Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of articulation and transfer agreements between Missouri community colleges and universities in promoting the successful completion of a four-year degree

American community colleges have become important in the pursuit of a fouryear degree. The state of Missouri established an Associates of Arts degree and the 42hour general education block option to assist students with transfer and degree completion in the shortest time possible (Coordinating Board for Higher Education, 2000). If articulation agreements in Missouri are promoting ease of movement through higher education systems as desired, the total number of terms and hours accumulated to the completion of a four-year degree should not vary among transfer students and native university students. Using Tinto‘s Student Integration Model as a theoretical framework, this study compares the number of semesters and hours required to complete a four-year degree between native, A.A. degree transfer, and 42-hour block transfer students to determine if transfer options are aiding or impeding four-year degree completion. The study utilized data from two Missouri universities; the University of Missouri St. Louis and Missouri State University, chosen because they accept transfer students from a large number of Missouri community colleges. The independent variable was university degree completers, the two dependent variables were total number of terms and hours accumulated to a four-year degree, and the covariates were gender, ethnicity, university attended, and community college attended. The statistical test used for this study was the one-way Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). Findings indicated that for full-time students, there is a significant difference in terms and hours accumulated, with native students requiring fewer of both to complete a four-year degree than 42-hour block students, but not fewer than A.A. degree students. Results also indicated there is a significant difference in hours accumulated for part-time Effectiveness of Articulation iii students to the completion of a four-year degree, with native students accumulating fewer hours than both part-time 42-hour block students and A.A. degree students. The study suggests that there are institutionally controlled factors that influence time to completion for these groups, supporting Tinto‘s theoretical observations. The study found, however, that there was no significant difference in terms accumulated for the three subgroups of part-time students, and no significant difference between full-time or part-time A.A. degree students or 42-hour block students. Effectiveness of Articulation iv
CLUSTERING FOR ROUTING IN DENSE AREA

This paper introduces a new approach for generating school bus routes in a dense urban area. First, a districting algorithm is used to determine clusters including appropriate numbers of students. Then for each cluster, a route and the stops along this route are determined. Numerical results are reported and compared with those obtained previously. Although the algorithm has been developed and tested in a specific context, it could easily be extended to more general vehicle scheduling problems. (TRRL)
STRATEGIES FOR AXLE DETECTION IN BRIDGE WEIGH-IN-MOTION SYSTEMS

Bridge weigh-in-motion (BWIM), a system that uses strain sensors to calculate the weights of trucks passing on bridges overhead, requires accurate axle location and speed information for effective performance. Sensors under the bridge called Free-of-Axle Detector or Nothing-on-Road (NOR) BWIM perform the axle detection; a data acquisition system detects a peak in the strain sensor as the axle passes. The system is often successful, but presents challenges for beam-and-slab bridges with deep beams. With these bridges, the slabs are used for axle detection, but peaks in the slab strains are sensitive to the transverse position of wheels on the beam. In this paper, alternative strategies for axle detection with a range of bridge types and spans are examined.
A physical activity program versus usual care in the management of quality of life for pre-frail older adults with chronic pain in primary care: randomized controlled trial.

Background Exercise have shown being effective for managing chronic pain and preventing frailty status in older adults but the effect of an exercise program in the quality of life of pre-frail older adults with chronic pain remains unclear. Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of multicomponent structured physical exercise program for pre-frail adults aged 65 years or more with chronic pain to improve their perceived health related quality of life, compared with usual care. Methods Open label randomized controlled trial. Participants were community-dwelling pre-frail older adults aged 65 years or older with chronic pain and non-dependent for basic activities of daily living attending a Primary Healthcare Centre. Forty-four participants were randomly allocated to a control group (n = 20) that received usual care or an intervention group (n = 24) that received an 8-week physical activity and education program. Frailty status (SHARE Frailty Index), quality of life (EuroQol-5D-5L), pain intensity (Visual Analogue Scale), physical performance (Short Physical Performance Battery) and depression (Yessavage) were assessed at baseline, after the intervention and after 3 months follow-up. The effect of the intervention was analysed by mean differences between the intervention and control groups. Results The follow-up period (3 months) was completed by 32 patients (73%), 17 in the control group and 15 in the intervention group. Most participants were women (78.1%) with a mean age (standard deviation) of 77.2 (5.9) years and a mean pain intensity of 48.1 (24.4) mm. No relevant differences were found between groups at baseline. After the intervention, mean differences in the EuroQol Index Value between control and intervention groups were significant (-0.19 95%CI(-0.33- -0.04)) and remained after three months follow-up (-0.21 95%CI(-0.37- -0.05)). Participants in the exercise group showed better results in pain intensity and frailty after the intervention, and an improvement in physical performance after the intervention and after three months. Conclusions An eight-week physical activity and education program for pre-frail older adults with chronic pain, compared with usual care, could be effective to improve quality of life after the intervention and after three-months follow-up. Study registration details: This study was retrospectively registered in ClinicalTrials.gov with the identifier NCT04045535.
Cheap Design and Behavioral Diversity for Autonomous Adaptive Robots

