Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Applications of ferrocement as a low cost construction material in Malaysia

The efficient use of alternative building materials and technology, appropriate to the local needs of a country must be studied and developed in order to assist the country in sustaining its building activities. Ferrocement, as a relatively new construction material in Malaysia, is slowly gaining acceptance. Various applications of ferrocement as a low cost construction material in the country is discussed.
Developing a conceptual model for innovation diffusion evaluation in architecture and engineering design organisations

For the past decade, innovation in construction has been a topic of interest for many academicians and industry practitioners. In particular, numerous studies have investigated the influential factors which can lead to successful innovation outcomes for organisations striving to excel in their particular industry. However, the majority of existing research models tended to depict the effects of macro-level variables on innovation outcomes yet overlooked the potential mediating role of intra-organisation dynamics, especially of organisational climate. This paper attempts to overcome these deficiencies by building a more robust model that accommodates the numerous variables which encapsulate the collective innovation climate of an architecture and engineering design (AED) firm. The developed conceptual model includes the hierarchical key enablers of innovation diffusion, namely, organisational culture, leadership and team climate. Fostering such innovation enablers should undoubtedly deliver outcomes for AED firms in terms of state-of-the-art technology utilisation, best-practice design solutions and other products of innovation. Moreover, AED firms that proactively implement strategies for accommodating innovation should also experience improvements in business performance. Ultimately, the competitiveness of AED firms in the knowledge economy will depend on their ability to embrace technological and organisational changes while fostering and supporting dispersed teams.
Dynamic Characteristics of New Bridges I-15 Research, Phase III. Testing and Modeling of the I-15 Flyover, C-846; Vine Street Overpass, C-814; and Cherry Hill, C-123 Bridges

Several bridges were instrumented with velocity transducers and accelerometers and were vibrated using harmonic forcing and impact forcing. Modal parameters were determined and monitored during the entire process. Finite element models were created for each bridge and calibrated using the field results. The modal parameters from the field were compared with those from the finite element models. In general the models yielded excellent results for the lower modes of the structures. The testing also provides a benchmark for the three bridges tested in order to compare future results.
Sustainable sea transport research programme: toward a research - based programme of investigation for Oceania

This paper sets out the background, rationale and aims of a newly-established University of the South Pacific (USP) research cluster programme investigating the role that renewable energy might play for sustainable sea transport in the region. Immediate and pressing challenges besetting Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) include the effects of climate change and high dependency on imported fossil fuels. Despite transport being the region’s single largest user of imported fossil fuels by sector, the focus of programmes within the region to date to reduce such dependency has been on the use of renewable energy for electricity generation. Global interest in alternative energy technologies for shipping is growing, but renewable energy–powered sea transport at the small-scale level appropriate to the domestic needs of PICs has not yet been seriously explored. Past lessons and recent research indicate strong potential for such technology to provide practical and multiple benefits to PICs as a viable alternative. USP’s current current one-year interdisciplinary Sustainable Sea Transport Research Programme focuses on micro- and macroeconomic analysis of selected case studies and on maintaining momentum of a collaborative network of stakeholders and expertise established in 2012. It describes the need and potential for a longer-term programme of research, including practical trialling of two designs of renewable energy vessels in a ‘real world’ commercial scenario in the Pacific Islands.
Performance Evaluation of Various High Back Booster Seats Tested at 56 Kph using a 6-Year-Old Hybrid III Dummy

Recent increase in the use of child restraints, particularly belt-positioning booster seats, requires closer evaluation of their performance. Previous studies by Menon, et al. and Sherwood, et. al. have shown that the Hybrid III 6-year-old dummy produced unusual head-neck kinematics and neck injury measures that exceeded critical values while restrained in a high back booster seat. Both studies used similar high back booster seats for the tests but were done at different speeds and conditions. This study was undertaken to initiate a process to evaluate the performance of multiple high back booster seats by conducting a series of sled tests. These 56 kph sled tests were done using the Hybrid III 6-year-old child dummy in 4 different high back booster seats and their injury measures were compared. Results of these tests have been summarized in this paper and provide an evidence for a differential performance among the various designs of high back booster seats compounded with the established lack of biofidelity of the Hybrid III 6-year-old dummy. Injury tolerances exceeded for the 6 year-old dummy in two of the high back booster seats for the Head Injury Criteria, in three of the seats for chest G’s and in all the four seats for the Neck Injury Criteria. In two of the seats with similar design, the kinematics of the head was unusual, mainly due to the extreme hyper-flexing of the neck. The high neck injury measures obtained from the sled tests are in contrast to the field data, which show that children in belt-positioning booster seats suffered virtually no injuries to the abdomen, neck/spine/back. These test results and field data highlight the need for further research to be conducted to improve the biofidelity of the Hybrid III 6-year-old dummy neck and to understand the variation in the high back booster seat designs at higher speeds.
Forestry Extension in Tennessee: Comparing Traditional and Web-Based Program Delivery Methods

