Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stress Crack Resistance of Corrugated High-Density Polyethylene Pipes in Different Test Environments and Temperatures

Corrugated high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe 36 in. (900 mm) in diameter was evaluated for its stress crack resistance with the notched constant ligament stress test (ASTM F 2136). Test specimens were taken directly from the pipe liner to include the processing effects. In addition to the standard test condition of 10% Igepal solution at 50°C, tests were performed in water and air at temperatures of 60°, 70°, and 80°C. The test data were analyzed with the ISO 9080 method to define the transition point and ductile-to-brittle curve. The results indicate that the 10% Igepal solution greatly accelerates the stress cracking process, whereas the stress cracking behavior in water and in air is aggressive and practically the same. Activation energies in both ductile and brittle portions of the curve are in general agreement with the literature for HDPE resins. The results indicate that the rate processing method is an accurate model with which to extrapolate data from elevated test temperatures to lower service temperatures. However, Popelar's shift method tends to overestimate the failure times.
Electronic Part Obsolescence Driven Product Redesign Planning

Many electronic parts have life cycles that are shorter than the life cycle of the product they are in. Life cycle mismatches caused by the obsolescence of electronic parts can result in high sustainment costs for long life systems. In particular, avionics and military systems often encounter part obsolescence problems before being fielded and nearly always experience part obsolescence problems during their field life. This paper presents a methodology for determining the design refresh (redesign) schedule for long field life electronic systems based on forecasted electronic part obsolescence and a mix of obsolescence mitigation approaches ranging from lifetime buys to part substitution.
Engagement and Challenges in Supervisory Feedback: Supervisors’ and Students’ Perceptions

Engagement with feedback from supervisors is central to developing graduate students’ research and writing skills. Such engagement, however, is not the students’ sole responsibility because different factors might mediate the process. Supervisors’ and students’ differing perceptions of supervisory feedback can create misunderstandings, might inhibit the latter’s engagement with such feedback, and reduce its learning affordances. This article reports a study examining the perceptions that Nepalese Master’s supervisors and students held of student engagement with and challenges in supervisory feedback. The study drew on questionnaire data collected from 30 thesis supervisors and 50 Master’s students and the follow-up interviews with five supervisors and five students at a public university in Nepal. The findings show a marked difference in supervisors’ and the students’ perceptions. The observed differences are considered in terms of the nature of student engagement, the participants’ research experience, and factors contributing to the perceived challenges in supervisory feedback.
Non-linear refined finite element elastic analysis of steel frames with generalized transverse member loads

In the finite element modelling of steel frames, external loads usually act along the members rather than at the nodes only. Conventionally, when a member is subjected to these transverse loads, they are converted to nodal forces which act at the ends of the elements into which the member is discretised by either lumping or consistent nodal load approaches. For a contemporary geometrically non-linear analysis in which the axial force in the member is large, accurate solutions are achieved by discretising the member into many elements, which can produce unfavourable consequences on the efficacy of the method for analysing large steel frames. Herein, a numerical technique to include the transverse loading in the non-linear stiffness formulation for a single element is proposed, and which is able to predict the structural responses of steel frames involving the effects of first-order member loads as well as the second-order coupling effect between the transverse load and the axial force in the member. This allows for a minimal discretisation of a frame for second-order analysis. For those conventional analyses which do include transverse member loading, prescribed stiffness matrices must be used for the plethora of specific loading patterns encountered. This paper shows, however, that the principle of superposition can be applied to the equilibrium condition, so that the form of the stiffness matrix remains unchanged with only the magnitude of the loading being needed to be changed in the stiffness formulation. This novelty allows for a very useful generalised stiffness formulation for a single higher-order element with arbitrary transverse loading patterns to be formulated. The results are verified using analytical stability function studies, as well as with numerical results reported by independent researchers on several simple structural frames.
Comparison of water jets and conventional propeller jets

