Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Three-dimensional analysis of forced vibrations of rectangular at-cut quartz plates

In the present paper, a previous technique using a hybrid method (analytical approach and numerical approach) is extended to deal with forced vibrations of rectangular AT-cut quartz plate resonators with partial electrodes. The mass loading of electrodes is considered with weak piezoelectric coupling. First rectangular acoustic waveguides with and without electrodes coating on the major faces are examined. The vibration modes of each waveguide are determined. The displacement of the resonator is defined with a linear combination of the modes. Second, the trapped-energy resonators containing a single-plated region and a double-unplated region are considered. A set of the amplitudes of the modes is derived from continuity conditions of displacement and stress at the interface between the regions, and stress-free boundary conditions at both ends of the resonator. Next, the input admittance characteristics of the resonators are calculated. Finally, the equivalent inductance of each resonance is determined from the obtained input admittance curve.
Relationship between Amyloid-β Deposition and the Coupling between Structural and Functional Brain Networks in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease

Previous studies have demonstrated that the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) pathologies has distinctive stage-specific effects on the structural and functional brain networks along the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) continuum. A more comprehensive account of both types of brain network may provide a better characterization of the stage-specific effects of Aβ pathologies. A potential candidate for this joint characterization is the coupling between the structural and functional brain networks (SC-FC coupling). We therefore investigated the effect of Aβ accumulation on global SC-FC coupling in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), AD, and healthy controls. Patients with MCI were dichotomized according to their level of Aβ pathology seen in 18F-flutemetamol PET-CT scans—namely, Aβ-negative and Aβ-positive. Our results show that there was no difference in global SC-FC coupling between different cohorts. During the prodromal AD stage, there was a significant negative correlation between the level of Aβ pathology and the global SC-FC coupling of MCI patients with positive Aβ, but no significant correlation for MCI patients with negative Aβ. During the AD dementia stage, the correlation between Aβ pathology and global SC-FC coupling in patients with AD was positive. Our results suggest that Aβ pathology has distinctive stage-specific effects on global coupling between the structural and functional brain networks along the AD continuum.
Epidemiological Studies of Pan-Azole Resistant Aspergillus fumigatus Populations Sampled during Tulip Cultivation Show Clonal Expansion with Acquisition of Multi-Fungicide Resistance as Potential Driver

Pan-azole resistant isolates are found in clinical and environmental Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) populations. Azole resistance can evolve in both settings, with Af directly targeted by antifungals in patients and, in the environment, Af unintendedly exposed to fungicides used for material preservation and plant disease control. Resistance to non-azole fungicides, including methyl benzimidazole carbamates (MBCs), quinone outside inhibitors (QoIs) and succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHIs), has recently been reported. These fungicide groups are not used in medicine but can play an important role in the further spread of pan-azole resistant genotypes. We investigated the multi-fungicide resistance status and the genetic diversity of Af populations sampled from tulip field soils, tulip peel waste and flower compost heaps using fungicide sensitivity testing and a range of genotyping tools, including STRAf typing and sequencing of fungicide resistant alleles. Two major clones were present in the tulip bulb population. Comparisons with clinical isolates and literature data revealed that several common clonal lineages of TR34/L98H and TR46/Y121F/T289A strains that have expanded successfully in the environment have also acquired resistance to MBC, QoI and/or SDHI fungicides. Strains carrying multiple fungicide resistant alleles have a competitive advantage in environments where residues of multiple fungicides belonging to different modes of action are present.
A User-centric Demand Response Framework for Residential Heating, Ventilation, and Air-conditioning Load Management

Abstract The domestic heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning load promises a good prospect for electrical aggregators to consider it for demand response. This article presents a user-centric demand response control for scheduling the electric space heating load under a price and load uncertainty environment. The objective of the framework is to minimize a weighted sum of the expected payment, loss of comfort, and financial risk of a customer while strictly considering the end-user preferences. The household thermal behavior is modeled via an accurate two-capacity building model. The price and load uncertainty is modeled using a scenario-based stochastic programming approach. The proposed decision model is formulated as a non-linear programming problem that can be simply solved via commercially available solvers. The effectiveness of the formulation is demonstrated by applying it to a typical customer. The simulation results demonstrate that the decision mechanism allows consumers to compromise among electricity payment, thermal comfort, and risk exposure based on their thermal comfort preferences and risk priorities.
Analysis of Coplanar T-junctions by the Method of Lines

