Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Alternatives to Sound Barrier Walls

The existing Indiana Department of Transportation's (INDOT’s) noise wall specification was developed primarily on the basis of knowledge of the conventional precast concrete panel systems. Currently, the constructed cost of conventional noise walls is approximately $2 million per linear mile. The noise wall is considered to be cost effective when a 5 dBA reduction can be achieved at a cost of no more than $25,000 per benefited receiver or $30,000 per benefited receiver in those cases where a majority of the receivers were in place prior to construction of the highway. In many areas, however, the above cost-effectiveness criteria are exceeded with the result that the areas are not eligible for federal-aid funding for noise abatement. Consequently, the residents in these areas are dissatisfied that no noise reduction measures are provided to them. Several alternative options may be considered by INDOT to address the above issues. The first option would be to raise the cost per receiver to make more areas eligible for noise walls. The second option would be to do nothing. The third option would be to adopt an optional line of sight (LOS) wall policy to improve customer satisfaction at a less expensive cost. Critical review was conducted on the current traffic noise policies by state departments of transportation (DOTs) nationwide, including Type II project participation, reasonableness of noise abatement, cost effectiveness of noise abatement, and third party funding. Four different types of noise barriers, including one conventional precast concrete wall and three LOS walls were installed in the study areas for field investigation. Evaluation was made on the issues relating to the construction, cost and structures of the installed noise walls, particularly the LOS walls. Pre- and post-installation noise measurements were made in the field to determine the noise reductions of the installed noise walls. Psychoacoustic-based approach was utilized to further evaluate compare the field acoustic performance of these four noise walls. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) traffic noise model (TNM) 2.5 was also employed to predict the noise level in the design year and address the sensitivity issues associated with traffic volume, vehicle speed, noise wall height, noise wall length, and noise reduction coefficient of noise wall. Furthermore, community noise surveys were conducted before and after the installation of noise walls to identify public perception of the LOS wall performance and public involvement in noise abatement. Main findings and recommendations were made to modify INDOT traffic noise policy and noise wall specifications.
Filter Design Method for Loudspeaker Equalization Based on IIR Parametric Filters

A novel method for the equalization of loudspeakers and other audio systems using IIR (infinite impulse response) parametric filters is presented. The main characteristic of the proposed filter design method resides in the fact that the equalization structure is planned from the beginning as a chain of SOSs (second-order sections), where each SOS is a low-pass, high-pass, or peak filter, defined by its parameters. The algorithm combines a direct search method with a heuristic parametric optimization process where constraints on the values could be imposed in order to obtain practical implementations. A psychoacoustic model based on the detection of peaks and dips in the frequency response has been employed to determine which ones need to be equalized, reducing the filter order without noticeable effect. The first computed sections of the designed filter are the ones that correct the response more effectively, allowing scalable solutions when hardware limitations exist or different degrees of correction are needed. The method has been validated with subjective testing and compared with other methods. Its results could be applied to passive and multiway active loudspeakers.
Joint Topical Word Embedding for Detecting Drift in Social Media Text

Social media texts like tweets and blogs are collaboratively created by human interaction. Fast change in trends leads to topic drift in the social media text. This drift is usually associated with words and hashtags. However, geotags play an important part in determining topic distribution with location context. Rate of change in the distribution of words, hashtags and geotags cannot be considered as uniform and must be handled accordingly. This paper builds a topic model that associates topic with a mixture of distributions of words, hashtags and geotags. Stochastic gradient Langevin dynamic model with varying mini-batch sizes is used to capture the changes due to the asynchronous distribution of words and tags. Topical word embedding with co-occurrence and location contexts are specified as hashtag context vector and geotag context vector respectively. These two vectors are jointly learned to yield topical word embedding vectors related to tags context. Topical word embeddings over time conditioned on hashtags and geotags predict, location-based topical variations effectively. When evaluated with Chennai and UK geolocated Twitter data, the proposed joint topical word embedding model enhanced by the social tags context, outperforms other methods.
Research on aperture area measurement technique based on optical flux comparison method

