Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost performance for building construction projects in Klang Valley

Since seventies, the economic of Malaysia has undergone rapid growth. Construction industry constitutes an important element of Malaysian economy. It shows how important to control and manage the projects in good quality and efficiently. There are four fundamental constraints needed to be considered when managing the construction projects, which are scope, cost, time, and quality. In order to manage the projects successfully, it is necessary to consider whether the project is within those four constraints. However, it found that there were many problems on cost performance in many countries. One of the major problems was cost overrun in construction projects. In Malaysia, the problem of cost overrun considered significance in construction industry. There were many factors that contribute to cost overrun in Malaysian construction projects. The factors might become risks and lead to negative effect to the projects. Hence, this research is to identify factors that contribute to cost overrun and potential measures to overcome the problem with the focus given to construction projects within Klang Valley. The method used in this research is quantitative based. A questionnaire survey conducted to collect data from the respondents that consisted of project manager, quantity surveyor, M & E Engineer, C & S Engineer, and other related respondents. Questionnaires were distributed to 30 respondents from construction firms in Klang Valley. Data collected form a database for analysis using Statistic Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0. Descriptive statistics and ranking analysis were used in data analysis. The result shown that the most serious factor contributes to cost overrun was inaccurate or poor estimation of original cost and the factor do not affect most was mistake in design. The most important method to control construction cost is proper project costing and financing. On the other hand, the least important approach was establishing a system in design. In conclusion, the problem of cost overrun is not a small issue but could cause serious problems to the construction industry in Malaysia.
Pilot Study of Blood Perfusion Changes at PC4 and Its Surrounding Points Induced by Acupuncture and Moxibustion

Acupuncture and moxibustion are widely used in clinical practice; however, the differences between their mechanisms are unclear. In the present study, the response of blood perfusion resulting from acupuncture or moxibustion at Ximen (PC4) and its surrounding points was explored. Using the wavelet method, the differences in the frequency interval of blood flux were observed. Furthermore, the correlations between these points were analyzed. The results suggested that moxibustion could significantly improve blood flow perfusion at PC4 compared to acupuncture; however, there was no significant difference around PC4. The response of blood flux at PC4 to different stimulations was related to the frequency V (0.4–1.6 Hz) component. However, a difference in response at other points was not observed. Correlation analysis showed that both acupuncture and moxibustion could cause a decline in the correlation of blood flux signals at these recorded points, but there was no significant difference between these techniques. The results suggested that, at least in the forearm, the acupuncture or moxibustion only influenced the level of blood perfusion locally.
Monte Carlo simulation of threshold bandwidth for high-order harmonic extraction

The feasibility of bulk semiconductors subjected to strong periodic electric fields for terahertz radiation generation due to the high-order harmonic extraction is analyzed by using Monte Carlo simulations. The high-order harmonic intensity and the spectral density of velocity fluctuations are calculated for GaAs, InP, and InN. By comparing the harmonic intensity with the noise level the threshold bandwidth for high-order harmonic extraction determined by their ratio is introduced and evaluated for the above materials. The results show that semiconductor materials with a high value of the threshold field for the Gunn-effect are characterized by a high value of the threshold bandwidth under high-order harmonic generation and, hence, they are promising materials for microwave generation in the THz frequency range by high-order harmonic extraction.
Factors Influencing The Intention to Adopt eWallet among Students of Universiti Putra Malaysia

This research is aimed to investigate the factors influencing student’s intention to adopt eWallet in Universiti Putra Malaysia. A total of 200 students from Universiti Putra Malaysia participated in this research where they were chosen through simple random sampling method and systematic sampling method. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires. Categorical scale and five-point Likert scale were applied to analyze the background of respondents, as well as to measure the independent and dependent variables respectively. The findings form the Pearson Correlation analysis showed that UPM students’ intention to adopt eWallet had positive relationship with perceived usefulness (r=0.846, p=0.001), perceived ease of use (r=0.773, p=0.001), perceived security (r=0.397, p=0.001) and subjective norms (r=0.528, p=0.001). Meanwhile, based on the results of multiple linear regression analysis, the model contributed a total of 77.1% and perceived usefulness appeared as the most significant factor that contributed to the intention to adopt eWallet among UPM students. Hence, the findings of this study were useful for eWallet companies and developers in providing better understanding about factors that influence consumers’ intention to adopt eWallet in order to enhance their applications and fulfil what consumers really want.
The Urban Garden as Public Space

