Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Monitoring effective use of household water treatment and safe storage technologies in Ethiopia and Ghana

Household water treatment and storage (HWTS) technologies dissemination is beginning to scale-up to reach the almost 900 million people without access to an improved water supply (WHO/UNICEF/JMP, 2008). Without well-informed and effective use as intended, these promising technologies will not be deployed to maximum advantage. Successful scale-up thus requires monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of behavioral indicators to achieve safe water and improved health. This thesis offers a consistent framework for the operational monitoring of Effective Use of a set of eight HWTS technologies including dilute bleach solution, Aquatabs, solar disinfection (SODIS), cloth filters, the ceramic pot filter, the biosand filter, PUR and associated safe storage practices. During late 2007, key members of the WHO-hosted International Network to Promote Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage ("The Network") who are involved with M&E of HWTS systems were contacted. A literature search on monitoring efforts involving the eight HWTS followed. The author traveled to Ethiopia and Ghana during January 2008 to investigate multiple HWTS implementations and field-test preliminary monitoring methods as part of that process. Interviews were conducted with HWTS Network partners and the users of their HWTS products, household water quality testing was conducted, and documents on usage and monitoring were collected and compiled. A framework for operational monitoring of Effective Use behaviors at the household was developed through these efforts. The framework consists of a set of Monitoring Observations specific to each technology, comprised of the five categories of Treatment, Safe Storage, Maintenance, Replacement Period, and Physical Inspection, as well as a set of common Water Quality Monitoring paramaeters. Field methods for measuring turbidity, residual free available chlorine, and E.coli as an indicator of microbiological water quality are described that require minimal training, time, and equipment and that are cost-effective (US $3.60 for a complete set of household tests).
Extracting Room Reverberation Time from Speech Using Artificial Neural Networks

A novel method to extract the reverberation time from reverberated speech utterances is presented. In this study, speech utterances are restricted to pronounced digits; uncontrolled discourse is not considered. The reverberation times considered are wide band, within the frequency range of speech utterances. A multilayer feed forward neural network is trained on speech examples with known reverberation times generated by a room simulator. The speech signals are preprocessed by calculating short-term rms values. A second decision-based neural network is added to improve the reliability of the predictions. In the retrieve phase, the trained neural networks extract room reverberation times from speech signals picked up in the rooms to an accuracy of 0.1 s. This provides an alternative to traditional measurement methods and facilitates the occupied measurement of room reverberation times.
Influência do manejo da irrigação no meloeiro rendilhado cultivado em ambiente protegido

Aiming to evaluate net-melon fruits under irrigation management, it was carried out an experiment in greenhouse conditions. The experimental area was located at the irrigation farm of the Engineering Department of - Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz" - ESALQ/USP in Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil, planted with Bonus 2 cultivar. Two irrigation management systems were evaluated by tensiometer and tension lysimeter with two levels of solution fertility (presence and absence). Tension lysimeter is a device based on porous cap, capable of supplying water automatically to the plant through a Mariotte reservoir (constant hydraulic head). For the treatments with tension lysimeter, the average free water porosity (PLA) was 15%. For treatments with tensiometers, the PLA was 35% in average, favoring a good relation of air-water throughout the experiment. The temporal variation of the matrix potential in treatments by tensiometer, measured in three depths, presented an average deviation of 9.10% whereas treatments with tension lysimeter were 1.33%. The irrigation management by tensiometers without fertilizer obtained an average weight of the fruits (1,070.4 g) that was almost duplicated in relation to minimum commercial standard (550 g). However, by adding fertilizer in these plants the productivity increment was 4.5 times higher (2,493.8 g). The net-melon fruits presented a low productivity when the free water porosity was lower at 20%.
Design and Analysis of UHF RFID Tag Antenna on the Surface of Cylinder

Cylinder is a common object and used in logistics industry, such as liquid container like wine. The performance of tags that are used on these objects declines, especially the read range and the radiation pattern of the tag. In this paper, a type of UHF tag antenna directly mountable on the cylinder surface. In order to reduce the impact of the deformation, the tag is designed with meander-line but not symmetrical. Antenna is combined with T-matching network to ensure good impedance matching. Compared with the basic dipole antenna tag both cylinder and plane surface, we can get the prominent feature of the tag proposed in this paper.
Morphological and molecular phylogenetic description of Steinernema batswanae n. sp. (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae): a new species of an entomopathogenic nematode from South Africa

