Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stride segmentation of inertial sensor data using statistical methods for different walking activities

Abstract Human gait data can be collected using inertial measurement units (IMUs). An IMU is an electronic device that uses an accelerometer and gyroscope to capture three-axial linear acceleration and three-axial angular velocity. The data so collected are time series in nature. The major challenge associated with these data is the segmentation of signal samples into stride-specific information, that is, individual gait cycles. One empirical approach for stride segmentation is based on timestamps. However, timestamping is a manual technique, and it requires a timing device and a fixed laboratory set-up which usually restricts its applicability outside of the laboratory. In this study, we have proposed an automatic technique for stride segmentation of accelerometry data for three different walking activities. The autocorrelation function (ACF) is utilized for the identification of stride boundaries. Identification and extraction of stride-specific data are done by devising a concept of tuning parameter ( $t_{p}$ ) which is based on minimum standard deviation ( $\sigma$ ). Rigorous experimentation is done on human activities and postural transition and Osaka University – Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research gait inertial sensor datasets. Obtained mean stride duration for level walking, walking upstairs, and walking downstairs is 1.1, 1.19, and 1.02 s with 95% confidence interval [1.08, 1.12], [1.15, 1.22], and [0.97, 1.07], respectively, which is on par with standard findings reported in the literature. Limitations of accelerometry and ACF are also discussed. stride segmentation; human activity recognition; accelerometry; gait parameter estimation; gait cycle; inertial measurement unit; autocorrelation function; wearable sensors; IoT; edge computing; tinyML.
Empirical estimate of fundamental frequencies and damping for Italian buildings

The aim of this work is to estimate the fundamental translational frequencies and relative damping of a large number of existing buildings, performing ambient vibration measurements. The first part of the work is devoted to the comparison of the results obtained with microtremor measurements with those obtained from earthquake recordings using four different techniques: horizontal‐to‐vertical spectral ratio, standard spectral ratio, non‐parametric damping analysis (NonPaDAn) and half bandwidth method. We recorded local earthquakes on a five floors reinforced concrete building with a pair of accelerometers located on the ground and on top floor, and then collected microtremors at the same location of the accelerometers. The agreement between the results obtained with microtremors and earthquakes has encouraged extending ambient noise measurements to a large number of buildings. We analysed the data with the above‐mentioned methods to obtain the two main translational frequencies in orthogonal directions and their relative damping for 80 buildings in the urban areas of Potenza and Senigallia (Italy). The frequencies determined with different techniques are in good agreement. We do not have the same satisfactory results for the estimates of damping: the NonPaDAn provides estimates that are less dispersed and grouped around values that appear to be more realistic. Finally, we have compared the measured frequencies with other experimental results and theoretical models. Our results confirm, as reported by previous authors, that the theoretical period–height relationships overestimate the experimental data. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DESIGN, MODELING, AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS OF A BROADBAND VIBRATION ENERGY HARVESTER USING A MAGNETOELECTRIC TRANSDUCER

This article presents a new broadband vibration energy harvester using a magnetoelectric (ME) transducer. In order for vibration energy harvesters to be efficiently applicable over a range of vibration frequencies, many techniques have recently been investigated to broaden the frequency ranges of the harvesters using piezoelectric, electromagnetic, or electrostatic transductions, but few have been studied in the harvesters using ME transducers. In this article, a new harvester using a ME transducer is proposed, which takes advantage of multi-cantilever beams and nonlinear behavior of the magnetic force to expand the working bandwidth in ambient low frequency vibration. A theoretical model is developed to analyze the nonlinear vibration of the harvester, and the effects of the structure parameters on the electrical output and the bandwidth of the harvester are analyzed to achieve the optimal vibration energy harvesting performances. The experimental results on the performances show that the harvester has bandwidths of 5.2 Hz, 6.3 Hz, and 7.2 Hz, and the maximum output power values of 0.21 mW, 0.6 mW, and 1.03 mW at the accelerations of 0.2 g, 0.4 g, and 0.6 g (with g = 9.8 ms−2), respectively.
Exhaust Emission Studies of Diesel and Soybean Oil Blends as CI Engine Fuel

