Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of large-area texture/slip surface on journal bearing considering cavitation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of large-area texture/slip surface, especially the area and position of large-area texture surface on journal bearing, and improve the tribological performances of journal bearing. Design/methodology/approach – A modified texture/slip numerical boundary condition with double parameters is presented and is applied onto the region where surface textures locate to represent the impact of actual texture/slip surface. A phase change condition is used to analyze cavitation phenomena. Findings – The global/cumulative texture effect can be represented by applying texture/slip condition onto the region where it locates. The area and position of texture/slip surface would significantly affect the cavitation and load-carrying capacity. Texture/slip surface would not affect the pressure and load-carrying capacity when it locates at cavitation zone. The effect of texture/slip surface on load-carrying capacity would be beneficial if it locates at the pressur.
Canine Epithelial Thymic Tumors: Outcome in 28 Dogs Treated by Surgery

Simple Summary Thymoma is a tumor of the cranial mediastinum rarely reported in dogs and should be differentiated from mediastinal lymphoma. CT and fine-needle aspirates or core biopsies are helpful in differential diagnosis, but flow cytometry may improve the pre-operative diagnostic ability. In thymomas, paraneoplastic syndromes such as myasthenia gravis and hypercalcemia may develop concurrently with the tumor. Their role as prognostic factors is not well determined. Surgical excision is the treatment of choice, but adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy may prolong survival in cases of incomplete excision or if a thymic carcinoma is diagnosed. Local recurrence and metastasis are infrequently reported; therefore, a long survival is expected if the tumor is completely excised or if adjuvant therapy is undertaken. This article reports the authors’ experience with 28 dogs affected by 18 thymomas and 10 thymic carcinomas surgically treated from January 2000 to August 2021. The median overall survival time of the entire population was 1137 days; the median disease-free time was 903 days. Dogs with thymic carcinomas had significantly shorter disease-free intervals and shorter, although not statistically significant, survival times. Dogs with Masaoka Stage III tumors had worse outcomes. Abstract Thymoma is a tumor rarely reported in dogs and should be differentiated from mediastinal lymphoma. Clinical signs may have a late onset, and thymoma is often diagnosed when symptoms related to the space-occupying effect or paraneoplastic syndromes occur. CT and fine-needle aspirates or core biopsies are helpful in differential diagnosis, but flow cytometry may improve the pre-operative diagnostic ability. Concurrent paraneoplastic syndromes such as myasthenia gravis and hypercalcemia have been reported; however, their role as prognostic factors is not well determined. Surgical excision is the treatment of choice; adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy may prolong survival in cases of incomplete excision or when a thymic carcinoma is diagnosed. Local recurrence and metastasis are infrequently reported; therefore, a long survival time is expected if the tumor is completely excised or if adjuvant therapy is undertaken. This article reports the authors’ experience with 28 dogs affected by 18 thymomas and 10 thymic carcinomas. The median overall survival in this series was 1173 days, and the median disease-free interval was 903 days. Dogs with thymic carcinoma had significantly shorter disease-free intervals and shorter, although not statistically significant, survival times. Dogs with Masaoka Stage III tumors had worse outcomes.
Penggunaan Bikatein Dalam Ransum terhadap Bobot Hidup, Persentase Bobot Karkas, Hati Dan Ginjal Ayam Broiler

The provision of cheap food and good quality needs to be done because the cost of food is the biggest cost is about 60-70% of the total production costs. Cassava Bikatein is rich in proteins obtained from cassava fermented with Aspergillus niger. Bikatein expected to be one feed protein sources. The purpose ofthis study was learn about the use of bikatein on percentage body weight, carcass, liver and kidney of broiler chicken. This research used 200 DOC shaver starbro strain unsexed. Design used in the experiment was Completely Randomized Design (RAL) with four treatments and five replications. Eachevery replicated use ten-broiler chicken. The treatments was different of addition bikatein in the broiler chicken are 0 (R0), 5 (R1), 10 (R2) and 15% (R3). The variable that observed was percentage body weight, carcass, liver and kidney of broiler chicken. The result showed that using bikatein 15% in ration were not significant on percentage body weight, liver and kidney. The using bikatein 10 and 15 % influence on percentage carcass. The conclusion was the treatment can to used in ration without endanger health broiler chicken as 5%.
Roles of Tumor Necrosis Factor-α and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Receptor 2 in Inflammation-Related Diseases

