Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human Weight Compensation With a Backdrivable Upper-Limb Exoskeleton: Identification and Control

Active exoskeletons are promising devices for improving rehabilitation procedures in patients and preventing musculoskeletal disorders in workers. In particular, exoskeletons implementing human limb’s weight support are interesting to restore some mobility in patients with muscle weakness and help in occupational load carrying tasks. The present study aims at improving weight support of the upper limb by providing a weight model considering joint misalignments and a control law including feedforward terms learned from a prior population-based analysis. Three experiments, for design and validation purposes, are conducted on a total of 65 participants who performed posture maintenance and elbow flexion/extension movements. The introduction of joint misalignments in the weight support model significantly reduced the model errors, in terms of weight estimation, and enhanced the estimation reliability. The introduced control architecture reduced model tracking errors regardless of the condition. Weight support significantly decreased the activity of antigravity muscles, as expected, but increased the activity of elbow extensors because gravity is usually exploited by humans to accelerate a limb downwards. These findings suggest that an adaptive weight support controller could be envisioned to further minimize human effort in certain applications.
The factors influencing service delivery in the national police service: a case of the Kenya police in Nairobi County

Over the past decade, the government has been carrying on Public Service reforms focusing on streamlining the Police Service; harmonizing pay benefits; and putting in place interventions to enhance efficiency in the Service. The establishment of the National Police Service which comprises of the Kenya Police Service and Administration Police Service was part of the Police Reforms aimed at professionalizing service delivery in the Police. Despite the reforms, service delivery in the National Police Service has been and continues to draw attention from the external and internal environment. There are various factors that affect the delivery of service and it was the purpose of the study to analyze the factors influencing service delivery in the National Police Service. Stratified sampling technique was employed. The Police Officers were divided into three levels and then simple random sampling was used that gave a representative sample for each level. This research involved triangulation (use of multiple research tools e.g. questionnaires and in-depth interviews). The collected data was processed using SPSS computer package, analyzed and presented using frequency tables, bar charts, and pie charts. The study found out that the police service has embraced ICT in its service delivery which has affected service delivery positively. The study recommends that firms should focus on the employee wellbeing at work as it enhances a healthy workforce which in turn improves the service standards of the firm.
Technique and Application of the Time-frequency Electromagnetic Method

SUMMARY This paper describes the time-frequency electromagnetic method (TFEM) and its application in western China. The TFEM method combines frequency-domain sounding with time-domain sounding to form a comprehensive system so that it is possible to select different frequencies and induce waves according to the objective depth to be explored. During processing not only resistivity but also polarization information can be provided so we can study resistivity as well as predict oil-bearing characteristics simultaneously. Time-domain resistivity information is obtained by pseudo-2D resistivity inversion and frequency-domain IP information is obtained using the Cole-Cole model. Some successful applications in western China show that it provides unique results in deep igneous rock investigation and hydrocarbon prediction.
Who brings more gender equality in couple’s time use in Hong Kong—co-resident elderly parents or helpers?

Abstract In Hong Kong, extended households are declining while households with helpers are increasing. More and more couples resort to hiring helpers instead of living with elderly parents to outsource domestic work. Currently, it is not clear whether elderly parents and helpers would have the same impact on couples’ time use. To fill this gap, the study examines couples’ paid work time and domestic work time, as well as the gender gap in time use in different household types (i.e. couple-only households, households with elderly parents, and households with helpers). It uses the couple data from the first wave of Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics in 2011 and conducts the inverse propensity weighting with regression adjustment (IPWRA) analysis. The results show that couples’ total domestic work is reduced to a greater extent in the helper household than that in the elderly-parent household. But this difference disappears if couples live with relatively younger, healthy, and retired parents. Although the impact of younger, healthy, and retired parents and hired helpers would reduce couples’ total domestic work time similarly, they are different in the sense of “help for whom”: hired helpers reduce the gender gap in paid work time and domestic work time, mainly by influencing wives’ time use; elderly parents reduce couples’ domestic work time in a less gendered way, favoring both husbands and wives. Elderly parents and helpers could reduce couples’ domestic workload more or less, but whether gender equality is promoted through outsourcing is worth more attention.
Investigation of Burnout Levels of Physical Education and Sports Teachers during Covid-19 Period

