Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rubber hyperelastic constitutive model and its application in finite element analysis of radial tire

The parameters of five typical rubber hyperelastic constitutive models, including Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden, Neo-Hooke, Yeoh and Arruda-Boyce, are obtained in ABAQUS by using parameter fitting methods which are based on three types of combination of different test data, namely uniaxial tension; uniaxial tension and biaxial tension; uniaxial tension, biaxial tension and planar tension. Rubber stress-elongation equations are derived from different strain energy potential functions. Stress-strain curves of uniaxial tension, biaxial tension and planar tension are generated based on the aforementioned stress-elongation equations by adopting the parameters from each fitting method in ABAQUS. These curves are then compared with experimental stress-strain curves to analyze their goodness of fit, where coefficient of determination R 2 is used to judge the optimal parameter fitting method. With the optimal parameter fitting method, the goodness of fit for different strain ranges of the above five models are analyzed. In order to validate the above methodology, a case study based on Yeoh constitutive model is carried out. A radial tire finite element model is used to simulate tire stiffness considering Yeoh model parameters generated from three different parameter fitting methods. It is demonstrated by comparing experimental and simulation stiffness results that Yeoh model with parameters fitted from the aforementioned optimal method can give the best accuracy of finite element tire model.
Investment Environment Problem Analysis and Evaluation: an Ex Post Empirical Analysis and Performance Implications

The research subject is the investment environment problem analysis and the evaluation of the developing countries, namely, the Republic of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Hungary. The research problem is to determine performance and adequacy of risk estimation models with special attention to the investment environment specificities of the markets in the developing countries. The analysis was carried out by testing and implementation of the Value-at-Risk models, i.e. the historical simulation (HS VaR), the delta-normal VaR (D VaR) and the extreme value theory model (EVT), with the confidence level of 95 % for 100, 200 and 300 days, in the period from 2012 to 2016. The research objective is to test the validity of VaR models and performance evaluation regarding determination of the maximum possible loss. The basic hypothesis of the research is that there is a relation between the successful application of the historical simulation (HS VaR), the delta-normal VaR (D VaR) and the extreme value theory model (EVT) and the conditions and opportunities of the investment environment of the developing countries. The research results provide concrete knowledge of the conditions and circumstances of the investment environment in the observed markets, with a simultaneous performance assessment of the tested VaR models. The main result of the study is that regarding investment activities in the markets of developing countries and number of failures of various VaR models, the investment policymakers cannot rely on the analysis of historical trends and on one of the basic postulates of portfolio analysis ‘History Repeats Itself’. Recommendation for further research and for the local societies benefit is to emphasize the necessity of stable investment environment, thus enabling adequate capital allocation and risk estimation, while using the wide variety of approaches to Value-at-Risk modeling, especially for longer-horizon risk prediction.
Were Modern Capital Structure Theories Valid Before World War I?

This study investigates whether capital structure theory can explain debt ratios in an historical environment which was characterized by poor investor protection, booming stock markets and strong banks, and in which corporate income tax did not affect capital structure. Our results, based on a unique, hand-collected sample of 556 firm-year observations for 129 listed companies in pre-World War I Belgium, are remarkably similar to findings for present-day samples. Leverage was positively related to asset tangibility, firm size and firm age, and it was negatively related to profitability and prior stock returns. Bank relationships were associated with lower leverage.
Darwish, Ahmed and Elgenedy, Mohamed A. and Finney, Stephen J. and Williams, Barry W. and McDonald, Jim R. (2017) A step-up modular high- voltage pulse generator based on isolated input-parallel/output-series voltage-boosting modules and modular multilevel sub-modules. IEEE

Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.
INTERACTIVE SYSTEM FOR DIGITAL PRESENTATION OF CULTURAL ROUTES AND SPECIALIZED COLLECTIONS

: This article discusses issues related to the design of interactive applications which aim to demonstrate human interaction with computer systems in areas including creative industries, cultural tourism and education. Investigations related to the digitization of special collections of cultural property in the Veliko Turnovo region are going to be presented. Various processes are described for the documentation and digitization of specialized archives. Ways and methods are discussed for generation and digital presentation of thematic collections and routes of cultural history in the Veliko Turnovo region. A specific module with interactive digital resource maps is created which are stored in North+ Digital Center repositories. It presents a model for creating an interactive system in need for visually impaired people. This model also ensures the usability of the interactive system for people with disabilities. Digitized objects in archives, thematic cultural routes and collections can be used for educational purposes in studying the cultural heritage of the North+ region.
High rate of neonates colonized by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus species in an Intensive Care Unit.

