Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CUSTOM-BUILT WIRELESS PRESSURE SENSING INSOLES FOR DETERMINING CONTACT-TIMES IN 60M MAXIMAL SPRINT RUNNING

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a custom-built wireless pressure sensing insole system for recording ground contact times in sprinting. Despite interest in the foot contact time/running velocity relationship, no study has examined the contact times in a maximal 60 m sprint. Insole data were collected on three athletes during maximal indoor sprint runs. Simultaneous kinematic data for start and maximum velocity phases were recorded with a CODA system to validate insole contact times and determine velocity. Insole derived contact times were accurate to ±4 ms. Preliminary data indicate a usable contact time/velocity relationship. It is anticipated that these data will provide support for the use of wireless technology in sprint performance monitoring, and facilitate novel insights into the contact time/sprint running velocity relationship.
An Aid for Mechanisation of Flight Control Systems on Micro-Computers

This paper deals with the development of an automated aid to translate the block diagram of flight control system (FCS) to assembly level code. By defining a suitable syntax and by building a matrix of inputs and outputs of the blocks, it becomes easy to translate the block diagram. It is also shown how the process of fault detection can be automated. The results obtained through the automated aid have been validated by ORACLE library using the block diagram of Cstar controller of F8 aircraft.
Improving the implementation effectiveness of cellular manufacturing: a comprehensive framework for practitioners

In today's competitive environment cellular manufacturing (CM) is a well-known strategy in improving manufacturing performance. To obtain the full benefits that CM has to offer successful implementation is a critical factor. Evidence indicates that firms converting to CM often struggle with implementation and achieve results that are less than anticipated. A comprehensive review of implementation literature was undertaken and a multi-phase model developed and evaluated through a case study. The framework recognizes the importance of both technical and human aspects of CM and provides practitioners with a better understanding of the various phases in the implementation process, including the many activities and issues which need to be considered for each step. In the case study company, implementation of CM not only provided many of the benefits associated with this form of manufacturing but also allowed operators to become a value-adding link in respect to process and product improvement and new product development.
The autotrack system

The autotrack system accurately senses the direction of arrival, at the horn-reflector antenna, of the microwave beacon signal from the communications satellite. When this direction does not coincide with the horn-reflector pointing direction, error correcting voltages are automatically generated to enable the antenna direction system to steer the antenna toward the satellite. This paper presents a simple analysis of error voltage generation, a description of the system, and a brief discussion of system performance. Measurements at Andover, Maine, have shown that an angular pointing error of less than 0.005 degree is maintained by the antenna when using the autotrack system to follow the Telstar communications satellite.
How the Public Shaming of Peers Enhances Corporate Social Performance: Evidence from Blacklisted Firms in Japan

This study aims to show how vicarious public shaming, that is the public disgrace of several peers in the same industry, affects focal firms’ corporate social performance (CSP). Drawing on the legitimacy and category theories, we suggest that since an increased vicarious public disgrace harms the legitimacy of the entire industry, peer companies attempt to negate these potential legitimacy losses by improving their CSP. This tendency is more pronounced in firms that have a poor record of CSP. Using a context of the Japanese blacklisted companies by the government for labor law delinquency between 2016 and 2019, our results confirm that vicarious public disgrace is a significant antecedent to improving CSP. Our findings also imply that the appropriate use of public disgrace can enhance overall the CSP levels.
A Non-Contact Finger Vein Image Quality Assessment Method

A finger vein image quality assessment method is based on both the human visual characteristics and finger vein image characteristics captured by the use of contactless and near infrared rays. We present an HSNR (signal to Noise ratio based on human visual system) finger vein image quality evaluation index by simulating the human visual system, and integrating the HSNR with effective area score, finger shifting score and contrast score to obtain the total image quality score of the finger vein image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is consistent with subjective assessment by humans, and thus can be used to describe the visual perception of the image effectively.
Pricing Bermudan Options Using Regression Trees/Random Forests

The value of an American option is the maximized value of the discounted cash flows from the option. At each time step, one needs to compare the immediate exercise value with the continuation value and decide to exercise as soon as the exercise value is strictly greater than the continuation value. We can formulate this problem as a dynamic programming equation, where the main difficulty comes from the computation of the conditional expectations representing the continuation values at each time step. In (Longstaff and Schwartz, 2001), these conditional expectations were estimated using regressions on a finite-dimensional vector space (typically a polynomial basis). In this paper, we follow the same algorithm; only the conditional expectations are estimated using Regression trees or Random forests. We discuss the convergence of the LS algorithm when the standard least squares regression is replaced with regression trees. Finally, we expose some numerical results with regression trees and random forests. The random forest algorithm gives excellent results in high dimensions.
Achieving sustainable underground construction in Birmingham Eastside