I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Samuel Wayne Jackson entitled “Forestry Extension in Tennessee: Comparing Traditional and Web-Based Program Delivery Methods. ” I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Natural Resources.
Essays on unit root testing in panel data

This thesis discusses some issues on unit root testing in panel data. It first examines the intra-China price convergence by employing panel unit root tests that take cross-sectional dependence into account. Contrast to the existing literature, where tests assuming independence are employed and PPP is found in the vast majority of goods/services prices, our study finds mixed evidence in favor of PPP. Mixed panels with both I(1) and I(0) units are then considered, a large scale simulation study is undertaken. Size/power of panel unit root tests are examined under a variety of DGPs. A battery of procedures designed for mixed panels are employed, and their performance are examined by simulation. An application on intra-China PPP shows that, on average, only a small proportion of stationary units can be found in relative price panels. We then consider fractionally integrated processes and propose two different types of panel fractional integration test, a Fisher-type test and a multiple testing procedure that controls the false discovery rate (FDR) and classify units into null and alternative. Simulation evidence is provided. Empirical application shows that, in our intra-China PPP study, strong evidence can be found against the unit root null.
The Role of DARPA in Seeding and Encouraging New Technology Trajectories: Pre- and Post- Tony Tether in the New Innovation Ecosystem

This paper, a case study of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), sheds new insights into the role of the U.S. State in innovation. The study uses grounded theory building methods to unpack the processes by which DARPA fosters new technology trajectories within the institutional ecosystem supporting the computing industry. At the heart of the paper are 50 in-depth field interviews of DARPA program managers and related Microsystems technologists within start-ups, universities, government institutions, and the five established computing firms. Going further, the paper triangulates this qualitative interview data with participant observation, archival data, and bibliometric data to provide a holistic view of the forces driving technological change. The results find DARPA to be a uniquely adaptive organization. Yet, throughout such adaptations, DARPA program managers use the same five step process to influence technology. With its latest shift, DARPA may be effectively (1) narrowing the valley of death, (2) coordinating innovation within a vertically fragmented industry, and (3) influencing innovation to serve military needs despite primary demand being in commercial applications. This “new DARPA” may, however, leave the U.S. technology pipeline without new sources.
LTL specifications for Highway Lane Changing Maneuvers of Highly Automated Vehicles

Since the interest in autonomous driving solutions is massively increasing, the need for good and reliable control algorithms is growing every day. This project studies the performance of safe lane changes of a highly autonomous vehicle given the currently available perception of the environment, vehicle dynamics and desired comfort and speed requirements from the user. Also focus will be on when the vehicle decides to overtake other vehicles to move closer to its desired prescribed speed, while respecting the "rules of the road", i.e. not causing unexpected actions in relation to the other road participants. These requirements will then be converted into linear temporal logic statements for the purpose of automated synthesis of a receding horizon controller for longitudinal and lateral control of the vehicle. Thereby allowing it to make adjustments to the desired system behavior and computing a new control strategy, relatively easy and by definition, the resulting controller is formally guaranteed to meet the safety specifications at all times. Besides this search for formal specifications, a comparison is made with more conventional control techniques by reviewing a model predictive controller that was developed parallel to this project, showing its capabilities and discussing possible safety issues.
Micropump Design for Optimum Pressure/Flow Characteristics

Until now there have been no reports of design techniques that include a means for developing pumps that can pump against higher pressure loads at the cost of less volume flow rate delivered to the load or vice versa. We address this problem for membrane micropumps that incorporate no-moving-parts valves (NMPV). A design approach is presented that utilizes a linear low-order model, finite element analysis to optimize piezoelectric actuation, and an algorithm to interrogate a design space of membrane thickness and valve size for any specified pressure load. The results indicate that optimum designs are relatively far from existing pumps and that significant improvements are possible. These gains appear to be due to the ability of the design approach to select non-obvious combinations of membrane stiffness and valve size to better “tune” the system, which is crucial in the case of NMPV pump, because excellent resonant behavior can make up for the fact that the valves do not open and close. Another important observation was that the optimal design point for pressure was not the same as for flow. This result is an indication that pumps can be designed for pressure or flow through careful design.
Brain Metastasis in Soft Tissue Sarcoma at Initial Presentation

