Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
a1 Properties and Thermal nstabilities o ased Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors

We investigate the physical parameters which are critical to the understanding of the thermal phenomena in InP- based heterojunction bipolar transistors. These parameters in- clude thermal resistance, thermal-electric feedback coefficient, current gain, and base-collector leakage current. We examine the thermal instability behavior in multi-finger HBT's, and observe for the first time the collapse of current gain in InP-based HBT's. Based on both measurement and modeling results, we establish the reasons why the collapse is rarely observed in InP HBT's, in a sharp contrast to AlGaAsIGaAs HBT's. We compare the similarities and differences on how InP-based HBT, GaAs-based HBT, and Si-based bipolar transistors react once the thermal instability condition is met. Finally, we describe the issues involved in the design of InP HBT's. nP-BASED heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) are developed for microwave and digital applications because InP and InGaAs lattice-matched to InP substrate have unique material properties which enable better device performances than in GaAs-based HBT's (I), (Z). To date, InPfinGaAs double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBT's) with a cutoff frequency (f~) of 160 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency ( fmax) of 267 GHz were fabricated. Large-signal power of 1 W and power-added efficiency of 60% were demonstrated at X-band. In this investigation, we study the thermal properties of InP-based DHBT's and examine their characteristics during thermal instability. Emphasis is placed on describing how and why these transistor characteristics differ from those of GaAs-based HBT's and Si bipolar junction transistors (BJT's). In Section 11, we report the experimental results of the current dependence of the thermal-electric feed- back coefficient ( 31; the nonlinear variation of junction tem- perature on power dissipation; the current gain as a function of current at various temperatures; the exponential dependence of the base-collector leakage current on temperature; and the dependence of collector current ideality factor on temperature. In Section 111, we present the current-voltage (I-V) character- istics when a 2-finger InP DHBT enters thermal instability. We qualitatively explain the reasons why the collapse of current gain, commonly observed in AlGaAs/GaAs HBT's (3), (4), occurs only at high current levels, and why the instability- induced second breakdown, commonly observed in Si BJT's (SI, occurs only at high biases in InP DHBT's. In Section IV, a
SUBSIDIZED FREE DAY SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION PROGRAM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON GIRLS’ SCHOOL PARTICIPATION IN NANDI NORTH SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Despite the introduction of free primary education by the Government of Kenya in 2003 and subsequent subsidized secondary education in 2008, there are still challenges in access, retention and completion of girls in Nandi County. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of subsidized day secondary education program on girls’ school participation in Nandi North Sub-County, Kenya. The study adopted mixed method approach and descriptive survey research design. This study was guided by Education Production Function theory. The data were collected using questionnaires and interview schedules to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data from respective respondents. The target population comprised 20 head teachers, 60 class teachers and 1320 girls drawn from 20 public day secondary schools in the Nandi North Sub-County. From these populations, a sample of 20 head teachers, 60 class teachers and 396 girls were drawn using census method on head teachers and class teachers, and random sampling technique was used to select 30 percent of girls from one to form three. The study used questionnaires to collect data from the girls and class teachers and interviewed head teachers. The instruments were validated and a piloted questionnaire that obtained a reliable 0.78 Cronbach alpha test score used. Quantitative data obtained from the questionnaires have been analyzed to obtain frequencies and percentages. Qualitative data obtained from the interviewees have been analyzed thematically in accordance to the research questions. The study found out that inadequate funds allocated to girls and school infrastructural facilities affected girls’ participation in secondary school education to a great extent. However, in general, teaching and learning materials were adequate and enhanced instruction and students’ performance. The study therefore recommends that parents should complement government effort and that government should increase allocation of subsidy funds to students especially girls and disburse the funds in time to schools. Article visualizations:
Can Strengthening for Earthquake Improve Blast and Progressive Collapse Resistance

