Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxygen Vacancies as an Efficient Strategy for Promotion of Low Concentration SO2 Gas Sensing: The Case of Au-Modified SnO2

SO2 gas is toxic for humans, and extended exposure to low concentration SO2 gas can trigger bronchitis and other respiratory impairments, thus leading to an increased mortality. However, high-efficiency gas sensors for detecting SO2 have not been widely developed and applied. Here, an Au nanoparticle-modified SnO2 (AuNPs-SnO2) sensor has been successfully prepared to detect SO2 gas. The gas sensor functioned at a low temperature of 200 °C can detect SO2 concentrations as low as 500 ppb, has an excellent selectivity of SO2 gas, and shows good repeatability and stability through the regulation of oxygen vacancies. Meanwhile, the sensor has a response sensitivity of 10.4 for 20 ppm of SO2 and a response/recovery time of 34 and 14 s at 200 °C, which is twice less than those of the products with the absence of oxygen vacancies. Additionally, a possible mechanism of SO2 sensing which depends on the in situ Fourier transform infrared spectra and other catalysis results have been proposed.
Dynamic Modeling and Power Modeling Forrobotic Skid-Steered Vehicles

Autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) are expected to be used extensively in unstructured, outdoor, undulating environments for tasks such as search and rescue, homeland security, fire fighting, reconnaissance, and surveillance. These tasks will greatly benefit from efficient motion planning for the AGVs, which can only be accomplished by using correct dynamic and power models of the vehicles. Skid-steered vehicles are often used as outdoor mobile robots due to their robust mechanical structure and high maneuverability. Sliding along with rolling is inherent to general curvilinear motion, which makes both dynamic modeling and power modeling difficult. This research focuses on developing and experimentally verifying dynamic models of a skid-steered wheeled vehicle for general planar (2D) motion and for linear 3D motion. These models are characterized by the coefficient of rolling resistance, the coefficient of friction, and the shear deformation modulus, which have terrain-dependent values. The dynamic models also include motor saturation and motor power limitations, which enable correct prediction of saturated velocities when the vehicle works at its maximum velocity or power. This research employs the dynamics models for hill climbing by using Sampling Based Model Predictive Control, a novel motion-planing algorithm designed to use dynamic models. In addition this research also uses the developed dynamic models to derive the power models for skid-steered vehicles. The power models are described from the motor’s perspective and include both the mechanical power consumption and electrical power consumption. The power models reveal the interesting phenomenon that the inner motor consumes, generates and consumes power again while the vehicle turning radius decreases. Experiments were conducted to verify the validity of the dynamic models and power models for different scenarios with different trajectory, and also show the advantage of using dynamic models for motion planning that involves climbing hills.
De la culture traditionnelle à la culture agile : vers la construction d’un pont franchissable From a traditional to an agile culture : building a crossable bridge

Être agile a pendant longtemps été perçu comme étant un buzzword. Cependant, accentué par l’émergence du Covid-19, agile est maintenant considéré comme étant indispensable pour les entreprises. En effet, les bénéfices attendus de l’agilité tels que la capacité à rapidement s’adapter aux changements ou encore un meilleur alignement entre business et IT, sont d’autant plus utiles au vu de la situation actuelle. Toutefois, afin de récolter ces dits bénéfices, l’entreprise se doit d’entreprendre une transformation agile. Il ne s’agit donc pas, uniquement d’une simple adoption des pratiques agile dans certaines équipes de développement, mais une transformation globale de l’entreprise. Dès lors, la culture organisationnelle d’une entreprise considérée comme « traditionnelle » s’avère être un obstacle considérable à cette transformation, puisque à l’opposée d’une culture dite agile.
Impact of Educators Changing Student Motivation: A Study of Transient Factor Correlation and Orthogonality

Previous research has indicated the importance of student motivation to persistence in engineering and course performance in design-based courses. This particularly is true for senior capstone design, where students focus their attention on a single design prompt for up to three consecutive semesters. We hypothesized that students possess a natural inclination towards types of capstone projects, and their choice of a project may impact their motivation levels throughout their experience in the design course, which ultimately will impact their performance. While educators have made attempts to influence specific motivational factors to improve student performance, the interdependency of motivation factors as they change is unknown. This paper examines the correlation and the interdependency between student motivation factors. Using the MSLQ questionnaire by Pintrich, we examine five factors of motivation: cognition, selfregulation, intrinsic value, test anxiety, and self-efficacy. In this study, two cohorts of senior capstone design students completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) to self-evaluate their motivation on a 7-point Likert scale at two instances (beginning and end of senior capstone design course). The study is performed through a two-fold analysis: Covariance/Correlations and Principal Component Analysis. A principal component analysis indicated that each of the factors uniformly captured the variation in the data – an indication of a well-designed instrument. However, the results of the study also indicated that motivation factors do possess correlation with one another (except for anxiety, which displayed no correlation with two factors and low correlation with the remaining factors). The results indicate that changes to one factor by an educator may unintentionally make changes to other factors that may have an unanticipated net effect on their motivational level.
Extreme oncoplasty for centrally located breast cancer in small non-ptotic breasts: extending the indications of chest wall perforator flaps with areolar reconstruction