Background/Aim: Brain metastasis is a rare condition among patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS), and its precise incidence remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate which patients should be screened for brain metastasis. Patients and Methods: We identified all patients with STS diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 in the SEER database. Incidence of brain metastasis at initial presentation and higher incidence of brain metastasis by histological subtype were investigated. In addition, risk factors for brain metastasis were examined. Results: A total of 26,676 patients were included for analysis, of whom 162 patients (0.6%) had brain metastasis. Alveolar soft part sarcoma (6.3%), malignant hemangioendothelioma (3.1%) and malignant schwannoma (2.6%) showed higher incidence of brain metastasis. Deep-rooted tumor, trunk tumor, and histological high-grade tumor tended to show higher incidence of brain metastasis. Conclusion: Risk factors for brain metastasis were deep location, trunk development and histologically high-grade tumor, or specific histological subtypes.
Application of accelerated rehabilitation surgery concept in laparoscopic radical gastrectomy cancer for patients aged ≥70 years

Background: To explore the application effect of accelerated rehabilitation surgery on laparoscopic radical gastrectomy cancer for patients aged ≥70 years.Methods: Retrospective analysis of 120 aged ≥70 patients’ clinical data undergoing laparoscopic radical gastrectomy in our hospital from January 2017 to December 2018, which were divided into accelerated rehabilitation group (n = 73) and control group (n = 47). By comparing the postoperative clinical data of the two groups, we explored the application effect of accelerated rehabilitation surgery on laparoscopic radical gastrectomy cancer for patients aged ≥70 years.Results: Compared with the control group, the first time to get out of bed (2.1 ± 0.9 days vs 3.8 ± 1.5 days, P<0.01), the first exhaust time (3.2 ± 0.8 days vs 3.9 ± 1.2 days, P<0.01) and the first time to eat liquid food after surgery (1.8 ± 0.9 days vs 3.2 ± 1.3 days, P<0.01), and postoperative hospital stay (12.7 ± 4.3 days vs 15.8 ± 6.4 days, P<0.01) in the rehabilitation group were significantly lower. There was no significant difference in the overall postoperative complications between the two groups (P<0.05), however, the complications of pulmonary infection in the accelerated rehabilitation group was significantly lower than that in the control group (1.4% vs 10.6%, P = 0.03). Conclusions: The application of accelerated rehabilitation surgery concepts and measures after surgery in laparoscopic radical gastrectomy cancer for patients aged ≥70 years can promote early postoperative rehabilitation, reduce postoperative hospital stay, and reduce the incidence of postoperative pulmonary infection complications.
AXIAL FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION OF BRIDGE CABLES

Some large-scale axial fatigue experimental results on spiral strands with diameters up to 63mm were recently made available to the author by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), UK. The purpose of the present paper is to report the correlations between these test data and predictions based on a previously reported theory (developed by the present author) which have been found to be encouraging. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD 882313.
Application of an Active Foil Propeller

In this master thesis the author has investigated the potential benefits from an active foil propeller. Foils are mounted on the hull and take advantage of the heaving and pitching motion of the vessel travelling and produce thrust, similarly to the tail find of aquatic mammals. Active foil means that the angle of the foil has been controlled to constantly maximise the thrust. The author has investigated the potential fuel savings for three vessels, an offshore supply vessel, a coastal tanker and a purse seiner. Calculations have been done considering 9 different foil configurations and five wave headings at forward velocities of 10, 12, 15 and 18 knots. In regular waves six wave periods have been used and irregular waves are also considered. The structural aspect and the possibility of fatigue are investigated and concepts for storing the foils when not used are suggested. ShipX, a program developed my MARINTEK, has been used to find the motions of the vessels and other vital information needed to predict the potential fuel savings. The thrust force is calculated using MATLAB. The results show large potential benefits. Especially for irregular waves we have calculated fuel savings of more than 60 % at 10 and 12 knots. Higher velocities are less beneficial. A large aspect ratio combined with a large foil area produces the most promising results, but if the aspect ratio becomes to large there is a danger of fatigue and the foil structure must be strengthened. The foils are quite large and when not in used they would be stowed away. The ideal method is to store the foils in a compartment of little use, like in the collision bulkhead. There is no easy way of doing this, so the storing system would probably be costly. Over all the potential fuel savings are large for a range of wave conditions up to a certain vessel velocity, but there are practical aspects that would reduce the total benefits.
Visual Issues Survey of AH-64 Apache Aviators (Year 2000)