Some engineers suggest that current seismic design provisions, both for new buildings and for strengthened existing buildings, can improve resistance to blast loads and progressive collapse. However, there have been few attempts to quantify such improvement. To begin analyzing this possible relationship between seismic detailing and blast and progressive collapse resistance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the Department of Homeland Security sponsored a study at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. The study was an analysis of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was severely damaged in a 1995 terrorist attack. The building was first evaluated for seismic vulnerabilities as if it were located in a seismically active region. Three strengthening schemes were then designed for the vulnerabilities found during the evaluation: a pier-spandrel system and a new special concrete moment frame, both for the street face of the building, and a set of internal shear walls. In addition to these strengthening schemes, the original ordinary concrete moment frame on the street face of the building was redetailed to bring it into compliance with current building code provisions, without including a lateral load analysis. The three strengthening schemes and redetailed frame were then analyzed for their responses to the same explosion that occurred in 1995. Blast and corresponding progressive collapse analyses showed that the pier-spandrel and special moment frame schemes, as well as the redetailed original system, reduced the degree of direct blast-induced damage and subsequent progressive collapse, compared with the behavior of the original building. Internal shear walls, however, were not as effective in reducing the blast and progressive collapse damage. A key finding of the study was that strengthening the perimeter elements using current seismic detailing techniques improved the survivability of the building, while strengthening elements internal to the building envelope was not nearly as effective in reducing damage.
VoIP performance with IPsec in IPv4-IPv6 transition networks

We conduct experiments in a LAN environment to determine the impact of IPsec on VoIP performance during the IPv4 to IPv6 transition period. VoIP performance with IPsec is measured in the presence of varying background traffic with IPv4, IPv6 and 6to4. To study the effect of NAT traversal, we also use Teredo. The IPsec scenarios that are evaluated include no-security (in which traffic bypasses IPsec), network-to-network (in which traffic is tunneled between IPsec gateways), and client-to-network (in which traffic is tunneled between the client and IPsec gateway). We use the popular Openswan implementation of IPsec and focus on ESP with the authentication option. The measures used for evaluating VoIP performance are delta (packet inter-arrival time), jitter, packet loss, throughput, and Mean Opinion Score (MOS). We also determine the time for the IPsec key exchange and call set up using SIP. Our results indicate that VoIP performance with IPsec in IPv4-IPv6 transition networks is not significantly different from that in today’s IPv4 networks. In particular, we find that 1) performance with IPv4, IPv6, or 6to4 is similar; 2) the overhead due to NAT traversal with Teredo is comparable to that when using NAT with 6to4 on the edge device; 3) performance degrades significantly when the amount of
A Detailed Account of Severe Bell’s Palsy: An Autobiographical Case Report

Bell’s palsy is a relatively rare neurologic disorder with a limited selection of helpful therapies. This case report describes the author’s initial three-month experience living with severe Bell’s palsy, including a detailed history and timeline of the initial development of symptoms, treatments pursued, and psychological stress during the disease progression. A particular focus is placed on the emotional burden Bell’s palsy can have, exploring possible avenues to improve physician to patient education on mental health and well-being during initial and delayed recovery.
Relational-Oriented Systems Engineering and Technology Tradeoff Analysis Framework

In this paper, a new framework for performing early technology tradeoff and design studies, the relational-oriented systems engineering and technology tradeoff analysis framework, is developed and applied to an initial case study to conduct a trade between two candidate technologies for potential application on a commercial jet. Relational-oriented systems engineering and technology tradeoff analysis leverages the relational-oriented systems engineering methodology coupled with the exploitation of transformations used in modeling and simulation to create a direct association between the quality function deployment methodology and standard quantitative conceptual design space exploration techniques leveraged in technology forecasting and trade studies. This association brings precision to quality function deployment that is model driven and mathematically founded. The approach highlights key deficiencies in quality function deployment when applied to early phase design and technology tradeoff studies for t.
A Quantitative Analysis Determining the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Leather Footwear Production in Selected Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) Countries.

