Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stress Dilatancy and Fabric Dependencies on Sand Behavior

A stress dilatancy model with embedded microstructural information, originally developed by the writers, is used to illustrate the pivotal importance of dilatancy and fabric on the behavior of sand. Fabric, as a second-order tensor, enters into the stress dilatancy equation obtained from a microscopic analysis of an ensemble of rigid particles. Model simulations of sand behavior are carried out in triaxial stress conditions along strain paths with varying degrees of controlled dilation ~or compaction! including isochoric deformations as a particular case. Under particular strain paths and fabric conditions, it is shown that a relatively dense sand can succumb to instability or liquefaction under other than isochoric ~undrained! conditions. This phenomenon is in accord with laboratory experiments in which dilation or compaction is controlled by modulating the amount of water flowing in or out of a sand specimen during shearing. Mixed drained-undrained loading paths are also simulated with particular reference to fabric dependence at a fixed void ratio. Model simulations capture most of the observed characteristics of sand response, such as instability and asymptotic behavior under various conditions.
Inspection Robot with Low Cost Perception Sensing

This paper presents the use of-off-the shelf products as a low cost solution to bridge bearing inspection. A commercial product, known as a DiddyBorg, is a robot designed for use with a Raspberry Pi as the on-board computer. The DiddyBorg is used as a robotic platform to make a photogrammetric survey of the bearing area of a bridge. The images collected from this survey are then used to make a 3D reconstruction using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) and software 3DFlow Zephyr Aerial (Zephyr). The quality of the 3D reconstruction had an accuracy of +/- 154 mm when compared to the known dimensions of the area. The resulting point cloud was then used as a map that the robot can use for navigation purposes. In particular we present a simple localization algorithm based on distance three readings measured from the robot.
Trichodinids [Ciliophora: Trichodinidae] from native and exotic Australian freshwater fishes

There are very few data on trichodinids of freshwater fishes in Australia. 2003 fishes were surveyed across Eastern Australia to investigate the diversity of trichodinids present, to determine which species have been introduced with exotic fishes and to determine the extent to which these species have crossed into native fish Populations. Twenty-one putative trichodinid species were recovered from the 33 fish species examined. Trichodina heterodentata, T. mutabilis and T. reticulata were the exotic species recovered regularly; a single specimen matched a fourth exotic species, T acuta. All four exotic species are redescribed from Australian material. Trichodina heterodentata was recorded from 17 species of fishes, 15 of which were new host records; this species is identified as one of emerging importance in fish parasitology and a list of its known hosts is presented. Two new native species are also described based on silver stained specimens: T cribbi sp. n. from Hypseleotris galii, H. klunzingeri, and Hypseleotris sp. 5; and T. bassonae sp. n. from Selenotoca multifasciata. Trichodina cribbi is characterised by a large circular central inclusion and approximately 28 denticles, which have a blade length slightly greater than the ray length. Trichodina bassonae is characterised by a small, round, central inclusion and approximately 25 denticles, which have straight, non tapering rays that are in line with the leading edge of the denticle blade. It is estimated that the Australian trichodinid fauna may include up to 150 as yet undescribed species and represents a major source of unexplored biodiversity.
Raman Fingerprints in Detection of Breast Cancer

Geen1, Geetha Kathiresan1, Durairaj Kumar1 Sreenath Subrahmanyam3, Kumaran Shanmugam2* 1Division of Nanotechnology, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, 2Department of Biotechnology, Periyar Maniammai University, Thanjavur-613403, India 3BioEcoScience, 8412, Cedercreek Ct, Ellicot, City, MD20143, United States Journal of Biosensors, Biomarkers and Diagnostics Open Access Review Article
The Impact of Intellectual Capital Dimensions on Vietnamese Information Communication Technology Firm Performance: A Mediation Analysis of Human and Social Capital

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore the impacts of the intellectual capital dimensions, human, the organizational and social capital on firm performance as well as the mediating role of human and social capital on the relationship between organizational capital and Information Communication Technology (ICT) firm’s performance in Vietnam. Specific aims included the synthesizing the prior literatures and definitions related to intellectual capital dimensions and firm performance, refining conceptual definitions of the interrelationship among intellectual capital dimensions, of their relationship with firm’s outcome and of the mediation role of human and social capital on the impacts of organizational capital on firm outcome and proposing a synthesized conceptual model to test relationships mentioned in above in Vietnam-like unstable environment. Methodologies: Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and moderating analysis were employed to test how a sample of Vietnamese ICT firms with the total of 319 responses collected fit to research model. Findings: Results indicate that dimensions have direct impacts on firm performance. In addition, there is the existence of the mediating role of the human and social capital on the relationship between firm performance and organizational capital. Research Limitations: This study employs static data, which has inevitable drawbacks in reflecting the long-term impacts of IC’s dimensions and performance. The use of panel data may be the future direction of following-up studies.
Modeling Trends, Cyclical Movements and Turning Points of the Chinese Economy