The £6bn redevelopment of a 130 hectare area to the east of the Birmingham city centre, referred to as Eastside, aims to turn an area characterised by its industrial heritage into the region's first 'sustainability quarter'. A major part of this programme involves demolition of existing buildings, modification and extension of existing infrastructure and the provision of a new city landscape (i.e. residential areas, offices, hotels, retail outlets, visionary underground parking and a new city park). Sustainability as part of a three-pillar approach (i.e. economic, social and environmental) is complex and many would advocate that construction, by its very nature, can never be truly sustainable. Whilst the sustainable credentials (most obviously environmental performance) of the built environment are clearly visible and measurable following construction, those for the underground environment are not. The increased demand for high-rise buildings, and notably their requirements for water and electricity will place greater demands on underground space for Eastside. The sustainable development of underground space is an essential part of sustainable construction which must be addressed sooner rather than later to ensure a better quality of life for present and future occupants of Eastside. This paper investigates the complexities of providing sustainable underground construction within the Eastside redevelopment project and investigates the barriers that stand in the way of their implementation. The paper introduces sustainable practices that are being integrated within the development, including re-use of demolition materials, treatment of contaminated land, sustainable water supplies and sustainable urban drainage systems. The paper also highlights the sustainable options for underground development that should be considered when constructing on a city centre Brownfield site, including controlling rising groundwater levels and the sustainable provision of utility service.
Wide-Base Single-Tire and Dual-Tire Assemblies

Past studies suggest that wide-base single tires [WBSTs (455/55R22.5)] induce pavement strains that can be either more or less severe than those caused by dual tires of similar sizing, as strain depends on both the spatial direction of the strain and where the strain is located in the pavement. An experimental assessment of strain basins occurring at various positions within the hot-mix asphalt (HMA) layer, as well as within pavement unbound layers, was undertaken to further this understanding. The method and the results of this assessment, along with the pavement damage predicted by using available models are presented. Four failure mechanisms were considered: HMA rutting, both bottom-up and top-down fatigue cracking, and structural rutting. Testing was conducted at two sites on four roads over a range of loads, pressures, and temperatures by using WBSTs and different sizes of dual tires. Data analysis showed several critical strain zones near the tire edges and at the tire center. Optic-fiber sensors were used to analyze these phenomena. HMA rutting was calculated by considering vertical shear strain near the surface under the edge of the tires. Other failure mechanisms were calculated by using maximum strain. The results predicted that the WBSTs tested may induce less damage in the upper part of the HMA layer and more damage when fatigue cracking and rutting of soils and unbound materials are considered. Data collected were from specific tires, and all tests were conducted only under smooth, steady-state rolling conditions. Thus, results should neither be generalized to all tires nor extrapolated to the prediction of actual field performance.
Nonlinear aeroelastic behavior of compliant airfoils

Since the beginning of aviation and up to the present time, airfoils have always been built as rigid structures. They are designed to fly under their divergence speed in order to avoid static aeroelastic instabilities and the resulting large deformations, which are not compatible with the typically low compliance of such airfoils. In recent years, research on airfoil morphing has generated interest in innovative ideas like the use of compliant systems, i.e. systems built to allow for large deformations without failure, in airfoil construction. Such systems can operate in the neighborhood of divergence and take advantage of large aeroelastic servo-effects. This, in turn, allows compact, advanced actuators to control the airfoil’s deformation and loads, and hence complement or even replace conventional flaps. In order to analyze and design such compliant, active aeroelastic structures a nonlinear approach to static aeroelasticity is needed, which takes into account the effect of large deformations on aerodynamics and structure. Such an analytical approach is presented in this paper and applied to a compliant passive airfoil as the preliminary step in the realization of a piezoelectrically driven, active aeroelastic airfoil. Wind tunnel test results are also presented and compared with the analytic prediction. The good agreement and the observed behavior in the wind tunnel give confidence in the potential of this innovative idea.
Magmatic sill formation during dike opening

The origin of horizontal magma-filled sills is disputed, particularly for extensional settings where the opening of vertical dikes is the predicted mode of magma intrusion. We simulate long-term extension followed by short-term dike opening in a two-dimensional viscoelastic medium representing a plate spreading center. We show that dike opening in extensionally stressed lithosphere can reduce sublithospheric vertical stresses enough for sill opening given three conditions: (1) the Maxwell time of the asthenosphere is <5× the time interval between dike episodes; (2) the average density of the lithosphere is not much greater than the magma density; and (3) the depth of an axial valley is smaller than a few hundred meters. This mechanism explains the presence of sills along much of the axis of faster-spreading ridges and their absence along slower-spreading centers where thick dense lithosphere and/or sizeable axial valleys exist.
A narrowband land mobile satellite channel software simulator for urban environments.

