Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Advanced Jindalee Tracker: Probabilistic Data Association Multiple Model Initiation Filter

Abstract : This paper presents the theory and examples of performance for a new algorithm that initiates tracks using a multiple model Probabilistic Data Association (PDA) filter. The analysis is generalized for the case of multiple non-uniform clutter regions within the measurement data that updates the filter. The algorithm starts multiple parallel PDA filters from a single sensor measurement. Each filter is assigned one of a range of possible target model parameters. To reduce the possibility of clutter measurements forming established tracks, the solution includes a model for a visible target. That is, a target that gives sensor measurements that satisfy one of the target models. Other features included in the algorithm are the selection of a fixed number of nearest measurements and the addition of signal amplitude to the target state vector. The inclusion of signal amplitude is one coordinate that is applicable to the non-uniform clutter model developed in this a paper.
Supply Chain Resilience: Development of a Conceptual Framework, an Assessment Tool and an Implementation Process

Abstract : The business environment is always changing and change creates risk. Managing the risk of the uncertain future is a challenge that requires resilience the ability to survive, adapt and grow in the face of turbulent change. Academics and industry leaders have seen the need to supplement traditional risk management techniques with the concept of resilience that is better designed to cope with extreme complexities, unpredictable events and adaptive threats. However, without standardized definitions, accepted variables or measurement tools, supply chain resilience is merely a theoretical concept. This dissertation will explore the current thought on supply chain resilience and develop the construct into a managerial process for implementation. In Phase I, the Supply Chain Resilience Framework was developed to provide a conceptual framework based on extant literature and refined through a focus group methodology. Findings suggest that supply chain resilience can be assessed in terms of two dimensions: vulnerabilities and capabilities. Research identified seven vulnerability factors composed of 40 specific attributes and 14 capability factors from 71 attributes that facilitate the measurement of resilience. Phase II created an assessment tool based on this framework the Supply Chain Resilience Assessment and Management (SCRAMTM). Data gathered from seven global manufacturing supply chains was used to assess their current state of supply chain resilience. The tool was validated using a qualitative methodology comparing assessment scores to 1,369 items recorded from discussions of 14 recent disruptions. Phase III concluded the research project by identifying critical linkages between the inherent vulnerability factors and controllable capability factors.
Polis: Escalar de la deliberación mediante el mapeo de espacios de opinión de alta dimensión

Deliberative and participatory approaches to democracy seek to directly include citizens in decision-making and agenda-setting processes. These methods date back to the very foundations of democracy in Athens, where regular citizens shared the burden of governance and deliberated every major issue. However, thinkers at the time rightly believed that these methods could not function beyond the scale of the city-state, or polis. Representative democracy as an innovation improved on the scalability of collective decision making, but in doing so, sacrificed the extent to which regular citizens could participate in deliberation. Modern technology, including advances in computational power, machine learning algorithms, and data visualization techniques, presents a unique opportunity to scale out deliberative processes. Here we describe Polis, an open source web application capable of collecting and synthesizing feedback from people in a scalable and distributed fashion. Polis has shown itself capable of building shared understanding, disincentivizing counterproductive behavior (trolling), and cultivating points of consensus. It has done this in the context of journalistic and academic research, and directly as part of decision-making bodies at local and national levels, directly affecting legislation. These results demonstrate that deliberative processes can be scaled up beyond the constraints of in-person gatherings and small groups.
The benefits of getting England cycling

The recently released draft Cycling Delivery Plan (CDP) sets out an optimistic vision of cycling for England. The CDP includes an ambition of doubling the number of cycle trips within 10 years, which is described as requiring a lstep changer in mode choice. The vision presented is still being reviewed but even if the Government do commit to it, the report does not provide any details about how the increase in cycling will be achieved or how it will be funded. Prior to the development of the CDP, the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (2013) produced a report called lGet Britain Cyclingr (GBC). This report included recommendations to Government in relation to cycling, including introducing an ambition to increase cycle use to 10% of all journeys by 2025 and 25% by 2050. The CDP ambition relates to doubling the number of trip stages made by bicycle by 2025. This ambition therefore relates to approximately 3% of journeys being made by bicycle by 2025 (subject to uncertainty due to population growth and overall travel patterns), far short of the levels recommended in the Get Britain Cycling report. The purpose of this report is to compare the economic benefits of achieving the ambitions for cycling proposed in the CDP and GBC reports against a zero-growth baseline. Monetary estimates of the benefits to health, the environment, safety and congestion are presented for the period 2015 to 2050.
The Implications of Self-Reporting Systems for Maritime Domain Awareness

