Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A recommended specification for recycled content guardrail posts

Cet article presente les resultats d'une etude experimentale visant a evaluer la possibilite de se servir d'un poteau de glissiere de securite en matieres recyclees en tant que substitut au poteau conventionnel de glissiere de securite en bois. Une serie d'essais statiques et dynamiques effectues sur les poteaux de glissiere de securite en matieres recyclees montrent que la resistance et la dissipation d'energie des poteaux en matieres recyclees sont comparables a celles des poteaux conventionnels de glissiere de securite en bois. Un essai de collision a pleine grandeur utilisant une camionnette de 2000 kg voyageant a 100 km/h et faisant contact a un angle de 25 degres est egalement effectue sur le systeme de glissiere de securite avec poutre en W sur poteaux en matieres recyclees de plastique afin d'evaluer l'adequation de sa resistance et de sa structure. La barriere a reussi l'essai de maniere acceptable selon la designation 3-11 du rapport 350 du NCHRP (« National Cooperative Highway Research Program »). Les resultats de l'essai de collision montrent que la glissiere de securite avec poteaux en matieres recyclees et poutre en W peut ralentir et rediriger avec succes un vehicule hors de controle; ces poteaux representent un substitut potentiel aux poteaux de glissieres de securite utilises au pays. Finalement, une specification recommandee est elaboree pour les poteaux en matieres recyclees de glissiere de securite en se basant sur une serie de procedures d'essai et de niveaux de rendement.
EFFECTS OF HYDROELECTRIC DAM CONSTRUCTION ON LAND USE LAND COVER CHANGES IN BUI NATIONAL PARK, GHANA

Abstract e construction of hydroelectric dams in forest reserves has become a matter of concern for biodiversity conservationists. Spatiotemporal change of land cover in the Bui National Park was analyzed using indices calculations of the landscape based on land cover maps obtained from Landsat satellite images for pre-and post-dam construction periods. Significant changes in land cover following the dam construction were observed. Notable changes include the built-up areas and water body, while the forest area decreased. Significant reduction in rainfall and an increase in temperature were observed between the pre-and post-dam construction periods. Increased human activities within the reserve aer dam construction could likely compound the changes in land cover.
From Chlorinated Solvents to Branched Polyethylene: Solvent‐Induced Phase Separation for the Greener Processing of Semiconducting Polymers

Despite having favorable optoelectronic and thermomechanical properties, the wide application of semiconducting polymers still suffers from limitations, particularly with regards to their processing in solution which necessitates toxic chlorinated solvents due to their intrinsic low solubility in common organic solvents. This work presents a novel greener approach to the fabrication of organic electronics without the use of toxic chlorinated solvents. Low‐molecular‐weight non‐toxic branched polyethylene (BPE) is used as a solvent to process diketopyrrolopyrrole‐based semiconducting polymers, then the solvent‐induced phase separation (SIPS) technique is adopted to produce films of semiconducting polymers from solution for the fabrication of organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs). The films of semiconducting polymers prepared from BPE using SIPS show a more porous granular morphology with preferential edge‐on crystalline orientation compared to the semiconducting polymer film processed from chloroform. OFETs based on the semiconducting films processed from BPE show similar device characteristics to those prepared from chloroform without thermal annealing, confirming the efficiency and suitability of BPE to replace traditional chlorinated solvents for green organic electronics. This new greener processing approach for semiconducting polymers is potentially compatible with different printing techniques and is particularly promising for the preparation of porous semiconducting layers and the fabrication of OFET‐based electronics.
Air arcs burning in turbulent round jet

Computational results for DC air arcs burning in a turbulent round jet are reported and compared with experimental results. It has been found that turbulent energy transport inside the high temperature arc core is not important. The interaction between the arc and the jet generates pressure waves resulting in arc voltage oscillating with a period of approximately 0.5 ms. The amplitude of such voltage oscillation depends on current and the width of the jet.
Executive functions, self-control and juvenile delinquency

ABSTRACT Both self-control and executive dysfunctions have gained theoretical and empirical support in their relation to juvenile delinquency. However, the precise nature of executive dysfunctions is unclear, and recent models suggest a new conceptualization of self-control, in which executive functions play a supporting role. This research attempts to clarify the role of executive dysfunctions in juvenile delinquency and explicitly integrate executive functioning with self-control in predicting juvenile offending. About 34 boys in the juvenile justice system and 36 age- and education-matched control boys participated in this research. Computerized tasks were used to measure executive functions. Self-control and background variables were measured through a survey. No significant differences emerged from group comparisons. A logistic regression model revealed cool executive functioning to be a significant predictor of group. Hot executive functions or self-control were not predictive. Finally, executive functions were not significantly related to self-control scores. These results indicate a potential role of cool executive functioning in the explanation of juvenile delinquency, independent of self-control.
Variations in Queue Discharge Patterns and Their Implications in Analysis of Signalized Intersections

