Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AIS Electronic

This paper explores how experience drives certain project management decisions on agile software development teams. Using naturalistic decision-making (NDM) theory, the paper identifies: decisions made by an agile team, experiential influence in their resolution, and decisions escalated to a higher authority. Using an agile software development case study, 18 interviews and 21 meeting observations were conducted. Results indicate the team made most planning and technical decisions, relying on experience for planning decisions but developing creative solutions for technical decisions requiring novel courses of action. Decisions were escalated when the team could not resolve them (e.g. dependencies and resourcing decisions). The team studied used two NDM decision methods: recognition-primed and creative methods. Many planning decisions used the recognition-primed method as these decisions relied on memories of previous similar situations and decisions, adding to existing research on experience driving decisions (2006) but moving beyond a specific type of decision (e.g. design decisions) to understand how experience drives the project management of an agile team.
Measuring Sustainability of Strategic Performance

This paper proposes the assessment of sustained superior performance by means of two measures called Static Performance and Dynamic Performance. The first evaluates the attained superior performance, and the second gauges its sustainability over time. This proposal builds primarily on the fact that, under the strategic management perspective, a firm's prevalent objective is the pursuit of sustained superior performance. Three basic conceptual dimensions stem from this objective: relativity, sign dependence, and dynamism. They serve as the foundation to the two performance measures presented. In contrast to the measures and methods in extant literature, our proposal provides: (i) a dynamic approach by considering the progress or regress in performance over time; and (ii) a cardinal measurement of performance differences and its changes over time. The paper also develops an axiomatic framework that any measure of strategic performance should comply to be theoretically and managerially sound. Finally, an empirical application to the Spanish banking sector during 1987-1999 is used to illustrate the measures.
Bi-objective bundle adjustment: towards large-scale visual sea-floor mapping with a minimal sensor suite

Visual sea-floor mapping is a rapidly growing application for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). AUVs are well-suited to the task as they remove humans from a potentially dangerous environment, can reach depths human divers cannot, and are capable of long-term operation in adverse conditions. The output of sea-floor maps generated by AUVs has a number of applications in scientific monitoring: from classifying coral in high biological value sites to surveying sea sponges to evaluate marine environment health.
Optimization of the PNG Law for a Dual-Spin Mortar with Fixed Canards

The limited instantaneous overload available and the curved trajectory lead to adaptivity problems for the proportional navigation guidance (PNG) of a guided mortar with a fixed-canard trajectory correction fuze. In this paper, the optimization of a PNG law with gravity compensation is established. Instead of using the traditional empirical method, the selection of the proportional navigation constants is formulated as an optimization problem, which is solved using an intelligent optimization algorithm. Two optimization schemes are proposed for constructing corresponding optimization models. In schemes 1 and 2, the sum squared error between the impact point and target and the circular error probability (CEP), respectively, are taken as the objective function. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the two optimization schemes, and their guidance performance is compared through trajectory simulations. The simulation results show that the impact point dispersion can be efficiently reduced under both proposed schemes. Scheme 2 achieves a lower CEP, which is approximately 2.9 m and 2.4 times smaller than that achieved by scheme 1. Moreover, the mean impact point is closer to the target.
Factors determining the level of high qualification and sports achievements in long-term training of female tennis players (diagnostic aspect)

Table tennis is a complex analytical sport with versatile technique, various specific solutions, which has long outgrown a period of mass enthusiasm. For athletes to achieve sports results, general physical, special and psychological training is now necessary. Modern requirements to the level of special, technical, tactical and physical training of female athletes, to the entire system of their training are extremely high. In this regard, the importance of specialized factors in the sports training of female tennis players increases significantly. In the long-term training of the highly qualified female tennis players, a number of important stages is provided for, which in their structure have specific tasks and a meaningful orientation of their implementation. The task of implementing classification standards of the competitive activity of female tennis players is a complex training process that should be carried out not only taking into account general psychological and pedagogical laws, but also specific scientifically based methods and techniques of pedagogical influence, the organization of this type of activity and an individual approach.
PIMS:Remediation of Soil and Groundwater Contaminated With Metals