INTRODUCTION Staphylococcal colonization is a risk factor for healthcare-associated infections, which are frequent in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). This study analyzed microbiology, epidemiology and clinical aspects of Staphylococcus spp. colonizing neonates. METHODOLOGY Nasal or periumbilical swabs were evaluated from 175 newborns admitted to a NICU of a Rio de Janeiro hospital from March to September 2009. Clinical data were obtained from the medical records. SCCmec typing and the mecA and Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) genes were detected by PCR. Clonal diversity was evaluated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. RESULTS Staphylococcus spp. isolates were detected in 98 (56%) neonates, 66.3% of them had birth weight ≤ 2500 g, 62.2% were preterm (˂ 37 weeks) and the mean length of hospitalization was 14.9 days. Among the 133 isolates identified, 48.1% were S. epidermidis, 23.3% S. haemolyticus and 13.5% S. aureus. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus isolate was detected in 77.6% of neonates. The methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates carried the SCCmec type IV, while 94.6% of S. epidermidis and 85.7% of S. haemolyticus presented non-typeable cassettes. Among the S. aureus, 55.6% had PVL genes and the USA800 genotype was prevalent. Two genotypes of S. epidermidis and one of S. haemolyticus clustered 42.2% and 25.8% of the isolates, respectively. S haemolyticus colonization was associated with the use of parenteral nutrition and mechanical ventilation. CONCLUSION High rate of neonates colonized by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus species and the permanence of clones circulating in the NICU highlight the importance for continuous and preventive surveillance in this high-risk population.
The Factorial Structure of the SCARED-R in a Portuguese Community Sample

Aim: To evaluate the three-, four-, five- and nine-factor structures of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders - revised version (SCARED-R) in a Portuguese sample. We further aimed at assessing the gender and age patterns of anxiety symptoms. Method: The Portuguese version of the SCARED-R was administered to a community sample of 1,314 children, aged 10-13 years. Confirmatory factorial analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were employed. Results: The five-, four- and three-factor models presented an acceptable fit to the data. An unacceptable fit to the data was obtained for the one-factor model. The refined nine-factor model presented good fit to the data after the removal of items with low factorial weights. Based on theoretical considerations, this nine-factor model was considered the best model for assessing children’s anxiety symptoms. A hierarchical structure with a second-order factor called "General Anxiety" was proposed. Adequate internal consistency and criterion related validity were demonstrated. Effects of gender and age on the anxiety scores were found. Conclusion: The SCARED-R is a reliable tool for screening anxiety symptoms, and can be initially administered to identify children at high risk for specific DSM-IV defined anxiety disorders.
Cognitive Fusion Mediates the Relationship between Dispositional Mindfulness and Anxiety and Other Negative Emotions: A Study in a Sample of Spanish Primary-School Students

Nowadays, mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have experimented a remarkable development of studies among childhood and adolescent interventions. For this reason, dispositional mindfulness (DM) measures for children and adolescents have been developed to determine the effectiveness of MBI at this age stage. However, little is known about how key elements of DM (f. e., cognitive de/fusion or experiential avoidance that both conform psychological inflexibility) are involved in the mechanisms of the children and adolescents’ mental health outcomes. This research examined the mediating effect of cognitive fusion between DM and anxiety and other negative emotional states in a sample of 318 Spanish primary-school students (aged between 8 and 16 years, M=11.24, SD=2.19, 50.8% males). Participants completed the AFQ-Y, which is a measure of psychological inflexibility that encompasses cognitive defusion and experiential avoidance; CAMM (DM for children and adolescents), PANAS-N (positive and negative affect measure for children, the Spanish version of PANASC), and STAIC (an anxiety measure for children). The study accomplished ethical standards. As MBI relevant literature has suggested, cognitive defusion was a significant mediator between DM and symptoms of both negative emotions and anxiety in children and adolescents. However, experiential avoidance did not show any significant mediating relationship. Probably, it is needed improvement of the assessment of experiential avoidance. MBI programs for children and adolescents may include more activities for reducing the effects of the cognitive defusion on their emotional distress.
Mentalization moderates and mediates the link between psychopathy and aggressive behavior in male adolescents

