Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Planar and Vertical Alignment of Rod-like and Bent-core Liquid Crystals Using Functionalized Indium Tin Oxide Substrates

ABSTRACT Indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates are chemically modified with bent-shaped molecules and influence of these surface immobilised molecules on the alignment of bulk liquid crystal (LC) samples has been investigated. Bent-core (BC) compounds containing a dimethylchlorosilane moiety at the end of a terminal alkyl chain and a lateral alkyl chain are successfully attached to transparent conducting ITO substrates in an end-on (ITO-BC-t) and side-on (ITO-BC-l) oriented fashion to create stable permanent self-assembled BC layers on the substrates. Surface functionalization is thoroughly characterised and aligning ability of these BC-modified ITO substrates for orientation of bulk LC sample is evaluated for nematic phase of both rod-like and BCLC samples. The BC-modified substrates are effective in aligning the rod-like compounds in vertical (ITO-BC-t), planar orientations (ITO-BC-l) and the BC compounds in homeotropic (ITO-BC-t) alignment. Graphical abstract
Development and clinical validation of a droplet digital PCR assay for detecting Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae in patients with suspected bloodstream infections

The relatively long turnaround time and low sensitivity of traditional blood culture‐based diagnosis may delay effective antibiotic therapy for patients with bloodstream infections (BSIs). A rapid and sensitive pathogen detection method is urgently required to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with BSIs. Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae are two major microorganisms that cause BSIs. Here we report a novel droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) assay that can detect A. baumannii and K. pneumoniae in blood samples within 4 h, with a specificity of 100% for each strain and a limit of detection at 0.93 copies/μl for A. baumannii and 0.27 copies/μl for K. pneumoniae. Clinical validation of 170 patients with suspected BSIs showed that compared to blood cultures that detected four (2.4%) A. baumannii cases and seven (4.1%) K. pneumoniae cases, ddPCR detected 23 (13.5%) A. baumannii cases, 26 (15.3%) K. pneumoniae cases, and four (2.4%) co‐infection cases, including the 11 cases detected via blood culture. In addition, patients who tested positive via ddPCR alone (n = 42) had significantly lower serum concentrations of procalcitonin and lactate, SOFA and APACHE II scores, and 28‐day mortality than those reported positive via both blood culture and ddPCR (n = 11), suggesting that patients with less severe symptoms can potentially benefit from ddPCR‐based diagnosis. In conclusion, our study suggests that ddPCR represents a sensitive and rapid method for identifying causal pathogens in blood samples and guiding treatment decisions in the early stages of BSIs.
Campus Guidance and Security Application

College campus can be vast, confusing, and scary for new student and guests. New student and visitor don’t know the internal structure of campus then to use the campus guidance application to provide the internal structure of campus . this applications developed in android platform. Keyword:- Android Platform, Gps, Kml, Map Editor Tool
Assessment of the Effects of Dietary Vitamin D Levels on Olanzapine-Induced Metabolic Side Effects: Focus on the Endocannabinoidome-Gut Microbiome Axis

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with poor mental health and dysmetabolism. Several metabolic abnormalities are associated with psychotic diseases, which can be compounded by atypical antipsychotics that induce weight gain and insulin resistance. These side-effects may be affected by vitamin D levels. The gut microbiota and endocannabinoidome (eCBome) are significant regulators of both metabolism and mental health, but their role in the development of atypical antipsychotic drug metabolic side-effects and their interaction with vitamin D status is unknown. We studied the effects of different combinations of vitamin D levels and atypical antipsychotic drug (olanzapine) exposure on whole-body metabolism and the eCBome-gut microbiota axis in female C57BL/6J mice under a high fat/high sucrose (HFHS) diet in an attempt to identify a link between the latter and the different metabolic outputs induced by the treatments. Olanzapine exerted a protective effect against diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance, largely independent of dietary vitamin D status. These changes were concomitant with olanzapine-mediated decreases in Trpv1 expression and increases in the levels of its agonists, including various N-acylethanolamines and 2-monoacylglycerols, which are consistent with the observed improvement in adiposity and metabolic status. Furthermore, while global gut bacteria community architecture was not altered by olanzapine, we identified changes in the relative abundances of various commensal bacterial families. Taken together, changes of eCBome and gut microbiota families under our experimental conditions might contribute to olanzapine and vitamin D-mediated inhibition of weight gain in mice on a HFHS diet.
Isotropically conductive adhesives for electronic manufacture of flexible printed circuit boards

The use of polyester as flexible printed circuit board substrates implies that alternative low temperature curing conductive materials are required for assembling electronic circuits. In addition, conductive adhesives are used as a solution which eliminates the environmental problems encountered with solder materials. The combination of polymer thick film (PTF) technology on polyester films and the use of isotropic conductive adhesives as joining material provide a cost effective and environmentally friendly manufacturing method. Polymer materials comply with recycling concepts.
A multilevel gain all‐optical gain‐controlled EDFA with suppressed relaxation oscillations

