Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In-Flight Navigation Using Head-Coupled and Aircraft-Coupled Spatial Audio Cues

A flight test was conducted to evaluate how effectively spatialized audio cues could be used to maneuver a general aviation aircraft through a complex navigation course. Two conditions were tested: a head-coupled condition, where audio cues were updated in response to changes in the orientation of the pilot's head, and an aircraft-coupled condition, where audio cues were updated in response to changes in the direction of the aircraft. Both cueing conditions resulted in excellent performance, with the pilots on average passing within 0.25 nm of the waypoints on the navigation course. However, overall performance was better in the aircraft-coupled condition than in the head-coupled condition. This result is discussed in terms of an alignment mismatch between the pilot's frame of reference and that of the aircraft, which is critical when using spatial audio to cue the desired orientation of the vehicle rather than the location of an object in space.
Spatio-Temporal RGBD Cuboids Feature for Human Activity Recognition

Human activity recognition is one of the promising research areas in the domain of computer vision. Color sensor cameras are frequently used in the literature for human activity recognition systems. These cameras map 4D real-world activities to 3D digital space by discarding important depth information. Due to the elimination of depth information, the achieved results exhibit degraded performance. Therefore, this research work presents a robust approach to recognize a human activity by using both the aligned RGB and the depth channels to form a combined RGBD. Furthermore, in order to handle the occlusion and background challenges in the RGB domain, Spatial-Temporal Interest Point (STIP) based scheme is employed to deal with both RGB and depth channels. Moreover, the proposed scheme only extracts the interest points from depth video (D-STIP) such that the identical interest points are used to extract the cuboid descriptors from RGB (RGB-DESC) and depth (D-DESC) channels. Finally, a concatenated feature vector, comprising features from both channels is passed to exploit a bag of visual words scheme for human activity recognition. The proposed combined RGBD features based approach has been tested on the challenging MSR activity dataset to show the improved capability of combined approach over a single channel approach.
Analyzing evidence-based falls prevention data with significant missing information using variable selection after multiple imputation

Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries among older adults. Evidence-based fall prevention programs are delivered nationwide, largely supported by funding from the Administration for Community Living (ACL), to mitigate fall-related risk. This study utilizes data from 39 ACL grantees in 22 states from 2014 to 2017. The large amount of missing values for falls efficacy in this national database may lead to potentially biased statistical results and make it challenging to implement reliable variable selection. Multiple imputation is used to deal with missing values. To obtain a consistent result of variable selection in multiply-imputed datasets, multiple imputation-stepwise regression (MI-stepwise) and multiple imputation-least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (MI-LASSO) methods are used. To compare the performances of MI-stepwise and MI-LASSO, simulation studies were conducted. In particular, we extended prior work by considering several circumstances not covered in previous studies, including an extensive investigation of data with different signal-to-noise ratios and various missing data patterns across predictors, as well as a data structure that allowed the missingness mechanism to be missing not at random (MNAR). In addition, we evaluated the performance of MI-LASSO method with varying tuning parameters to address the overselection issue in cross-validation (CV)-based LASSO.
A parasitic-insensitive area-efficient approach to realizing very large time constants in switched-capacitor circuits

A novel switched-capacitor technique for realizing very large time constants is presented. The technique is insensitive to parasitic capacitances and is very area-efficient. It does not require a complicated clocking scheme. The technique yields a complete family of integrators which in turn can be used to realize higher-order filtering functions based on cascaded biquadratic sections or ladder filters. These integrators have been used to implement an experimental 60-Hz notch filter working from a 128-kHz clock. >
Suitability of Pulse Train/spl trade/, a novel digitally implemented real-time control technique, for BIFRED converter