Abstract : A web-based survey was conducted investigating AH-64 Apache pilot experience with the Integrated Helmet Display Sighting System (IHADSS). A total of 216 respondents provided responses in the following areas: visual complaints, helmet fit, and acoustics. Data indicated that 92% of respondents reported at least one visual complaint either during or after IHADSS flight. Additional findings include: no association between eye preference and frequency of complaints, an increase in frequency of visual complaints from a previous 1990 study, and no correlation between frequency of visual complaints and age or experience.
Empirical Test on the intermediary effect of Producer Services Agglomeration Affecting Manufacturing Efficiency: Based on Innovation Ability

Both academia and practice believe that the knowledge spillover effect of industrial agglomeration can effectively promote industrial efficiency, especially the spatial agglomeration of knowledge-intensive industries can play an important role in the economic development of its surrounding areas and industrial upgrading of related industries. On this basis, this paper focuses on the intermediary path between the agglomeration of producer services and the efficiency of manufacturing industry. Using the data from the year of 2006 to 2015, and the method of Wen Zhonglin's intermediary effect test[1], this paper verifies the intermediary effect of innovation capabilities in the process of the agglomeration of producer services effects manufacturing efficiency. The results show that the innovation capabilities have an incomplete intermediary effect on the relationship between the agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing efficiency. The intermediary effect of innovation ability accounts for 42.13% of the total effect. Moreover, the proportion ranking of intermediary effect of innovation ability in the four sub-producer services industries in order of size from low to high, except "leasing and business service industry", is "financial industry", "information industry", "science industry", "transportation industry". The proportion of intermediary effect of innovation ability is between 15% and 43%. It means that innovation ability plays an important role in transmitting the impact of producer services agglomeration on manufacturing efficiency.
INVESTIGATION OF RELIABILITY IN GALLIUM NITRIDE HIGH ELECTRON MOBILITY TRANSISTORS USING EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT MODELS FOR USE IN HIGH POWER, HIGH FREQUENCY MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS

Title of Dissertation: INVESTIGATION OF RELIABILITY IN GALLIUM NITRIDE HIGH ELECTRON MOBILITY TRANSISTORS USING EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT MODELS FOR USE IN HIGH POWER, HIGH FREQUENCY MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS Benjamin D. Huebschman, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Neil Goldsman Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Gallium Nitride (GaN) is beginning to emerge as an alternative to the Gallium Arsenide in high power, high frequency microwave communications. Other novel semiconductors show potential at higher frequency applications. The largest obstacles to GaN emerging as the dominant microwave semiconductor are the issue of cost, which could be reduced through volume, and question of reliability. A new approach to the analysis of reliability has been developed based on the periodic generation of equivalent circuit models while a device is stressed in a manner that is similar to performance likely to be seen during commercial operation. Care was made in this research to ensure that the stress measurements used to induce degradation are as close as possible to those that would degrade a device in real world applications. Equivalent circuit models (ECM) can be used to simulate a device in computer aided design (CAD) software, but these models also provide a picture of the physical properties within the device at a specific point in time. The periodic generation of ECMs allows the researcher to understand the physical changes in the device over time by performing non-destructive electronic measurements. By analyzing the changes in device performance, the physical mechanism of device degradation can be determined. A system was developed to induce degradation and perform measurements of sufficient detail to produce a large signal ECM. Software for producing the ECM was also created. The changes in the ECM were analyzed to diagnose the physical changes in the device under test (DUT) and to identify a method of degradation. The information acquired from this system can be used to improve the device manufacturing process at the foundry. It can also be used to incorporate device degradation into the operation of systems. INVESTIGATION OF RELIABILITY IN GALLIUM NITRIDE HIGH ELECTRON MOBILITY TRANSISTORS USING EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT MODELS FOR USE IN HIGH POWER, HIGH FREQUENCY MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS By Benjamin David Huebschman Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy