Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Inter-Firm Technology Transfer Characteristics on Degree of Inter-Firm Technology Transfer in International Joint Ventures

The main objective of this paper is to empirically examine the effects of four critical technology transfer characteristics: knowledge, technology recipient, technology supplier, and relationship characteristics on two distinct dimensions of degree of technology transfer, namely, degree of tacit and explicit knowledge. Using the quantitative analytical approach, the theoretical model and hypotheses in this study were tested based on empirical data gathered from 128 joint venture companies registered with the Registrar of Companies of Malaysia (ROC). Data obtained from the survey questionnaires were analyzed using the correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression analyses. The results revealed that relationship characteristics have the strongest significant effects on both degrees of tacit and explicit knowledge followed by technology supplier and recipient characteristics. Contrary to the study’s prediction, but still consistent with the recent development in literature, knowledge characteristics have only significantly affected degree of explicit knowledge not degree of tacit knowledge. The study has bridged the literature gaps by providing empirical evidence on the effects of four critical technology transfer characteristics: knowledge, technology recipient, technology supplier, and relationship characteristics on two distinct dimensions of degree of inter-firm technology transfer: degree of tacit and explicit knowledge in IJVs in a single model.
Triple‐band metamaterial‐inspired antenna using FDTD technique for WLAN/WiMAX applications

In this article, a triple‐band metamaterial (MTM)‐inspired antenna has been designed and analyzed using finite difference time domain technique (FDTD). The proposed MTM consists of two L‐dumbbell‐shaped unit cells, feed, and partial ground plane. The proposed antenna shows triple‐band characteristics with impedance bandwidths of 10.6, 4.67, and 26.8% centered at 2.4, 3, and 5.7 GHz, respectively. The first two bands are working at zeroth‐order resonating mode and first‐order resonating mode while third is due to series slot and coupling between feed and ground plane. It offers compact nature with total antenna size of 30 × 30 × 1.6 mm3. The proposed triple‐band antenna has been designed and analyzed using FDTD code based on convolutional perfectly matched layer boundary conditions and HFSS as well. The prototype antenna has also been fabricated and tested experimentally to validate the simulation results. The proposed antenna exhibits good radiation characteristics throughout the working bands. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:688–695, 2015.
Rate 1/n convolutional codes with interleaving depth of n over a block fading Rician channel

Rate 1/n convolutional codes with interleaving depth of n are analysed in a frequency non-selective block fading Rician channel. The channel is assumed to be constant during the transmission of a block and independent from block to block. A generalised transfer function, T(D/sub 1/,.,D/sub n/,N), is used for calculation of union transfer function upper bounds on the average bit and block error probabilities. Numerical results indicate that the bounds are relatively tight (1-3 dB) and clearly show that at most a diversity order of n is achieved. The component distance product is shown to be an important parameter for code design.
Simulation Fidelity in Training System Design: Bridging the Gap Between Reality and Training

I: Simulation Fidelity: Definitions, Problems, and Historical Perspectives. - 1: Definitions and Problems in Training System Design. - Rationale for use of training devices. - Current training system design practices. - The need for training system design guidance. - 2: A Conceptual History of Simulation Fidelity. - Learning theory. - Transfer of training research. - Degree of simulation. - Human factors inputs to device design. - Psychological fidelity. - Device effectiveness prediction. - The Army Research Institute's fidelity workshop. - Simulation fidelity. - Specifying fidelity in training systems. - 3: Simulation Fidelity as an Organizing Concept. - A working definition of fidelity. - Departures from high fidelity. - Fidelity and training effectiveness. - Fidelity and task analysis. - Fidelity analysis. - 4: A History of Device-based Training Systems. - Early years. - Early 20th century. - World War II. - The 1950's. - The 1960's and 1970's. - The 1980's and beyond. - Summary. - Future training options. - II: Fidelity and Training System Research. - 5: Training Effectiveness Evaluation. - Formative and summative evaluations. - General training evaluation measurement issues. - Types of training effectiveness assessment. - Assessing cost effectiveness. - Evaluating training effectiveness. - Conclusions. - 6: Aviation Training Research. - Early aviation research. - Modern aviation training research. - Summary of aviation training research. - 7: Operator and Maintenance Training Research. - Operator training. - Maintenance training. - Research on other variables. - Summary. - 8: Training for Cognitive Skills. - Training games. - Management training. - Logistics training and research. - Environmental simulation. - Health care training. - Training for international relations. - Summary. - III: Recent Fidelity Research. - 9: Systematic Fidelity Research. - Orientation for fidelity research. - A Perceptual-Motor Task. - An Electro-mechanical Troubleshooting Task. - Summary. - 10: Fidelity Research on Fault Diagnosis and Other Maintenance Tasks. - Development of computer simulations for fault diagnosis. - Training electronic switchboard maintenance. - Diagnostic training for nuclear power tasks. - Tutoring and context-specific simulation. - Fidelity requirements in maintenance training and aiding. - Summary. - IV: Current Trends and Future Directions In Training System Design. - 11: Current Trends in Training Systems: Computer-based Instruction, Embedded Training, and Artificial Intelligence. - Computer-based instruction. - Embedded training. - Artificial intelligence. - Summary. - 12: Systems Approach to Training Design. - Instructional systems development. - Modeling training systems. - Systems approach to fidelity. - 13: Current Simulation Fidelity Guidance and Areas for Future Research. - The training system development cycle. - Training needs assessment. - Training program design. - Implement program of instruction. - Evaluate the program of instruction. - References.
The Effect of Modifying Structure to Display Product Versus Graphical Representation on Packaging