A study was conducted on fuel blends prepared using diesel and refined soybean oil combinations compatible with diesel fuel as used in CI engines. A stationary 3.73 kW Kirloskar make single cylinder compression ignition diesel engine having 27° BTDC (standard injection timing) was tested as per IS 10000 1980 on diesel and prepared diesel blends. The performance tests of the engine were carried on at no load, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 110 % brake load conditions and emission of CO, UBHC and NOx was evaluated for each fuel blends. The emission of CO, UBHC, nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide from the engine on diesel - refined soybean oil blends was in the range of 0.21 to 0.85%, 0.01 to 0.16%, 12.7 to 317 ppm and 3.8 to 41 ppm, respectively. The results indicated that the emission of CO and UBHC on the selected blends was found comparable but the NOx level was found to be higher than the diesel. A blend having diesel refined soybean oil mixed in 80:20 proportion replacing 20 percent diesel may be selected for fuel use in CI engines.
Orthostatic Symptoms and Reductions in Cerebral Blood Flow in Long-Haul COVID-19 Patients: Similarities with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Background and Objectives: Symptoms and hemodynamic findings during orthostatic stress have been reported in both long-haul COVID-19 and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), but little work has directly compared patients from these two groups. To investigate the overlap in these clinical phenotypes, we compared orthostatic symptoms in daily life and during head-up tilt, heart rate and blood pressure responses to tilt, and reductions in cerebral blood flow in response to orthostatic stress in long-haul COVID-19 patients, ME/CFS controls, and healthy controls. Materials and Methods: We compared 10 consecutive long-haul COVID-19 cases with 20 age- and gender-matched ME/CFS controls with postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS) during head-up tilt, 20 age- and gender-matched ME/CFS controls with a normal heart rate and blood pressure response to head-up tilt, and 10 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Identical symptom questionnaires and tilt test procedures were used for all groups, including measurement of cerebral blood flow and cardiac index during the orthostatic stress. Results: There were no significant differences in ME/CFS symptom prevalence between the long-haul COVID-19 patients and the ME/CFS patients. All long-haul COVID-19 patients developed POTS during tilt. Cerebral blood flow and cardiac index were more significantly reduced in the three patient groups compared with the healthy controls. Cardiac index reduction was not different between the three patient groups. The cerebral blood flow reduction was larger in the long-haul COVID-19 patients compared with the ME/CFS patients with a normal heart rate and blood pressure response. Conclusions: The symptoms of long-haul COVID-19 are similar to those of ME/CFS patients, as is the response to tilt testing. Cerebral blood flow and cardiac index reductions during tilt were more severely impaired than in many patients with ME/CFS. The finding of early-onset orthostatic intolerance symptoms, and the high pre-illness physical activity level of the long-haul COVID-19 patients, makes it unlikely that POTS in this group is due to deconditioning. These data suggest that similar to SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2 infection acts as a trigger for the development of ME/CFS.
Epidermal growth factor signalling pathway in endochondral ossification: an evidence-based narrative review

