Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neck Biomechanical Responses with Active Head Restraints: Rear Barrier Tests with BioRID and Sled Tests with Hybrid III

Active head restraints are being used to reduce the risk of whiplash in rear crashes. However, their evaluation in laboratory tests can vary depending on the injury criteria and test dummy. The objective of this study was to conduct barrier tests with BioRID and sled tests with Hybrid III to determine the most meaningful responses related to whiplash risks in real-world crashes. This study involved: (1) twenty-four rear barrier tests of the Saab 9000, 900, 9-3 and 9-5 with two fully instrumented BioRID dummies placed in the front or rear seats and exposed to 24 and 48.3 km/h barrier impacts, and (2) twenty rear sled tests at 5-38 km/h delta V in three series with conventional, modified and SAHR seats using the Hybrid III dummy. A new target superposition method was used to track head displacement and rotation with respect to T1. Insurance data on whiplash claims was compared to the dummy responses. NIC is not a sufficient criterion to assess whiplash because it does not consistently correlate with seat performance in field crashes and its peak can occur at head restraint contact before the primary neck loads and displacements. Clear response differences were seen with head rotation and x-displacement with respect to T1 among the various seats and rear delta Vs. These responses describe neck kinematics in extension and flexion, and address many of the possible whiplash injury mechanisms. A Neck Displacement Criterion (NDC) is proposed to supplement other criteria until there is a clearer understanding of whiplash injury criteria. It is based on the displacement and rotation of OC-T1 and comparison to the natural range of motion. Responses are viewed in cross-plots of rotation vs x-displacement and zvs x-displacement of OC with respect to T
Microwave Circuit Modeling Using Electromagnetic Field Simulation

CAD development numerical electromagnetics alternative classifications - 2D, 2.5D, 3D solvers frequency domain, time domain, Eigensolver moment method simulators guide and spatial wavelength validation structures meshing and convergence calibration structures de-embedding finite element method simulators FDTD and TLM simulators ports and de-embedding computing impedance multilayer printed circuit boards connectors backward wave couplers microstrip filters choosing the right software.
Human Head and Neck Response to Impact Acceleration.

Abstract : A methodical investigation and measurement of human dynamic response to impact acceleration was conducted. Linear accelerations were measured on the top of the head, at the mouth, and at the base of the neck. Angular velocity was also measured at the base of the neck and at the mouth. A redundant photographic system was used for validation. All data were collected in computer-compatible format and data processing was by digital computer. Selected data analysis on 41 representative human runs involving 12 subjects of the 236 human runs completed to date are presented. Description of the experimental design, data collection and processing is given in detail. Ancillary research efforts in support of the program are also described. Representative plots of the human kinematic response are presented, discussed, and compared. Repeatability and quality control plots are alos presented. There are a total of 755 computer drawn plots illustrating a characteristic, repeatable response of human subjects to impact acceleration. (Author)
The role of trust in relationship development and performance improvement

AbstractThe importance of inter-organizational trust to project success has been increasingly highlighted in the construction industry. This study aims to explore the role of trust between project parties. It adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Based on the analysis of the responses of a questionnaire survey, trust is demonstrated to have a significant contribution to the development of cooperative or collaborative relationships; fostering trust proves to have a major influence on the improvement of project performance; and some relationship and performance indicators are found to have closer associations with trust than others so that trust is more important to the development of relationship and the improvement of performance in these aspects. The analysis of questionnaire responses also provides significant evidence for the reduction in monitoring and control following the increase of mutual trust. The questionnaire survey is followed by a series of expert interviews, bo.
Field Evaluation of Traffic Performance Measures for Two-Lane Highways in Spain

Two-lane highways operation has been extensively studied. Many of these studies state that the current Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) procedure is difficult to measure in the field. Several promising alternative measures have been proposed which are easy to measure in field, such as the follower density, percent impeded or freedom of flow. Nevertheless, some of these measures are based on hypotheses that may only be applicable to local driver behavior. Moreover, none of the field studies has compared the correlation between all the proposed performance measures and traffic variables. The present field study calibrates and evaluates ten performance measures in Spanish two-lane highways. The data was collected using video recordings in 10 sites on two-lane rural highways in Spain. Observed two-way traffic volumes ranged from 120 to 1,000 veh/h and traffic flows were mainly balanced. From this data, time headways, average travel speed and platooning variables were calculated. The studied performance measures included: average travel speed; average travel speed of passenger cars; percent free-flow speed; percent free-flow speed of passenger cars; percent followers; follower density; percent impeded; average platoon length; traffic intensity; and, freedom of flow. The results indicated that the follower density had the strongest correlation with traffic variables, with a coefficient of determination of 94 %. The estimations were compared with previous models and they were alike within their observation range. The second best performance measure was the percent followers and the estimates were very similar to the models in Finland. The 2010 HCM overestimated the percent followers at low traffic flows, which could indicate that the extrapolation of medium-high traffic volume driver behavior was not too accurate at our observation range. The other platooning-related variables had lower correlations, while the speed-related measures presented the weakest correlation with traffic variables.
Self‐assessment practices in large organisations