The characterization of an all‐optical gain‐controlled erbium‐doped fiber amplifier using an embedded variable optical attenuator in the feedback loop is presented. The gain is controlled by the attenuation level with high equalization. The amplifier presents low noise figure and strongly suppressed relaxation oscillations during channel add and drop. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 48: 1222–1225, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.21575
Interference Self-Cancellation Schemes for Space Time Frequency Block Codes MIMO-OFDM system

†† †† Summary This paper highlights the Space Time Frequency Block Codes (STFBC) that exploit both spatial, time and frequency diversity can be designed using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Intercarrier interference (ICI) self-cancellation schemes were often employed in many OFDM systems as a simple and effective approach to suppress ICI caused by carrier frequency error (CFO). In this paper, we propose a space time frequency block coding technique MIMO-OFDM system with ICI self-cancellation of data conjugate method, which is capable of both error correction and ICI reduction produced by frequency offset (FO). Then, the system performance of the data-conjugate method with diversity techniques is compared with those of the data-conversion method. As results, it can be shown that the STFB codes MIMO-OFDM system with FO, the data-conjugate method can make remarkable improvement of the BER performance and is better than the data-conversion method and the conventional OFDM system.
Micro-Modules: Component Parts and Materials Requirements

The growth of our microminiaturization capabilities to date is cited as having been random and uncoordinated. The Signal Corps' micro-module effort is described as a definite step toward a concept that has depth and scope. A new dimension--a ten-to-one size reduction over the best now realized, is selected as reasonably attainable in 3 to 5 years. Named as providing the background for the present program, are such designs as the Army's Korean "Handy-Talkie," the Navy's "Tinkertoy," the Bell Telephone Laboratories' transistor, and the Army's "solder-dipped printed wiring. " Also credited as being a major contributor, is the recent trend toward "packaging by function" where standard modular dimensions and a throw-away maintenance philosophy buy us another two-to-one size reduction, to reach a plateau of around 50,000 parts per cubic foot. It is stressed that a positive approach is now needed toward a completely new plateau in size and packaging density, of at least 500,000 parts per cubic foot. Our present capabilities are assessed, and a ten-to-one size reduction is shown for Sprague's ceramic printed circuit, and two transistor amplifiers by Centralab. The Army's micro-module wafer element (0.3 inch X 0.3 inch X 0.01 inch thick) is announced. A model demonstrating feasibility is shown, where a complete 5-transistor superheterodyne radio receiver is built into an ordinary fountain pen. Present capabilities are displayed for fabricating component parts on the 0.09-squareinch micro element. Specific accomplishments are shown, such as: a precision metal-film resistor, a precision glass capacitor, a flatplate ceramic capacitor, a hermetically-sealed solid-tantalum electrolyte capacitor, and several other special component parts. Five categories of Army equipments (portable, vehicular, missile, projectile, and satellite), and three plateaus of temperature (+85°C, +125°C, and +200°C, above a cold level of --55°C) are selected as meeting present Army environmental requirements. The guiding philosophy, in setting up the program, is described as providing: first, a meaningful step forward based on immediately attainable tangible techniques; and second, a parallel solid-state research effort to improve and mature the concept. To accomplish the "big step forward" in size reduction and "throw-away" maintenance, RCA is announced as leader-contractor to coordinate industry wide activities.
Online measurement system for the surface inclination of metal workpieces

The online measurement of the metal surfaces’ parameters plays an important role in many industrial fields. Because the surfaces of the machined metal pieces have the characteristics of strong reflection and high possibilities of scattered disturbing irradiation points, this paper designs an online measurement system based on the measurement principles of linear structured light to detect whether the parameters of the machined metal surfaces’ height difference and inclination fulfill the compliance requirements, in which the grayscale gravity algorithm is applied to extract the sub-pixel coordinates of the center of laser, the least squares method is employed to fit the data and the Pauta criterion is utilized to remove the spurious points. The repeat accuracy of this system has been tested. The experimental results prove that the precision of inclination is 0.046° RMS under the speed of 40mm/sec, and the precision of height difference is 0.072mm RMS, which meets the design expectations. Hence, this system can be applied to online industrial detection of high speed and high precision.
Decision Making in Naval Aviation: Contextual Factors Influencing Cue and Factor Saliency