A study using quantitative analysis determined the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) involved in the production of leather footwear and other leather products. The study was carried out in February 2014 in selected countries with no previous baseline studies related to SME’s associated with the leather sector. Therefore, the study covered Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The main objective was to identify critical factors that undermine the growth of these SMEs’ with regard to turnover, employment, exports and profitability. Seventy-six SMEs were interviewed during the study period with data collection using a semi-structured questionnaire, visits to production units, discussion with key informants and involving a consultative review which encompassed different documents and reports. The outcome of the interview was then expressed as numerical attributes depicting various results of measured variables. For example, the demographic trends indicated average number of employees per SME ranged from 2.68 ±1.16 persons for Zimbabwe to 11.38 ±12.26 persons for Kenya with an overall average for all the sample countries standing at 5.5± 6.18 persons. The study further showed that Females represented more than one third of the employees in all the countries sampled. Production wise on average, SMEs produced 18.9 ±22.7 and 27.8 ±43.3 pairs per day for men and ladies shoes respectively. On the other hand the average output for School shoes and Sandals stood at, 26.5 ±33.5 and 25.5 ±21.3 respectively. The labour productivity per day was 3.4 pairs for men shoes, 5 pairs for ladies shoes, 4.8 pairs for school shoes and 4.6 pairs for sandals. Thus, the study demonstrated that based on average productivity of above ten pairs per person observed in India and China, the performance of the selected countries SMEs were dismal with respect to productivity. The lowered productivity meant the SMEs were uncompetitive and unable to meet market demand at the national and regional level. Mostly, their shortcomings were related to a plethora of challenges being faced by these SMEs where overall citations in decreasing order were lack of machineries, raw material problem (availability, cost and quality), financial problem (working capital) and market problem among others. Therefore, interventions that promote SMEs development need to address the stated challenges that the sector is currently facing in a holistic manner.
Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Xiaogan, China: comparison between recent imported cases and earlier local cases.

OBJECT In this study, we aim to investigate if there exists some change in the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 by comparing the clinical characteristics between recent imported patients and earlier local patients. METHODS 227 local COVID-19 patients diagnosed before February 15, 2020 (local group) and 23 imported COVID-19 patients diagnosed between July 1, 2020, and January 15, 2021 (imported group) were included in this study. Baseline characteristics and characteristics of computed tomography (CT), routine blood test, liver functions, and infectious markers upon admission were collected and compared. RESULTS The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) of the imported group was 3.21 ± 1.25, which was significantly higher than that of the local group (2.55 ± 1.19) with a P-value of 0.030. The concentration of C-reactive protein of the imported group was 12.34 ± 5.25, which was significantly higher than that of the local group (7.76 ± 6.54 mg/L) with a P-value of 0.0005. No significant difference was observed in the rest characteristics. CONCLUSION The recent imported cases had higher NLR and C-reactive protein levels than the earlier local cases, indicating that the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 is getting worse during the pandemic.
Comparison of the Efficacy of Local Therapies for Local ized Prostate Cancer in the Prostate -Specific Ant igen

