Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Experimental Study on the Operating Parameters of Ultrasound-assisted Oxidative Desulfurization

In this research, the effects of important parameters, including the molar ratio of acetic acid to sulfur(S) , sonication time, temperature, and hydrogen the molar ratio of peroxide to sulfur on the performance of ultrasound-assisted oxidative desulfurization were studied using the response surface method (RSM). To this end, a model fuel containing n-decane and dibenzothiophene at a concentration of 1000 ppm was used. It was found out that the temperature and acetic acid/S molar ratio were the most influencing parameters affecting the conversion of sulfur compound. The synergistic effects of the parameters were also investigated, and it was discovered that the maximum conversion of dibenzothiophene reached 98.59% when H2O2/S, acetic acid/S, temperature, and sonication time were set to 167, 330, 80 °C, and 30 min respectively. Finally, the apparent kinetics of dibenzothiophene oxidation and the activation energy of reaction were presented.
How to disable mortal loops of ERP implementation: A System Dynamics analysis

Despite the fact that ERP system are introduced more than two decades ago, their implementation failure rate is still high. Such high risk in ERP implementation failure is the most important challenge for organizations to accept the risks or to eliminate ERP solutions and deal with the lack of process integrity problems in competitive e-business environment. Successful ERP implementation depends on various factors known as critical success factors (CSFs) which are mainly focused by both ERP researchers and practitioners. Questions which may arise is why ERP implementation failure risk is still high while there are lots of comprehensive analysis on CSFs and how organizations are able to reduce the failure risk through focusing on CSFs. To answer above questions this study developed a proposition system dynamic model of ERP implementation based on CSFs to discuss ERP implementation complexities, which identifies CSFs causal feedback loops and effects of those loops on different aspects of failure. The model is able to completely cover risk management cycle and illustrate impacts of applied policies on CSFs behavior change, cause implementation failure. Consequently it can be used to compare performance of different policies to achieve the best tradeoff on different ERP implementation success indicators.
On the Frequency of Characters in Natural Language Texts

Recent empirical studies indicate that the topology of natural systems is much richer than that of random graphs which traditionally have been used to describe complex systems. In particular, it has emerged that the degree distribution of some real networks is a power-law. In this paper we investigate and report a similar characterization on natural language texts. More specifically, we propose a new distribution model that gives an accurate approximation of the relative frequency of characters in natural language texts. In the second part of the paper, as a case study, we briefly investigate the probabilistic behavior of a string-matching algorithm, assuming the new proposed distribution model, and we compare theoretical versus empirical results.
The specific methods of the upgrade of the prefabricated construction industry

With the industrialization and modernization of construction industry, prefabricated construction industry becomes more and more important. In this paper, we explore some major methods, including technological services, business services and policy support, to promote the upgrade of the prefabricated construction industry. Based on the analysis of specific promotion methods, the paper presents detailed upgrading prefabricated building features of each stage, leading to the guidance for the upgrade of the prefabricated building industry.
Sustainable Energy Future: A System Dynamics approach to solving the Electricity shortfall in Ghana

Ghana has been experiencing electricity supply deficit over the past decade. The annual gap between the electricity demand and supply has been a major concern in the country. Even though this challenge often seems temporary, it has never been fully resolved. The electricity gap in Ghana is attributed to underutilization of existing capacity, significant loss of power generated through transmission and distribution, low investment in the electricity sector, and low electricity tariffs. A System Dynamics model is developed to create a vivid understanding of the complex feedback loops within the electricity sector. The results present an outlook of the electricity situation in Ghana. Policies discussed include the ideal investment pathways for sustainable electricity supply in the future. Declining cost of solar coupled with the constant gas shortages for thermal plants makes solar ideal power source for future energy needs in Ghana. The government of Ghana should review the existing regulatory framework to encourage private sector participation. A pricing system determined by free market activities will reduce government’s debt on electricity subsidy and also offer an incentive for private investors.
Supportive Robotic Welding System for Heavy, Small Series Production with Non-Uniform Welding Grooves