Aeronautical decision making research has focused almost exclusively on general and commercial aviation - with little attention given to the military aviation domain. This research has also been limited by its lack of realism and/or inability to probe aviators for additional clarifying information relevant to their decisions. This study addresses these shortcomings by using in-depth interviews of critical incidents guided by the critical decision method to gain a deeper understanding of the decision making process of experienced naval aviators during novel or unexpected situations in flight. Through this method, two contextual factors in the military aviation environment not previously addressed were identified: (a) the purpose of the flight; and (b) the flight operation environment. These two factors were found to influence each other in addition to impacting the saliency of certain cues and factors for the aviators. Implications for military aviator training and other domains of aviation are discussed.
Relative Consolidation of the Kappa Variant Pre-Dates the Massive Second Wave of COVID-19 in India

India experienced a tragic second wave after the end of March 2021, which was far more massive than the first wave and was driven by the emergence of the novel delta variant (B.1.617.2) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In this study, we explored the local and national landscape of the viral variants in the period immediately preceding the second wave to gain insight into the mechanism of emergence of the delta variant and thus improve our understanding of the causation of the second wave. We randomly selected 20 SARS-CoV-2 positive samples diagnosed in our lab between 3 February and 8 March 2021 and subjected them to whole genome sequencing. Nine of the 20 sequenced genomes were classified as kappa variant (B.1.617.1). The phylogenetic analysis of pan-India SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences also suggested the gradual replacement of the α variant with the kappa variant during this period. This relative consolidation of the kappa variant was significant, since it shared 3 of the 4 signature mutations (L452R, E484Q and P681R) observed in the spike protein of delta variant and thus was likely to be the precursor in its evolution. This study demonstrates the predominance of the kappa variant in the period immediately prior to the second wave and underscores its role as the “bridging variant” between the α and delta variants that drove the first and second waves of COVID-19 in India, respectively.
Rating History and the Rating Dynamics of Fallen Angels, Rising Stars, and Big Rating Jumpers

Using samples from Standard & Poor’s CreditPro 2005 dataset, we estimate models of rating migration subsequent to firms that issue bonds becoming fallen angels (FAs), becoming rising stars (RSs), or experiencing historical rating jumps of at least two notches (big rating jumpers). Comparator issuers (peers) are identified for the foregoing groups and rating transition models are estimated for these peers. The results suggest that different models of rating transition may be needed for fallen angels, rising stars and big jumpers relative to their peers. In general, the impact of rating history on the probability of a rating transition varies according to the rating path that occurred prior to the current rating state.
Steps and Stairs-Climbing Capability Analysis of Six-Tracks Robot with Four Swing Arms

In order to investigate the maximum stairs-climbing capability of the six-track robot with four swing arms and the centroid position control in the climbing process, firstly, the isolated steps and successive stairs in reality environments were simplified into a model that composed of horizontal planes and vertical planes; afterward, the robots centroid distribution was analyzed, the step-climbing methods and processes were given, and the relation equations of the step height, the arms swing angles and the main track evaluation angle were founded; Lastly, the conditions of the maximum step height and the conditions of climbing successive stairs using the slope-climbing method was deduced. Using the parameters of CUMT-III type coal mine exploring robot prototype, the relation curves of the step height and the robot elevation angle was drawn when the rear swing arms spread, and the 3D relation graphs of the robot elevation angle, rear arms swing angles and the step height were drawn, when the swing arms took some specific swing angles. The maximum theoretical step height of the prototype were obtained, which were compared with the test results in laboratory. This paper will provide theoretical basis for centroid position control in steps and stairs climbing process.
Health risks for population living in the neighborhood of a cement factory

In order to assess the health risks associated with the manufacturing of Portland cement for the population living in the neighborhood of a cement industry in Khrew, Kashmir, India, particulate matter and trace gas samplings were done between March and December 2011 in the cement affected area. The main parameters considered for study included suspended particulate matter (SPM), respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM), non-respirable suspended particulate matter (NRSPM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ). The population considered most suitable for study was the people residing in 2 - 3 km radius of the cement emission zone and for this, questionnaire based study was performed. The air temperature, air humidity, wind speed, wind direction and light intensity were studied at the sites for the sampling days. The results indicate that there was high level of air pollution with mean SO 2 concentration of 115.2 μg/m 3 at site I and 28.13 μg/m 3 at site II when compared. Similarly, Ox concentration at site I was 117.09 μg/m 3 when compared with control site II where it was found to be 19.46 μg/m 3 with high prevalence of diseases particularly, respiratory problems, 97% suffered from eye irritations and 95% suffered from dermatological problems among population living in the neighborhood of cement factory at site I. The assessment of oxidative and nitrosative stress among population was carried out by quantification of ROS and NO levels in serum of subjects. The results show that there was high level of air pollution in the area, adverse health impacts, over production of nitrogen species as well as ROS in subjects residing around cement pollution affected area. Key words : Cement industry, trace gas samplings, human health, dermatological, respiratory problems, eye irritations.
Capacity Building for Internationalization at a Technical University in Kazakhstan

