Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulation-Based Evaluation of Advanced Traveler Information Systems

Traveler information has the potential to reduce travel times and improve their reliability. Studies have verified that driver overreaction from the dissemination of information can be eliminated through prediction-based route guidance that uses short-term forecasts of network state. Critical off-line tests of advanced dynamic traffic assignment–based prediction systems have been limited, since the system being evaluated has also been used as the test bed. This paper outlines a detailed simulation-based laboratory for the objective and independent evaluation of advanced traveler information systems, a laboratory with the flexibility to analyze the impacts of various design parameters and modeling errors on the quality of the generated guidance. MITSIMLab, a system for the evaluation of advanced traffic management systems, is integrated with Dynamic Network Assignment for the Management of Information to Travelers (DynaMIT), a simulation-based decision support system designed to generate prediction-based route guidance. Evaluation criteria and requirements for the closed-loop integration of MITSIMLab and DynaMIT are discussed. Detailed case studies demonstrating the evaluation methodology and sensitivity of DynaMIT's guidance are presented.
Orthodox and alternative strategies to control postharvest decay in table grapes

Thesis (MscAgric (Horticulture)) – University of Stellenbosch, 2007. %%%%More and more markets develop around the world for South African grapes and it becomes a challenge to store grapes for longer and reach the market with superior quality. The most destructive decay fungus, Botrytis cinerea can cause huge economic losses and successful postharvest control in the table grape industry relies on SO2. This gas not only controls the fungus but also causes losses due to phytotoxicity. SO2 also creates allergic reactions amongst certain people. In modern times the focus is on food safety and governments consequently impose certain regulations and restrictions to restrict the use of chemicals and ensure “cleaner” produce. The objective of this study was to find a steriliser to reduce B. cinerea inoculum on the berry surface prior to storage,to be used in conjunction with the current method of control – the SO2 generator pad.
Reduction of surface roughness and aperture size effect for etching of Si with XeF2

Low etching pressure and high silicon substrate temperature successfully decrease the etched surface roughness and the aperture size effect, which represent challenges to the application of silicon etching with XeF2 to the fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The etched roughness and aperture size effect are extremely high and limit factors for the design rules of MEMS devices. In order to express the extent of the aperture size effect, a uniformity of etched depth is defined as follows: (depth at 25 μm)/(depth at 175 μm) × 100%. By lowering the charge pressure from 390 to 65 Pa, the etched roughness decreased from 870.8 and 174.4 A and the uniformity improved from 71.3 to 88.7%. By increasing the substrate temperature from 300 to 440 K, the etched roughness decreased from 151.4 and 44.5 A and the uniformity increased from 71.3 to 91.6%. These results will allow us to design with fewer constraints and to expand the field of applications of XeF2 etching to MEMS.
Controlling the didactic relation: a case in process engineering education

A case study was conducted during 1994–2013 on several groups of process engineering students to see what was needed to transform a single course from a teacher-centred to a student-centred learning environment (SCLE). Development work was done incrementally, using Herbart's didactic triangle as a theoretical framework. The effects of the changes in learning environment were analysed using quantitative (student attendance, pass rate, attrition, grades) and qualitative data (student feedback). Guiding the didactic relation, i.e. the studying done by students, by continuous assessment was found to be very useful. Using SCLEs that emphasise student responsibility and activity in learning has been found in this case to enhance student learning considerably.
Path Analysis Step by Step Using Excel

Quantifying the contribution of causal variables to a targeted effect variable directly and indirectly through other variables has always being the layer that researchers seldom examine. Path analysis method may be a natural extension to regression analysis where researchers may be able to quantitatively examine the direct contributions to the effect variable and the indirect effects through other variable to the effect variable. Researchers are sometimes forced to stop their investigation at regression analysis level even when their model reports highly positive fit but could not find or explain any direct positive significant contribution from any of the causal variables in the system. It is a decision support tool that helps researchers determine the contribution of each variable to the effect and each variable via other variables to that effect. This paper gives us a step by step approach to doing path analysis using the Microsoft office Excel software. A tool most common to PCs based on Microsoft windows operating systems and its users.
Winter dairy grazing systems: management practices and cow comfort

