Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Methods for availability improvements of a scaling machine system

Scaling is the process of cleaning loose material from the roof, face and wall of the mine room in underground mining. The purpose of scaling is to make the mine room safe for the next operation. Due to the nature of the task, scaling has been identified as an operation with a high number of accident occurrences. The use of a scaling machine to replace hand scaling has successfully reduced the number of scaling-related accidents. However, due to the combination of a hostile environment (such as falling rock, dust, high humidity, etc.), the operation context (e.g. significant vibrations), and reliability and maintainability issues, the scaling machine is identified as one of the major contributors to unplanned downtime. The purpose of this research is to develop methods that can be used for identifying the availability related problems and improving the availability of the scaling machine system in a cost effective way. To achieve the purpose of this research, literature studies, case studies, and simulations study have been conducted. Empirical data have been collected from field measurements, document studies, interviews, and observations. For data analysis, theories and methodologies within reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM), ergonomics and optimization have been combined with the best practices from the related industry. A first result of this study is the development of a method for visualization of the downtime that provides a visualization of the downtime estimation and the precision and the uncertainty of the estimation at a given confidence level, as well as factors influencing the failure. Second result is the identification of components that significantly contribute to the downtime and the reason for that downtime (reliability and/or maintainability problem). Based on the failures analysis, suggestion for the improvement of the critical component is also proposed. Third result is the identification and analyzing of performance shaping factors (PSFs) that can affect to the reliability of scaling machine system. Fourth result is a proposed methodology that can help the design team to select which components of a system are needed to be improved and to which level the improvement should be done to optimize the availability of system in a cost effective way. Finally, the fifth result is a proposed method for a robust-optimum multi-attribute age-based replacement policy. The proposed approach can be used to determine the interval time for preventive replacement that provides a robust and optimum solution for a multi-attribute age-based replacement policy. These results are related to specific industrial challenges, and are expected to enhance the capability for improving the availability of the scaling machine system in a cost effective way. The results have been verified through interaction with experienced practitioners from both the manufacture and the user (i.e. mining company) of the scaling machine.
The Use of qSOFA, SOFA, and Ramathibodi Early Warning Score (REWS) to Predict Severe Complications in Hematologic Malignancy Patients

Background Sepsis causes high mortality in vulnerable groups such as hematologic malignancy (HM) patients. There are various early warning scores of sepsis, eg, qSOFA, SOFA, and Ramathibodi Early Warning Score (REWS). This study aimed to compare REWS, qSOFA, and SOFA in predicting severe complications in hematologic malignancy patients visiting ED. Methods The study was conducted as a retrospective cohort study at the ED of Ramathibodi Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Adult HM patients suspected of sepsis and have visited ED between March 2016 and December 2019. Results Among 124 patients in our cohort, 51 (41%) had serious complication in ED and 20 (16%) died within 28 days after admission. The AUROCs of SOFA and qSOFA indicate significantly higher predicting in serious complication in ED than REWS (SOFA, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.73–0.89], qSOFA, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.65–0.81], REWS, 0.62 [95% CI, 0.52–0.72] p=0.004) while the predicting in 28-day mortality is not statistically significantly different (SOFA, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.60–0.85], qSOFA, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.58–0.80], REWS, 0.60 [95% CI, 0.44–0.75] p=0.25). Conclusion The SOFA score is highest in predicting severe complications among hematologic malignancy patients.
The Future of FPGA Acceleration in Datacenters and the Cloud

In this article, we survey existing academic and commercial efforts to provide Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) acceleration in datacenters and the cloud. The goal is a critical review of existing systems and a discussion of their evolution from single workstations with PCI-attached FPGAs in the early days of reconfigurable computing to the integration of FPGA farms in large-scale computing infrastructures. From the lessons learned, we discuss the future of FPGAs in datacenters and the cloud and assess the challenges likely to be encountered along the way. The article explores current architectures and discusses scalability and abstractions supported by operating systems, middleware, and virtualization. Hardware and software security becomes critical when infrastructure is shared among tenants with disparate backgrounds. We review the vulnerabilities of current systems and possible attack scenarios and discuss mitigation strategies, some of which impact FPGA architecture and technology. The viability of these architectures for popular applications is reviewed, with a particular focus on deep learning and scientific computing. This work draws from workshop discussions, panel sessions including the participation of experts in the reconfigurable computing field, and private discussions among these experts. These interactions have harmonized the terminology, taxonomy, and the important topics covered in this manuscript.
Comparison of Two Reactive Power Definitions in DFIG Wind Power System under Grid Unbalanced Condition

