Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online identifier–actor–critic algorithm for optimal control of nonlinear systems

In this paper, a novel identifier–actor–critic optimal control scheme is developed for discrete‐time affine nonlinear systems with uncertainties. In contrast to traditional adaptive dynamic programming methodology, which requires at least partial knowledge of the system dynamics, a neural‐network identifier is employed to learn the unknown control coefficient matrix working together with actor–critic‐based scheme to solve the optimal control online. The critic network learns the approximate value function at each step. The actor network attempts to improve the current policy based on the approximate value function. The weights of all neural networks are updated at each sampling instant. Lyapunov theory is utilized to prove the stability of closed‐loop system. It shows that system states and neural network weights are uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed method. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An Evaluation of Practicum Courses at Farhangian University.

This study was an attempt to evaluate practicum courses at Farhangian University. Since practicum is a significant component of teacher education which links theory to practice and prepares student- teachers for their work, this study was intended to explore the extent to which (1) the practicum objectives stated in the ‘Curriculum Document of TEFL’ at Farhangian University were actualized, (2) the students’ language teaching profession needs were fulfilled, and (3) the participants were satisfied with the courses. To this end, based on the data gathered from interview, focus-group discussion and the University documents, a questionnaire was developed and administered to 144 student-teachers and mentors. Findings revealed that although the courses were relevant to the student-teachers’ occupational needs, and improved participants’ motivation, self-confidence, and class management skills, they failed to fulfill a number of their needs and course objectives to a considerable degree. Findings also indicated that the way courses implemented in practice was not satisfactory. The findings are discussed and some implications are provided for student-teachers, EFL teacher educators, and syllabus designers.
Developing Students’ Coaching Ability Through Peer Coaching

Our study adds to the existing literature by documenting an improvement in students’ coaching effectiveness over the course of the semester, as well as identifying the most important factors contributing to this improvement. We identify the rationale for the development of the peer coaching process and its learning objectives, as well as describe the employment of the peer coaching process. We found that training, structured peer-feedback, supporting handouts, and consistent practice of peer coaching were the most important factors to becoming an effective peer coach. The most challenging factors to students in becoming an effective peer coach were developing their ability to effectively listen to their peers and the fear associated with asking their partner challenging or probing questions. Rather than listening, students found themselves interjecting their opinions, offering advice, talking about themselves, or relating what their partners were saying to their own lives, if only in their minds. We found the most effective aspects of students’ peer coaching in supporting peers’ leadership development were being nonjudgmental, listening, accountability, and asking questions. We present suggestions to prepare instructors and students to employ a peer coaching process, as well as possible adaptations.
Decomposing the Role of Individual- and Firm-level Capabilities for Scientifically-based Innovation Commercialization

We build on the contingency theory of the resource-based view to decompose the effects of distinct capabilities of science-based ventures on innovation performance and sales performance. Our contribution focuses on the mediation and moderation analysis examining the competing explanations underlying this nomological network of relationships. We examine multi-source, secondary, longitudinal data on 367 projects from 275 small U.S. Government-funded research-intensive ventures and find that the effect of research and development, managerial and intellectual capabilities on sales performance is mediated by innovation performance. In addition, our results show that innovation performance has a moderating role, enhancing the effect of managerial capability on sales performance. By adopting a multi-level approach, we offer more granular insights into the role of capabilities, their interaction and their differential performance effects. The results of mediation and moderation analyses conclude that capabilities trigger a chain of effects, having impact on sales performance via innovation performance.
A novel ultrasonic cleaning power supply based on digital PWM

A novel ultrasonic cleaning power supply based on digital PWM generator is developed. The main circiuts including digital PWM signals generator, microcontroller circiut, power magnifying circuit safeguarding circuit ,the dynamic matching and frequency tracking circiut are discussed in detail. Finally, the desingning scheme of the systemic software is presented.
Commitment of Mobile Distributed Real-Time Nested Transaction

For transactions? mobility and the inherence limitations of wireless network, traditional real-time transaction management mechanisms are incompetent to support the execution of mobile distributed real-time transactions in mobile distributed computing environment. In this paper, the commit mechanism for mobile real-time transactions is studied. First, a nested transaction model based on functional alterative tasks is given by analyzing the characteristics of real-time transactions in mobile distributed environment. Then a three-tier commit structure supporting the suggested model is presented. And a three-phase real-time commit protocol 3PRTC (three-phase real-time commit) is also proposed, which can guarantee the atomicity and structural correctness of the mobile real-time transactions. By performance testing, it is shown that the suggested transaction model and its commit mechanism can improve the successful ratio of real-time transactions.
Maintaining semantic consistency of compound Undo operations in replicated collaborative graphical editing environments

