Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementation of an RFID-reader based on the Egon protocol

Rapporten fokuserar pa implementering av ett nyutvecklat protokoll for energieffektiv RFIDkommunikation. Examensarbetet ar en del av EGON projektet, dar man har utvecklat detta protokoll. Implementeringen ar gjord pa ett Virtex2 Pro utvecklingskit med en AD-omvandlare fran MAXIM (MAX1211) ansluten till data ingangen. Projektet innefattar bland annat detektering av frekvenser med hjalp av Xilinx LogiCORE Fast Fourier Transformer v6.0 och berakning av tillhorande energispektrum. En tillstandsmaskin(state machine) bestaende av sex tillstand dar varje tillstand bestar av en sandande och en mottagande fas, anvands vid implementationen av algoritm for att erhalla rfid-tagens(transponderns) identifikationsnummer. En Microblaze processor implementerad pa FPGAN anvands for kommunikation med dator genom RS232 porten. Ett grafiskt granssnittet skrivet i C och kors pa Microblaze processorn, genom det kan de detekterade taggarnas identifikationsnummer visas i binart format och man kan ocksa andra olika parametrar i designen. Det hardvarubeskrivande spraket VHDL har anvants vid skapandet av hardvarublocken och EDA (Electronic Design Automation) verktyg fran Xilinx (ISE 10.1 och EDK 10.1) har anvants vid utvecklingen av dem. Vid simulering av blocken har ModelSim fran Mentor Graphics anvants.
Factors influencing the implementation of business intelligence among small and medium enterprises in Lebanon

The goal of the study presented in this paper is to examine the factors that influence implementation of business intelligence (BI) among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Lebanon. A survey involved 56 managers from the SMEs selected for the research. Consequently, interviews and questionnaires based on the five point Likert scale were used to collect data for the primary research. A literature review has enabled selection of critical success factors identified by previous researchers. Content analysis of the survey data was used to classify the data on BI implementation factors using the three broad perspectives: organisational, processes, and technological perspective.
The significance of microstructure heterogeneities on the fatigue thresholds of aluminum castings

Industrial in-series aluminum castings contain a wide range of microstructural heterogeneities like differences in secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS), eutectic silicon and intermetallic precipitates of varying morphologies and diverse-shaped and-sized porosity. Regarding to technical and economic limitations, the complete elimination of them is hard to achieve, which requires conservative design, i.e., increased wall thicknesses to accommodate the failure tolerance. To improve the performance of cast aluminum products concerning safety and fatigue properties, the present work deals with the significance of such structures with respect to the threshold for crack propagation Δ K I,th under pure bending and the fatigue behaviour in the high-and very-high-cycle-fatigue regime (HCF and VHCF). Therefore, two automotive cast alloys taken from engine blocks (AlSi8Cu3) and cylinder heads (AlSi7Cu0.5Mg) and a gravity die cast set (AlSi7Mg0.3), either T6 conditioned or additionally hot isostatic pressed (HIP), were used. For in-series castings, two positions of maximal difference in cooling rate and respective microstructure were extracted. With this set of specimens, the significance of SDAS in interaction with (i) eutectic silicon regions, (ii) intermetallic precipitates in varying occurrence, (iii) the crystallographic orientation, and (iv) the porosity in correlation with the fatigue threshold is shown and compared with first results of fatigue damaging mechanisms in quasi pore-free material.
Economic crisis and democratic breakdown in the interwar years: A reassessment

Wirtschaftskrise und demokratischer Zusammenbruch in der Zwi- schenkriegszeit: Eine Neubewertung«. The 'Great Recession' has rekindled dis- cussions about the relationship between economic crisis and democratic break- down, frequently based on analogies with interwar experiences. However, while the notion that economic crisis in general and the Great Depression in particular caused democratic breakdowns in the interwar years is widespread, most compar- ative studies of the period between the two world wars have found no independ- ent effect of crisis on democratic breakdown. In this study, we argue that the lat- ter findings are premised on inappropriate standards of assessments and the exclusion of relevant cases. Based on an event history analysis including 33 coun- tries with democratic spells in the interwar years, we find a significant, non-trivial relationship between economic crisis and interwar democratic breakdown. Our results corroborate the notion that economic crisis substantially increases the risk of breakdown in fragile democracies. But we also show that it is not last year's economic performance that matters but rather longer-term developments.
JISAR 1 ( 3 ) Kraft

