Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value-Risk Graph: A decision-making tool for supply chain and industrial system engineering

Abstract A value-risk based decision-making tool is proposed for performance evaluation of industrial systems at build-time. For this purpose, stakeholders’ expectations and concerns, respectively expressed in terms of objectives and risks, are identified and transformed into global value and risk indicators using principles, tools and techniques of performance measurement, risk assessment and decision-making disciplines. Moreover, minimum acceptable value and maximum acceptable risk for the scenario understudy are computed. They are then used to demarcate zones of “highly feasible”, “feasible”, “risky” as well as “unacceptable” situations on the proposed Value-Risk Graph in order to facilitate the decision-making process. The proposed decision-making tool is illustrated with an example dealing with manufacturing process design but it can be applied to any kind of product or system evaluation.
Influence of grout proportions on modulus of elasticity of two-stage concrete

The modulus of elasticity value is important from the design point of view but it is time-consuming in direct measurement. For normal concrete, it is found that the modulus of elasticity can be satisfactorily predicted from the compressive strength value, which is obtained very easily. In the case of two-stage concrete (TSC) there is no background information for evaluating its elastic modulus. The TSC differs from the conventional concrete in a higher percentage content of the stone aggregate. The aggregate is deposited directly into the moulds with point-to-point contact and a high flow grout is then introduced into the bottom of the mould. The contact stresses are transferred first through the stone skeleton and then after deformations of grains, also through the hardened grout. Therefore the properties of the TSC are more dependent upon the stone aggregate. Thus, the characteristics of the TSC in failure conditions are different from the normal concrete. The objective of this research was to present t.
Controlled Subjective Assessments of Two-to-Five-Channel Surround Sound Processing Algorithms

Surround synthesis algorithms are designed to process ordinary two-channel stereo signals for reproduction over a larger number of loudspeakers, delivering enhanced spatial characteristics. A series of controlled subjective tests was carried out to determine the front imaging and spatial impression qualities of processed material, using conventional unmatrixed two-channel program material as a source. Compatibility with the two-channel original was assessed and listener preference established. Results suggest that in general the front image quality is reduced and the spatial impression slightly improved by processing, and that expert listeners tend to prefer unprocessed material to that which has been processed.
Association of whole blood copper and preeclampsia: A Cohort study in China

Background Preeclampsia is a leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. The associations between whole blood copper and pre-eclampsia were controversial. Our study was aimed to investigate the association between whole blood copper concentration and preeclampsia in pregnant woman in China. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted between August 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 in a comprehensive tertiary hospital in Foshan city Guangdong Province, China. We measured copper concentration in maternal whole blood in 12–27 (+ 6) week of pregnancy, using flame atomic absorption spectrometer. We ascertained preeclampsia diagnosis from electronic medical records system. Covariates included demographic, offspring characteristics, serum biomarkers. Logistic regression was applied to explore the association between the concentration of trace element and preeclampsia. Results A total of 2134 participants were included, 57 (2.67%) women developed preeclampsia. In the multivariate regression models, per1 SD increment in copper was associated with 28% lower risk of preeclampsia (OR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.54–0.95). After Propensity-Score Matching with similar age at delivery and prepregnancy BMI,per1 SD increment in copper was associated with 28% lower risk of preeclampsia (OR = 0.70,95% CI:0.51–0.97). We observed some extent evidence of a dose–response trend for Cu (P for trend = 0.0321) quintiles. And the result was sustained in mild and severe preeclampsia. Conclusions women with higher blood concentration of copper may associated with lower preeclampsia. More well designed studies are needed for the interpretation of these findings.
A fuzzy multiple attribute utility model for intelligent building assessment

Abstract Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) is an evaluation scheme which is very popular by decision makers for evaluating their judgments. According to MAUT, the overall evaluation U(x) of an object x is defined as a weighted addition of its evaluation with respect to its relevant value dimensions. The recent years have witnessed a huge concentration and interest in intelligent buildings’ performance that is increasingly evidenced in building design and construction. Intelligent buildings (IBs) are also under assessment according to their IB related characteristics and actual circumstances. For this aim, in this paper a fuzzy multiple attribute utility model for intelligent building assessment is proposed and three alternative intelligent buildings for a business center in Istanbul are evaluated.
SIMULTANEOUS CONTROL OF GRASP/MANIPULATION AND CONTACT POINTS WITH ROLLING CONTACT

Abstract In this paper, for simultaneous control of grasp/manipulation and contact points by a two-fingered robot hand with the pure rolling contact, we provide an entire treatment of the system equations including motion and force constraint, which consist of the generalized coordinates and the contact coordinates. In contrast to most previous studies where specified degrees of freedom (DOF) of fingers are consiered we provide a general treatment of the system for any DOF of the fingers. Utilizing the results, a control design method which achieves the simultaneous control is proposed.
Cylindrical Dielectric Resonator Antennas with Harmonic Control as an Active Antenna Radiator

A cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna is proposed as a radiator for an active integrated antenna. Harmonic tuning, which is the key step in designing active antenna radiators, is achieved via a combination of shape factor control over the resonator and insertion of reactive elements in the feed system. Numerical simulations are carried out in a finite elements framework and a layout for the complete antenna is proposed, aimed at compactness for subsequent utilization of the radiator as an element in an active array for satellite communications.
Assessing the Effect of General Self-efficacy on Academic Achievement Using Path Analysis: A Preliminary Study

Although self-efficacy is a construct born originally out of and into the field of psychology, its importance and relevance extend de facto outside its original field of research to span multiple closely related disciplines including, but in no way limited to, applied linguistics and educational psychology mainly for its demonstrably strong association to a vast range of language-related educational phenomena. In the present study, we set out to examine, by means of the Spearman correlational test and through the construction of a direct effect model, the relationship between general self-efficacy beliefs and academic achievement. For this, we used responses of one hundred and thirty-eight (N = 138) EFL students of undergraduate and graduate levels from numerous universities across different regions in Morocco. Findings show a very moderate significant correlation between self-efficacy and academic achievement as measured by GPA. Further, a constructed direct-effect path model showed a significant positive impact of self-efficacy on academic achievement, substantiating further the existing link between the two constructs. In addition, a gender-based comparison in terms of self-efficacy using an independent sample t-test revealed that females reported higher self-efficacy beliefs than their male counterparts. Finally, we conclude with a summary of the study and some recommendations for future research.
Investigation of Behavioral Adaptation to Lane Departure Warnings

Behavioral adaptation describes the collection of behaviors that occur after a change in the road traffic system. Typically, those behaviors not intended by the initiators of the change having a negative impact on safety are of particular interest. Although behavioral adaptation is frequently cited as an explanatory variable for observed discrepancies between engineering estimates and actual outcomes of safety interventions, a thorough understanding of behavioral adaptation does not, at present, exist. Most theories posit that a driver’s goal to maintain an acceptable level of risk will determine if and when behavioral adaptation will occur; few models incorporate individual driver characteristics into their explanation of behavioral adaptation. Recently, a qualitative model of behavioral adaptation was proposed. The model predicts that the degree of behavioral adaptation to a novel road safety intervention depends on several psychological characteristics of the individual, including propensity to trust automation, “locus of control,” and inclination toward sensation-seeking. To test the predictions of this model, simulator and test-track studies were conducted to investigate the ability of lane departure warnings to induce behavioral adaptation in drivers performing a secondary number-entry task. While the presence of reliable warnings in both settings improved lane-keeping performance, drivers tended to report a high degree of trust in both accurate and inaccurate systems, despite the intentional infidelity of the latter. Externals and low sensation-seekers were more likely to report an increase in trust in the system, regardless of its accuracy. The collective results from both studies indicate that, because of the propensity of some people to trust unreliable or faulty devices, caution should be used in attempting to predict the aggregate safety benefits of these systems.
Cochlear Fine Structure—Implications for Modulation Processing at the Level of the Cochlea

It was proposed that fine structure effects in OAEs or threshold in quiet are a consequence of the active and nonlinear processing at the level of the cochlea. For human listeners it was shown that fine structure affects the detection of sinusoidally amplitude modulated tones (SAM) with low carrier levels [Heise et al. 2009 J Acoust Soc Am 126:2490–2500]. The present study uses a one dimensional nonlinear and active transmission line model of the cochlea to simulate modulation perception and to study the explanations for the psychoacoustical effects given in the literature. The model was already successfully applied to simulate the fine structure of the threshold in quiet including SOAE in fine structure minima. It is investigated to which extent the representation of the modulated stimulus at the level of the cochlea can be used to identify the mechanism underlying differences found in data and to which extent it can be used to account for psychophysical data near threshold.
Transfer of gene corrected T cells corrects humoral and cytotoxic defects in X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLP1)