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to conduct educational activities online and the burnout status of teachers who suddenly switched to distance education became a matter of curiosity. This study was carried out to examine the burnout levels of physical education and sports teachers during the Covid-19 period and to examine possible changes that may occur after this process by getting information about how they will approach their profession. profession and students. In this context, the research group consists of 210 physical education and sports teachers, 142 men and 68 women. These teachers took a break from face-to-face education due to the pandemic and continued their lessons with online education. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and 3 semi-structured questions were used to find out the emotional states of physical education and sports teachers and how they approached students during and after the pandemic. IBM SPSS 22 statistical program was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the scale. Analysis of normality showed that the data were normally distributed. Parametric test independent samples t-test was used to compare paired groups, one-way ANOVA was used to compare more than two groups and the level of significance was accepted as (p)<. 05. In addition, the content analysis method was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the semi-structured interview form. The results showed that physical education and sports teachers participating in the study experienced moderate burnout. It was determined that the most negatively affected aspect of teachers was emotional exhaustion during the Covid-19 pandemic. There was no significant difference between the burnout levels of physical education and sports teachers according to the variables of gender, age, professional seniority, the type of sports they do. Physical education and sports teachers stated that they missed their students and they wanted face-to-face education to start at school, while more than half of the teachers stated that their attitudes to students will change after the pandemic.
Schlieren Imaging for Flow Visualisation of Gas Jet in Vacuum for Accelerator Applications

Schlieren imaging was explored for flow visualising of a gas jet in vacuum for beam profile monitor application. In supersonic gas jet based beam profile monitors, the high density jet flows through various differentially pumped skimmer stages before being shaped into a sheet. Schlieren imaging is a well known technique used in aerodynamic studies to visualise gas flow. This technique is explained in the paper along with a gist of other flow visualisation techniques. A Z-type schlieren imaging setup used to view the high density flow features of a pulsed supersonic gas jet inside vacuum is described in detail. Flow around a Pitot probe in supersonic flow was simulated and the resultant density profile obtained was compared with the image obtained using schlieren imaging. The flow features including a detached shock around the tip of the probe was observable at medium and high vacuum after processing the image. Image processing algorithms and tools useful for this application are also discussed.
Effects of Dried Aloe Vera Gel and Diclofenac on Sodium and Potassium Homeostasis: An Experimental Study on Hypertensive Rats

Background: Anti-inflammatory role of Aloe vera gel is well established. Diclofenac is extensively used for acute and chronic inflammation. The present study was conducted to compare dried Aloe vera gel and diclofenac effects on sodium and potassium balance in hypertensive rats. Material and Methods: This experimental study was conducted at Sargodha Medical College from May to November 2016. Twenty-four healthy male Sprague Dawley rats 7-8 weeks of age were included in study. Any unhealthy-looking rat was excluded from the study. Rats were equally and randomly divided into four groups Normal control (group A), Model control (group B), Aloe vera (group C) & Diclofenac (group D). Hypertension was induced by a 20 % sucrose diet in all groups except group A in 8 weeks’ time. Group B, C & D received distilled water and Aloe vera dried gel 400 mg/kg & diclofenac powder 12 mg/kg body weight respectively orally between 8 to 10 weeks. Serum and urine analysis was performed for hematocrit, sodium, and potassium concentrations at zero, eight and ten weeks. Twenty-four-hour urinary sodium excretion was calculated. Data was analyzed using Graph Pad Prism version 6. Result: After 2-week administration of aloe vera and diclofenac powder, serum potassium significantly decreased in Group C (p <0.001) while increased in Group B and D (p <0.001) as compared to group A. Urinary sodium concentration and excretion increased significantly in Group C (p <0.01) as compared to Group A whereas result of Group D was insignificant. No significant change in serum sodium and hematocrit of any group was observed. Conclusion: Aloe vera causes less sodium retention than diclofenac but decreases serum potassium contrary to the effect of diclofenac in hypertensive rats.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library: sharing biodiversity literature with the world

Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States joined in 2005 to develop a strategy and operational plan to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global `biodiversity commons. ' Headquartered at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is one of the cornerstones of the Encyclopedia of Life, a global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants, and other forms of life on earth. This paper provides an overview of the BHL and its potential impact on biodiversity research, describes the BHL portal and its innovative search services, and provides a case study of the process from one of the members: the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.
The Relationship of Transformational and Transactional Principal Leadership on Teacher Job Satisfaction and Secondary Student Performance in Subang Jaya, Malaysia

