Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NUMERICAL ANALYSES OF CERAMIC/METAL BALLISTIC PANELS SUBJECTED TO PROJECTILE IMPACT

The paper concerns research and development on modern, ceramic-based, protective layers used in the armour of tanks, combat vehicles and aeroplanes. A task of ceramic panels is reduction and dispersion of localized kinetic energy before a projectile or its fragment approaches the interior of protected object. The numerical investigations have been performed to determine the ballistic resistance of ceramic/metal panels subjected to projectile impact. The impact of the 7.62mm armour-piercing projectile on the ceramic elements backed by a metal plate was analyzed. The tested panels were composed of a ceramic layer (Al 2O3, SiC or B4C) and a metal layer (7017 aluminium alloy, Armox 500T steel or Ti6Al-4 titanium alloy). Different shapes of ceramic elements were analyzed, including hemispheres and pyramids, with respect to standard flat tiles. The influence of the impact point location was also taken into considerations. The computer simulations were performed with the Finite Element Method implemented in LS-DYNA code. Full 3D models of the projectile and targets were developed with strain rate and temperature dependent material constitutive relations. The conclusions presented in the paper can be applied to develop modern impact protection panels in which the appropriate balance between the mass and protection level must be accomplished.
Recovery of Cymodocea nodosa (Ucria) Ascherson photosynthesis after a four-month dark period

P align=justify> Cymodocea nodosa plants were dark incubated for four months. The potential of reactivating photosynthesis was tested in an experiment in which half of the plants were reilluminated (HL) while the other half were grown under very low irradiance levels (LL). Photosynthesis was measured using PAM fluorescence and tissue nutrient and carbohydrate contents were analysed. Photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm) in HL plants increased from 0 to 0.58, whereas LL plants remained inactive. Photosynthetic parameters also increased, resulting in a final Ik of 97.5 µmol m -2 s -1 . Leaf shedding led to a negative mean RGR in HL plants. Tissue C and N dropped considerably during dark incubation in both rhizomes and shoots. Starch content was nearly equal for rhizomes and shoots (4.3 mg /g DW) and was not affected by dark incubation. In contrast, sucrose content dropped from 40.0 mg /g DW to zero in shoots and from 240 to 40.0 mg /g DW in rhizomes in HL plants. We conclude that C. nodosa is capable of recovering photosynthetic activity after four months darkness, which is considerably longer than the 80 d recorded so far for a seagrass. Stored carbohydrates, more specifically sucrose, play an important role in both survival and reactivation.
Epidermolysis bullosa simplex–generalized severe type due to keratin 5 p.Glu477Lys mutation: Genotype‐phenotype correlation and in silico modeling analysis

Epidermolysis bullosa is a group of diseases caused by mutations in skin structural proteins. Availability of genetic sequencing makes identification of causative mutations easier, and genotype‐phenotype description and correlation are important. We describe six patients with a keratin 5 mutation resulting in a glutamic acid to lysine substitution at position 477 (p.Glu477Lys) who have a distinctive, severe and sometimes fatal phenotype. We also perform in silico modeling to show protein structural changes resulting in instability.
Stratigraphic redefinition of the Zihuatanejo area, southwestern Mexico

The Mesozoic volcano-sedimentary successions exposed in southwestern Mexico have been traditionally grouped into the Guerrero terrane, and interpreted to represent an allochthonous long-lived island arc or a complex multi-arc system accreted to the continental margin of North America. However, the nature of these arcs (intraoceanic versus continental), as well as the timing of the supposed accretion, are still debated. One of the key regions in this debate is that of Zihuatanejo, where a Cretaceous island arc (Zihuatanejo arc) and associated accretionary complex (Las Ollas Complex) have been defined in the past. In this paper we present a redefinition of the stratigraphy of the Zihuatanejo region, based on field mapping supported by new 40 Ar/ 39 Ar and U-Pb geochronology, which has significant implications for the Cretaceous-Paleogene evolution of the Guerrero terrane. The lowermost stratigraphic levels of the Zihuatanejo region are represented by the pre-Cretaceous polydeformed and partly metamorphosed rocks of the Las Ollas Complex and Lagunillas Formation. These rocks are unconformably overlain by the Early Cretaceous shallow marine Playa Hermosa arc assemblage. Volcanic rocks of this assemblage are restricted to a few meters of andesitic lavas interbedded with volcaniclastic sandstone and limestone, which suggests that the study area was in a peripheral position with respect to the main axis of a magmatic arc. The rocks of the Playa Hermosa assemblage were uplifted by folding, eroded, and unconformably overlain by Upper Cretaceous continental to shallow marine rocks of the La Union-Zihuatanejo assemblage, which are only gently folded. Similar continental rocks (Cutzamala Formation) are exposed in the Huetamo area, ~80 km northeast of Zihuatanejo, and are interpreted as overlapping successions of the Guerrero terrane. Based on this correlation, we propose that the Upper Cretaceous La Union- Zihuatanejo assemblage is not part of the tectono-stratigraphic Guerrero terrane but rather constitute an overlap succession that post-dates the possible accretion of this terrane to nuclear Mexico. Finally, the Mesozoic rocks of the Zihuatanejo area are intruded by 48-40 Ma granitoids, and unconformably overlain by 41-39 Ma horizontally bedded volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, which post-date the final contractile deformation in the Zihuatanejo area.
Approximation and Modelling Errors in Nonstationary Inverse Problems