Abstract : Lead-contaminated soils are prevalent in the United States, particularly at Department of Defense (DoD) sites, which have more than 3,000 small arms firing ranges (SAFR). Private SAFRs and police practice SAFRs constitute an additional 9,000 sites. Estimates of lead-contaminated soil from range use in the United States are 100 million cubic yards, far exceeding that which can be disposed to landfills. These soils pose one of the costliest environmental issues facing the DoD, with costs estimated at more than $10 billion to dispose of them with existing baseline technologies, even if sufficient landfill space did exist. Additionally, large quantities of lead-contaminated leachates generated by rainfall and irrigation at many military sites flow into lakes or storm water drain systems, or provide contaminated recharge to shallow aquifers. The phosphate-induced metal stabilization (PIMS ) technology discussed in this report is an in situ stabilization or sequestration technology that uses a natural, benign material, Apatite II , which is mixed into the contaminated soil to immobilize lead (Pb) without changing the basic nature of the soil, e.g., the permeability, porosity, or density. This technology allows the soil to function in the future as a soil to be left in place, or disposed of as a nonhazardous material if desired. Apatite II is a natural phosphate material that incorporates metals into new stable phosphate phases that are nonleachable. Only simple mixing into the soil is required. The advantages over other technologies are that PIMS with Apatite II is inexpensive, fast, longlasting, and does not in itself generate any hazard or environmental problem.
Perceived Overqualification, Emotional Exhaustion, and Creativity: A Moderated-Mediation Model Based on Effort–Reward Imbalance Theory

Overqualification is prevalent in times of economic downturn, and research has increasingly focused on its outcomes. This study aimed to explore the psychological burden caused by perceived overqualification (POQ) and its impact on creativity among high-tech enterprise employees. Drawing from effort–reward imbalance theory, we examined the effect of POQ on emotional exhaustion, along with the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the POQ–creativity relationship and the moderating role of pay for performance (PFP) in strengthening the link between POQ and emotional exhaustion. Using cross-sectional data from a sample of 359 employees in China, we found that (1) POQ was positively related to emotional exhaustion; (2) emotional exhaustion was negatively related to creativity; (3) PFP moderated the effect of POQ on emotional exhaustion as well as the indirect effect of POQ on creativity via emotional exhaustion. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications.
Has motorization in the U.S. peaked? Part 3: fuel consumed by light-duty vehicles

This study examined recent trends in fuel consumption by light-duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans) in the U.S. fleet. The period examined was from 1984 through 2011. This is a follow-up study to Sivak (2013a; 2013b), in which I analyzed the corresponding trends in the number of registered light-duty vehicles and distance driven. Although the report also presents trends in the total fuel consumption, of primary interest were the fuel-consumption rates per person, per licensed driver, per household, and per registered vehicle. All of these rates reached their maxima in 2003 or 2004—several years prior to the beginning of the current economic downturn—and decreased by 13% to 17% by 2011. These maxima coincide with the maxima in the distance-driven rates. However, the decreases in the fuel-consumption rates between the peaks and the 2011 values (13% to 17%) are greater than the corresponding decreases in the distance-driven rates (5% to 9%), reflecting the added contribution of the improved vehicle fuel economy. Because the onsets of the reductions in the distance-driven rates were not the results of short-term, economic changes, and because of the expected continuation of the improvements in vehicle fuel economy, the 2004 maxima in the fuel-consumption rates have a good chance of being long-term peaks as well. The combined evidence from this and the previous two studies indicates that—per person, per driver, and per household—we now have fewer light-duty vehicles, we drive each of them less, and we consume less fuel than in the past: The current fuel-consumption rates are lower than the corresponding rates in 1984—the first year of this analysis. The best estimates of the current annual fuel-consumption rates are as follows: 398 gallons per person, 585 gallons per licensed driver, 1,033 gallons per household, and 530 gallons per registered vehicle.
A Cryptic Invader of the Genus Persicaria (Polygonaceae) in La Palma and Gran Canaria (Spain, Canary Islands)