The temperature of a dry etch process of a semiconductor substrate in a plasma etch chamber is controlled to maintain selectivity while also providing a high etch rate by introducing one or more cooling steps into the etch process. To maintain selectivity of the etch as well as a high rate of etch, the formation of plasma is terminated prior to exceeding a predetermined maximum temperature at at least one selected location in the chamber. The temperature at the selected location is reduced prior to the resumption of plasma flow and etching. The plasma etch is then continued, and may optionally be terminated again to permit cooling, as needed, until etching has been completed.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE PARKING AND MANOEUVRING

This paper describes a method to quickly and automatically generate optimal, collision-free maneuvers for a vehicle to perform. The method is the Cost Wave Propagation method, which quickly computers a parallel parking maneuver. The paper describes this technology for automatic parallel parking as well as for computing the complex maneuvers resulting from larger, obstacle strewn areas. Finally, the methods to achieve controllability are described in the context of a vehicle testbed.
Strengths Finder 2.0

DO YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO WHAT YOU DO BEST EVERY DAY? Chances are, you don't. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book spent more than five years on bestseller lists and ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions discover their top five talents. In StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment. While you can read this book in one sitting, you'll use it as a reference for decades. Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new book and accompanying website will change the way you look at yourself - and the world around you - forever. Available exclusively through the unique access code included in StrengthsFinder 2.0 : A new and upgraded edition of the StrengthsFinder assessment, a personalized Strengths Discovery and Action-Planning Guide for applying your strengths in the next week, month and year, 50 Ideas for Action (10 strategies for building on each of your top five themes) and the redesigned StrengthsFinder 2.0 companion website.
Assessment of Coal Quality of Some Indian Coals

The rock that we refer to as coal is derived principally from decomposed organic matter (plants) consisting primarily of the element carbon. When coal is burned, it produces energy in the form of heat, which is used to power machines such as steam engines or to drive turbines that produce electricity. Almost 67% of the electricity produced in INDIA is provided by coal combustion. "Coal quality" is the term used to refer to the properties and haracteristics of coal that influence its behavior and use. Among the coal-quality characteristics that will be important for future coal use are the concentrations, distribution, and forms of the many elements contained in the coal that we intend to burn. Knowledge of these quality characteristics in Indian coal deposits may allow us to use this essential energy resource more efficiently and effectively and with less undesirable environmental impact.
Acoustic Echo and Noise Control: A Practical Approach