Background Breast cancers located centrally require excision of nipple-areola complex. A simple central wide excision is a safe option but results in suboptimal aesthetic outcome. An oncoplastic option involves therapeutic mammoplasty with or without areolar reconstruction, limited to moderate and large ptotic breasts. For small non-ptotic breasts, most surgeons would resort to mastectomy with/without reconstruction. Methods Lateral chest wall perforator flap (CWPF) is an option for partial breast reconstruction in small to moderate sized, non-ptotic breasts for laterally located tumours. We have extended the application of CWPF for central tumours to avoid mastectomy in selected patients. Results We here present a case series of four patients with small to medium-sized non-ptotic breasts, who had centrally located breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS). Three patients had single stage CWPF reconstruction, and one had central excision with immediate reconstruction following a failed attempt at therapeutic mammoplasty. All had the areola reconstructed using flap skin; one patient had simultaneous nipple reconstruction. Conclusions CWPF is an option for treatment of centrally located breast cancers/DCIS needing nipple-areola complex excision for patients wishing to avoid mastectomy. Patients with small to medium-sized non-ptotic breasts are suitable, and need to be carefully selected.
Assessing Levels of Occupational Stress among Clinical Dental Students

Introduction: Occupational stress is known today as one of the biggest challenges to higher education policy-makers. Students with high levels of stress find themselves lacking in self-confidence, vulnerable in controlling academic processes, and unable to compensate for clinical weaknesses. The main purpose of this study was to assess the levels of occupational stress among clinical dental students of Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Alborz, Iran. Material and Methods: This study was a descriptive-analytic research with a cross-sectional design. The statistical population included all dental clinical students enrolled in the 7th, 9th, and 11th semesters in 2018 (n=84). According to the Krejcie and Morgan’s table, the sample size was 70. The data were also collected through the Osipow Occupational Stress Questionnaire, and then analyzed using the SPSS Statistics software (ver. 22). Besides, t-test was employed to investigate the relationship between variables and stress. Results: The results revealed that the mean score of the students was 150.8. The mean total stress in the age group above 26 years was also 158 and that was 147 for those under the age of 26 (P-value=0.027). Besides, the mean score of overall occupational stress was equal in women and men. Comparisons also demonstrated that students in the 9th and 11th semesters (mean=161) were undergoing more stress than the ones enrolled in the 7th semester (mean=147) (P-value=0.014). Conclusion: It was concluded that these clinical dental students were suffering from moderate-to-severe occupational stress. Likewise, older students had more stress than younger counterparts did. As well, male and female students’ levels of occupational stress were the same. Resolving this issue accordingly required special attention by higher education policy-makers to provide support and counseling in this respect.
Interpreting Black-box Models Through Sufficient Input Subsets

Recent progress in machine learning has come at the cost of interpretability, earning the field a reputation of producing opaque, “black-box” models. While deep neural networks are often able to achieve superior predictive accuracy over traditional models, the functions and representations they learn are usually highly nonlinear and difficult to interpret. This lack of interpretability hinders adoption of deep learning methods in fields such as medicine where understanding why a model made a decision is crucial. Existing techniques for explaining the decisions by black-box models are often restricted to either a specific type of predictor or are undesirably sensitive to factors unrelated to the model’s decision-making process. In this thesis, we propose sufficient input subsets, minimal subsets of input features whose values form the basis for a model’s decision. Our technique can rationalize decisions made by a black-box function on individual inputs and can also explain the basis for misclassifications. Moreover, general principles that globally govern a model’s decision-making can be revealed by searching for clusters of such input patterns across many data points. Our approach is conceptually straightforward, entirely model-agnostic, simply implemented using instance-wise backward selection, and able to produce more concise rationales than existing techniques. We demonstrate the utility of our interpretation method on various neural network models trained on text, genomic, and image data. Thesis Supervisor: David K. Gifford Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Electric vehicle yaw moment control based on the body sideslip estimation