Inverse problems usually understood as tasks in which a quantity of interest (e.g., model parameters or shape of the target) is determined based on indirect observations. In this thesis we consider nonstationary inverse problems, i.e., problems in which the unknown quantity is time-varying. Inverse problems are usually ill-posed which means that the problem has no unique or stable solution. Due to the ill-posedness of the problem, the required accuracy for the state space representation is high. However, in several practical problems an adequately accurate state space form can be computationally very demanding leading to excessively long computational time. Thus the approximative reduced order models have to be used. However, reduced accuracy in the forward model can compromise the quality of computed estimates. The reduced accuracy of the models can be handled by using so-called approximation error theory. In this approach, the errors related to the approximation are analyzed statistically and this statistical information is used in the solution of the estimation problem. In this thesis we develop approximation error methods for nonstationary inverse problems. We cast the problems in the state space formalism and analyze the approximation errors in the associated state space models. In addition, we extend the well known Kalman filter recursion to accommodate approximation error models. Both linear and nonlinear state space representations are considered. As applications, we consider four different problems in which the uncertainties caused by numerical discretization are analyzed. More specifically, first, we predict the temperature evolution in a one–dimensional rod, and second, we consider concentration distribution monitoring in a one–dimensional pipe. The last two applications are related to parameter identification problems (problem in which unknown parameters in the associated model are estimated). We estimate the coefficients of the one–dimensional thermal equation and, as the last problem, we consider the determination of heterogeneous thermal conductivity and a perfusion related coefficient by using ultrasound induced heating and MR temperature measurements. AMS (MOS) Classification: 35R30, 37M99, 93E11, 65J22 PACS Classification: 02.30. Zz, 02.60. Lj Universal Decimal Classification: 517.972. 7, 53.088, 681.5. 015.44 INSPEC Thesaurus: inverse problems; time-varying systems; approximation theory; modelling; errors; error analysis; state-space methods; state estimation; Kalman filters; thermal variables measurement
Issues in the Influence of Ito-type Noise on the Oscillation of Solutions of Delay Differential Pantograph Equations

In this paper, a deterministic delay differential pantograph equation (DDPE) with an unbounded memory is stochastically perturbed by an Ito-type noise. The contribution of white noise to the oscillatory behaviour of the new stochastic delay differential pantograph equation (SDDPE) is investigated. It is established that under certain conditions and with a highly positive probability, the new stochastic delay differential pantograph equation has an oscillatory solution influenced by the presence of the noise. This is not possible with the original deterministic system which has a non-oscillatory solution due to the absence of noise.
Corporate governance and earnings forecasts accuracy

Purpose - This paper aims to extend the research on the Malaysian initial public offering (IPO) management earnings forecasts by examining the impact of corporate governance mechanisms and earnings forecasts accuracy. It seeks to investigate whether effective corporate governance is a credible signal of improving the quality of financial information. Design/methodology/approach - A sample of 235 IPO companies that went public during the period 1999-2006 was used. Absolute forecast error was used to proxy for earnings forecast accuracy and to represent financial disclosure quality. Findings - Companies with a higher percentage of non-executive directors in the audit committees and larger audit committee size exhibit greater forecast accuracy. The accuracy of IPO earnings forecast is also positively influenced by the use of brand-name auditor. Practical implications - The results suggest that effective corporate governance is a credible signal of improving the quality of financial information. The role of audit committee as financial monitors as suggested by the agency theory supports this paper. Originality/value - The results are consistent with the belief that effective corporate governance is associated with higher financial disclosure quality. The results also support the decisions made by Malaysian regulators such as the Securities Commission to enhance the quality of financial disclosure by revising the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance to encourage public companies to implement good governance practices such as audit committee independence.
Forecasting Practices in Brazilian Food Industries

