Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microstrip linear array with polarisation control

A new configuration of microstrip series-fed linear array is presented; in which the choice of the specific array geometry permits selection of the dominant radiated polarisation from a wide range. The array consists of a series of right-angle bends in a microstrip line whose spacing determines the polarisation. Using an equivalent magnetic current analysis, closed-form expressions are derived for the geometry required for specific polarisations. Design limitations are noted and, in particular, the appearance of grating lobes in the radiation pattern in some cases indicates the use of high dielectric-constant substrates. Measured results for four arrays, having polarisations of current interest, verify the design technique for crosspolarisation levels down to - 25 dB and sidelobe levels down to - 20 dB. The performance limitations are critically assessed, and it is concluded that the new configuration will result in arrays having reduced bandwidth, or efficiency, with radiation-pattern control comparable to other microstrip arrays, combained with polarisation control which may well make them attractive in some system application.
Predicting Fire Severity Using Surface Fuels and Moisture

Fire severity classifications have been used extensively in fire management over the last 30 years to describe specific environmental or ecological impacts of fire on fuels, vegetation, wildlife, and soils in recently burned areas. New fire severity classifications need to be more objective, predictive, and ultimately more useful to fire management and planning. Our objectives were to (1) quantify the relationships between fuel loading and moisture characteristics of surface fuels and the temperature and energy produced during combustion, and (2) to produce a classification that summarized these relationships into unique, realistic classes of fire severity. Using computer simulation, we created 115,280 synthetic fuel beds with diverse compositions and moisture conditions and burned them using computer simulation with the First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM). Using average fire intensity, fire residence time, total fuel consumed, depth of soil heating, and temperature in the top 1 cm of soil, we created a nine-group classification that separated fire severity classes based first on soil heating, second on intensity and fire time, and third on fuel consumed. Fuel beds were correctly placed into the nine fire severity classes 98% of the time using subsets of the synthetic fuel beds.
Evaluation of a thermal design tool for electronics-a three chip MCM as a case study

Thermal analysis software based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is being increasingly used by designers to predict the thermal performance of electronic devices and systems. Such tools allow the designer to integrate thermal analysis into the design process, thereby minimizing costly prototyping and reducing the design cycle. Icepak is a software specially designed for the thermal design of electronics. However, such tools need to be validated against reliable experimental data prior to being incorporated into the regular design process. This paper presents temperature and air flow predictions for a three-chip Multi-Chip Module (MCM) cooled by natural convection, obtained from Icepak. The results were found to compare very well with published experimental data.
Simulation and experimentation of a single‐phase claw‐pole motor

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to evaluate theoretically and experimentally the static and dynamic characteristics of a single‐phase claw‐pole motor using soft magnetic composite (SMC) for the stator core.Design/methodology/approach – On the basis of the static characteristics, which are measured and obtained from a series of 3D FE magnetostatic solutions, the dynamic characteristics are simulated according to a proposed control strategy. The same strategy is tested in dSpace control environment. Apart from the evaluation of the prototype SMC motor, some study has been made in order to improve the existing motor design.Findings – The static characteristics of the single‐phase claw‐pole motor have been modelled in 3D FE magnetostatic solver, where the rotor position and stator current have been changed. The characteristics compare well with the measurements, while the discrepancy with the cogging torque waveform needs further analyses and experiments to explain the real magnetization pattern of the .
Structural and Functional Brain Alterations in Post-Chemotherapy Cognitive Impairment in Gastric Cancer: A Longitudinal Multimodal Neuroimaging Study

Backgrounds: Despite clinical significance of chemobrain, no longitudinal study has been made on change in cognitive function related to chemotherapy in gastric cancer. The aim of this study is to define structural and functional changes in brains of gastric cancer patients caused by chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment after adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods: 13 gastric cancer patients with adjuvant chemotherapy (CTx+ group), 9 gastric patients without adjuvant chemotherapy (CTx- group), and 10 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled for this study. We performed self-report questionnaires, neurocognitive tests, voxel-based morphometry (VBM), hippocampus-seeded resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) analysis twice at before and 3 months after chemotherapy. Results: Compared to CTx- group, CTx+ group exhibited statistically significant decrease in attention and executive function over time, and also exhibited dysfunction in delayed recognition performance. Results in resting state functional connectivity analysis show significant group-by-time interaction in left hippocampus-anterior thalamus. In addition, DTI analysis had interesting results that showed reduced fractional anisotropy (FA), and increased mean diffusivity (MD) in left hippocampus. However, results from VBM analysis confirms that chemotherapy does not cause structural changes in brain. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal neuroimaging study on the effect of chemotherapy in gastric cancer patients. Based on the results of this study, we suggest that neuropathological processes and clinical presentation of chemobrain is ultimately similar disease as age-related neurodegenerative disorder. Results of this study help in viewing underlying basis of chemobrain at a new angle and puts emphasis in importance of continuous assessment and intervention.
Simulation of predictive maintenance strategies for cost-effectiveness analysis