Companies invest significant sums of money for major IT projects, yet success remains limited. Despite an abundance of IT Project Management (ITPM) resources, such as the PMI Body of Knowledge, IT standards and governance, a large percentage of IT projects continue to fail and ultimately get scrapped. Recent studies have shown an average of 66% IT project failure rate, with 52% of the projects being cancelled, and 82% being delivered late (Visitacion, M. 2006). The purpose of this research is to identify potential causes of IT project failures by the examination of four real world Commercial Off-the-Self Software (COTS) projects. The research approach involved the development of a systematic and holistic ITPM conceptual solution, which considers critical project management success factors including Business Process and IT Alignments, System Design, IT Architectural Foundations, Organizational Dynamics, IT Governance and Standards, and Software Vendor Responsiveness. The solution provides a method to evaluate the various critical success factors of a project, and their alignment with each other. The contribution of this research is summarized in terms of the design and development of the conceptual model; the validation of this model by industry experts, and its refinement into a conceptual solution; and the development of a systematic methodology for successfully implementing the conceptual solution. By following this methodology, a COTS project is expected to have a considerably increased potential for success, and a project leader would be alerted of problems throughout the life of the project.
Genetic Divergence During Long‐term Isolation in Highly Diverse Populations of Tropical Trees Across the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania

The Eastern Arc Mountains are believed to support some of the oldest tropical forest in the world. The current distribution of this forest is highly fragmented due to a combination of long‐term effects of past changes in global climate and more recent deforestation. We sought to explore the hypothesized antiquity and long‐term isolation of the Eastern Arc montane forests based on an assessment of the geographical distribution and interspecies similarity of chloroplast DNA sequence variation in five forest trees. Data were used to investigate regional patterns of diversity and population structure based on intraspecific phylogenies, and results were interpreted against hypotheses on ecosystem age and connectivity. Regional diversity was high, with up to 22 chloroplast DNA haplotypes being recorded within a species across the sampled populations. Geographical concordance of genetic and geographic structure was weak to absent in all species and there was little similarity of genetic structure between species. Haplotype sharing between mountain blocks was extremely limited. The generally weak phylogeographical structure, in conjunction with high regional diversity and genetic uniqueness of individual mountain forests does not support the assumption of widespread genetic connectivity of the mountain forests, indicating instead a pattern of past isolation and ongoing diversification. Our findings substantially add to understanding patterns of diversity in this region and lend weight to calls to use more sophisticated biodiversity assessments when setting regional conservation and research funding priorities.
Opportunities of lean thinking in improving the competitiveness of the Hungarian SME sector

Received: 27 July 2017 Abstract Accepted: 31 January 2018 One of the key factors of a competitive economy is creating a strong, internationally competitive SME sector. This essay is based on the fact that management tools used in the SME sector are insufficient. With the development of these tools, the competitiveness of companies could improve. According to the literature, using lean thinking has a positive influence on the company’s effectiveness, and also proved that lean approach can be successfully extended out of the car industry, into the limitedly resourced SME sector, too. Even though the topic of lean manufacturing is analysed by many studies, there is a lack of papers dealing with its usage in the SME sector. The originality of this paper lies in analysing the current status of using lean manufacturing practices among the Hungarian SMEs operating in the manufacturing industry. The paper includes an examination about how deeply the elements of lean thinking are present in the Hungarian SME sector, how large the development reserves are, and whether there is a difference between the usage of lean practices. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. SMEs’ representatives, mostly CEOs and managers from the Hungarian manufacturing industry participated in the survey. The sample contained 128 observations. The study has two control variables, which are the size of the company and the relation to the lean management. The survey brought the following results. First of all, it shows that the level of using lean is low among the Hungarian SMEs. Furthermore, customer orientation is a key factor in the sector, however, there are considerable possibilities for progress by the inner processes and the handling and involvement of the suppliers. Firstly, a good basis to increase the effectiveness could be the creation of thinking in processes influencing the supply chain. Secondly, the development of the leadership and the involvement of the employees at some level are also significant. Key findings is that without state incitement and the involvement of outside experts, progress cannot be expected to spread on a broad scope. The background of the research method was created to fit the available literature and to capable to be used in other countries, too. Moreover, this way the available information can be expanded with a regional dimension, in case further studies are going to be made.
The Design and Evaluation of Control Solutions for Dynamic Light Effects in Consumer Homes

Disclaimer This document contains a student thesis (bachelor's or master's), as authored by a student at Eindhoven University of Technology. Student theses are made available in the TU/e repository upon obtaining the required degree. The grade received is not published on the document as presented in the repository. The required complexity or quality of research of student theses may vary by program, and the required minimum study period may vary in duration.
Applications of pyrolysis for carbonaceous wastes in solid waste management – A mini-review

