Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Frequency dependence on the accuracy of electrical impedance spectroscopy measurements in microfluidic devices

This communication presents the dependence on frequency of the accuracy of electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements in microfluidic devices. For this study, a very simple microfluidic device was used, with a hydrophilic microfluidic channel in which two parallel electrodes were patterned. Glass was the preferred substrate material for the fabrication of this microfluidic device, mainly due to its excellent dielectric properties even at relatively high frequencies. The testing was performed in air, and with DI water, ethanol and solutions of silica beads suspended in ethanol. The results show that the accuracy of the measurement increases with the frequency. The variation of the average of standard deviation error was between 13% at 10 kHz and less than 1% at 100 MHz. This clearly indicates that a high frequency range must be considered for further studies using electrical impedance spectroscopy in microfluidic devices.
An Evaluation Testbed for Wind Turbine Blade Tip Designs — Winglet Results

A 3.3 m diameter variable speed wind turbine and rotor has been designed, fabricated and tested with exchangeable blade tip capability. This rotor was custom designed utilizing the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's S83X series airfoils for the University of Waterloo Wind Energy research facility with blades that allow the outer 10% of the blade to be exchanged. Turbine power production measurements were completed in the controlled wind facility covering a range of mean wind speeds, 3.6 m/s to 11 m/s, and turbine rotor shaft rotational rates, 100 rpm to 240 rpm. Power produced by the blades was determined as a function of input wind speed. The coefficient of power, CP, was determined as a function of the tip speed ratio λ and peak CP was found to approach 0.42 at the design λ of 6.7. At the design shaft speed of 200 rpm, the maximum power produced was 1.45 kW at 11 m/s. Prior winglet designs are discussed and two winglet designs are evaluated. The effects of two different winglets, the Maniaci and Gertz designs, were evaluated with surface oil flow visualization and quantified by repeating the test that was executed with the standard tip for each winglet. Both winglets were found to have a bell-shaped power augmentation profile, with a broad peak between 6.5 m/s and 9.5 m/s where power was increased by 5% to 7%. These power augmentation figures matched closely with the findings in the literature that suggested increases of 2% to 8% are possible. It is noted, however, that these designs are certainly not optimal and it is possible that an optimized winglet design through further modeling and testing could be attained.
Friction Coefficients of Sunflower Seed and Kernel on Various Structural Surfaces

Abstract An experimental arrangement was developed to determine the static and dynamic coefficients of friction of sunflower seed and its kernel. These friction coefficients were determined on six different surfaces at five moisture contents between 4 and 20% d.b. The nature of the surface and moisture content of the samples gave rise to significant variations in static and dynamic coefficients of friction. At any moisture level and for a particular surface both the friction coefficients were greater for sunflower kernel than for seed. Among the surfaces tested, rubber exhibited the highest coefficient of friction for both sunflower seed and kernel which was followed by plywood, mild steel, galvanized iron, aluminium and stainless steel. Considering the entire range of moisture content of the sample, the static coefficient of friction of seed varied from 0·351 to 0·472 and 0·514 to 0·651 for stainless steel and rubber, respectively, while that of kernel varied from 0·372 to 0·601 and 0·532 to 0·781. Corresponding values of dynamic coefficient of friction were found to vary from 0·304 to 0·441 and 0·447 to 0·593 for seed, and from 0·324 to 0·557 and 0·476 to 0·734 for kernel. Surface velocity between 0·09 and 0·29 m/s had only a small effect on the dynamic coefficient of friction for both seed and kernel when tested against stainless steel at a moisture content of 4·5% d.b.
Car-following behavior in traffic having mixed vehicle-types

Abstract Car-following models replicate the behavior of a driver following another vehicle and are widely used in the development of traffic simulation tools. In this study, the performance of major car-following models is evaluated using microscopic vehicle trajectory when the lead and the following vehicle-types are different. Vehicles equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers were used to collect car-following data from two urban arterials of India. Analysis of car-following data indicates the existence of distinct behavior for each vehicle-type combination. Among the vehicle-type combinations studied, the following behavior of small sized vehicles is easily reproduced by the models, compared to large vehicle-types. Similarly, among the models, the Gipps and Krauss models are able to predict following behavior better than the rest followed by the MITSIM model.
Spacecraft Attitude Synchronization And Formation Keeping Using Line Of Sight Measurements

Abstract This paper considers the problem of attitude synchronization and formation keeping of two spacecrafts, with a leader. Attitudes of spacecrafts are not measured directly, instead control torques are determined from the line-of-sight (LOS) vectors between two spacecrafts, and another set of LOS vectors from a common leader. We provide distributed position and attitude control laws. Attitude control law is proposed to ensure that the two follower spacecrafts reach attitude consensus. A formation keeping position control law is also proposed so that desired distance between two follower spacecrafts and each spacecraft to the leader is achieved. Proposed position control law uses relative velocities and LOS vectors in the respective body frames of the two spacecrafts. The state feedback laws proposed in this work guarantee almost semi-global asymptotic stability of the desired closed-loop equilibrium.
A Comparative Study on Performances and Carcass Traits in Three Major Meat-Type Duck Strains in Korea

