Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Q Factor in cycling: kinematic and physiological effects

Q Factor represents the horizontal distance between pedals on a bicycle, measured from the outside edge of each crankarm. The action of pedalling is based upon human gait, which utilises a step width lower than standard Q Factors (150mm for road bicycles). The aims of this thesis were to understand the kinematic and physiological effects of manipulating Q Factor. Lower Q Factors than standard afforded increased gross mechanical efficiency and individually determined optimal Q Factor (OQ) provided increased power output during laboratory time trials. Self selected Q Factor (SSQ) was lower than standard in trained cyclists and could be predicted using a simple suspension task. The use of SSQ compared with Q Factors higher and lower than SSQ provided a combination of kinematic stability and increased efficiency, lowering the risk of injury and the oxygen cost of cycling. Lower Q Factors than the standard 150mm for road bicycles provide performance and kinematic benefits that have not been examined previously. As part of the overall package of bicycle fit, individual cyclists will be able to make measurable improvements by finding and utilising their self selected Q Factor.
Experimental Investigation of Porous-floor Effects on Cavity Flow Fields at Supersonic Speeds

An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the effectiveness of a passive-venting system to modify the flow field characteristics of a rectangular-box cavity at supersonic speeds. The passive-venting system consists of a porous floor with a vent chamber beneath the floor. For certain cavity length-to-height ratios, this configuration allowed high-pressure air at the rear of the cavity to vent to the forward part of the cavity, thereby modifying the cavity flow field. The wind-tunnel model consisted of a flat plate that housed a cavity mounted on a balance such that only the cavity drag was measured. The cavity height remained constant, and the length varied with rectangular-block inserts. Both solid-and porous-floor cavities were tested for comparison at Mach numbers of 1.60, 1.90, 2.16, and 2.86. These results showed that the passive-venting system did modify the cavity flow field. In order to determine the type flow field which existed for the porous-floor configuration, pressures were measured inside the cavity at the same conditions and for the same configurations as those used in the drag tests. Pressure data were also obtained with stores mounted in the cavity. These results, along with Schlieren photographs and the tabulated data, are presented to document the porous-floor cavity flow field.
The better remote control - Multiuser interaction with public displays

The issue of multiuser interaction with a single device is addressed in a typical situation of educational entertainment: the visit to a museum. To allow for these multiuser interactions, the museum is equipped with stationary systems, so called Virtual Windows, which are distributed throughout the museum. While each visitor may rent a mobile information system, based on a personal digital assistant, the number of stationary systems is significantly lower than the number of visitors in the museum. Hence, to maximize the benefit of the visitors, it is necessary to allow several users to interact with a Virtual Window at the same time. Since these multiuser interactions are uncommon to most users, a virtual character is used to support the users in their interactions.
A DIRECT YAW MOMENT CONTROL FOR IMPROVING LIMIT PERFORMANCE OF VEHICLE HANDLING; COMPARISON AND COOPERATION WITH 4WS (FOUR WHEEL STEERING)

Since the beginning of the 1980's, 4WAS (Four wheel steering) has been regarded as a promising tool to improve vehicle handling and not only have many research and development studies been carried out on the 4WS control system and its effect on the vehicle handling but also it has been installed in some real vehicles. As any 4WS control which has been considered as an effective chassis control for passenger cars depends on tyre lateral forces produced by steer angle, it has some limit especially in a severe maneuvering such as with high lateral and/or longitudinal acceleration(s) due to tyre saturation property of lateral force to side slip angle, even though some adaptation to running environment or some nonlinear control technique is considered in the control. In order to overcome this drawback of 4WS, attention is focused upon a direct yaw moment control (DYC) with yaw moment produced by longitudinal forces on right and left wheels in opposite direction each other. One of the main concerns in this paper is what type of control law is suitable for the DYC to improve active safety of vehicle handling compared with the control law fitted to the 4 WS. For the covering abstract of the symposium see IRRD 882950.
An experimental study of a vertical tube gas-fluidized bed

The goal of this experimental work was to investigate methods of measuring important fluidization properties in a vertical, cold-flow, gas-fluidized bed to gain an understanding of the fluidization characteristics of the bed materials used. Quantities such as pressure drop across the bed, mean bed height, and minimum fluidization velocity were determined using non-invasive methods and were compared to fundamental fluidized bed theories to verify proper performance of the experiment. Granular temperature near the wall, a quantity of great interest in this system, was also determined using a non-invasive technique. An Acoustic Shot Noise probe, developed by Cody et al. (1996), was used to correlate the vibrational energy at the fluidized bed wall to the average particle velocity normal to this surface. By determining the mechanical transfer function of the confining tube, it was possible to obtain an estimate for the granular temperature near the wall by performing a spectral analysis of the wall acceleration time signal. Experimentally-determined values of pressure drop, mean bed height, and minimum fluidization velocity agreed well with the values predicted from theory. Average granular temperature values also agreed well with those obtained through similar means (Cody et al., 1996). The mean bed expansion ratio and average granular temperature results were compared with those obtained from a Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation (Didwania et al., to appear). Good agreement was observed between experiment and simulation, and special attention was given to the effects of changing key parameters in the model
Understanding the Local Epidemiology of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis in an Indian Tertiary Care Centre