This article presents a methodology that provides a continuous assessment of predictive maintenance (PdM) technologies with respect to specific business scenarios. The methodology integrates existing reliability and maintenance business analysis techniques and standards. The positive impacts that may have implementing these technologies have always been in mind. A critical simulation step is also added where different predictive maintenance strategies are simulated in order to obtain the optimal maintenance strategy. This Monte Carlo simulation relies on the reliability information based on the probability density distribution of failure for the system or component, providing as a result the optimal strategy among the proposed options. The article finally explains how this methodology has a positive impact not only on the cost-effectiveness of maintenance processes, but also on the maintenance information available.
Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for spatially distributed infrastructure

Two key issues distinguish probabilistic seismic risk analysis of a lifeline or portfolio of structures from that of a single structure. Regional analysis must consider the correlation among lifeline components or structures in the portfolio, and the larger scope makes it much more computationally demanding. In this paper, we systematically identify and compare alternative methods for regional hazard analysis that can be used as the first part of a computationally efficient regional probabilistic seismic risk analysis that properly considers spatial correlation. Specifically, each method results in a set of probabilistic ground motion maps with associated hazard‐consistent annual occurrence probabilities that together represent the regional hazard. The methods are compared according to how replicable and computationally tractable they are and the extent to which the resulting maps are physically realistic, consistent with the regional hazard and regional spatial correlation, and few in number. On the basis of a conceptual comparison and an empirical comparison for Los Angeles, we recommend a combination of simulation and optimization approaches: (i) Monte Carlo simulation with importance sampling of the earthquake magnitudes to generate a set of probabilistic earthquake scenarios (defined by source and magnitude); (ii) the optimization‐based probabilistic scenario method, a mixed‐integer linear program, to reduce the size of that set; (iii) Monte Carlo simulation to generate a set of probabilistic ground motion maps, varying the number of maps sampled from each earthquake scenario so as to minimize the sampling variance; and (iv) the optimization‐based probabilistic scenario again to reduce the set of probabilistic ground motion maps. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Service Innovation in the Digital Age: Key Contributions and Future Directions

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing focus on service across socioeconomic sectors coupled with transformational developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs). Together these developments are engendering dramatic new opportunities for service innovation, the study of which is both timely and important. Fully understanding these opportunities challenges us to question conventional approaches that construe service as a distinctive form of socioeconomic exchange (i.e., as services) and to reconsider what service means and thus how service innovation may develop. The aim of this special issue, therefore, is to bring together some of the latest scholarship from the Marketing and Information Systems disciplines to advance theoretical developments on service innovation in a digital age.
Dynamic configuration of flexible supply networks based on semantic service composition

In a complex business network finding a supplier can be a very time consuming task. In advanced supply networks like build-to-order supply chains, this task should be carried out under time constraints and under uncertainties both in suppliers and in the orders. The technology of semantic service oriented architectures is aimed to support such tasks, enabling self-organising flexible supply networks (FSN). A novel approach to dynamic network members’ discovery and selection based on competence profiles included in provided service descriptions is proposed. The approach is based on the idea to characterise all FSN members by their functions or services and to describe them via profiles thus defining their roles. The profiles described by the application ontology are associated with agent-based services that negotiate to take into account explicit and tacit preferences of the enterprises, in order to dynamically configure a network on demand. Semantic service discovery and dynamic composition are used to accomplish this task.
The effect of precipitation and air temperature on land‐cover change in the Sahel

