Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selecting the brigade leadership at the United States Naval Academy: who are the stripers?

Abstract : This thesis examines the process of selecting the midshipmen leadership, or "stripers," at the United States Naval Academy. Using a qualitative approach, it gathers data from the current cohort of decision makers who select the stripers each semester regarding what they believe to be the desirable and undesirable qualities of striper candidates. Shifting to a quantitative approach, those qualities are then used to create variables using data from the Naval Academy classes of 1999 through 2002. A logistic regression is then estimated with the purpose of gauging if those qualities are, in fact, represented in the selectees. A model is presented which indicates that, by and large, the goals of the selection process are being met. Recommendations for minor policy adjustments and for further research are made based on the findings of both the qualitative and quantitative data.
The return to noncognitive characteristics in the Russian labor market

For decades economic literature considered intellect to be the main determinant of individual results in the labor market. While there has been significant research on the traditional human capital as the main determinant of labour market results, there is huge heterogeneity across individual wages on the labour market which remains unexplained. Noncognitive characteristics represent a relatively stable way of thinking, feeling and behaving in certain situations, which appears to provide an explanation for these differences. This study presents scarce evidence of the link between noncognitive skills and economic outcomes conducted on extensive Russian data. Using RLMS—HSE data for 2016—2017, returns to the Big Five taxonomy of personality traits are estimated with an extended Mincer-type model. The results are in line with previous research on the topic and indicate the existence of a strong link between noncognitive skills, employment and wages for all socio-demographic and professional groups. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in the economic returns across these groups. Besides, the measured effect of personality traits is comparable to the effect from the traditional human capital components.
Anuenue: A New Tool for Studying Unresolved Objects

The standard instrument for collecting photometry data on unresolved objects at the Maui Space Surveillance System is the Visible Imager, which is the science camera for the AEOS adaptive optics (AO) system. Being embedded in the AO system comes at a high cost. The Visible Imager is unable to collect light shorter than 700nm and the large number of optics in the AO system lowers the optical throughput to 25%. The Anuenue instrument avoids these problems by being dedicated to collecting photometry of unresolved objects. It is located on the B29 rear Blanchard of the 1.2 m telescope at MSSS. It is capable of collecting data from 400 nm to 1000 nm at a variety of frame speeds. Even though it is located on a smaller telescope, it is expected to be more sensitive than the Visible Imager and capable of collecting more accurate data. We describe the instrument and possible missions.
Design and Modeling of On-Chip Planar Capacitor for Radio Frequency Application

The on-chip RF capacitor is one of the key components for RF integrated circuit designs such as filters and oscillators. This paper presents the investigations performed on the design of an interdigital capacitor configuration for RFICs. Geometry design variables include number of finger, finger length, finger width, finger gap, end gap, terminal width, strip thickness, substrate height, metal types and dielectric constant. Quality factor is the essential parameter as it is an index for the efficiency of a capacitor's performance. The physical model of an interdigital capacitor is first determined. Then, its equivalent lumped circuit is simulated. The effects of parameter variations on quality factor and capacitance value are discussed and shown. An optimised interdigital capacitor can be obtained through their performances.
Experimental Detection of Structural Damage in Natural Building Stones Using Nonlinear Wave Modulation Spectroscopy

Intact and damaged samples of natural building stones used in restoration projects throughout Europe have been examined using both linear and nonlinear acoustic methods. Specific attention is drawn to the examination of near‐surface deterioration. The samples are locally excited with a high frequency sinusoidal wave (order of 100 kHz) and in some cases a coupling with a low frequency signal is produced by an impact. Linear wavespeed and attenuation measurements are supplemented with nonlinear acoustic measurements investigating the creation of harmonics and intermodulation frequencies. Consistent observations were obtained on various samples. Undamaged areas are essentially linear in their response, while the damaged zones become highly nonlinear.
Optimization and Control for Microgrid and Power Electronic Converters