This study appraises The Conference Board (TCB) coincident and leading economic indices (CEI and LEI) for China with a focus on China CEI. The evaluation is mainly based on a critical discussion of the major data problems in the Chinese official statistics and their implications in modeling China’s macroeconomic dynamics, and a development of a set of new commodity indicators as alternatives to some of the components in the existing TCB China CEI and LEI. It also examines the trends, cyclical movements and turning points in the Chinese economy as identified by the TCB China indices. Our empirical findings through regressions show that despite the data problems the existing TCB China CEI is robust in predicting the cyclic movements of GDP. However, commodity-based indicators which tend to pronounce the variations of industrial output indeed better model the dynamics of GDP.
Cds/cdte thin film solar cells with zinc stannate buffer layer

CdS/CdTe solar cell performance and reproducibility can be improved by integrating a ZTO buffer layer, which interdiffuses into the CdS layer during device fabrication. Reducing the thickness of CdS layer improves the QE in the blue spectral region without affecting the device performance. This buffer layer is expected to prevent the formation of localized TCO/CdTe junction during high temperature processing. The CdS/CdTe Solar Cell was modified by introducing ZTO as a buffer layer between the window layer (CdS) and the absorber layer (CdTe). Studies were performed on different varying ZTO processing parameters like (a) Zn/Sn atomic ratios during sputtering process, (b) ZTO thickness, (c) ZTO heat treatment temperature, and (d) ZTO heat treatment ambient. Devices were also fabricated to study the effects of (1) window layer thickness, (2) CdTe substrate temperature, and (3) post heat treatment of CdCl2. Using Zinc Stannate as a buffer layer (SnO2: F/ZTO/CdS/CdTe) resulted in Voc of 830mV, 71.2% FF and Jsc of 22.58mA/cm 2 with total efficiency of 13.34%. The best device had a 500A thick Zinc Stannate film deposited at 400C in Ar ambient and annealed in He ambient for 20 minutes at 600C.
MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE OVER FOREIGN LANGUAGE: A CASE STUDY ABOUT A2 ORAL PRODUCTION IN A COLOMBIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

This small scale case study was conducted in order to understand the mother tongue interference over the foreign language oral production of four beginner students in the A2 level of learning. These students are enrolled at a Foreign Language department in a Colombian public university. Three main themes of analysis were proposed: a) characteristics of the students’ oral production, b) activities that encouraged oral production among students and c) the role of the mother tongue while learning a foreign language. Five class sessions were observed as a non- participant researcher, and the data gathered was supported on two semi-structured interviews to obtain the participants’ own perspectives. Findings revealed some advantages and disadvantages of using the mother tongue as a reference to speak in the foreign language, identifying the syntactic and morphological failures in participants’ speech. Key words: Mother Tongue (MT) - Foreign language (FL) - Language Interference - Syntax - Morphology.
Experimental characterisation of railway wheel squeal occurring in large-radius curves

Tonal squeal noise (i.e. the high-amplitude singing of a railway wheel with pure tone components) is emitted by some trailing inner wagon wheels on heavy haul trains traversing 1000 m radius curves on the iron ore export line in South Africa. Field measurements have shown that the trailing inner wheels that squeal are subject to predominantly longitudinal creepage with little-to-no lateral creepage. The longitudinal creepage acting at the contact of the squealing wheels exceeds 1%, which supports the likelihood of creep saturation and subsequent squealing due to unsteady longitudinal creepage in the large-radius curves. Experimental modal analysis of the wheel types identified to be relevant to squeal has revealed that for each unstable frequency, two eigenmodes are likely to be important: one that has a large mode shape component at the wheel–rail contact in the circumferential direction and another that has a large mode shape component at the wheel–rail contact in the radial direction. A frictional self-excitation mechanism based on mode-coupling is favoured as being responsible for squeal excited in large-radius curves.
The Impact of Using Social Media for Advertising Appliances on Consumer Behaviour

The small appliance industry in South Africa offers consumers a wide range of appliances, models and brands. Understanding the consumer and shopper trends is still in its infancy stage within this segment of the market. This study focuses on investigating the use of effective online engagement and the ability to understand how online interaction changes consumers’ behaviour among an appliance brand’s customers which constitute the sample of the study. How the group can understand the full route to market and best make use of segments for engagement was also investigated. A survey was conducted where questionnaire was administrated via the group’s page on Facebook and consisted of opinion-based questions on the perception of Facebook as a medium to influence consumer behaviour. The results of the survey revealed that potential consumers who use Facebook do engage with appliance brands and manufactures, and they admit that engaging with them on Facebook influences their behaviour around appliances.
Probable absence of a quadrupolar spin-nematic phase in the bilinear-biquadratic spin-1 chain