E a c h g a r d e n in t h e K l e i n g a r t e n . a n u r b a n g a r d e n in M u n i c h , can be designed to meet the user's needs a n d tastes. P h o t o b y M.trk Francis.
The effects of oregano essential oil on production performance and intestinal barrier function in growing Hyla rabbits

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of oregano essential oil on the production performance and intestinal barrier in rabbits. One hundred and ninety-two weaned Hyla rabbits (35 days old) with similar body weight (1268.5 ± 25 g) were randomly divided into four groups (24 replicates per group, two rabbits per replicate): fed a basal diet (Control group), fed a basal diet containing 0.02% oregano essential oil (LO group, the purity of oregano essential oil was 5%), fed a basal diet containing 0.04% oregano essential oil (MO group), or fed a basal diet containing 0.08% oregano essential oil (HO group). The trial included 7 days of adaptation and 23 days of testing. Although dietary addition of oregano essential oil did not affect significantly the average daily body weight and final body weight (p > .05), dietary addition of 0.08% oregano essential oil decreased significantly feed intake and diarrhoea rate of the rabbits (p < .05). When the addition of oregano essential oil in the feed reached 0.08%, the Villus high/Crypt depth value in the ileum of meat rabbits increased significantly (p < .05). Dietary addition of 0.08% oregano essential oil increased significantly the gene expression of junctional adhesion molecule 2 (JAM2) and JAM3 in jejunum (p < .05). The content of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and immunoglobulin A (SIgA) in jejunum and IL-10 and secretory immunoglobulin G (SIgG) in ileum were significantly increased after the addition of 0.08% oregano essential oil compared with the control (p < .05). In conclusion, a dietary supplement of oregano essential oil modulates immune responses and enhances the intestinal barrier. Besides, our experiment offers positive evidence in improving rabbit health of oregano essential oil instead of antibiotics. HIGHLIGHTS Oregano essential oil can improve the production performance of rabbits. Oregano essential oil improved intestinal barrier function in rabbits. Oregano essential oil can be used as a new additive in rabbit feed.
C-reactive protein and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio as predictors of mortality in coronavirus disease 2019.

OBJECTIVE This study investigates whether C-reactive protein, platelet-lymphocyte ratio, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio could be useful to predict mortality in COVID-19. METHODS Data of 635 patients with COVID-19 followed up in Sinop Ataturk State Hospital from February to May 2020 were evaluated retrospectively. Diagnosis of COVID-19 was made according to the interim guidance of the World Health Organization. Patients were grouped into two groups based on mortality as survived and non-survived patients. Age, gender, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-lymphocyte ratio, and C-reactive protein of the groups were investigated and compared. RESULTS The mean age of the participants was 55.8±22.3 years. Among the patients, 584 survived and 51 patients died. Age was significantly different between the groups, 54.2±22.3 in the survived group and 75.6±11.1 in the dead group (p=0.000). In addition, neutrophil, C-reactive protein, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio values were significantly higher in the dead group (p=0.000). platelet-lymphocyte ratio was slightly higher in the dead group, but this difference was not significant (p=0.42). The area under the curve values for age, lymphocyte, platelet, C-reactive protein, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio are 0.797, 0.424, 0.485, 0.778, and 0.729, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Our results showed that neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and C-reactive protein are significantly higher in patients leading to death and could be effective biomarkers in predicting COVID-19 fatality. Furthermore, C-reactive protein could be used as an independent biomarker to predict death in patients with COVID-19, regardless of gender and age (p=0.000).
Analysis of steep-fronted voltage distribution and turn insulation failure in inverter fed AC motor

As a potential source of turn insulation failure, the steep-fronted voltage at the AC motor terminal generated by PWM drive switching or cable ringing is not uniformly distributed among the coils of the windings and among the turns of the coils. This paper presents a detailed electromagnetic analysis of the parameters of a transient model of coil and coil group which includes iron loss, skin and proximity effects. A finite difference method is applied to solve the model for the inter-turn and inter-coil voltage distributions. The detailed time-domain modeling is compared to a frequency-domain modeling solved by the lattice diagram method and to test results. A turn insulation surge-withstanding capability study is then presented with a flexible insulation test system.
PMD Characterization of Installed Fiber: Final Report

