Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Macroeconomic Variables on Housing Prices in Saudi Arabia: A VAR Approach

This paper examines how housing prices are determined by macroeconomic factors in Saudi Arabia, namely, Gross Domestic Product Per capita (GDPP), Consumer Prices Index (CPI), and Unemployment Rate (UNEMP). Quarterly data for a period (2014q1 – 2019q4) were collected from publications of Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA). Vector Autoregression Analysis (VAR) is employed to capture the dynamic effect of the variables on housing prices. Granger Causality, Variance Decomposition and Impulse response function are also used. The results show that housing prices are insignificantly and positively related to GDPP, whereas it is negatively related to both (CPI & UNEMP). Only CPI has a significant relationship. The three variables, jointly, have Granger causality on HPI. Variance decompositions show that CPI is the variable with the highest explanatory power over the variation of housing prices, followed by GDPP and the UNEMP respectively indicating that CPI is the most influential determinants for housing prices.
Investigating Fourteen Countries to Maximum the Economy Benefit by Using Offline Reconfiguration for Medium Scale PV Array Arrangements

Over the past few years, electricity demand has been on the rise. This has resulted in renewable energy resources being used rapidly, considering the shortage as well as the environmental impacts of fossil fuel. A renewable energy source that has become increasingly popular is photovoltaic (PV) energy as it is environmentally friendly. Installing PV modules, however, has to ensure harsh environments including temperature, dust, birds drop, hotspot, and storm. Thus, the phenomena of the non-uniform aging of PV modules has become unavoidable, negatively affecting the performance of PV plants, particularly during the middle and latter duration of their service life. The idea here is to decrease the capital of maintenance and operation costs involved in medium- and large-scale PV power plants and improving the power efficiency. Hence, the present paper generated an offline PV module reconfiguration strategy considering the non-uniform aging PV array to ensure that this effect is mitigated and does not need extra sensors. To enhance the economic benefit, the offline reconfiguration takes into account labor cost and electricity price. This paper proposes a gene evolution algorithm (GEA) for determining the highest economic benefit. The proposed algorithm was verified using MATLAB software-based modeling and simulations to investigate fourteen countries to maximize the economic benefit that employed a representative 18-kW and 43-kW output and the power of 10 × 10 PV arrays in connection as a testing benchmark and considered the electricity price and workforce cost. According to the results, enhanced power output can be generated from a non-uniformly aged PV array of any size, and offers the minimum swapping/replacing times to maximize the output power and improve the electric revenue by reducing the maintenance costs.
Exercise Addiction and Satisfaction of Fitness Center Users as Precursors to the Intention of Continuing to Engage in Physical Activity

Exercise addiction occurs when a person engages in excessive physical activity until they lose control. Among individuals attending fitness centers, the risk of developing exercise addiction has been estimated to be close to 10%. The objective of this study was to determine whether exercise addiction may be an antecedent of satisfaction with the service received and/or of the intention of continuing to partake in leisure-time physical activity at fitness centers in a direct or indirect manner. A total of 361 individuals (29.05 ± 11.40 years old) who were physically active at Spanish fitness centers were asked to respond to a questionnaire on exercise addiction, satisfaction with the sports service, and their intention to continue to engage in physical activity. A multi-group analysis was conducted to check for differences in relationships by sex. The results show the relationships between addiction, satisfaction, and intention to continue physical activity. The standardized values display differences between men and women, with women exhibiting the highest values for the relationships between addiction and the rest of the constructs. Satisfaction with the sports service is a mediator in the relationship between exercise addiction and intention to engage in leisure-time physical activity.
Selective release of InP heterostructures from InP substrates

The authors report here a method of protecting the sidewall for the selective release of InGaAsP quantum-well (QW) heterostructure from InP substrates. An intact sidewall secured by SiO2 was demonstrated during the sacrificial layer selective etching, resulting in the suspended InGaAsP QW membranes which were later transferred to the Si substrate with polydimethylsiloxane stamp. The quality of the transferred InGaAsP QW membranes has been validated through photoluminescence and EL measurements. This approach could extend to arbitrary targeting substrate in numerous photonics and electronics applications.
AN OPERANT CONDITIONING APPROACH FOR LARGE SCALE SOCIAL OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHMS

: The changes that positive or negative results cause in an individual's behavior are called Operant Conditioning. This paper introduces an operant conditioning approach (OCA) for large scale swarm optimization models. The proposed approach has been applied to social learning particle swarm optimization (SL-PSO), a variant of the PSO algorithm. In SL-PSO, the swarm particles are sorted according to the objective function and all particles are updated with learning from the others. In this study, each particle's learning rate is determined by the mathematical functions that are inspired by the operant conditioning. The proposed approach adjusts the learning rate for each particle. By using the learning rate, a particle close to the optimum solution is aimed to learn less. Thanks to the learning rate, a particle is prevented from being affected by particles close to the optimum point and particles far from the optimum point at the same rate. The proposed OCA-SL-PSO is compared with SL-PSO and pure PSO on CEC 13 functions. Also, the proposed OCA-SL-PSO is tested for large-scale optimization (100-D, 500-D, and 1000-D) benchmark functions. This paper has a novel contribution which is the usage of OCA on Social Optimization Algorithms. The results clearly indicate that the OCA is increasing the results of large-scale SL-PSO.
Physical Education Teachers and Competing Obesity Discourses: An Examination of Emerging Professional Identities

Aim : To provide insight into how physical education teachers use discursive resources related to obesity to create particular professional identities. Method : Data come from focus group and individual interviews with physical education teachers in Sweden. Discourse theory on teacher identities frame the analysis of the empirical material. Results : Data suggest that teachers in Sweden make use of six distinct but related discursive contributions to produce three professional identities: the caring practitioner , an identity concerned with ensuring all pupils irrespective of size participate in physical education; the activity luminary , an identity that focuses on inspiring pupils toward activity across the lifespan, and; the body rationalist , an identity concerned with challenging unrealistic media discourses and reassuring pupils that they have “ normal ” bodies. Discussion : The identities appear more inclusive, sensitive, and critical than current physical education literature on obesity suggests, however they also contain elements that are fundamentally unsympathetic to overweight individuals.
Metal Induced Risk of Diabetes Mellitus Due to Toxicological Effects of Mercury: Influence of Environmental Threats

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a condition of hyperglycemia due to defects of insulin secretion and/or insulin action. Toxic metals such as lead, nickel, cadmium, arsenic and mercury have been identified which accumulate in various biological samples from T2D (type 2 diabetes) patients through environmental pollution and food chain. Present study will elucidate the toxicological effects of mercury (II) chloride in the pancreatic islets and liver tissues of rat which leads to dysfunction and degeneration of pancreatic islets and liver. Photomicrograph of histology of treated pancreas exhibited the disruption of islets, disorientation of cells and disruption of connective tissue septa. In mercury (II) chloride treated group pancreatic cells were found to be pyknotic and cellular death was confirmed by membrane rupture and necrosis. Alteration of blood glucose levels were observed by glucose tolerance test. The liver sections of rats treated with mercury (II) chloride showed modification in the structure of this organ. Treated liver showed lower periodic acid/Schiff response. In this study, changes in the architecture of pancreatic islets as well as liver may be the reason behind diabetes.
Development of Thailand Railway Station Management Training System Based on SCADA System Simulation

The railway Station Management System (SMS) is a vital component of the modern railway system. However, Thailand is working to modernise its railway and has an insufficient SMS training platform. This article presents the development of an SMS simulation using the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system concept, including reliability modelling with reliability block diagrams for training in Thailand. Its main functions are for control, alarm monitoring, and data event simulation of integrated systems in a railway station. The various subsystems are both the power supply system and facility management systems, including the operation of low-voltage power supply, lift and escalator, security, fire protection, pump and drainage, environment control, and platform screen door. We developed an SMS training system that consists of both hardware and software components. This system demonstrates how SCADA in the railway station functions and improves training for the student and railway operator.
Single Phase Nine Level Switched Capacitor Based Grid Connected Inverter with LCL Filter

For DC to AC power conversion, Reduced Device Count (RDC) Multilevel Inverters (MLIs) plays a very important role in the mean of low voltage input applications. In this paper, a single phase nine level Switched Capacitor (SC) based grid connected inverter with LCL filter has been proposed and this inverter operates with single DC source maintains voltage gain as two. For PWM operation of inverter, a Unipolar Phase Disposition (UPD) pulse width modulation technique has been used. With respect to better/ higher ripple attenuation, efficiency and stability considerations are have been taken into account for the design of LCL filter. The d-axis and q-axis current controllers are used to inject active and reactive powers to the grid respectively. The proposed system has been validated using MATLAB/Simulink platform.
Improving Electricity Production in Solar Chimney Power Plants with Sloping Ground Design: An Extensive CFD Research