This paper compares two instantaneous reactive power definitions in DFIG wind turbine with a back-to-back three-level neutral-point clamped voltage source converter under unbalanced grid conditions. In general, conventional definition of instantaneous reactive power is obtained by taking an imaginary component of complex power. The other definition of instantaneous reactive power can be developed based on a set of voltages lagging the grid input voltages by 90 degree. A complex quantity referred as a quadrature complex power is defined. Proposed definition of instantaneous reactive power is derived by taking a real component of quadrature complex power. The characteristics of two instantaneous reactive power definitions are compared using the ripple-free stator active power control algorithm in DFIG. Instantaneous reactive power definition based on quadrature complex power has a simpler current reference calculation control block. Ripple of instantaneous active and reactive power has the same magnitude unlike in conventional definition under grid unbalance. Comparison results of two instantaneous reactive power definitions are verified through simulation.
Comment on “Short-cut transport path for Asian dust directly to the Arctic: a case Study” by Huang et al. (2015) in Environ. Res. Lett.​​​​​​​

Abstract. The suggestion of Huang et al. (2015) on the climatological-scale transport of Asian dust to the Arctic appears to be an important and worthwhile assertion. It is unfortunate that the authors undermined, to a certain degree, the quality of that assertion by a misinterpretation of the critical 24 March 2010​​​​​​​ Arctic event (which was chosen by the authors to illustrate their generalized, climatological-scale Arctic transport claim). They attempted to characterize that key event using AERONET/AEROCAN retrievals taken a day later and misinterpreted those largely cloud-dominated retrievals as being representative of Asian dust while apparently not recognizing that the coarse-mode aerosol optical depth retrievals on the previous day were actually coherent with their Arctic transport hypothesis.
Technical Note: A High-Resolution Autonomous Record of Ice Nuclei Concentrations for Fall and Winter at Storm Peak Laboratory

Abstract. High-resolution, long-term measurements of ice nucleating particles (INPs) have been impeded by complex instrumentation that requires a trained on-site technician to operate or analyze offline. We have significantly updated the well-characterized continuous flow diffusion chamber (CFDC) instrument to run autonomously with minimal in-person handling and easy remote access. This new CFDC, the CFDC-Ice Activation Spectrometer (CFDC-IAS) was deployed for four months (October 2020–January 2021) at the mountain-top Storm Peak Laboratory site in Colorado and provided 5-minute resolution measurements daily at target temperatures of −20, −25, and −30 °C. Concentrations of INPs across all temperatures had a median value of 6 per standard liter (sL−1), and a mean of 10 sL−1 with a range of ~0–470 sL−1.
The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Turnover Intention Through Organizational Commitment as a Mediation

The purpose of this study is to describe turnover intention, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of the employees and to investigate the effect of job satisfaction on turnover intention through organizational commitment as a mediating variable. The sample in this study was 56 employees of Sengkaling Recreation Park Malang selected by the saturated sampling technique. The analysis tool was a scale range analysis and path analysis. The findings indicate that job satisfaction has a negative effect on turnover intention, job satisfaction has a positive effect on organizational commitment, organizational commitment has a negative effect on turnover intention and job satisfaction has a negative effect on turnover intention through organizational commitment as a mediating variable. The Sobel test shows that organizational commitment is proven to be the mediating variable.
Social Isolation and the Use of Technology in Caregiving Dyads Living With Dementia During COVID-19 Restrictions

Background People with dementia (PwD) and their informal caregivers (caregiving dyads) face multiple impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including restricted social support services and social isolation. With limited opportunities for caregiving dyads to participate in social activities during the pandemic, the potential of social technology to support social participation and dyadic relationships should be explored. As a part of an ongoing feasibility trial, this study assesses how COVID-19 has impacted community-dwelling dyads in a dementia caregiving context. The dyads' use of social technology and their motivations to invite technology into social interactions are explored. Methods A pilot case study employing baseline interview data from three community-dwelling caregiving dyads. Each dyad consisted of a husband with a dementia diagnosis and his wife, who performed most caregiving tasks. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and subjected to inductive thematic analysis. Two researchers independently coded the data, and collated the codes and themes collaboratively. Results Two themes and seven subthemes were identified: (i) living with dementia during COVID-19 (subthemes: social and leisure activities, dyadic interactions, adjusting as caregiver); and (ii) the role of technology in a pandemic (subthemes: facilitating social activities, facilitating dementia care-related activities, barriers and facilitators to using social technology, the underlying motivation to invite technology into interactions). Dyads who were socially active pre-COVID-19, and who managed to make good use of technology to facilitate and maintain their social engagement during COVID-19, reported to have been less negatively impacted by COVID-related social restrictions. Conclusion The dyads differed in how COVID-19 restrictions impacted their lives and how they coped with dementia, revealing different motivations for wanting to invite technology into their social interactions. During and beyond this pandemic, social technology can be a valuable tool for promoting social participation in this population, especially when in-person social contact is restricted. Successful uptake of social technology is dependent on customizing it to the individual's needs and conditions. Therefore, efforts are needed to tackle barriers that exist for older adults in using such technology.
Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Group-Based Self-Determination Enhancement Intervention for Adults with Mild Intellectual Disability and Their Caregivers

