Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An empirical study of quality management practices in the petroleum industry

The purpose of this paper is to empirically study quality management practices in the petroleum industry in Iran. A reliable and valid survey instrument has been used for data gathering from managers in the petroleum industry in Iran. The instrument has been developed based on the criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), which consists of 13 dimensions of quality management. Correlation analysis has been used to test for a relationship between the quality management constructs and quality results (internal quality results and/or external quality results). Most of the linkages within the Baldrige criteria were supported, which indicates the universal applicability of the Baldrige Award criteria. The result of the correlation analysis indicates that top management support is the major driver for quality management implementation which is significantly correlated with most of the quality management constructs. Furthermore, the results indicated that employee training and employee involvement are significantly correlated with internal (operational) quality results. Customer orientation and supplier quality are not significantly correlated with external quality results (business performance).
The optimal form for coreless inductors

A fundamental problem of inductor design is to obtain the greatest possible inductance with a piece of round wire. The optimal design is a solenoid with many layers of circular turns, and the maximum inductance scales with the five-thirds power of the total length of wire used. For practical reasons other design types, including solenoids and toroids, also are commonly used. These may have one, few, or many layers, and all have optimal forms with associated scaling rules. By describing the class of coreless inductors in a common notation, a significant unification of design is achieved. >
Building Smooth Indicators Nearly Free of End-of-Sample Revisions

Aim of this paper is the construction of smooth indicator of the Italian industrial production index providing reliable end-of-sample information. Traditional smooth indicators are obtained using univariate filtering procedures based on symmetric or asymmetric filters inducing serious revisions. Here, the smoothing is obtained by exploiting the information embedded in the crosssectional dimension which allows to use a very narrow window, reducing the need for revisions at the end of the sample. As a by-product, we also obtained a smooth composite leading indicator of the industrial sector, based on eleven selected leading sectors.
Wholesale Price for Supply Chain Coordination via Conditional Value-at-Risk Minimization

The theory of the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) in financial risk management is considered in this paper to develop a model of supply chain coordination with a wholesale pricing policy. The proposed model solves the drawbacks of objective function in current supply chain coordination model. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The following helpful conclusions are drawn from the paper: with the increase of the degree of risk averting for supply chain individual member, the optimal order quantity of supply chain is decreasing, while the optimal profit is decreasing; If supplier’s risk averting degree increases, supplier has to increase wholesale price to achieve supply chain coordination; If retailer’s risk averting degree increases, supplier has to decrease wholesale price to achieve supply chain coordination.
Evaluation of Superpave HMA Mixture Properties at the Plant versus behind the Paver: Statistical Comparison of QC and QA Data

State highway agencies concerned with lower asphalt levels and potential durability problems in hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures designed with superior performing asphalt pavements (Superpave) have lead efforts to explore strategies for improving Superpave mix design. This study addressed the differences in HMA properties that have been observed over the years between samples taken at the plant versus behind the paver for Superpave designed mixtures in Maryland. A large set of Maryland State Highway Administration (MSHA) quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) data were analyzed statistically in the context of current specifications. Statistical analysis found that the means and standard deviations of the QC and QA data represent different populations. Because the material leaving the asphalt plant is the same material that is compacted behind the paver, some relationship between the plant and field properties is expected. However, attempts to define transfer functions between QA and QC measurements to use both data sets in HMA acceptance testing encountered low levels of statistical significance.
Internalizing Travel by Mixing Land Uses: Study of Master-Planned Communities in South Florida

Planners, public officials, and large-scale land developers increasingly promote mixed-use developments as an alternative to sprawl. They list among the benefits of such developments the “internal capture” of trips; that is, trips that would otherwise have filtered onto the regional road network will remain on site. Yet, so little information is available about internal capture rates that traffic impact studies for mixed-use developments become little more than exercises in speculation. In an attempt to advance basic knowledge of the subject and move toward better prediction methods, 20 mixed-use communities in south Florida were studied to determine the effect of land use mix on internal capture rates. The sample of communities studied had internal capture rates ranging from 0 to 57 percent of all trip ends generated. When modeled in terms of land use and accessibility variables, both the scale of a development and regional accessibility proved significant, with the former directly related to internal capture and the latter inversely related to internal capture. The bestfit model explained just under half of the variance in internal capture rates. Controlling for scale and regional accessibility, land use mix and density did not have independent predictive powers. Whether because of limitations of the data set, model specification, or method of analysis, the benefits of mixed-use development were not borne out.
Stability Improvement of Tactile Sensor of Normal and Shear Stresses Using Ni-Cr Thin Film Gauge