Vegetation changes in the Sahel region are strongly affected by variation in rainfall, but air temperature has been considered a relatively minor climatic factor in previous studies. However, soil moisture, the major water source for vegetation in arid and semiarid regions, is generally dependent on temperature‐controlled evaporation. Therefore, we can hypothesize that air temperature modifies the sensitivity of vegetation greenness to rainfall because water loss in soil is critically vulnerable to temperature, although Sahel plants can tolerate high temperatures. In this study, the annual mean of daily maximum air temperature was used as a constraint in analyzing the relationships between annual changes in the cumulative enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and total rainfall. We found that rainfall increase in hotter years could not well induce land greening, and decreased rainfall in cooler years did not necessarily cause vegetation degradation. This presents the importance of temperature as a climatic component in understanding the mechanism of rainfall‐induced land‐cover changes in the Sahel region.
Modeling and experimental verification of low-frequency MEMS energy harvesting from ambient vibrations

Micro-fabricated piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters with resonance frequencies of 31–232 Hz are characterized and deployed for testing on ambient vibration sources in the machine room of a large building. A survey of 23 ambient vibration sources in the machine room is presented. A model is developed which uses a discretization method to accept measured arbitrary acceleration data as an input and gives harvester response as output. The modeled and measured output from the energy harvesters is compared for both vibrometer and ambient vibration sources. The energy harvesters produced up to 43 nWrms g−2 on a laboratory vibrometer and 10 nW g−2 on ambient vibration sources typically in large buildings.
Inter-Floor Wide Band Radio Channel Measurements and Simulation Applying Saleh-Valenzuela Model

This paper explores the accuracy of Saleh-Valenzuela (SV) statistical simulation model in time of arrival domain (ToA) applied on inter-floor wide band indoor radio channels. In order to extract the model parameters, an extensive measurement campaign was performed inside a modern building by applying vector network analyzer method at frequency of 1.8 GHz. The measurement results are presented in form of path loss exponent and delay spread statistics for each number-of-floors (NOF) distance between the antennas (up to 4). Path loss exponent was found to be around 3 for antennas on a same floor and around 5.5 for any other case when antennas were on separated floors. CDFs of rms delay spread may be divided into two groups: the first group is made of single-floor (SF) case and distanced-floors (DF) cases (three or more floors separated antennas) which showed similarities performing median value at 20 ns. For neighboring-floors (NF) cases (one and two floors separation) this value was increased to 35 ns. SV simulation, run with the extracted parameters, assessed delay spread statistics sufficiently good for the first group of CDFs. In order to assess the second group results, it was necessary to introduce simple corrections in SV model application.
Evolution of MIMO Technology

Recent exploration of smart-phone user is fueling the deployment of long term evolution (LTE) service that offers higher data rates service over 3G HSPA networks. In particular, Korea, mobile powerhouse, recently launched the service of LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) which is the latest release in LTE standard. Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology is the one of key enablers for LTE and LTE-A for achieving high data rate. MIMO technology has received much attention since it is possible to achieve channel capacity in proportion to the number of antennas without increasing frequency and power. In this paper, we overview of the theoretical background of MIMO technology regarding from single-user MIMO, multiuser MIMO, and massive MIMO and design considerations to implement the communication system.
Multiuser detection with base station diversity

A method for combining multiuser detection with base station diversity is presented for the uplink of a multiple access network composed of K transmitters and M receivers. At each base station, a K user soft-output multiuser receiver is implemented using the log maximum a posteriori (log-MAP) algorithm. The log-likelihood ratio outputs from the M base stations are combined before a final hard decision is made. This strategy has the ability to simultaneously mitigate the detrimental effects of both multiuser interference and fading, and has the potential to extend cell range and reduce the frequency reuse distance. Simulation results are shown for a time division multiple access (TDMA) network with 3 users and 3 base stations.
Lithography develop process electrostatic discharge effect mechanism study

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) problem resulting from charges on wafers is a serious concern in IC manufacturing. As is discovered in our paper, three types of defect, AA (active area) damage, IMD (Inter Metal Dielectric) crack and Via hole W corrosion that are confirmed to be induced by lithography process related ESD charging effect. We carefully studied the mechanism of these ESD charging effect by DOE splits and succeeded to dig out that these electric charge major comes from the lithography develop process. In the lithography coating and developing wafer process, the wafer will be at high spin speed at many of the steps which will easy help to store the electric charge on the wafer. In our study, the rinse step in developing process is the most key factor to store the electric charge on wafer. In generally, the higher rinse speed, the higher positive electric charge. Furthermore, we also discovered that the different step in develop rinse process have different impact on charge level, in which the acceleration and deceleration step has the highest charge voltage. As to minimize and eliminate the ESD damage in lithography process, we finally carry out the simplified recipe optimization solution which only need optimize for the develop rinse speed with different in-coming surface charge level and process application, so that can be easy implemented in the worldwide fabs.
Freeway Service Patrols: A State of the Practice