The aim of the present review is to provide basic knowledge about the role of tumour necrosis factor-α 1 and tumor necrosis factor-α receptor 2 in neuro-inflammation diseases. We performed an open-ended, English restricted search of PubMed, Embase, PsychINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library for available literature from 24Feb. 2018–12 May 2021, using terms related to neuroinflammation, tumour necrosis factor-α, tumour necrosis factor II (TNFR-II), TNF-α and related diseases, TNFR-II and inflammation-related diseases, their relationships, and polymorphism. The main outcomes assessed were the presence of plaques and tangles, behaviour and cognition, reduction in brain tissue mass, and synaptic function the majority of studies were documented a beneficial effect in other areas, including the presence of plaques and tangles and synaptic function. The human studies were showed that TNF-αI was beneficial to Alzheimer's disease patients, with one being a small pilot study and the latter being an observational study, with a high risk of bias. It is concluded that the functions and mechanisms of TNF-α and TNFR-II in inflammation-related diseases will provide new viewpoints and theories in the development and treatment of these diseases. They play important roles in the pathogenesis of diseases induced by or related to inflammatory cytokines and signaling pathways.
Two-stage cluster analysis in distance learning: A way to reduce gaps in the scientific literature on open and distance education

Background: Dropout rates are often very high in distance education. A plethora of research has been conducted to identify the contributing factors; however, the majority of the findings are inconclusive and point to the fact that it is difficult to isolate a single explanatory factor. While frequently examined factors are personal and environmental, there is less research on the relationship between course design and retention or dropout. Method: This paper presents a study involving two-stage cluster analysis of 623 variables from 19 university courses at one open and distance education (ODE) institution. To this end, the current study grouped the courses into five types based on 22 variables. Results: The results indicate that certain sociodemographic variables become a risk factor for course dropout depending on their distribution in the standard courses. Conclusions: This result highlights the importance of instructional design in the ODE retention and dropout equation and helps explain, in part, why previous studies have not reached a consensus on which variables should be considered to explain dropout rates.
Aleutian Tern Onychoprion aleuticus abundance estimates at four globally significant colonies

Summary Aleutian Tern Onychoprion aleuticus numbers have been in steep decline at known Alaskan breeding colonies in recent decades (IUCN recently uplisted to ‘Vulnerable’). Available data suggest that most of the species may currently breed in Russia. Efforts to document global abundance and trends have been hampered by remoteness of colonies, lack of a formal monitoring programme, and the absence of reproducible population estimates with quantifiable errors, especially for large colonies. We surveyed four historically large colonies in Russia (2018) and Alaska (2019), which together may comprise 30–50% of the global breeding population. At each colony we obtained high resolution aerial photographs using a small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS). The large size of the colonies and the minimum altitude required to identify terns made it impractical to collect imagery of the entire colony. Instead, we employed a sampling approach, with sample locations selected based on spatially balanced acceptance sampling. Statistically sampled, low altitude sUAS images provided a fast, reproducible, and rigorous count of abundance for geographically large colonies, with low disturbance, and were generally consistent with concurrent ground-based observations. Concurrence among observers in photo counts indicated high precision in counts of attending birds and unattended nests, although species attribution in mixed tern colonies remains a source of significant uncertainty. Our results indicate that the four colonies surveyed here together supported <2,500 pairs of Aleutian Terns in the survey years. None of the colonies approached their peak size reported previously, likely due to recent predation, long-term decline, cold early season weather, or other factors. If these reduced colony sizes are representative of the current conditions, the implications for the global population would be dire.
Further dual purpose evolutionary optimization of small wind turbine blades

Much work has been done to maximise the power extraction of wind turbine blades. However, small wind turbines are also required to be self starting and whilst blades designed for maximum power extraction can be optimised analytically, these blades often have poor starting performance. The numeric method of Differential Evolution is used here to maximise for both power and starting performance. Standard blade element theory is used to calculate the power coefficient, and a modified blade element method for starting time. The chord and twist of each blade element make up the genes for evolution. Starting times can be improved by a factor of 20 with only a small reduction in power coefficient. With the introduction of the tip speed ratio as an additional gene, up to 10% improvement in power coefficient was achieved. A second study was done in another case where analytical optimisation is not possible; the inclusion of tip losses. The inclusion resulted in only a small increase in the optimum chord in the tip region which becomes less noticeable at lower tip speed ratios.
Virtual Reality Simulation Training for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation After Cardiac Surgery: Face and Content Validity Study