Saturation flow is traditionally treated as a stabilized maximum rate at which queuing vehicles can be discharged from a lane after the signal changes to green. Traffic engineers in many countries have been using this parameter to estimate the capacities of traffic lanes at signalized intersections. The estimated capacities in turn are used to estimate other performance measures and to classify levels of service. This traditional method of analysis is an efficient way for capacity estimation if the queue discharge rate rises quickly to a steady maximum after onset of the green signal. Actual queue discharge patterns, however, often do not display an easily identifiable steady maximum rate. This characteristic renders the use of saturation flow troublesome and prone to errors that can lead to poor planning and operational decisions. The pitfalls in the current use of saturation flow are examined, and ways of alleviating the problems are suggested.
Inhibitory effects of tolerogenic probiotics on migratory potential of lupus patient-derived DCs

Objective(s): The present in vitro study aimed to evaluate whether Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Lactobacillus rhamnosus treatments can induce regulatory phenotype, together with modulating the expression of chemokine receptors (CRs) in dendritic cells (DCs). The CRs of DCs have been found to be involved in the pathogenesis of Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) through directing recruitment and migration of immune cells. Materials and Methods: In brief, monocytes of patients with SLE and healthy donors were isolated and differentiated to regulatory or inflammatory mature DCs through treatment with L. delbrueckii, L. rhamnosus, mixed probiotics, and LPS. Results: FACScan analysis showed that the expression of CRs including CXCR3, CCR5, CCR4, and CCR3, was significantly reduced in all probiotic-treated groups of SLE and healthy (control) donors when compared with the LPS treated group. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that tolerogenic probiotics could prevent or decrease the expression of inflammatory CRs on the surface of tolerogenic DCs during the maturation process.
Workload and Labor Predictors of Overtime Hours (An Empirical Study on Dataset)

According to Turkish Labor Code 4857, overtime is extra working hours that exceed 45 hours per week. It is a method of increasing production through a greater usage of human capital (Jirjahn, 2008). However, excessive work hours may negatively affect workers’ physical and mental wellbeing. Consequently, the International Labor Organization and European Union place restrictions on working hours. This paper seeks to find the workload and labor predictors of the hours from overtime using data from an aluminum company, Tekirdag. The sample period covers team-level data from January 2012 to December 2016. The study included company data on ten production teams working in four units: preparation (casting and molding teams), processing (powder coating, extrusion, and anodizing teams), finishing (wood effect coating, thermal break, and machining teams), and distribution (packaging and shipping teams). The data originate from the departments of production planning and of personnel. The hierarchical regression model of all the samples demonstrated that the volume of production as workload factor was the main determinant of overtime work hours, accounting for 45.6%. Additionally, employee factors such as the hours of sick leave, annual paid leave, and other leaves were found as predictors of overtime hours worked. All these variables explained 53.6% of the variance in the dependent variable. Secondly, the analysis of the sub-groups suggested that workload volume was a significant determinant of overtime hours worked for the processing, finishing, and distribution teams.
Lateral Control of a Convoy Vehicle System

SUMMARY The lateral dynamics and control of a convoy of two vehicles where the second vehicle is to follow the leading vehicle autonomously is investigated in this paper. Thevehicles are mechanically connected by a rigid tow bar in order to exclude the longitudinal dynamics and control. Two different vehicle models of the convoy are derived. Firstly, a simplesingle trackmodel for linearanalysisandcontroldesign. Secondly, a complex spatial model representing the real vehicles to a much higher extent for simulations as reference. For the lateral control of the convoy different concepts based on physically motivated ideas are studied where stability and path tracking performance are considered as criteria. Experimental research is carried out with two passenger cars connected by a specially designed tow bar. The second vehicle isequippedwith a steering actuator. Road tests are carried out. Due to safety considerations, these tests are restricted to very low speed at this stage of the project.
Perceptions of Hong Kong secondary school teachers on effective pedagogical practices for curriculum reform: a multi-group analysis

ABSTRACT This study examined the perceptions of two groups of teachers, namely Secondary 3 and Secondary 6, regarding effective pedagogical practices in relation to curriculum reform. A total of 1,215 teachers from 91 secondary schools participated in the study. Collaborative inquiry, instructional strategy and catering for learner diversity were conceived as the three most effective pedagogical practices for implementation of the reforms while seven perceived student learning outcomes were also identified. Further multi-group analyses supported invariance between the two teacher groups in their perceptions of student learning when applying the three pedagogical practices in the classrooms. Results of path analyses revealed that Secondary 6 teachers viewed collaborative inquiry as having a significant effect on all aspects of student learning, but such impacts were not seen as very likely in the view of Secondary 3 teachers. On the contrary, Secondary 3 teachers conceived instructional strategy as the most effective way to enhance student learning. Catering for learner diversity had a positive association with various aspects of student learning in the view of both teacher groups. The study concludes with the implication for enhancing professional development of teachers.
A Ranking Based Multi-View Method for Positive and Unlabeled Graph Classification