Conventional ship propulsion systems and hydro jets differ in many ways. However, they are both responsible for sailing and manoeuvring of ships in a forward or reverse direction. The hydrodynamic jet is what they have in common, but the characteristics of the jets differ. For example, the outflow velocity of hydro jets is much higher than the one of conventional jets. Another very relevant difference is the jet direction towards the river or canal bed when the jet is in the reverse mode. Formulas are presented to estimate the flow velocities for two types of hydro jets and compared with formulas for a propeller jet and a free jet. The high flow velocities at the bed in reverse mode can result in scour, therefore, also formulas are presented to estimate the scour depth.
The role of transforming growth factor beta-extracellular matrix signaling in skeletal muscle growth and development.

ii Dedication . iv Acknowledgments . v Vita . vii List of Tables . xii List of Figures . xiii Chapters: 1. Literature Review . 1 1.1 Background . 1 1.2 Muscle . 2 1.3 Skeletal Muscle Development and Growth . 4 1.3. 1 Myogenesis . 5 1.3. 2 Satellite cells . 6 1.4 Extracellular Matrix . 8 1.4. 1 Non-proteoglycan extracellular matrix components . 9 1.4. 2 Proteoglycans . 11 1.5 Cell Adhesion to the Extracellular Matrix . 19 1.6 Transforming Growth Factor-β Signaling Pathways . 21 1.6. 1 Transforming growth factor-β superfamily . 22 1.6. 2 Transforming growth factor-β signaling in myogenesis. 25 1.7 Purpose of the Study . 26 References . 28 2. Effect of Transforming Growth Factor Beta on Decorin and Beta 1 Integrin Expression during Muscle Development in Chickens . 50 Abstract . 50 2.
WIDEBAND ARRAY ANTENNA USING I-F TIME DELAY STEERING

Abstract : If time delay steering of a wideband array antenna is introduced at the i-f frequency instead of at the r-f level, all of the element signal phases will be different and the summed pulses will not add in-phase to produce a beam in the desired direction. It is found that when i-f delay steering is used, an additional incremental phase shift must be introduced into the local oscillator of each mixer to produce in-phase summation. The delay provides alignment of the envelopes while the local oscillator phase shift provides in-phase summation. This condition is found to be independent of frequency and thus bandwidth. The effect of i-f delay error on the system's response is discussed.
High precision angle calibration for spherical measurement systems

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) located in Grenoble, France is a joint facility supported and shared by 19 European countries. It operates the most powerful synchrotron radiation source in Europe. Synchrotron radiation sources address many important questions in modern science and technology. They can be compared to “super microscopes”, revealing invaluable information in numerous fields of diverse research such as physics, medicine, biology, geophysics and archaeology. For the ESRF accelerators and beam lines to work correctly, alignment is of critical importance. Alignment tolerances are typically much less than one millimetre and often in the order of several micrometers over the 844 m ESRF storage ring circumference. To help maintain these tolerances, the ESRF has, and continues to develop calibration techniques for high precision spherical measurement system (SMS) instruments. SMSs are a family of instruments comprising automated total stations (theodolites equipped with distance meters), referred to here as robotic total stations (RTSs); and laser trackers (LTs). The ESRF has a modern distance meter calibration bench (DCB) used for the calibration of SMS electronic distance meters. At the limit of distance meter precision, the only way to improve positional uncertainty in the ESRF alignment is to improve the angle measuring capacity of these instruments. To this end, the horizontal circle comparator (HCC) and the vertical circle comparator (VCC) have been developed. Specifically, the HCC and VCC are used to calibrate the horizontal and vertical circle readings of SMS instruments under their natural working conditions. Combined with the DCB, the HCC and VCC provide a full calibration suite for SMS instruments. This thesis presents their development, functionality and in depth uncertainty evaluation. Several unique challenges are addressed in this work. The first is the development and characterization of the linked encoders configuration (LEC). This system, based on two continuously rotating angle encoders, is designed improve performance by eliminating residual encoder errors. The LEC can measure angle displacements with an estimated uncertainty of at least 0.044 arc seconds. Its uncertainty is presently limited by the instrumentation used to evaluate it. Secondly, in depth investigation has lead to the discovery of previously undocumented error-motion effects in ultra-precision angle calibration. Finally, methods for rigorous characterisation and extraction of rotary table error motions and their uncertainty evaluation using techniques not previously discussed in the literature have been developed.
Image processing for pedestrian detection using a high mounted wide-angle camera