Accurate measurement of the aperture area has always been the focus of optics and optical radiation measurement. The metrology institutes around the world have established absolute aperture area measurement facilities. In this paper, a measuring system of the aperture area based on optical flux comparison method is designed and implemented. , which can transfer absolute values efficiently and accurately. The results show that the deviation between the area measured by optical flux comparison method and the area measured by effective area method is about 5×10-4 . The influences of the light source stability, irradiation field uniformity and aperture positioning difference on the measurement results are analyzed emphatically. The uncertainty of the measurement results is also evaluated, the relative expanded uncertainty is 9.9×10- 4 (k=2).
Pembelajaran berasaskan projek dalam kalangan guru pelatih Institut Pendidikan Guru Malaysia : Satu kajian kes

This research aims to identify the professional skills of teaching practices resulting from the implementation of project-based learning (PBP) in the teacher training area of study in Design and Technology. This qualitative case study aims to explore the focus on thinking skills practice, collaborative learning practice and value practice in the learning situation.This study involved six participants who were selected from two classes via purposive sampling. Two lecturers who were involved during the learning process were also interviewed. Data was collected using the survey method, observation and interviews. Data collected in the form of audio and video recordings were transcripted and analyzed via content analysis. The study found that there are: (1) Seven elements of thinking skills i.e sorting by priority, creating sequence, comparing and differentiating, generating ideas, linking, and innovative and creative problem solving; (2) three elements of collaborative learning i.e. sharing of ideas, peer-learning, and sharing information amongst each other and (3) seven elements of values i.e. patience, competitiveness, efficiency, voluntariness, teamwork, proactive traits and social skills. The study also found that the elements of self-attitude, time constraint, equipment and material needs as well as the expenditure posed as the obstacles and challenges during the implementation of the PBP. All the elements identified have been applied by the teacher trainees during the Bachelor of Teaching programme in the IPGMs. Generally, the study shows that the implementation of the PBP in the learning process could bring great impact towards building a highly skilled, creative and innovative, and a highly productive human capital, who are also endowed with personal and ethical qualities. The implications of this study are expected to be beneficial to the education‟s field, lecturers who performed the PBP, as well as to the IPGM‟s management.
Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia

List of Tables and FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Bonded Labor: An Overview2. Agriculture: Kamaiya and Hari3. Bricks and Bidis4. Shrimp and Tea5. Construction and Stonebreaking6. Carpets and Other Sectors7. Bonded Labor and the Law8. Tackling Bonded LaborAppendix A: Global Slavery MetricsAppendix B: Select Bonded Labor EconomicsAppendix C: Select Bonded Labor Supply ChainsAppendix D: Bonded Labor as Defined by India's Bonded Labour System (Abolition) ActAppendix E: Bonded Labor Law and Cases: PakistanAppendix F: Select Economic and Human Development StatisticsNotesWorks CitedIndex
Environmental risk and the press : an exploratory assessment

Toxic spills, acid rain, poor air quality-scarcely a day goes by without a report in the press on an environmental risk issue. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in New Jersey, a leading state in the production of chemicals, and the state with the largest number of Superfund cleanup sites. How accurate and how extensive is environmental risk reporting in the New Jersey press, and what can be done to improve the quality of its coverage of environmental risk? And what can we learn from the New Jersey experience? "Environmental Risk and the Press "sets out to answer these questions. The authors explore the strengths and weaknesses of environmental risk reporting in New Jersey by evaluating the state's best environmental risk stories. They find that even the best stories have a number of problems, and they develop a number of concrete recommendations for reporters and editors on how to improve their coverage in this area. The authors also investigate the feasibility of various methods for getting environmental risk information to reporters and into their newspapers. They recommend three ways to improve the quality of environmental risk information available to journalists. The first is nationwide distribution of environmental press kits that include a directory of news sources, a glossary of technical terms, and briefings by experts on strategies for covering particular types of environmental risk situations. The second is continuing education programs on environmental risk for reporters and editors. The third is creating collections of relevant reference books in the offices of newspapers and broadcast stations. The authors report on initial actions taken to implement these recommendations, and plans for others. They conclude that the broader availability of environmental risk information to the media will result in better reporting of environmental problems. This book is a first step toward enhancing journalists' appreciation of the importance of risk as an issue in environmental news coverage, and providing them with the tools to help them act upon that heightened awareness.
EVALUATION OF HEAD IMPACT KINEMATICS FOR PASSENGERS SEATED BEHIND INTERIOR WALLS

Federal aviation regulations for crashworthy seats include the Head Injury Criteria (HIC) as part of the pass-fail performance specifications. For passenger seats located behind interior walls to meet this requirement, the dynamics of head impact with the wall must be evaluated from a system approach. Procedures for conducting system tests and analyzing the head motion of an anthropomorphic test dummy (ATD) are described. Analyses of head kinematics from dynamic impact tests with a lap belt restrained ATD are presented.
THANKS A MILLION