Abstract : Self-reporting systems based on GPS-quality navigation information that is sent using widely-accepted standards and protocols, offer the potential to greatly improve important components of Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some existing and evolving Self-Reporting Systems (SRSs) and to characterize them in order to discuss their relative impact on MDA. We argue that broadcast-based SRSs, such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS), offer significant advantages over traditional sensor-based vessel tracking and that availability of information from SRSs will impact how command decisions related to MDA are made in the future. The social and public policy dimensions of using SRSs information for MDA are explored. Also, we discuss impacts on command decision making and raise the question of how much trust decision-makers should place in self-report information.
ESSAI - Training of situation awareness and threat management. Technique results of an evaluation study

ESSAI – “Enhanced Safety through Situation Awareness Integration in training” – is a project sponsored by the European Commission (DG-TREN). It was carried out in a consortium of European airlines, avionic and aircraft manufacturers as well as aerospace research institutions. The goals of ESSAI were two-fold: First, the identification of factors and strategies for effective Situation Awareness (SA) and Threat Management (TM) by means of flightcrew surveys and analysis of accidents and incident scenarios. Second, the development of training solutions and evaluation of training effects on pilots’ and crew performance. As a starting point for the design of a one-day training program, eight distinct core competencies for SA and TM had been described and defined in terms of training objectives. The ESSAI training program itself consists of an awareness phase with computer-based instruction, an interactive tactical decision game designed to practice new behavioral strategies, simulator training with two LOS scenarios, and a facilitated debriefing. In a pre-post design with an experimental (N=16) and a control group (N=16), training effects were analyzed using different SA/TM measures like selfand peer-ratings, behavior observations, and questionnaires. First findings of this training experiment indicate that the ESSAI training tools had a significant impact on SA measures while TM measures remained stable or show only slight increases.
Direct leaching of rare earth elements and uranium from phosphate rocks

Phosphate rocks can contain considerable amounts of accompanying uranium and rare earth elements (REEs). Interest to extract these elements during phosphate rock processing to mineral fertilizer is given as both uranium and REEs are valuable and toxic. Recovering these elements is thus advantages from a resource conserving and environmental protection point of view. Past efforts to recover uranium and REEs focused on extracting these elements from the intermediate products (phosphoric acid and phosphogypsum) during de-hydrate wet phosphoric acid production. Another approach, that is discussed here, is direct leaching of uranium and REEs from phosphate rocks before phosphate rock processing. First successful lab scale experiments with a selected leaching reagent and phosphate rock from the Abu Tartur mine in Egypt are presented and discussed.
Biocatalytic Synthesis of Fluorescent Conjugated Polyserotonin

Polyserotonin was enzymatically synthesized using Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) as the catalyst. This novel conjugated polymer exhibited good fluorescent properties with significantly higher Stokes shift than its monomer. The enzymatic polymerization eliminated the need for extensive purification of the product (typically necessary for the removal of residual metal catalyst) allowing the product to be naturally fluorescent as synthesized. The reaction was monitored using UV-Vis spectrophotometry and the polymers were characterized using Fluorescence, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermogravimetry. The possibility of using polyserotonin for the detection of nitro-aromatic compounds, including 2,4dinitrotoluene (DNT) and trinitrotoluene (TNT), through fluorescence quenching at parts per million levels in solution has also been demonstrated.
Human Factors Military Lexicon: Auditory Displays

Abstract : This report is a lexicon of terms developed by the Department of Defense Spatial Audio Display Working Group in an attempt to standardize terminology used by human factors researchers working in the area of auditory displays and human-machine communication. The lexicon has been primarily developed for the U.S. armed forces research groups, but it is hoped that it will be also useful for other Government, academic, and industrial organizations. In addition to definitions specific to auditory displays, speech communication, and audio technology, the lexicon includes several terms unique to military operational environments and human factors engineering applications. Furthermore, human factors researchers appear to be increasingly interested in conducting integrated studies of auditory and visual perception in order to answer broad questions related to human situational awareness and performance. Therefore, the lexicon also includes some definitions related to visual perception, particularly in the areas of visual displays, virtual reality, and communication symbology.
Characterization of a Fluorescent Protein Reporter System