Tactile sensor consisted of micro-cantilevers has been developed to detect both normal and shear stresses, and have human-friendly surface. NiCr thin film is used as strain gauge having low resistance drift, although Si piezo-resistance gauge shows the large resistance drift induced by large temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and its output is unstable. TCRs of NiCr films prepared by vacuum evaporation and sputtering (at RT and 600°C) are 0.054%, 0.082%, and 0.0065%, respectively, and are much lower than that of Si, 0.25%. As a result, reduction of resistance drift and stabilization of the sensor have been obtained by using NiCr thin gauge.
Shiloh

The first impression is that this could not have been a battlefield. Shiloh 1 II l HE first impression is that this could not have been a -TMbattlefield. There are no fortifications or breastworks, only a vast area of gently rolling woodland with its hickories and oaks. At first there is little evidence that nearly a hundred thousand men fought here for the vital Pittsburgh Landing. T h e n you see scattered almost carelessly through the woods, cannon and plaques, marking unit positions during various times. Careless as the arrangement seems, you know that to some men, Iowans or Tennesseans, Ohioans or Mississippians, the arrangement was as vital as life itself. You try to imagine how the noise must have been and how terrible the confusion, but this is hard now. Bloody Pond, the Hornets ' Nest and Fraley's Field lie silent. T h e Cemetery is a geometry of simple white markers and green grass, and you note that most markers say only "Unknown. " It is almost sunset when you finally turn to leave. You remember only the rustle of the wind in the trees and the cawing of a crow somewhere. These sounds are the only ones that disturb the total peace of Shiloh. — William Kershner, S. / r .
An Experimental Study of Influence of the Steam Injection on the Profile Surface on the Turbine Nozzle Cascade Performance

The paper presents the results of experiments on the effect of steam injection on the performance of the wet steam turbine nozzle cascade. The steam injection destroys a liquid film on the surface of the blade and reduces erosion and dangerous droplets after cascade. The results obtained in the vane package cascade which include a slot on the concave surface of the airfoil near the trailing edge of blades. Experimental studies were carried out on wet and superheated steam. A pneumatic measurement system was used to determine the parameters of the main and injection steam. A laser diagnostics system “POLIS” that includes PIV/PTV was used to analyze the impact of heating steam injection on the characteristics of the liquid phase. Profile losses were obtained at different steam parameters and steam injection speeds. The characteristics of the liquid phase behind the trailing edge were obtained in a wide range of operating parameters.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Real-Times Snowfall Simulation Based on Particle System and Pulverization

Snowfall process is analyzed from the perspective of computer simulation in this paper, the dynamic properties and the static properties of snow particles are abstracted based on particle system theory. The snow particles movement is simulated with wind and no wind. To solve the problems of the blur of snowing environment and firn phenomena, the paper puts forward a method of applying pulverization to snowing virtual environment. The tests show that the simulation methods of snowfall and pulverization are effective and real, which are suit for real-time virtual environment.
Compact single‐feed circularly polarized aperture‐coupled stack antenna with minkowski‐island‐based fractal patch

The authors propose a compact single‐feed stack antenna consisting of a Minkowski‐island‐based (MIB) fractal patch with perturbation, an aperture‐coupled structure, and a straight‐strip feed line for circular polarization (CP) and unidirectional radiation applications. The MIB fractal configuration with second‐order iteration is embedded in the patch for miniaturization. The size reduction of 39.1% is achieved in contrast to the typical patch antenna. This fractal structure applies both dual‐mode and orthogonal mode effects simultaneously in the square patch to present bandwidth (BW) and CP characteristics. The stack antenna presents the desired axial ratio (AR) bands of 2.44 GHz with 3‐dB BW = 30 MHz (1.2%). The CP is demonstrated with AR spectrum, orthogonal modes distributions, and phase difference. The proposed antenna is successfully simulated and measured with frequency responses, radiation patterns, and current distributions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:2278–2283, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27090
“Shoe-fit”-a computerised shoe print database

Shoe prints found at the scene of a crime can provide valuable evidence and intelligence. The wealth of information provided is perplexing unless a methodical system of recognition, investigation and identification is adopted. To assist in this process, a pattern coding system has been devised for use in conjunction with a computerised database providing storage, search and graphic display facilities. Results to date indicate that this value added service leads to more efficient use of available information as an investigative tool and increased detection rates.
PARAMETER ASSESSMENT IN FLOW THROUGH POROUS MEDIA