SUBTITLE: THE FIRST CONTAINER TERMINAL OPERATOR IN ASIA TO RECEIVE THE ISO 9002 CERTIFICATE FOR 'THE PROVISION OF CONTAINER TERMINAL OPERATING SERVICES', SEA-LAND ORIENT TERMINALS (SLOT), ALTHOUGH BEING THE THIRD AND SMALLEST TERMINAL OPERATOR IN KWAI CHUNG, IS ALSO HEADING FOR A WORLD RECORD BY THE END OF THIS YEAR.
Design and Implementation of High Security Cryptography for Network Applications by Using Bit Transition Encoder and Decoder

As of late, the security for any data transmission through any channel or media is significant issue because of hacking diverse strategies. Presently a day, rather than giving the security level to data, the improvement is expanded towards the commandeering of data amongst sender and beneficiary. The level of security relying upon the extent of synchronous key which is utilized for encoder and decoder handling and in existing strategies like AES, reed Solomon codes and square codes utilizes the bigger key size yet at the same time there is security issues because of hacking techniques. To address the security level and hacking issues, the novel Bit Transition Encoder and Decoder (BTED) is displayed and synchronous key is created utilizing scalar duplication which incorporates point multiplying and point expansion. The produced focuses are encoded utilizing BTED before transmission and transmitted through remote channel and the encoded information is unravels at collector utilizing BTED with converse operation. The whole novel cryptography framework has been created utilizing mat lab; the outlined framework is tried as far as speed, deferral and control and furthermore approved on Mat lab 2014a
Evaluación de sustratos en un cultivo de lechuga bajo un sistema hidropónico en el municipio de Pasto

Horticulture is a strong economic line in Narino; this project was done as an alternative to improve the production and quality of lettuce. The evaluation of coconut fiber and rice husks substrates for a hydroponic A-frame structure system for the production of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) was carried out at the International Center for Clean Production Lope, SENA Regional Narino. A total of 200 plants were cultured in an area of 10 square meters, from which plant height, diameter, total weight, and head and root weight variables were evaluated. An unrestricted random sampling design with 5 treatments and 4 replicates was performed, where treatment 1 corresponded to 100% rice husks substrate, treatment 2 to a mixture of 70% rice husks and 30% coconut fiber, treatment 3 to a mixture of 50% of each of substrate, treatment 4 to a mixture of 70% coconut fiber and 30% rice husks, and treatment 5 to 100% coconut fiber substrate. The results showed that the treatments with a mixture of coconut fiber and rice husks were better compared to the individual substrate treatments, with the former plants showing the best physiological development in diameter, head weight, and performance. In terms of profitability, treatment 4 with 70% coconut fiber and 30% rice husks substrate mixture was the best by 12%.
Investigation And Optimization Of Various Machining Parameters Affecting The Effectiveness Of Turning: A Review

Optimum performance in a turning operation is governed by selecting machining parameters. Selection of desired machining parameters by experience or using handbook does not ensure that the selected machining parameters are optimal for a particular machine or environment. The effect of machining parameters is reflected on surface roughness, surface texture and dimensional deviations of the product. This paper reviews the various machining parameters affecting the effectiveness of turning such as cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut, rake angle, lubricant temperature, insert geometry etc.
The Contribution of ‘Tarbiyah’ as Organizational Learning Mechanism towards the Sustainability of an Islamic-based Non-Governmental Organization and the Larger Community Wellbeing in Malaysia

Organizational learning concept was used in developing organizations since early 20 th century. Organizations are made of various communities within them. Community of Practice (CoP) are group of peoples who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Organizational learning activities in the form of intellectual discourses or ‘Tarbiyah’ in the context of this study, act as a social learning input that developed activists’ mind, body and heart holistically in order for them to practice Islam as a way of life. This study employed a qualitative narrative research approach involving nine participants, six from Selangor and three from Penang Islamic-based Non- Governmental Organization. Result indicated that the ‘Tarbiyah’ affected on participants’ optimism for volunteering and self -satisfaction. It affected on their passion to contribute more as it provided a boost to their self- esteem. In essence, ‘Tarbiyah’ provide a powerful organizational learning model for this Islamic-based NGO which contributes to changes in individual and organizational behaviour. ‘Tarbiyah’ in the CoP of the NGO led individuals to co -learn, share knowledge and enrich their repertoire of becoming a better organization members and eventually enhance the larger community wellbeing.
Objectives and Incentives: Evidence from the Privatisation of Great Britain's Power Plants