List of Figures.List of Tables.Preface. Acknowledgments.Abbreviations and Acronyms.Part I: Basics.1 Introduction.1. 1 Some History.1. 2 Overview of the Book.2 Acoustic Echo and Noise Control Systems.2. 1 Notation.2. 2 Applications.3 Fundamentals.3. 1 Signals.3. 2 Acoustic Echoes.3. 3 Standards.Part II: Algorithms.4 Error Criteria and Cost Functions.4. 1 Error Criteria for Adaptive Filters.4. 2 Error Criteria for Filter Design.4. 3 Error Criteria for Speech Processing and Control Purposes.5 Wiener Filter.5. 1 Time-Domain Solution.5. 2 Frequency-Domain Solution.6 Linear Prediction.6. 1 Normal Equations.6. 2 Levinson{Durbin Recursion.7 Algorithms for Adaptive Filters.7. 1 The Normalized Least Mean Square Algorithm.7. 2 The Affine Projection Algorithm.7. 3 The Recursive Least Squares Algorithm.7. 4 The Kalman Algorithm.Part III: Acoustic Echo and Noise Control.8 Traditional Methods for Stabilization of Electroacoustic Loops.8. 1 Adaptive Line Enhancement.8. 2 Frequency Shift.8. 3 Controlled Attenuation.9 Echo Cancellation.9. 1 Processing Structures.9. 2 Stereophonic and Multichannel Echo Cancellation.10 Residual Echo and Noise Suppression.10. 1 Basics.10. 2 Suppression of Residual Echoes.10. 3 Suppression of Background Noise.10. 4 Combining Background Noise and Residual Echo Suppression.11 Beamforming.11. 1 Basics.11. 2 Characteristics of Microphone Arrays.11. 3 Fixed Beamforming.11. 4 Adaptive Beamforming.Part IV: Control and Implementation Issues.12 System Control-Basic Aspects.12. 1 Convergence versus Divergence Speed.12. 2 System Levels for Control Design.13 Control of Echo Cancellation Systems.13. 1 Pseudooptimal Control Parameters for the NLMS Algorithm.13. 2 Pseudooptimal Control Parameters for the Affine Projection Algorithm.13. 3 Summary of Pseudooptimal Control Parameters.13. 4 Detection and Estimation Methods.13. 5 Detector Overview and Combined Control Methods.14 Control of Noise and Echo Suppression Systems.14. 1 Estimation of Spectral Power Density of Background Noise.14. 2 Musical Noise.14. 3 Control of Filter Characteristics.15 Control for Beamforming.15. 1 Practical Problems.15. 2 Stepsize Control.16 Implementation Issues.16. 1 Quantization Errors.16. 2 Number Representation Errors.16. 3 Arithmetical Errors.16. 4 Fixed Point versus Floating Point.16. 5 Quantization of Filter Taps.Part V: Outlook and Appendixes.17 Outlook.Appendix A: Subband Impulse Responses.A. 1 Consequences for Subband Echo Cancellation.A. 2 Transformation.A. 3 Concluding Remarks.Appendix B: Filterbank Design.B. 1 Conditions for Approximately Perfect Reconstruction.B. 2 Filter Design Using a Product Approach.B. 3 Design of Prototype Lowpass Filters.B. 4 Analysis of Prototype Filters and the Filterbank System.References. Index.
Evaluation of hot mix asphalt (HMA) lift thickness.

The range of lift thicknesses allowed by the Mississippi Department of Transportation has worked well for many years. However, because of the current availability of gravels of sufficient size to crush, modification to the allowed lift thicknesses may be warranted. Therefore, the objective of this project was to evaluate the influence of lift thickness on the ability to achieve a desirable density with a reasonable compactive effort. The research approach undertaken to achieve the project objective was to conduct a detailed field study. A total of ten field projects were utilized in this study. At each of the field projects, the field compaction process was monitored and field data obtained. Data obtained from the field projects included four different mat temperature measurements over time, mat density after each pass of the roller suing a nuclear gauge, and final density and thickness obtained form cores. Cores cut from the roadway were also brought back to the laboratory for permeability testing. Based upon analyses conducted on the data, several conclusions were drawn. The thickness of the placed layer does affect the amount of time that an HMA layer will remain at compaction temperatures. Thicker lifts will maintain temperature longer. Lift thickness did have an affect on the final in-place density. As lift thickness increased, final in-place density also increased. No impact related to lift thickness was found for density gradients within field compacted layers. Finally, there did not appear to be an influence of thickness on the permeability of HMA layers. Based upon these conclusions, new allowable lift thickness limits were recommended.
Bit error rate estimation in WiMAX communications at vehicular speeds using Nakagami-m fading model

The wireless communication industry has experienced a rapid technological evolution from its basic rst generation (1G) wireless systems to the latest fourth generation (4G) wireless broadband systems. Wireless broadband systems are becoming increasingly popular with consumers and the technological strength of 4G has played a major role behind the success of wireless broadband systems. The IEEE 802.16m standard of the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) has been accepted as a 4G standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2011. The IEEE 802.16m is fully optimised for wireless communications in xed environments and can deliver very high throughput and excellent quality of service. In mobile communication environments however, WiMAX consumers experience a graceful degradation of service as a direct function of vehicular speeds. At high vehicular speeds, the throughput drops in WiMAX systems and unless proactive measures such as forward error control and packet size optimisation are adopted and properly adjusted, many applications cannot be facilitated at high vehicular speeds in WiMAX communications. For any proactive measure, bit error rate estimation as a function of vehicular speed, serves as a useful tool. In this thesis, we present an analytical model for bit error rate estimation in WiMAX communications using the Nakagami-m fading model. We also show, through an analysis of the data collected from a practical WiMAX system, that the Nakagami-m model can be made adaptive as a function of speed, to represent fading in xed environments as well as mobile environments.
Regenerative Impact (Capacity) of Cerebrolysin versus N-Acetyl- Cysteine on Facial Nerve injury in Rats