ABSTRACT Effective planning and management of aquifers requires modeling of conceptualized system. Assessment of reliable parameters is vital for meaningful system simulation. Optimisation—simulation models are under continuous investigations to auto—calibrate such models resulting in assessment of hydraulic conductivity, specific yield, dispersivity, recharge estimations and recognition of an acceptable modeled structure. This study assesses parameters in confined and unconfined aquifers by genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA). These heuristic methods are found ideally suited for combinatorial optimization problems involving non-convex objective functions. An inverse parameter identification model based on coupled flow-solute transport simulations is developed. Twenty seven aquifer parameters for the nine zones of the confined aquifer are estimated by the coupled numerical models. Normally distributed noise was added to the datato examine their efficacy in the field problem. Both models based on SA and GA responded to the noisy data well and were also found to be independent to the initial guess of the parameters. Necessary modifications in the coupled parameter inversion algorithms were made to apply it to unconfined aquifer of Mahi Right Bank Canal (MRBC) Command area of Kheda District, Gujarat, India. Estimated zonal hydraulic conductivity, longitudinal and transverse dispersivity values were compared with zonal values of the flow region for the calibrated model.
RiboSeqDB – a repository of selected human and mouse ribosome footprint and RNA-seq data

Motivation : At present time, there are many different data sets obtained as the results of ribosome profiling and RNA-seq experiments worldwide. Those data sets, mainly, are collected at public databases like Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and Short Read Archive (SRA) that are rather huge and some inconveniences with navigation and search exist there. So, for our work dedicated to analysis of different aspects of genome information realization like preference of different transcription starts, influence of different nucleotide motifs on translation efficacy in human and mouse we looked through and selected a range of datasets on common cell lines. Selected datasets will be stored with the results of our calculations on translation efficacy performed during the project using a BioUML platform. Results : For storage and analysis of the selected from different sources datasets, a RiboSeqDB database was created. Currently, our database comprising 290 data samples of 21 datasets for human and mouse is being further developed acquiring new features and possibilities for users in navigation, data processing and analysis.
Assessment of nitrogen content in buffalo manure and land application costs

Buffalo ( Bubalus bubalis ) livestock for mozzarella cheese production plays a fundamental role in the economy of southern Italy. European and Italian regulations consider nitrogen content in buffalo manure to be the same as that of cattle manure. This study aimed to assess whether this assumption is true. The first aim of the study was to assess nitrogen content in buffalo manure. Samples were taken from 35 farms to analyse nitrogen and phosphorous concentration in the manure. Analysis confirmed a lower nitrogen concentration (2%) in buffalo manure. A secondary aim of the study was to evaluate whether manure application techniques that are apparently less suitable, e.g. splash plate spreader, could be feasible. The cost of different methods of land application of manure and their characteristics were evaluated on the basis of one operational cycle. Considering losses for volatilisation, and taking into account cost assessment, the immediate incorporation of buffalo manure (nitrogen content 2%) is a suitable method of ammonia volatilisation. However, it is expensive and involves high fuel consumption in relation to the environmental benefit.
A New Computational Procedure to Predict Transient Hydroplaning Performance of a Tire

Abstract “Hydroplaning characteristics” is one of the key functions for safe driving on wet roads. Since hydroplaning depends on vehicle velocity as well as the tire construction and tread pattern, a predictive simulation tool, which reflects all these effects, is required for effective and precise tire development. A numerical analysis procedure predicting the onset of hydroplaning of a tire, including the effect of vehicle velocity, is proposed in this paper. A commercial explicit‐type FEM (finite element method)/FVM (finite volume method) package is used to solve the coupled problems of tire deformation and flow of the surrounding fluid. Tire deformations and fluid flows are solved, using FEM and FVM, respectively. To simulate transient phenomena effectively, vehicle‐body‐fixed reference‐frame is used in the analysis. The proposed analysis can accommodate 1) complex geometry of the tread pattern and 2) rotational effect of tires, which are both important functions of hydroplaning simulation, and also 3.
The strategic importance of tacit knowledge management activities in construction

Purpose – Tacit knowledge is perceived as the most strategically important resource of the construction organisation, and the only renewable and sustainable base for its activities and competitiveness. Knowledge management (KM) activities that deal with tacit knowledge are essential in helping an organisation to achieve its long‐term organisational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence for the stronger strategic role of tacit KM in comparison to explicit KM.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was administered in 2005 to a sample of construction contractors operating in Hong Kong to elicit opinions on the internal business environment, intensity of KM activities as executed by targeted organisations, and contribution of these activities to business performance (BP). A total of 149 usable responses were received from 99 organisations representing about 38 per cent of the sampling frame. The statistical analyses helped to map the reported KM activities into t.
The introduction of colorectal endoscopic submucosal hydrodissection at a Western Center: results and learning curve