During winter, it is common practice to move dairy cows to a stand-off area. This project aimed to identify offpasture management systems on farms and compare cow comfort on a variety of stand-off surfaces. A questionnaire was distributed in several dairying regions. The most common types of stand-off surfaces were concrete, or concrete in combination with another type of system. More farmers using woodchip surfaces reported that their cows laid down than those using concrete. The major health problem identified was lameness, and the majority of farmers believed that a woodchip pad worked best. Lying behaviours of 216 pregnant, non-lactating Friesian cows, on 18 farms in Waikato and Southland were recorded. Waikato cows were stood-off on woodchip pads, concrete and farm races. In Southland, covered and uncovered sawdust pads and crops were used. Cows spent longer (P<0.05) lying per day on woodchips (11.3 hrs) than on concrete (2.4 hrs) and races (4.1 hrs). Lying times for cows on covered sawdust pads (10.2 hrs) were not different from those on uncovered pads (11.5 hrs) or crops (11.2 hrs). A properly managed woodchip surface may cause less lameness and provide better opportunities for cows to rest than concrete surfaces or races.
Common Health Complains Among Pilgrims during Manasik El Hajj; Season 1439H (2018)

Hajj pilgrimage is one of the biggest mass gatherings across the globe drawing pilgrims from different countries. The pilgrims are vulnerable and require focused medical support. The Saudi authorities spare no effort to ensure a safe and healthy environment during the Hajj. The study aimed to determine the pattern of common health complains during each Manasik of El Hajj Season 1439H, to optimize the health resources and services allocation during future seasons. it is a cross-sectional study conducted on 1782 Pilgrims pilgrims randomly selected from two main airports (Jeddah and Madinah cities) before departure after the ending of Pilgrims. Data were collected using a well-structured, pretested questionnaire, that consisted of three parts; socio-demographic characteristics, the received health educations (sites, and sources); and the common health complains among pilgrims. The majority of pilgrims were 81.9% aged ≥ 35y, 56.9% were males, and 39.9% had chronic diseases. Out of the 95.7% who had received health education, 49% received it inside the KSA, and 98.4% received it through lectures. 47.3% of Pilgrims developed complains and 6.02% reported multiple complicated disorders. The diseases distributed mainly in Mina 25.2%, Arafat 20.7% and Muzdalifah, 17.2%). The most common health complaints were respiratory tract symptoms 30.0%, 17.7% reported complicated chronic diseases, and 14.4% reported general symptoms. These symptoms significantly occurred among abroad pilgrims (87%), and males. There was a significant difference between sexes at arthritis and complicated chronic disease. Flu is the commonest health problem and Mina is the main site for health complaining. Therefore, it may provide health policy makers with important information for the optimal provision of health services and preventive measurements during the Hajj to ensure that pilgrims now enjoy modern facilities and perform various rites at ease.
A quantitative assessment of the cost and time impact of variation orders on construction projects

Purpose – Variation orders are a common occurrence in construction projects and their impacts have been studied by various authors. However, the contribution of project variations to construction cost and time overruns is yet to be established. The purpose of this study is to assess the significance of variations as a cause of cost and time overruns.Design/methodology/approach – Using a questionnaire survey, responses were obtained from 50 project participants on the causes and effects of project variations. Cost and time data were also collected on 30 completed building projects. The analysis used importance indices and F‐ and t‐tests. The results indicated that variations had a significant effect and accounted for about 79 and 68 per cent of the cost and time overruns, respectively, for the projects studied.Findings – The results indicated that variations had a significant effect on project cost and time overruns and accounted for about 79 and 68 per cent of the cost and time overruns, respectively, for.
Social norms and their impact on safety-related rule violations in process control: Does it make a difference if operators are aware that residents will be injured?

As the avoidance of safety-related rule violations is an important concern in high reliability organizations, it is essential to understand the decision-making process that determines rule violating behavior. As a theoretical background, the Integrated Model of Behavior Prediction (IM) is used to design two studies in which the impact of different “goods at stake” (injured residents versus damaged plant) on safety-related rule violations was investigated. An online prestudy was conducted to select two appropriate scenarios out of three with which the “goods at stake” were operationalized followed by an experiment to determine the effect of the “goods at stake” on safety-related rule violations. “Goods at stake” were operationalized in terms of a) a damaged plant versus b) 20 injured residents as a consequence of a deflagration caused by a safety-related rule violation. Although the prestudy showed that subjects are less likely to violate a safety-related rule in the case of injured residents, this result was not replicated by the main experiment. Safety-related rule violations were equally likely in the case of residents injured and plant damage. Post hoc analyses showed that person-related variables also addressed by the IM were significantly related to the decision of a violation, such as skills and abilities.
Introducing Distance Learning to Novice E-Learners via Course Web Enhancements

At the most simplistic level, blended learning involves collaboration between the delivery of resources online and what most refer to as “traditional” classroom instruction. This article discusses the benefits of introducing a web-enhanced learning format to novice and sometimes reluctant e-learners. Resistance to distance education is often due to a lack of direct experience and unsubstantiated fear, even for otherwise techno savvy students. The author summarizes a personal experience teaching an Educational Theory and Policy course at Penn State University-Altoona in which inexperienced e-learners were given multiple opportunities to “practice” e-learning utilizing a blended format, thereby creating a comfort zone and knowledge base for future distance learning opportunities.
Evaluation Method for Slope Stability under Multianchor Support

