Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EFFECTS OF MODEL COMPLEXITY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMATED VEHICLE STEERING CONTROLLERS : MODEL DEVELOPMENT, VALIDATION AND COMPARISON

SUMMARY Recent research on autonomous highway vehicles has begun to focus on lateral control strategies. The initial work has focused on vehicle control during low-g maneuvers at constant vehicle speed, typical of lane merging and normal highway driving. In this paper, and its companion paper, to follow, the lateral control of vehicles during high-g emergency maneuvers is addressed. Models of the vehicle dynamics are developed, showing the accuracy of the different models under low and high-g conditions. Specifically, body roll, tire and drive-train dynamics, tire force saturation, and tire side force lag are shown to be important effects to include in models for emergency maneuvers. Current controllers, designed for low-g maneuvers only, neglect these effects. The follow on paper demonstrates the performance of lateral controllers during high-g lateral emergency maneuvers using these vehicle models.
Establishment of Prediction Models for Venous Thromboembolism in Non-Oncological Urological Inpatients – A Single-Center Experience

Purpose Venous thromboembolism (VTE) comprises deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), which can lead to death. VTE is an insidious disease with no specific symptoms and overlooked readily. We aimed to establish prediction models for VTE in non-oncological urological inpatients to aid urologists to better identify VTE patients. Patients and Methods A retrospective analysis of 1453 inpatients was carried out. The risk factors for VTE had been clarified in our previous study. A stepwise regression method was used to screen the relevant influencing factors for VTE and construct a logistic regression prediction model to predict VTE. To validate the accuracy of the model, data from 291 patients from another cohort were used for external validation. Results A total of 1453 inpatients were enrolled. Five potential risk factors (previous VTE; treatment with anticoagulants or anti-platelet agents before hospital admission; D-dimer ≥0.89 μg/mL; lower-extremity swelling; chest symptoms) were selected by multivariable analysis with p < 0.05. These five risk factors were used to build a logistic regression prediction model. When p < 0.1 in the multivariable logistic regression model, two additional risk factors were added: Caprini score ≥5 and complications, and all seven risk factors were used to build another prediction model. Internal verification showed the cutoff values, sensitivity, and specificity of the two models to be 0.02474, 0.941, 0.816 (model 1) and 0.03824, 0.941, and 0.820 (model 2), respectively. Both models had good predictive ability, but prediction accuracy was 43.0% for both when using the data of the additional 291 inpatients in the two models. Conclusion Two novel prediction models were built to predict VTE in non-oncological urological inpatients. This is a new method for VTE screening, and internal validation showed a good performance. External validation results were suboptimal but may provide clues for subsequent VTE screening.
Distribution feeder reconfiguration for loss reduction

Feeder reconfiguration is defined as altering the topological structures of distribution feeders by changing the open/closed states of the sectionalizing and tie switches. A scheme is presented that utilizes feeder reconfiguration as a planning and/or real-time control tool to restructure the primary feeder for loss reduction. The mathematical foundation of the scheme is given. The solution is illustrated on simple examples. >
Association between Iris in and Obesity

Objective: To observe the relationship between serum Irisin and obesity. Background: One of the top worldwide health problems is obesity. Many causes have been implicated for developing obesity such as: excessive food intake, lack of physical activity, genetic susceptibility, endocrine disorders, medications, or mental disorder. Material and Method: One hundred and five individuals were participated in this study visiting Al-Imam Al-Sadiq Teaching Hospital from October 2017 to June 2018. A 50 normal non-obese, and 55 obese. They were classified according to body mass index after measuring their weight, height. Blood and data were collected from patients and control to detected Irisin. Results: The highest percentage of obese patients were female, the highest percentage of obesity was recorded among 20-30 age group, the majority of the obese patients were from urban areas, and largest group of obese patients were unemployed. Regarding investigation: Irisin, there is significant difference (p ≤0.05) between case and control for Irisin. There is also a significant positive correlation between irisin and body mass index (p value≤0.05; r = 0.44), and with the waist circumference (p value ≤0.05;r = 0.407). Conclusion: serum irisin levels were higher in obese patients than in control. Moreover, serum irisin levels were correlated positively with anthropometric markers of obesity (BMI, Waist Circumference).
Causes et mecanismes des faillites d'entreprises: une synthese bibliographique

The paper presents a comprehensive survey of the theoretical and empirical literature about corporate failure, ordered according to the different aspects and chronological stages of the failure process. Failure is seen as an inherently dynamic and multifaceted economic and social phenomenon, the final outcome of a set of weakening, inducing and worsening factors, produced by a combination of hazard and determinism, also called "organizing hazard".
Does the self-employment status affect the rural migrants’ health in China: the transmission channel of social health insurance?