This article discusses the internationalization capacity building project at the Karaganda Technical University (‘KTU’) in Kazakhstan. The project, entitled “Capacity building for the internationalization of a technical university by means of digital learning technologies,” was supported by the fund “Scientific foundations “Mangilik el” (education of the 21st century, fundamental and applied research in the humanities)” for scientists 2020–2022. The project’s primary purpose was to explicate a sustainable strategy for internationalizing a Kazakh technical university, considering the national and international contexts, evaluating internationalization capacity needs, formulating and implementing a capacity-building response for internationalization, and enhancing the qualifications and abilities of students and teachers to an internationally comparable level. In addition, the project delivers a set of strategies for internationalization and a benchmarking methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of internationalization processes. The benchmarking analysis of the internationalization process of a university has been conducted through a classification method, comparative analysis, multi-factor SWOT analysis, and correlation analysis.
Detection of Traffic and Road Condition Based on SVM and PHOW

To avoid the defects of physical detection methods, such as road spoiling, complex algorithms and equipment maintenance, SVM (Support Vector Machine) and PHOW (Pyramid Histogram of Words) are explored to detect the traffic and road condition. Experimental results show that the average accuracies go beyond 82.5% in the case of different weather. The proposed method can effectively classify 4 types of traffic and road condition images.
On Some Problems of Using the Human Development Index in Economic History

This paper provides a theoretical framework that shows that the Human Development Index (HDI) is equivalent to a paternalistic social welfare function: this implies that all alternative HDI formulas used by economic historians merely represent their ethical systems. The problem is neither the choice of the dimensions included in the HDI nor the weighting scheme but the lack of consistency with standard economic theory. A key consequence is that with HDI, “anything goes”: using Italy 1861–2016 as a case study, we show how, given the same dataset, the interpretation of Italy’s performance is entirely driven by the analyst’s preferences.
A measurement framework for assessing the digital transformation of cultural institutions: the Italian case

Purpose Public and private sector organisations are widely endorsing digital transformation processes, but little is known about the level of digitalisation of an organisation as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to assess an organisation’s level of digital transformation as a whole, taking the field of museums as an exemplary case of application. Design/methodology/approach The framework draws upon a scoping literature review of studies examining dimensions, metrics and methods for the assessment of the digital transformation of organisations. The framework has been validated by applying it to a sample of 400 Italian museums and further interviews with museum directors. Findings The authors propose an assessment framework composed of five main dimensions: people, technology, process, customer and strategy and investment. These dimensions are further deployed in sub-dimensions measured through a set of questions. The weighted average of results per dimension and sub-dimension supported the development of a composite index of organisational digital readiness. Originality/value The developed framework contributes to the current debate on the measurement of an organisation’s level of digital transformation as a whole, and it can offer practitioners a managerial tool to assess the organisation’s digital readiness.
Ultra High Work, High Efficiency Turbines For UAVs

Abstract : The opportunity for the reattachment and control of separated flows occurs in inlets, compressors, transition ducts and turbines. Passive and active control of separated flows has been demonstrated successfully by a number of techniques which employ the introduction of longitudinal or streamwise vortices. The role of these vortices is initially to reenergize the wall boundary layer flow by entraining and redistributing momentum from the primary flow to the wall layer and enhance early transition. A chain of non-linear interactions of these unsteady vortices with large scale unsteady separation vortices and the shed shear layer results in significant alteration of the circulation. The resulting increased circulation allows higher blade loadings, reduced part count, and improved performance at low Reynolds numbers.
Robust Image Stitching and Reconstruction of Rolling Stocks Using a Novel Kalman Filter With a Multiple-Hypothesis Measurement Model

This work introduces a novel algorithm for the reconstruction of rolling stocks from a sequence of images. The research aims at producing an accurate and wide image model that can be used as a Digital Twin (DT) for diagnosis, fault prediction, maintenance, and other monitoring operations. When observing large surfaces with nearly constant textures, metallic reflections, and repetitive patterns, motion estimation algorithms based on whole image error minimization and feature pairing with Random Sampling and Consensus (RANSAC) or Least Median of Squares (LMedS) fail to provide appropriate associations. To overcome such an issue, we propose a custom Kalman Filter (KF) modified by adding multiple input-noise sources represented as a Gaussian mixture distribution (GM), and specific algorithms to select appropriate data and variance to use for state prediction and correction. The proposed algorithm has been tested on images of train vessels, having a high number of windows, and large metallic paintings with constant or repetitive patterns. The approach here presented showed to be robust in the presence of high environmental disturbances and a reduced number of features. A large set of rolling stocks has been collected during a six months campaign. The set was employed to demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm by comparing the reconstructed twin versus known data. The system showed an overall accuracy in length estimation above 99%.