Abstract The collection of samples from a bushveld area in Brits, North West Province South Africa yielded a discovery of a possible new Steinernema species. Galleria mellonella larvae were used to bait the nematode from the soil. The 18S ribosomal DNA was amplified and subsequent Sanger sequencing placed the new species in the genus Steinernema. The morphological studies of the novel species Steinernema batswanae was done with the identification of the morphological characters: third-stage infective juvenile with the body length of 975 µm (862–1120), the length from the head to the excretory pore 115 µm (88–142) and the tail length of 19 µm (10–38). The body length of infective juveniles is similar to S. jefferyense. Steinernema species that are characterized as belonging to the glaseri-group have infective juveniles larger than 900 µm in length. In addition, the new species is different from other species in the glaseri-group in terms of the ITS region of its 18S rDNA.
Reengineering the coporation--a study at a semiconductor company

This thesis begins with a study on the introduction of imaging and document management system and workflow technology into an organization. The results suggest that in order for information technology to deliver bottom-line benefit for an organization, it needs to follow the integration of business and information technology (IT) strategies and to be accompanied by changes in roles, organizational structure, incentive system, and business processes. Many practitioners today dub the change in or the redesign of business processes as reengineering. Reengineering or the redesign of business processes has been the least understood science and art, and will be the focal issue discussed here. Specifically, research has shown that business and technology people need to work together in synergy to make reengineering a success. However, there is a conceptual and communication gap between the two groups of people. This second part of the thesis is to cover management and technology issues related to reengineering in an attempt to narrow this gap: It gives business people an overview of the underlying technology and engineering techniques, concepts, and tools; at the same times, it gives technology people an understanding of the management disciplines. The key is to learn how to introduce new information technology systems that will ultimately increase productivity and competitive advantage for the organization without upsetting the daily routine so work continues to be done. It is my hope that this thesis will contribute knowledge and understanding to anyone who wants to take on the challenge of reengineering. Thesis Advisor: Dr. Amar Gupta, Senior Research Scientist, Co-Director of PROFIT, MIT Sloan School of Management. Thesis Supervisor: Mr. Jim Wilson, Desktop Automation Department Manager, Giant Corporation.
Scaling Flight Tests of Unmanned Air Vehicles

Abstract : Increasing technological advances and research interest in unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), have led to the need for having safe, inexpensive and effective means of experimenting with their fight performance and surveillance capabilities. Work has previously been done in areas of controlling, analyzing, and predicting cooperative and autonomous operations of UAVs and other vehicles. In addition, there are well established guidelines for scaling experiments in fluid mechanics, where geometric, kinematic and dynamic similarity is obtained by formulating problems in terms of non dimensional variables using dimensional analysis. However, little or no work has been done in developing experiments or guidelines for air vehicles and their sensors. The currently available experiments for such purposes, which are designed around commercially available equipment, have not been standardized and cannot be related to the real systems and the real requirements. The analysis done in this research provides an important step in setting up guidelines for experimental scaling of flight tests of UAVs. This makes it possible to use computer simulations and ground hardware experiments in a useful way for performance evaluations before having to fly the actual vehicle. Equations and simulations used have been defined in non-dimensional terms in order to allow for a scale independent approach as per the Buckingham Pi theorem. Comparisons have been drawn of flight and sensor performance characteristics between a nominal wide search area vehicle and two surrogate hardware systems having widely varying operating characteristics.
GARCH Effect and Abnormal Returns during COVID-19 Pandemic

Considering that in general stock returns display time-varying volatility, researchers focus on how abnormal returns are calculated because it impacts on how it will be interpreted. This study uses a market model for the GARCH effect to obtain a more efficient estimation result. Using the sample of bank stocks, we empirically investigate how this adjustment impacts the magnitude of the abnormal return associated with the COVID-19 event. The results show that the calculation of abnormal returns taking into account the GARCH effect results in a more widespread than OLS. It suggests that the traditional market model should be sharpened for conditional heteroscedasticity when calculating abnormal returns during the COVID-19 outbreaks.
Development of fusion motion capture for optimisation of performance in alpine ski racing : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Science at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

III PREFACE . VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . IX TABLE OF CONTENTS . XI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . XVII LIST OF VIDEOS . XXI GLOSSARY . XXIII SYMBOLS . XXV
O processo de inovação dirigida pelo design: um modelo teórico