Abstract During endochondral bone development, a complex process that leads to the formation of the majority of skeletal elements, mesenchymal cells condense, differentiating into chondrocytes and producing the foetal growth plate. Chondrocytes progressively hypertrophy, induce angiogenesis and are then gradually replaced by bone. Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), one of many growth factors, is the prototype of the EGF-ligand family, which comprises several proteins involved in cell proliferation, migration and survival. In bone, EGF pathway signalling finely tunes the first steps of chondrogenesis by maintaining mesenchymal cells in an undifferentiated stage, and by promoting hypertrophic cartilage replacement. Moreover, EGF signalling modulates bone homeostasis by stimulating osteoblast and osteoclast proliferation, and by regulating osteoblast differentiation under specific spatial and temporal conditions. This evidence-based narrative review describes the EGF pathway in bone metabolism and endochondral bone development. This comprehensive description may be useful in light of possible clinical applications in orthopaedic practice. A deeper knowledge of the role of EGF in bone may be useful in musculoskeletal conditions which may benefit from the modulation of this signalling pathway. Key messages The EGF pathway is involved in bone metabolism. EGF signalling is essential in the very early stages of limb development by maintaining cells in an undifferentiated stage. EGF pathway positively regulates chondrocyte proliferation, negatively modulates hypertrophy, and favours cartilage replacement by bone. EGF and EGF-like proteins finely tune the proliferation and differentiation of bone tissue cells, and they also regulate the initial phases of endochondral ossification.
Corporate cultures and financial performance: The mediating role of firm innovation

Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the association between cultural factors and the financial performance of the firm. The study includes power distance, clan culture, uncertainty avoidance, firm innovation, and market culture as independent variables and financial performance as a dependent variable. This study relies on a primary data collected from 216 respondents from various organizations in Nepal. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The study results show that organizational culture has a significant impact on financial performance. Among the five cultural dimensions, firm innovation, and uncertainty avoidance have a strong direct impact on the financial performance of the firm whereas market culture has an indirect effect on the financial performance of the firm. This research encourages Nepalese firms to pay attention to the conducive working environment, especially the atmosphere of market culture, innovation, and uncertainty avoidance.
Elevated Ozone Concentration and Nitrogen Addition Increase Poplar Rust Severity by Shifting the Phyllosphere Microbial Community

The tropospheric ozone and nitrogen deposition are two major environmental pollutants. Numerous studies have focused on the negative impacts of elevated O3 and the complementary effect of soil N addition to tree physiological characteristics. However, it was notoriously ignored of how elevated O3 with N addition affect tree immunity in face of pathogen infection, as well as of the important roles of phyllosphere microbiome community in host-pathogen-environment interplay. Here, we examined the effects of elevated O3 and soil N addition on poplar leaf rust (Melampsora larici-populina) severity of two susceptible hybrid poplars (clone ‘107’: Populus euramericana cv. ‘74/76’; clone ‘546’: P. deltoides ⊆ P. cathayana) in Free-Air-Controlled-Environment plots, besides, the link between Mlp-susceptibility and changes in microbial community was determined using Miseq amplicon sequencing. Rust severity of clone ‘107’ significantly increased under elevated O3 or N addition only, however, the negative impact of elevated O3 could be significantly alleviated when simultaneously conducting N addition, likewise, this trade-off was also found in its phyllosphere microbial α-diversity responding to elevated O3 and N addition. However, the rust severity of clone ‘546’ did not significantly differ in the cases of elevated O3 and N addition. Mlp infection altered microbial community composition and increased its sensitivity to elevated O3 assessed by significantly different abundance of taxa. Elevated O3 and N addition reduced the complexity of microbial community, which may explain the increased severity of poplar rust. These findings demonstrated that poplars need shifting phyllosphere microbial associations to optimize plant immunity in response to environmental changes. Importance Exploitation of the interaction mechanisms between host plants and pathogens is the essential basis in disease control. However, while much was known about the molecular determinants in pathogenesis process in the past decades, less is known about the role of nonpathogenic microbial community in plant-pathogen interaction, especially when some host plants are currently encountering severe environmental stresses, such as elevated ozone concentration and superfluous nitrogen addition. Thus, we targeted at the widespread and detriment rust disease (poplar-poplar rust) to dissect the influences of elevated ozone and nitrogen addition on rust disease severity and how phyllosphere microbial groups interacting with both poplars and rust pathogen under these biotic stresses. Our findings could be used to prescribe ecological information about poplar plantation in areas with high levels of ozone pollution and better understand the important roles of microbiome in plant heath.
Toward a cumulative science of vocal markers of autism: A cross‐linguistic meta‐analysis‐based investigation of acoustic markers in American and Danish autistic children