Objective: To examine the role of mentalizing in the relationship between psychopathy and aggression in a sample of 75 male adolescents. Method: The participants were drawn from two other studies comparing mentalizing abilities of offenders with healthy community samples. Data was collected on mentalization capacities using the Adult-Attachment-Interview. Psychopathic traits and aggressive behavior were measured via self-report. Results: A mediator-analysis revealed that mentalization partially explains the relationship between psychopathic traits and proactive aggressive behavior. Furthermore, mentalization has a moderating effect indicating that only individuals low on mentalization behave aggressively when high on psychopathic traits. Conclusions: Psychopathic traits alone do not explain aggressive behavior and therefore further research is needed to understand other mediating factors.
Effect of sorghum tannins in sheep fed with high-concentrate diets

The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional value of three sorghum cultivars with different concentrations of condensed tannins in sheep diets. Six adult sheep (LW=56kg) with rumen and duodenal fistulas were assigned to experimental groups using two 3x3 Latin Square designs. The diets were formulated using three sorghum cultivars: LTC (low-tannin cultivar), MTC (medium-tannin cultivar) and HTC (hightannin cultivar). Microbial nitrogen (MN) concentration in the duodenum was measured using a 15 N trace technique. LTC, MTC and HTC diets presented values of 788, 722 and 747 (SE=20.6) g kg -1 for dry matter digestibility and 633, 535 and 530 (SE=35.8) g/kg for crude protein digestibility. The LTC diet was significantly different from the other diets (P<0.05). The nitrogen balance was 145.5, 94.8 and 83.8g kg -1 (SE=13.0) for LTC, MTC and HTC, respectively, with LTC showing greater nitrogen retention (P<0.05). Values obtained for MN in the digesta were 301, 364 and 469 (SE=30.6) g kg -1 for LTC, MTC and HTC, respectively, and there was no statistical difference (P>0.05) between the diets. The presence of condensed tannins in the sorghum interfered with the sheep’s nitrogen retention; however, the microbial protein supply to the duodenum of the animals was not inhibited.
FRAMING AND COLLABORATION IN STORYTELLING EVENTS: FORGETFULNESS, REFLEXIVITY AND WORD SEARCH

The collaborative character of discourse has been studied for different activities and linguistic levels. The present article discusses the relevance of this perspective to a better understanding of storytelling events. The focus is on metadiscursive interactions that result from the teller’s difficulty to evoke a word or linguistic form at a certain point of the story. Two different collaborative solutions are identified and analyzed, and its connections to framing and participation framework discussed.
A Preliminary Study: Challenges in Capturing Security Requirements and Consistency Checking by Requirement Engineers

There has been a growing concern on the importance of security with the rise of phenomena, such as ecommerce and nomadic and geographically distributed work. Realizing the security early, especially in the requirement analysis phase, is important so that security problems can be tackled early enough before going further in the development process and avoid re-work. Ensuring the consistency of elicited functional security requirement of requirements specification is also crucial as the requirements should be well understood and agreed upon by all the stakeholders and end-users. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to further discuss on the challenges faced by Requirement Engineers (REs) in: (1) capturing Security Requirement and (2) Consistency Checking in Requirement Engineering. Motivated from the need to ensure consistency in functional security requirement for developing secure software and the gaps found in the existing works, a survey has been conducted involving 38 experts in software engineering in the industry. The survey aims to identify the current problems faced by them during the elicitation process, security standards used as the reference, elicitation and validation method, and the important properties considered while developing secure software. Results of the survey show that REs face difficulties to understand the security needs and the existing standards are difficult to understand. Therefore, it is proposed that an automated tool to elicit security requirements should be developed.
Towards sentiment analysis application in housing projects

In becoming a develop nation by 2020, Malaysia Government realized the need in providing affordable house to the public. Since Second Malaysia Plan, government has implemented various affordable housing projects and it continues until recent Malaysia Plan. To measure the effectiveness of the initiatives taken, public opinion is necessary. A social media platform has been seen as the most effective mechanism to get information on people’s thought and feeling towards certain issues. One of the best ways to extract emotions and thoughts from what people post in social media is through Sentiment Analysis (SA). There are three different levels of analysis: document level, sentence level and feature level. Most of previous research focused on the classification of sentiment at document or sentence level. Unfortunately, both document and sentence level does not discover what exactly people like or not. While the analysis based on feature, there exist accuracy problem when classifying the sentiment scores. This p.
Climate of the Past Effects of orbital forcing on atmosphere and ocean heat transports in Holocene and Eemian climate simulations with a comprehensive Earth system model