Abstract : Chemical and biological threats are ever present and attacks have occurred throughout the world in both war and peace-time. Multiple government agencies, academia, and private industry are developing detection capabilities to address such threats. The research presented in this paper supports development of a modular synthetic biology based system that detects and reports the presence of a threat agent. Synthetic biology builds upon past research in genetic engineering and seeks to combine broad applications within biotechnology in novel ways. This basic research project will help to demonstrate a proof-of-concept design which will guide future studies on the development of a modular sensor platform. In this study, in vitro and in vivo techniques were used to evaluate a reporter system composed of the Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV) protease and an engineered fluorescent fusion protein for their combined effectiveness as a reporter system. The TEV protease demonstrated the ability to cleave the fusion protein construct to produce a measureable output signal. The coupling of this reporter system with a riboswitch recognition element showed that this system can be applied to detecting chemicals. Further studies to modify this recognition element suggest modularity for future biosensors to detect chemicals of military interest.
Biomass to Hydrogen Production Detailed Design and Economics Utilizing the Battelle Columbus Laboratory Indirectly-Heated Gasifier

This analysis developed detailed process flow diagrams and an Aspen Plus{reg_sign} model, evaluated energy flows including a pinch analysis, obtained process equipment and operating costs, and performed an economic evaluation of two process designs based on the syngas clean up and conditioning work being performed at NREL. One design, the current design, attempts to define today's state of the technology. The other design, the goal design, is a target design that attempts to show the effect of meeting specific research goals.
Humanitarian and Relief Logistics: Research Issues, Case Studies and Future Trends

A Decision Support System for Humanitarian Network Design and Distribution Operations. - Analytical Models for Estimating Waiting Times at a Disaster Relief Center. - Multiple Location and Routing Models in Humanitarian Logistics. - Preparedness Measures for Emergency and Disaster Response. - Military Logistics Planning in Humanitarian Relief Operations. - A Procurement Auctions-Based Framework for Coordinating Platforms in Humanitarian Logistics. - A Fuzzy Multicriteria Methodology to Manage Priorities and Resource Assignment in Critical Situations. - Logistics for Decision Support: An Application in Cases of Natural Disasters. - A Multi-agent Based Framework for Vehicle Routing in Relief Delivery Systems. - Modeling Facility Locations for Relief Logistics in Indonesia. - Humanitarian Logistics in the Great Tohoku Disasters 2011.
Characterization and Planning for Computer Network Operations

Abstract : Whom we e-mail, where we browse, what we purchase, and the things we search for on the World Wide Web all leave identifable traces of who we are as individuals. In today's technology focused landscape, cyberspace represents the new environment in which we communicate, work, shop, and play, and the cyber behaviors we exhibit there give a great deal of insight into our individual identities. This dissertation proposes a novel approach to the modeling and analysis of behaviors based on a user's cyber activities. We present a methodology to identify, extract, and analyze cyber behaviors providing the foundation for cyber-based behavioral modeling. In addition, we define the underpinnings necessary to support this approach through our behavioral extraction, Bayesian sample size estimation, and behavioral state-based techniques, then empirically evaluate their use. Methods are implemented to characterize, predict, and detect change in individual and group behaviors and we demonstrate their effectiveness using real world data.
REINFORCED SOIL HIGHWAY SLOPES

Reinforced soil highway slopes are an economical alternative to conventional grade separations within limited rights-of-way, such as flattened slopes, selected-fill embankments, or vertical retaining walls. Reinforced soil slopes are applied in six main areas of highway construction: steepened slopes, surficial reinforcement, compound slopes for road widening, repair of landslides, embankments over soft foundations, and vertical slopes or walls. Critical applications with a design life of 50 to 75 years and, therefore, grid geosynthetic reinforcement, are emphasized. Those applications are defined and illustrated and their relative economics are reviewed. Steepened embankment slopes are examined in detail. Economics are presented and compared with alternatives. Design of steepened slopes is reviewed with emphasis on stability analysis procedures and appurtenant features. Also, long-term reinforcement material property requirements and specification writing are evaluated. Brief case histories are presented to illustrate applicability, aesthetics, and construction of reinforced soil slopes in highway works, showing that reinforced soil slopes are a proven method of construction having broad applicability in highway construction. It is concluded that highway planners and route layout engineers should consider the reinforced soil slope alternative(s) when faced with grade separations that must fit within limited rights-of-way.
Automatic Extrinsic Calibration and Workspace Mapping: Algorithms to Shorten the Setup time of Camera-guided Industrial Robots