Acoustic atypicalities in speech production are argued to be potential markers of clinical features in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A recent meta‐analysis highlighted shortcomings in the field, in particular small sample sizes and study heterogeneity. We showcase a cumulative (i.e., explicitly building on previous studies both conceptually and statistically) yet self‐correcting (i.e., critically assessing the impact of cumulative statistical techniques) approach to prosody in ASD to overcome these issues. We relied on the recommendations contained in the meta‐analysis to build and analyze a cross‐linguistic corpus of multiple speech productions in 77 autistic and 72 neurotypical children and adolescents (>1000 recordings in Danish and US English). We used meta‐analytically informed and skeptical priors, with informed priors leading to more generalizable inference. We replicated findings of a minimal cross‐linguistically reliable distinctive acoustic profile for ASD (higher pitch and longer pauses) with moderate effect sizes. We identified novel reliable differences between the two groups for normalized amplitude quotient, maxima dispersion quotient, and creakiness. However, the differences were small, and there is likely no one acoustic profile characterizing all autistic individuals. We identified reliable relations of acoustic features with individual differences (age, gender), and clinical features (speech rate and ADOS sub‐scores). Besides cumulatively building our understanding of acoustic atypicalities in ASD, the study shows how to use systematic reviews and meta‐analyses to guide the design and analysis of follow‐up studies. We indicate future directions: larger and more diverse cross‐linguistic datasets, focus on heterogeneity, self‐critical cumulative approaches, and open science.
Average Bridge Consensus: Dealing With Active-Passive Sensors

In network average consensus problems, a failure, in which a node cannot provide the initial value, but can communicate with its neighbors gives rise to the bridge consensus problem. In its formulation, the failed node serves as a bridge which maintains the network communication connectivity, and its failure to provide the value does not impact the capability of the rest of the network nodes to reach a consensus. The proposed bridge consensus solution can deal with multiple failing nodes and large networks in a scalable manner. The solution properties are proven and illustrated by a numerical example.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Determination of the Cruise Vessels Seasonal Pattern in Eastern Adriatic

The notion of a seasonal pattern of cruise ships has been used frequently, but very few authors have analysed all the features of this pattern. This article adds some new insights on this topic by analysing cruise ship activity in the three largest ports on the east coast of Adriatic Sea in 2017 and 2018. The article presents an analysis of cruise ship arrivals at the ports and compares the analysis to the established pattern in the Mediterranean, revealing the nature of the seasonal pattern for the ports analysed. In addition, two further analyses were carried out, firstly the analysis of ship size, which determines new characteristics of the seasonal pattern. The second additional analysis considered the duration of ship visit during different times of the year and determined another pattern characteristic. http://www.transnav. eu the International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation Volume 15
Scrap loss reduction using the 5‐whys analysis

Purpose – This paper seeks to document an approach to reduce scrap losses using the root cause analysis technique in a lean manufacturing environment.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses lean manufacturing root cause problem solving (RCPS) technique. The study starts with the collection phase, followed by the analysis phase and ends with the solution phase. Supporting data are presented using a Pareto chart to prioritise wastage in order to be more focused for improvement. The Toyota Production System's 5‐whys analysis is performed to analyse the cause of wastages, to formulate and implement corrective actions.Findings – The application of the 5‐whys analysis in a manufacturing industry (XYZ Corporation) provides a fact‐based and structured approach to problem identification and correction that not only reduces, but also totally eliminates defects. Corrective action has permanently eliminated the top defect, which is the “last piece material scratch” and this results in zero scrap thereafter. In t.
Unpacking the Blue Box: structure, control and education in policing