Heavy welding is a demanding task with high robotization potential. This applies especially for the runners of Francis hydropower turbines, due to the high working costs and EHS requirements in Europe. However, heavy welding is often related to small-series production with long processing time. This sets high demands on the planning and monitoring functionality of the robot system. The research in this field is gaining momentum, yet very few articles suggest suitable solutions. This paper presents a robotic welding control system design and application that facilitates the planning, control, and monitoring of the welding process of non-uniform grooves of large-dimension joints. Its primary and unique characteristic is the simplified operator assisted programming method, where the threedimensional path modification problem is translated into consecutive two-dimensional modifications. Therefore, reference cross-sections are created along the welding groove, where the sequence planning task of multi-pass weld bead placement is performed, and to the online modifications together with the adjustments are referred. The planning, changes and process supervision are supported by the robot system to handle uncertainties along the welding groove and adaptively utilize the robot operator experience. The activities are tracked and organized to supply information for later performance enhancement and reusability between similar processes. The supportive system design is particularly suitable for advanced, large-dimension, heavy robotic welding applications. A use case is presented on a welding a runner of Francis hydropower turbine.
Interactive Axis-based 3D Rotation Specification using Image Skeletons

: Specifying 3D rotations of shapes around arbitrary axes is not easy to do. We present a new method for this task, based on the concept of natural local rotation axes. We deﬁne such axes using the 3D curve skeleton of the shape of interest. We compute effective and efﬁcient approximations of such skeletons using the 2D projection of the shape. Our method allows users to specify 3D rotations around parts of arbitrary 3D shapes with a single click or touch, is simple to implement, works in real time for large scenes, can be easily added to any OpenGL-based scene viewer, and can be used on both mouse-based and touch interfaces.
Consumer brand engagement in social networking sites and its effect on brand loyalty

Abstract Marketers today use social networking sites as their communication channel to promote their brands. There is a growing importance to this media to increase consumer’s online participation and engagement. The aim of this research it to identify the determinants of consumer brand engagement behavior in Facebook brand pages and its impact on brand loyalty. This study applies the uses and gratification theory (UGT), social influence theory and technology adoption models to explain why consumers are engaged in Facebook brand pages. This research adopted mixed approach of research, which involves qualitative and quantitative analyses. The data about Facebook brand page activities of 100 brands were collected using Fanpage Karma, a social media evaluation tool. The second part of the study used an online questionnaire to conduct empirical research, and collected and analyzed data of 334 respondents using SEM. The finding shows computer, mobile and airlines brand categories exhibits higher engagement rate compared to retail, electronics and restaurants brands. The information seeking is the key determinant for consumers’ engagement behavior in brand pages. Social influence and economic benefits also found to stimulate the participation of consumers on social networking sites. The results also show that there is a strong relationship between engagement and brand loyalty. This study provides a new framework to understand consumer brand engagement behavior in social networking sites like Facebook.
Multiplex PCR of Some Antibiotic Resistance Genes of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Isolated from Infected Cat Fish (Clarias garipeneaus)

This study was designed to detect some antibiotic resistance genes of S.aureus by using PCR. A total of 150 Cat fish (Clarias garipeneaus) with a body weight ranged from200 – 250g. suffered from ulcerated skin and erosion. S. aureus were isolated in percent of 100% from infected fish by using Baird parker as selective media. By using multiplex PCR for investigation some antibiotic resistant genes, as erm A gen, aac (6)-aph (2) genes , van A gen and mec A gene. All isolated S. aureus were sensitive to Amikacin, Amoxicillin, Ampicillin and Ciprofloxacin while resistant to Gentamicin, Methicillin and Neomycin. 1-introduction Fish and fishery products could be the major source and acts as a vehicles for many important species of food poising bacteria, which include in addition to Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Cl. botulinum, the so-called nonspecific group of microorganisms such as E. coli, Proteus spp. , Enterocerus fecalis, Cl. perefringnes and B. cereus (Lotfi, et al.,1972 and Roberts, 2001). In spite of Staphylococci are not a part of the normal part of fish microflora (Herrero et al., 1999), Staphylococcus spp. May reach aquatic environments through fecal contamination and it has been isolated from fresh and brackish water fish culture pond in many countries. S. aureus has been reported as the third major causative agent of food born illness by fish and fish products in the European Union (EFSA, 2010). Methicillin-resistant S.aureus (MRSA) are being increasingly found outside clinical settings (Popovich et al., 2007, Ribeiro et al., 2007, Stankovic et al., 2007). MRSA have thus been found in food animals (Lee, 2003) and in fishery products recently (Beleneva, 2011). Although there is currently no evidence that eating food contaminated with MRSA may lead to an increased risk of humans becoming healthy carriers or infected with this bacterium (EFSA, 2010).
Simultaneous Segmentation of Bone Regions Using Multiple-Level Threshold