Unlike other solar energy systems, solar chimney power plants (SCPPs) allow power output even when there is no sun. SCPPs are promising with their simple structure and 24-hour electricity production potential. Massive pressure tower in the system maintains continuous energy generation irrespective of climatic conditions. Solar energy harnessed by the huge collector area is transmitted to the gorund material for sensible or latent heat storage purpose, and this stored energy during daytime yields to enhanced thermal and buoyant effects even after sunset. SCPPs are also in the centre of interest owing to their eco-friendly operation not causing any CO2 emission. Design aspects in SCPPs are widely studied numerically by researchers. However, geometric design factors are merely analysed for collector and chimney, and very few attempts are done for the ground design. In the present work, a new design for ground is proposed in order to improve the energy stored in the ground material, and the upward movement of the air flow in the system from collector to chimney by changing the ground geometry. The upward movement of the air under the collector is enhanced with the new design created by inclining the ground at a distance of 21 m from the chimney inlet to a certain distance from the collector inlet. ANSYS WORKBENCH based CFD analysis is carried out based on the geometric dimensions of the Manzanares pilot plant. Analyses are based on a 90 3D CFD model for the purpose of time saving in iterations. The CFD model is supported by RNG k-ε turbulence and DO (discrete ordinates) solar ray tracing models. After CFD results are verified with the experimental data, simulations are repeated for different designs and the ideal design is achieved. It is observed that the maximum air flow velocity, which is 14.202 m/s on the horizontal ground for the reference case, is improved by 34.1% in the new design to 19.046 m/s. In addition, it is seen that the power output of the reference case (54.333 kW) is enhanced by 23.04% to 66.855 kW. Keyword: Solar chimney, Electricity production, Power output, Ground slope, Pressure distribution.
Coupled Mechanical and Electrochemical Phenomena in Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries are complex electro-chemo-mechanical systems owing to a number of coupled mechanical and electrochemical phenomena that occur during operation. In this thesis we explore these phenomena in the context of battery degradation, monitoring/diagnostics, and their application to novel energy systems. We begin by establishing the importance of bulk stress in lithium-ion batteries through the presentation of a two-year exploratory aging study which shows that bulk mechanical stress can significantly accelerate capacity fade. We then investigate the origins of this coupling between stress and performance by investigating the effects of stress in idealized systems. Mechanical stress is found to increase internal battery resistance through separator deformation, which we model by considering how deformation affects certain transport properties. When this deformation occurs in a spatially heterogeneous manner, local hot spots form, which accelerate aging and in some cases lead to local lithium plating. Because of the importance of separator deformation with respect to mechanically-coupled aging, we characterize the mechanical properties of battery separators in detail. We also demonstrate that the stress state of a lithium-ion battery cell can be used to measure the cell's state of health (SOH) and state of charge (SOC) – important operating parameters that are traditionally difficult to measure outside of a laboratory setting. The SOH is shown to be related to irreversible expansion that occurs with degradation and the SOC to the reversible strains characteristic of the cell's electrode materials. The expansion characteristics and mechanical properties of the constituent cell materials are characterized, and a phenomenological model for the relationship between stress and SOH/SOC is developed. This work forms the basis for the development of on-board monitoring of SOH/SOC based on mechanical measurements. Finally we study the coupling between mechanical stress and voltage in lithium-ion batteries. While the voltage changes at typical levels of stress are relatively insignificant from the standpoint of battery performance, we show that this piezoelectrochemical phenomenon is well-suited for certain mechanical energy harvesting applications. We demonstrate the working principle for mechanical energy harvesting and explore the potential of this technology.
Hybrid Pine (Pinus attenuata × Pinus radiata) Somatic Embryogenesis: What Do You Prefer, Mother or Nurse?

Development of hybrid pines of Pinus radiata D. Don for commercial forestry presents an opportunity to diversify the current resource of plant material. Climate change and different land uses pose challenges, making alternative species necessary to guarantee wood and non-wood products in the future. Pinus radiata var. cedrosensis × Pinus attenuata hybrid possesses different attributes, such as tolerance to drought conditions, better growth and resistance to snow damage at higher altitudes, and more importantly, different wood quality characteristics. Embryogenic cell lines were successfully initiated reciprocal hybrids using as initial explants megagametophytes, excised zygotic embryos and excised zygotic embryos plus nurse culture. However, the questions raised were: does the initiation environment affect the conversion to somatic plantlets months later? Does the mother tree or the cross have an effect on the conversion to somatic plantlets? In the present work we analysed the maturation rate, number of somatic embryos, germination rate, and the ex-vitro growth in cell lines derived from different initiation treatments, mother tree species, and crosses. Differences were not observed for in vitro parameters such as maturation and germination. However, significant differences were observed due to the mother tree species in relation with the ex-vitro growth rates observed, being higher those in which P. radiata acted as a mother. Moreover, embryogenic cell lines from these hybrids were stored at −80 °C and regenerated after one and five years.
Investigation of novel polytriazole resins