The Undo operations released at user interface in replicated collaborative graphical CAD two-dimensional editing environments are targeted at compound operations,but not decomposed basic ones. However,the traditional consistency maintenance algorithms are based on basic operations,so that the process of Undo operations also takes basic operation as the manipulation unit,thus leading to semantic inconsistencies of compound Undo operations. This paper analyzed the compound operations types and the Undo preconditions,discussed the conflict definition of different operations and introduced the versiondecomposition strategy as the resolution method,and described the control flow and the main algorithms of the execution process of the compound Undo operations. A case analysis show the effectiveness of the strategy.
Study on Applying Independent Component Analysis to Remove Blink Artifacts and Power Noise in EEG

Blink artifacts and power noise are constantly found:to strongly iufluence the acquisition and analysis of EEG signals.In this paper,by comparing the efficiencies of two ICA algorithms-Infomax ICA and Extended Infomax ICA methods in extracting blink artifacts and power noise in the EEG signals,it was shown that ICA algorithms were insensitive to disturbance in the conditions of low signal noise ratio,and ICA algorithms demonstrated a strong robustness in processing non stationary signals.Though blink slow waves could be extracted by infomax algorithm,but power noise was unlikely to be removed by it.Therefore,Extended Infomax ICA algorithm should be used.By applying Extended Infomax algorithms,blink artifacts and power noise contained in the 16 channel EEG signals of Alzheimer disease patients were removed successfully(the lowest signal noise ratio for power noise can be -40dB). Meanwhile,it proved by calculating approximation entropy (ApEn) that ICA algorithms could preserve the nonlinear characteristics of EEG after removing the interference.
The link between religiousness and prejudice: Testing competing explanations in an adolescent sample.

Research links intrinsic religiousness to less prejudice toward Black people and greater prejudice toward gay people. We examined longitudinally in a sample of 865 adolescents three variables that might serve as a mediator of attitudes toward Black people yet produce a suppression effect in attitudes toward gay people: (a) humanitarian values, (b) favorable evaluations of social groups, and (c) socially desirable responding. In light of evidence that Black people on average are more religious than are White people, we also examined whether self-identifying as Black helped explain racial prejudice. Our mediation analyses provided strong evidence that humanitarian values and the tendency to view all social groups favorably accounted for the relationship between intrinsic religiousness and positive attitudes toward Black people. We found no support that socially desirable responding or identifying as Black accounted for our effects. Consistent with a suppression effect, controlling statistically for the agreeable aspects of religiousness strengthened the relationship between intrinsic religiousness and prejudice toward gay people. These findings illustrate mechanisms through which intrinsic religiousness can correspond both positively and negatively with attitudes toward marginalized groups.
Help-seeking attitudes, locus of control, and emotional expressivity in Hong Kong and Western people

ABSTRACT The current study investigated whether the relationship between help-seeking attitudes and locus of control varied across Hong Kong and Western people. The relationship between help-seeking and locus of control was examined with consideration of emotional expressivity, age, sex, and ethnicity. 83 Hong Kong locals and 79 Westerners were asked to complete the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services, Rotter’s Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, and Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire. The results show that Hong Kong locals have less positive help-seeking attitudes compared with Western people. Internal locus of control and high emotional expressiveness can indicate positive help-seeking attitudes. Nevertheless, locus of control is a stronger indicator for Western people than for Hong Kong people.
Study on directional eye movements in non‐frontal face images for eye‐controlled interaction

Directional eye movements based eye‐controlled interaction focuses on interpreting the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal eye movements or their combinations as inputs to design user interfaces for people who suffer with severe mobility disabilities. In this paper, we take into consideration the inherent eye jitter and evaluate the accuracy of dynamic tracking of horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and rectangular eye movements prior to using them. We observe that the rectangular eye gesture composed of short horizontal and vertical eye movements has the best tracking accuracy in the presence of jitter. Finally, we present methods for identifying horizontal and vertical eye movements based on the trajectory of eye pupil centers from non‐frontal face images. We find that the methods are robust and effective within ±20°deflective azimuths of non‐frontal faces. This effectiveness is demonstrated by using the rectangular eye gesture as an interface to perform a painting task.
Energy effic ient processor operation and vibration based energy harvesting schemes for wireless sensor nodes