Freeway service patrols have been cited as one of the most effective elements of an incident management program for reducing incident detection time and incident duration. Service patrol programs utilize roving vehicles to patrol congested and high incident sections of urban freeways. The state of the practice of freeway service patrol programs in the United States is documented in this paper. A telephone survey was conducted with managers of 53 freeway service patrols in 22 states. Approximately 74 percent of the surveyed service patrols are sponsored exclusively by public agencies. Approximately 47 percent of the surveyed patrols are sponsored exclusively by Department of Transportations; 6 percent are sponsored exclusively by police agencies; and 21 percent are sponsored by multiple public agencies. Approximately 34 percent of the patrols receive federal support funding. Finally, 27 percent of the patrols operate with private funding sources. Service patrol hours of operation vary from program to program, with the most common being coverage of the weekday a.m. and p.m. peak periods. Approximately 70 percent of the surveyed agencies own and operate their own vehicles, whereas 26 percent contract with private tow companies to provide drivers and vehicles. Benefits associated with service patrols are typically quantified by multiplying a value of time by the estimated delay reduction provided by the service patrol in vehicle-hours. Available benefit to cost analyses for 15 of the service patrols studied ranged from 2:1 to 36.2:1. A contact list and recommendations for agencies interested in starting a new service patrol program are also included in this paper.
Role of Organizational Commitment and Performance Appraisal Politics in Employee Turnover Intention

Despite lot of studies have discussed the employee behaviour in pubic organizations, understanding and consequences related employee turnover intention still received little intention. The main objective of the study is to investigate the moderating role of organizational commitment on the relationship of performance appraisal politics and employee turnover intention in Punjab Emergency Services, Pakistan. The survey technique has used to collect the one hundred one (101) responses for data analysis. The partial least square structural equation modelling has adopted to draw the findings of the study. The results of study revealed that performance appraisal politics (PAP) and employee turnover intention (TOI) in Rescue 1122 found the positive relationship. Alternatively, organizational commitment (OC) found also negatively related with TOI, mean OC decreasing the TOI. Furthermore, moderating role of OC found negatively influencing the relationship of PAP and TOI. Therefore, OC plays the main role in decreasing the PAP and TOI influence on Rescue 1122 employees. The study framework should empirically validate on other government and private department as well.
Validation of the Evidence-Based Practice Competence Questionnaire for Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greece

(1) Background: evidence-based nursing has been widely adopted by healthcare facilitators, and it is predicated on the connection between research evidence and clinical practice. The knowledge and implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) depend on a variety of long-established barriers and attitudes. The purpose of this study was to translate and validate the Greek version of the evidence-based practice competence questionnaire (EBP-COQ) and test it on a sample of Greek undergraduate nursing students. (2) Methods: a cross-sectional analysis was conducted on data obtained between November 2018 and January 2019. A convenience sample of 320 Greek undergraduate nursing students participated in a survey to examine the psychometric properties of the tool. The reliability and validity of the tool was examined. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used to determine the scale’s internal consistency reliability. (3) Results: the EBP-COQ was translated and validated. The estimated Cronbach’s alpha was higher than 0.70 for all scales. Of the participants, 22.5% were men and 77.5% were women, while 31% of them were in their final year of nursing education. A total of 61% of the students stated that they had not participated in an EBP seminar in the past. High Spearman’s correlation coefficients were found for “Knowledge in EBP” with “Personal attitude towards EBP” (rs = 0.329, p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: the Greek version of the EBP-COQ is a valid instrument that can be used in the Greek population. It provides information about attitude, knowledge and skills in the EBP approach.
THE EFFECTS OF RESTRAINT ON ASR EXPANSION OF REINFORCED CONCRETE

This paper presents the results of tests relating the expansion of concrete specimens with alkali-silica reaction (ASR) to applied constant stresses, both tensile and compressive, and reinforcement ratio. The results were compared with those found by other researchers and to two proposed mathematical models. Additionally, the effects of rate of expansion, specimen size and shape, and orientation of restraint were investigated. It was concluded that size of specimen and orientation of restraint were important factors, and that the relationship between restraint and expansion could be modelled mathematically but the amount of data required restricted the model's practical use.