Background There are growing attentions paid on rural migrants’ health. Previous studies found that rural migrants are more exposed to disease risks. The present study aims to explore the causal effect of self-employment behavior on the rural migrants’ health status, two issues are addressed to discuss: Does self-employment status affect the health of rural migrants? What is the potential mechanism linking the self-employment behavior and health status? Methods The dataset from the 2017 National Migrants Population Dynamic Monitoring Survey (NMPDMS-2017) is applied to explore the causal effect; the Logit regression is performed to make baseline estimation, while the IV-LPM estimation is applied to correct the endogeneity of self-employment. Additionally, the Logit regression is conducted to explore the transmission channel. Results The self-employed are more susceptible to sub-health status (OR= 1.042; 95% CI= 1.001, 1.084) and chronic disease (OR= 1.394; 95% CI= 1.317, 1.476), even when correcting the endogeneity, the causal effect estimation also demonstrates that the self-employed are more vulnerable to suffer sub-health status (Coefficient= 0.067; 95% CI= 0.050, 0.084) and chronic disease (Coefficient= 0.020; 95% CI= 0.008, 0.032). The self-employed are less likely to participate in social health insurance (OR= 0.057; 95% CI= 0.053, 0.061). Conclusion The self-employed are more likely to suffer sub-health status and chronic disease, the self-employment behavior take harmful effect on the rural migrants’ health. Social health insurance may serve as transmission channel linking self-employment and rural migrants’ health, that is, the self-employed are less prone to participate in the urban health insurance program, which induce to an insufficient health service to maintain health.
High microwave power source for 2.45 GHz wireless power charger applications

The first report on a GaN-on-Si high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) differential oscillator is presented. A high output power and low phase noise, 2.45 GHz cross-coupled pair voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), using 0.35 μm GaN HEMT on silicon substrate technology is described. The VCO can be tuned, between 2.41 GHz and 2.53 GHz, and has a low phase noise, of –129.09 dBc/Hz, at 1 MHz offset. The output power of the VCO is 18.31 dBm at 2.53 GHz from a 15 V power supply, while the total die size was 0.87 mm2. The high output power and low phase noise are obtained for wireless power charger applications.
The Time-Dependent Effect of Corrosion of Steel Strands on Prestressed Concrete Beam Bridges

Based on the concrete carbonization theory, we analyze the time when prestressed steel strands begin to corrode, and put forward the degradation time-dependent model for cross-sectional area of a corroding steel strand; with the comparison of existing research results, we propose the degradation time-dependent model for mechanical properties of corroded steel strands, including the nominal ultimate strength and nominal elastic modulus. We deduce a time-dependent model for the prestressing loss due to steel strand corrosion. Taking a prestressed concrete hollow slab bridge as an example, we analyze the time-dependent effect of the corroded strands on the concrete stress at serviceability limit state and flexural bearing capacity at ultimate limit state. Research shows that the bottom edge stress and flexural bearing capacity at mid-span of the beams will reduce sharply if the prestressed strands corrode, even corrosion can damage the safety of bridge in just a few years. These results can be for information of further experiments and researches.
An Empirical Investigation on the Economic Consequences of Customer Satisfaction

Abstract The relationship between customer satisfaction and economic returns has received growing attention in the customer satisfaction literature. However, there has been limited work linking customer satisfaction to customer profitability. Specifically, most empirical studies conduct firm-wide or business-level tests, but few investigate if individual customers' satisfaction with products or services drives their purchase intentions and economic contributions to the firm. Using panel data from 36 retail branch banks managed by an international financial institution (RBANK), which consists of two customer satisfaction data-points over nine months and monthly-activity based customer profitability data, this study examines how individual customers' satisfaction impacts customer revenue, customer costs, and customer profitability. The results indicate that several dimensions of customer satisfaction are positively associated with individual customers' repurchase intentions and firm reputation. The effect of the responsiveness dimension dominates the effect of other dimensions in most tests. At RBANK, individual-level customer revenue and costs both increase as customer satisfaction improves, but no significant relation exists between customer satisfaction and customer profitability. These findings shed light on several management issues, such as market segmentation, customer retention, and the implementation of a balanced scorecard. Furthermore, this study highlights a way for managers to analyze customer value, which is beneficial for long-term customer relationship management.
Developments on the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Angles