This report summarizes the PMD research work done in the last year at the Lightwave laboratory, University of Kansas. Over the last year, • We made PMD measurements using EXFO PMD analyzer obtained on loan from Dr. David Harris, Sprint ATL. Our analysis of measured data showed that it is very noise and not very reliable compared to the data measured using Agilent polarization analyzer. • We made progress in modeling PMD which is very important for predicting PMD-induced outages on long-haul optical fiber links, the goal of this research work. Through modeling we showed that the spectral drift of DGD with time is due to temperature changes. However, our modeling results also showed that temperature alone is not responsible for all of the DGD temporal and spectral characteristics observed on measured data. • We also made significant progress in understanding the temporal behavior of differential group delay (DGD). We showed for that the time derivative of DGD has a Laplacian pdf and using this we simplified the expression for calculating the first-order PMD-induced outage rates given by Caponi et al. into a simple analytical expression which depends only on the mean DGD and the Laplacian parameter. This a significant step forward in PMD outage analysis which resulted in a journal publication. Three documents are attached to this report which explains the progress mentioned above in detail. The last document is an Electronics Letters publication which appeared in April 15 th , 2004 issue. We are on track to achieving our goal which is to develop a numerical PMD model based on measured data that can predict first-order PMD-induced outages on long haul optical fiber links. This goal, once accomplished, will greatly help network engineers at Sprint in anticipating the impact of PMD on various fiber routes and there by take steps to ensure network reliability. However, for us to achieve the goal we need financial assistance for at least one more year and we are hoping that Sprint would understand the value of our work and extend funding for one more year. Introduction: PMD was measured on three loop-back fibers that terminate in our research lab and extend to Topeka, KS. What follows is a summary of the DGD data measured on each of three individual links and on three combinations of concatenating two fiber links during the months of June and July of year 2003. This data was …
Global labor loss due to humid heat exposure underestimated for outdoor workers

Humid heat impacts a large portion of the world’s population that works outdoors. Previous studies have quantified humid heat impacts on labor productivity by relying on exposure response functions that are based on uncontrolled experiments under a limited range of heat and humidity. Here we use the latest empirical model, based on a wider range of temperatures and humidity, for studying the impact of humid heat and recent climate change on labor productivity. We show that globally, humid heat may currently be associated with over 650 billion hours of annual lost labor (148 million full time equivalent jobs lost), 400 billion hours more than previous estimates. These differences in labor loss estimates are comparable to losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, annual heat-induced labor productivity losses are estimated at 2.1 trillion in 2017 PPP$, and in several countries are equivalent to more than 10% of gross domestic product. Over the last four decades, global heat-related labor losses increased by at least 9% (>60 billion hours annually using the new empirical model) highlighting that relatively small changes in climate (<0.5 °C) can have large impacts on global labor and the economy.
Flow regimes and energy loss on chutes with upward inclined steps

This paper presents new experimental data on water flow on stepped chutes with upward inclined steps. The slopes of the chutes are 30°, 45°, and 60° whereas the upward angles of the inclined steps are 10°, 20°, and 30°, respectively. Classifications of flow patterns by empirical correlations are presented. Based on dimensional analysis, the important parameters are analyzed, and the relevant dimensionless parameters are established. The energy loss and outlet velocity are strongly influenced by the Drop number and the slope of the stepped chutes. As the Drop number increases, the energy loss ratio decreases. At identical Drop numbers the energy loss ratio on the more moderate slope is greater than on the steeper. The adverse slope of the inclined steps increases the energy loss ratio and decreases the outlet velocity by less than 10%. To estimate the kinetic energy ratio, an empirical equation is proposed.Key words: stepped chutes, inclined step, energy dissipation, skimming flow, spillways.
Efficient Management of Compact Storage Systems

textabstractWarehouses are important nodes in supply chains. They decouple supply from demand in time, assortment, quantity, and space. By doing so, economies of scale can be achieved in transport, as warehouses allow to regroup transport flows leading to lower cost. They also allow postponement of value addition, increasing service levels at lower inventory levels. Warehouses are particularly needed in densely populated areas, close to where demand is generated and where the labor is available. Warehouses require much space to realize economies of scale. Warehouse buildings are often quite large, more than 10,000 m2 built space is common, and much infrastructure outside the building is needed. Unfortunately, in many of the urbanized areas, space for such large facilities has become short. In order to address this issue, enterprises are moving toward next generation storage systems, namely “three-dimensional (3D) compact storage systems”. These systems are designed in order to save floor space and labor costs, and increase the reliability of the order picking process. Several types of 3D compact storage systems exist with different handling systems (like S/R machines, conveyors, shuttles, or elevators) taking care of the horizontal, vertical and depth movements. This dissertation focuses on new types of 3D compact storage systems, in particular live-cube storage systems, where each unit load rests on a shuttle which can move in horizontal and depth directions, in cooperation with shuttles of other unit loads. In such a system, at least one empty storage slot per level is required. One of the key performance measures for compact storage systems, which is also the focus of this dissertation, is response time. We analyze these systems at two decision-making levels. At the tactical (design) decision level, we focus on the rack-dimensioning problem aiming at short response times. At the operational decision level, we investigate storage assignment and retrieval sequencing problems to shorten the response time.
Circulating inhibin and testosterone during sexual maturation and reproductive seasonality of captive male killer whales (Orcinus orca)