This paper presents a software simulator applicable to narrowband land mobile satellite channels, in urban environments. The simulator is based on a two-state model, and several statistical models, for the characterization of different environments. A core procedure of the simulator is a Rayleigh multipath module that conforms to the channel characteristics imposed by the use of non-geostationary satellites, incorporating the Doppler shift introduced to the received signal. The underlying three-dimensional multipath scattering model addresses the movement of satellites with respect to the scatterers and the mobile receiver. A method for producing complex Rayleigh processes, shaped in spectrum is also presented. A full description of the tool is given, and case study results are presented. A tool validation section is quoted, and the last section of the paper is devoted to the comparison of first- and second-order statistics as extracted by measured data and simulation runs. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Learning Agent in the Ms. Pac-Man vs Ghosts game

—Due to the success of the Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm in several games, surged the idea to apply this method to the Ms. Pac-Man game. There is, already, a competition for agents playing Ms. Pac-Man. Most of the ﬁrst agents back then were rule-based, until this idea to use MCTS appeared. The idea for this thesis consist on using the MCTS algorithm, as an auxiliar agent that will play the game without the time restrictions and create a dataset a priori, to then train a neural network that will play the game in real time. These results were then compared to an agent developed by [1], who came in second in the worldwide competition and ﬁrst in the european competition. The results achieved were encouraging, with the MCTS agent achieving an average score of 2749 points after thirty games, comparing to the 2871 achieved by the [1] agent. The moves chosen by the MCTS agent, were then saved to a ﬁle and used to train two neural networks, one through classiﬁcation using as labels the action chosen, and another by regression, using the values of each action for each game state. The best results achieved by both neural networks were 2103 points and 1437 points, respectively. This can, probably, be explained due to the low number of samples combined with a vast number of features in the dataset.
The Importance of Radiometric Feature Quality for Semantic Mesh Segmentation

: We propose a pipeline for the semantic segmentation of textured meshes in urban scenes as generated from imagery and LiDAR data. Key idea is to represent the mesh as a set of face centroids (COG cloud). This enables the comparison of various point-based classifiers of varying learning abilities. Fine-tuned PointNet++ showed the best results due to hierarchical feature learning. One of the main differences between meshes and point clouds is the availability of high-resolution texture. Hence, we evaluate the importance of radiometric feature quality as a proxy for texture importance. Color information increases performance by at least 5 % (mIoU) for the used data. We achieved to double the performance gain by improving the radiometric feature quality, i.e. utilizing color information of the entire face. Our study shows that texture is beneficial for non-uniform dense and non-balanced data sets. However, it also shows the inherent limitations of textural features like occlusions, absence of imagery, and the quality of the geometric reconstruction.
Smart composite shell structures with shape memory alloy wires and thin foils

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) find many applications in smart composite structural systems as the active components. Their ability to provide a high force and large displacement makes them an excellent candidate for an actuator for controlling the shape of smart structures. In this paper, using a macroscopic model that captures the thermo-mechanical behaviors and the two-way shape memory effect (TWSME) of SMAs smart morphing polymeric composite shell structures like shape-changeable UAV wings is demonstrated and analyzed numerically and experimentally when subjected to various kinds of pressure loads. The controllable shapes of the morphing shells to that thin SMA strip actuator are attached are investigated depending on various phase transformation temperatures. SMA strips start to transform from the martensitic into the austenitic state upon actuation through resistive heating, simultaneously recover the prestrain, and thus cause the shell structures to deform three dimensionally. The behaviors of composite shells attached with SMA strip actuators are analyzed using the finite element methods and 3-D constitutive equations of SMAs. Several morphing composite shell structures are fabricated and their experimental shape changes depending on temperatures are compared to the numerical results. That two results show good correlations indicates the finite element analysis and 3-D constitutive equations are accurate enough to utilize them for the design of smart composite shell structures for various applications.
MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS OF A MODEL TO INVESTIGATE THE DYNAMICS OF POVERTY AND CORRUPTION