AbstractThis paper presents procedures for the design of fixed- and pin-ended equal-leg angle columns with short-to-intermediate lengths. First, some remarks concerning the buckling and postbuckling behavior of the angle columns are presented that (1) illustrate the main differences between the fixed- and pin-ended column responses and (2) demonstrate the need for specific design procedures. Then, the paper reports an in-depth investigation aimed at gathering a large column ultimate strength data bank that includes (1) experimental values collected from the literature and (2) numerical values obtained from shell finite-element analyses carried out in the code ABAQUS. The set of experimental results is comprised of 41 fixed-ended columns and 37 pin-ended columns and the numerical results obtained include 89 fixed-ended columns and 28 pin-ended columns; various cross-section dimensions, lengths, and yield stresses are considered. Finally, the paper closes with the proposal of new design procedures for fixed.
Modeling Moisture Influence on Macadamia Nut Kernel Recovery

ABSTRACT KERNELS of macadamia nuts cured to an optimal moisture are likely to remain undamaged in cracking. Moisture influences the deformations at which kernel and shell fail. The difference between kernel and shell failure deformations was found to be a reliable kernel damage predictor, which is modeled for macadamia nut cracker design and curing management.
Thermal ignition kinetics of wood sawdust measured by a newly devised experimental technique

The activation energies of two wood sawdusts were determined using an experimental technique based on the crossing‐point temperature concept, which was derived from the transient model of self‐heating in a solid. The two samples used in this study were treated and untreated sawdust. The activation energies measured were 106 ± 4 kJ mol−1 for the treated sawdust and 90 ± 3 kJ mol−1 for the untreated sawdust. These values are similar to those in previously published results which were obtained using the steady‐state model. The transient model provides a quicker yet sufficiently accurate method of determining thermal ignition kinetics.
A study on thickness effect of HTS cable for insulation design

The electrical insulating design is important to realize the HTS (high temperature superconducting) cable because this cable is operated under the high voltage environment. For the insulation design of HTS cable, it is necessary to investigate the PD (partial discharge) inception, ac and impulse breakdown strength of LN2 (liquid nitrogen)/LPP (laminated polypropylene) composite insulation system. However, the designed insulation thickness by ac and impulse could not be applied to cable fabrication process due to much low electrical breakdown strength. The effect of the multi-layered insulation paper was not considered on the previous insulation design and the insulation thickness by PD inception strength could be applied only. In this paper, the electrical breakdown characteristic, which considered the effect of multi-layered of LPP, was investigated to design the insulation thickness.
Bearing Capacity of Piled Rafts on Soft Clay Soils

The conventional design of a piled foundation is based on a bearing capacity approach, and neglects the contribution of the raft. As a consequence, piled foundations are usually designed by overconservative criteria. With respect to the conventional approach, a more rational and economical solution could be obtained by accounting for the contribution of the raft toward the overall bearing capacity, but this potential is not exploited due to the lack of theoretical and experimental research on the behavior of piled rafts at failure. Based on both experimental evidence and three-dimensional finite element analyses, a simple criterion is proposed to evaluate the ultimate vertical load of a piled raft as a function of its component capacities, which can be simply evaluated by the conventional bearing capacity theories. The results presented in the paper thus provide a guide to assess the safety factor of a vertically loaded piled raft.
Human performance evaluation of a pathway HMD

Head-up displays (HUD) and helmet (or head)-mounted displays (HMD) aim at reducing the pilot's visual scanning cost in support of concurrent monitoring of both instrument information (near domain) and the outside environment (far domain). An HMD used in combination with a head tracker enables the assessment of the pilot’s head direction in real time allowing symbologies to remain spatially linked to elements of the outside environment. The paper examines the potential added benefits of improved flight path tracking to be expected by displaying symbologies of a virtual 3D perspective pathway plus predictor information on an HMD. Results of a high-fidelity flight-simulation experiment are reported that involved a series of curved approaches supported with such a pathway HMD. The study used a monocular retinal-scanning HMD and involved 18 pilots. Dependent human performance data were derived from flight path tracking measures, subjective measures of mental workload and situation awareness and pilot reactions in response to an unexpected rare event in the outside scene (intruding aircraft on the active runway for the intended landing). Comparison with a standard head-down ILS baseline condition revealed a mix of performance costs and benefits, which is consistent with most of the human factors literature on the general use of HUDs and of HUDs used in combination with pathway guidance: The pathway HMD promoted substantially better flight path tracking but caused also a delayed response to the unexpected event. This effect points to some disadvantages of HUDs referred to as 'attention capture', which may become exaggerated by the additional use of pathway guidance symbology.
Study of the Electronic Properties of Graphene Oxide/(PANi/Teflon)