Summary A novel method for the analysis of a wide range of coplanar and microwave T-junctions is presented. The concept is based on the Method of Lines. Two crossed two-dimensional discretization schemes are combined with the impedance transformation for modelling the central region of the structure. This approach is validated by comparison with results obtained by FDTD method and Sonnet software.
Performance analysis of re-entrant manufacturing networks under surplus-based production control

Motivated by the problem of planning and scheduling in large semiconductor manufacturing facilities we study the performance of re-entrant production networks. In such networks, each product has to go multiple times through the entire manufacturing line before it is ready. Each machine in a re-entrant network can receive products from different routings, but the products from only one of the routings can be served at a time. This complicated network structure makes it difficult, and at the same time important, to estimate in advance the performance of such a network under a demand-driven control policy. In this paper we present results on the influence of perturbations, buffer inventory levels and the number of manufacturing stages on the production tracking error of each machine in the re-entrant network operated under a surplus-based production control policy. The results are provided in the form of so-called ‘worst case scenario’ bounds on the steady-state production demand tracking accuracy of each stage as well as bounds on the content of each intermediate inventory level. By means of simulation examples we show that the results obtained have an important meaning and can be used as a practical reference tool.
Alternated Superior Chaotic Biogeography-Based Algorithm for Optimization Problems

In this study, we consider a switching strategy that yields a stable desirable dynamic behaviour when it is applied alternatively between two undesirable dynamical systems. From the last few years, dynamical systems employed “chaos1 + chaos2 = order” and “order1 + order2 = chaos” (vice-versa) to control and anti control of chaotic situations. To find parameter values for these kind of alternating situations, comparison is being made between bifurcation diagrams of a map and its alternate version, which, on their own, means independent of one another, yield chaotic orbits. However, the parameter values yield a stable periodic orbit, when alternating strategy is employed upon them. It is interesting to note that we look for stabilization of chaotic trajectories in nonlinear dynamics, with the assumption that such chaotic behaviour is not desirable for a particular situation. The method described in this paper is based on the Parrondo’s paradox, where two losing games can be alternated, yielding a winning game, in a superior orbit.
SuperflexPy 1.3.0: an open-source Python framework for building, testing, and improving conceptual hydrological models

Abstract. Catchment-scale hydrological models are widely used to represent and improve our understanding of hydrological processes and to support operational water resource management. Conceptual models, which approximate catchment dynamics using relatively simple storage and routing elements, offer an attractive compromise in terms of predictive accuracy, computational demands, and amenability to interpretation. This paper introduces SuperflexPy, an open-source Python framework implementing the SUPERFLEX principles (Fenicia et al., 2011) for building conceptual hydrological models from generic components, with a high degree of control over all aspects of model specification. SuperflexPy can be used to build models of a wide range of spatial complexity, ranging from simple lumped models (e.g., a reservoir) to spatially distributed configurations (e.g., nested sub-catchments), with the ability to customize all individual model components. SuperflexPy is a Python package, enabling modelers to exploit the full potential of the framework without the need for separate software installations and making it easier to use and interface with existing Python code for model deployment. This paper presents the general architecture of SuperflexPy, discusses the software design and implementation choices, and illustrates its usage to build conceptual models of varying degrees of complexity. The illustration includes the usage of existing SuperflexPy model elements, as well as their extension to implement new functionality. Comprehensive documentation is available online and provided as a Supplement to this paper. SuperflexPy is available as open-source code and can be used by the hydrological community to investigate improved process representations for model comparison and for operational work.
Developing and Validating Financial Inclusion Measuring Scale for Rural Inhabitants in Tamil Nadu

The rural penetration of banking products is very low in India. The inclusion of financial resources aids the availability of financial services with ease, maximizes business opportunities, and outsources financially literate people among the rural inhabitants. The key focus of this research study is to develop and validate the scale for measuring financial inclusion. The psychometric scale development for financial inclusion is developed through three distinguished ways viz: inductive, deductive, and combination of both. The present study adopted the inductive method to validate the scale because of its feasibility and wide usage. The validated scale determines financial inclusion and its initiation taken by banks towards rural inhabitants in the state of Tamil Nadu. The probability sampling technique is employed to identify the sample of respondents. Factor Analysis is run to find the pattern relations. The Exploratory Factor Analysis result reveals that the study has developed scales that are loaded in four distinguished dimensions namely usage of financial service, financial access, service quality, and financial welfare.
Task-Aware Verifiable RNN-Based Policies for Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes

Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) are models for sequential decision-making under uncertainty and incomplete information. Machine learning methods typically train recurrent neural networks (RNN) as effective representations of POMDP policies that can efficiently process sequential data. However, it is hard to verify whether the POMDP driven by such RNN-based policies satisfies safety constraints, for instance, given by temporal logic specifications. We propose a novel method that combines techniques from machine learning with the field of formal methods: training an RNN-based policy and then automatically extracting a so-called finite-state controller (FSC) from the RNN. Such FSCs offer a convenient way to verify temporal logic constraints. Implemented on a POMDP, they induce a Markov chain, and probabilistic verification methods can efficiently check whether this induced Markov chain satisfies a temporal logic specification. Using such methods, if the Markov chain does not satisfy the specification, a byproduct of verification is diagnostic information about the states in the POMDP that are critical for the specification. The method exploits this diagnostic information to either adjust the complexity of the extracted FSC or improve the policy by performing focused retraining of the RNN. The method synthesizes policies that satisfy temporal logic specifications for POMDPs with up to millions of states, which are three orders of magnitude larger than comparable approaches.
Roberta Jaffe, Founding Director, Life Lab Science Program, Co-Founder of Community Agroecology Network

Roberta (Robbie) Jaffe grew up in New York in the 1950s, and moved to Florida when she was sixteen. She attended the University of Florida and University of South Florida, and graduated with a degree in sociology. During and after college she was deeply involved in the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement as a field organizer and boycott organizer for the state of Florida. Jaffe first came to the Santa Cruz area with her then-husband, Jerry Kay, who was also active in the sustainable agriculture movement. They farmed ten acres near Elkhorn Slough, and in 1976, Jaffe helped start the first farmers’ market in Santa Cruz County, at Live Oak School. After that marriage ended, Jaffe studied horticulture at Cabrillo College with Richard Merrill, and took a position with a CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) program called Project Blossom. As part of that program, she co-founded a school garden at Green Acres School in Live Oak, a semi-rural area near Santa Cruz, California. This was the genesis of the Life Lab Science Program, which grew into a groundbreaking nonprofit organization that works with schools throughout the United States to develop school gardens and curriculum for teaching science and nutrition. Jaffe served as founding executive director of the program for many years. Jaffe earned a second master’s degree in education from UC Santa Cruz, with an emphasis in agroecology. She met and married Steve Gliessman (also the subject of an oral history in this series). In 2001, they co-founded the Community Agroecology Network (CAN). CAN defines its goals as, “to help a network of rural, primarily coffee-growing communities in Mexico and Central America develop self-sufficiency and sustainable growing practices, and direct market coffee to consumers in the United States. ” Jaffe is the co-author of “From Differentiated Coffee Markets Towards Alternative Trade and Knowledge Networks,” in Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Sustaining Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America, and many Life Lab publications, including The Growing Classroom. Ellen Farmer interviewed Robbie Jaffe on May 5, 2007, at Jaffe's house in Santa Cruz, California. Farmer’s MA thesis (in public policy) at California State University at Monterey Bay focused on the coffee crisis. As a graduate student, she worked with Jaffe at CAN, and brought her knowledge of the economics and politics of coffee growing in Latin America to the interview.
Integrated microfluidic spectroscopic sensor using arrayed waveguide grating

With non-invasive properties and high sensitivities, portable optical biosensors are extremely desirable for point-of-care (POC) applications. Lab-on-a-chip technology such as microfluidics has been treated as an ideal approach to integrate complex sample processing and analysis units with optical detection elements. The work in this paper has developed an integrated dispersive component in combination with a microfluidic chip, providing a portable and inexpensive platform for on-chip spectroscopic sensing. We demonstrate an integrated microfluidic spectroscopic sensor by using an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) device. In particular, a visible AWG device (λc=680nm) with chip size of 12.1mm by 1.5mm was designed and fabricated by employing flamed hydrolysis deposited (FHD) silica as the waveguide material. A straight input waveguide is used to perform device characterization while a perpendicular curved waveguide is employed to introduce laser excitation light. A polymer microfluidic chip is integrated with the AWG device by oxygen plasma bonding. To prove effectiveness of the integrated spectroscopic sensor, fluorescence spectrum of an organic fluorophore (Cy5) was tested. Reconstructed spectrum by using the AWG device is compared with the outcome from a conventional spectrometer and a good consistency is presented.
Trust, Sociability, and Quality of Life of Sub-Saharan African Migrants in Germany