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a network of spatially distributed autonomous sensors deployed in the environment in order to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions such as temperature, sound, pressure, motion or pollutants at different locations. Each node in a sensor network is equipped with a radio transceiver, a microprocessor and an energy source such as a battery which should be replaced periodically. To increase the lifetime of the network keeping the small size in mind, methods should be put in place to reduce the power consumption of the sensor node or increase the node life and/or to supply power to the battery from external sources. In this thesis, the first paper presents an energy-efficient frequency adaptation based approach to minimize the power consumption of the microprocessor in an attempt to increase the lifetime of the sensor node. The proposed method dynamically changes the frequency at which the processor operates and puts it into sleep designated by a low frequency mode when no operation is performed. The simulation results show that proposed method consumes energy less compared to available methods. The second paper, on the other hand, presents an energy harvesting circuitry to charge the battery of the sensor node so that the time to replacement can be extended. A piezoelectric-based energy harvesting circuitry and an equivalent mathematical model is proposed. The piezoelectric circuitry converts mechanical vibrations into electrical energy which is utilized to charge the battery. The simulation results using the mathematical model show that the circuitry harvests around 22.8mW of power which appears to be more than the power obtained from commercial harvesting devices.
Psychosocial Impacts of Cancer on Siblings: Qualitative Evidence From Indonesia

Living with brothers and/or sisters who have been diagnosed with cancer can cause psychological problems on the part of siblings. This paper aimed to explore the psychosocial impacts of cancer on siblings. This research is a qualitative study using a descriptive phenomenology approach. There were eight siblings who were key informants aged between 8-18 years old, selected through a purposive sampling technique. In-depth interviews were the techniques used to collect data, followed by conducting verbatim transcripts. For data analysis, the Colaizzi’s analysis model was applied. The qualitative thematic analyses identified that the psychosocial impact experienced by siblings included the following: (1) grieving process (2) psychological responses; and (3) changes in the sibling's life. This paper suggests that all relevant parties, with particular reference to health care institutions and nurses, should pay attention to information and communication given to the siblings and family so that the effect of children with cancer and the psychosocial impact on siblings in families can be reduced.
Attribute-based Encryption for Electronic Health Records in a Cloud Computing Environment

Attributes have a major role to play in attribute-based encryption (ABE) scheme. For health records and cloud computing systems, attributes have the potential to significantly contribute to ensuring security, privacy and confidentiality of health data. This paper posits that ABE have the potential to enhance the security of health records in a cloud computing environment. The study seeks to find alternatives to improve the current state and use of some ABE schemes for health records and the cloud computing system. Attribute-based encryption schemes have the potential to minimise communication cost of the Internet, and also provide a fine-grained access control system for EHR in a cloud computing environment. In this paper, an analysis of ABE systems is discussed with their types (CP-ABE, KP-ABE, HABE and DABE) and suggestions are given for their improvement for EHR in a cloud computing environment.
Economic Valuation of Environmental Resources at Selected Hot Springs in Perak

This article aims to examine individual travel cost at selected hot springs as part of the efforts to develop health, wellness and recreational-based tourism in Perak. It first argues that the individual’s place of origins determines their accessibility to the study sites. This paper then identifies and analyses the visitors’ travel expenditure during their visit to each hot spring. The last section will discuss the effects of using hot springs for future health, wellness and recreational-based tourism in Perak. Using a Travel Cost Method, a Willingness–to-Pay of visitors was calculated as function of travel cost that incurred to reach a location. The paper utilizes a primary data which were collected during peak season from November to December in 2017 involving 241 visitors. The findings show that majority of the visitors are those who lived more than 50 km from the hot spring and spent more than one hour for each visit. In addition, each individual visitor to the hot spring generally spent by about RM 58.98 for their visit. This indicates that the hot spring potentially has the economic value in promoting health, wellness and recreational-based tourism.
Employability Skills Model for Engineering Technology Students