The purpose of this thesis has been to develop a automated pedestrian detection system for high mounted wide angle cameras on a Volvo truck, and prove its functionality for pedestrian detection in urban environments. Two cameras at different heights have been evaluated: one middle mounted forward facing camera; and one top mounted side facing camera. The thesis presents a framework of combining several independent algorithms fused into a unified decision for the presence of a pedestrian. For the forward facing camera a evaluation of image distortion was rst made. Two background subtraction techniques were implemented and compared: the Mixture of Gaussians, and the Codebook method. Further, two object classification methods were compared: the Viola & Jones method where salient features of pedestrians are captured by an overcomplete set of Haar-like wavelet features and chosen by the gentle AdaBoost training algorithm; and the continuation of this method by Dollar et al. To handle the in-plane distortion a rotational scheme was evaluated and setup that resulted in five different classifier regions. The system was trained on pedestrian images captured around Lindholmen in Gothenburg, Sweden. Finally, tracking was incorporated in the form of Kalman filtering. For the side camera two new classifiers were trained based on the pedestrian bounding box viewing angle. An example interface was also developed that displays the final unified decision with a color bounding box warning system based on pedestrian proximity, the current active systems, a distance measure, and tracking history. Evaluation data was captured to test and verify the pedestrian detection and tracking method under normal urban environments. Experimental evaluation of the system on a conventional 2.16 GHz Intel Core2 CPU operating on 720*576 pixel images shows result of a robust detection and tracking system for pedestrians of different sizes, rotations and postures - with fast enough algorithms suitable for on-line operation.
Evaluation of Next-Generation Vision Testers for Aeromedical Certification of Aviation Personnel

Introduction: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allows the use of a variety of vision screening devices to evaluate a pilot applicant’s vision performance for medical certification purposes. This study compares human subject test scores obtained using two new vision testing instruments (Optec 5000 and Titmus i400) with those from previously approved counterparts (Optec 2000 and Titmus 2A), which have been discontinued by their manufacturers. Method: Testing included near, intermediate, and distant visual acuity, when appropriate, as well as heterophoria and color perception. Aside from color vision deficiencies, visual performance for all subjects was within the minimum Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) vision requirements for Class II airmen. The test subject population included 36 individuals who ranged in age from 18 to 66 (34.4 ± 14.2). Six subjects were 50 years of age or over, requiring intermediate vision testing and 12 were color deficient. Analysis was designed to detect statistically significant differences between the test scores obtained with the new instruments vs. the older models. Results: The results of this study indicate that both new instruments provided visual acuity and heterophoria scores that are statistically equivalent to the older models. Color vision test scores for the Titmus i400 were found to be statistically equivalent to those of the Titmus 2A, with little or no change in failure rate. Although the color vision scores of the Optec 5000 were statistically equivalent to those of the Optec 2000, it failed 50% of the color normal subjects in the study. Conclusion: FAA approval is recommended for the Titmus i400 for use in all applicable aviation vision tests. Conditional approval is recommended for the Optec 5000, provided the Aviation Medical Examiner has an appropriate alternate color vision test should individuals be identified as color deficient during the certification exam.
Optimized Structures for Low-Profile Phase Change Thermal Spreaders

