Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Study of the Dependence of the Mach Stem Height on the Trailing Edge Height

The Mach stem height is an important parameter in the Mach reflection of steady supersonic flow. Various experimental, numerical, and theoretical works have been conducted to study this parameter in the past. However, much of the established work focuses around a single set of trailing edge heights. Here, we perform a study to show the dependence of Mach stem height on the trailing edge height for a wider range of geometry. Through numerical simulation for a set of trailing edge heights, we found that the normalized Mach stem height is almost linear with respect to the normalized wedge trailing edge height. The parameter used for normalization can be either the inlet height or the length of the lower wedge surface. The observation of this linear trend is justified through a simplified analysis, which leads to an expression of the Mach stem height that linearly depends on the trailing edge height. The present study extends our knowledge about how the geometry affects the Mach stem height, and provides a basis for future work to elaborate analytical models for Mach stem height.
Occurrence and Characterization of Penicillium Species Isolated from Post-Harvest Apples in Lebanon

The apple is one of the most important fruit tree crops in the Mediterranean region. Lebanon, in particular, is among the top apple producer countries in the Middle East; however, recently, several types of damage, particularly rot symptoms, have been detected on fruits in cold storage. This study aims to identify the causal agents of apple decay in Lebanese post-harvest facilities and characterize a set of 39 representative strains of the toxigenic fungus Penicillium. The results demonstrated that blue mould was the most frequent fungal disease associated with apples showing symptoms of decay after 3–4 months of storage at 0 °C, with an average frequency of 76.5% and 80.6% on cv. Red and cv. Golden Delicious apples, respectively. The morphological identification and phylogenetic analysis of benA gene showed that most Penicillium strains (87.2%) belong to P. expansum species whereas the remaining strains (12.8%) belong to P. solitum. Furthermore, 67.7% of P. expansum strains produced patulin when grown on apple puree for 14 days at 25 °C with values ranging from 10.7 mg kg−1 to 125.9 mg kg−1, whereas all P. solitum did not produce the mycotoxin. This study highlights the presence of Penicillium spp. and their related mycotoxin risk during apple storage and calls for the implementation of proper measures to decrease the risk of mycotoxin contamination of apple fruit products.
President Bolsonaro’s Promises and Actions on Corruption Control

Abstract Before the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections, candidate Jair Bolsonaro offered a bold message on corruption control. Among his promises, Bolsonaro vowed to promote government transparency, dismiss any member of his team accused of corruption, and defend the country’s institutions of accountability. Bolsonaro also offered to support a once-popular legislative reform proposal known as the Ten Measures Against Corruption. However, it is worth cautioning that anticorruption as a rhetorical device has been a near-permanent feature of the Brazilian political landscape. In this article, we seek to compare Bolsonaro’s campaign promises with his early actions as president. The evidence shows that, months after the 2018 elections, President Bolsonaro has failed the anticorruption mandate on which he was elected.
TECHNOLOGICAL SOVEREIGNTY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION OF FREE SOFTWARE AND INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

Questions of independence and sovereignty have long been present with regards to the Internet. In 1996, for instance, John Perry Barlow published his now well-known “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace”. Twenty-five years later, notions like “digital sovereignty”, “data sovereignty” and “technological sovereignty” are increasingly used in public debates. This presentation will explore “technological sovereignty” but through the lens of Indigenous perspectives as well as those of social movements inspired by free software activism. These two perspectives seem to share what can be called an anti-hegemonic perspective on technological sovereignty. While they may reinforce each other, they also differ on many perspectives. It is noted for instance that the philosophy of information sharing in free and open-source software might foster the usage and misappropriation of knowledge held by Indigenous communities (Christen, 2012; Gida, 2019). This analysis will prolong a previous study by the authors which identified different discursive trends around sovereignty (anonymous reference). Methodologically, our approach is grounded in discourse analysis and reviews of academic and activist literature that has mobilized metaphors of digital sovereignty. What is the role of the metaphor of “sovereignty” in reconfiguring Indigenous and social justice activism, in relation to the Internet? What are the commonalities between these perspectives? How are they reinforcing or contradicting each other? We intend to contribute to the theme of this year’s AOIR conference – Independence – by looking at the critical discourses of Indigenous people and social activists through the lens of the metaphor of digital (technological/data) sovereignty.
Global Production System, Textile Industry and Wage Disparity: Evidence from South India