The direct yaw moment control (DYC) presents an operative solution to improve the stability and road holding of vehicles, in particular electric vehicles equipped with independent motors. The torque control applied to each wheel can improve the handling performance of a vehicle making it safer and faster and in critical driving situations. In this article, a new method proposed for the control of the direct yaw moment based on the sliding mode control. This method uses a new design of switching function to simultaneously track the desired yaw rate and the side slip of the vehicle. The lateral sideslip angle of the vehicle is estimated by using a Kalman filter. The results of the comparative simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed method with the other conventional methods in terms of following the reference yaw rate, the vehicle trajectory and the vehicle skidding in various difficult driving scenarios Streszczenie. Bezpośrednie sterowanie momentem odchylenia (DYC) stanowi funkcjonalne rozwiązanie poprawiające stabilność i przyczepność pojazdów, w szczególności pojazdów elektrycznych wyposażonych w niezależne silniki. Kontrola momentu obrotowego zastosowana do każdego koła może poprawić właściwości jezdne pojazdu, czyniąc go bezpieczniejszym i szybszym w krytycznych sytuacjach na drodze. W niniejszym artykule zaproponowano nową metodę sterowania bezpośrednim momentem odchylającym w oparciu o sterowanie trybem ślizgowym. Metoda ta wykorzystuje nową konstrukcję funkcji przełączania do jednoczesnego śledzenia pożądanej wartości odchylenia i poślizgu bocznego pojazdu. Kąt bocznego znoszenia pojazdu jest szacowany za pomocą filtra Kalmana. Wyniki symulacji porównawczych pokazują skuteczność proponowanej metody z innymi metodami konwencjonalnymi w zakresie śledzenia referencyjnego kursu zbaczania, toru jazdy i poślizgu pojazdu w różnych trudnych scenariuszach jazdy (Sterowanie momentem odchylenia pojazdu elektrycznego w oparciu o oszacowanie poślizgu bocznego nadwozia)
Enhancing MAX-DOAS atmospheric state retrievals by multispectral polarimetry – studies using synthetic data

Abstract. Ground-based Multi-AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) is a widely-used measurement technique for the remote detection of atmospheric aerosol and trace gases. The technique relies on the analysis ultra-violet and visible radiation spectra of scattered sunlight (skylight) to obtain information on different atmospheric parameters. From an appropriate set of spectra recorded under different viewing directions (typically a group of observations at different elevation angles) the retrieval of aerosol and trace gas vertical distributions is achieved through numerical inversion methods. It is well known that the polarisation state of skylight is particularly sensitive to atmospheric aerosol content as well as aerosol properties, and that polarimetric measurement could therefore provide additional information for MAX-DOAS profile retrievals; however such measurement have not yet been used for this purpose. To address this issue, we have developed the RAPSODI (Retrieval of Atmospheric Parameters from Spectroscopic Observations using DOAS Instruments) algorithm. In contrast to existing MAX-DOAS algorithms, it can process polarimetric information, and it can retrieve simultaneously profiles of aerosols and various trace gases at multiple wavelengths in a single retrieval step; a further advantage is that it contains a Mie scattering model, allowing for the retrieval aerosol microphysical properties. The forward model component in RAPSODI is based on a linearized vector radiative transfer model with Jacobian facilities, and we have used this model to create a data base of synthetic measurements in order to carry out sensitivity analyses aimed at assessing the potential of polarimetric MAX-DOAS observations. We find that multispectral polarimetry significantly enhances the sensitivity, particularly to aerosol related quantities. Assuming typical viewing geometries, the degree of freedom for signal (DFS) increases by about 50 % and 70 % for aerosol vertical distributions and aerosol properties, respectively, and by approximately 10 % for trace gas vertical profiles. For an idealised scenario with a horizontally homogeneous atmosphere, our findings predict an improvement in the inversions results' accuracy (root-mean-square deviations to the true values) of about 60 % for aerosol VCDs as well as for aerosol surface concentrations, and by 40 % for aerosol properties. For trace gas VCDs, very little improvement is apparent, although the accuracy of trace gas surface concentrations improves by about 50 %.
OPTIMAL TAX RATES ON GROSS CAPITAL FLOWS

