Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LIVE-BED SCOUR AT BRIDGE PIERS

This study was mainly concerned with the collection of experimental data on local scour around bridge piers under live-bed conditions. Experiments were conducted,in which pier size, mean sediment size and flow velocity were systematically varied. Cylindrical piers were used throughout. To ensure linkage of the scour depth versus mean velocity curves from clear-water to live-bed conditions, some data were also collected in the clear-water regime for three series of experiments, thus establishing the trend of these curves for both regimes. A review of the existing literature on physical model stsudies of scour at bridge piers was made and a summary of the findings is presented in the literature review and background discussion. A description of the equipment and the experimental procedures used in this study is given. This is followed by the presentation and discussion of the results obtained from the laboratory experiments. The conclusions reached are presented followed by suggestions for further work. (Author/TRRL)
SIMON: A SIMULATED INJURY MONITOR; APPLICATION TO HEAD INJURY ASSESSMENT

Advancements in computational techniques used to simulate human impact injury response, coupled with those in computer hardware, bring the idea of detailed injury assessment closer to reality. Consequently, next-generation (G2) injury assessment processes are being explored to potentially augment or replace methods using dummy-based, empirically-derived, gross injury risk relationships. These processes use computational models that give more detailed injury response resulting from dummy-measured loading. This paper discusses the development of an initial version of such a next-generation injury assessment tool called SiMon: A Simulated Injury Monitor, as it is applied to the assessment of brain injury.
A meta-study of SAP financials in the Queensland Government

This thesis consists of three related studies: an ERP Major Issues Study; an Historical Study of the Queensland Government Financial Management System; and a Meta-Study that integrates these and other related studies conducted under the umbrella of the Cooperative ERP Lifecycle Knowledge Management research program. This research provides a comprehensive view of ERP lifecycle issues encountered in SAP R/3 projects across the Queensland Government. This study follows a preliminary ERP issues study (Chang, 2002) conducted in five Queensland Government agencies. The Major Issues Study aims to achieve the following: (1) identify / explicate major issues in relation to the ES life-cycle in the public sector; (2) rank the importance of these issues; and, (3) highlight areas of consensus and dissent among stakeholder groups. To provide a rich context for this study, this thesis includes an historical recount of the Queensland Government Financial Management System (QGFMS). This recount tells of its inception as a centralised system; the selection of SAP and subsequent decentralisation; and, its eventual recentralisation under the Shared Services Initiative and CorpTech. This historical recount gives an insight into the conditions that affected the selection and ongoing management and support of QGFMS. This research forms part of a program entitled Cooperative ERP Lifecycle Knowledge Management. This thesis provides a concluding report for this research program by summarising related studies conducted in the Queensland Government SAP context: Chan (2003); Vayo et al (2002); Ng (2003); Timbrell et al (2001); Timbrell et al (2002); Chang (2002); Putra (1998); and, Niehus et al (1998). A study of Oracle in the United Arab Emirates by Dhaheri (2002) is also included. The thesis then integrates the findings from these studies in an overarching Meta-Study. The Meta-Study discusses key themes across all of these studies, creating an holistic report for the research program. Themes discussed in the meta-study include common issues found across the related studies; knowledge dynamics of the ERP lifecycle; ERP maintenance and support; and, the relationship between the key players in the ERP lifecycle.
Elastostatic interaction analysis of frames resting on homogeneous elastic half-space

The structural response of a building to applied loads depends on the behaviour of the soil supporting the structure. Structures may undergo various support deflections dependant on their support conditions. Such deflections are associated with soil deformation: the short-term deflections are known as the elastic component and, the long-term deflections are known as the permanent plastic component. Differential support displacements cause structural interaction between supports. To analyse such interaction, there are different approaches; it can be analytical or numerical, static or dynamic and deterministic or probabilistic, with the rigour in the analysis being commensurate to the degree of displacement likely to be experienced. Mathematical rigour, however, may or may not be justified if inadequate knowledge of parameters exists. In the context of the natural variability of constituent parameters, a closer examination of the soil parameters associated with this interaction, particularly for plane frame structures, is warranted. The behaviour of soil media at a structure's supports during structural analysis has been the focus of much investigation and research over the last century. Efforts have been made to describe such interaction and many computer packages have been developed to incorporate different soil models with the structural studies. Unfortunately the models are usually too complex or require too much input data for easy use by professional engineers. This study focuses on the interaction context through a linear elastostatic and deterministic analysis of plane frame structures with different soil idealisations. The study concentrates on the behaviour of a space frame structure that is constructed by a number of typical plane frames in a parallel series subjected to individual loads. A homogeneous elastic half space is utilised for the soil support. A displacement-type analytical-numerical technique of elastic solution is used to evaluate support interaction. In this approach, the behaviour of soil is modelled by means of homogenous, elastic half-space, whilst in the analysis of the structure, a Direct Stiffness Method is applied. The Boussinesq and Cerruti force-displacement solutions are used for isotropic behaviour, whilst the Gerrard-Wardle and Gerrard-Harrison models are used for cross-anisotropic behaviour. The flexibility matrix of the elastic half-space, related to the interaction forces is developed. The author has prepared an integrated software program to perform the analysis on a desktop PC. The interaction results of the support were analysed for sensitivity to the soil parameters. A number of typical soil parameters were considered for Winkler, isotropic and cross-anisotropic soil models in the structural analysis. Analysis outputs were shown in graphs and tables and were used to investigate for sensitivity of interaction to different soil parameters. Finally, the conclusion of the research work is drawn and the recommendation for further research study is suggested.
Use of modified atmosphere packaging to extend the shelf-life of whole and pre-cut lettuce