Background Cardiac arrest after cardiac surgery commonly has a reversible cause, where emergency resternotomy is often required for treatment, as recommended by international guidelines. We have developed a virtual reality (VR) simulation for training of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency resternotomy procedures after cardiac surgery, the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Virtual Reality Simulator (CPVR-sim). Two fictive clinical scenarios were used: one case of pulseless electrical activity (PEA) and a combined case of PEA and ventricular fibrillation. In this prospective study, we researched the face validity and content validity of the CPVR-sim. Objective We designed a prospective study to assess the feasibility and to establish the face and content validity of two clinical scenarios (shockable and nonshockable cardiac arrest) of the CPVR-sim partly divided into a group of novices and experts in performing CPR and emergency resternotomies in patients after cardiac surgery. Methods Clinicians (staff cardiothoracic surgeons, physicians, surgical residents, nurse practitioners, and medical students) participated in this study and performed two different scenarios, either PEA or combined PEA and ventricular fibrillation. All participants (N=41) performed a simulation and completed the questionnaire rating the simulator’s usefulness, satisfaction, ease of use, effectiveness, and immersiveness to assess face validity and content validity. Results Responses toward face validity and content validity were predominantly positive in both groups. Most participants in the PEA scenario (n=26, 87%) felt actively involved in the simulation, and 23 (77%) participants felt in charge of the situation. The participants thought it was easy to learn how to interact with the software (n=24, 80%) and thought that the software responded adequately (n=21, 70%). All 15 (100%) expert participants preferred VR training as an addition to conventional training. Moreover, 13 (87%) of the expert participants would recommend VR training to other colleagues, and 14 (93%) of the expert participants thought the CPVR-sim was a useful method to train for infrequent post–cardiac surgery emergencies requiring CPR. Additionally, 10 (91%) of the participants thought it was easy to move in the VR environment, and that the CPVR-sim responded adequately in this scenario. Conclusions We developed a proof-of-concept VR simulation for CPR training with two scenarios of a patient after cardiac surgery, which participants found was immersive and useful. By proving the face validity and content validity of the CPVR-sim, we present the first step toward a cardiothoracic surgery VR training platform.
Optimized Leader-Follower Consensus Control Using Reinforcement Learning for a Class of Second-Order Nonlinear Multiagent Systems

In this article, an optimized leader-follower consensus control is proposed for a class of second-order unknown nonlinear dynamical multiagent system. Different with the first-order multiagent consensus, the second-order case needs to achieve the agreement not only on position but also on velocity, therefore this optimized control is more challenging and interesting. To derive the control, reinforcement learning (RL) can be a natural consideration because it can overcome the difficulty of solving the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation. To implement RL, it needs to iterate both adaptive critic and actor networks each other. However, if this optimized control learns RL from most existing optimal methods that derives the critic and actor adaptive laws from the negative gradient of square of the approximating function of the HJB equation, this control algorithm will be very intricate, because the HJB equation correlated to a second-order nonlinear multiagent system will become very complex due to strong state coupling and nonlinearity. In this work, since the two RL adaptive laws are derived via implementing the gradient descent method to a simple positive function, which is obtained on the basis of a partial derivative of the HJB equation, this optimized control is significantly simple. Meanwhile, it not merely can avoid the requirement of known dynamic acknowledge, but also can release the condition of persistent excitation, which is demanded in most RL optimization methods for training the adaptive parameter more sufficiently. Finally, the proposed control is demonstrated by both theory and computer simulation.
Operation Safe Corridor: An Outcome Evaluation

Exposure to crime occurs when an individual’s activities place them in vulnerable situations. A collaborative problem-solving approach to address student victimization in one area of the city of Ashton resulted in the development of a safe passageway initiative, Operation Safe Corridor (OSC). OSC applies the logic of crime and place research by focusing efforts that seek to modify behavior and reduce opportunities for criminal behavior in the corridor. Despite concentrated deployment of resources in a relatively small area, OSC has not had the expected impact on student victimization. Although OSC was introduced as a measure whose primary focus was to combat personal crimes, particularly street robberies, the intervention appears more successful with respect to property crime. Thus, despite efforts to raise awareness regarding personal safety, college-aged individuals are still making themselves vulnerable as targets and OSC seems instead to have had an effect on would-be offenders. The program appears to have been successful at hardening a location (the corridor) but was not successful in modifying victim behavior.
Recruitment in elite football: a network approach