Pulse Train /spl trade/, a new control scheme, is presented and applied to a BIFRED converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM), which avoids the light-load high-voltage stress problem. In contrast to the conventional control techniques, the principal idea of Pulse Train is to regulate the output voltage using a series of high and low energy pulses generated by the current of the inductor. In this paper, applicability of the proposed technique to both the input and magnetizing inductances of BIFRED converter is investigated. Analysis of BIFRED converter operating in DCM as well as the output voltage ripple estimation is given. Experimental results on a prototype converter are also presented.
Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial: Peer to Peer Group Problem Management Plus (PM+) for Adult Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Background: A large proportion of Syrians have been exposed to potentially traumatic events, multiple losses, breakdown of supportive social networks and many of them have sought refuge in host countries where they also face post migration living difficulties such as discrimination or/and integration problems. These adversities may put Syrian refugees at high risk for common mental disorders. In response to this, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed a transdiagnostic scalable psychological intervention called Problem Management Plus (PM+) to reduce psychological distress among populations exposed to adversities. PM+ has been adapted for Syrian refugees and can be delivered by non-specialist peer lay persons in the community. Methods: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted with 380 Syrian refugees in Turkey. After providing informed consent, participants with high levels of psychological distress (scoring >15 on the Kessler-10 Psychological Distress Scale (K10)) and functional impairment (scoring >16 on the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0)) will be randomly assigned to Group PM+/Enhanced Care As Usual (Group PM+/E-CAU) (n = 190) or enhanced-care-as-usual (E-CAU) (n = 190). Outcome assessments will take place 1-week after the 5 th session (post assessment), 3 months after the 5 th session and 12 months after baseline assessment. The primary outcome is psychological distress as measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25). Secondary outcomes include functional impairment, posttraumatic stress symptoms, self-identified problems, as well as health system and productivity costs. A process evaluation will be conducted to explore the feasibility, challenges and success of the intervention with 25 participants including participants, facilitators, policy makers and mental health professionals. Discussion: The treatment manual of the Syrian-Arabic Group PM+ and training materials will be made available through the WHO once the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of group PM+ has been established. Keywords: Cognitive behavioural therapy, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, refugee, mental health, group interventions, task shifting, trans-diagnostic
Reference-free damage detection by means of wavelet transform and empirical mode decomposition applied to Lamb waves

Guided ultrasonic waves are increasingly used in all those structural health monitoring applications that benefit from built-in transduction, moderately large inspection ranges, and high sensitivity to small flaws. This article describes a monitoring system based on the generation and detection of the guided ultrasonic waves from an array of sparse transducers. In a round-robin manner, ultrasonic waves are generated and measured from all possible different pairs of excitation and sensing transducers. The ultrasonic signals are then processed using continuous wavelet transform and empirical mode decomposition to extract few damage-sensitive features that enable the detection and localization of damage. With respect to most of the existing guided ultrasonic wave–based methods, the proposed approach does not require to record data from a pristine structure (baseline data), and damage is inferred by examining the selected features obtained from all the possible combinations of actuator–sensor pairs of the array. In this study, the method is validated using commercial finite element software to model the presence of 10 ultrasonic transducers bonded onto an aluminum plate. The results are promising and ongoing studies are focusing on the experimental validation and the application to other waveguides.
Isolation, structure elucidation and quantitative analysis of callicarpone and oleanolic acid in the leaves of Callicarpa candicans collected from different provinces in Thailand

callicarpenal Callicarpa a traditionally recognized potential use as a piscicidal agent. Two major compounds were separated from the dichloromethane extract from the leaves of C. candicans using solvent-solvent extraction and a column chromatographic technique. These compounds were structurally identified using spectroscopic techniques as callicarpone and oleanolic acid. Quantitative analysis of callicarpone and oleanolic acid using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed and validated. The callicarpone and oleanolic acid contents in C. candicans leaves collected from different provinces in Thailand were analyzed using the validated HPLC method. The callicarpone and oleanolic acid contents in C. candicans leaves were in the ranges 0.04–0.23 g% and 0.44–0.88 g% of dried leaves, respectively. The leaves of C. candicans collected from Satun province had the highest callicarpone and oleanolic acid contents (0.23 g% and 0.88 g% of dried leaves, respectively). The HPLC analytical method using callicarpone and oleanolic acid as markers could be used for future standardization and quality control of the extract of C. candicans leaves.
Flow and Noise Predictions for Single and Dual-Stream Beveled Nozzles

Numerical simulations of the flowfield and noise of single and staggered dual, round, and beveled nozzles are carried out, with the goal of gaining insights into the flow features that are responsible for noise generation and mitigation, and ultimately arriving at better designs. For aircraft applications, the geometry of the nozzles must be satisfactory both for aerodynamic and acoustic performance. The importance of taking the nozzle internal flow into account in the simulations instead of using simple inflow profiles, especially for complex geometries of current interest, is emphasized. A two-step Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes/large-eddy simulation methodology is developed and applied to several nozzle geometries allowing a new level of complexity in the geometry. The predictions of the gross thrust measures by Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computations are in very good agreement with experimental measurements. The spectral predictions from large-eddy simulation are also in good agreement with measured data, for a wide range of jet conditions. The measured azimuthal variations in the noise field from beveled nozzles are reproduced by large-eddy simulation. The spectra from dual-stream nozzles are also well predicted. Preliminary efforts at establishing the link between flow and noise are presented. The interpretation of the flow/noise connection is not straightforward and is a big challenge; it is far from clear how one can establish cause and effect. The ability to relate changes in flow to noise may remain an open issue for the foreseeable future.
Measuring system performance of an ERP-based supply chain