Conventional approaches to segmenting skeletal structures include extracting 2D contour profiles on the 2D image domain and performing 3D region growing to acquire the 3D bone region directly. However, as far as multiple pieces of bones segmentation are concerned, these methods are not accurate or efficient enough as each bone must be processed one by one. The purpose of this study is to present a method for multiple bones segmentation. A seed regions generation algorithm is proposed to automatically generate an initial region on each bone of interest. The seed regions are then expanded iteratively. In this process, simultaneous region growing is employed to control the moving speed of the fronts, which can reduce the occurrence of overflow. An investigation of the initial threshold and target threshold is also conducted and appropriate methods to optimize the values are provided. Moreover, five cases of lower limbs are employed to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.
The effect of an optimised helmet fit on neck load and neck pain during military helicopter flights

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Gendered Effects of Intensive Supervision Programs

This study evaluated gender and the effect of intensive supervision programs (ISPs) on juvenile probation outcomes. Logistic regression and propensity score matching analysis was conducted using a sample of 10,478 juvenile probationers supervised by a large juvenile probation agency located in a Southwestern state between 2010 and 2013. Results of propensity score matching analyses suggested that being in the intensive supervision program increased the likelihood of boy and girl probationers being found to have violated probation and being found to have committed a new offense. Results also showed that the criminogenic effect of intensive supervision programs on probation outcomes was stronger for boys than girls. Policy and theoretical implications are discussed. 1 North Carolina Central University Corresponding Author: Darren R. Beneby, dbeneby@nccu.edu
Material Logistics in Urban Construction Sites: A Structural Equation Model

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify best practice relating to the effective management of materials in an urban, confined construction site, using structural equation modelling. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review, case study analysis and questionnaire survey are employed, with the results scrutinised using confirmatory factor analysis in the form of structural equation modelling. Findings: The following are the leading strategies in the management of materials in a confined urban site environment; (1) Consult and review the project programme, (2) Effective communication and delivery, (3) Implement site safety management plans, and (4) Proactive spatial monitoring and control. Research limitations/implication: With the relentless expansion of urban centres and the increasing high cost of materials, any potential savings made on-site would translate into significant monetary concessions on completion of a project. Originality/Value: As on-site project management professionals successfully identify and implement the various strategies in the management of plant and materials on a confined urban site, successful resource management in this restrictive environment is attainable.
Dilemmas in Service-Learning: (Missed) Opportunities for Transformative Partnership

Although there have been growing concerns on how service-learning can accentuate the power differences between the server and the served, service-learning can foster transformative partnership by recognizing the contributions each can offer for a better society. Using participant observation and discourse analysis, this case study examines the perceptions of third-year undergraduate students of a health-related degree in a Philippine-based Jesuit university about their school–community collaboration in a primary healthcare setting. Despite apprehensions at the start of service-learning, students saw themselves confronted with the challenge to overcome personal barriers from authentically encountering the urban poor, whom they served in the community. However, establishing transformative partnership in service-learning was not without its share of dilemmas. Such findings can contribute to discourses on service-learning, informing practitioners how to support social transformation in university– community collaboration.
BCFA: Bespoke Control Flow Analysis for CFA at Scale

Many data-driven software engineering tasks such as discovering programming patterns, mining API specifications, etc., perform source code analysis over control flow graphs (CFGs) at scale. Analyzing millions of CFGs can be expensive and performance of the analysis heavily depends on the underlying CFG traversal strategy. State-of-the-art analysis frameworks use a fixed traversal strategy. We argue that a single traversal strategy does not fit all kinds of analyses and CFGs and propose bespoke control flow analysis (BCFA). Given a control flow analysis (CFA) and a large number of CFGs, BCFA selects the most efficient traversal strategy for each CFG. BCFA extracts a set of properties of the CFA by analyzing the code of the CFA and combines it with properties of the CFG, such as branching factor and cyclicity, for selecting the optimal traversal strategy. We have implemented BCFA in Boa, and evaluated BCFA using a set of representative static analyses that mainly involve traversing CFGs and two large datasets containing 287 thousand and 162 million CFGs. Our results show that BCFA can speedup the large scale analyses by 1%-28%. Further, BCFA has low overheads; less than 0.2%, and low misprediction rate; less than 0.01%.
The Influence of Nitrogen in Nutrient Solution on Growth, Nutrient Uptake and Enzymatic Activity of Anacardium othonianum Rizz

Layara A. Bessa, Marialva A. Moreira, Fabiano G. Silva, Luciana C. Vitorino* and Clarice A. Megguer Goiano Federal Institute, Rio Verde Campus, Highway Sul Goiana, Km 01, 75901-970, Rio Verde – GO, Brazil CNPq Post-doctoral Fellowship, Federal University of Viçosa – UFV, Peter Henry Rolfs Avenue, 36570-900, Viçosa – MG, Brazil IF Goiano, Morrinhos Campus, Highway 153, Km 633, 75650-000, Morrinhos – GO, Brazil
Effective Graph Protection Method to Prevent the Spreading of Attacks in Networks