BACKGROUND: XLP1 arises from mutations in the SH2D1A gene encoding SAP, an adaptor protein expressed in T, NK and NKT cells. Defects lead to abnormalities of T and NK cell cytotoxicity and T cell dependent humoral function. Clinical manifestations include haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), lymphoma and dysgammaglobulinaemia. Curative treatment is limited to haematopoietic stem cell transplant with outcome reliant on a good donor match. OBJECTIVES: As most symptoms arise from defective T cell function, we investigated whether transfer of SAP gene corrected T cells could reconstitute known effector cell defects. METHODS: CD3+ lymphocytes from sap-deficient mice were transduced with a gammaretroviral vector encoding human SAP cDNA before transfer into sub-lethally irradiated sap-deficient recipients. Following immunisation with the T-dependent antigen NP-CGG, recovery of humoral function was evaluated through germinal centre formation and antigen specific responses. To efficiently transduce patient CD3+ cells, we generated an equivalent lentiviral SAP vector. Functional recovery was demonstrated using in vitro cytotoxicity and TFH cell function assays, alongside tumour clearance in an in vivo LCL lymphoma xenograft model. RESULTS: In sap-deficient mice, 20-40% engraftment of gene modified T cells led to significant recovery of germinal centre formation and NP-specific antibody responses. Gene corrected patient T cells demonstrated improved cytotoxicity and TFH cell function in vitro. Adoptive transfer of gene corrected patient CTLs reduced tumour burden to a level comparable with healthy donor CTLs in an in vivo lymphoma model. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that autologous T cell gene therapy corrects SAP dependent defects and may offer an alternative therapeutic option for XLP1 patients.
Control of cracking in composite bridge decks in regions in biaxial tension

Deck slabs of bridges of composite construction can in places be stressed in biaxial tension throughout their thickness. Rules for control of crack width in codes such as EN 1994‐2 are based on tests in uniaxial tension. Crack‐width measurements are reported from tests in 1977 on slabs in biaxial tension, acting as flanges of composite beams. A theoretical model for prediction of crack width is explained, and a method is given for applying the rules of EN 1994‐2 to biaxial tension. It gives results slightly more conservative than characteristic values deduced from the test results.
COMBINED TRANSLATION/PITCH MOTION: A NEW AIRFOIL DYNAMIC STALL SIMULATION

The effects of simultaneous velocity and incidence fluctuations on the 2-D aerodynamic behaviour of a NACA 0012 airfoil are investigated in this paper. A new mechanical system allows driving the airfoil in pitching and in fore and aft motions, as well as in a simultaneous combination of these two basic unsteady motions. In response to the simultaneous velocity and incidence variations, the time-dependent lift and drag fluctuations are measured for increasing values of the reduced frequency and amplitude parameters, including dynamic stall conditions. Complementary information on the dynamic stall occurring in combined motion is provided by skin friction and pressure measurements along the airfoil surface.
Surface-plasmon-enhanced light transmission intensity with a basic grating in GaN-based LED

The transmitting light in GaN-based LED with 30 nm thickness metal film grating is investigated. We proposed a basic grating structure model to enhance light intensity in GaN material, which was simpler and cheaper. We calculated and analyzed the structure with different parameters, and studied the numerical simulation results of Ag-films/Al-films/Au-films. With a simple Al or Ag basic grating structure, the 7.4–7.6 times intensity of 550 nm light can be obtained easily, and the enhancement efficiency is better than others.
A numerical and experimental friction analysis of reciprocating hydraulic ‘U’ rod seals

This article is focused on the comparison between experimental and numerical friction forces obtained for a typical hydraulic ‘U’ rod seal. The numerical results are obtained by the inverse hydrodynamic lubrication method. The experimental results have been obtained on an original experimental device capable of measuring the friction force between a rod and two seals. The reciprocating rod speed, the temperature and pressure in the test cell are controlled. Despite the fact that the numerical results correspond to an idealized hydrodynamic problem for smooth surfaces, it was found that the numerical model agrees with experimental data when the predicted film thickness is higher than the rod roughness but largely lower than the seal roughness. This suggests that the roughness of the seal disappears under the pressure in the sealed contact and do not play an essential role in the lubrication mechanisms. However, it is clear that for very small film thickness, the full film lubrication theory for smooth surfaces is not convenient. This may imply that in these conditions mixed lubrication cannot be ignored or that adhesion phenomena, not taken into account by the lubrication theory, can appear in the contact areas.
Gas Turbine Fault Classification Using Probability Density Estimation

Diagnostics is an important aspect of a condition based maintenance program. To develop an effective gas turbine monitoring system in short time, the recommendations on how to optimally design every system algorithm are required. This paper deals with choosing a proper fault classification technique for gas turbine monitoring systems.To classify gas path faults, different artificial neural networks are typically employed. Among them the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) is the mostly used. Some comparative studies referred to in the introduction show that the MLP and some other techniques yield practically the same classification accuracy on average for all faults. That is why in addition to the average accuracy, more criteria to choose the best technique are required. Since techniques like Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN), Parzen Window (PW) and k-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) provide a confidence probability for every diagnostic decision, the presence of this important property can be such a criterion. The confidence probability in these techniques is computed through estimating a probability density for patterns of each concerned fault class.The present study compares all mentioned techniques and their variations using as criteria both the average accuracy and availability of the confidence probability. To compute them for each technique, a special testing procedure simulates numerous diagnosis cycles corresponding to different fault classes and fault severities. In addition to the criteria themselves, criteria imprecision due to a finite number of the diagnosis cycles is computed and involved into selecting the best technique.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Conflict Behavior of Nation-States