Poor social integration is associated with poor quality of life among minority groups. The current study hypothesized that trust and sociability may significantly explain the quality of life performance among Sub-Saharan African migrants in Germany. Data from 518 migrants were analyzed. Hierarchical multiple linear regression models were calculated to assess the predictive effect of trust and sociability on aggregate quality of life. Results show that general trust and sociability explained about 21% of the variance in quality of life score (adjusted R 2 = .206; p < .001) for the total sample. Socioeconomic and demographic features suggested an added predictive effect of about 8% for total sample (adjusted R 2 = .279; p < .001), 10% for male (adjusted R 2 = .322; p < .001) and 4% for female (adjusted R 2 = .211; p < .001). The results support trust and sociability as essential in connecting to a new environment and enhancing the quality of life.
Design of a wideband, constant beamwidth, array microphone for use in the near field

Directional microphones have long been proposed for the removal of room reverberation. An array microphone would seem ideal for this purpose, since theoretically it can be aimed anywhere within the room. However, microphone pattern beamwidth is related to wavelength and aperture size. For a fixed-size aperture, as wavelength goes down so does beamwidth. The change in beamwidth over a decade change in wavelength would seem to be unacceptable for this application. We discuss the design of a constant beamwidth array microphone for the frequency range 300 to 3000 Hz. Because the microphone-to-talker distance is assumed to be about 3 ft while the array has a 9-ft aperture, the microphone is optimized for near field. We also discuss the use of a nonlinear optimization program for choosing the array parameters.
Productivity and performance in the public sector

In times of budgetary difficulties it is not surprising to see the performance of the public sector questioned. What is surprising is that what is meant by it, and how it is measured, does not seem to matter to either the critics or the advocates of the public sector. The purpose of this chapter is to suggest a definition and a way to measure the performance of the public sector or rather of its main components. Our approach is explicitly rooted in the principles of welfare and production economics. We will proceed in three stages. First of all we present what we call the "performance approach" to the public sector. This concept rests on the principal-agent relation that links a principal, i.e., the public authority, and an agent, i.e., the person in charge of the public sector unit, and on the definition of performance as the extent to which the agent fulfils the objectives assigned to him by the principal. Performance is then measured by using the notion of productive efficiency and of "best practice" frontier technique. We then move to the issue of measuring the productivity of some canonical components of the public sector (railways transportation, waste collection, secondary education and health care). We survey some typical studies of productive efficiency and emphasize the important idea of disentangling conceptual and data problems. This raises the important question that given the available data, does it make sense to assess and measure the productivity of such public sector activities? In the third stage we try to assess the performance of the overall public sector. We argue that for such a level of aggregation one should restrict the performance analysis to the outcomes and not relate it to the resources involved. As an illustration we then turn to an evaluation of the performance of the European welfare states and its evolution over time, using frontier techniques. The results confirm that countries with lowest performance grew faster but this is not sufficient to confirm a path towards convergence.
Bridge International Academies: Delivering quality education at a low cost in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda

This case study explores how Bridge International Academies, a for-profit education company founded in 2008, has developed an education model that leverages technology and scale to train and support underserved communities to deliver preprimary (nursery and kindergarten) and primary-school education. Bridge International Academies builds, staffs, and operates more than 450 low-cost private schools in marginalized communities in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.
A conceptual framework for scheduling purposes in mass customisation systems: an agent-based approach

Effective planning and scheduling in Mass Customisation Systems (MCSs) is a challenging issue due to the complexity related to planning and scheduling activities. Current software applications fail to meet the requirements of these systems in the job scheduling domain. This paper presents a scheduling system denominated the Intelligent Customisation Scheduler Agent (ICSA) and discusses the underlying approaches (i.e., the metaheuristic scheduling approach, the Generic-Bills-of-Materials (GBOM) and agent technologies) employed in developing the system.
The characteristic velocity stability indicator for passenger cars

Driver assistance systems have received increased attention as market demands have pushed for improved automotive safety. These systems are designed to aid the driver by preventing any unstable or unpredictable vehicle behaviour. One global indicator for stability and driving conditions could help to manage the control algorithms and driver warning subroutines. Another problem which could be solved by a precise driving situation indicator is evaluating new vehicles during test drives. After a short introduction to a linear lateral vehicle model, an analytical approach for an online calculation of different driving conditions (i.e., stability, understeering, oversteering, and neutralsteering) is given. A characteristic velocity stability indicator is defined, which allows online computation of the present driving condition. Results are then checked against real measurements of a test vehicle.