We study numerically the ground-state phase diagram of the bilinear-biquadratic spin-1 chain near the ferromagnetic instability point, where the existence of a gapped or gapless nondimerized quantum nematic phase has been suggested. Our results, obtained by a highly accurate density-matrix renormalization-group calculation, are consistent with the view that the order parameter characterizing the dimer phase vanishes only at the point where the system becomes ferromagnetic, although the existence of a gapped or gapless nondimerized phase in a very narrow parameter range between the ferromagnetic and the dimerized regimes cannot be ruled out.
Effect of Harmonic Radar Tagging on Lycorma delicatula (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae) Nymphal Mobility and Survivorship

Abstract The spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula (White) (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), has recently emerged as an invasive pest in the United States, threatening the grape and tree fruit industries. The biology of L. delicatula is poorly known. This invasive pest has rapidly spread and established itself in new regions (e.g., South Korea), taking advantage of a wide range of host plants, but virtually no studies of the dispersal capacity and patterns of the species have been published. Harmonic radar tracking provides a new tool to study the dispersal of small animals such as insects in natural field settings. In this study, we discuss procedures that allow secure attachment of harmonic radar tags on the 4th instar nymphs of L. delicatula. The adhesive bond strength between the radar tag and the nymph was sufficiently great for operational use, yielding 431.10 ± 43.37 g forces (mean ± SE). Variations in L. delicatula body size of did not affect the adhesive bond strength. Neither horizontal mobility nor vertical climbing ability of L. delicatula was affected by radar tagging when compared with untagged controls. Also, there was no significant difference in the jumping ability of radar-tagged and untagged insects. Finally, radar tagging did not affect the survivorship of L. delicatula over a 3 d test period. The results of this study indicate that the harmonic radar system can be applied successfully to 4th instars of L. delicatula without changing their mobility and survivorship. This technology facilitates study of the dispersal capacity and behavior of this invasive species under natural field conditions, and this information can serve as a basis for the development of effective monitoring and management strategies.
Temporal Changes in Self-Rated Health: APC Models of Racial Disparities

This paper describes and attempts to explain temporal patterns in racial health disparities using appropriate models that simultaneously consider the unique effects of age, period, and cohort. First, we employ cross-classified random effects models of demographic age-period-cohort (APC) models in order to understand the patterns of self-rated health disparities over time. Second, we use decomposition models to understand how compositional shifts across cohorts with respect to socioeconomic status, marital status, and a host of other individual factors explain the disparities. Third, we examine the extent to which cohort-level measures of relative cohort size and economic and health conditions at birth explain the racial disparity in health. Cohort disparities increase through the 1935 cohort for women, falling thereafter; disparities for men exhibit a similar pattern but begin their overall decline with cohorts born earlier in the century. Differences in socioeconomic composition consistently contribute to disparities across cohorts; notably, disparities in marital status emerge as an increasingly important predictor across cohorts for women whereas disparities in employment emerge as increasingly salient across cohorts of men. Finally, our cohort characteristic models suggest that cohort economic conditions (percent large family, farm or Southern birth) reduce both male and female disparities in health. Poor macro economic conditions around the time of the great depression inflated disparities for those cohorts while more favorable conditions following World War II suppressed disparities; relative cohort size had no impact on cohort disparities in health. This manuscript was supported by Award Number R01MD004025 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National on Minority Health and Health Disparities or the National Institutes of Health. The authors gratefully acknowledge the programming assistance of Ms. Aimee Bower.
Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Fish Larvae and Juveniles in the Waters around Taiwan from 2007 to 2019

Simple Summary Fish larvae and juveniles are necessary fishery recruitment resources. As climate change and natural climate events continue to impact marine ecology, it may become difficult to determine the characteristics of changes in fish larvae and juveniles. Using samples and data from long-term marine experimental monitoring, we found a high diversity of fish larvae and juveniles in the waters around Taiwan, and the abundance of different fish species varied spatially and seasonally. We also found that distance from the coastline and topography were the key factors affecting the community of fish larvae and juveniles. By presenting these data as times series, we confirmed that 2009 was a critical year for regime change between fish larvae and juveniles in different depth zones. The year also happened to include Taiwan’s worst typhoon on record. These results emphasize the need to conduct more detailed research to prevent predictable and unpredictable shocks. Abstract Taiwan is located at the intersection of tropical and subtropical islands in the western Pacific Ocean. This area is an important spawning and breeding ground for many economic and noneconomic species; however, little is known about the long-term dynamics of fish larvae and juveniles in these waters. In this study, we conducted an in-depth exploration of their spatial characteristics using 2007–2019 field survey samples. Our results demonstrated the seasonality and spatiality of the larvae and juveniles of different fish species. We also found that the continental shelf and offshore distance were key factors affecting fish larvae and juveniles. Changes in community structure were temporally correlated with the extreme rainfall of Typhoon Morakot (the worst typhoon ever recorded in Taiwan). These data can be used as a management reference for fisheries’ policymaking and provide key insights into nearby marine ecosystems and the early life history of fish.
Improving Microseismic Event Location Accuracy with Head Wave Arrival Time: Case Study Using Marcellus Shale