The present experiment was carried out to compare performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality among three major meat-type duck strains in Korea. Two commercial duck (CD) strains, produced from parent stocks (PS) (Cherry Valley and Grimaud), and F1 strains, self-produced by farmers, were used in an 8-week feeding experiment. Both feed conversion ratio and production index were significantly higher in Cherry Valley strain compared with the other two at the ends of 6 and 8 weeks (p<0.05). However, no differences were found in carcass characteristics and meat quality, with the exception of abdominal fat weight where Grimaud were higher than the others. Overall, the results of the current study show that Cherry Valley CD strain 10
System dynamics in project management: a comparative analysis with traditional methods

Recent dramatic project failures have weaknesses in the traditional approaches to project management and in particular their failure to cope System dynamics models provide a useful tool for a more systematic management of these strategic issues. There have been a number of applications of system dynamics in project management; this experience permits a tentative comparison with the more traditional approaches and to examine the particular benefits of system dynamics. The conflicts of opinion between their supporters stress the different perspectives underlying the two approaches. The comparison of the approaches is focused on the “view” of the project management process. Although, ultimately, they both assume a system perspective, a cycle of planning, implementation and control, the level of detail in which they consider the project system is different. Traditional models . highlighted The increasing rate of change and the complexity of the new technologies and markets impose the need for quick and effective responses. As a consequence many organisations are now adopting “management by projects” as a general approach (Turner 1993) and project success is a primary factor for the survival and prosperity of organisations. However, projects are also becoming more complex and project failure is unfortunately another major trend. Over-runs of 40 to 200 per cent are common, while other projects are cancelled before completion but after considerable expenditure (Morris and Hough 1987). The important role of project management in modern life has highlighted some of the deficiencies of traditional techniques and the search for an alternative. Traditional techniques can encourage a narrow, operational view of the project, concentrating on the detailed planning and several studies (Davidson and Huot 1991; Morris and Hough 1987) have identified the need for a more strategic approach. Systems dynamics appears to offer this strategic alternative, assuming a holistic view of the organisation with an emphasis on the behavioural aspects of projects and their relation with managerial strategies. This paper addresses the need for a better understanding of the nature, differences, similarities, and purposes of traditional and system dynamics approaches. If system dynamics models are to play a core role in the future developments of project management, it is important to understand their distinctive contribution to the current body of knowledge and their place in a future methodology.
A comparative study of some priority dispatching rules under different shop loads

Abstract Priority dispatching rules and shop load affect job-shop performance. This paper evaluates ten different priority dispatching rules with respect to six different performance criteria under light, medium and heavy shop loads. Simulation was used as a tool to determine the rankings of the dispatching rules for a given shop load and performance criteria. A comparative study was conducted to investigate the performance of these rules. Two rules, ‘shortest processing time” and ‘least work remaining’, performed well under criteria related to the processing time. It was found that the rules that perform well in average and r.m.s. tardiness perform poorly under percentage-of-jobs-late criterion. The experimental results are conveyed with critical comments on the performance of the dispatching rules under different loading conditions of the shop.
Work sequencing in a manufacturing cell with limited labour constraints

This study focuses on the analysis of group scheduling heuristics in a dual-constrained, automated manufacturing cell, where labour utilization is limited to setups, tear-downs and loads/unloads. This scenario is realistic in today's automated manufacturing cells. The results indicate that policies for allocating labour to tasks have very little impact in such an environment. Furthermore, the performance of efficiency oriented, exhaustive, group scheduling heuristics deteriorated while the performance of the more complex, non-exhaustive heuristics improved. Thus, it is recommended that production managers use the simplest labour scheduling policy, and instead focus their efforts to activities such as job scheduling and production planning in such environments.
Modelling water vapour conditions in buildings

This paper proposes a 'moisture admittance' model which accounts for the moisture absorption and desorption processes for predicting humidity levels in buildings. The experimental method whereby the required coefficients were derived is described and some examples of the results are given. The approaches to real buildings, as opposed to test rooms, and possible modifications to BREDEM are briefly discussed.
A 0.8 V 0.23 nW 1.5 ns full-swing pass-transistor XOR gate in 130 nm CMOS