This study investigate the perceptions of teachers as to how the leadership of their principal affects their job satisfaction at public secondary schools in Subang Jaya and in turn, the effect it has towards students’ academic performance. This quantitative research concentrates on how teacher’s perceptions of their principal’s leadership style enhance teachers’ job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the unique impact that school principals have on teacher job satisfaction and finding which specific leadership practices were associated with teacher job satisfaction. The sample consists of 260 teachers from four public secondary schools at Subang Jaya, Selangor. \The instruments used for this study were the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) developed by Bass & Avolio (2004) and the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (JSQ) developed by Spector (1995). Data were analysed by using descriptive statistics, t-test, Chi Square test, Pearson Correlation test and Regression analysis. The researcher tried to explore transformational and transactional leadership styles to find out, which was more effective leadership style as principal in public secondary schools. The researcher conducted this study to obtained confirmation on the impact of principal leadership styles, and how it can affect teachers’ job satisfaction, and students’ performance in public secondary schools at Subang Jaya, Selangor. It was also to confirm that knowledge and perceptions of teachers can help principals to create a better working environment and helps to understand the needs of their teachers. The result of this study indicated that principal leadership style has a significant (p˂0.05) relationship to teacher job satisfaction in schools. Thus, the findings of this study contributed to the existing literature by providing a better understanding how teacher job satisfaction and student performance can be influence by the principal leadership styles.
A Review: Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Algorithms

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) involves creating an environmental map based on sensor data, while concurrently keeping track of the robot’s current position. Efficient and accurate SLAM is crucial for any mobile robot to perform robust navigation. It is also the keystone for higher-level tasks such as path planning and autonomous navigation. The past two decades have seen rapid and exciting progress in solving the SLAM problem together with many compelling implementations of SLAM methods. In this paper, we will review the two common families of SLAM algorithms: Kalman filter with its variations and particle filters. This article complements other surveys in this ﬁeld by reviewing the representative algorithms and the state-of-the-art in each family. It clearly identifies the inherent relationship between the state estimation via the KF versus PF techniques, all of which are derivations of Bayes rule.
Evolution of the LHC Beam Screen Surface Conditioning Upon Electron Irradiation

For the vacuum scientists and the accelerator community, finding solutions to mitigate pressure rises induced by electron, photon and ion desorption, and also beam instabilities induced by ion and electron clouds is a major issue. Moreover, it is worth noting that the OFE copper beam screen of the LHC are initially cleaned with standard industrial processes, leading to a residual chemical contamination. Along the time, changes in the surface chemistry of vacuum chambers are observed during beam operations, leading to modifications of: outgassing rates, stimulated desorption processes and secondary emission yields (SEY). The impact of ions on molecule desorption and electron production was investigated to identify their influence on the global pressure rises and to quantify the ion conditioning effect on copper surfaces: (i) SEY evolution was measured to understand the changes of surface conditioning upon particle irradiation; (ii) surface chemistry evolution after electron irradiation was investigated by both XPS and TOF-SIMS analyses using the ANDROMEDE facility at IJCLab. Finally, the relationship between the surface chemistry and the conditioning phenomenon will be discussed.
Dynamic operation of carrier signal injection based sensorless, direct field oriented AC drives

This paper analyzes the dynamic operation of carrier signal based sensorless, field oriented AC motor drives. The effects of the harmonics introduced by the fundamental current transients at frequencies near the carrier signal frequency are first analyzed, then compensation based on a fundamental current observer is proposed. The utilization of such a fundamental current observer provides the possibility of modifying the analog to digital conversion process to increase the number of bits effectively containing spatial information and thereby substantially increasing the accuracy of the estimated rotor position or flux angle.
First report of rust on onion caused by Puccinia allii in Korea