The performance of self‐assessment and the various tools for conducting self‐assessment have been frequently debated in the literature. This paper discusses the complete process of self‐assessment and how organisations use the EFQM excellence model in real‐life situations. The research, reflected in this paper, comprises experiences from nine large organisations. There is no universal method for self‐assessment. On the contrary, findings indicate that several approaches to self‐assessment are successful as long as they fit the organisation, are used continuously, and foster participation. Organisations sometimes overlook the need to establish structured ways of prioritising actions for improvement, creating possibilities for sharing experiences, collecting feedback, and developing work procedures. It is also crucial to understand that self‐assessment has no end in itself as a separate activity. We claim that self‐assessment must be considered from a holistic perspective in order to realise its full potential.
Quantitative Analysis of Rate-Driven and Due Date–Driven Construction: Production Efficiency, Supervision, and Controllability in Residential Projects

AbstractConcerns about production efficiency, quality, and affordability in the residential construction indicate there may be benefits in adopting alternative production control strategies to those traditionally used. Reducing adverse effects of exogenous variability in demand and endogenous variability in process are the ultimate goals of production control strategies. For residential construction this means controlling the number of houses under construction and controlling the start rate of new house constructions. The aim of this investigation is to compare and contrast the outcomes of these two production management strategies. Production data of two volume house builders in Victoria and Queensland, Australia, were collected. Tangible performance metrics from the builders were analyzed and compared using the principles of queuing theory. Then numerous simulation experiments were designed and run to analyze different what-if scenarios in the building environment. A special purpose simulation template.
Impacts of transit reliability on wait time: insights from AFC data

Theoretical models linking wait time and reliability have proposed that waiting can be extended in situations where reliability is poor. However the quantitative justification of these models is limited. This paper provides a more robust quantitative assessment of these theories based on automated fare collection system (AFC) data for heavy rail services in Melbourne, Australia. AFC provides a wealth of data upon which the theory can be tested. The results find support for the theory that passengers time arrivals for peak services and have more random arrivals off peak. No support for the general theory of a higher degree of early passenger arrivals in relation to unreliable services was found. There was some corroboration that more random passenger arrivals occur with unreliable services. However this effect was substantially less than theorized for bus services. A new phenomenon of 'late running awareness' was demonstrated which challenges the robustness of theories based on scheduled service arrival times. Overall AFC data has been found to be a strong cheap and reliable source of information for behavioural studies of this kind. Areas for additional research are suggested.
Total Access: Giving Customers What They Want in an Anytime, Anywhere World

Contents Preface and Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: The Idea of Marketing 2 The Three Stages of Marketing: Reach, Push, and Access 3 New Technologies, A New Marketplace: The Laws 4 Forget about Loyalty: Problems with Branding 5 The Transformation of Today's Consumer: Preferences 6 The Customer Experience: Persistent Presence 7 Putting It All Together: The Marketing Architecture 8 Total Global Access: Act Globally but Connect Locally 9 Managing It All: Roles and Responsibilities 10 The Magic Touch: Corporate Creativity Notes Index About the Author
Distortion of drivers' speed and time estimates in dangerous situations

It has been suggested that the rate of passage of time becomes slower during a car crash. Any such distortion of subjective time may have importantimplications for people's behaviour in dangerous driving situations and their subsequent memory of the events they experience. Research on retrospective and prospective time estimation tasks is reviewed and a new task is introduced in which films of events are systematically altered in speed. Participants then have to judge what alteration has been made to the film speed. In the first experiment drivers were reliably found to judge films of dangerous driving situations as having been sped up, while films of safer driving events were judged as playing too slowly. There was some evidence that older, more experienced drivers might overestimate the speed of dangerous events more than younger novice drivers. In a second experiment, participants viewed films of themselves or other people performing easy or harder tasks in the laboratory. Easy tasks and films of the participants themselves were most likely to be judged as having been increased in speed. The overestimation of the speed of dangerous events appeared to be a real phenomenon and was not interpretable in terms of the difficulty of the task or a lack of control. This could explain why drivers remember dangerous events as if time had slowed down, but it does not resolve the question ofwhether any such distortion actually happens at a time a dangerous event is experienced, or happens because of a later distortion of memory. For the covering abstract please see ITRD E157496
Heavy Metals in Liver, Kidney, Brain and Muscle Slender-Billed Gull (Chroicocephalus Genei) From the Chahnimeh Water Reservoirs Sistan and Coast Oman Sea (Iran)