This study seeks to find optimal tax rates on gross capital flows. I construct a simple three-period model of pecuniary externalities where private domestic agents do not consider the effect of borrowing or overseas investment decision on their own financial constraint. The model differs from previous efforts in that it explicitly differentiates gross inflows (i.e., borrowing from foreign investors) from gross outflows (i.e., overseas investment in foreign assets) to reflect the significant increase of gross outflows in emerging economies. I show that the optimal tax rate on gross inflows is 0.8%p higher when foreign assets are included in the model, which is due to greater unintended side effects of borrowing through the channel of foreign asset prices. The findings generalize previous models that only use net flows by illustrating how externalities can be corrected with Pigouvian tax on borrowing as well as subsidy on overseas investment. This study also provides new policy insights into capital flow management by suggesting separate management of gross inflows and outflows.
Decline of sea-ice in the Greenland Sea intensifies extreme precipitation over Svalbard

Extreme precipitation over the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic can have severe consequences for the ecosystem and society. In recent years several extreme precipitation events have been observed at Ny Ålesund, a weather station in the north-western part of the Svalbard Archipelago. The most recent observed events in the years 2012, 2016, and 2018 were the highest events in the entire precipitation record from 1974 till today. The key question of our study is whether those recently observed extremes are part of a climate change signal or are a random accumulation of extremes. With a novel approach based on a large ensemble of model simulations, we show that the likelihood of occurrence for extreme precipitation over Svalbard has increased over the last four decades. We find that the likelihood of occurrence is connected to the sea ice extent east of Greenland because the presence of sea ice shields the west coast of Svalbard from the incoming southerly moist air. Our analysis suggests, that in the future with a further decline of the sea ice coverage east of Greenland, the recently observed precipitation extremes will become even more frequent.
Translating sign language videos to talking faces

Communication with the deaf community relies profoundly on the interpretation of sign languages performed by the signers. In light of the recent breakthroughs in sign language translations, we propose a pipeline that we term "Translating Sign Language Videos to Talking Faces". In this context, we improve the existing sign language translation systems by using POS tags to improve language modeling. We further extend the challenge to develop a system that can interpret a video from a signer to an avatar speaking in spoken languages. We focus on the translation systems that attempt to translate sign languages to text without glosses, an expensive annotation form. We critically analyze two state-of-the-art architectures, and based on their limitations, we improvise the systems. We propose a two-stage approach to translate sign language into intermediate text followed by a language model to get the final predictions. Quantitative evaluations on the challenging benchmarks on RWTH-PHOENIX-Weather 2014 T show that the translation accuracy of the texts generated by our translation model improves the state-of-the-art models by approximately 3 points. We then build a working text to talking face generation pipeline by bringing together multiple existing modules. The overall pipeline is capable of generating talking face videos with speech from sign language poses. Additional materials about this project including the codes and a demo video can be found in https://seshadri-c.github. io/SLV2TF/
Anhydrous Methanol and Ethanol Dehydrogenation at Cu(111) Step Edges

Oxidative methanol dehydrogenation is a major industrial reaction with global formaldehyde production exceeding 30 million tonnes per year. Unfortunately, oxidative dehydrogenation produces water–aldehyde mixtures that require subsequent distillation. Anhydrous alcohol dehydrogenation is a promising alternative that produces H2 instead of water. Pursuant to recent experimental work showing that highly stepped Cu(111) surfaces exhibit anhydrous dehydrogenation activity, we present first-principles density functional theory calculations for methanol and ethanol dehydrogenation at Cu(111) step edges to provide an atomistic understanding of the catalytic mechanism; these sites stabilize all intermediates while reducing activation energies. We find that van der Waals contributions to the energy account for more than 50% of adsorption energies, and their inclusion is essential in achieving good agreement with experimental desorption temperatures. Furthermore, vibrational zero-point energy corrections significan.
Tools for Tinnitus Measurement: Development and Validity of Questionnaires to Assess Handicap and Treatment Effects

Tinnitus is a chronic condition that affects about 15% of the population and up to one in three older adults. For some it is a mild annoyance, for others it can be extremely distressing and can significantly deteriorate quality of life. Perceptual characteristics are a poor indicator of clinical need. Clinicians and researchers alike rely on self-report or questionnaires to quantify the severity of an individual‘s tinnitus and to gauge the changes in tinnitus severity or tinnitus-related handicap over time or after clinical intervention. This book chapter evaluates the psychometric properties of five tinnitus questionnaires; Tinnitus Handicap Questionnaire, Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire, Tinnitus Questionnaire, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, and Tinnitus Functional No part of this digital document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted commercially in any form or by any means. The publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this digital document, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained herein. This digital document is sold with the clear understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, medical or any other professional services. Kathryn Fackrell, Deborah A. Hall, Johanna Barry et al. 14 Index. We critically appraise the development process, validation, and responsiveness. We consider the true utility of each questionnaire to measure the short and long term consequences of tinnitus.