Self-determination is regarded as an adult outcome for people with an intellectual disability (ID). However, self-determination curricula are rarely available in Hong Kong. This paper outlines a protocol for an experimental study that examines the effectiveness of a group-based self-determination enhancement intervention for adults with mild ID and their caregivers. A randomized controlled trial with pre-test, post-test and three-month follow-up is proposed. A total of 120 participants will be randomly assigned to three conditions: self-determination enhancement group, self-determination enhancement PLUS group (with caregivers in a parallel group) and leisure activity group as a control condition. Five groups will be organized for each of the three conditions. There will be 10 sessions per group covering the core components of self-determination including self-knowledge, goal setting and attaining goals, self-regulating and adjusting plans. Components for caregivers include understanding how self-determination and REACH responding skills can support their children to exercise self-determination through positive interaction. Self-determination competencies and personal well-being will be measured at three points in time. The proposed study is the first evidence-based local study aimed at examining a culturally tailored self-determination enhancement intervention for people with ID and fills a research gap in existing interventions. If the intervention is demonstrated to be effective, it will provide new knowledge for a group-based intervention and will be used with Chinese-speaking people with ID in different parts of the world. (Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05167929)
Factors Influencing Tourists’ Travel Experience Sharing on Social Media

: As travel-related content of tourist experiences benefits for both tourists to consume information online and for companies by providing insight into how visitors perceive their services, it becomes critical to understand the antecedents of travel experience sharing on social media. The study aims to develop a model of overall satisfaction, perceived enjoyment, motivations, and inhibitor toward sharing travel experiences, where personality factors impact overall satisfaction and perceived enjoyment. Partial Least Squares analysis was performed to evaluate the last experience of 169 Indonesian tourists in Bandung. The study discovers that conscientiousness and openness to experience trait is significant predictor of overall experience satisfaction, and only extraversion trait is identified as a significant predictor of perceived enjoyment. When it comes to predicting travel experience sharing on social media, overall satisfaction, perceived enjoyment, personal fulfillment, and self-actualization reasons have been significant predictors, but altruistic motivations and security and privacy concerns have not. Destination managers should be aware of different travelers’ personalities that could impact their satisfaction and perceived enjoyment, influencing their sharing experience behavior. Personalized service and promotion can increase contributors to sharing travel-related content on social media.
Commercialization Status of Free-piston Stirling Machines

After many years of engineering and market development some free-piston Stirling machines are now available commercially. These successes presage other such products based on free-piston Stirling machines that will likely enter the market over the coming years. This paper describes Sunpower’s beta type free-piston machine technology, its attributes relative to kinematic and other free-piston machines, and its commercialization status. Some typical performance data for such machines is presented. BACKGROUND In response to the short-comings of the conventional kinematic Stirling engine, William Beale invented the free-piston Stirling engine (FPSE) in 1964[1]. All kinematic Stirling machines, no matter what the arrangement, face a number of very significant engineering design challenges which may be so great as to prevent any commercial success. These challenges include the requirement for long-lived noncontact bearings and seals, the difficulty of sealing and pressurizing the machine, the need for lubrication and to separate the lubricant from the heat exchangers, modulation and control. The promise of the free piston machine has been a hermetically sealed, near fixed-frequency device operating in a non-contact mode providing very long life, with no need for lubricants, and direct alternating current output from an integral linear alternator. A representative schematic of a free-piston Stirling machine is shown in Figure 1.
Dynamics of PAH-Degrading Bacteria and Corresponding Marker Genes in Different Petroleum Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Soils in Almadina Almunawarah, KSA