Due to the aggravating problem of solid waste disposal and rising demand of fuels for energy generation, pyrolysis can serve as a promising solution to both these challenges. The majority of the municipal solid wastes are constituted of carbonaceous wastes including biomass. Pyrolysis can be universally applied to all these types of wastes to obtain non-condensable fuel gases, pyrolysis oils and solid coke achieving complete waste disposal. In the present study, a review of pyrolysis with respect to various types of waste feedstock is presented. The interactions of the various types of waste feeds during co-pyrolysis were also reviewed. The applications of the products obtained as well as their further upgrading is also discussed. The presence of catalyst, reaction conditions, heating rate as well as the type of reactor, influence the yield as well as the composition of the products to a great extent. Pyrolysis of single feed as well as co-pyrolysis is also reviewed. Some co-pyrolysis studies reported better results than single feed pyrolysis owing to the synergistic interactions between waste feeds. This paper provides an overall outlook of the current scenario of the pyrolysis techniques for solid waste management.
The effect of income on religiosity Comparing individuals in the Netherlands

Religion is an important factor that influences decisions. Researches predicted that income plays a significant role in this process and religiosity. In this paper an empirical research on the relationship between income and religiosity among Dutch individuals is conducted. Using data from the LISS panel on around 4000 individuals in the Netherlands between 2007 and 2012, the effect of income on church attendance and praying frequency has been measured. The relationship is tested against the plausible effect of region and education and unemployment is used to discover a causal effect. Outcomes show that, against expectations from theories and other researches, income is a poor prediction of religiosity. Erasmus School of Economics Department of Economics
Predictive Power of Financial Risk Factors: An Empirical Analysis of Default Companies

This paper provides empirical evidence on the significance of financial risk factors in predicting default companies. Traditionally, credit decision process is built on accounting ratios derived from financial statements of the borrower. Combining various ratios through application of multivariate statistical techniques and testing their predictive power has been popular in credit risk quantification. Altman's Z-score model is the most acceptable model in this category. In this paper, three forms of Z-score models are applied: The first equation is developed by surveying the internal credit rating models of the Indian banks and the ratios selected are: current ratio, debt-equity ratio, and operating margin. The second equation is similar to that of Altman's (1968) original equation with a slight modification: instead of debt-to-market value of equity, debt-to-book value of equity is considered. The other three ratios of the second equation are working capital to total assets, retained earnings to total assets, and earnings before interest and taxes to total assets. The third equation is called as Altman, Hartzell and Peck's ‘Emerging Market Score Model. ’ Except the asset turnover ratio, all the ratios of the second equation are considered. In all the three equations, the coefficients are estimated by using the development sample of 112 companies. The dominant variables discriminating the default companies from non-default ones are: current ratio, debt-equity ratio, operating margin, working capital to total assets, earnings before interest and tax to total assets, net worth to debt, and asset-turnover ratio. The classification accuracy of the second and the third equations is 82 per cent while that of the first equation is only 57 per cent. It implies that the most widely used two ratios — current ratio and debt-equity ratio — are relatively poor in predicting the default companies. Similarly, the ROC accuracy ratio is the highest for Altman's equation whereas the variables considered in internal credit rating models of banks is having a relatively low accuracy ratio. To test the ability of the model in identifying the defaulting companies correctly, an unbiased diagnostic test of the model is conducted on two separate sets of defaulted firms. The results reveal the following : The Altman's model is capable of predicting default in most of the sample companies. The hold-out sample accuracy results show that the selected variables are capable of predicting default. The analysis shows that the financial risk factors being considered by banks in their internal rating models are not very effective in comparison to other two models in discriminating the firms into default and non-default categories. Banks can map the internal ratings with the Z-scores and scale this up to assign various credit ratings. By arriving at the coefficients on the basis of their own database, banks can develop Z-score calculators for various segments of borrowers.
Climate of the Past Discussions Interactive comment on “ On misleading solar-climate relationship ” by B . Legras

I do not clearly see the connection between topics dealt with in this manuscript and the overall area of science that Climate of the Past would usually cover. Although this is clearly a question for the editors to decide, I would nevertheless point out that there a risk of misusing CP as an outlet of comments to papers that would better in the original journals, even more so when the topic of the C692
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY FUNCTION AND MARITAL SATISFACTION WITH MARITAL DISAFFECTION OF MARRIED TEACHERS IN BEHSHAHR