The purpose of this paper is to study the forecasting practices that have been used by food industries in Brazil. The objective is to detect how these companies have been used forecasting methods, what are the main factors that influence their choice and what are the main d ifficu lties in the use of forecasting methods. Based on literature review, a questionnaire was developed and sent to a sample of 450 food companies fro m A BIA (Brazilian Association of Food Industries) which represents 70% of the universe, and a response rate of 14.4% was achieved. Data were analyzed by mu ltivariate statistics techniques using the SPSS software. The results show that the companies don't use sophisticated forecasting methods; the historical analysis model is the most used. The factors that influence the choice of the models are the type of product and the time spent during the forecasting, and the main difficult ies are the availability of software and difficulty in understanding.
Active control of turbulent boundary layer sound transmission into a vehicle interior

In high speed automotive, aerospace, and railway transportation, the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) is one of the most important sources of interior noise. The stochastic pressure distribution associated with the turbulence is able to excite significantly structural vibration of vehicle exterior panels. They radiate sound into the vehicle through the interior panels. Therefore, the air flow noise becomes very influential when it comes to the noise vibration and harshness assessment of a vehicle, in particular at low frequencies. Normally, passive solutions, such as sound absorbing materials, are used for reducing the TBL-induced noise transmission into a vehicle interior, which generally improve the structure sound isolation performance. These can achieve excellent isolation performance at higher frequencies, but are unable to deal with the low-frequency interior noise components. In this paper, active control of TBL noise transmission through an acoustically coupled double panel system into a rectangular cavity is examined theoretically. The Corcos model of the TBL pressure distribution is used to model the disturbance. The disturbance is rejected by an active vibration isolation unit reacting between the exterior and the interior panels. Significant reductions of the low-frequency vibrations of the interior panel and the sound pressure in the cavity are observed.
Estimation of genetic parameters and comparison of random regression animal and sire models of production traits in the first three lactations of Iranian Holsteins.

This study was conducted to compare of random regression (RR) animal and sire models for estimation of the genetic parameters for production traits of Iranian Holstein dairy cows. For this purpose, the test day records were used belonged to first three lactations of cows and for, milk, fat and protein yields traits where, collected from 2003 to 2010, by the national breeding center of Iran. The genetic parameters were estimated using restricted maximum likelihood algorithm. To compare the model, different criterion -2logL value, AIC, BIC and RV were used for considered traits. Residual variances were considered homogeneous over the lactation period. Obtained results showed that additive genetic variance was highest in the beginning and end lactation and permanent environmental variance was highest in beginning of lactation than other lactation period. Heritabilities estimate for milk, fat and protein yields by RR animal and sire models were found to be lowest during early lactation (0.05, 0.04 and 0.07; 0.05, 0.19 and 0.13; 0.14, 0.19 and 0.15, for milk, fat and protein yields and in first, second and third lactation respectively). However, estimated heritabilities during lactation did not vary among different order Legendre polynomials, and also between RR animal and sire models. The variation in genetic correlations estimate in the RR animal and sire models was larger in the first lactation than in the second and third lactations. Thus, based on the results obtained, it can be inferred that the RR animal model is better for modeling yield traits in Iranian Holsteins.
TRANSPARENCY OF A PAIR OF EPSILON-NEGATIVE SLAB AND MU-NEGATIVE SLAB

Pairing an epsilon-negative (ENG) slab with a mu- negative (MNG) slab can have some unusual features,such as zero reflection and complete tunneling without any phase delay,although each of those two slabs has predicable features. In this paper,the conditions of zero reflection are obtained through an exact analysis, not by the equivalent transmission-line (TL) models. The distributions of fields and Poynting vector outside and inside such paired slabs are analyzed,while evanescent waves also are studied. Simulation results validate the salient features of such paired slabs.
Estimating greenhouse gas emissions from port vessel operations at the Lagos and Tin Can ports of Nigeria

Abstract Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, the number one contributor to global warming is not just a product of in-land transportation, industries and other anthropogenic effect but also the maritime and shipping industries. This article estimates the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from port vessel operations in the Lagos and Tin Can ports of Nigeria. The emission estimate was carried out based on the type of the vessel and its movement from the moment of its arrival (400 km from the coast). The emission estimate was done using the bottom-up approach based on the characteristics of individual vessels and using data on vessels processed by both ports in the first and second quarter of the year 2017. Among various types of vessels, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) carriers are the heaviest emitters, followed by the container vessels and general cargo vessels. Result for the first and second quarter of 2017 indicates that approximately 16,335 t and 773 t of CO2 were produced and emitted during anchorage and while passing through lock gates movement, respectively. Also, 644 t of CO2 was emitted through maneuvering to the dock movement. Consequently, these three movements account for 85% of the total CO2 emission from Lagos and Tin Can ports. These emissions are known to contribute to lung cancer, cardio vascular and cardio pulmonary functions, allergies and asthma, particularly for the inhabitants of communities lying along the sea shore. However, if provisions are made for electricity from land, about 5% of the estimated emissions during cargo handling can be avoided.
Development of Penalized Complexity Priors for Stationary and Invertible Time Series Processes