The proposed dissertation research investigates Optimization and Control for Microgrid and Power Electronic Converters. The research has two major parts. i Microgrid Operation and Control ii Power Electronic Converter Control and Optimization In the first part, three focuses are investigated. First, a completely distributed algorithm is developed for dc optimal power flow problem for power distribution systems as one of the necessary functions considered in unit-commitment problem in day-ahead markets. This method is derived based upon the partial primal-dual representation of the economic dispatch problem, which is finally translated to DC-OPF problem. Second, the optimal interaction between the utility and communities will be studied, due to its improtance in real-time markets. The objective of this section will be to develop an iterative agent-based algorithm for optimal utility-community control. The algorithm will consider the AC power system constraints to maintain power system stability. In this algorithm, a simplified model of microgrid is considered. In the third focus, a comprehensive model of microgrid is taken into account. The optimal operation of the microgrid considering energy storage systems and renewable energy resources is investigated. The interaction of such microgrids with the main grid to define the optimal operation of the entire embedded system is studied through two iterative methods. In the microgrid’s internal problem, a moving-horizon algorithm is considered to define the optimal dispatch of all distributed energy resources while considering the time-correlated constraints of energy storage systems. A thorough analysis of the effects of the size of storage systems on energy and reserve market parameters are also performed. In the second part, the focus of research is to develop optimal control strategies for Power Electronic Converters. A Model Predictive Control (MPC) switching method is proposed for Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC). The optimal solution of MPC problem is then represented as ix an optimization problem. Due to lack of efficient algorithms to seek the optimal solution, a fast algorithm will be proposed in this research. The method proposed reduces the number of possible solutions and computation efforts dramatically.
Analysis and design of a moving-magnet type linear actuator with repulsive magnetic forces

The paper describes a newly developed miniature moving-magnet type linear actuator with proportional action that uses repulsive magnetic forces. Out of four possible structures, two with mobile magnets and two with fixed ones, the most simple and cheap prototype was chosen, offering good possibilities to obtain a miniature structure. A comparative numerical analysis for two types of mobile element justifies the adopted constructive solution. A laboratory prototype was analyzed numerically and experimentally in view of a possible optimization, the experimental and numerical results being in good agreement. Finally a prototype actuator was built and tested.
A Technique for Improving Noise Performance of Common-Gate Fully-Differential Front-End Amplifier

This paper presents a technique for improving noise performance of common-gate (CG) fullydifferential front-end amplifier. The circuit employs a noise canceling circuitry, which is connected in the differential configuration with tail current. The thermal noises of input CG transistors can be fully suppressed. The proposed amplifier is designed using 0.13 μm CMOS technology under 1.5 V supply. Simulation results show noise figure (NF) of 2.8 dB. The voltage gain and bandwidth of the amplifier are 15.3 dB and 1.75 GHz, respectively. The power dissipation is 12.3 mW.
Software Polarization Spectrometer "PolariS"

We have developed a software-based polarization spectrometer, PolariS, to acquire full-Stokes spectra with a very high spectral resolution of 61 Hz. The primary aim of PolariS is to measure the magnetic fields in dense star-forming cores by detecting the Zeeman splitting of molecular emission lines. The spectrometer consists of a commercially available digital sampler and a Linux computer. The computer is equipped with a graphics processing unit (GPU) to process FFT and cross-correlation using the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) library developed by NVIDIA. Thanks to a high degree of precision in quantization of the analog-to-digital converter and arithmetic in the GPU, PolariS offers excellent performances in linearity, dynamic range, sensitivity, bandpass flatness and stability. The software has been released under the MIT License and is available to the public. In this paper, we report the design of PolariS and its performance verified through engineering tests and commissioning observations.
Survey on different smoke detection techniques using image processing

The most significant parts of protective and monitoring systems are the fire detection systems. Fire detection is very important for the safety of the people. The main causes of disasters are the failure in fire detection and lack of information. Smoke is the good indicator of fire. Fire can be detected effectively by using different image processing techniques. In image processing, images like video frames or photographs are the inputs and output may be either an image or image characteristics. Various tasks like classification, extracting the features, recognizing different patterns can be performed using image processing. Image processing techniques greatly help to detect fire in a good manner and thereby avoid dangerous situation according to the output. This paper describes different techniques used for fire and smoke detection.
Identifying physician-perceived barriers to a pragmatic treatment trial in rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this qualitative research was to identify physician-perceived patient and clinic barriers to patient recruitment in a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pragmatic trial of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) biologic versus non-TNF biologic/Janus-Kinase inhibitor initiation after an inadequate response to methotrexate. METHODS Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 26 rheumatologists in March 2019. An exploratory thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the interview data. RESULTS Physician perceived patient barriers to the implementation of an RA pragmatic trial. This theme covers three subthemes: (1) patients' personal barriers, (2) patients' treatment-related factors, and (3) trial-related factors (eg, patient recruitment, side effects, mode of use, etc). Physicians perceived clinic barriers interfered with the pragmatic trial enrollment from the clinic or the healthcare system perspective. This theme covered four subthemes: (1) clinic-related factors, (2) patient-related factors, (3) research personnel, and (4) facilitators (positive factors of the clinic). CONCLUSION Our results from the inductive thematic analysis will help researchers understand the key patient and clinic/system factors/barriers that may influence pragmatic RA trial implementation. The themes suggest there are factors that can be modified (eg, coordinator effort needed, effective patient recruitment during clinic visits, provider engagement) and challenges to overcome (patient insurance status, busy clinic flow, and space issues including limited number of patient rooms). In summary, these themes provide a basis for our and other research teams to develop clinic-centered and patientcentered strategies to implement a pragmatic RA trial.
Nonvolatile and Volatile Resistive Switching - Characterization, Modeling, Memristive Subcircuits

Emerging memory technologies are being intensively investigated for extending Moore’s law in the next decade. The conductive bridge random access memory (CBRAM) is one of the most promising candidates. CBRAM shows unique nanoionics-based filamentary switching mechanism. Compared to flash memory, the advantages of CBRAM include excellent scalability, low power consumption, high OFF-/ON-state resistance ratio, good endurance, and long retention. Besides the nonvolatile memory applications, resistive switching devices implement the function of memristor which is the fourth basic electrical component. This research presents the characterization and modeling of Cu/TaOx/Pt resistive switching devices. Both Cu and oxygen vacancy nanofilaments can conduct current according to the polarity of bias voltage. The volatile resistive switching phenomenon has been observed on Cu/TaOx/-Cu/Pt devices and explained by a flux balancing model. The resistive devices are also connected in series and in anti-parallel manner. These circuit elements are tested for chaotic neural circuit. The quantum conduction has been observed in the I–V characteristics of devices, evidencing the metallic contact between the nanofilament and electrodes. The model of filament radial growth has been developed to explain the transient I–V relation and multilevel switching in the
Formal modelling and analysis of denial of services attacks in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have attracted considerable research attention in recent years because of the perceived potential benefits offered by self-organising, multi-hop networks consisting of low-cost and small wireless devices for monitoring or control applications in di±cult environments. WSN may be deployed in hostile or inaccessible environments and are often unattended. These conditions present many challenges in ensuring that WSNs work effectively and survive long enough to fulfil their functionalities. Securing a WSN against any malicious attack is a particular challenge. Due to the limited resources of nodes, traditional routing protocols are not appropriate in WSNs and innovative methods are used to route data from source nodes to sink nodes (base stations). To evaluate the routing protocols against DoS attacks, an innovative design method of combining formal modelling and computer simulations has been proposed. This research has shown that by using formal modelling hidden bugs (e.g. vulnerability to attacks) in routing protocols can be detected automatically. In addition, through a rigorous testing, a new routing protocol, RAEED (Robust formally Analysed protocol for wirEless sEnsor networks Deployment), was developed which is able to operate effectively in the presence of hello flood, rushing, wormhole, black hole, gray hole, sink hole, INA and jamming attacks. It has been proved formally and using computer simulation that the RAEED can pacify these DoS attacks. A second contribution of this thesis relates to the development of a framework to check the vulnerability of different routing protocols against Denial of Service(DoS) attacks. This has allowed us to evaluate formally some existing and known routing protocols against various DoS attacks iand these include TinyOS Beaconing, Authentic TinyOS using uTesla, Rumour Routing, LEACH, Direct Diffusion, INSENS, ARRIVE and ARAN protocols. This has resulted in the development of an innovative and simple defence technique with no additional hardware cost for deployment against wormhole and INA attacks. In the thesis, the detection of weaknesses in INSENS, Arrive and ARAN protocols was also addressed formally. Finally, an e±cient design methodology using a combination of formal modelling and simulation is propose to evaluate the performances of routing protocols against DoS attacks.
BUSINESS SPECIFICATIONS: The Key to Successful Software Engineering

From the Publisher: One step is crucial to the success of virtually every software development project: specifying the business problem with clarity and precision. Business Specifications brings together the latest real-world techniques for doing so. Independent of methodology, and refreshingly practical, this book contains extensive examples drawn from real consulting experience in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, and other key industries. The book demonstrates proven techniques for discovering knowledge "buried" throughout the business. It shows why business domain experts must take the lead in defining business rules - and how analysts and technologists can support them. Above all, it demonstrates how to tame complexity while capturing the essence of a business in a rigorous specification that can not only be realized efficiently, but can evolve as the business changes. Whatever your role in business process transformation or software development, this book will dramatically increase your odds of success.
Applications of adaptive antenna combining to digital radio communications within buildings