A power efficient circuit topology is proposed to implement a low-voltage CMOS 2-input pass-transistor XOR gate. This design aims to minimize power dissipation and reduce transistor count while at the same time reducing the propagation delay. The XOR gate utilizes six transistors to achieve a compact circuit design and was fabricated using the 130 nm IBM CMOS process. The performance of the XOR circuit was validated against other XOR gate designs through simulations using the same 130 nm CMOS process. The area of the core circuit is only about 56 sq · µm with 1.5659 ns propagation delay and 0.2312 nW power dissipation at 0.8 V supply voltage. The proposed six-transistor implementation thus compares favorably with other existing XOR gate designs.
PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF AN OPTICAL METHOD FOR MODELING THE DILUTION OF FAT GLOBULES IN WHEY DURING SYNERESIS OF CHEESE CURD

An optical sensor designed to measure whey fat concentration was tested on whey samples from a cheese processing plant. Whey samples were collected to determine syneresis kinetics at different times after gel cutting. Normalized spectral sidescatter intensity was measured by mean of a fiber optic spectrometer (300-1100 nm). A sidescatter waveband ratio (S875/425) was calculated by dividing intensity at 875 by that at 425 nm. Whey fat concentrations were predicted by using the power low type equation previously developed by the above authors, [Fat] = . 0 ln (.1 S875/425 + .2). Predicted whey fat concentrations were compared to actual concentrations measured by the Gerber method. The change in whey fat concentration with time after gel cutting was used to estimate the syneresis reaction rate. Results confirmed that fat dilution in whey followed a first order response. The light sidescatter technology for determining syneresis kinetics was considered to have potential but requires additional work to improve measurement accuracy.
Assessing Materials Management Practices Effect on Firm’s Performance in Ghana Using Dominance Analysis: Evidence from a Listed Company

The objective of this study is to empirically examine the effect of materials management on a firm’s performance by exploring employee views and utilizing a firm’s financial statement data within the Ghanaian context, focusing on Fan Milk Limited, a listed manufacturing firm in Ghana. A cross-sectional research design was espoused for the study, utilizing questionnaires completed by 240 respondents selected via simple random sampling. SPSS version 25.0 was utilized for data analysis, which included descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation, reliability/validity analysis, and multivariate regression aided with relative importance analysis via dominance analysis. The study found significant positive relationships between all eight materials management practices and a firm’s performance. Dominance analysis further revealed that materials requirement planning and control was the most important predictor of a firm’s performance, while ergonomics was the least important predictor of performance. Managerial recommendations established should be viewed critically while managing manufacturing firms.
Effect of Insulin Resistance on Cardiac Mass in Elderly Normotensive People: A Cross-sectional Study

Background The increased left ventricular mass (LVM) is a well-known risk indicator for occurrences concerning cardiovascular disease. The risk of these changes in cardiac morphology is intensified for subjects with type 2 diabetes. While insulin resistance has been embroiled in the pathogenesis of ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, earlier research studies have produced contradictory findings which are constrained by comparison bias. The present study focuses on the independent effect of insulin resistance on LVM in the elderly normotensive population. Methods The study included 50 subjects excluding patients with myocardial infarction, heart failure, systemic hypertension and aortic stenosis. Group I included 30 patients with glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, or type 2 DM while Group II included 20 control subjects of matched age and sex. Participants involved in the study underwent clinical examination, laboratory investigation (including 75-g oral glucose tolerance test, HbA1c, Plasma insulin level, calculated HOMA-IR, Fasting Lipid profile, Serum albumin/ creatinine ratio) and echocardiography. Results LV mass index was significantly different between the 2 group being higher (142.07 ± 53.34) in the study group compared to (92.05 ± 9.42) in the control group, (P = 0.000). Waist circumference, HOMA-IR, FBS, HbA1c and systolic BP have significant positive correlations with LV mass index. However, only HOMA-IR has a significant independent positive correlation with LV mass index. Conclusions It is inferred from the present study that insulin resistance is associated with increased cardiac mass in normotensive elderly people.
Acoustic Emission Monitoring and Analysis of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Composites Bridge Decks

The application of fiber-reinforced composites (FRP) is gaining momentum as an alternative material for bridge replacement, repair, and rehabilitation. While a number of states now use FRP, a lack of standards, codes, and performance data for FRP bridge decks has resulted in the use of FRP technology not being widely accepted. This paper presents the performance results, based on acoustic emission (AE), of six full-scale glass FRP bridge deck panels with nominal cross-sectional depths varying from 152 mm (6 in.) to 800 mm (30 in.). The objective was to develop for use during in-service field inspections an AE monitoring strategy that will determine the structural performance of the deck. As such, the characterization of damage, e.g., fiber breakage, matrix cracking, and delamination, was part of the investigated criteria and the contributing factors for identification of a monitoring strategy. Although some factors were determined to be associated with the performance evaluation of the structural integrity of the decks, further investigation is needed.
Dealer: An End-to-End Model Marketplace with Differential Privacy

