Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
National culture and organisational culture in lean organisations: a systematic review

Abstract Despite the extensive literature suggesting that culture plays a key role in lean implementations, no previous review has focused on the topic. This study is a systematic review of the literature that synthesises over two decades of publications according to the levels of national culture (NC) and organisational culture (OC) and maps which cultural dimensions foster or hinder lean implementation. In terms of NC, this study shows that Japanese cultural traits might hinder lean, such as masculinity and power distance, hence avoiding the over simplification that lean is a country-specific management approach. In terms of OC, the literature review unveils a lack of consensus and underlines two paradoxes, namely the co-existence of both process and result-focused orientations and both normative and pragmatic approaches. This review ultimately offers a relevant agenda for lean research as well as a guide for managers who face the challenge of implementing and sustaining lean in their organisations.
Development of a poststroke checklist to standardize follow-up care for stroke survivors. Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, (7).

Background: Long-termcareforstrokesurvivorsisfragmentedandlacksanevidence-based, easy-to-usetool to identify persistent long-term problems among stroke survi-vorsandstreamlinereferralfortreatment.Wesoughttodevelopapoststrokechecklist (PSC) to help health care professionals identify poststroke problems amenable to treatment and subsequent referral. Methods: An instrument development team, supported by measurement experts, international stroke experts, and poststroke care stakeholders, was created to develop a long-term PSC. A list of long-term poststroke problem areas was generated by an international, multidisciplinary group of stroke experts,theGlobal StrokeCommunityAdvisory Panel.UsingDelphimethods, acon-sensus was reached on which problem areas on the list were most important and relevant to include in a PSC. The instrument development team concurrently created the actual checklist, which provided example language about how to ask about poststroke problem areas and linked patient responses to a speciﬁc referral process. Results: Eleven long-term poststroke problem areas were rated highly and consis-tently among stroke experts participating in the Delphi process (n 5 12): secondary prevention, activities of daily living, mobility, spasticity, pain, incontinence, communication, mood, cognition, life after stroke, and relationship with caregiver. These problem areas were included in the long-term PSC. Conclusions: The PSC was developed to be a brief and easy-to-use tool, intended to facilitate a standardized approach for health care providers to identify long-term problems in stroke survivors and to facilitate appropriate referrals for treatment.
ON THE CONVERGENCE OF BROYDEN’S METHOD WITH REGULARITY CONTINUOUS DIVIDED DIFFERENCES AND RESTRICTED CONVERGENCE DOMAINS

We present a semilocal convergence analysis for Broyden’s method with regularly continuous divided differences in a Banach/Hilbert space setting. By using: center-Lipschitz-type conditions deﬁning restricted convergence domains, at least as weak hypotheses and the same computational cost as in [6] we provide a new convergence analysis for Broyden’s method with the following advantages: larger convergence domain; ﬁner error bounds on the distances involved, and at least as precise information on the location of the solution.
Dual-Port Dual-Wideband Annular Slot Antenna with Stable Unidirectional Pattern

This article describes the design of a dual-wideband annular slot antenna. The proposed structure has been optimized to operate in the typical bands of mobile communication systems (0.824-0.960 GHz and 1.710-2.165 GHz). The antenna is designed considering two independent ports with high isolation, one for each operation band, yielding an antenna that exhibits diplexing feature. The final measured results show that the designed antenna exhibits stable radiation pattern over the frequency in both desired bands. The designed antenna has been used to compose a dual-band linear array. Simulation results indicate good performance in both bands for mobile communication systems.
Context-aware Mobile Security Experimental Validation of Reliable and Secure Context Detection

—The exploitation of context-awareness, especially in mobile devices bears a huge potential. For example, mobile workers beneﬁt from systems that adapt security settings or user interfaces to the current situation. However, the correct detection of contexts strongly relies on raw data from various context information sources that might be neither trustworthy nor authoritative. In this work, we present an extension to a context model that explicitly copes with trustworthiness of context information, i.e., its vulnerability to forgery, as well as their conduciveness denoting the source’s decisive impact on context detection. Context descriptions based on this model can, for example, be used in security-critical environments to enforce security policies. We show the applicability of our approach in an industrial setting. In addition, we present the results of our experiments with respect to precision and recall of the context detection.
Environmental Particulate Air Pollution Exposure and the Oxidative Stress Responses: A Brief Review of the Impact on the Organism and Animal Models of Research