The authors describe a time-division multiple access (TDMA) system in which adaptive antenna arrays function on a training sequence to identify the desired signal and to discriminate against interference and other unwanted signals. Signals received from the antenna array elements are amplitude weighted, phase shifted and summed to produce a combined response. The weight coefficients are adjusted such that the reception of the desired signal is enhanced and the combined effect of all other signals is attenuated. The weight coefficients are updated on a block-by-block basis using a complex least-mean-square algorithm based on the method of steepest descent. Computer simulations are presented for narrowband transmission over slow fading (Rayleigh/Rician) channels with coherent pi /4-QPSK modulation. <<ETX>>
Towards a Battery-Free Wake-Up Radio

This paper proposes a contribution to the development of autonomous wake-up radios from the energy supply perspective. More precisely, a rectifier circuit, designed and manufactured in order to provide the energy needed for a quasi passive wake-up radio receiver (WuRx). The WuRx is intended to operate continuously and to ensure a zero energy consumption in standby mode.After the presentation of the said WuRx, the energy requirement for its power supply is defined. Then, the energy harvesting circuit, able to power up the quasi-passive WuRx, is designed, implemented, and then measured. Compared to the state of the art, the energy harvester that we present here is among the few recent designs that replaced the matching network lumped component by butterfly stubs, which brings compactness to the circuit. The rectifier is built on a high efficiency substrate which increases its performance and reduces its form factor.
Challenges of Processes Simulation with Batch Processing Activities in Contemporary Business Process Management Tools

Simulation of business processes, as part of the process modelling and improvement activities in Business process management (BPM) and Business process improvement/reengineering (BPI/BPR), plays a significant role in the assessment of the effects of contemporary information and communication technologies (ICT) and the optimization of resources. Contemporary business process management/modelling tools (BPM tools) embed simulation features as a part of process analysis and process optimization. Although these tools support simulation, there are challenges in their simulation capabilities that can limit or obstruct their use. The limiting capabilities that we are addressing in this paper deal with batch processing activities and dynamic aspects of the capacity changes over time in such activities. The paper explores thereby the dynamic aspects of the simulation, in activities with batch processing within the process model, as the possibilities of some popular business process modelling or management tools. As a supplementary solution, to overcome such limitations of contemporary BPM tools, their batch activity simulation capabilities were compared by running simulations based on Time driven activity based method model (TD ABC model). Also, significant limitations of contemporary BPM tools with process simulation features are assessed and discussed, as well as advantages and disadvantages in comparison to TD ABC model simulation.
Flexible Virtual Structure Consideration in Dynamic Modeling of Mobile Robots Formation

In cooperative mobile robotics, we look for formation keeping and maintenance of a geometric configuration during movement. As a solution to these problems, the concept of a virtual structure is considered. Based on this idea, we have developed an efficient flexible virtual structure, describing the dynamic model of n vehicles in formation and where the whole formation is kept dependant. Notes that, for 2D and 3D space navigation, only a rigid virtual structure was proposed in the literature. Further, the problem was limited to a kinematic behavior of the structure. Hence, the flexible virtual structure in dynamic modeling of mobile robots formation presented in this paper, gives more capabilities to the formation to avoid obstacles in hostile environment while keeping formation and avoiding inter‐agent collision.
Output variance constrained bending control of rotating Euler–Bernoulli beam

In this article bending control of rotating Euler–Bernoulli beam is considered. It is assumed that the fixed-free elastic beam is attached to a servomotor using a variance constrained controller, specifically output variance constrained controller for vibration suppression. Equations of motion of the system obtained via Hamilton's principle and Galerkin method are used. The resulting linearized state-space models obtained considering just one or three modes are used for control system design. Output variance constrained controllers are designed in order to control bending at the beam tip and beam rotation angle with different variance constraint magnitudes. Closed-loop responses are analyzed when they experience white noise perturbations. Comparisons between system having tighter variance constraint and weaker variance constraint are also performed. Finally, robustness of Output variance constrained controllers with respect to the modeling uncertainty (i.e. variation of number of modes) is examined.
A quasi-experimental study on students' perceptions and intended use of digital recording technology in a college technology classroom

This quasi-experimental study employed a modified Technology Acceptance Model approach in conjunction with a Perceived Classroom Interaction Model. The study investigated the impact of digital audio recording of college classroom lectures on students' perceptions of interaction levels, usefulness, and use of the digital media. The study surveyed six introductory computer science and technology classes. Previous computer knowledge was not assumed. The results found no significant differences of students' perceptions of interaction levels in traditional classroom lectures. However, gender was found to have a significant effect on speaking in class when a recorder was present. No significant differences were found when it came to perceived usefulness. Most students had used or intended to make use of the recorded lectures. Use of Digital Recording Technology iii Table of