Networks are fundamental models for representing and analyzing the structures of real-world systems. For instance, in social networks, nodes are used to represent users and edges represent the connection between users. Networks are also termed as graphs in the discrete mathematics language. One essential problem in networks is how to protect a limited number of nodes to prevent the spreading of malicious attacks or dangerous rumor in the networks, which is known as the graph protection problem. In this paper, an effective graph protection method called PowerShield is proposed which pre-emptively protects critical nodes prior to any incoming attacks. It combines connectivity and centrality criteria of the input graph. Connectivity criterion is measured by the principal eigenvector, i.e., the eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the input graph. Centrality criterion is defined by the degree centrality which considers nodes having more neighborhood relations to be more important. Contrary to the existing state-of-the-art method which takes into account only the connectivity criterion, the proposed method combines both criteria and empirically improves the effectiveness of protection result.
The Measurement Of Negotiating Ability: Evidence From India

Conflicts are an ever present reality; and, we see that with an increase in psychological maturity at workplaces, conflicts are increasingly being handled through negotiations. While contemporary literature and tools deal with negotiating strategy, tools and techniques, what they miss out on is negotiating ability. The primary premise of this paper is that behind these tools used in negotiations, is the individual ability to grapple with such interactions. The paper draws from an earlier work on the morphology of dispute handling capability to generate items for negotiating ability. The research was carried out in three phases. In the first phase, thirty incidents of dispute from Mahabharata - an Indian epic about a war transcending human race and its complexities - were outlined and subsequently analyzed to draw insights into negotiating and the capability required to negotiate. In the second phase, thirty exploratory in-depth interviews were carried out with executives to obtain an insight into the concept of negotiating ability using the critical incident technique. In the third phase of the research, findings from the qualitative methods were validated through survey method. The emerging scale along with the sub- scales shows robust psychometric properties and is expected to be useful for academics and practitioners alike.
Evaluation of Touch Technology for the Aging Population

Optimal and effective hand function is essential for performing activities of daily living e.g., eating and dressing. Multiple advances in technology typical of our modern era overwhelmingly affect today’s environment. Operating these technologies, which are necessary for performing a wide variety of basic and instrumental activities of daily living, often require perfecting new manual skills. A touchscreen is an excellent example of a modern technological application which has become prevalent in all aspects of modern life and its use requires fine motor skills to perform a range of activities such as tapping, swiping, and virtual pinching. However, traditional hand assessment tools are not able to capture the skills necessary to operate a touchscreen. The ability to assess these skills is essential for the development of appropriate treatment protocols as well as for determining technological adaptations necessary for making touchscreens accessible to all.The Touchscreen Assessment Tool (TATOO) is a software application developed to comprehensively and objectively assess the hand performance abilities necessary for operating a touchscreen. The current pilot study examined the usability of the TATOO application by individuals in two age groups: elderly individuals (over 75 years) and middle-aged adults (over 45 years). The validity of the TATOO was examined by comparing the performance of the two age groups. Additionally, the correlations between the results of the TATOO and with traditional hand assessment tools (e.g., prehension strength and dexterity) were determined for the elderly group.Usability as assessed with the System Usability Scale was very good in both age groups. Discriminative validity was demonstrated with elderly individuals demonstrating less accurate and significantly longer performance time. No correlation was found between the TATOO variables and prehension strength (grip and pinch strength) or dexterity skills.The TATOO has the potential to become an important novel supplement to the toolbox available to clinical professionals treating the elderly in the modern world. Future studies with larger samples of elderly individuals are warranted in order to establish a normative data base.
1 STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL PAPEZ CIRCUIT INTEGRITY IN 1 AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS 2 3

Bueno, APA; Pinaya, WHL; Moura, LM; Bertoux, ML; Radakovic, R; Kiernan M, 4 Teixeira, AL; de Souza, LC; Hornberger, M; Sato, JR 5 6 1 Center of Mathematics, Computation and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo 7 André, Brazil 8 2 Department of Medicine, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK 9 3 – School of Health Sciences, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 10 UK 11 4 Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK 12 5 Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, 13 Edinburgh, UK 14 6 Brain & Mind Centre and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia 15 7 Department of Internal Medicine, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, 16 Brazil 17 18