Graphene oxide (GO) has attracted enormous attention in the fabrication of electrochemical sensing systems as they have superior characteristics that enable them to be a perfect choice for the preparation of electrochemical devices. The usage of GO in preparation of polymer nanocomposites makes them a very promising material in electrical applications. Molecular modeling based on density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP/6-31g(d, p) was utilized to study the interaction between the polyaniline (PANi) and Teflon composite with GO. The polymer blend model interacted with GO throughout the hydroxyl group (OH) located at the terminal and the oxygen atom in the middle of GO. Total dipole moment (TDM), HOMO-LUMO bandgap energy, and molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) are calculated for the studied structures. TDM found to be increased from 2.584 and 3.083 Debye for Go and PANi/ Teflon to 5.361, 4.208 and 5.839 for GO-Term (PANi/Teflon), GO- Mid (PANi/Teflon) and GO-Term (Teflon/PANi) respectively also band gap energy decreases to 0.347, 0.270 and 0.268 eV respectively. MESP shows that the reactivity is increased for the interaction of the polymer with GO through the oxygen atom in the middle. Obtained results confirmed that the proposed structure of GO/PANi/Teflon could be used in the fabrication of electrochemical devices.
Leveraging Training: Skills Development in SMEs - An Analysis of Canterbury Region, New Zealand

Access to training and the effective utilisation of skills in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) has long been an area of interest to public policy makers and economic development practitioners. SMEs often lack capabilities and infrastructure to make the most of their human capabilities – and as a consequence tend to have lower levels of training and skills development. It is against this back drop that the Department of Labour initiated this study with the OECD in conjunction with the Ministry of Economic Development, Tertiary Education Commission, Industry Training Federation and Business New Zealand. These organisations have a strong desire to see the results of the study feed into responses to help lift the performance of SMEs.
Cyclic Test Data of Six Unreinforced Masonry Walls with Different Boundary Conditions

Previous test data on unreinforced masonry walls focused on the global response of the wall. A new data set (Petry and Beyer 2014a; DOI:10.5281/zenodo.8443) on six wall tests, which is publicly available, allows for linking global to local deformations of masonry walls, which can be useful for advancing performance-based design and assessment methods for unreinforced masonry buildings. This data paper presents the results of a test series on six identical unreinforced masonry walls that were constructed using hollow clay brick units and standard cement-based mortar. The test units were subjected to quasi-static cycles of increasing drift demands and the tests differed with regard to the applied axial load and the moment restraint applied at the top of the walls. The walls were tested up to failure. Throughout the loading the deformations of the walls were recorded using a digital photogrammetric measurement system tracking the movement of 312 points per test unit.
Higher Order Spectra for Crack and Misalignment Identification in the Shaft of a Rotating Machine

Higher order spectra (HOS) are the tools in signal processing for the identification of the presence of higher harmonics in a signal which is a typical case of a non-linear dynamic behavior in mechanical systems. The breathing of a crack during shaft rotation also exhibits a non-linear behavior. The crack is known to generate 2X (twice the machine RPM) and higher harmonics in addition to 1X component in the shaft response during its rotation. Misaligned shaft also shows such feature as a crack in a shaft. The HOS have now been applied on a small rotating rig to observe its features. Results are found to be encouraging to distinguish these two faults based on a few experiments conducted on a small rig, which are presented here. The presented results though limited suggest the potential of the use of the HOS in the condition monitoring of rotating machinery.
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF THE DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF WHEAT

ABSTRACT Temperature dependent dielectric properties data were collected on Stacy soft red winter wheat at temperatures from 0 to 50° C and moisture contents ranging from 8.2 to 23.4%, wet basis. Measurements by two impedance analyzers with a shielded, open-circuited, coaxial-line sample holder were transformed by the invariance-of-the-cross-ratio technique into dielectric properties data in the frequency range from 0.1 to 100 MHz. Measurements compared well with values reported in the literature.
Information Infrastructure for Air Quality Modeling and Analysis: Application to the Houston-Galveston Ozone Non-attainment Area

The Houston-Galveston Area (HGA) and several other metropolitan regions in the US are classified, under the Clean Air Act, as non-attainment areas because of the noncompliance of air quality standards due to higher ground-level ozone and particu- late matter concentrations. These regions must reduce their ozone levels within the next 5 to 7 years to comply with EPA standards or they will be penalized with a loss of federal funding and other punitive measures. To study the severity of air pollution problems and to provide tools for the development of emissions control strategies, a research information infrastructure that includes air quality measurement data and various modeling systems is necessary. This paper presents an example of such system that integrates a set of meteorological models, emissions processing systems, air quality models, a trajectory analysis tool, a GIS -based data analy- sis/visualization system, and a collection of observational data sets for the HGA housed in a network of computer systems. We demon- strate the capacity and utilization potential of the information infrastructure to test some of the nongovernmental organizations and public initiated emissions control scenarios proposed by groups including the Task Force for Ozone Reduction Strategies (TFORS), which might have a significant impact on the State Implementation Plan (SIP).