Received 24 August 2021 Accepted 03 November 2021 Soil contamination with petroleum derivatives, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is an increasing problem in various parts of the world. Dynamics of bacterial communities were examined in different petroleumcontaminated soils to assess patterns of microbial responses to PAH contamination. Bacterial community fingerprints were determined using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA gene as a molecular marker. Sequence-based identification of dominant DGGE bands in petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soils revealed the presence of Pseudomonas sp. , P. pseudoalcaligenes, P. nitroreducens, P. toyotomiensis, and uncultured Pseudomonas clones as the dominant bacterial groups. In a laboratory scale microcosm, prolonged incubation of contaminated soils resulted in marked deterioration of bacterial communities. DGGE fingerprints of PAH-amended microcosms indicated the presence of distinct bands corresponding to hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, such as P. mendocina, Cellulosimicrobium sp. , Stenotrophomonas sp. , and Sphingobacterium sp. , which were barely detected in unamended soils. Bacterial community structure in amended soils remained stable even after prolonged incubation up to 6 months. Catabolic genes for upper aromatic hydrocarbon metabolism, such as those encoding naphthalene dioxygenase, toluene dioxygenase (todC1), and Rieske-type proteins of dioxygenases and lower pathway genes encoding catechol 1,2dioxygenase and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (C23O and xylE) were used as biomarkers for monitoring PAH biodegradation in constructed microcosms. Among all tested primer sets, those for C23O and naphthalene dioxygenase allowed efficient amplification of extradiol ring cleavage dioxygenase and naphthalene dioxygenase, respectively, from soil samples amended with naphthalene as a model PAH compound. The results indicated the dominance of ring cleavage dioxygenases of the meta pathway and naphthalene dioxygenase in contaminated soils of Almadina Almunawarah, Yanbu city, Saudi Arabia, and their possible use as biomarkers for screening PAH biodegradation in petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soils. Keywords
Nonlinear Device Measurement, Characterization, and Modeling for High Power RF Applications

To satisfy power and frequency requirements for commercial RF applications, various semiconductor materials and device structures have been introduced and developed rapidly. These semiconductors need to handle modulated signals exhibiting high peak to average power ratio (PAPR) and wide modulation bandwidth to meet the requirements of modern wireless standards. In this context, measurements with continuous wave (CW) single tone or two-tone excitations are no longer sufficient to characterize power amplifiers (PAs) for such applications due to the inherent memory effects present in PAs. In this thesis a new testbed is developed with a Large Signal Network Analyzer (LSNA) to perform multi-harmonic broadband measurements for periodically modulated signals with bandwidth exceeding the IF receiver bandwidth of the LSNA. Also a new pulsed real-time active load-pull (RTALP) measurement system which is developed and used to characterize devices under iso-memory effect is reported in this thesis. With the LSNA system, the multiple recording technique are combined in order to reduce the long measurement time and bypass the pulse desensitization problem. With this novel combined technique, output power and gain at 1 dB compression gain plane are extracted from a double power-sweep measurements of the input and output power levels. It is necessary for successful device modeling to account for memory effects such as self-heating, traps in HEMTs and parasitic bipolar junction transistor in FETs. Due to the slow time response of these memory effects, fast pulsed-IV/pulsedRF measurements have ii been used to maintain constant device temperature, body BJT voltage in FETs or trap state in HEMTs. Therefore, new microwave characterization techniques are also presented to characterize these unwanted memory effects by estimating the internal device operating temperature and extracting the trap relaxation time-constants in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Having characterized results under the developed measurement system, a new measurementbased model with artificial neuron network (ANN) is finally proposed and applied to a SOI MOSFET device. The verification results demonstrate that the time-consuming measurement process can be dramatically reduced by using RTALP measurement data, and that fairly accurate large-signal RF device model can be easily extracted from these measurements using the ANN approach.
Risk-Based Mapping Tools for Surveillance and Control of the Invasive Mosquito Aedes albopictus in Switzerland

Background: In Switzerland, Aedes albopictus is well established in Ticino, south of the Alps, where surveillance and control are implemented. The mosquito has also been observed in Swiss cities north of the Alps. Decision-making tools are urgently needed by the local authorities in order to optimize surveillance and control. Methods: A regularized logistic regression was used to link the long-term dataset of Ae. albopictus occurrence in Ticino with socioenvironmental predictors. The probability of establishment of Ae. albopictus was extrapolated to Switzerland and more finely to the cities of Basel and Zurich. Results: The model performed well, with an AUC of 0.86. Ten socio-environmental predictors were selected as informative, including the road-based distance in minutes of travel by car from the nearest cell established in the previous year. The risk maps showed high suitability for Ae. albopictus establishment in the Central Plateau, the area of Basel, and the lower Rhone Valley in the Canton of Valais. Conclusions: The areas identified as suitable for Ae. albopictus establishment are consistent with the actual current findings of tiger mosquito. Our approach provides a useful tool to prompt authorities’ intervention in the areas where there is higher risk of introduction and establishment of Ae. albopictus.
Mathematical Model Study on Uncertain Multi-Stage Fleet Planning

A study on uncertain multi-stage fleet planning is carried out aiming at the shortcomings in present fleet planning such as lack of ship-age technical economic index and no operational parameters in uncertainty function etc.First a fuzzy stochastic chance restraint math model based on the certain satisfaction of shipping companies is set up.Then the model is transformed into its clear equivalence for the solution of fleet planning.This math model is based on the features of shipping market,so it can be a guidance for the shipping investment.