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between family function and marital satisfaction with marital disaffection of married couples (teachers) in Behshahr. The research method is descriptive and co-relational. The study sample group consisted of 250 married teachers in 2016, of which 150 of them were selected according to Morgan random sampling. The research instruments were the scale of marital boredom (CBM), couple satisfaction's Enricho questionnaire and McMaster Family Assessment Method (FAD). For data analysis, two independent and multivariate regression tests were calculated with SPSS 20 software in both descriptive and inferential levels using Pearson correlation coefficient. The results showed that there was a positive and direct relation between family functions and marital boredom parameters. There was a negative and reverse relation between couple's satisfaction and marital disaffection. There were significant differences in the marital disaffection in male and female married teachers. Family functions and marital satisfaction of the couple have not been able to predict marital disaffection. So it can be concluded as family function and marital satisfactions of couples have an important role in the development of boredom, so effective treatment (family and couple therapy) can be effective in reducing this problem of marriage.
A Method of Evaluating Profitability and Risk of Multiple Investments Applying Internal Rate of Return

In today"s uncertain economic environment, economic risk is inherent in making large investments on manufacturing facilities. It is, therefore, practically meaningful to divide investment over multiple periods, reducing the risk of investment. Then, the cash-flow over the entire planning horizon would comprise positive inflow and negative outflow. In this case, in general, evaluation by internal rate of return (IRR) is not feasible, because multiple IRRs are involved. This paper deals with a problem of evaluating profitability, as well as risk, of investment alternatives made in multiple times of investment over the entire horizon. Typically, an additional investment is required after the initial one, for expanding manufacturing capacity or other reasons. The paper pays attention to a unit cash-flow over two periods, decomposing the total cash-flow into a series of unit cash-flow patterns. It is easy to evaluate profitability of a unit cash-flow by using IRR. The total cash-flow can be decomposed into the series of two types of unit cash-flows: an investment type one (negative-positive) and the borrowing type one (positive-negative). This paper, therefore, proposes a method in which only the borrowing type unit cash-flow is eliminated in the series by converting total cash-flow using capital interest rate. Then, a unique IRR can be obtained and the profitability is evaluated. Thus, the paper extends the method of IRR so that it may help decision making in complicated cash-flow pattern observed in practice.
Rheological comparisons and structural imaging of sI and sII end- member gas hydrates and hydrate/sediment aggregates.

We report the results of exploratory measurements on the plastic yield strength of fully dense methane hydrate + quartz sand aggregates, and CO2 hydrate + quartz sand aggregates, at conditions relevant to hydrate-bearing environments on Earth. We compare these results to those measured previously on pure end-member gas hydrates (sI methane hydrate, sI CO2 hydrate, and sII methane-ethane hydrate) as well as to pure water ice and to ice + sand aggregate mixtures. All gas hydrates we have tested to date are exceptionally strong relative to ice, and hence may serve to increase the strength and cohesion of hydrate-bearing sediments significantly more than previously predicted. Lastly, we use cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging techniques to examine the phase distribution, grain morphology, grain contacts, and textural evolution within the samples.
DNA methylation changes following DNA damage in prostate cancer cells

ABSTRACT Many cancer therapies operate by inducing double-strand breaks (DSBs) in cancer cells, however treatment-resistant cells rapidly initiate mechanisms to repair damage enabling survival. While the DNA repair mechanisms responsible for cancer cell survival following DNA damaging treatments are becoming better understood, less is known about the role of the epigenome in this process. Using prostate cancer cell lines with differing sensitivities to radiation treatment, we analysed the DNA methylation profiles prior to and following a single dose of radiotherapy (RT) using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip platform. DSB formation and repair, in the absence and presence of the DNA hypomethylating agent, 5-azacytidine (5-AzaC), were also investigated using γH2A. X immunofluorescence staining. Here we demonstrate that DNA methylation is generally stable following a single dose of RT; however, a small number of CpG sites are stably altered up to 14 d following exposure. While the radioresistant and radiosensitive cells displayed distinct basal DNA methylation profiles, their susceptibility to DNA damage appeared similar demonstrating that basal DNA methylation has a limited influence on DSB induction at the regions examined. Recovery from DSB induction was also similar between these cells. Treatment with 5-AzaC did not sensitize resistant cells to DNA damage, but rather delayed recruitment of phosphorylated BRCA1 (S1423) and repair of DSBs. These results highlight that stable epigenetic changes are possible following a single dose of RT and may have significant clinical implications for cancer treatment involving recurrent or fractionated dosing regimens.
Performance Analysis of Electric Spring in Reducing the Power Drawn From the Supply System During generation Uncertainties

This article deals about reduction of power drawn from the supply system in smart environment during un-certainties in the power generation. Supply system in this work is the system which consists of an intermittent power source and a storage system to support whenever there is deficit in power generation. A small micro grid system is considered for this study which has critical and non-critical load present in it along with storage system and Electric spring. An attempt is made to study the performance of Electric spring in reducing the power drawn from the supply system under different non-critical loads during un-certainties or power deficit conditions of the source. The effect of reactive component in the non-critical load is examined separately for the considered battery storage system. All the simulation models have been developed in MATLAB.