Abstract 2,4,6-Tri(4-propargyloxy-phenyl)pyridine(POPP) was made from 2,4,6-tri (4-hydroxyphenyl)pyridine(HPP) and propargyl bromide. The chemical structures of POPP and HPP were well characterized by means of FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and elemental analysis. Novel polytriazole resins (P-PTA resins) were prepared from POPP and azide compounds via 1, 3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction and characterized by solubility, FTIR, DSC, and TGA analyses. The P-PTA resins show good solubility in common solvents. The resins could be cured at 80 °C. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and the 5% weight loss temperature (Td5) of the cured P-PTA-33 resin arrive at 310 and 365 °C in nitrogen atmosphere, respectively.
Reconsidering Industrial Policy in Eastern New York, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT This article analyzes urban industrial transformations occurring in five New York communities. We question whether recent major projects on former industrial sites in Upstate New York succeeded at creating long-term, well-paying and high-skilled jobs for their host cities and towns. It is argued that although it is difficult to convert former 20th century industrial sites to 21st century advanced manufacturing requirements, state and localities should not abandon existing industrially zoned land in favor of out-of-town greenfield industrial developments. A comparative discussion of the case studies according to a fourfold criterion (land, labor, capital and triple bottom line) is provided.
A cross-lagged regression analysis of loneliness and depression: A two-year trace

ABSTRACT This article aims to explore the possible causal relationship between loneliness and depression in college students. Two hundred and fifty-nine college students had been investigated four times in 2 years with UCLA and CES-D, and cross-lagged regression analysis was used. ① there was a significant positive correlation between loneliness and depression of college students; ② cross-lagged regression analysis showed that after controlling the related variables and the stability of variables themselves, loneliness, and depression could positively predict each other at points-in-time T1 and T2; Depression could significantly positively predict loneliness at points-in-time T2, T3, and T4. There is a bidirectional relationship between loneliness and depression of college students, and the effect of depression on loneliness is stronger than that of loneliness on depression.
Existence of Periodic Solutions for an Output Hidden Feedback Elman Neural Network

We first recall the sufficient conditions for the existence of a periodic output of a modified Elman neural network with a periodic input found by using Mawhin’s continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory. Using this result, we obtain sufficient conditions for the existence of a periodic output for an output hidden feedback Elman neural network with a periodic input. Examples illustrating these sufficient conditions are given.
Structural Arrangement of Q_A Binding Site from the Rhodobacter Sphaeroides Photosynthesis Reaction Center

The Photochemical reaction center in purple bacteria is carried out in the pigments which are bound and arranged in specific way by the proteins. In this work, we construct the potential energy surface from the Q_A binding site at the periphery of 10 A sphere, to make more visualize the structural arrangement of Q_A binding site. The ubiquinone (Q_A) molecule contains two carbonyl oxygen atoms in the benzoquinone ring. The O_1 and O_4 atoms of ubiquinone make hydrogen bonds with ALA260 N - O_1 (≈2.84 A away) and HIS219 N - O_4 (≈2.78 A away) respectively, which help to stabilize the ubiquinone. The rest of the molecule is surrounded by mostly hydrophobic residues making van der Waal’s contacts. These segments form the entrance of the Q_A binding pocket and membrane binding surface. In fact, the Q_A binding site is deeply buried in the protein complex, and the positively charged residues surrounded near the membrane involved in interacting with the ubiquinone head group to facilitate the electron transfer
Design and Development of Sensor Based Multilevel Parking System

The purpose of this paper is to create a sensor based multilevel parking system which will assist the vehicle to directly proceed to the desired place or to the nearest parking location. As the vehicle population is increasing in our country the parking facilities for the vehicles have become troublesome. Due to this the parking arrangements and layout in huge buildings need to be improved. Thus, this system plays an important role in the smooth functioning of parking of vehicles by eliminating human errors which lead to accidents and ensuring the vehicle to reach its destination space without wastage of time and congestions. The system consists of a controller Arduino Mega 2560 which will receive the vacancy data from the IR sensor of the various levels once a human input is been given to the system. The data of vacancies will be displayed on the LCD and the system will check for nearest vacant area based on the algorithm to the destination and guide them to the available space to park. The system will also determine the parking time based on the entry and exit of the vehicle and the person will be charged accordingly.
A ZVZCS Hybrid Dual Full-Bridge Converter Suitable for Wide Input Voltage Range

A phase-shift modulated converter with two full bridges at primary side and rectifier diodes in hybrid combination at secondary side is proposed in this article. Due to the proposed symmetrical modulation strategy, two full-bridges always equally share the total system power rating, and thus the VA rating of two transformers is minimized. The circulating currents decay to zero in the zero state, contributing to reduce the conduction loss and duty-cycle loss. Zero-voltage or zero-current switching is achieved for all switches over whole input voltage range with an auxiliary inductor. The rectifier output voltage is synthesized of two controlled transformer secondary voltages all the time, which achieves the same output current ripple suppression effect as the conventional input-parallel output-parallel full-bridge converters with interleaved control scheme, and reduces the voltage stress of rectifier diodes. These advantages make the converter suitable for wide input voltage range applications. In this article, the operation principle and steady-state analysis of the proposed converter are illustrated in detail. Experimental results with 220–460 V input voltage are demonstrated to verify the advantages.