Purpose: To review biochemical relapse-free survival (bRFS) rates after either external-beam radiotherapy (RT) or radical prostatectomy (RP) for localized prostate cancer. Patients and Methods: All 1,682 patients had pretreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and biopsy Gleason scores (bGS) assigned. No adjuvant therapy was administered after local treatment. RP was the treatment in 1,054 patients (63%) and RT in 628 patients (37%). Median follow-up was 51 months (range, 1 to 134). The median follow-up for RP versus RT patients was 50.5 v 51.0 months. Biochemical relapse was considered detectable PSA levels (> 0.2 ng/mL) in RP patients and three consecutive rising PSA levels in RT patients. The analysis was repeated with a more stringent definition of biochemical control after either RP or RT—namely, reaching and maintaining a PSA level < 0.5 ng/mL—and excluding patients receiving any androgen deprivation (AD). Results: Eight-year bRFS rates for RP versus RT were 72% and 70%, respectively (P .010). Multivariate analysis indicated T stage (P < .001), pretreatment PSA (P < .001), bGS (P < .001), year of therapy (P < .001), and neoadjuvant AD (P .019) to be the only independent predictors of relapse. Age (P .78), race (P .29), prior transurethral resection of prostate (P .81), and treatment modality (P .96) were not independent predictors of treatment failure. Fifty-one percent of RP patients had favorable tumors (T1 to T2A, pretreatment PSA < 10 ng/mL, bGS < 7), compared with only 34% of RT patients (P < .001). Repeat analysis with a stringent definition of biochemical failure and excluding patients receiving AD indicated no impact of treatment modality on outcome. Conclusion: Eight-year biochemical failure rates were identical between RT and RP in any subgroup. Outcome is determined mainly by pretreatment PSA levels, bGS, clinical T stage, and, for RT patients, radiation dose. J Clin Oncol 20:3376-3385. © 2002 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Smart Laparoscopic Grasper Utilizing Force and Angle Sensors for Stiffness Assessment in Minimally Invasive Surgery*

As an alternative to open surgery, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) utilizes small skin incisions as ports to insert an endoscope and surgical tools. MIS offers significant advantages, including reduced pain, shorter recovery times, and better cosmetic outcomes than classical surgeries. However, MIS procedures come at the cost of losing the "sense of touch," which surgeons rely on to examine the tissues under operation, palpate organs, and assessing their conditions. This has encouraged researchers to develop smart MIS tools that provide artificial tactile sensation, mostly using electrical- or optical-based tactile sensors. In this work, we introduce a prototype of a smart laparoscopic grasper integrated with force and angle sensing capabilities via off-the-shelf sensors. The specification and design of the smart grasper are presented, as well as a demonstration on stiffness assessment of elastomeric samples and chicken meat. Overall, our prototype exhibits great potential for MIS applications, with room for future improvements.Clinical Relevance— The development of a smart laparoscopic grasper for MIS applications helps in restoring the tactile sensation to surgeons and enables safe grasping and manipulation of human organs.
Evaluation of ceiling-supported back harnesses in preventing injury in sheep shearing

Lower back injuries are a significant global problem. They are particularly common in occupations that require prolonged or repetitive spinal flexion. Sheep shearing is one such occupation and the prevalence of back injuries is severe. Ceiling-supported back harnesses are a commonly used safety device in this occupation but its effectiveness in sheep shearing tasks has yet to be quantified. It is likely that accumulated and time-dependent changes in kinematics and neuromuscular control are relevant in the development of many lower back injuries. This is supported by the literature in sheep shearing, where 68% more injuries occur towards the end of the working day compared to the start. This means that data collected over a full working day is beneficial for measuring the effectiveness of safety interventions. The previous research in safety interventions in shearing have not collected data for more than 15 minutes, and do not adequately address longer term effects. This study compares the effects of wearing a ceiling-supported back harness on shearer kinematics and muscle activity, from the collected data over a full working day and incorporating time-of-day effects. The outcome shows that the use of ceiling-supported back harness results in improvements in kinematic features, but also an increase in muscle activity and fatigue.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) and DC electric power transfer system by cryogenic pipe of superconducting DC power transmission (SCDC)