AbstractThe multianchor support way is constantly adopted to reinforce the slope with soft layers, improve the mechanical behavior and enhance the load-bearing capacity of rock mass. To implement the optimal design for the anchorage system consisting of pretensioned anchors, the potential sliding planes in actual slope need to be found and the stability of reinforced slope needs to be evaluated. The plastic zone and shear stress rate are commonly used to judge the failure plane in the slope stability analysis. Based on these judgment criteria, the potential sliding planes are only given qualitatively and empirically. According to the ordinary definition of safety factor, the stress-based local factor of safety is proposed to analyze slope stability in this article. A stress-based program is developed to calculate the local factor of safety. Various constitutive models can be used as the yield criteria in this program. As an application, the aforementioned method and program are used to implement the simul.
Inversion for the compressional wave speed profile of the bottom from synthetic aperture experiments conducted in the Hudson Canyon area

In September 1988, a series of acoustic propagation experiments were conducted in the Hudson Canyon area. These included synthetic aperture experiments in which a source transmitting a set of four pure tones was towed toward/away from a vertical array of 24 receivers. Data obtained at 50 Hz during one of the synthetic aperture experiments are used to obtain a model for the compressional wave speed profile in the bottom using a modal inverse method. This model is further refined using 175 Hz data. The ability of the inferred model to predict the field at 50 Hz and higher frequencies is examined.
Effect of Sprayer Bounce and Wind Condition on Spray Pattern Displacement of TJ60-8004 Fan Nozzles

Effect of sprayer bounce and wind condition (speed and direction) on spray pattern displacement (SPD) of TJ60-8004 fan nozzles (Spraying Systems Co., Inc.) were studied using an experimental spray patternator. Tests were conducted at four nozzle pressures of 139, 208.5, 312.8, and 382.3 kPa. At each of these pressures, tests were conducted at four selected wind conditions and at two sprayer bounces (0.2 and 0.4 m amplitude, frequency = 1 Hz). Wind speed, wind direction, and wind speed ¥ wind direction significantly affected SPD values (at the 5% significance level or P < 0.05) for all nozzle pressures. Sprayer bounce had a significant (P < 0.05) effect on SPD values only for nozzle pressures of 208, 312.8, and 382.3 kPa, but not for nozzle pressure of 139 kPa. Sprayer bounce ¥ wind speed interaction significantly (P < 0.05) affected the SPD values at 382.3 kPa nozzle pressure.
Dynamic modelling of an ER vibration damper for vehicle suspension applications

In this paper, the authors describe the development of a mathematical model of a controllable vibration damper intended for eventual application to ground-vehicle suspension systems. The damper under investigation employs electro-rheological (ER) fluid as the working medium which enables a continuously variable damping force to be provided in response to an electrical control signal. There are some difficulties inherent in characterizing the ER damper's behaviour which the present study attempts to overcome. The paper begins by describing a novel form of non-dimensionalization which drastically reduces the number of variables required to characterize the quasi-steady behaviour of the ER fluid. The construction of the ER damper is described and, on the basis of physical reasoning, it is shown how a dynamic model can be derived by taking account of ER fluid inertia and compressibility. A recently developed iterative scheme is introduced in order to solve the resulting non-linear equations of motion. The paper concludes with a case study involving the application of the ER damper to controlling the lateral vibrations of a rail vehicle.
Hygrothermal Performance of Portuguese Classrooms: measurement and computer simulation

The rehabilitation of school buildings is an impera tive in Portugal. The current buildings do not guarantee adequate conditions of habitability. So, a very ambitious public plan for rehabilitation of school buildings which involves substantial investments is being carried. It is essential to support this inv estment plan with a thorough investigation that could help and sustain the technical decisions to be taken. To that end a research project has started with two main object ives: to evaluate the suitability of the legal requ irements currently in use in Portuguese codes regarding comf ort conditions and ventilation rates through the me asure- ment of temperature, relative humidity and carbon d ioxide concentration in classrooms of different sch ools; and make an optimization of constructive solutions to be used in retrofitting of school buildings usin g com- puter simulations, artificial neural networks and g enetic algorithms. This paper presents the initial results of this project, from the measured values starts a pre liminary discussion and launches the future works o f the re- search project.
Statistical Short-Range Guidance for Peak Wind Forecasts on Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Phase III