Data-driven machine learning has become ubiquitous. A marketplace for machine learning models connects data owners and model buyers, and can dramatically facilitate data-driven machine learning applications. In this paper, we take a formal data marketplace perspective and propose the first en D -to-end mod e l m a rketp l ace with diff e rential p r ivacy ( Dealer ) towards answering the following questions: How to formulate data owners' compensation functions and model buyers' price functions? How can the broker determine prices for a set of models to maximize the revenue with arbitrage-free guarantee, and train a set of models with maximum Shapley coverage given a manufacturing budget to remain competitive ? For the former, we propose compensation function for each data owner based on Shapley value and privacy sensitivity, and price function for each model buyer based on Shapley coverage sensitivity and noise sensitivity. Both privacy sensitivity and noise sensitivity are measured by the level of differential privacy. For the latter, we formulate two optimization problems for model pricing and model training, and propose efficient dynamic programming algorithms. Experiment results on the real chess dataset and synthetic datasets justify the design of Dealer and verify the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.
A high isolated coupled‐line passive circulator for UHF RFID reader

A coupled‐line passive circulator is proposed for improving the TX/RX isolation of the UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) reader. The increased isolation is realized by generating and adding the canceling signal to the leakage. The input return loss of the reader antenna, which can degrade TX‐to‐RX isolation, as well as the inherently imperfect isolation characteristic of a coupled‐line directional coupler, are included in the design of the coupled‐line passive circulator. The proposed coupler exhibits up to 60‐dB isolation characteristic with the mismatch of the employed reader antenna. The performance comparison between the proposed and the conventional coupled‐line directional couplers shows a significant improvement in the leakage‐to‐signal ratio by up to 35 dB. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 2597–2600, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23705
Analysis of a Micro-Optomechatronic Force Sensor

Abstract The purpose of this article is to study the dynamic behavior and modal analysis of a micro-optomechatronic device with primary applications to force sensing and optical attenuation/coupling. The system consists of two initially aligned micro-cantilevers with a narrow gap between them. The light beam enters to the first waveguide and, after propagation along it, couples to second waveguide through the mentioned narrow gap. The externally static or dynamic applied force on the first micro-cantilever deflects it and results in reduced optical coupling between the two waveguides. Changes in this factor are measured to give the properties of the applied force.
One More “Living Fossil”: Mesozoic Lineage Differentiation, Morphological Stasis and Weak Phylogeographic Structure in Eurasia in the Bosminopsis Deitersi Group (Crustacea: Cladocera: Bosminidae)

Background: Water fleas (Crustacea: Cladocera) of the Family Bosminidae have been studied since the founding of paleolimnology and freshwater ecology. However, one species, Bosminopsis deitersi, stands out for its exceptional multicontinental range and broad ecological requirements. Results: Here we use an integrated morphological and multilocus genetic approach to to address the species problem in B. deitersi. We analyzed 32 populations of B. deitersi s. lat. Two nuclear and two mitochondrial loci were used to carry out the bGMYC, mPTP and STACEY algorithms for species delimitation. Detailed morphological study was also carried out across continents. The evidence indicated a widely distributed cryptic species in the Old World (Bosminopsis zernowi) that is genetically divergent from B. deitersi s.str. We revised the taxonomy and redescribed the species in this complex. Our sampling indicated that B. zernowi had weak genetic differentiation across its range. A molecular clock and biogeographic analysis with fossil calibrations suggested a Mesozoic origin for the Bosminopsis deitersi group. Conclusions: Our evidence rejects the single species hypothesis for B. deitersi and is consistent with an ancient species group (potentially Mesozoic) that shows marked morphological conservation. The family Bosminidae, then, has examples of both rapid morphological evolution (Holocene Bosmina), and morphological stasis (Bosminopsis).
Passive Rotation Joint Design Considerations for Lift and Thrust Generation for a Biomimetic Flapping Wing

Maximizing the available lift and thrust force is important for designing efficient flapping wing micro air vehicles. Research to date showed the passive rotation joint between the wing and four-bar linkage is an important design aspect. Two key hinge parameters are the angle of attack stop and passive rotation joint stiffness. In this work these design parameters were independently varied. Their impact on lift and thrust force generation, and the ratio of the first and second system resonance frequencies were measured and compared through experiments utilizing prototype hardware of varying design. The prototype hardware and flapping wing controller is based on previous work, focused on using biomimetic wings combined with a design that only requires two piezoelectric actuators, and will be briefly reviewed. The angle of attack stops tested were 30°, 40°, 45°, 50°, and 60°. Five different passive rotation joints were tested of varying stiffness. Optimal angle of attack stops and passive rotation joint designs were found from the experimental results and combined into a best design, which was tested and compared to the optimal results from the independent designs. Results show that while individual selection of angle stop and passive rotation joint stiffness can be optimized, the intersection between the two precludes simply choosing the best of both as the best combined.