Particulate matter (PM) is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air, and it is one of the most harmful air pollutants. When inhaled, it affects the pulmonary system, cardiovascular systems, and other tissues. The size, composition, and deposition of PM, mainly related to fine and ultrafine particulate matter, are factors that determine the harmful effects of exposure to particles. Among the main effects is the inducer of ROS production, and consequently oxidative tissue damage in target organs and other responses, mediated by inflammatory cytokines and cellular stress response. The main pathway through which particles are potent mediators of oxidative stress is the damage caused to DNA and lipid molecules, whereas the pro-inflammatory response involves an immune response against PM, which in turn, it is related to cell stress responses observed by heat shock proteins (HSPs) expression and release. Thus, the ability of an organism to respond to PM inhalation requires anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and cellular stress defenses that can be impaired in susceptible subjects as people with chronic diseases as diabetes and obesity. In this chapter, we discuss the mechanistic aspects of PM effects on health and present some animal research models in particle inhalation studies.
Histological and Histochemical Studies on the Alveolar Tissue of Gaddi Sheep

The present study was conducted on alveolar tissue of lungs of Gaddi Sheep. Tissues were collected from 30 healthy adult of both sexes. The tissues were processed for micrometrical and histological studies. The study revealed that average size of alveolar duct was 141 ± 7.86 µm. The alveolar duct was lined with simple squamous (Pneumocyte-I) and cuboidal epithelium (Pneumocyte-II). The average diameter of alveolar sac was 270.72 ± 10.12 µm in Gaddi sheep. Alveolar sac was surrounded by thinly woven network of reticular and elastic fibers. Two predominant types of epithelial cells were observed in alveoli. Thin membranous flat squamous cells were called Pneumocyte-I and cuboidal cells as Pneumocyte-II. The average height of Pneumocyte-I cells was 4.02 ± 0.13 µm and of Pneumocytes type-II was 7.45 ± 0.12 µm. Pneumocyte-II stained moderately for carbohydrates and acidic mucopolysaccharides. The basement membrane was strongly positive for carbohydrates and mildly positive for acidic mucopolysaccharides. The average thickness of the blood air barrier was 8.04 ± 0. 15µm in Gaddi sheep.
Managing Technical Debt in Timed-boxed Software Processes: Quantitative Evaluations

—Technical debt is currently receiving great attention from researchers, because it is believed to affect software development to a great extent. However, it is not yet clear how technical debt should be managed. This is speciﬁcally true in time-boxed development processes (e.g., in agile processes organized into development sprints of ﬁxed duration), where it is possible to remove technical debt as soon as it is discovered, or wait until the debt reaches a given threshold, or wait until a whole sprint can be dedicated to technical debt removal, etc. We aim at investigating the effectiveness of different technical debt management strategies and the consequences of a wrong perception of the actual technical debt. We are interested in the consequences on both the amount of functionality and the quality of the delivered software. We propose a System Dynamics model that supports the simulation of various scenarios in time-boxed software development and maintenance processes. The proposed model is conceived to highlight the consequences of management decisions. The proposed model shows how productivity and product quality depend on the way technical debt is managed. Our study shows that different strategies for managing technical debt in a time-boxed development and maintenance process may yield different results—in terms of both productivity and delivered software quality—depending on a few conditions. Software project managers can use customized System Dynamics models to optimize the development and maintenance processes, by making the proper decisions on when to carry out maintenance dedicated to decreasing the technical debt, and how much effort should be devoted to such activities.
The expansion proper motions of the planetary nebula NGC 6302 from Hubble Space Telescope imaging

Planetary nebulae expand on time-scales of 10 3 – 10 4 yr. For nearby objects, their expansion can be detected within years to decades. The pattern of expansion probes the internal velocity ﬁeld and provides clues to the nebula ejection mechanism. In the case of non-symmetric nebulae, and bipolar nebulae in particular, it can also provide information on the development of the morphology. We have measured the expansion proper motions in NGC 6302 from two epochs of Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) imaging, separated by 9.43 yr. This is used to determine the expansion age and the structure of the velocity ﬁeld. We use HST images in the [N II ] 6583 Å ﬁlter from HST Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and Wide Field Camera 3. The proper motions were obtained for a set of 200 individual tiles within 90 arcsec of the central star. The velocity ﬁeld shows a characteristic linear increase of velocity with radial distance (a so-called Hubble ﬂow). It agrees well with a previous determination by Meaburn et al., made in a lobe further from the star, which was based on a much longer time-span, but ground-based imaging. The pattern of proper motion vectors is mostly radial and the origin is close to the position of the central star directly detected by Szyszka et al. The results show that the lobes of NGC 6302 were ejected during a brief event 2250 ± 35 yr ago. In the inner regions there is evidence for a subsequent acceleration of the gas by an additional 9.2 km s − 1 , possibly related to the onset of ionization. The dense and massive molecular torus was ejected over 5000 yr, ending about 2900 yr ago. The lobes were ejected after a short interlude (the ‘jet lag’) of ∼ 600 yr during a brief event. The torus and lobes originate from separate mass-loss events with different physical processes. The delay between the cessation of equatorial mass loss and the ejection of the lobes provides an important constraint for explaining the ﬁnal mass-loss stages of the progenitor stellar system.
Composite adaptive model predictive control for DC–DC boost converters