This thesis investigated the potential of using modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) to maintain the quality of whole and pre-cut lettuce for longer periods than that currently obtained in air. Achieving this goal will enable whole lettuce to be exported to South-East Asia and Japan by ship rather than expensive air freight. Furthermore, additional shelf-life of pre-cut lettuce on domestic markets will provide greater flexibility during distribution and marketing, since storage life of these products decreases rapidly after processing.
Using Lego Construction to Develop Ratio Understanding

This paper examines Year 7 students use and learning of ratio concepts while engaged in the technology practice of designing, constructing and evaluating simple machines, that used cogs and pulleys. It was found that most students made considerable progress in accounting for ratio concepts in their constructions and some constructed sophisticated machines and provided explicit and quantitative descriptions involving ratio reasoning. The findings have implications for the study of mathematics in integrated and contextual settings.
Clean salt process final report

A process has been demonstrated in the laboratory for separating clean, virtually non-radioactive sodium nitrate from Hanford tank waste using fractional crystallization. The name of the process is the Clean Salt Process. Flowsheet modeling has shown that the process is capable of reducing the volume of vitrified low activity waste (LAW) by 80 to 90 %. Construction of the Clean Salt processing plant would cost less than $1 10 million, and would eliminate the need for building a $2.2 billion large scale vitrification plant planned for Privatization Phase 11. Disposal costs for the vitrified LAW would also be reduced by an estimated $240 million. This report provides a summary of five years of laboratory and engineering development activities, beginning in fiscal year 1992. Topics covered include laboratory testing of a variety of processing options; proof-of-principle demonstrations with actual waste samples from Hanford tanks 241-U-110 (U-110), 241-SY-101 (101-SY), and 241-AN-102 (102-AN); descriptions of the primary solubility phase diagrams that govem the process; a review of environmental regulations governing disposition of the reclaimed salt and an assessment of the potential beneficial uses of the reclaimed salt; preliminary plant design and construction cost estimates. A detailed description is given for the large scalemore » laboratory demonstration of the process using waste from tank 241-AW-101 (101-AW), a candidate waste for 0044vitrification during Phase I Privatization. « less
DEM-CFD analysis of contact electrification and electrostatic interactions during powder handling processes

Electrostatic phenomena are pervasive in powder handling processes. In this study, contact electrification and electrostatic interactions during powder handling processes are explored using the discrete element method coupled with computational fluid dynamics (DEM-CFD), in which contact electrification and electrostatic interaction models are developed and implemented. The effects of particle shape on contact electrification are also investigated, for which multi-sphere methods are adapted and implemented into the DEM-CFD. The electrostatic and dynamic behaviours in various powder handling processes are analyzed, which include contact electrification of spherical particles during fluidization; electrostatic interactions during deposition of mono-charged and bi-charged particles; contact electrification and electrostatic interactions of spherical particles during fluidization; contact electrification of elongated particles in a vibrating container and particles of arbitrary shapes in a rotating drum. It is found that charge accumulation and distribution of particles are caused by contact electrification and dispersion of mono-charged particles and agglomeration of bi-charged particles are induced by electrostatic interactions. The combined effects of contact electrification and electrostatic interactions can alter the dynamic behaviours of particles and the performance of powder handling processes. Non-uniform charge distributions can be induced on particles of irregular shapes and the charge accumulation is also affected by particle shapes.
CYCLIC LATERAL LOADING OF PILES IN SOFT CLAY

A series of model pile tests was carried out to study the pile response to cyclic lateral loads in soft clay. The piles were instrumented with strain gauges so that bending moments developed along the pile could be determined. In addition, the pile head lateral displacement and rotation were simultaneously recorded. The results obtained from the cyclic lateral pile tests were compared to numerically predicted pile response. The numerical analysis treated the pile as an elastic beam on non-linear springs whose characteristics were developed on the basis of the test results and depended on the number of stress cycles. The measured and predicted pile responses were also compared to predictions made using soil reaction criteria proposed by others, which proved to be less satisfactory. (A)
Smart cinema as trans-generic mode: a study of industrial transgression and assimilation 1990-2005

Abstract Following from Sconce’s “Irony, nihilism, and the new American ‘smart’ film”, describing an American school of filmmaking that “survives (and at times thrives) at the symbolic and material intersection of ‘Hollywood’, the ‘indie’ scene and the vestiges of what cinephiles used to call ‘art films’” (Sconce, 2002, 351), I seek to link industrial and textual studies in order to explore Smart cinema as a transgeneric mode. I categorise it as a grouping of films which may have different formal characteristics, but are linked by industrial origins and production contexts, and through their use of genre, as Smart cinema embeds more challenging arthouse or cult tendencies in a framework of variable generic familiarity or accessibility. Individual texts contain thematic, stylistic and structural elements which can be positioned at, and interpreted along, loci on a continuum from mainstream to independent. This is achieved through a process of “double coding” (King, 2009), which King relates to Bourdieu’s ideas of habitus and distinction, but which I expand to include utilising textual attributes to create simultaneous calls to action to multiple audiences, along a continuum from ‘indie’ to ‘mainstream’, often in a manner that obscures their industrial positioning. Double coding works to simultaneously cultivate mainstream-resistant audiences, actively positioning texts as distanced from the industrial circumstances which produced them, and to accrue cultural capital for producers. Crucially, Smart attempts to combine the potentially transgressive, ‘cool’ underground appeal of cult cinema with echoes of high culture and artistic status which comes more directly from the arthouse tradition, and is therefore embedded within what James English calls ‘the economy of prestige’. (English, 2009) Rather than a generational outcropping, or intrusion of independent cinema into the mainstream, Smart cinema demonstrates product differentiation within the context of horizontal integration: studios making strategic interventions into what would previously have been seen as ‘indie cinema territory’. While encouraging framing within an auterist model, and by utilising – or fetishizing – what we might casually consider ‘indie style,’ Hollywood studios extended their reach beyond the mass market by co-opting notions such as ‘independence’, ‘cult’, ‘authenticity’, and ‘prestige’.
Knowledge Management and Higher Education: A UK Case Study

This paper presents the initial findings of a case study conducted at seven Higher Education Institutions within the United Kingdom. The Case Study utilizes Stankosky’s Knowledge Management (KM) pillars to enterprise learning – leadership, organization, technology and learning as a lens to investigate and understand Knowledge Management practices and perceptions within Higher Education Institutions, looking at challenges of implementation within this sector. Higher Education Institutions within the United Kingdom are very complex institutions, with diverse backgrounds, history, culture, resources and missions. The University presents itself in today’s knowledge economy with a dichotomy of priorities, one which aims to provide quality teaching and research activity, and the other, to ensure effective and efficient management and administration within an increasingly competitive market. Being a service, non-profit organization ensures that the values of scholarship remain a very important aspect of its mission; yet, the external environment within which HEIs conduct their business today is rapidly changing, forcing HEIs to reflect on how they do ‘business’ given the external pressures they face. This case study uses the Grounded Theory methodology to begin to unpack the issues related to the implementation of Knowledge Management within this context. It focuses on two aspects of the case study – the characteristics of universities and academics that hinder or promote the implementation of KM, and the perceptions of Knowledge Management and its challenges for implementation within the HEI sector. Initial findings are presented.
The dynamic calibration of bicycle power measuring cranks

The SRM power measuring crankset (PMC) is a novel ergometry system that allows power output to be monitored during field and laboratory cycling. The PMC calculates power from the torque and angular velocity of the cranks. Torque is measured at the crank axle by 4 or 20 strain gauges situated between the crank axle and chain rings and angular velocity is the recorded pedalling rate. The strain gauge output, which is proportional to the effective pedalling torque is inductively transmitted at 500 kHz with pedal rate to a cycle mounted data recorder. The purpose of this study was to assess dynamically the validity of power measurement for this new ergometry system by comparison with a standard laboratory cycle ergometer. The dynamic calibration rig consisted of a modified friction braked Monark ergometer (ME) driven by a motorised treadmill. The PMC was fitted to the ME to allow simultaneous recording of power input and braking power from the respective ergometry systems. Three PMC were assessed, two 20 strain gauge (20sg1 and 20sg2) and one 4 strain gauge (4sg) models. The protocol consisted of 13 braking loads eliciting power outputs ranging from 90 - 625 W at a pedal rate of 1.5 Hz. Braking power was calculated for the ME as: Power (W) = torque (Nm) x angular velocity (rad.s-1)/time (s) and compared with the simultaneously recorded PMC values. Linear regression and 95% limits of agreement (Bland and Altman, 1986) were used to assess the validity of all three sets of PMC. An almost perfect linear relationship was found for all three PMC and ME (r2=1.0). The residuals from the linear regression were used to assess the limits of agreement. The 95% limits of agreement were ± 1.1W, ± 1.8W, ± 2.1W which are equivalent to ± 0.3%, ± 1.0% and ± 1.8% for 20sg1, 20sg2 and 4sg respectively. The results of this study suggest that good agreement exists between the two methods of power measurement. In comparison with the 4sg, the 20sg PMC produces less variability in the differences between ME, probably due to its greater precision and zero position stability. It is concluded that the PMC provides a valid method of assessing power output in the laboratory during scientific research
Blood Flow Dynamics through a Defective Mechanical Heart Valve