This article discusses the root causes of wage disparity in the textile industry. The study argues that wage disparity arises through direct and indirect approaches. Both create pressure on suppliers and leads to low wage payment, depriving workers of social security benefits, unpaid holidays and leaves. Hyper-consumerism, free on board (FoB) price, and flexibility have created competition among suppliers and other stakeholders. Suppliers flexibilise rules and re-organise work arrangements to meet on-time production by increasing working hours, introducing wage penalty, strict supervising, and increasing surveillance. JEL Codes: J3, J31, J41, J46, J81, J82, J83
EFFICIENT AND ACCURATE MODELING OF NON-PRISMATIC BEAMLIKE STRUCTURES

Many complex engineering structures, e.g. components of helicopters, wind turbines, aircraft wings and propellers, are beamlike and non-prismatic. Structures of this kind may be tapered, pre-twisted, and even curved in their unstressed state, and undergo large displacements and 3D cross-sectional warping. Their mechanical modeling can be addressed via non-prismatic beam elements providing the appropriate compromise between computational efficiency and accuracy. Over the years many models have been proposed for beamlike structures, but general non-prismatic cases still require investigation. Formulas valid for prismatic beams, for example, generally provide incorrect results in non-prismatic cases, as the variation in the dimensions and orientation of the transverse cross-sections produce non-trivial stress distributions absent in prismatic beams. A model suitable for the aforementioned non-prismatic elements should properly describe their shape, explicitly consider the effects of their geometric design features on their stress and strain fields, account for large displacements, and provide the known results of prismatic cases. We propose a physical-mathematical model that accounts for all such requirements. The non-prismatic beam is seen as a collection of plane figures (the transverse cross-sections) attached at a 3D curve (the beam’s centre-line). The centre-lin e’s points may undergo large displacements. The transverse cross-sections are fully deformable and may undergo warpings in and out of plane. Assuming small warping and strain fields, a variational approach provides the field equations. The model obtained enables evaluating even analytically the effects of geometric parameters (such as taper) on the stress and strain fields. Numerical examples and comparisons with the results of nonlinear 3D-FEM analyses confirm the effectiveness of the proposed modeling approach.
Optimal active lifetime investment

Optimal decision-making regarding investments is important. In this study, we examine how an individual aims to find optimal investment policies to overcome a benchmarked opponent during their lifetime. The individual evaluates the trade-off between the achievement of a performance goal and the risk of a shortfall. The dynamic programming method is applied in this study. When the individual's lifetime follows an exponential distribution, the associated Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation is an ordinary differential equation, and the explicit optimal policies for several important performance functions are derived. When the lifetime follows a general distribution, the HJB equation is a parabolic partial differential equation, and a Markov chain approximating numerical scheme is presented to estimate the value function. We further illustrate the numerical method when the random lifetime follows the Gompertz–Makeham distribution.
ASEAN regionalism and cross-border research of Philippine higher education: the case of the University of the Philippines Diliman campus

ABSTRACT By applying New Regionalism Approach, this paper delves into a rather unexplored area of regionalism (higher education) in a less investigated region (Southeast Asia) and state (Philippines). It treads through a relatively recent terrain of bridge-building between higher education and regionalism. Through in-depth interviews and document analysis, the exploratory study investigates how ASEAN regionalism has influenced the cross-border research of a Philippine university. Examining cross-border research sheds light on the dynamics of ASEAN regionalism as research is considered crucial to the formation of a knowledge society, which, in turn, serves as a potent tool to pursue regional and national objectives. The findings of this study demonstrate that the ASEAN higher education regionalism offers vital mechanisms to enhance the university’s research performance and its overall competitiveness in an era of globalisation. However, in spite of these advantages, there are ideational, political and material challenges that pose limits to this potential. The paper argues that cross-border research has not yet been robustly activated as a mechanism for regional and national pursuits, and that the points of collaborations and contestations are still to be addressed adequately to maximise the promises and mitigate the perils of ASEAN higher education regionalism.
A Novel Asymmetric-Magnetic-Pole Interior PM Machine With Magnet-Axis-Shifting Effect

This article proposes a novel asymmetric-magnetic-pole interior permanent magnet (AMP-IPM) machine, which is geometrically characterized by a combination of dual-layer reluctance and flat-type PM rotor structures. The design concept of “asymmetric-magnetic-pole” is introduced to achieve a magnet-axis-shifting effect, namely, the magnet d-axis is shifted to make PM and reluctance torque components approximately maximize at similar current angles. Consequently, the resultant torque can be further improved without increasing magnet usage. The machine topology is first introduced. The electromagnetic characteristics of the proposed AMP-IPM machine are then investigated and compared with those of the benchmark conventional IPM machine with symmetrical magnetic poles, with similar sizing and PM usage. Finally, an AMP-IPM machine prototype is manufactured and tested, which confirms the feasibility of the proposed AMP design for the torque performance improvement.
Design of a Robotic Inspection Platform for Structural Health Monitoring