This final report describes the development of a peak wind forecast tool to assist forecasters in determining the probability of violating launch commit criteria (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The peak winds are an important forecast element for both the Space Shuttle and Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) programs. The LCC define specific peak wind thresholds for each launch operation that cannot be exceeded in order to ensure the safety of the vehicle. The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) has found that peak winds are a challenging parameter to forecast, particularly in the cool season months of October through April. Based on the importance of forecasting peak winds, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to develop a short-range peak-wind forecast tool to assist in forecasting LCC violations.The tool includes climatologies of the 5-minute mean and peak winds by month, hour, and direction, and probability distributions of the peak winds as a function of the 5-minute mean wind speeds.
Enhanced hot-carrier-degradation in LDD MOSFET's under pulsed stress

Hot-carrier degradation of lightly doped drain (LDD) MOSFET's under ac stress is investigated. Enhanced ac degradation occurs in LDD MOSFET's as well as in single-drain MOSFET's. However, there is a peculiar degradation mechanism in LDD MOSFET's. For single-drain MOSFET's, enhanced ac degradation appears in both threshold voltage and transconductance at stress drain voltages larger than a critical value. On the other hand, for LDD MOSFET's, although the enhanced degradation in threshold voltage and transconductance appears at stress drain voltages larger than a critical value, the enhanced degradation in transconductance appears even under stress drain voltages lower than the critical value. The difference in the ac-enhanced degradation between LDD and single-drain structures can be explained by a hot hole generated neutral-electron-trap model and the change in hot-hole-injected oxide region according to stress bias conditions. >
Late preterm births and associated neonatal outcomes in a tertiary care center-A prospective observational study.

Background: Prematurity is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among newborns. The incidence of preterm deliveries especially the late preterm births have unfortunately gone up in the last decade. Late preterm births are associated with increased neonatal complications compared to term births. This study makes an effort to find out the relevant maternal and fetal factors associated with late preterm births. This study also assesses the maternal and neonatal outcomes associated with late preterm births. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at Maternal and Child Health Unit of Shri B M Patil Medical College Hospital Vijayapur, Karnataka over a period of 1 year. 200 late preterm births and 200 term births were enrolled in the study. During the study period, all neonates delivered in the hospital were divided into two groups as late preterm group and term group. Maternal and neonatal data was collected in predefined structured proforma. Results: The mother's mean age in the late preterm group was 24.34 ± 4.07 years, and among the term group was 25.24 ± 4.54 years, which was not statistically significant (P=0.857). The obstetric risk factors observed for late preterm births were inadequate antenatal care (39%), premature rupture of membranes (31%), hypertensive disease of pregnancy (24.5%), previous preterm delivery (21%), and maternal anemia (13%). When two or more factors were found, late preterm labor incidence was 32.6% in this study. 14.5% late preterm's needed resuscitation (P=0.003), 45% late preterm neonates had difficulty establishing feeding at birth (P<0.001), 34% late preterm’s had respiratory distress at birth (P<0.001), 12% had hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (Stage2/3) (0.003), 35% had early-onset sepsis (P<0.001), 28% had jaundice (P<0.001), 24% had hypoglycemia (P<0.001), 41% had hypothermia (P<0.001), 13.5% had HSPDA (P<0.006). The duration of hospital stay was significantly more in late preterm neonates (8.7 ± 1.6 days) as compared to term neonates (3.9 ± 1.1 days) with a pvalue of <0.05. Most important is the mortality, which was significantly more among late preterm neonates (18%) than term neonates (6%) with a p-value of 0.011. Conclusion: Maternal risk factors such as preterm premature rupture of membrane, inadequate antenatal care, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and maternal anemia were associated with late preterm births. Since late preterm birth is an independent risk factor for neonatal morbidity and mortality compared to term neonates, knowing maternal and perinatal risk factors is essential. Early identification and management of these risk factors reduces the neonatal morbidities and mortalities.
Australian SMEs waste to landfill

Landfill waste has a negative impact on the environment and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are believed to be significant contributors. There is little government or scholarly research, however, quantifying the collective volume of waste SMEs send to landfill. Where studies do exist they measure total volumes (landfill and recycling combined) and/or do not distinguish between specific waste streams (e.g. wood) and subcategories (e.g. dust). This paper contributes to knowledge by giving insight into the collective volume of waste of 404 SMEs, reconceptualising SME waste into subcategories and by measuring landfill volumes. It presents findings from these 404 Australian SMEs which found that, in descending order, cardboard, paper, plastic wrap, wood dust and particleboard were the subcategories these SMEs sent to landfill in the greatest volumes. It also argues that this reconceptualisation, and associated data collection protocols, have the potential to enable scholars and policy makers to determine the waste subcategories to which SMEs contribute most, formulate targeted interventions and research or evaluate environmental outcomes.