Design is regarded as a strategic element within companies, with a system of competencies which becomes broadly useful in organizational activities. This article aims to understand how design acts in relation to company innovation, offering a descriptive model of a design driven innovation process. The designer's role is reinterpreted within the framework of transdisciplinary networks, while the design process and its phases are contextualized in the organizational fabric. Hence, metadesign is presented as an inwardly directed transdisciplinary project activity based on research.
Emerging futures : innovation in teaching and learning in VET

This report focuses on innovation in the professional practice of vocational education and training (VET) staff who are directly involved in the teaching and learning functions of Australian VET organisations. It is the first part of a project designed to develop a clearer knowledge and understanding of innovative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment in VET. It provides a national review of good practice and reveals the quality and scope of current innovation in teaching and learning practices in VET. The report is based on research that is guided by the following key ideas about innovation: that the implementation of new ideas improves existing educational services; that innovation is a sequence of activities beginning with creativity and culminating in implementation; that there are different types of innovation; and that there are distinguishing features of innovation in action that are distinct from organisational change in general. The research methodology involved a literature review, interviews, focus groups and case study research. Key findings about innovation in VET teaching and learning are that: (1) more innovation is needed in the national training system; (2) innovation is required to meet the many needs of different learners; (3)innovation results from practitioners' skills and actions; (4) innovation can be fostered or impeded by many factors, e.g. senior management in registered training organisations (RTOs), availability of resources, VET system factors, staff resistance, and student opposition; (5) many parties gain from innovation; and (6) much can be done to further support innovation.
Photovoltaic System MPPT Evaluation Using Classical, Meta-Heuristics, and Reinforcement Learning-Based Controllers: A Comparative Study

Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) entails constraining photovoltaic (PV) modules to operate under a specified power condition. It has previously been shown that some meta-heuristic techniques often suffer from steady-state oscillations around maximum points and experience difficulty in adapting to environmental variations, such as irradiation and/or temperature. To address the aforementioned limitation, this work proposed an adaptable reinforcement learning (RL) technique based on a novel deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) agent and a reward function. The actor–network top layer uses a sigmoid activation function and the critic–network contains bottleneck layers with non-uniform nodal distributions as well as exponential linear unit (ELU) activation functions in some of the layers. The RL based on DDPG method was compared with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Perturb-and-Observe (P&O) in order to determine the optimal duty-cycle command needed for controlling the PV modules MPPT. All the investigated systems were implemented in MATLAB/Simulink. The results show that the proposed RL technique based on DDPG agent yielded superior tracking efficiency than all the other approaches. However, as the step change in irradiation at a constant temperature increases, the RL technique based on DDPG agent shows a decrease in tracking efficiency.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF RAT EMBRYONIC FIBROBLASTS (REFS) AND RAT BONE MARROW DERIVED MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS (RAT-BMMSCS) FROM THE WISTAR RAT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Objective: Rat embryonic fibroblasts (REFs) and rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rat-BMMSCs) an be used as in vitro models for a variety of studies, including for degenerative diseases such as arterial ischemia, tissue engineering and development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Therefore, the further developments of the use of these two cells of great importance. Methods: The experiments were performed with Wistar rat, those with 15-17 d gestation (aged 32 w) as a REFs source and those aged 12 w as a BMMSCs source. Dulbecco's modified eagle medium (DMEM) was used for both cell cultures but with different media supplements. Proliferation ability was determined for both by calculating population doubling time (PDT). Characterization was performed by differentiation testing into osteocyte, chondrocyte and adipocyte cells by staining with Alizarin Red, Alcian Blue and Oil Red O and by an investigation of specific antigen characteristics using flow cytometry with positive CD90 and CD29 and negative CD34 markers. Results: Morphologically, the REFs and rat-BMMSCs had the same fibroblasts like shape. PDT was higher for the REFs than the BMMSCs (p<0.05), and both could differentiate into osteocytes, chondrocytes and adipocyte. The characteristics of the positive markers (CD29 and CD90) were higher in rat-BMMSCs than in REFs. Conclusion: In this study demonstrated that the explant method for REFs isolation and flushing method for rat-BMMSC isolation are both effective. It also showed that rat-BMMSC grow faster than REFs, and that both cells have the same differentiation ability as rat-BMMSCs but with different specific surface antigen characteristics.
Embedded Systems and FPGAs for Implementation of Control Oriented Models, Applied to Combustion Engines