OF THE THESIS DESIGN OF A ROBOTIC INSPECTION PLATFORM FOR STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING by Jason Rolando Soto Florida International University, 2020 Miami, Florida Professor Dwayne McDaniel, Major Professor Actively monitoring infrastructure is key to detecting and correcting problems before they become costly. The vast scale of modern infrastructure poses a challenge to monitoring due to insufficient personnel. Certain structures, such as refineries, pose additional challenges and can be expensive, time-consuming, and hazardous to inspect. This thesis outlines the development of an autonomous robot for structural-healthmonitoring. The robot is capable of operating autonomously in level indoor environments and can be controlled manually to traverse difficult terrain. Both visual and lidar SLAM, along with a procedural-mapping technique, allow the robot to capture coloredpoint-clouds. The robot is successfully able to automate the point cloud collection of straightforward environments such as hallways and empty rooms. While it performs well in these situations, its accuracy suffers in complex environments with variable lighting. More work is needed to create a robust system, but the potential time savings and upgrades make the concept promising.
Correlation of Anti-Müllerian Hormone with Polycystic Ovarian Disease and its Relation with Age

Accepted: 5 July 2019 Abstract Polycystic ovarian disease (PCOD) is common endocrine disorder of reproductive-aged women. Serum Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) increases in PCOD women due to increased follicle numbers. Objectives: The aim was to evaluate ovarian reserve by measuring level of AMH among PCOD women. Prospective cohort study was performed on 62 ladies who aged 25 to 40 years and diagnosed by Rotterdam criteria as PCOD in Sulaimani Maternity Teaching Hospital/Outpatient Gynecological Clinic during May 2018 to May 2019. Consents were obtained from patients for their inclusion. Inclusion criteria were age of 25-40 years and diagnosis of PCOD. The patients’ ages, body mass index (BMI) and level of AMH were recorded. Sample size estimation was performed by "GPower 3.1" and "IBM SPSS Statistics version 25" was used for analysis of data. P-value of (≤0.05) was considered significant. The mean±SD (standard deviation) of age of women were 31.7±5 years. The majority of participants were housewives from inside of Sulaimani City and most of them were diagnosed to have PCOD through clinical features and results of ultrasonography. The mean±SD of BMI and AMH were 26.2±2.8 kg/m2 (ranged from 21.3 to 33.2 kg/m2) and 4.76±3.51 ng/ml (ranged from 0.1-14.6 ng/ml) respectively. There was significant association between age of the participants and AMH and the association of BMI and AMH was not significant. The level of AMH is decreased with aging and it is higher among PCOD women due to increased follicle numbers. The level of AMH was not associated with BMI.
An Exponential Lower Bound on the Sub-Packetization of Minimum Storage Regenerating Codes

An <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(n,k,\ell)$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-vector MDS code over a field <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathbb {F}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathbb {F}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-linear subspace of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(\mathbb {F}^\ell)^{n}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of dimension <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k\ell $ </tex-math></inline-formula>, such that any <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (vector) symbols of the codeword suffice to determine the remaining <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r=n-k$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (vector) symbols. The length <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell $ </tex-math></inline-formula> of each codeword symbol is called the <italic>sub-packetization</italic> of the code. Such a code is called minimum storage regenerating (MSR), if any single symbol of a codeword can be recovered by downloading <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell /r$ </tex-math></inline-formula> field elements (which is known to be the minimum possible) from each of the other symbols. MSR codes are attractive for use in distributed storage systems, and by now a variety of ingenious constructions of MSR codes are available. However, they all suffer from exponentially large sub-packetization <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell \gtrsim r^{k/r}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Our main result is an almost tight lower bound showing that for an MSR code, one must have <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell \geqslant \exp (\Omega (k/r))$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Previously, a lower bound of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\approx \exp (\sqrt {k/r})$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and a tight lower bound for a restricted class of “optimal access” MSR codes, were known.
Ubiquitous Technologies and Learning: Exploring Perceived Academic Benefits of Social Media Among Undergraduate Students

This study makes an original contribution to the literature on social media usage for learning purposes through the phenomenological approach of enquiry. It examined the general motivations for social media usage; how social media is used to meet academic needs; perceived academic benefits; and how social media usage disrupts studies. A total of 24 undergraduate students were engaged in rigorous focus group discussions. Results showed that social media has been adapted to suit the academic needs of users through the process of appropriation. It was found that although social media could be a viable platform for inter-university-collaborative-learning, respondents hardly engaged in that. It was suggested that students create inter-university social media groups for collaborative learning. There were accounts of negative implications of using social media, like addiction and distractions. Students must adopt tactics to handle distractions which could prove helpful in out-of-school settings like the workplace.
Creation of Anatomically Correct and Optimized for 3D Printing Human Bones Models