A cryptic invader of the genus Persicaria is recently increasing in the damper, northern parts of La Palma and Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands (Spain) and locally behaves as an invasive species. Examination of historical herbarium specimens showed this species to be present in Gran Canaria since the 1960’s and the same probably applies to La Palma. Up to now, this species had been assigned to the Old World weed P. maculosa. However, morphologically these plants clearly correspond with P. hydropiperoides, a common and widespread weed native to the New World, and morphologically similar indeed to P. maculosa. Diagnostic features for these two species, as well as for another similar species (P. decipiens, originally described from the Canary Islands), are compared, thoroughly discussed and copiously illustrated. The current distribution, ecology and naturalization status of P. hydropiperoides in the Canary Islands are also assessed. The variability of P. hydropiperoides is discussed, more precisely the taxonomic position of a southern ‘race’ of it that is sometimes referred to as a distinct species, P. persicarioides. In addition to our morphology-based study, a molecular phylogenetic analysis has been conducted on the nuclear ITS region and the plastid DNA region trnL-F.
Early-Life Origins of Metabolic Syndrome: Mechanisms and Preventive Aspects

One of the leading global public-health burdens is metabolic syndrome (MetS), despite the many advances in pharmacotherapies. MetS, now known as “developmental origins of health and disease” (DOHaD), can have its origins in early life. Offspring MetS can be programmed by various adverse early-life conditions, such as nutrition imbalance, maternal conditions or diseases, maternal chemical exposure, and medication use. Conversely, early interventions have shown potential to revoke programming processes to prevent MetS of developmental origins, namely reprogramming. In this review, we summarize what is currently known about adverse environmental insults implicated in MetS of developmental origins, including the fundamental underlying mechanisms. We also describe animal models that have been developed to study the developmental programming of MetS. This review extends previous research reviews by addressing implementation of reprogramming strategies to prevent the programming of MetS. These mechanism-targeted strategies include antioxidants, melatonin, resveratrol, probiotics/prebiotics, and amino acids. Much work remains to be accomplished to determine the insults that could induce MetS, to identify the mechanisms behind MetS programming, and to develop potential reprogramming strategies for clinical translation.
Use GARCH Models to Build a Econometric Model to Predict Average Daily Closing Prices of the Iraqi Stock Exchange for the Period 2013-2016

This research aims to build a standard model for the analysis and prediction of the average daily closing price fluctuations for companies registered in the Iraq Stock Exchange for the period 07/01/2013 to 30/06/2016, using the conditional generalized Heteroscedasticity Generalized Autoregressive (GARCH) models. As these models deal with the fluctuations that occur in the financial time series. The results of the analysis showed that the best model for predicting the volatility of average closing prices in the Iraq Stock Exchange is the EGARCH model (3,1), depending on the statistical criteria used in the preference between the models (Akaike Information Criterion, Schwarz Criterion), and these models can provide information for investors in order to reduce the risk resulting from fluctuations in stock prices in the Iraqi financial market.
Evolution of a Mission Plan

Abstract : A prototype Decision Support System for Coalition Operations (DSCCO) is being developed by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, to support the Operations Planning Team (OPT) of the Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Command (CINCPAC). The goal of DSCCO is to apply and integrate organizational design concepts and decision support technologies in planning and executing multinational coalition operations. Employing a user-centered design approach, DSSCO researchers have developed a multi-component toolset. The Planning Module functions as a surrogate expert planner and guides OPT personnel through the evolution of a mission plan using the Crisis Action Planning process. DSSCO's supporting resources include a Coalition Planning Guide and access to relevant information regarding coalition partners and other organizations with whom the U.S. military must interface during a coalition operation. The Task Visualization Module presents the plan. It provides a collaborative display that enables distributed coalition forces to maintain shared situation awareness in real-time of their own activities in relation to those of other organizations. This paper describes the DSSCO toolset and the functional support it will provide to the OPT.
Nonlinear UAV Flight Control Using Command Filtered Backstepping