Does privatization increase plant productivity because the private owner’s objective is different, or because they are better able to control management? And, is privatization sufficient to improve productivity, or is it only effective in combination with competition? We answer these questions using the quasi-experiment of Great Britain’s electricity industry privatization. To separate the effect of a change in objectives from a change in incentives we assume, that the former only affects labor but not fuel productivity. And, assuming that effective competition was only introduced after privatization, we are able to separately identify the effects of privatization and competition. We find that privatization increased labor but not fuel productivity: evidence for the importance of objectives. There is no evidence that the introduction of effective competition after privatization increased labor or fuel productivity: evidence that privatization increases productivity by itself.
Subjective quality evaluation of the effect of packet loss in High-Definition Video

Video streamed over packet-switched networks such as the Internet are vulnerable to packet loss, which result in a degradation of quality. This degradation can be measured subjectively or by objective measures. The Internet is a best-effort media-unaware environment where all packets receive equal quality of service (QoS), disregarding the fact that some packets are more essential in streaming multimedia applications. Using the differentiated services (DiffServ) model, unequal degrees of QoS are offered, resulting in essential packets being prioritized through the network. The main objective of this thesis is to conduct an informal subjective evaluation experiment, where the test material used consists of high-definition video distorted by various packet loss rates, using both the best effort Internet and DiffServ as underlying channel models. The results from the subjective evaluation experiment are compared to those of the objective video quality estimation to see how well the objective models perform. The video sequences are encoded by using the H.264/AVC video compression standard, and further transmitted in RTP packets. Packet loss is introduced by using a DiffServ simulator, where decoded distorted sequences are assessed. Results show that the NTIA and SSIM were the video quality models with respectively the highest and the lowest performance regarding PLCC, SRCC and RMSE. The NTIA model had statistically significant higher performance than SSIM using PLCC and SRCC with a 95% confidence interval. When comparing packet loss rate versus objective measures, the performance of best effort degrades more rapidly than the performance of DiffServ. However, the results from the subjective evaluations did not show any statistically significant differences between the two channel models using a 90% confidence interval. The DMOS values were categorized into low, medium and high packet loss rates. Studying the high (5%-10%) packet loss rate category, the DiffServ model achieved a higher mean DMOS value compared to the Best Effort model. For low (0%-2.5%) and medium (2.5%-4%) packet loss rates categories the Best Effort model achieved a higher mean DMOS value compared to the DiffServ model.
Comparison of mechanisms involved in image enhancement of Tissue Harmonic Imaging

Processes that have been suggested as responsible for the improved imaging in Tissue Harmonic Imaging (THI) include: 1) reduced sensitivity to reverberation, 2) reduced sensitivity to aberration, and 3) reduction in the amplitude of diffraction side lobes. A three‐dimensional model of the forward propagation of nonlinear sound beams in media with arbitrary spatial properties (a generalized KZK equation) was developed and solved using a time‐domain code. The numerical simulations were validated through experiments with tissue mimicking phantoms. The impact of aberration from tissue‐like media was determined through simulations using three‐dimensional maps of tissue properties derived from datasets available through the Visible Female Project. The experiments and simulations demonstrated that second harmonic imaging suffers less clutter from reverberation and side‐lobes but is not immune to aberration effects. The results indicate that side lobe suppression is the most significant reason for the improvement.
Features of functional annotation of rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility genes by Cytoscape

Aim. To evaluate the functional annotation of genes associated with rheumatoid arthritis with different parameters of the ClueGO Cytoscape tool. Materials and methods. Genes of susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis were extracted from publicly available database GWAS (catalog of associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms with diseases). The Gene Ontology (GO), the functional annotation of genes, was performed using Cytoscape ClueGO. The features of the functional annotation using the plugin ClueGO Cytoscape were analyzed. Results. Depending on the initial parameters specified in the plugin, the grouping of terms according to the gene ontology was carried out with a different degree of generalization. A smaller minimum number of genes in a group allows to form a larger number of groups, which makes it possible to obtain more detailed functional characteristics. Conclusion. The results obtained with different grouping options can be useful for further studies of genetic mechanisms of rheumatoid arthritis.