A model of asymmetrical 2-D defective bileaflet mechanical heart valve was used to simulate steady and pulsatile blood flow through a defective mechanical heart valve under several flow and malfunction severity conditions. The calculations used Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with Newtonian blood properties. The results showed that the flow upstream and downstream of the defective valve is highly influenced by malfunction severity and this resulted in a misleading improvement in the correlation between simulated Doppler echocardiographic and catheter transvalvular pressure gradients. In this study, two potential non-invasive parameters were proposed using Doppler echocardiography and phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging, for an early detection of mechanical heart valve malfunction. Finally, the relation between the coherent structures downstream of the valve and the valve malfunction was shown and the significant impact of valve malfunction on platelet activation and as a consequence, on thrombus formation was also shown
Komparasi Fuzzy AHP dengan AHP pada Sistem Pendukung Keputusan Investasi Properti

Investasi di bidang properti dianggap yang paling menguntungkan karena harga properti yang selalu naik dan tidak menghabiskan banyak waktu. Akan tetapi para investor sering kesulitan dalam memilih lokasi investasi yang tepat dan terkadang hal tersebut dapat mengakibatkan kegagalan atau kerugian. Pada penelitian ini metode Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) diimplementasikan pada sistem pendukung keputusan (SPK) dalam melakukan seleksi terhadap faktor-faktor pendukung untuk pemilihan lokasi investasi di bidang properti. Metode FAHP menggunakan Triangular Fuzzy Number (TFN) dalam melakukan proses fuzzifikasi, sedangkan proses defuzzifikasi menggunakan metode Centre of Gravity (COG). SPK hasil penelitian dibandingkan dengan metode AHP untuk mengetahui performa dari metode FAHP pada sistem. Hasil dari penelitian menunjukkan bahwa metode AHP memiliki waktu eksekusi yang lebih cepat dan penggunaan memori yang lebih kecil dibandingkan metode FAHP pada saat proses pembobotan kriteria atau sub kriteria. Akan tetapi metode FAHP lebih cepat saat mengeksekusi proses pembobotan terhadap alternatif properti. Hasil validasi menunjukkan bahwa metode FAHP memiliki tingkat akurasi yang lebih tinggi yaitu sebesar 84,62% daripada metode AHP yang hanya sebesar 23,08% dalam hal ketepatan hasil sistem dengan rekomendasi pakar investasi properti. Kata Kunci— Centre Of Gravity, Fuzzy AHP, Investasi Properti, Sistem Pendukung Keputusan, Triangular Fuzzy Number.
Identification of promising drug candidates against Non-Structural Protein 15 (NSP15) from SARS-CoV-2: an in silico assisted drug-repurposing studies

The recent COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has recorded a high number of infected people across the globe. The notorious nature of the virus makes it necessary for us to identify promising therapeutic agents in a time-sensitive manner. The current study utilises an in silico based drug repurposing approach to identify potential drug candidates targeting non-structural protein 15 (NSP15), i.e. a uridylate specific endoribonuclease of SARS-CoV-2which plays an indispensable role in RNA processing and viral immune evasion from the host immune system. NSP15 was screened against an in-house library of 123 antiviral drugs obtained from the DrugBank database from which three promising drug candidates were identified based on their estimated free energy of binding (ΔG), estimated inhibition constant (Ki), the orientation of drug molecules in the active site and the key interacting residues ofNSP15. The MD simulations were performed for the selected NSP15-drug complexes along with free protein to mimic on their physiological state. The binding free energies of the selected NSP15-drug complexes were also calculated using the trajectories of MD simulations of NSP15-drug complexes through MM/PBSA (Molecular Mechanics with Poisson-Boltzmann and surface area solvation) approach where NSP15-Simeprevir (-242.559 kJ/mol) and NSP15-Paritaprevir (-149.557 kJ/mol) exhibited the strongest binding affinities. Together with the results of molecular docking, global dynamics, essential dynamics and binding free energy analysis, we propose that Simeprevir and Paritaprevir are promising drug candidates for the inhibition of NSP15 and could act as potential therapeutic agents against SARS-CoV-2.