Graph classification becomes an active research problem in these years, since it can deal with the situation where objects contain structure and rich content information. Most of the previous works focus on graph classification by assuming both positive graphs and negative graphs are available. However, in some case of real-world applications, we always collect the positive graphs and a number of the unlabeled graphs, which is referred as the positive and unlabeled graph learning. Moreover, existing graph classification methods are limited to the case where the graph is described from one perspective. In order to address these problems, this paper proposes a new approach, called multi-view positive and unlabeled graph classification (MVPUG). It combines the strategy of cost-sensitive by introducing similarity weight of graphs, which can control the preference of the penalty for different graphs. And it incorporates the different representations of the graph, which exploits the consensus principle and the complementarity principle among different views of graphs. Extensive experiments on real life datasets have shown that our proposed MVPUG can achieve a better performance for multi-view positive and unlabeled graph classification in comparison to the state-of-the-art graph classification methods.
Study of Interference Alignment

The concept of interference alignment has recently become one of the importanttools to analyze the capacity of many multiuser communication networks,e.g. K-user interference channel, wireless X networks, multi hop interferencenetworks, etc. The idea is to consolidate the interference into smallerdimensions of signal space at each receiver and use the remaining dimensionsto transmit the desired signals. Furthermore, most progress in understandingof the wireless networks capacity has been made on the single hop schemes andmulti-hop multi-cast networks. However, there has not been as much progressin multi-hop multi-flow networks where all messages are not required by alldestination nodes. One of the basic problems in this area, is the capacity of2 × 2 × 2 interference channel. It is proved that the upper bound value of 2degrees of freedom (DoF) for this channel can be achieved using the so called“aligned interference neutralization” method.In the proposed interference alignment schemes for network problems whichwe mentioned in the above, including 2 × 2 × 2 interference channel, there aresome theoretical assumptions which seem to be difficult to apply in practice,e.g. high transmit power, asymptotic symbol extension of the channel, globaland perfect channel state information (CSI), etc. Among these assumptionsthe availability of CSI specially at transmitter, is crucial for performing theinterference alignment technique. The CSI at transmitter (CSIT) is usuallyavailable through feedback from receiver and it is used to estimate the currentchannel state, given that the channel coherence-time is long enough. However,it has been shown recently that the delayed CSIT, which is assumed to be independentof current channel state, still can be used to increase DoF of somespecific network settings.In this work, we consider the 2 × 2 × 2 interference channel where twosource nodes communicate with corresponding destination nodes via two relaynodes. We investigated the degrees of freedom of 2×2×2 interference channelwith delayed CSIT and we derived the upper bound on the degrees of freedomof the channel under this condition. Furthermore, we showed that this upperbound can be achieved using interference alignment technique. We also showedthat this completely out-of-date information of the channel can still be usefulto achieve higher rate compared to the situation where no CSIT is availableat the source nodes. Moreover, we observed that using relay nodes in interferencechannel can improve DoF compared to one hop interference channelwhere transmitters and receivers directly communicate with each other.
Metformin improves the therapeutic efficacy of low-dose albendazole against experimental alveolar echinococcosis

Abstract Abstract Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a severe disease caused by Echinococcus multilocularis. Its chemotherapeutic treatment is based on benzimidazoles, which are rarely curative and cause several adverse effects. Therefore, it is necessary to develop alternative and safer chemotherapeutic strategies against AE. It has previously been shown that metformin (Met) exhibits considerable in vivo activity on an early-infection model of AE when administered at 50 mg kg−1 day−1 for 8 weeks. Here, the challenge is heightened by a 2-fold increase in parasite inoculum or by starting the treatment 6 weeks post-infection. In both cases, only the combination of Met (100 mg kg−1 day−1) together with a sub-optimal dose of albendazole (ABZ) (5 mg kg−1 day−1) led to a significant reduction in parasite weight compared to the untreated group. Coincidentally, drug combination showed the highest level of damage in E. multilocularis metacestodes. Likewise, Met alone or combined with ABZ led to a decrease in parasite glucose availability, which was evidenced as a lower intracystic glucose concentration. Therefore, the results demonstrate that combination therapy with Met and ABZ offers an alternative to improve the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of the high-dose ABZ monotherapy currently employed.
The Match Between Structural Attributes and Content-Based Orientation of Managerial Cognition: An Exploratory fsQCA Study of ‘Hidden Champions’