Metrics, the process for capturing, measuring, reporting, and assessing performance of activities, has received attention recently. The development of a metric approach to identifying potential operational problems has become very important, especially for popular enterprise systems. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated method, total related cost measurement, to evaluate the performance of a three-echelon enterprise resource planning (ERP) based supply chain system. To establish the validity of this integrated method, a base simulation experiment is conducted to see whether this total cost approach is responsive to such variations in operating environments as lead time variation or cost structure differentiation. Furthermore, separate sets of validation experiments are also conducted to see how sensitive the results are as obtained by the base experiment responding to changes in such parameters as the configuration of a logistics network. Both sets of simulation results are analyzed using Analysis of Variance. Research results show that an integrated approach should be considered to evaluate an ERP-based supply chain. Also, the performance of an ERP-based supply chain is significantly affected by the lot-sizing rule selected. If ordering costs can be effectively reduced, the lot-for-lot lot-sizing rule should be considered to reduce the total related cost. Otherwise, the Silver and Meal rule can be a cost-effective lot-sizing rule in various operating environments. We provide a general guideline to establish such an integrated performance measurement for ERP-based supply chain operators to better capture the system performance attributed to the use of ERP.
How to design and manage WEEE systems: a multi-level analysis

The growing production of waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) justifies the increasing attention of both institutional and industrial organisations. The fast adoption of legislations, rules, and practices leads to a great dis-homogeneity in the technical, organisational and cost models adopted world-wide. The paper proposes a scientific literature analysis about WEEE design and management processes. A three-level taxonomy has been proposed in order to classify research papers: the basic logic is to propose a comparison between a WEEE system and an typical industrial engineering problem. The two first levels refer to the most critical issues characterising the design as well as the management of a typical WEEE reverse chain. The last one analyses different approaches/tools/methods currently applied in the scientific literature for WEEE design and management. A discussion is proposed to support waste practitioners as well as researchers in developing more effective and efficient WEEE management systems.
Coloured Petri nets approach for solving distribution system contingency by considering customer load patterns

Typical customer load patterns, which have been derived by a load survey study, are used to determine the daily load profiles of each service section of distribution feeders. The hourly current flows of line switches and distribution feeders are solved by three-phase load flow analysis over a daily period. For a distribution contingency such as feeder overload or short circuit fault, the artificial intelligent coloured Petri nets with best first search approaches are then applied to find the optimal switching operation decision. A coloured Petri nets model with inference mechanism is derived for load transfer among distribution feeders after the overloading feeders have been identified or the faulted section has been isolated. To determine the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, a Taipower sample distribution system, which serves a mixture of customers, is selected to perform the computer simulation. By comparison with the conventional Petri nets, the proposed coloured Petri nets can significantly reduce the size of network models, and a more effective switching operation plan can be designed by taking into account the load characteristics of the customers served.
Obstacle detection for robot navigation using structured light

Obstacle detection is an essential function for autonomous mobile robots. Current autonomous systems are generally heavy, high-powered devices. Additionally, obstacle detection systems often employ active ranging sensors that exhibit poor angular resolution, thereby preventing vehicles from navigating through narrow spaces. Other systems require considerable processing to resolve objects. The work in this thesis attempts to design a small, lightweight, low-cost, and low-power system to detect obstacles in the direct field of view of a small robotic vehicle. In particular, the range to the obstacle as well as shape estimation is key data that would aid in robot navigation as well as data gathering. Rather than using conventional active or passive ranging techniques, this thesis examines projections of structured light to determine range to the obstacle and surface information of the obstruction. A physical model was developed and tested through simulation, and verified in hardware. Thesis Supervisor: Kenneth M. Houston Title: Principal Member of Technical Staff Thesis Advisor: Leslie Pack Kaelbling Title: Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Integrated diversity antenna for laptop and PDA terminal in a MIMO system