Abstract The concept of corruption has been actively studied by mathematicians for decades with the aim of obtaining optimal strategy of corruption control. This study investigates the relationship between corruption and poverty. This paper mainly concentrates on corruption and poverty free states and not on the endemic case. The poverty free equilibrium and corruption free equilibrium of the sub models were obtained and analyzed separately for local and global stability. The full model for poverty and corruption were also analyzed for local and global stability. Numerical simulations were carried out which showed that corruption can be reduced to the barest minimum within a shorter period as compared to poverty even with high control strategy.
Improving Discrete Time BTYD Model with Covariates and Non-Parametric Priors

Overall, the paper explored the discrete buy-till-you-die process by incorporating covariate effects and non-parametric priors. In doing so, the paper hopes to enrich the space of customer lifetime value modelling. Using a simulation-based approach, the paper found that models with non-parametric priors is capable of adequately picking up simplified parametric distribution shapes without drastically overfitting and offer some predictive improvement in cases where a multi-modal distribution exists. In addition, the paper also found that models missing covariate specification, when such effect is present, may generate systematic upward bias to the parameter values. Such bias will lead to a bad aggregate level model performance even when such covariates are missing in the future while also causing the model to underpredict individual and aggregate conversions when covariates are in fact present. The paper also performed a market simulation that showed how the covariate effect extracted from the models can help firms better perform targeted marketing to improve its ROI.
Innovation and Organizational Learning at MSMEs, What Impacts on Financial Performance

This article aims to empirically examine the impact of innovation and organizational learning conducted by SMEs on their financial performance. This research is a survey research using a questionnaire. Respondents in this study are owners of MSMEs in Solo, Semarang, and Yogyakarta. Sampling technique using random sampling, 77 data were collected. Data analysis techniques using regression. Regression test results show that innovation and organizational learning had a positive impact on MSME performance.
USING BEERKAN INFILTRATION EXPERIMENT TO ASSESS THE INFILTRATION CAPACITY OF TERRACED SOILS IN SEMI-ARID REGION IN TURKEY

The central and eastern part of Turkey is a semi-arid mountainous region. Global warming has a detrimental effect on precipitation with more extreme episodes. As a result, during heavy rainfall the erosion of sloping soils is accentuated by surface runoff. The transport of sediments in watercourses and dams has the effect of reducing the life of hydraulic structures. One of the methods of controlling the erosion of sloping soils is the creation of terrace surfaces to promote the infiltration of rainwater. This technique is often accompanied by the revegetation of terraces. Monitoring the infiltration capacities of terraced soils over time and space is essential to understand the effect of terraces on the hydrology of the watershed and its effect against soil erosion. On the last decade, Beerkan infiltration experiments became very popular due to ease of implementation in the field and very low cost in comparison to other techniques. Beerkan infiltration experiments were performed on terrace soil of Munzur University campus in Turkey. Approach without soil sampling procedure was used and compared with robust Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) method. Infiltration data treatment without soil sampling procedure conducted to similar estimation of saturated soil hydraulic conductivity (Ks) when compared to robust BEST methods with relative difference less than 30%. Considering the soil Ks variability, these results show that simplified method allows an easy, economical, rapid estimation of Ks and encourage the monitoring of the infiltration capacities of the terraces to alert on maintenance requirement operations.
The Multiple-Tunnel Junction and Its Application to Single-Electron Memory and Logic Circuits

The multiple-tunnel junction (MTJ) produced by forming a side-gated constriction in δ-doped GaAs is demonstrated as a basic component of single electronics. A single-electron memory cell, in which one bit of information is represented by the excess or lack of a precise number of electrons, was fabricated and the operation was confirmed at liquid helium temperature. A new switching element, the variable-barrier MTJ, and a new circuit, the single-charge injection logic circuit, are proposed.
BINA INSANI Perancangan Aplikasi Penjualan Berbasis Android Sebagai Media Pemesanan Pada Distro Online

: Startup companies and businesses are growing very quickly along with the times, and with the development of this era, almost every society in this era has a mobile phone and is considered one of the most important parts of everyday life. And now there’s all types of startup companies or businesses that we can find, and one of the most frequently encountered is the type of startup that is targeted at the mobile phone users, and to market what these startup companies and businesses sell, a media platform is created to make it easier for people to access the content that they are provided, namely by forming an app based on the android system. Coupled with the COVID-19 outbreak and also government policies that restrict people's movement, This startup application is very helpful, it can be a solution for entrepreneurs to meet their sales in the midst of a pandemic, as well as disseminate the Distro application so that it is more widely known by the public so that they are interested in using the Distro application.