A composite adaptive model predictive control (MPC) scheme is proposed to mitigate model mismatches due to parameter uncertainties and disturbances in controller designs for DC-DC boost converters. First, a model-based feedforward compensator based on a cascade proportional-integral (PI) MPC controller was developed as a current reference to improve the dynamic response performance. Then, an observer was employed to construct an accurate model and thereby avoid overcompensation and poor prediction due to model mismatch. Finally, a finite control set MPC was implemented to select a suitable switching state with which to realise output voltage regulation. Compared with a traditional PI MPC, the proposed controller has a rapid dynamic response, and compared with an unknown offset free MPC, the proposed controller is well suited to a simplified model. The proposed methods and benefits were validated by simulations in MATLAB/Simulink and by experiments on an NI Compact RIO rapid control prototype test bench.
Cloud-based Collaborative Software Development: A Concept for Managing Transparency and Privacy based on Datasteads

- Cloud-centric collaboration in (global) software development continues to gain traction, resulting in new development paradigms such as Tools-as-a-Service (TaaS) and Cloud Development Environments based on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). However, both within and between clouds, there are associated security and privacy issues to both individuals and organizations that can potentially hamper such well-intentioned collaboration. This paper describes an inter-cloud security and privacy concept for heterogeneous cloud developer collaboration environments that pragmatically addresses the distributed transmission, aggregation, storage, and access of events, data, and telemetry related to development projects, while giving individual developers fine-granularity control over the privacy of the data collected. To this end, the concept adapts an existing collaborative development and measurement infrastructure, the Context-aware Software Engineering Environment Event-driven framework (CoSEEEK) to support cloud-based event aggregation capabilities. The results and discussion show its practicality and technical feasibility while presenting performance tradeoffs for different cloud configurations. The concept enables infrastructural support for privacy, trust, and transparency within development teams, and could also support compliance with national privacy regulations in such dynamic and potentially global collaborative environments.
Final Master Project Development of Au Nanorods coated with mesoporous SiO 2 as SERS substrates for Gas Phase Detection

In this Final Master Project, core-shell Au-SiO 2 plasmonic nanostructures with adequate adsorption properties have been synthesized for their potential use as active material for detection of gas-phase neurotoxic agents by Raman-SERS (Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy). Firstly, the reproducible synthesis of gold nanorods with specific dimensions to ensure adequate optical properties in the VIS range was investigated. Secondly, the coating with a mesoporous silica shell of controlled thickness was carried out through chemical synthesis. Finally, different strategies for the removal of the template were attempted to identify the optimum that avoids reshaping of the gold core but ensure a high percentage of released pores, to improve the adsorption properties. The morphological (size and shape), textural and optical properties of both, the gold nanorods and the prepared core-shell nanostructures have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and N 2 physisorption. Finally, they were deposited on glass substrates where their resonance plasmon was measured with the spectrophotometer.
Forecasting mean monthly maximum and minimum air temperature of Jalandhar district of Punjab, India using seasonal ARIMA model Agrometeorology

The air temperatur e at the Earth’s surface is one of the most important environmental factors. It is a weather parameter that directly influences the yield and production of crops. All the biological and chemical processes taking place in the soil are affected by air temperature. Deviation of air temperatures from critical limits negatively affects the biochemical processes in cells, limiting the growth of plants and causing death of plants. Increase in temperature is found to cut back yields and quality of many crops, most importantly cereal and food grains (Richard et al ., 2017) by affecting the growth and development of some critical phenological stages (Bokhari et al., 2017). It also has some direct consequences on animal productivity. Increased thermal stress reduced animal eating and grazing activity (Mader and Davis, 2004) and can cause reductions in productivity and fertility. Almost every aspect of environment is affected by the air temperature variations, which makes it necessary to forecast the upcoming air temperature to adopt suitable mitigation and adaptation strategies. Sound environmental policies are based on modeling the variations of surface air temperature and making dependable forecasts (Romilly, 2005), paving the way for smooth communication among environmental researchers, policy makers, and the general public (IPCC, 2007). In a broader context, air temperature affects many other environmental factors in complex ways. Moreover, air temperature is a critical input parameter in many eco-environmental models in the fields of crop growth simulation (Bechini et al. , 2006), agro-ecological zoning (Ye The long-term air temperature data series from 1971-2019 was analyzed and used for forecasting mean monthly air temperature at the district level. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin test, and Mann-Kendall test were employed to test the stationarity and trend of the time series. The mean monthly maximum air temperature did not show any significant variation while an increasing trend of 0.04°C per annum was observed in mean monthly minimum air temperature, which was detrended. Box-Jenkins autoregressive integrated moving–averages were used to forecast the forthcoming 5 years (2020-2024) air temperature in the district Jalandhar of Punjab. The goodness of fit was tested against residuals, the autocorrelation function, and the histogram. The fitted model was able to capture dynamics of the time series data and produce a sensible forecast. ABSTRACT
Ultrasonic-Assisted Pelleting of Sorghum Stalk: Predictive Models for Pellet Density and Durability Using Multiple Response Surface Methodology