Research is presented that investigates whether the amount of physical product visible from the primary display panel of a package has an effect on consumer attention and purchase decision in the category of grill ware. It is hypothesized that a package providing the most physical product exposure will be preferred by consumers over alternative structural designs. To test this, three similar products were placed in four distinct package structures varying the amount of visible product exposure (0%, 40%, 90% and 100%). The packages were positioned on the shelves of the fully immersive simulated shopping environment CUshop™. A total of 127 participants were fitted with eye‐tracking glasses and presented a shopping list that included one of the three grill ware products (fork, spatula and tongs). Participants were asked to shop as they normally would, and data concerning their visual attention in the store and final purchase selection was collected. Purchase patterns showed that the packaging that revealed the most physical product possible was chosen more than the other three configurations tested. Analysis of eye‐tracking data supports expected behaviour, suggesting that consumers prefer to see at least some of the product, with the 0% visible product receiving significantly fewer fixations, a slower time to first fixation and lower total fixation durations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Copper Loading Assessment from In-Water Hull Cleaning Following Natural Fouling

The sources of contaminates to the coastal marine environment are of increasing concern to those tasked with establishing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Shelter Island Yacht Basin (SIYB) in San Diego, California has a recently promulgated TMDL for dissolved copper. Recreational vessels are typically painted with copper-containing hull paint to inhibit marine fouling organisms. The passive input of copper to SIYB from anti-fouling paints has recently been studied. The objective of this study was to quantify both the dissolved and particulate fractions of copper emitted from copper-based anti-fouling coatings in situ as a result of routine active hull cleaning of recreational vessels. To accomplish this, in situ samples were collected using a specially designed enclosed chamber. Three different hull-cleaning methods were tested using two common paint formulations after one month and three months of natural fouling. The methods included minimally abrasive “best management practices” (BMPs) using a soft carpet, to more abrasive scouring pads and brushes. Hull cleaning generated an average emission rate of 10.0 μg/cm²/event of dissolved copper following one month of natural fouling. This compares similarly to an estimated 8.5 μg/cm²/event that was calculated in a related technical report (RWQCB, 2005). On a mass basis, the particulate copper loading from recreational vessels was estimated at 2,080 kg/year in SIYB. As a potential long term source in sediments, additional study is warranted to accurately assess the true copper loading on bottom sediments and potential impact to benthic life within SIYB.
Designing a Transparent Distributed Systems for Halal Supply Chains Using Blockchain Technology

Halal food is food in which its halalness status is regulated by a shariah institution, which is normally designated by the government. The halal status of food should be traced starting from raw materials, processing, packaging, transportation and distribution processes to end consumers. This is to make sure that halal food is free from any contamination that may change its halal status. The problem is the difficulty of tracing halal food along the supply chain as the supply chain information from the upstream to downstream in the food industry is not transparent. Currently, food tracking systems are a centralized system, where information about food status is only available to those who control the information. To improve the transparency of the food status and to increase trust from customers, a distributed and transparent system, where many parties can access the food status any time, is needed. Blockchain technology can be applied to help track the halalness status of food along its supply chain. As blockchain is inherently distributed and transparent, hence a distributed system can be developed by incorporating blockchain technology for tracking food status. This paper proposes a distributed system for tracing halal food along its supply chains using blockchain technology. This system is expected to support transparency, neutrality.
Formulas for Bed-Load transport

In the following paper, a brief summary is first of all given of the results and interpretation of tests already made known in former publications of the Laboratory for Hydraulic Research and Soil Mechanics at the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. After that, an attempt is made to derive an empirical law of bed-load transport based on recent experimental data. We desire to state expressly that by bed-load transport is meant the movement of the solid material rolling or jumping along the bed of a river; transport of matter in suspension is not included.
Induction of Male Sterility by Targeted Mutation of a Restorer-of-Fertility Gene with CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing in Brassica napus L.

Brassica napus L. (canola, oil seed rape) is one of the world’s most important oil seed crops. In the last four decades, the discovery of cytoplasmic male-sterility (CMS) systems and the restoration of fertility (Rf) genes in B. napus has improved the crop traits by heterosis. The homologs of Rf genes, known as the restoration of fertility-like (RFL) genes, have also gained importance because of their similarities with Rf genes. Such as a high non-synonymous/synonymous codon replacement ratio (dN/dS), autonomous gene duplications, and a possible engrossment in fertility restoration. B. napus contains 53 RFL genes on chromosomes A9 and C8. Our research aims to study the function of BnaRFL11 in fertility restoration using the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technique. A total of 88/108 (81.48%) T0 lines, and for T1, 110/145 (75%) lines carried T-DNA insertions. Stable mutations were detected in the T0 and T1 generations, with an average allelic mutation transmission rate of 81%. We used CRISPR-P software to detect off-target 50 plants sequenced from the T0 generation that showed no off-target mutation, signifying that if the designed sgRNA is specific for the target, the off-target effects are negligible. We also concluded that the mutagenic competence of the designed sgRNAs mediated by U6-26 and U6-29 ranged widely from 31% to 96%. The phenotypic analysis of bnarfl11 revealed defects in the floral structure, leaf size, branch number, and seed production. We discovered a significant difference between the sterile line and fertile line flower development after using a stereomicroscope and scanning electron microscope. The pollen visibility test showed that the pollen grain had utterly degenerated. The cytological observations of homozygous mutant plants showed an anther abortion stage similar to nap-CMS, with a Orf222, Orf139, Ap3, and nad5c gene upregulation. The bnarfl11 shows vegetative defects, including fewer branches and a reduced leaf size, suggesting that PPR-encoding genes are essential for the plants’ vegetative and reproductive growth. Our results demonstrated that BnaRFL11 has a possible role in fertility restoration. The current study’s findings suggest that CRISPR/Cas9 mutations may divulge the functions of genes in polyploid species and provide agronomically desirable traits through a targeted mutation.
Process-Centered Requirements Engineering

From the Publisher: This book presents frameworks, models, and tool environments for process-centered requirements engineering. First, it gives a comprehensive overview of the state of research and practice in the field. Then, a two-pronged solution strategy is developed. A conceptual modelling framework describes the process along the three dimensions of representation (from informal to formal), specification completeness, and stakeholder agreement. From the special problems found in creative processes such as requirements engineering, the book derives a novel characterization of process-centered engineering environments and elaborates the architecture of a new generation of process-integrated CASE tools. The concepts have been validated in PRO-ART, a prototypical process-centered requirements engineering environment developed in the Esprit project NATURE.
Interference of interleukin-1β mediated by lentivirus promotes functional recovery of spinal cord contusion injury in rats via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway

Background: Spinal cord contusion (SCC) results in a series of pathophysiologic consequences such as edema, apoptosis, and inflammation. However, inflammation may also be beneficial for the recovery of motor function after SCC, but the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely elucidated. Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) is a pro-inflammatory factor that has synergistic effects with other inflammatory factors to aggravate spinal cord injury. Inflammatory factors have been found to activate the serine/threonine-specific protein kinase, protein kinase B (AKT) and to inhibit cell survival, but it is not clear whether inflammation upregulates the expression of IL-1β in the rat model of SCC and subsequently interferes in the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling pathway. Therefore, this study explored whether IL-1β affects the recovery of motor function in spinal cord injury by interfering with the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Method: SCC rats were established by the Allen method. The Basso Beattie Bresnahan (BBB) scoring was used to assess motor function in the spinal cord of injured rats. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were used to determine the expression of genes and proteins of IL-1β, PI3K, and AKT1. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were used to locate and detect IL-1β and AKT1 proteins in spinal cord tissue. To further explore the underlying mechanism of IL-1β, lentivirus was constructed by RNA interfering (RNAi) technique to inhibit the expression of IL-1β, and bioinformatics was applied to show the relationship between IL-1β and AKT1. Results: BBB scores decreased after SCC, and IL-1β and AKT1 was located in the cytoplasm of spinal cord anterior horn neurons. In the early stage of SCC, the expression level of IL-1β gene and protein in the experimental group was higher than that in the sham operated group. At the same time, expression of the AKT1 gene decreased. After expression of IL-1β mediated by lentivirus was inhibited, BBB scores increased significantly, and spinal cord motor function improved. Bioinformatic analysis revealed a relationship between IL-1β and AKT1. In addition, AKT1 gene expression was upregulated and PI3K expression was unchanged in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Conclusion IL-1β not only exacerbates the inflammatory response after SCC, but also interferes with motor function. Inhibition of IL-1β may promote recovery of spinal cord injury by upregulating AKT1 in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, which provides a new perspective for future clinical practice in treating spinal cord injury
Uwagi dotyczące realizacji przedmiotu podstawy przedsiębiorczości