The concentrations of four heavy metals nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) were determined in liver, kidney, muscle and brain tissues of 20 slender-billed gulls (Chroicocephalus genei) from the Chahnimeh water reservoirs of Sistan and the Oman Sea coast of Iran. There were significant differences between nickel Ni, Cd, Pb and Zn concentrations observed in the liver and brains of birds from the Oman Sea coast than in liver and brains of gulls from the Chahnimeh water reservoirs (P < 0.05). Higher levels of Pb, Cd and Zn were found in the brain and liver of gulls than in the kidney and muscles tissues. There were significant gender differences in heavy metals in liver and brain tissue. In gulls from the coast of Oman Sea, all four elements (Cd, Pb, Ni and Zn) were positively correlated with levels in all organs, and except for muscle, the elements were positively correlated with the other elements in the other tissue (except Ni in brain). Thus, the pathways and sources of entry for the elements are similar, and the pathways for accumulation of these elements, and the reactions of different organs of the body to these elements, are very similar. Also, 40% of gulls in Oman Sea coast had levels of lead in the brain that were above the adverse effects levels, Ni concentrations in liver of slender-billed gull in Oman Sea coast (100 %) and Chahnimeh water reservoirs (90 %) were above toxic levels, and 80% of Ni concentration in kidneys in gulls from the Oman Sea coast and Chahnimeh water reservoirs were higher than the toxicity levels.
The Other Car Workers: Work, Organisation and Technology in the Maritime Car Carrier Industry

About 60 million vehicles are produced each year, of which eight million are shipped by deep-sea and millions more by short-sea routes. This makes the maritime car carrier sector an integral part of car manufacturing's supply chain. Yet the sector has been entirely neglected by social scientists. Switching attention from the frequently researched car assembly-line worker, this book documents the dramatic new developments that have taken place in the industry both in production systems, technology, organisational infrastructure and not least, in terms of working life. It examines the maritime car carrier sector with respect to changes in cost structure and dynamics; in ownership, freight, labour and other markets; in technological innovation and ship design; and in relation to car manufacturers, ship management companies and crewing agents. Alongside a political economy of the industry, chapter and verse is provided on the work and lives of the seafarers who make up its global labour force, many of them from low-wage countries. It is seen that in terms of their work-life balance and in other respects they endure conditions that have no land-based equivalents.
AN ENGINEER'S APPROACH TO DYNAMIC ASPECTS OF BRIDGE DESIGN

The problems facing a designer considering dynamic excitation of Bridges, either from live load or from wind, are discussed. Some approaches to the solution of such problems are suggested, and the conclusion is reached that, whilst serious instability must be avoided, it is not always necessary, desirable or indeed possible to eliminate all response. A number of specific cases of structures which showed some degree of dynamic response are discussed, and the measures necessary to limit this to acceptable magnitudes described. /Author/
IMPROVEMENT IN RAIL SUPPORT

An on-going investigation on rail support material is briefly summarized. Static and repeated-load triaxial compression and extension tests on a dolomite ballast are reported, and their significance to track design is discussed. Model tests using static and repeated loading on a small scale with Ottawa sand as a foundation material and on a large scale with rail track, ballast, subballast, and sandy subgrade were made, and the significance to tie and track design of their results is discussed.
Factors Influencing Derivatives Usage by Selected Listed Companies in the Philippines

This study examined the different firm-level factors that affect listed Philippine companies’ decision to use derivatives for corporate hedging. Data from annual reports of 74 corporations over a span of five years (2007 to 2011) were gathered, resulting in 329 firm-year observations. Results of random-effects logistic regression showed that, on one hand, firm size and presence of employee stock option plans were significant incentives for firms to use corporate hedging. On the other hand, liquidity and the existence of growth opportunities were negative influences on derivatives usage. These results may be consistent with the reality that the Philippine derivatives market is underdeveloped relative to the rest of Asia. Only large and financially sophisticated firms, such as those that can develop stock option plans, are more likely to utilize corporate hedging techniques. The negative effect of liquidity further supports this assertion. Philippine firms in the sample would rather use liquidity than derivatives as a way of anticipating potential cash flow volatility. Philippine firms may prefer to use financial buffer, rather than financially sophisticated tools such as derivatives. The study exposed that only large or financially savvy corporations are more likely to take advantage of the benefits of hedging. Philippine regulatory agencies and market participants must work harder to make corporate hedging an alternative that all corporations can take advantage of.
Stochastic Rules in Nucleotide Sequences in Genomes of Higher and Lower Organisms