The autoregressive process of order 1 (AR(1)), moving average process of order 1 (MA(1)) and autoregressive moving average process of order (1, 1) (ARMA(1,1)) are the central models in time series analysis. A Bayesian approach requires the user to define a prior distribution for the dependencies of these models. Understanding and interpretation of the priors is quite difficult in general, although it is very much desired to ensure that the priors behave according to the users prior knowledge about the process. In this report, we approach this problem using the recently developed ideas of the penalized complexity (PC) priors. These priors have important properties like robustness and invariance to reparameterisations, as well as a clear interpretation. A PC prior is computed based on the specific principles, where the model component complexity is penalized in terms of deviation from simple/base model formulations. In this report, the PC prior framework is applied to construct the prior distributions for dependencies of the AR(1) processes, the MA(1) processes and the ARMA(1,1) processes.
Metal Foam Effective Transport Properties

Solid foams are a relatively new class of multifunctional materials that present attractive thermal, mechanical, electrical and acoustic properties. Moreover, they also promote mixing and have excellent specific mechanical properties. They are widely quoted to present a random topology, high open porosity, low relative density and high thermal conductivity of the cell edges, large accessible surface area per unit volume (Ashby et al., 2000). Usually, geometric properties such as high tortuosity and high specific surface are proposed to explain their properties, although fluid tortuosity is close to 1 and specific surface is usually smaller than 10000m2/m3. They are nowadays proposed for their use in numerous applications such as compact heat exchangers, reformers, biphasic cooling systems and spreaders. They are also used in high-power batteries for lightweight cordless electronics, and catalytic field application such as fuel cells systems (Catillon et al., 2004; Dukhan et al., 2005; Mahjoob & Vafai, 2008; Tadrist et al., 2004). In this chapter, we expose experimental and numerical tools to determine effective transport properties of metal foam for mono-and-biphasic flow.
A Model for Prediction of Bahar Azadi Coin Price via Neural Network

Investment in gold is one of the interesting ways of earning money in Iran. Therefore, access to gold price is a main factor for investors. In recent years, easy access to gold price has faced withsome restrictions because of its high volatility. There are numerous means of gold price prediction. Recently, artificial intelligence and Neural Network have attracted much attention among scientific communities due to their high accuracy in price prediction. In this paper, prices of Iranian Bahar-e-Azadi gold coin have been extracted in a period of one year.After identifying the effective factors, influence of each factor has been acquired. Afterwards,theprice of gold coin has been predicted with the Neural Network method and finally, the accuracy of this procedure has been obtained.
Gender Difference in of Organisational Behaviour (OCB) and Motives Underlying OCB

Psychology is the science of behaviour, understanding “why aspect of behaviour” is of utmost importance. It is a basic human need to understand what motivates an individual to act in a certain manner. Organisational Psychologists acknowledge this essential aspect and hence are focused on understanding what drives people and how can these motives be understood to facilitate efficiency of workforce. One such behaviour that is extensively studied within an organisation is Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). OCB may be understood as “Individual Behaviour that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognised by the formal reward system and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organisation” [1]. This means that these behaviours are not mandated or a requisite for a job but are rather voluntarily indulged in by employees. Upon reflection the question that needed answering was why certain employees felt compelled to indulge in behaviours which were neither acknowledged nor rewarded directly by the organisation. Rioux & Penner [2] were the first to study the possible motives which might explain why OCB occurred. This phenomenon was further studied by a number of researchers [3]; Finkelstein [4]. Despite numerous studies it is essential to know what the motives are and do they vary from individual to individual. The current study aims at understanding whether Gender plays a role in the extent to which an employee exhibits such voluntary behaviours and whether males and females differ in motives underlying such behaviours.
Foreign Direct Investment and Income Inequality in China 1

This paper examines the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on China’s income inequality. Two measures of inequality are used in this study: inequality within the urban community and the urban-rural income gap. Data covering 25 provinces from 1990 to 2006 are analyzed using the following techniques: fixed effects, random effects, and system GMM. This study finds that: (1) FDI significantly increases urban inequality and the distributional effect of FDI on urban inequality is robust in all the techniques and different measures of FDI used. (2) there is no evidence that FDI widens income disparity between urban and rural areas.