspect Ratio Transonic Rotors: Part 1 — Baseline Design and Performance

The analytical design and experimental test of a single-stage transonic axial-flow compressor are described. This design is the baseline of a compressor design study in which several blade design parameters have been systematically varied to determine their independent effects on compressor performance. The baseline design consisted of ruggedizing an existing compressor design, that demonstrated outstanding aerodynamic performance, to correct some undesirable aeromechanical characteristics. The design study was performed by varying only one design parameter at a time, keeping other design variables as close as possible to the baseline design. Specific design parameters of interest were those for which very little data was available to determine their sensitivity on compressor performance. This paper describes the baseline compressor design and its experimental performance. A detailed definition and flow analysis of the baseline design test point (used as the basis for all subsequent design variations) are provided.Copyright © 1992 by ASME
Mechanism of Anticancer Activity of Compounds Isolated from Two Species of Ziziphus (Z. jujube and Z. mauritiana)

Medicinal plants have been used to treat diseases for centuries. One group of such plants is Ziziphus species belonging to Rhamnaceae family. The extracts from plants of this genus has been found beneficial for the treatment of cancer caused by high production of reactive oxygen species resulting from different oxidative stress mediated conditions. The mechanism of anticancer activity of two different species of this plant (Z.jujube and Z.mauritiana) have been discussed in this review. The constituents of this plant include the flavonoids, triterpenes, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, copper and polysaccharides such as reducing and non-reducing sugars. The underlying mechanisms of both species include the (Tumor protein P53) P53, (signal transducer and activator of transcription) STAT, (Matrix metalloproteinases) MMPs, (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) CRISPR and flavonoids and triterpenic acid mechanisms. The effects of the extract on different cells lines in both in vitro and in vivo models have been studied by observing the induction of apoptosis and reduction in angiogenesis leading to reduction in progression and proliferation of cancer cell lines. The biological properties of Ziziphus include the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer and hepato-protective characteristics.
User Experience: Impact Occupational Factors on Safety and Health Through Ergonomic Approach among Older Taxi Drivers Community in Malaysia

Background: One of the alternative professions that may include the older community is taxi drivers. Subsequently, they have to take explicit thought during driving activities as indicated by their capacity and ability to sustain their lives while minimizing health problems and increasing safety. Therefore, this paper aimed to study from a user experience the impact occupational factors on safety and health by an ergonomic approach among older community taxi drivers in Malaysian. Methods: A cross-sectional study was led utilizing a self-administered survey instrument. Purposive method sampling used based on inclusive criteria; age 60 years old and above, self-driving taxi more than one year, no disabilities and registered with Ministry of Transport (MOT). A total of 443 respondents participated in the study. SPSS software version 20.0 to analyse the data. Results: More than half of the respondents (70.0%) felt back pain in the past 12 months, and 75.4% in the last seven days. There is a significant relationship health problem (p< 0.05) between variables; BMI, smoking status, carrying luggage into the trunk, supporting of the backrest for the whole body, the effect of the seat size on comfortable driving, feeling of back pain is mainly due to the seat design and long-distance driving and driving posture analysis at the high-risk position and awkward body posture on seat design during handling task. Conclusion: The low implication awareness on ergonomics education could increase health problem and decrease safety while handling the task among older taxi driver’s community in Malaysia.
Sex Bias in Preclinical Studies: The Case of Gut Microbiota on Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible and progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a loss of memory, language, and cognitive ability. It is the most common form of dementia in older adults and represents a major public health problem. Changes in the gut microbiota have been investigated in the development of AD, with studies on this from the last five years using different models of AD in laboratory animals, mainly transgenic mice. Despite the fact that the majority of people diagnosed with AD are women, preclinical studies are still being carried out with male animals. In this review, we analyze the most recent studies on the gut microbiota in AD, recording the methodology used and the presence of sex bias. From the 35 studies selected, 65% used male animals and only 20% used both sexes.
Comparative Analysis on the Interface Defeat between the Cylindrical and Conical-Nosed Long Rods

Based on the Alekseevski-Tate model, the present manuscript theoretically analyzes the interface defeat of cylindrical and conical-nosed long rods in their penetration process and the corresponding formulae of velocity decay and mass erosion of projectile are deduced out. In particular, with regarding the truth of quasi-static tail velocity of long rod in the interface defeat, the simplified and explicit analytical expressions of the dominated parameters with time, e.g. the tail velocity, eroded length and residual mass of the rod, are all formulated. Finally the kinetic energy loss of long rod is analyzed, and the effects of velocity decay and rod erosion on the kinetic energy loss of long rod are discussed. Especially, regarding the conical-nosed long rod, the effect of half apex angle on the kinetic energy loss is also analyzed.
Are good teachers born or made? Teachers who hold a growth mindset about their teaching ability have better well-being

Abstract Implicit beliefs have received growing attention in the literature. However, past studies have usually focussed on students’ implicit beliefs about intelligence. The present study aimed to extend the literature on implicit beliefs to the domain of teaching and examine whether implicit beliefs about one’s teaching ability would predict teacher well-being. More specifically, this study investigated whether beliefs that teaching ability is fixed or malleable are associated with various well-being dimensions as indexed by positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. The participants were 547 in-service Filipino teachers who completed a survey assessing the study variables. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. Findings revealed that holding a growth teaching mindset (i.e. that one’s teaching ability can be developed and improved) positively predicted all the dimensions of well-being. The findings of the study highlight the importance of having a growth teaching mindset in the promotion of teachers’ well-being.