Author(s): Zhang, Z; Rector, JW; Nava, MJ | Abstract: © 2015 SEG. In this paper, we show that the location of microseismic events can be significantly improved by incorporating information on head wave arrival time. The traditional method of using direct arrival times and P-wave polarizations leads to increased error due to the large uncertainty in polarization. We integrated head wave arrival time to P- and S-wave arrival time to achieve better resolution in microseismic event location. To this end, we developed a Bayesian inference framework for joint event location and velocity model calibration. The developed method was applied for both microseismic event as well as perforation shot location in a project in Marcellus shale. Comparison with location results provided by contractor shows that the developed method can effectively improve the accuracy of microseismic event location. Based on the improvement, we propose a new acquisition geometry and strategy to reduce microseismic monitoring cost and improve event location accuracy.
Comparative study of shell shape and muscle scar pigmentation in the closely related cupped oysters Crassostrea angulata , C. gigas and their reciprocal hybrids

The taxonomic status of the cupped oysters Crassostrea angulata and C. gigas has received considerable attention in the last decades. Based on larval shell morphology, experimental hybridization, allozymes and nuclear DNA studies several authors have considered these two taxa as being synonymous. However, mitochondrial data showed clear genetic differences between the two taxa. In addition, microsatellite-based studies and cytogenetic studies have also pro- vided evidence that supports their differentiation. Considerable differences have also been observed at the phenotypic level in terms of growth rate and ecophysiological parameters. In the present study, C. angulata from Sado estuary (Portugal) and C. gigas from Seudre estuary (France) were collected and factorial crosses were performed. Juveniles of the different progenies were reared in Ria Formosa (Portugal) under common conditions to determine if they exhibited differences in shell shape and in pigmentation of the adductor muscle scar. Significant morphometric differences be- tween C. angulata and C. gigas progenies were indicated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Univariate analysis of size-adjusted shell measurements revealed significant differences between the two taxa for shell depth, muscle scar height, and length of ligamental area. Both reciprocal hybrids showed intermediate morphometric characters between parental lines. In addition, significant differences were also observed between C. angulata and C. gigas progenies in terms of pigmentation of adductor muscle scar. C. angulata and both reciprocal hybrid progenies showed highly pig- mented adductor muscle scars whereas in C. gigas progeny the pigmentation was lighter. The differences in shell shape and muscle scar pigmentation observed in the present study support the distinction of the two taxa.
Modified Hot Distortion Test to Investigate the Effect of the Inorganic Binder on the High-Temperature Behaviour of Physically Hardened Moulding Sands

This study is an attempt to determine by Hot Distortion Test (HDT) the impact of physical methods of hardening inorganic binders in the moulding sands on phenomena caused by influence of thermal energy from heating elements with a temperature of 900°C +/10°C. Medium silica sand-based moulding mixtures were densified and then hardened using two physical methods: microwave heating at a frequency of 2.45 GHz or classical drying at a temperature of 110C. Sodium silicate bonded sand (SSBS) with five unmodified kinds of hydrated sodium silicates subjected to two different types of hardening method were assessed in terms of their behaviour in high temperature. Thermal behaviour by means of deformation measurement was carried out with a modified Hot Distortion Test (mHDT). Due to this advanced, but unstable by appropriate standards Hot Distortion Test gives an opportunity to measure thermoplastic deformations (L) in moulding sands in many aspects, such as time of annealing. Research carried out in this way exposed differences between inorganic binders with molar module ranging from 3.4 to 2.0. It was established that deformations under the influence of high temperature last the longest in SSBS containing binders with molar module ranging from 3.4 to 2.9. Similarly, for these types of moulding sands the method of hardening the binder is found to be essential for increasing/decreasing the rate of thermoplastic deformations during the annealing of samples. The samples of SSBS made with binders with molar module from 2.5 to 2.0 are found to be excessively susceptible to thermoplastic deformation as a result of heating them in high environmental temperature presence.