Thin, low-profile phase change thermal spreaders can provide cooling solutions for some of today's most pressing heat flux dissipation issues. These thermal issues are only expected to increase as future electronic circuitry requirements lead to denser and potentially 3D chip packaging. Phase change based heat spreaders, such as heat pipes or vapor chambers, can provide a practical solution for effectively dissipating large heat fluxes. This thesis reports a comprehensive study of state-of-the-art capillary pumped wick structures using computational modeling, micro wick fabrication, and experimental analysis. Modeling efforts focus on predicting the shape of the liquid meniscus inside a complicated 3D wick structure. It is shown that this liquid shape can drastically affect the wick's thermal resistance. In addition, knowledge of the liquid meniscus shape allows for the computation of key parameters such as permeability and capillary pressure which are necessary for predicting the maximum heat flux. After the model is validated by comparison to experimental results, the wick structure is optimized so as to decrease overall wick thermal resistance and increase the maximum capillary limited heat flux before dryout. The optimized structures are then fabricated out of both silicon and copper using both traditional and novel micro-fabrication techniques. The wicks are made super-hydrophilic using chemical and thermal oxidation schemes. A sintered monolayer of Cu particles is fabricated and analyzed as well.The fabricated wick structures are experimentally tested for their heat transfer performance inside a well controlled copper vacuum chamber. Heat fluxes as high as 170 W/cm2 are realized for Cu wicks with structure heights of 100 μm. The structures optimized for both minimized thermal resistance and high liquid supply ability perform much better than their non-optimized counterparts. The super-hydrophilic oxidation scheme is found to drastically increase the maximum heat flux and decrease thermal resistance. This research provides key insights as to how to optimize heat pipe structures to minimize thermal resistance and increase maximum heat flux. These thin wick structures can also be combined with a thicker liquid supply layer so that thin, low-resistance evaporator layers can be constructed and higher heat fluxes realized. The work presented in this thesis can be used to aid in the development of high-performance phase change thermal spreaders, allowing for temperature control of a variety of powerful electronic components.
Molecular Characterization of Virulence and Antibiogram profile of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media Patients, Al-Nasiriyah City, Iraq.

— This study was conducted to characterize the virulence of P.aeruginosa isolated from Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media (CSOM) in a particular area at the south of Iraq, Al-Nasiryah City. Conventional bacteriological methods were used to isolate and identify P.aeruginosa . Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with a specific primer that targeting outer membrane Liporpotien L gene ( OprL ) was used to detect P.aeruginosa . The following virulence genes were screened; ToxA , LasB and LasA . Results indicated that the majority of CSOM was attributed to bacterial infection(83.4%) in comparison with only 2(5.6%) were fungal infections. P.aeruginosa was the most predominant species (36.7%) followed by S.aurues , Proteus Spp. and E.coli . Virulence profile revealed that all strains of P.aeruginosa were harboring at least one virulence gene. ToxA gene was found in most strains (90.1%) followed by LasB gene (81.8%) and LasA gene (63.6%). According to different combination of virulence genes, P.aeruginosa can be categorized into four genotypes with high prevalence (63.6%) of the most virulent genotype ( ToxA+ LasA+ Las B+) followed by genotype ( ToxA+ LasA-Las B+ ) (18.6%) while the genotypes ( ToxA+ LasA- LasB and ToxA+ LasA- LasB- ) were found in lowest percentage (9.1%). Additionally, all strains were able to form a biofilm with varying propensity however, the strong biofilm strains were found in a high percentage (72.7%) in genotype ( ToxA+ LasA+ Las B+ ). Antibiogram analysis revealed that high resistance rate against otototic antibiotics including; Erythromycine, Ciprofloxacin(63%), Gentamycin, Ofloxacin and Ceftriaxone were(47.4%, 47.3% and 42.1% respectively). In conclusions, the P.aeruginosa causing CSOM in Al-Nasiriyah city is highly virulent and have a great ability to form biofilm, which could protect it from most commonly used antibiotics especially those used in Al-Nasiriyah, so it is highly recommended to seek for alternative treatment.
Critical Skills for U.S. Marine Corps Call for Fire Positions