As I share Blalock’s (1964, p. 183) skepticism that ’factor analysis may . not be appropriate for census data or other types of analyses in which some measured variables are caused by other measured variables’, I have decided to rely more on path analysis2 (Wright 1923, Duncan 1968). There are other differences between Rummel’s and my approach. Rummel used data on up to 82 nations and 236 variables, had missing data, aggregated conflict events over 3 years from 1955 to 1957, and transformed many of his variables in order to pull in extreme values; whereas I used data on 59 nations and up to 28
Horizontal Air-Water Flow Analysis with Wire Mesh Sensor

A Wire Mesh Sensor, based on the measurement of the local instantaneous conductivity of the two-phase mixture, has been used to characterize the fluid dynamics of the gas–liquid interface in a horizontal pipe flow. Experiments with a pipe of a nominal diameter of 19.5 mm and total length of 6 m, have been performed with air/water mixtures, at ambient conditions. The flow quality ranges from 0.00016 to 0.22 and the superficial velocities range from 0.1 to 10.5 m/s for air and from 0.02 to 1.7 m/s for water; the flow pattern is stratified, slug/plug and annular. A sensor (WMS200) with an inner diameter of 19.5 mm and a measuring matrix of 16×16 points equally distributed over the cross-section has been chosen for the measurements. From the analysis of the Wire Mesh Sensor digital signals the average and the local void fraction are evaluated and the flow patterns are identified with reference to space, time and flow rate boundary conditions.
Power Loss in the Lubricating Gap between Cylinder Block and Valve Plate of Swash Plate Type Axial Piston Machines

Abstract The lubricating gaps are the primary source of energy dissipation in piston machines. The paper presents results of a simulation study that investigates the effect that a wave-like micro surface shape variation applied to the valve plate gap surface has on power loss in the cylinder block-valve plate interface. Special attention is given to the relation between gap height, operating parameters, surface design and power loss. The effect of waved surface amplitude and frequency is also studied. Results indicate that power loss in the cylinder block-valve plate interface can be reduced by over 50% on account of the waved surface compared to the standard cylinder block-valve plate interface design. The effect of the waved surface is most significant at low operating pressures. A special in-house code has been used for this research study. The simulation model covers fluid-structure interaction and micro motion of the cylinder block resulting from oscillating piston forces. Details of the model are explained. The model predicts the pressure and velocity fields generated in the lubricating film and calculates leakage, viscous friction and power loss.
The Relationship between Organizational and Professional Commitment in the Case of Project Workers: Implications for Project Management

The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between organizational and professional commitment of project workers. We first present (1) role-conflict theory and exchange theory to establish the multiple dimensions of commitment (affective, continuance, and normative) and (2) social identity theory to support our argument for different foci of commitment—organization and profession. Building on these theoretical lenses, we present the literature review that compares organizational and professional commitment of project workers with respect to the three dimensions of commitment. Adopting a positivist approach and a sample of 141 project workers, we use Pearson's correlation to identify the relationship between affective organizational and affective professional, continuance organizational and continuance professional, and normative organizational and normative professional commitment. We report significant correlation between affective organizational commitment and affective professional commitment of project workers. The correlations between continuance organizational commitment and continuance professional commitment and normative organizational commitment and normative professional commitment are moderate. We then discuss the implications of these findings for the project management profession.
Mechanisms of resistance to neuraminidase inhibitors in influenza A viruses and evaluation of combined antiviral therapy

v Table of contents. vii Table list . xi Figure list . xi Abbreviation list . xiii Acknowledgements. xv Foreword . xix Chapter I: Introduction . 1 Section I: Influenza viruses . 1 1.1 History. 1 1.2 Classification . 2 1.3 Viral isolation and propagation. 3 1.4 Virion structure . 4 1.5 Genome organization . 6 1.5. 1 Surface glycoproteins . 7 1.5. 1.1 Hemagglutinin . 7 Structure of the receptor binding site . 8 Receptor binding specificity . 10 HA cleavage and pathogenesis . 11 1.5. 1.2 Neuraminidase . 12 Structure of the NA active site . 14 1.5. 2 Other viral proteins . 16 1.5. 2.1 The RNA polymerase complex . 16 1.5. 2.2 Nucleoprotein . 17 1.5. 2.3 RNA segment 7 and encoded proteins: M1 and M2 . 18 1.5. 2.4 RNA segment 8 and encoded proteins: NS1 and NEP/NS2 . 19 1.6 Replicative cycle . 20 1.7 Viral Genetics . 22 1.7. 1 RNA mutations and viral quasispecies. 23 1.7. 2 Viral RNA recombination . 23 1.7. 3 Viral RNA segment reassortment . 24