ABSTRACT Strategic decision makers interpret information and translate it into organizational action through the lens of strategic schemas. How should firms realize high performance with various strategic schemas? Cognitive content and structure have been shown to underlie strategic schemas, but few studies have considered them together. This study employs aggregation analysis to clarify the interaction between cognitive content (technology orientation, market orientation) and structure (complexity, centrality) in affecting the firm performance (FP) of ‘hidden champion’ companies, identified by the Economy and Information Technology Department of Zhejiang Province, China. The empirical method applies fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to generate strategic schema profiles for high FP. This exploratory study fills a gap in the literature on managerial cognition and provides key lessons from ‘hidden champion’ companies in China and their paths for small- and medium-sized enterprises to grow. 摘要 战略决策者通过“战略图式”这一滤镜诠释信息并转化为组织行动。 企业如何通过不同的战略图式实现高水平绩效呢？ 认知内容与结构被认为是组成战略图式的基础，但很少有研究将二者同时纳入考虑。 本研究采用聚类比较分析以阐明认知内容（技术导向、市场导向）与结构特征（复杂性、集中性）在影响“隐形冠军”企业绩效的交互机制。 研究以浙江省经济和信息化厅认定的“隐形冠军”企业为样本，将基于模糊集的定性比较分析（fsQCA）运用于识别高水平绩效的战略图式。 这项探索性的研究填补了管理认知已有研究中的理论缺口，并总结中国隐形冠军企业的重要规律与发展路径以指导中小企业的发展。
Fused identity and its relationship with ethnic and national identities in the Jewish community of Lima, Peru

ABSTRACT This study explores the relationship between identity fusion and the strength of ethnic and national identification in members of Lima’s Jewish community. A set of questionnaires measuring levels of ethnic identification, national identification, and identity fusion were administered to 100 members of the Jewish community in Lima. The results showed that fused members of the Jewish community identified significantly more strongly with the Jewish community and the national categories than did their non-fused peers. However, despite stronger levels of national identification, fused members of the Jewish community also expressed a significantly higher preference for maintaining social distance towards non-Jewish Peruvians than did non-fused members, but only on matters relating to the immediate family such as marriage and having children. Furthermore, results showed fused members of the Jewish community tend to extol positive attributes of the Jewish ethnic category when comparing with the Peruvian national category. Discussion is focused on how a fused identity can provide the psychological security required to express more positive relations not only with the fusion category but also with other relevant non-threatening social categories, and how identity fusion can contribute to the establishment and maintenance of social distancing from ethnic out-groups as a function of characteristic in-group preservation.
Detection of Cavitation Phenomena in Reciprocating Pumps using a High‐Speed Camera

Cavitation in reciprocating positive displacement pumps is still an insufficiently understood problem. For a better understanding of the effects of cavitation in reciprocating positive displacement pumps, high-speed camera measurements were done under real operating conditions. In this work, emphasis is put on the recording of cavitation phenomena for further investigations. Exemplarily, the occurring cavitation phenomena for different valve designs are described on the basis of high-speed sequences for selected cavitation conditions and the results are discussed.
The distribution and life history of Mysis gaspensis O.S. Tattersall, 1954 (Crustacea, Mysida): An almost endemic, nektonic component of Atlantic Canada estuarine and coastal ecosystems

Mysids (Mysida) or opossum shrimp are nektonic Crustacea found worldwide in freshwater, hypogean, coastal marine or deep-sea habitats. A poorly known, highly localized species Mysis gaspensis O.S. Tattersall, 1954 is found only in Atlantic Canada and Maine, USA. During spring to autumn, localized populations form aggregations at low tide in littoral estuarine environments but individuals also occur at littoral coastal sites. In boreal habitats, this mysid has a univoltine, semelparous life cycle. Beginning in March-April, juveniles are released from the female marsupium at 2.0-2.5 mm total length (TL). Growth in TL is linear (r2 = 0.90), and growth in wet weight is exponential (b = 2.96). Females attain 14.1-16.5 mm TL and males 13.9-25.5 mm TL, by November when they begin maturation.During November-January, penultimate and ultimate males and females migrate seaward where copulation is presumed to occur. Males die after copulation. Development of young during winter results in a mixture of embryo development stages in individual female marsupia by spring. Mean brood size is 59 embryos (range 32-83). Females reoccupy estuarine habitats during March-April and release their young. Females survive after release of young and attain a maximum length of ~20.0 mm TL, but most die or are predated upon by late July. Juveniles and adults of some populations form highly visible aggregations during low tide in the shallow water of estuaries occupying sites with low velocity currents (12-41 cm/s) and near the limit of salinity (0.5-19.0). Aggregations range in size up to 38,000 individuals but the population in some estuaries is often scattered at low tide in small groups or individuals on the down-stream side of rocks or underwater structures.Keywords: aggregations; brood size; growth; maturation; opossum shrimp; reproduction