Abstract : Emerging Marine Corps infantry warfighting concepts as enhanced company operations (ECO) and distributed operations (DO) place increasing trust in small unit team members to perform responsibilities previously executed at higher echelons. As such concepts are put into practice it will be important to identify individuals with the required skill sets to perform these jobs. In this study a comprehensive job-task analysis was performed to identify the most important skills, abilities, and other characteristics (SAOs) required for successful job performance in small unit, combined arms, call for fire positions, specifically for Marine Fire Support Team (FiST) Forward Air Controller (FAC) and Forward Observer (FO) positions. Ratings were obtained from Marine Corps FiST instructors and expert job analysts. Agreement within and between ratings sources was high. Among the SAOs that emerged as most important for call for fire positions were several related to attention, planning, and problem solving skills. Other important SAOs related to communications, teamwork and stress tolerance.
Precious MeTL: Reflections on the use of Tablet PCs and collaborative interactive software in peer-assisted study sessions

Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) is an academic mentoring program, where high-achieving senior students assist small groups of first years in study sessions throughout semester. One of the challenges PASS Leaders face at Monash in conducting their classes is the limited time they have with their students. The current paper explores, through action research, the use of Tablet PCs and an interactive, online whiteboard software suite called MeTL to increase the efficiency of time spent learning and sharing. The PASS Leaders found that while some difficulties remained, the advantages of using the Tablet PCs and the software were significant, particularly for student engagement, increasing time efficiencies, student collaboration and encouraging real-time feedback to the PASS Leader
Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Malaria Prevention Among Students of Hamelmalo Agricultural College

Background: Malaria is one of the most severe public health problems worldwide with 300 to 500 million cases and about one million deaths reported annually. In Eritrea, malaria is one of the major public health problems, particularly in Gash Barka zone which bears more than 60% of the burden. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, practice and misconceptions as well as association among knowledge of most vulnerable population and practice of the respondents on utilization of ITN with their demographic characteristics. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess KAP of Hamelmalo Agriculture College students in November 2016. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20 and Stata version 13. Results: (99.3%) of respondents were aware of the existence of malaria as a disease. With regard to the malaria symptoms, fever was the most frequently reported by participant accounts 99.7%. 70.1% of respondents said they went to health facility if they get sick. Majority (85.1%) of the respondents owned ITN but only 69.2% slept last night in ITN. 228 (77.55%) perceive malaria as serious diseases only if it remains untreated however, 13 (4.42%) as an ordinary disease. Some misconceptions were found on the assessment of the students on factors associated with malaria infection and health seeking behavior. The predictors of ITN utilization was found to be age 20 (OR18.49, (CI 1.227-278.87) (P=0.035) and being resident of Zoba Debub (OR 0.094, (CI, 0.014-0.607)) (0.013) or Zoba Gash Barka (OR 0.027(CI, 0.02-0.258) (P=0.002). The association between age of respondent and level of knowledge was found to be statistically significant with OR ranging from 3.9 up to 37.5 for the differ age groups.Conclusion: The student of Hamelmalo Agricultural College has a fair knowledge, which is above 60% of the mean score and 50% on attitude and practice which is hard to accept, because we were proposing to get more than 50%. So there are still areas that need to be addressed, since the students are likely to influence the behavior of their parents addressing the existing misconception is important.
PREDICTION OF STILL-WATER BENDING MOMENTS IN CONTAINERSHIPS

Design criteria for longitudinal members of container ships are discussed. It is common practice to assume certain loading cases chosen somewhat artificially. In practice, a broad spectrum of loading cases occurs due to the random nature of container number, weight and arrangement. Theoretically, the stowage could be based on the criterion of minimum bending moments, with some trim and stability requirements treated as constraints. In practice, however, containers have to be sorted within the ship according to ports of origin and destination to facilitate the loading-unloading operations.