The paper introduces an integrated diversity antenna for MIMO application specifically in a laptop and in a PDA terminal. The design is based on a double-folded dipole antenna filled with a slab of dielectric material. With the insertion of the dielectric slab, the size is reduced significantly while still maintaining good bandwidth and gain. One of the important features of the design is that the antennas can be spatially placed close to each other (less than λ/2), while implementing polarisation diversity. This is important especially in a PDA terminal where the size of the device is relatively small compared to a laptop. The antennas are designed on a laptop and PDA with frequency of operation at 5.2 GHz for the IEEE802.11a wireless systems. For the laptop design, two different orientations of the dielectric loaded doubled-folded dipole were considered. The isolation is better than 20 dB and measured bandwidth at −10 dB is up to 400 MHz for a laptop design and up to 200 MHz for a PDA design. Experimental verifications are reported for S-parameters and radiation patterns, while the envelope cross-correlation is calculated to be much less than 0.1 and the ratio of the mean effective gain (MEG) between the antennas is close to unity for the laptops and PDA.
IMPROVEMENT OF TERMINAL RELIABILITY AND TRAVEL TIME RELIABILITY UNDER TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT.

Terminal reliability and travel time reliability of road networks are proposed as new indicators for road network management and construction. First, the significance of road network management and construction. The propagation mechanism of OD flow variation to link flow variation is clarified, and the reliability analyses before and after the introduction to traffic management are demonstrated for an actual road network.
Measurement Invariance of the Chinese Job Performance Questionnaire (CJPQ) across Gender and Age among Doctors

Background At present, China urgently needs an effective and reliable tool to measure the job performance of doctors. For the first time, this study examined the measurement equivalence of the Chinese version of the Job Performance Questionnaire (CJPQ) in different genders and age groups among Chinese physician group. Methods The subjects of this study were 1901 doctors from 7 ‘grade-three’ hospitals in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China, with an average age of 36.59±7.91 years. And this study adopted the Chinese version of the Job Performance Questionnaire (CJPQ) compiled by Chinese scholar Qiang Lin, which includs 3 dimensions, 33 items in total and adopts the five-point Likert scoring system. Demographic variables were analyzed by SPSS 21.0 and measurement consistency tests were performed using AMOS 17.0. Results The results showed that for different genders, all changes in the CFI (Comparative Fit Index) were <0.01, indicating that the Chinese version of the Job Performance Questionnaire (CJPQ) is equivalent in terms of gender. Similarly, for subjects of different ages, all changes in CFI were also <0.01, indicating that the CJPQ is also equivalent in regard to age. Conclusions The measurement equivalence of the Chinese version of the Job Performance Questionnaire (CJPQ) among Chinese physicians of different genders and age groups is fully established.
Gene action, combining ability and standard heterosis for seed cotton yield and fibre quality components in upland cotton

Twelve parental genotypes and twenty F1 hybrids developed in a Line x Tester fashion were used in the present study to estimate gene action, combining ability and standard heterosis for eleven quantitative and five quality traits in cotton. All the traits studied exhibited greater SCA variance than GCA except days to fifty per cent flowering suggesting that these traits are controlled by dominant gene action. Among the parents used, SVPR 2 and TSH 325 were detected with higher general combining ability for seed cotton yield and should be given importance while developing hybrids or recombinants. The hybrids namely SVPR 2 x TSH 325, SVPR 2 x Suraj and GJHV 370 x PBH 116 were identified as the best hybrids for seed cotton yield and SVPR 2 x TCH 1828 for fibre properties and recommended for heterosis breeding. Besides, the hybrid between GJHV 370 x CPD 1702 was suggested for recombination breeding for earliness and ginning percentage as it fulfilled the criteria of non-significant sca effects for hybrid and significant gca effects for respective parents.
Study of performance scaling of 22-nm epitaxial delta-doped channel MOS transistor

Epitaxial delta-doped channel (EδDC) profile is a promising approach for extending the scalability of bulk metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) technology for low-power system-on-chip applications. A comparative study between EδDC bulk MOS transistor with gate length Lg = 22 nm and a conventional uniformly doped channel (UDC) bulk MOS transistor, with respect to various digital and analogue performances, is presented. The study has been performed using Silvaco technology computer-aided design device simulator, calibrated with experimental results. This study reveals that at smaller gate length, EδDC transistor outperforms the UDC transistor with respect to various studied performances. The reduced contribution of the lateral electric field in the channel plays the key role in this regard. Further, the carrier mobility in EδDC transistor is higher compared to UDC transistor. For moderate gate and drain bias, the impact ionisation rate of the carriers for EδDC MOS transistor is lower than that of the UDC transistor. In addition, at 22 nm, the performances of a EδDC transistor are competitive to that of an ultra-thin body silicon-on-insulator transistor.