s : The article presents new stochastic rules of nucleotide sequences in single-stranded DNA of eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. These discovered rules are candidates for the role of universal genomic rules. To reveal such rules, the authors represent any of genomic sequences in single-stranded DNA as a set of n parallel texts (or layers), each of which is written based on one of the different n -plets alphabets ( n = 1, 2, 3, .). Then comparison analysis of percentages of the 4 n kinds of n -plets in the n parallel texts in such sequence is fulfield. In the result, unexpected stochastic rules of invariance of total sums of percentages for certain tetra-groupings of n -plets in different parallel texts of genomic DNA sequences are revealed.The presented rules significantly expand modern knowledge about stochastic regularities in long single-stranded DNA sequences, and they can be considered as generalizations of the second Chargaff's rule. A tensor family of matrix representations of interrelated DNA-alphabets of 4 nucleotides, 16 doublets, 64 triplets, and 256 tetraplets is used in the study. Some analogies of the discovered genetic phenomena with phenomena of Gestalt psychology are noted. The authors connect the received results about the genomic percentages rules with a supposition of P. Jordan, who is one of the creators of quantum mechanics and quantum biology, that life's missing laws are the rules of chance and probability of the quantum world.
Effects of Blended Fertilizer Rates on Bread Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Varieties on Growth and Yield Attributes

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important food crop and source of income for farmers at Tiyo district in Eastern Arsi, Ethiopia. Field experiment was conducted at Tiyo district on farmer's field in 2018 main cropping season to evaluate response of bread wheat varieties to blended (NPSB) fertilizer rates. Factorial combination of two improved bread wheat varieties (Wane and Kingbird) and eight treatments [Control, Recommended NP (150 kg ha -1 TSP (69%P 2 O 5 ) + 158.7 kg ha -1 Urea (73 N)), 100 kg NPSB (18.1N + 36.1P 2 O 5 + 6.7S + 0.71B) , 100 kg NPSB + recommended urea (46 kg N) , 150 kg NPSB + recommended urea, 200 kg NPSB + recommended urea, 250 kg NPSB + recommended urea, 300 kg NPSB + recommended urea. ] were laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Results revealed seedling density, plant height, and harvest index were significantly affected by the main effect of fertilizer rate. Days to heading, days to maturity, spike length, seeds per spike, thousand kernel weight and straw yield were significantly affected by the main effect of varieties and fertilizers rates. Grain yield, aboveground dry biomass and number of productive tillers were significantly affected by the interaction effect of varieties and fertilizer rates. The highest seeds per spike (53.9 ), thousand kernel weight (37.3 g), and straw yield (9071.7 kg ha -1 ) were recorded from 300 kg NPSB ha -1 application along supplementary urea. Higher grain yield was harvested from Wane (4236 kg ha -1 ) variety at 300 kg NPSB ha -1 fertilizer rate. Therefore, application of NPSB at the rate of 300 kg NPSB ha -1 in the production of Wane and 200 NPSB kg ha -1 in the production of Kingbird varieties was economically beneficial and recommended for around Kulumsa area.
Nobody sits at home and waits for the telephone to ring: micro and hyper-coordination through the us

Containers and an apparatus for sensing containers such as beverage cans, which cans include means for identifying the beverage cans on which a return payment is to be made. The containers on which a deposit is made will be identified in a particular way to indicate that upon return a return payment is to be made. The present device provides an automatic, individual container sensing unit used as shown in combination with a crushing device for sensing whether the can is proper for repayment, and crushing the container subsequent to proper identification.
Behavioural and neural correlates of binaural hearing

The work in this thesis involves two separate projects. The first project involves the behavioural measurement of auditory thresholds in the ferret (Mustela Putorius). A new behavioural paradigm using a sound localisation task was developed which produces reliable psychophysical detection thresholds in animals. Initial attempts to use the task failed and after further investigation improvements were made. These changes produced a task that successfully produced reliably low thresholds. Different methods of testing, and the number of experimental trials required, here then explored systemically. The refined data collection method was then used to investigate frequency resolution in the ferret. These data demonstrated that the method was suitable for measuring perceptual frequency selectivity. It revealed that the auditory filters of ferrets are broader than several other species. In some cases this was also broader than neural estimates would suggest. The second project involved the measurement of neural data in the Guinea Pig (Cavia porecellus). More specifically the project aimed to test the ability of the primary auditory cortex (AI) to integrate high frequency spatial cues. Two experiments were required to elucidate these data. The first experiment demonstrated a relationship between frequency and space, though these data proved noisy. A second experiment was conducted, focussing on improving the quality of the data this allowed for a more quantitative approach to be applied. The results highlighted that though AI neurons are responsive over a broad frequency range, inhibitory binaural interactions integrate spatial information over a smaller range. Binaural interactions were only strong when sounds in either ear were closely matched in frequency. In contrast, excitatory binaural interactions did not generally depend on the interaural frequency difference. These findings place important constraints on the across frequency integration of binaural level cues.