Educational institutions in several countries state that the education sector should be modernized to ensure a contemporary, individualized, and more open learning process by introducing and developing advance digital solutions and learning tools. Visualization along with 3D printing have already found their implementation in different medical fields in Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital, and Rīga Stradiņš University, where models are being used for prosthetic manufacturing, surgery planning, simulation of procedures, and student education. The study aimed to develop a detailed methodology for the creation of anatomically correct and optimized models for 3D printing from radiological data using only free and widely available software. In this study, only free and cross-platform software from widely available internet sources has been used—“Meshmixer”, “3D Slicer”, and “Meshlab”. For 3D printing, the Ultimaker 5S 3D printer along with PLA material was used. In its turn, radiological data have been obtained from the “New Mexico Decedent Image Database”. In total, 28 models have been optimized and printed. The developed methodology can be used to create new models from scratch, which can be used will find implementation in different medical and scientific fields—simulation processes, anthropology, 3D printing, bioprinting, and education.
Privacy-Preserving Efficient Fire Detection System for Indoor Surveillance

Residential fire is a proven hazard for human life and property. Vision based approaches for fire detection are superior to sensor based ones in terms of accuracy and alleviating false positives. Several frameworks that utilize vision-based monitoring in combination with convolutional neural network and other machine learning algorithms, such as support vector machine, K-mean clustering, logistic regression, neural network, and decision rules are available in literature for fire detection. While such frameworks are effective, they cannot be used in private spaces such as inside homes and offices as the privacy of occupants is compromised. In this article, a vision based fire detection framework for monitoring private spaces while preserving the privacy of the occupant is proposed. This is a novel endeavor as no other approach has looked at the issue of privacy preservation in fire detection with vision sensors. The framework utilizes a near infra-red camera to capture images in a manner that the privacy of occupants is preserved. To confirm that images captured with this camera do preserve occupants’ privacy, two random user surveys were conducted. For effective fire detection using these images, a novel system incorporating both spatial and temporal properties of fire is employed. Experiments were conducted and confirm the superiority of the proposed framework when compared with existing techniques in literature both in terms of performance and model size. In addition to this, the lightweight nature of the proposed system enables its effective use over resource-constrained environments as well. This is validated through a real-world prototypical implementation.
Tablet Devices in the Classroom: Their Instructional Role with Children on the Autism Spectrum

Understanding the instructional role of tablet devices while teaching a group of learners diagnosed with autism was the purpose of this research study. Five children diagnosed with autism participated in activities involving traditional paper and pencil and tablet devices. Observations and interviews with learners and one teacher were conducted. The case study provided an understanding of the motivational impact tablet devices potentially have on learners on the autism spectrum concerning engagement and participation in learning activities. The study also revealed that technology in general and tablet devices, in particular, are used in the classroom as reward mechanisms and entertaining strategies to seize and retain the learners’ attention to achieve instructional goals.
Species Diversity and Community Assembly of Cladocera in the Sand Ponds of the Ulan Buh Desert, Inner Mongolia of China

In deserts, pond cladocerans suffer harsh conditions like low and erratic rainfall, high evaporation, and highly variable salinity, and they have limited species richness. The limited species can take advantage of ephippia or resting eggs for being dispersed with winds in such habitats. Thus, environmental selection is assumed to play a major role in community assembly, especially at a fine spatial scale. Located in Inner Mongolia, the Ulan Buh desert has plenty of temporary water bodies and a few permanent lakes filled by groundwater. To determine species diversity and the role of environmental selection in community assembly in such a harsh environment, we sampled 37 sand ponds in June 2012. Fourteen species of Cladocera were found in total, including six pelagic species, eight littoral species, and two benthic species. These cladocerans were mainly temperate and cosmopolitan fauna. Our classification and regression tree model showed that conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and pH were the main factors correlated with species richness in the sand ponds. Spatial analysis using a PCNM model demonstrated a broad-scale spatial structure in the cladoceran communities. Conductivity was the most significant environmental variable explaining cladoceran community variation. Two species, Moina cf. brachiata and Ceriodaphnia reticulata occurred commonly, with an overlap at intermediate conductivity. Our results, therefore, support that environmental selection plays a major role in structuring cladoceran communities in deserts.
Weak and strong convergence theorems for three Suzuki’s generalized nonexpansive mappings

We introduce a new iterative scheme for finding a common fixed point of three Suzuki? s generalized nonexpansive mappings in Banach spaces. We establish weak and strong convergence theorems for three Suzuki? s generalized nonexpansive mappings. The results obtained extend and improve the recent ones announced by Ali et al., Maniu and Thakur et al.