In the field of renewable energy, feedstock such as cellulosic biomass has been proposed as a renewable source of fuel to produce energy. However, the use of raw biomass as feedstock causes high costs in handling, transportation, and storage. Compressing raw cellulosic biomass into pellets significantly increases the density and durability of cellulosic biomass, reducing the transportation and handling costs of feedstock. To ensure high pellet quality, high pellet density and durability are desired during a compressing process. In this study, ultrasonic vibration-assisted (UV-A) pelleting, as a novel pelleting method, was applied to measure pellet density and durability during experiments. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate the effects of pelleting time, ultrasonic power, and pelleting pressure on the pellet density and pellet durability. The model was validated by comparing the predictive results with experimental data and demonstrated a good predictive ability (R2 > 0.95). By employing a Derringer and Suich’s desirability function, our results suggest that the optimal pellet density and durability are 1239 kg/m3 and 93%, respectively, when the pelleting time was set to 44 s, the ultrasonic power was set to 50%, and pressure was set to 42 psi (289,580 Pa).
Remote influence of off-shore fish farm waste on Mediterranean seagrass () meadows

21 The aim of this study was estimating the remote influence of waste dispersed 22 from a large offshore fish farm complex (6,197 ton year -1 ) on the nearshore Posidonia 23 oceanica meadow (26-27 m deep) located at a distance of 3 km. Measurements of 24 isotopic nitrogen content in epiphytes and seagrass leaf tissues, epiphyte biomass, shoot 25 size, herbivory pressure, shoot density and seagrass meadow cover, performed in this 26 meadow (FA area) were compared with those obtained in an undisturbed control 27 meadow (CA area) to evaluate: (1) the remote influence of waste and (2) the impact of 28 such influence on seagrass condition. In adition, δ 15 N measurements in particulate 29 organic matter of natural and anthropogenic origin were used in a single isotope mixing 30 model to elucidate the relative contributions of these sources to the isotopic N signal 31 measured in epiphytes and leaf tissues. Total tissue N content was similar between 32 meadow areas, but δ 15 N signatures were significantly higher in the FA area than in the 33 CA area both in epiphytes and seagrass leaf tissues. Results from the mixing model, 34 together with available information on local currents and previous studies, support the 35 conclusion that the dispersion of farm wastes over large areas (spanning kilometres) are 36 responsible for the elevated δ 15 N signatures found in the FA meadow area. Despite this, 37 no changes in meadow structure were detected and only some changes at the level of 38 seagrass community (epiphytes abundances and herbivores activity) could be 39 interpreted at the light of nutrient-induced effects in the FA area. Results from this study 40 indicate that concentrating aquaculture facilities in offshore areas is a strategy not 41 totally exempt of environmental risk on nearshore sentitive habitats such as seagrass 42 meadows. 43
X-Pinch Plasma Generation Testing for Neutron Source Development and Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion is a sought-out technology in which two light elements are fused together to create a heavier element and releases energy. Two primary nuclear fusion technologies are being researched today: magnetic and inertial confinement. However, a new type of nuclear fusion technology is currently being research: multi-pinch plasma beams. At the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, there is research on multi-pinch plasma beam technology as an alternative to nuclear fusion. The objective is to intersect two plasma arcs at the center of the chamber. This is a precursor of nuclear fusion using multi-pinch. The innovation portion of the students’ work is the miniaturization of this concept using high energy electrical DC pulses. The experiment achieved the temperature of 2300 K at the intersection. In comparison to the simulation data, the temperature from the simulation is 7000 K at the intersection. Additionally, energy harvesting devices, both photovoltaics and a thermoelectric generator, were placed in the chamber to observe the viable energy extraction.