Orbital forcing does not only exert direct insolation effects, but also alters climate indirectly through feedback mechanisms that modify atmosphere and ocean dynamics and meridional heat and moisture transfers. We investigate the regional effects of these changes by detailed analysis of atmosphere and ocean circulation and heat transports in a coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice-biosphere general circulation model (ECHAM5/JSBACH/MPI-OM). We perform long term quasi equilibrium simulations under pre-industrial, mid-Holocene (6000 years before present – yBP), and Eemian (125 000 yBP) orbital boundary conditions. Compared to pre-industrial climate, Eemian and Holocene temperatures show generally warmer conditions at higher and cooler conditions at lower latitudes. Changes in sea-ice cover, ocean heat transports, and atmospheric circulation patterns lead to pronounced regional heterogeneity. Over Europe, the warming is most pronounced over the north-eastern part in accordance with recent reconstructions for the Holocene. We attribute this warming to enhanced ocean circulation in the Nordic Seas and enhanced oceanatmosphere heat flux over the Barents Shelf in conduction with retreat of sea ice and intensified winter storm tracks over northern Europe.
THE TAXONOMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SOME HELVELLA AND ITS RELATIVES BY MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR DATA FROM TURKEY

Herein, 15 fungi species belonging to different genera of Pezizales were studied morphologically and molecularly. During the morphological analyses performed by means of Primer 7 software, 28 characters were used, mainly including the stalk, cap, asci, and spores, to assess the taxonomical relationships of the fungi species. The data matrix and nMDS plot approaches based on the morphological data were highly functional in the determination of the taxonomical relationship of very closely related fungi taxa, particularly at the genus level. Moreover, the data from the ISSR locus analyses significantly supported the current morphological relationships on a wide scale. Contrary to the morphological data expressing taxonomical relationships related to morels or early morels, a minor exceptional condition was determined inferring to the relatively higher genetic similarity among Verpa and Gyromitra in the dendrogram connected with the ISSR analyses.
URBAN IMPERVIOUS SURFACE DETECTION WITH LANDSAT AND FULL POLARIMETRIC ALOS/PALSAR IMAGES

Abstract. Impervious surface detection in urban area is of great importance because impervious surfaces have been recognized as an urbanization index. In other words, an increase of impervious surface extent accounts for urban sprawl. Remote sensing images in optical wavelength proved to be beneficial for urban impervious surfaces detection and mapping. However, the use of optical images is limited in cloud-prone regions. Also, there are some complexities which make it challenging to impervious surface detection especially in urban areas. In recent years, in the light of increasing availability of SAR data, the use of SAR data for urban impervious surface detection is increased as well. In this study the efficiency of full polarimetric L-band images was compared to Landsat images. Furthermore, the role of SAR’ texture features was assessed. Results show that the classification accuracy of SAR images cannot overcome the Landsat’s classification accuracy. However, SAR texture features provide positive contribution in impervious surface detection in homogeneous urban region.
The torque control with multi-objective performance for e-bike systems with human power assistance

This paper proposes a velocity control approach for the light electric bike with human power assistance. The velocity control signal is composed of two signals. One is a velocity-dependent equilibratory torque to compensate the wind resistance. Another is a deviation torque to achieve desired multi-objective performance represented in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) conditions. The formulated multi-objective performances includes the invariant set of state variable under the magnitude bounded disturbance, the magnitude bound on the regulated output, and the H∞ performance optimization for attenuation of various disturbance effects on the regulated output. The disturbances include the deviations of tire resistance, human assistant torque, and driver's weight from nominal values. Based on the parameters and specifications of the EL-168 electric bike produced by KENTFA Advanced Technology, Taiwan, the design results are verified through time-response simulations under both the flat and linear varying gradient road conditions.
Topology of hypersurface singularities with 3-dimensional critical set

In this paper, we prove that the Milnor fibre of a singularity over an i.c. i.s. of dimension 3 has the homotopy type of a bouquet of spheres, provided that the function that defines the singularity has finite extended codimension with respect to the ideal that defines the i.c. i.s.
Evolution of cosmological perturbations in nonsingular string cosmologies

In a class of nonsingular cosmologies derived from higher-order corrections to the low-energy bosonic string action, we derive evolution equations for the most general cosmological scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations. In the large scale limit, the evolutions of both scalar and tensor perturbations are characterized by conserved quantities, the usual curvature perturbation in the uniform-field gauge, and the tensor-type perturbed metric. The vector perturbation is not affected, being described by the conservation of the angular momentum of the fluid component in the absence of any additional dissipative process. For the scalar- and tensor-type perturbations, we show how, given a background evolution during kinetic driven inflation of the dilaton field, we can obtain the final power spectra generated from the vacuum quantum fluctuations of the metric and the dilaton field during the inflation.