Abstract In August 2018, rust was observed on onions (Allium cepa) grown in Dalseong, South Korea. In the field where the rust occurred, the disease incidence exceeded 60%. The urediniospores produced on diseased leaves were globose to ellipsoid and 20‒30 × 20‒28 μm in size. They had a thick outer wall (1‒2 μm) and many spines were apparent on the surface under light microscopy. When the uredinium was mature, the epidermis of the onion leaf ruptured to expose many yellow to dark red urediniospores, appearing as a powder. DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region confirmed that the isolate was Puccinia allii. Based collectively on the morphological characteristics and molecular identification, the causal fungus was identified as P. allii. This is the first report of rust caused by P. allii on onion in Korea, a disease that may constitute a serious threat to production of this crop in Korea.
Unsupervised Optimized Bipartite Graph Embedding

Graph embedding is a widely used method for dimensionality reduction due to its computational effectiveness. The quality of the graph and the efficiency of graph construction will directly affect the performance and the efficiency of the graph embedding methods. However, in the unsupervised graph embedding methods, the graph is not considered as an optimized graph since there is no label that can be used to construct this graph. In addition, the running of traditional graph embedding methods becomes very time-consuming on large-scale datasets due to the high computational cost in the step of graph construction. Aiming to solve these problems, we propose an unsupervised dimensionality reduction method based on bipartite graph, called Unsupervised Optimized Bipartite Graph Embedding (UOBGE). Representative anchors are first identified in the data. Then, we construct the bipartite graph between the projected samples and the projected anchors and the intrinsic graph connecting all the projected sample pairs with equal weights, which keep the local and global geometric structures of the data, respectively. Finally, the bipartite graph and the projection matrix are optimized simultaneously by introducing an alternating optimization procedure. Extensive experiments on several datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method.
Lower limb compression garments do not influence dynamic and static balance performance in young males

Background: Some studies show that wearing compression garments (CGs) improves balance performance. However, the overall evidence supporting their use for balance improvement is inconclusive. Objective: This study aimed to further explore the effect of CGs on balance. Method: Using a cross sectional within subjects repeated measures design fourteen participants (27 ± 3 years) completed three trials for each of four balance tests, under three conditions: compression garment, no garment, and sham. Subjective performance and garment rating scores were also collected following each test condition. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was performed to compare derived variables between conditions for each balance test. Results: No significant differences were found across conditions or tests for either balance performance or subjective measures. Conclusions: This study demonstrated CGs did not influence dynamic or static balance performance in healthy young males. Further, in contrast to other research this study did not demonstrate an effect of compression garments on dynamic or static balance in healthy young males. However, it remains that CGs may provide benefit in other populations including those with balance and movement deficit disorders.
Latitude patterns in fine root morphological and anatomical traits across root orders of Pinus koraiensis

ABSTRACT The fine root system of trees can be divided into orders that reflect the comparative positions within the root system (the 1st order being the most distal) and the functional roles of fine roots that allow adaption to different environments. The intraspecific variation of fine root traits with the roots if different orders at regional scale has rarely been studied. We investigated the morphological and anatomical traits of the first five order fine roots of Pinus koraiensis at four different sites along latitudinal gradients in temperature and precipitation. The results showed that as the root order increased, the function of fine roots changed from being mainly responsible for absorption to mainly responsible for transportation. The effect of latitude on fine root traits was dependent on root order. The adaptation strategies for fine roots at different latitudes were regulated by environmental combinations and there were significant trade-offs between absorptive and transport roots at regional scale. The results emphasize the variation and cooperation of the fine root traits of P. koraiensis with the root order at different latitudes.
THE EFFECT OF REMITTANCE ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION MEMBER COUNTRIES: EVIDENCE FROM DCCE AND CS-ARDL

This study examined the effect of remittance inflows on human development in Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries from 1990 to 2018. The study applied second-generation techniques. Based on the results of the second-generation unit roots test, our variables have mixed stationarity. Also, the result of the Westerlund cointegration technique showed that long-run relationships exist among the variables. In addition, the long-run and short-run coefficients from Dynamic Common Correlated Effects (DCCE) and Cross-sectional Autoregressive Distributive Lags (CS-ARDL) techniques revealed that remittances inflows promote human development. Moreover, financial development and foreign direct investment inflows positively impact human development, while the short-run coefficients are statistically insignificant. The causality test results showed a unidirectional causal link between remittance inflows and human development; between financial development and human development. In contrast, a bidirectional causal link was reported between foreign direct investment and human development. Therefore, the study concluded that remittance inflows promote human development in OIC member countries. The policymakers in OIC should consider policies that will attract migrants' workers to send remittances to their home country.