Performance demands put on combustion engines are ever increasing, e.g. demands on emissions and fuel consumption. The increased demands together with new combustion concepts increase the need for feedback engine and combustion control. Mathematical models are considered important in order to implement high performance feedback control, as well as to perform diagnostic functions in vehicles. Various implementation platforms which can be used to implement mathematical models in vehicles are described in this this thesis; embedded processors, FPGAs and ASICs. Which of these implementation platforms to choose must be decided based on the intended application and current demands on performance. Embedded systems, ASICs and FPGAs are discussed based on literature found in the field, covering a wide span of considerations. Furthermore a number of considerations which are important when implementing algorithms and logic in embedded processors and FPGAs are described.The theory is put into practice in the thesis, implementing a heat release calculation on an FPGA and developing and implementing a NOx model in an embedded processor. To be able to implement a fast NOx model several techniques were used. Parts of the model were tabulated, difficult operators such as division were avoided and the properties of fast C code was kept in mind. This thesis combines the areas of automatic control, electronic hardware design and development of embedded software, and applies it to combustion engine control. The work undertaken indicate different possibilities when implementing high speed control oriented models in FPGAs and embedded processors. This thesis aims to fill a gap between state space models, common in automatic control, and high fidelity physical models, commonly used for simulation, by providing a method to develop high fidelity control oriented models which are low in computation demand and implementable in FPGAs and embedded processors. (Less)
An exposition of uncertain reasoning based analysis: an investigation of total hip arthroplasty

Uncertain reasoning is closely associated with the pertinent analysis of data where there may be imprecision, inexactness, and uncertainty in its information content. In computer modelling, this should move any analysis to be inclusive of such potential uncertainty, away from the presumption of perfect data to be worked with. The nascent Classification and Ranking Belief Simplex (CaRBS) technique employed in this chapter enables analysis in the spirit of uncertain reasoning. The operational rudiments of the CaRBS technique are based on the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence, affording the presence of ignorance in any analysis undertaken. An investigation of Total Hip Arthraplasty (THA), concerned with hip replacements, forms the applied problem around which the uncertain reasoning based analysis using CaRBS is exposited. The presented findings include the levels of fit in constructed models, and the contribution of features within the models. Where appropriate, numerical calculations are shown, to illustrate this novel form of analysis.
Assessing auditory function in neonates using ipsilateral suppression of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions

The present study investigated suppression of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) in neonates with an ipsilateral noise suppressor method using a forward masking paradigm. Participants were 26 full-term neonates (36-42 weeks gestational age) with a mean gestational age of 39.7 weeks (SD = 1.4 weeks) and mean chronological age of 1.96 days (SD = 0.8 day). Their mean birth weight was 3.4 kg (SD = 0.5 kg). Only one ear in each neonate was tested. The TEOAE spectra obtained were analysed using the Kresge EchoMaster program comparing assessments with and without noise suppressor. The results show a prevalence of suppression in 85% of the neonates when suppression in at least one frequency band was counted. The mean suppression effect was small (< 0.5 dB) across all frequency bands from 1 to 4 kHz and time windows from 8 to 18 msec, with large variations in suppression amplitude (SD = 1.4-2.4 dB). Three different patterns of suppression were found, with 91% and 9% of neonates demonstrating suppression effects in the 1-3 kHz and 3.5-4 kHz frequency ranges, respectively. A significant negative correlation was found between suppression amplitude and birth weight. The suppression amplitude was negatively correlated to ambient noise, although the correlation was not significant at the 0.05 level. The presence of robust spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) could influence TEOAE suppression amplitude, resulting in reverse suppression. The present study found that males showed greater suppression in left ears and females showed greater suppression in right ears. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution in view of the small sample size of the study. Further research using a large sample size is required to confirm these findings and establish normative data for the neonatal population.
The PROMETHEUS Programme

PROMETHEUS is a European Research Programme, which has been approved as a Eureka Project and was launched by the European automotive industry in 1986. The objectives of PROMETHEUS are to reduce road accidents and to improve traffic efficiency. From these two prime objectives additional benefits of reduced environmental pollution, improved driver comfort, reduced driver stress and improved economy are also acquired.