ABSTRACT Research Question Contemporary football (soccer) is a competitive industry. Some football clubs have enacted new roles, such as the Sporting Director, to gain a competitive advantage through effective recruitment of non-playing staff. This qualitative research examines the recruitment strategies of Sporting Directors through the lens of network theory. Research Methods An empirical qualitative study was conducted, involving semi-structured interviews with 25 Sporting Directors in football clubs in England (English Premier League n=12; English Championship, n=13). The qualitative data was thematically analysed. Results and Findings The study contributes novel evidence on recruitment in elite-level football, revealing the theoretical underpinnings and practical nature of this marketplace unique to the football industry. The evidence shows that whilst normally in recruitment weak ties are essential for getting a job, in football, trust and knowing people is the most critical aspect in recruitment, and recruiters rely on strong ties. This homophily creates several unintended implications for business and performance. Conclusions This study responds to a gap in our theoretical and practical understanding of recruitment in elite-level football. The findings raise important questions for those managers and leaders involved in securing talent, as the over-reliance on closed networks may constrain the flow of information and innovation and ultimately limit the potential performance of the organisation. Homophily in recruitment processes may have unintended consequences that require further research, notably for player welfare, inequalities and performance.
Simultaneous actuator and sensor fault estimation for neutral-type systems via intermediate observer

This study addresses the fault estimation (FE) issue for neutral-type systems with sensor faults and actuator faults through the intermediate observer. First, it is well-known that the observer matching condition (OMC) ought to be met for most traditional FE methods, which is actually difficult to satisfy for many systems. In order to overcome this limitation, a suitable variable is designed and the intermediate observer is proposed to estimate the actuator and sensor faults for neutral-type systems simultaneously. Second, based on linear matrix inequalities, sufficient conditions are derived, which guarantee the existence of the intermediate observer. An augmented descriptor system is constructed for the neutral-type systems. By the Lyapunov stability theory, states of error systems are ultimately bounded. Finally, two examples demonstrate the effectiveness and practicability of the designed strategy.
Multimode interference photonic switches (MIPS)

The switching characteristics of multimode interference photonic switches (MIPS) are analyzed by wide-angle finite difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM). As a result, it is found that the MIPS with a multimode interference (MMI) length of 599 /spl mu/m can switch the output light polarization insensitively with a crosstalk of less than -20 dB for a wavelength range of 70 nm. These analyses show that the MIPS can also have a 3-dB coupler function. Experimentally, an InGaAsP/InP 1/spl times/2 MIPS with a thicker InP cladding layer was fabricated and exhibited switching operation with crosstalks of -8 dB and -10 dB at 0 and 20 mA current injections, respectively. For a 2/spl times/2 MIPS with a thinner InP cladding layer, better switching characteristics with a crosstalk of -13 dB and an extinction ratio of 17 dB were realized.
How Do You Define Sexual Harassment?: Why Context Matters

Sexual violence affects one in four college-aged women. Multiple studies support the use of bystander prevention programs to help reduce the amount of sexual violence occurring; however, bystander action is dependent upon recognizing occurrences of sexual harassment. The present study investigated perceptions of sexually harassing behaviors in two contexts: at work and outside of work. A total of 302 undergraduate student participants rated their perceptions of sexually harassing behaviors and various attitudes related to sexual violence. The exact same behaviors were perceived as more likely to constitute sexual harassment if they occurred at work. Implications are discussed.
Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Organizational Flexibility in the Construction Business

Flexibility has been touted as an important requirement for firms to survive and prosper in turbulent and volatile economic environments. The aim of this research is to investigate the relevance of organizational flexibility management to construction firms, because firms that are more flexible are more likely to survive and prosper than less flexible firms. More specifically, the objectives are to define a model that will allow contractors to understand the complex factors that contribute to organizational flexibility; ascertain whether organizational flexibility should be treated as a uni- or multidimensional construct; and identify the key determinants that drive organizational flexibility. A two-pronged research method with exploratory interviews and an industrywide survey was adopted. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews with construction industry experts. The data collection instrument for the survey was a structured questionnaire specifically designed for this study. By using structural.