ABSTRACT Research addressing the relationship between Higher Education (HE) and police officers tends to fall into one of three camps. First, that which explores the relationship between police institutions and academic institutions, second, those which explore the appropriateness of the HE setting for the delivery of police-specific knowledge, and, finally, research which investigates the impact of police higher education engagement upon police officer attributes and practice (Brown. 2018. Do graduate police officers make a difference to policing? Results of an integrative literature review. Policing: a journal of policy and practice, policing, 1–22. doi:10.1093/police/pay075). Thus far, little research has discussed the impact HE has on the relationship between officers and the police organisation. This research, derived from interviews with 31 police officers who undertook in-service degrees, explores police officers’ engagement with HE study and the consequent changes to their perception of their relationship with the profession. This is contrasted with the relatively unchanged structural and cultural expectations the organisation places on officers regardless of their newly acquired graduate status as reported in the extant literature (Hallenberg and Cockcroft. 2017. From indifference to hostility: police officers, organisational responses and the symbolic value of ‘in-service’ higher education in policing. Policing: a journal of policy and practice, 11 (3), 273–288). The discrepancy can be explained through the recent scholarship on public sector isomorphism and the police’s transformation into a hybrid organisation (Noordegraaf. 2015. Hybrid professionalism and beyond: new forms of public professionalism in changing organizational and societal contexts. Journal of professions and organization, 2, 187–206), as well as the competing knowledge paradigms within policing (Williams and Cockcroft. 2018. Knowledge wars: professionalisation, organisational justice and competing knowledge paradigms in British policing. In: L. Huey, and R Mitchell, eds. Evidence-based policing: an introduction. Bristol: Policy Press, 131–141). Importantly, however, the current paper takes this discussion deeper. It argues that the police’s unique role in serving not just the public but also state interests inevitably shapes and constrains the process of professionalisation, the relationship between the police and HE, and officers’ ability to use knowledge and skills gained through HE study.
Implication of Potential Differential Roles of the Two Phosphoglucomutase Isoforms in the Protozoan Parasite Cryptosporidium parvum

Phosphoglucomutase 1 (PGM1) catalyzes the conversion between glucose-1-phosphate and glucose-6-phosphate in the glycolysis/glucogenesis pathway. PGM1s are typically cytosolic enzymes in organisms lacking chloroplasts. However, the protozoan Cryptosporidium parasites possess two tandemly duplicated PGM1 genes evolved by a gene duplication after their split from other apicomplexans. Moreover, the downstream PGM1 isoform contains an N-terminal signal peptide, predicting a non-cytosolic location. Here we expressed recombinant proteins of the two PGM1 isoforms from the zoonotic Cryptosporidium parvum, namely CpPGM1A and CpPGM1B, and confirmed their enzyme activity. Both isoforms followed Michaelis–Menten kinetics towards glucose-1-phosphate (Km = 0.17 and 0.13 mM, Vmax = 7.30 and 2.76 μmol/min/mg, respectively). CpPGM1A and CpPGM1B genes were expressed in oocysts, sporozoites and intracellular parasites at a similar pattern of expression, however CpPGM1A was expressed at much higher levels than CpPGM1B. Immunofluorescence assay showed that CpPGM1A was present in the cytosol of sporozoites, however this was enriched towards the plasma membranes in the intracellular parasites; whereas CpPGM1B was mainly present under sporozoite pellicle, although relocated to the parasitophorous vacuole membrane in the intracellular development. These observations indicated that CpPGM1A played a house-keeping function, while CpPGM1B played a different biological role that remains to be defined by future investigations.
An elliptic dielectric resonator antenna designed for circular polarization with single feed

A single‐fed elliptic dielectric resonator antenna is designed for circular polarization. The feed is a coaxial probe chosen with the proper parameters to achieve wideband matching and good circular polarization properties. The analysis is performed numerically using WIPL‐D. The single‐fed DRA achieves 3.5% circular polarization bandwidth and 14% matching bandwidth. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 37: 454–456, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.10948