Background Colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection (CR-ESD) is an evolving technique in Western countries. The use of hydrodissection has been established as an effective technique for safe resection. However, it is unknown if the adoption of this technique can help a novice perform ESD safely without prior experience or formal tutorial. Here we aimed to determine the results of the introduction of endoscopic submucosal hydrodissection for the treatment of complex colorectal polyps and establish the learning curve for this technique, at a European tertiary hospital. Methods This study included data from 80 consecutive CR-ESDs performed for complex colorectal polyps, by a single endoscopist within a structured training program. The main outcome was en bloc resection rate, while secondary outcomes included complications (perforation and bleeding), knife en bloc (KEB) resection rate, knife-snare en bloc resection rate, conversion rate to endoscopic piecemeal mucosal resection (EPMR), complete resection rate, curative resection rate. To explore the impact of experience, procedures were divided into 4 groups of 20 each, with outcomes measures compared between these. Results The overall en bloc resection rate was 75%. KEB resection was obtained in 15%, 25%, 50%, and 80% cases in the consecutive periods (period 1 vs 4, p<0.001; periods 1, 2 and 3 vs 4, p<0.001). Conversion rate to EPMR was obtained in 40%, 25%, 25% and 5% respectively (period 1,2 and 3 vs 4; p=0.031). Curative resection was achieved in 55%, 75%, 70% and 95% respectively (p=0.037). Series results were 75% R0 resection, 23.7% conversion to EPMR, and 1.2% incomplete resection. Complications included perforations (7.5%) and bleeding (3.75%), there was no significant difference in the 4 periods of training. Multivariate analysis revealed factors more likely to result in non-en bloc versus en bloc resection were polyp size > 35 mm [70% vs. 23.4%; OR 13.2 (95% CI: 1.7-100.9); p=0. 013], severe fibrosis [40% vs. 11.7%; OR 10.2 (95% CI: 1.2-86.3); p= 0.033] and non-use of CO2 [65% vs. 30%; OR 0.09 (95% CI: 0.01-0.53); p= 0.008]. Conclusions CR-ESD by hydrodissection can be implemented in a western centre and offers safe and effective treatment for complex polyps.
Investigation on Harmonic Spreading Effect of Conventional and Innovative Multi-Level Inverter Control Strategies

The pulse width modulation (PWM) strategy employed in the voltage source inverter (VSI) not only control the magnitude of the output voltage but also the quality. Performance evaluations of such strategies are done in terms of fundamental voltage, total harmonic distortion (THD), switching losses etc. (primary indices) and also in terms of acoustic noise, electromagnetic interference (EMI), harmonic spread factor, distribution of harmonic power etc. (secondary indices). Multilevel inverter (MLI) has become unanimous choice in medium and high power applications due to their superior performance compared to three level inverters. The conventional Sub-Harmonic PWM (SHPWM) scheme and its variations offer the output voltage spectrum with high intensity harmonic components around the switching frequency; it will end with cluster harmonic with high acoustic noise. The first objective of this paper is to investigate harmonic spreading effects of existing multilevel inverter (MLI) strategies. Secondly the developing innovative PWM strategies for MLIs based on modified reference and carrier functions, which were proved for superior the primary indices at three-level VSI. Thorough simulation study of Pulse width modulation strategies such as SHPWM, inverted sine carrier PWM, MWM PWM, third harmonic injection PWM, triplen harmonic injection PWM, analog space vector PWM, trapezoidal PWM and discontinuous PWM for a cascaded multilevel inverter, are presented with results of primary and secondary indices. Hence, the PWM strategies of MLI are evaluated for harmonic spreading effect first time and a guide line for a beginner to select the PWM scheme for MLI fed drive systems is stenciled.
Intelligent precision control for air heater systems

Abstract Air heater systems and, in general, thermo conditioning systems are among the most used systems in industrial and domestic areas. Superior performances in exploitation are real sources of energy savings. This paper presents some aspects on the intelligent precision control of air heater processes. The proposed solution consists in a general decentralized control structure for pressure/flow and temperature processes, the main phenomena in thermal systems. The important influences between pressure/flow and temperature loops are solved using an intelligent combined multiple model - feedforward control structure. Its applicability is analyzed by means of a real-time structure implementation using a RST control algorithm. Based on the software implementation, an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution is made.