In small to medium enterprises (SME), industrial robot arms are not used very much despite the fact that they offer a large potential to increase the competitiveness. The problem is that to be effective in the SME sector, robot systems should be more flexible. To be economically effective a robot arm should be used with multiple different tasks which are usually in different locations in the company. Therefore, the robot should be able to be reconfigured quickly to the new task and location giving a low robot set-up time. Prevention of collisions with obstacles in the different locations and the extrinsic calibration of sensors on the robot are two important and time consuming tasks during set-up of the robot. Automatic generation of a 3D map of obstacles near the robot would decrease set-up time and therefore increase the flexibility. The calibration of the camera is also a tedious procedure which could be automated. Therefore, in this thesis a system is proposed which extrinsically calibrates a camera on the robot arm, and uses the calibrated camera to scan the environment in a safe way to create a collision map. Several calibration methods are investigated. The method created by Tsai et al. gives the best results and is selected. The calibration system works by estimating the position of the camera relative to a checker-board pattern from multiple points and matching this with the robot orientation. From this the camera position and orientation on the robot are calculated. In this thesis the system is tested in simulation and on a Universal robots UR5 robot arm. To safely map the environment without colliding in to obstacles which are not seen yet a Next Best View (NBV) viewpoint generation system is proposed. The system generates viewpoints for the camera which add the most new information to the map. A virtual wall in the map round the robot represents the unknown space, which prevents the robot to move into unknown space. By viewing the unknown space with the camera the unknown space is cleared. As monocular mapping algorithms are not available yet, a 3D camera is used for data acquisition. Data is stored in an OctoMap system, which is a memory efficient, discretized probabilistic storage system. This system is also implemented on the UR5 robot arm. The calibration system works successfully. In addition, we concluded that noise in the camera pose estimation system is the main limiting factor for achieving high precision. The collision map system has been implemented correctly and also functions successfully. For this part of the system, we conclude that the main limiting factor for the processing speed could be removed if the mapping system would be integrated in the NBV software.
A Study of Factors Affecting Mine and Boobytrap Detection: Subject Variables and Operational Considerations

Abstract : Tests were administered to and interviews conducted with military personnel identified as expert mine and boobytrap detectors, in exploratory research designed to develop methodology for identifying the characteristics of and describing the techniques used by such personnel. Only two of the psychological, ability, aptitude, and interest variables studied were significantly related to rated expertise in detection, so these variables may not play an important role in detection performance. None of the background information variables had any apparent relationship to expertise. Identifying highly proficient detectors on the basis of non- experiential variables is not likely to be successful, but it may be possible to identify these individuals on the basis of experience-oriented data.
Estimation of Bio-active Compounds in Stem of Anogeissus rotundifolia (Indrdok) by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.

The investigation was carried out to determine the possible bioactive components of methanolic extracts of Anogeissus rotundifolia (stem) using Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GCMS). All the samples were dried firstly at 60°C for 2 days in an oven after that leave it on room temperature. They were then macerated to powder form with a mixer grinder. The powder was stored in air sealed polythene bags at room temperature before extraction. The chemical compositions of the methanolic extracts of Anogeissus rotundifolia (stem) were investigated using Thermo G C 1300 and “TSQ 8000 “Triple quadruple GC-MSMS SYSTEM with auto sampler Al 1310 Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry, while the mass spectra of the compounds found in the extract was matched with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library. GC-MS analysis of the extract reveals the identification of forty nine compounds. This is the first report of identification of components from the stem of Anogeissus rotundifolia by GC-MS. Most of the compounds in the list are bioactive and possess medicinal properties.
Managing production ramp-up : Requirement on strategy content

To compete as a manufacturer in today’s environment, with severe competition an rapidly decreasing product life cycles, the ability to manage production ramp-up successfully has become a vital issue. It’s evident when reviewing previous research that knowledge and skills about how to manage a production ramp-up often is lacking. Consequently this means a lack of comprehensiveness which often results in inferior ramp-up management. The intention when managing a production ramp-up strategy is to facilitate decisions that lead to best possible usage of time, financial means and resources when trying to meet preset ramp-up performance targets. In order to accomplish this some sort of production ramp-up management framework needs to be in place. In this paper a proposal for a production ramp-up management framework is suggested. This framework is meant to be a support when deciding upon a new, existing or a combination of production ramp-up strategies to carry out a production ramp-up. The framework suggests that the changes needed in the manufacturing strategy content, critical factors affecting the production ramp-up and previous production ramp-up evaluation should guide when choosing production ramp-up strategy.