The aim of this effort is to implement a nonlinear flight control architecture, specifically flight path control via command filtered backstepping, for use in AME UAS's Fury® 1500 unmanned flying wing aircraft. Backstepping is a recursive, control-effort minimizing, constructive design procedure that interlaces the choice of a Lyapunov function with the design of feedback control. It allows the use of certain plant states to act as intermediate, virtual controls, for others breaking complex high order systems into a sequence of simpler lower-order design tasks. Work herein is a simplified implementation based on publications by Farrell, Sharma, and Polycarpou. Online approximation is not applied, however command filtering along with two variants of control allocation is. This minimal approach was done to mitigate risk, as adaptation could be added in future work to this baseline. Command filtering assures that control inputs generated meet magnitude, rate, and bandwidth constraints for states and actuators as well as provides command derivatives that reduce computation. Two different forms of control allocation were implemented, the simplest a least-squares pseudo-inverse and the second an optimal quadratic programming method. Two Simulink based simulations successfully flew AME's Fury® 1500 UAS: a nominal case with fully operational actuators and a failure case with an actuator stuck at -10°. Coordinated flight for both cases with outer loop tracking was achieved for a demanding autopilot task of simultaneously varying heading and flight-path angle commands, ±60° and ±10° respectively, for a constant airspeed command of 135 ft/s. Command signals were generated were achievable due to the command filter implementation.
Reproducibility of Pansharpening Methods and Quality Indexes versus Data Formats

In this work, we investigate whether the performance of pansharpening methods depends on their input data format; in the case of spectral radiance, either in its original floating-point format or in an integer-packed fixed-point format. It is theoretically proven and experimentally demonstrated that methods based on multiresolution analysis are unaffected by the data format. Conversely, the format is crucial for methods based on component substitution, unless the intensity component is calculated by means of a multivariate linear regression between the upsampled bands and the lowpass-filtered Pan. Another concern related to data formats is whether quality measurements, carried out by means of normalized indexes depend on the format of the data on which they are calculated. We will focus on some of the most widely used with-reference indexes to provide a novel insight into their behaviors. Both theoretical analyses and computer simulations, carried out on GeoEye-1 and WorldView-2 datasets with the products of nine pansharpening methods, show that their performance does not depend on the data format for purely radiometric indexes, while it significantly depends on the data format, either floating-point or fixed-point, for a purely spectral index, like the spectral angle mapper. The dependence on the data format is weak for indexes that balance the spectral and radiometric similarity, like the family of indexes, Q2n, based on hypercomplex algebra.
Experimental Investigation of the Dynamics of Coupled Oscillators as Ising Machines

Coupled electronic oscillator networks, under second harmonic injection, have recently been shown to behave as Ising machines capable of solving computationally hard combinatorial optimization problems. In this work, we experimentally investigate the dynamical properties of a reconfigurable network of up to 30 oscillators (≡spins) configured as an Ising machine. Specifically, we analyze the characteristics of the solutions to the Ising model produced by the oscillators and show that as the system evolves towards the ground state through the high-dimensional phase space, it gets trapped in local minima resulting in sub-optimal solutions. Moreover, the exact local minima where the system gets trapped also changes implying that the trajectory of evolution of the system also changes with each trial. Finally, we illustrate experimentally how an appropriately designed annealing scheme can help the coupled oscillators escape a local minimum and attain a lower energy state.
Characterizing N-Dimension Data Clusters: A Density-based Metric for Compactness and Homogeneity Evaluation

: The new challenges Science is facing nowadays are legion; they mostly focus on high level technology, and more speciﬁcally Robotics , Internet of Things , Smart Automation (cities, houses, plants, buildings, etc.), and more recently Cyber-Physical Systems and Industry 4.0 . For a long time, cognitive systems have been seen as a mere dream only worth of Science Fiction. Even though there is much to be done, the researches and progress made in Artiﬁcial Intelligence have let cognition-based systems make a great leap forward, which is now an actual great area of interest for many scientists and industrialists. Nonetheless, there are two main obstacles to system’s smartness: computational limitations and the inﬁnite number of states to deﬁne; Machine Learning-based algorithms are perfectly suitable to Cognition and Automation, for they allow an automatic – and accurate – identiﬁcation of the systems, usable as knowledge for later regulation. In this paper, we discuss the beneﬁts of Machine Learning, and we present some new avenues of reﬂection for automatic behavior correctness identiﬁcation through space partitioning, and density conceptualization and computation.
A Method for Approximating the Initial Data Plane for Surface Ship Wake Simulations

An approximate model that has been developed for generating a set of initial condition data for the numerical simulation of a surface ship's far wake is described. The model has been implemented in the code SURFIN (surface wake initialization), and includes elements for modeling the major components of a ship's wake. Comparison of the generated initial condition data with limited experimental data shows that the present model gives reasonable initial data for simulating the far wake.