Background: Facial nerve (FN) injury is an important health issue worldwide and the most essential principle for all surgeonsis proper diagnosis and early treatment.Aim of the study: Evaluation of the effect of Cerebrolysin (CBL) versus N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) on FN regeneration.Materials and Methods: Normal 24 Sprague Dawely adult male rats were selected with a weight range 250 - 300 gm. CrushtypeFN injury was performed on the right side of all rats then, they were randomly divided into three equal groups of eightrats each. In group I, the rats were left without any treatment and considered as a control. Rats of group II received 50 mg/kg/day NAC intraperitoneally for a period of 28 days while rats of group III received 2.5 ml/kg/day CBL intraperitoneallyfor the same period. Postoperatively, eye-blink reflex was used to evaluate the functional recovery after the 2nd and the 4thweeks. All animals were euthanized by overdose of diethyl ether after 28 days and nerve regeneration was evaluated based onhistopathological and immunohistochemical (IHC) examinations. All data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0software. Statistical significance was inferred at a P value ≤ 0.05. Results: Nerve regeneration was obvious in group III with significant improvement of the eye-blink reflex at 2weeks period thatbecame non-significant at 4 weeks. Histological and IHC evaluation revealed high regeneration and minimum inflammation ingroup III when compared with groups I and II.Conclusion: CBL enhances nerve regeneration and rehabilitation better than NAC after facial nerve crush injury in rats.
Development of novel ELP-based transcriptional regulators for improved biomanufacturing

Microbial chemical factories (MCFs) have become an attractive platform for producing valuable drugs, chemicals, and biofuels due to increasing environmental concerns, energy demands, and the difficulties associated with chemically synthesizing complex molecules. However, the potential of using microbes to produce many valuable products has not been fully realized due to low productivity and yields. Production may be enhanced through the dynamic control of metabolic pathways to alleviate metabolic imbalances and toxic product build-up, but very few tools are available to broadly implement this paradigm. I aim to expand this toolbox by developing tunable sensor-regulator devices that act as feedback controllers for toxic intermediate formation by responding to cues of cell health for improved production. Elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) will act as the sensing domain of the controller to indirectly sense toxic metabolite accumulation through changes in intracellular pH. ELPs make ideal sensors since they exhibit a sharp, inverse phase transition to indicators of cellular health such as pH and ionic strength, and external stimuli such as temperature. In this research, a library of ELPs that exhibit pH sensitivity and transition under various conditions was made and purified using a new organic solvent extraction method. It is hypothesized that fusion of ELP to orthogonal transcription factor will allow for the controlled expression of target genes in response to stimuli without disrupting native processes. As proof of concept, an ELP fusion to orthogonal sigma factor was designed to drive the expression of a fluorescent reporter protein. Initial designs successfully alter gene expression by 21% in response to temperature. To improve this response, an alternative feed-forward loop architecture was modelled, which predicted an improved response of 35% and increased ultrasensitivity. Refinement of this design and combinatorial construct libraries will generate various regulators with diverse outputs that may be integrated in bioproduction pathways for improved performance.
Why Is THCA Decarboxylation Faster than CBDA? an in Silico Perspective

Tetrahydrocannabinol acid (THCA) and cannabidiol acid (CBDA), the two crucial organic components in cannabis and hemp, decarboxylate at different rates to their more active neutral forms. Theoretical calculations are used herein to analyze how the remote annulated ring or pendant substituent influences the rate determining steps of the decarboxylation processes. The uncatalyzed keto-enol tautomerization that precedes decarboxylation is found to be extremely slow in both cases albeit with a ten-fold preference for CBDA. A single molecule of methanol dramatically enhances the reaction rates by allowing for tautomerization through a more favorable six-membered ring transition state. Methanol-catalyzed tautomerization is found to be faster in THCA than in CBDA. This difference results from both the larger dipole moment of the THCA scaffold as well as its greater rigidity relative to CBDA. The greater dipole moment leads to a somewhat better binding of methanol. The lower entropic penalty in THCA towards tautomerization leads to faster decarboxylation.
Acoustic tweezers

Acoustic tweezers are gaining increasing attention as a noncontact method that is capable of handling microparticles and nanoparticles in a controllable manner. By designing the acoustic field, objects, such as cells, bacteria, exosomes, and even worms, could be precisely and flexibly manipulated by the acoustic radiation force. With the advantages of non-invasiveness, label-free operation, and low power consumption, acoustic tweezers have been proven to be crucially important for a diverse range of applications, particularly in the biomedical domain. In this paper, we review the historical development and the current state of the theory of the acoustic radiation force. Furthermore, we introduce recent advancements in acoustic tweezers based on the standing wave, travelling wave, single beam, and arbitrary wave fields; its mechanism and potential applications are also presented. Finally, some perspectives referring to the future development of acoustic tweezers are discussed.