The increasing unemployment rate among youth has affected Malaysian economic growth. This youth with tertiary education were the highest to be unemployed due to lack of experience, lack of labor market information and poor employability skills such as communication. Hence, TVET has become vital field in offering solution to the employability issue. This study aims to develop a prediction model in order to estimate the probability of obtaining high-level employability skills among engineering technology students in one of the technical institutes in Malaysia. A multinomial logistic regression analysis was implemented for this purpose. Through this prediction model, factors that contribute mostly to the high-level employability skills were identified. Using a random sampling technique, 204 engineering technology students from nine technical institutes were chosen to be the respondents of the study. A set of Students' Employability Skills Questionnaire of eleven items that include of Communication (3 items), Problem Solving (3 items), Teamwork (4 items), Planning and organizing (3 items), Creativity or Innovation (3 items), Working with others (3 items), Independent Study (3 items), Numeracy skills (2 items), ICT Skills (3 items), Self-Management (2 items) and Time management (3 items) was distributed. The collected data were analysed using SPSS version 22 in order to obtain multinomial logistic regression output. The result may be utilized by the technical institutes to predict the level of employability skills among engineering technology students for future employment in the job market. This implies a practical alternative for the similar issues among TVET graduates. The identification of lacking factors through the predictive model can be used in preparing the invention programs in order to reduce the unemployment rate among engineering technology graduates who become the job feeder in TVET area. Besides that, the contribution of this study is to fill the gap of the limitation study among TVET graduates as well.
Resource Allocation & Physical Layer Security in Wireless Communication Systems

In this thesis, the problem of resource allocation is investigated in multiuser, multi-antenna downlink wireless systems in which spatial multiplexing is employed in the physical layer. The thesis consists of two main parts; in the first, the interest is focused on optimizing system’s performance in terms of users’ transmission rate. Under this context, a lowcomplexity but highly performing user selection algorithm is presented for the flat-fading channel, when zero-forcing beamforming is employed at the BS and the aim is to maximize system’s throughput. For the more interesting case where the transmission is performed simultaneously over a number of parallel subchannels, two fairness-aware resource allocation problems are investigated in the sense that certain QoS constraints are considered. Typically, this kind of problems fall within the NP class because of the integer nature of the involved user selection procedure. Hence, several near-optimal and heuristic solutions are proposed. In the second part of the thesis, the concept of physical layer security is integrated into the resource allocation procedure and the secrecy rate becomes the critical quantity of the considered problems. The considered setup consists of a multiuser downlink system in which a passive eavesdropper tries to wiretap the message of one or more users. First, the problem of secrecy rate balancing is investigated for a SISO downlink system in which transmission is performed over a set of parallel subchannels. Under the assumption that each subchannel is occupied exactly by one user, several optimal, near-optimal and heuristic solutions are proposed for several different problem settings. By assuming a multiantenna BS, the resource allocation problem is further enriched with spatial multiplexing within each subchannel. Thus, the thesis is completed with the investigation of two such problems in which secrecy-rate QoS constraints are also taken into consideration.
Investigation of plenoptic imaging systems: a wave optics approach

Conventional imaging devices only capture a part of the total information carried by the light. A new generation of imaging devices, plenoptic systems, use an array of micro lenses to codify the light coming from an object into a four dimensional function called the light field. The final image is then obtained after post processing computations on the light field. In this work plenoptic imaging devices are analysed using a wave optics approach. A platform to simulate light propagating under the Fresnel approximation in a generic optical system was developed in MATLAB. An optical system can be modelled as the composition of two basic operators: the free space propagation and the lens. The first one was implemented developing an original method derived from the angular spectrum of plane waves theory of propagation. The second was implemented using a phase mask. The code was developed to optimize the signal to noise ratio and the computational time. Two different configurations of plenoptic imaging systems were simulated. The first is the plenoptic 1.0 configuration. The general theory of plenoptic 1.0 and the post processing algorithms presented in the literature were verified using the simulation platform. The effects of diffraction were also evaluated and an original refocusing method is presented. For the second configuration, plenoptic 2.0, a full study of the optical resolution has been made and a detailed analysis of the effects of diffraction is presented. The results achieved with the simulations have been used to design a working prototype of a plenoptic microscope. This novel wave optics approach enables us to quantify for the first time in the literature the effects of diffraction on this class of devices. In plenoptic 1.0 diffraction is a source of noise due to the crosstalk between neighbouring lenslets. In plenoptic 2.0 systems the optical resolution is directly proportional to the magnification of the lenslet array. A small magnification leads to a high directional sampling but at the same time to a loss of optical resolution. The finite dimensions of the lenslets together with the wave nature of light produce a physical limit to the amount of information that can be achieved sampling the optical fields with those kind of devices.