The present study aimed to investigate the reproductive biology of male killer whales. Changes in the concentrations of two circulating testicular hormones, inhibin and testosterone, were monitored during sexual maturation of two male Type 1 Eastern Northern Atlantic killer whales over a period of 20 years. The two killer whales grew rapidly at the pubertal stage and reached a plateau at the age of 23 and 20 years, respectively, after which growth slowed down. In the younger male, circulating inhibin was higher in the juvenile than in the pubertal and mature stages; whereas circulating testosterone exhibited the opposite trend. The pubertal period was estimated to last approximately 5 years, from 12 to 17 years of age. In the elder male, circulating testosterone was high from the onset of this study (12 years of age), when the animal also sired successfully for the first time. This finding shows that the male killer whale is possible to sire even if it is not socially matured, if there is opportunity for copulation. During the mature stage, both animals exhibited significantly higher circulating testosterone concentrations in spring compared to autumn and winter; whereas no seasonal change was observed for circulating inhibin. These results clearly demonstrate that the male killer whale is a seasonal breeder, even though it is fertile throughout the year. This is the first study to elucidate the inhibin concentration and secretory source in the male killer whale.
Cardiac MRI Segmentation with Conditional Random Fields

This dissertation considers automatic segmentation of the left cardiac ventricle in short axis magnetic resonance images. The presence of papillary muscles near the endocardium border makes simple threshold based segmentation difficult. The endoand epicardium are modelled as two series of radii which are inter-related using features describing shape and motion. Image features are derived from edge information from human annotated images. The features are combined within a Conditional Random Field (CRF) – a discriminatively trained probabilistic model. Loopy belief propagation is used to infer segmentations when an unsegmented video sequence is given. Powell’s method is applied to find CRF parameters by minimising the difference between ground truth annotations and the inferred contours. We also describe how the endocardium centre points are calculated from a single human-provided centre point in the first frame, through minimisation of frame alignment error. We present and analyse the results of segmentation. The algorithm exhibits robustness against inclusion of the papillary muscles by integrating shape and motion information. Possible future improvements are identified. ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Passion at work: blogging practices of knowledge workers

While experiments with blogging are underway in many businesses, research that could inform them is limited. In this dissertation early adopters of weblogs are studied to provide an understanding of uses of weblogs in relation to work and insights relevant for introducing blogging in knowledge-intensive environments. The study is guided by the knowledge work framework that integrates task-based and personal knowledge management views on knowledge work, including both tasks, as the essence of one's work, and activities that enable it, such as developing one's knowledge and relationships over time. This dissertation focuses on describing blogging practices of bloggers who work in knowledge-intensive environments and provides in-depth views on uses of weblogs in respect to parts of the knowledge work framework and the challenges that arise around those uses. It includes studies that combine, in different proportions, an analysis of weblog artefacts (text, links, tags) with participant observation, interviews and blogging about work-in-progress. The findings suggest several characteristics of weblogs that contribute to a broader understanding of weblogs as a medium: their simultaneous uses for publishing, conversations with self and interaction with specific others, switches between personal and social, as well as opportunities that weblogs provide in crossing various boundaries. While weblogs are used to work on specific tasks that match with those characteristics, the open-ended and public nature of blogging makes it more valuable for enabling work through supporting sense-making conversations, developing ideas over time and being able to tap into one's network when needed. Next to providing an overview of work-related uses of weblogs in a variety of settings, this research documents the issues that arise as a result of those uses, gives insights about the changing nature of work that becomes increasingly digital, nomadic and networked. It documents various ways of integrating blogging with work and the tensions between personal and organisational perspectives around it. It shows the power of individual knowledge workers, who challenge existing authorities and tap into their networks to stay informed and to get things done; the blurred boundaries between what is personal and what is professional; and the growing need to know how to deal with transparency and fragmentation of one's work.