Jedną z istotnych przyczyn wystepowania niezwykle wysokiego, bo siegającego 40%, bezrobocia w grupie wiekowej 19-24 lata, jest nieodpowiedni poziom przygotowania mlodziezy do funkcjonowania w realnym świecie gospodarki rynkowej. Wiedza, a przede wszystkim umiejetności mlodziezy nie są dostosowane do rzeczywistych potrzeb gospodarki XXI wieku. Odpowiedzialnośc za taki stan ponosi system edukacji. Okazuje sie, ze programy nauczania nie dostarczają uczniom wiedzy i umiejetności niezbednych aktualnie na rynku pracy. W niewystarczającym stopniu szkoly ksztaltują wśrod mlodego pokolenia Polakow autentyczne postawy przedsiebiorcze.
Analysis of phase distribution phenomena in microgravity environments

In the past one of NASA's primary emphasis has been on identifying single and multiphase flow experiments which can produce new discoveries that are not possible except in a microgravity environment. While such experiments are obviously of great scientific interest, they do not necessarily provide NASA with the ability to use multiphase processes for power production and/or utilization in space. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to demonstrate the ability of multidimensional two-fluid models for bubbly two-phase flow to accurately predict lateral phase distribution phenomena in microgravity environments. If successful, this research should provide NASA with mechanistically-based analytical methods which can be used for multiphase space design and evaluation, and should be the basis for future shuttle experiments for model verification.
Performance Analysis of Assured Forwarding

One desirable characteristics of any resource allocation (or differentiation) mechanism is that if many aggregates, each with its own reservation, are merged with other aggregates of the same class, each aggregate should get its reserved bandwidth and a fair share of the excess bandwidth. In particular, the performance of an aggregate should not be adversely affected by other aggregates and their congestion sensitivity. TCP flo ws are congestion sensitive while UDP flo ws are congestion insensitive in the sense that TCP flo ws reduce their traffic if any packets are lost. The goal of this study is to see if TCP flo w aggregates will be punished for their good behavior in the presence of competing UDP flo w aggregates in the same assured forwarding class. We identify several factors that affect the performance in the mixed environments and quantify their effects using a full factorial design of experiment methodology.
Laterally loaded pile cap connections.

This study investigated the moment capacity and load-displacement response of the pile-to-cap connection details. Lateral load tests were conducted on four pile caps (3 ft. H x 3 ft. W x 6.5 ft. L) with two 40 foot-long steel pipe piles (12.75 inch OD) with different connection details. Two caps included a reinforced connection detail with six or 12 inch pile embedment while the other two relied exclusively on their respective embedment lengths of 12 and 24 inches. A hydraulic ram was used to apply a cyclic lateral force to each of these pile caps until failure occurred. Load-displacement curves were developed for each cap and bending moments were computed from strain measurements in the piles. The pile cap with piles embedded two diameters (24 inches) into the cap performed successfully. In contrast, a cap with piles embedded only one diameter failed after developing a large crack through the entire cap. The two pile caps with shallow embedment (0.5 to 1.0 diameter) and a reinforcing cage connection still developed at least 40% to 60% of the moment capacity of the pile which was much greater than predicted by PCI design equations based only on embedment. The load-displacement curves and bending moments computed using the computer program GROUP were in very good agreement with measured values when the pile connections were considered to be "fixed-head". However, assuming a "free-head" or pinned connection significantly overestimated displacement even for the connection with only 6 inches of embedment. These results suggest that it is relatively difficult to create a truly pinned connection detail and that some connections which are assumed to be pinned may actually behave more like fixed connections.
Extracting clinically-actionable information from wearable physiological monitors

In this thesis I examine several ways of extracting information from wearable monitors so as to help make clinical decisions. Wearable physiological sensors are developing rapidly, and pose a possible part of the solution to the demands of an aging population and rising health care costs. It is important that the data produced by such sensors be processed into information that is clinically relevant and will have an impact on the practice of medicine. I collected data in an ambulatory setting from several wearable physiological sensors, including electrocardiogram, arterial blood pressure, pulse plethysmograph, respiration and acceleration. Using this data set, I demonstrated a few approaches including signal processing, and algorithms based on the application of physiological models to extract clinically relevant information. These approaches are potentially of interest to both device makers interested in developing wearable monitors, and to clinicians who will be using such monitors in the future. Thesis Supervisor: George Verghese Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering Thesis Supervisor: Thomas Heldt Title: Research Scientist
Human Resource Selection

This leading text offers an advanced treatment of the technical issues involved in developing and implementing selection programs within organizations. The new edition offers the most thorough and up-to-date coverage of HR selection on the market and is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in management and industrial/organizational psychology departments, as well as for corporate HR departments.