We propose a hybrid energy transmission pipeline that combines the liquefied natural gas (LNG) cryogenic pipelines and superconducting direct current (DC) electrical power transmission cable system (SCDC). The system design is based on experimental data from the SCDC Ishikari project in Japan and related laboratory experiments. The particular structure of the hybrid cryogenic pipe connects the thermal radiation shield of the pipe that contains the DC high temperature superconducting (HTS) electrical cable to the LNG pipe and significantly reduces the heat leak into the SCDC pipe. Because the specific heat of LNG is higher than that of liquid nitrogen and the LNG transfer rate is quite high, the thermal loss of the SCDC cable becomes only 1/100 that of present-day conventional copper cables, far below the factor 1/10 reduction achievable by a stand-alone SCDC transmission lines. The LNG temperature rises by less than 2 K over a 100 km transport distance, which is negligible in actual use. LNG also saves significantly on pumping power compared to a natural gas pipeline. To liquefy the LNG at cryogenic temperature from natural gas at ambient temperature requires a large refrigerator that consumes enormous power. The gas pipeline, however, needs a compressor to produce high-pressure gas, which also consumes a massive amount of power. Due to these considerations, the proposed hybrid system is a viable design for the long-distance joint transportation of LNG and electricity.
Effects of Oxygen Vacancies on Dielectric Properties and Relaxor Behavior of Ba(ZrxTi1-x)O3 Ceramics

By comparing the structure, dielectric and electrical conduction properties of sintered Ba(Zr0.15Ti0.85)O3 ceramics (short as BZT15) annealed in air and oxygen atmosphere was conducted to explore the impact of oxygen vacancies (OVs) on them. The dielectric properties of the samples were studied as changing with temperature (260–400K) in the scope of frequency from 100 Hz to 100 kHz. A typical relaxor behavior was observed in BZT15 and the relaxor behavior was enhanced after oxygen annealing treatment, which confirmed that the relaxation process was connected with the OVs inside ceramics. The value of activation energy was calculated to be 1.76 eV, 1.79eV, and 1.85 eV for as-prepared, air and oxygen annealed samples, respectively. Besides, the dielectric relaxor behavior was found to be associated with the conductivity originated from the dipolar conduction and long-distance movement of doubly ionized OVs. More interestingly, compared with other ferroelectric materials, the higher activation energy of BZT15 ceramics revealed a weaker concentration of OVs for such dielectric materials.
Flexible Nanowire Conductive Elastomers for Applications in Fully Polymeric Bioelectronic Devices *

Soft, flexible polymer-based bioelectronics are a promising approach to minimize the chronic inflammatory reactions associated with metallic devices, impairing long-term device reliability and functionality. This work demonstrates the fabrication of conductive elastomers (CEs) consisting of chemically synthesized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanowires embedded within a polyurethane (PU) elastomeric matrix, resulting in soft and flexible, fully polymeric electrode materials. Increasing PEDOT nanowire loadings resulted in an improvement in electrochemical properties and conductivity, an increased Young’s modulus and reduced strain at failure. Nanowire CEs were also found to have significantly improved electrochemical performance compared to one of the standard electrode materials, platinum (Pt). Indirect in vitro cytocompatibility test was carried out to investigate the effect of leachable substances from the CE on primary rodent cells. Nanowire CEs provide a promising alternative to metals for the fabrication of soft bioelectronics.
Integrated Salt and Water Balance Modeling for the Management of Waterlogging and Salinization. I: Validation of SAHYSMOD

Irrigated agriculture faces serious threats of waterlogging and soil salinization in the arid and semiarid regions of the world. In this paper, an integrated spatial-agro-hydro-salinity model (SAHYSMOD) was used to analyze water and salt balances of an irrigated semiarid area located in the Haryana State of India where the groundwater level is rising continuously. The calibration, validation, error analysis, and sensitivity analysis of the model parameters were performed. The sensitivity analysis revealed that hydraulic conductivity is the most sensitive model parameter for both groundwater levels and salinities, followed by effective porosity of the aquifer. The leaching efficiency of the soil is sensitive only to the groundwater salinities. The results show a good agreement between the simulated and observed groundwater levels and salinities for almost all the nodes during the calibration and validation periods. The results are also substantiated by the high R-squared values and low mean error (ME) and root mean square error (RMSE) values. On the basis of the results, it could be concluded that the SAHYSMOD performed very well in predicting groundwater levels and salinities during the calibration and validation periods.