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important cause of community and hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). In the year preceding this study, our laboratory reported an MRSA isolation rate of 2% from 50,549 specimens. Molecular typing of MRSA identifies sources of infection, transmission chains and informs infection control practices, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is the gold standard. This study was conducted to gain an understanding of the local molecular epidemiology of MRSA in our hospital using PFGE, to inform hospital infection control practices.Methods: This prospective longitudinal study was conducted in the microbiology laboratory of our 2,200-bed tertiary care teaching hospital in Mumbai, India.The antibiotic susceptibility profiles and pulsed-field profiles (PFPs) of 100 consecutive non-duplicate clinical isolates of MRSA were obtained. The PFPs were compared to check for relatedness of isolates. The distribution of various pulsotypes across disciplines and hospital locations was examined.Results: Clinical specimens accounted for 86 (86%) of the MRSA isolates, whilst 14 (14%) were from screening of healthcare workers. Maximum isolates, 68 (68%), were from surgical disciplines. Confirmed HAIs accounted for 25 (25%) MRSA isolates. Seventeen antibiotypes were obtained and there was no correlation between antibiotype and pulsotype. Totally 43 pulsotypes were identified, with most isolates, 40 (40%), belonging to pulsotype 1. Seven clusters were identified. Cluster I had maximum pulsotypes, 14, and 58 (58%) isolates. Isolates belonging to clusters I and II were found in all hospital locations. Relatedness was observed between isolates from HAIs and screening specimens, and between community and HAI isolates.Conclusions: PFGE typing revealed the disciplines at greatest risk from MRSA in our hospital. The commonality between MRSA isolated from HAIs and screening of healthcare workers, and between MRSA isolated from HAIs and from community-acquired infections highlighted the horizontal transmission of MRSA and the need to reinforce infection control measures to limit this.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities for Military Leader Influence

Abstract : Military leaders must effectively use influence across a variety of contexts and people. This report provides a comprehensive review of leader influence strategies and the factors that impact the influence process and influence outcomes. A detailed description is provided of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) related to successful influence, and measures currently available for these KSAOs are presented. This report also discusses the usefulness of different measurement approaches for the 64 identified KSAOs. Finally, training needs and approaches to develop a leader's influence KSAOs are discussed.
5S for suppliers

56 I J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 3 I W W W . A S Q . O R G HAT DOES SUPPLY management for lean production look like? In some companies it looks like lean production because these lean leaders use the 5S—seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and shitsuke—technique to ensure the proper maintenance of a lean material supply. The term “lean supply” implies that the supply chain is appropriate for lean production. This concept of waste elimination in processes has been popular at some manufacturing companies. Its basic tenets are to: • Specify value. • Identify the value stream. • Organize the value stream to promote flow. • Communicate demand through pull. • Strive for perfection.
Contributions to the understanding of wind turbine aerodynamics using a RANS solver with transition modeling

Title of thesis: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF WIND TURBINE AERODYNAMICS USING A RANS SOLVER WITH TRANSITION MODELING Taylor Jay Rinehart, Master of Science, 2014 Thesis directed by: Dr. James D. Baeder Department of Aerospace Engineering Wind turbine sizes have been steadily increasing to reduce the cost of generating electricity using wind energy. The increased wind turbine blade size has led to increased interest in the accurate prediction of the aerodynamics of large wind turbine blades. In this work, two-dimensional simulations of wind turbine airfoils and three-dimensional simulations of the Sandia 100 m wind turbine blade were conducted. The focus of the simulations was to evaluate improvements in turbulence modeling for wind turbine applications. The flow field was modeled using a Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes flow solver. The turbulence model included transition modeling to capture the significant regions of laminar flow found on wind turbine airfoils and wind turbine blades. The turbulence model was also modified to increase sensitivity to adverse pressure gradients. The effects of modifying the turbulence modeling were quantified using lift and drag for two-dimensional simulations while wind turbine thrust and power were used as metrics for three-dimensional simulations. The two-dimensional studies showed that the adverse pressure gradient correction lowered lift predictions post-stall by about 13%, significantly reducing lift over-prediction and bringing simulations closer to experimental results. Transition modeling lowered drag predictions by 30% to 50% at low angles of attack bringing the predicted values into good agreement with experimental results. The addition of transition modeling in the three-dimensional simulations increased the predicted thrust by 1% to 3% and predicted power by 3% to 6%. The extent of laminar flow was visualized using intermittency. Laminar flow was observed on large portions of the Sandia 100 m blade at normal operating conditions. A preliminary study on the effects of leading edge tubercles on the Sandia 100 m blade was performed, no significant changes in wind turbine performance were observed at nominal operating conditions. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF WIND TURBINE AERODYNAMICS USING A RANS SOLVER WITH TRANSITION MODELING by Taylor Jay Rinehart Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science 2014 Advisory Committee: Dr. James D. Baeder, Chair/Advisor Dr. Christopher Cadou Dr. Anya Jones c © Copyright by Taylor Jay Rinehart 2014
Dynamic characteristics of liquid filled rectangular tank with baffles

A two-dimensional finite element analysis is adopted for the sloshing analysis of liquid filled rectangular tank with baffles using the velocity potential formulation and the linear water wave theory. The slosh frequencies of liquid in a rectangular tank without and with baffles are evaluated. Rectangular plates are used as baffles, which are attached to the two opposite walls of the tank. The tank-baffle system is considered is rigid. The slosh frequencies of liquid are computed for different dimensions and positions of baffle(s). The results obtained for tank without baffle are comparable with the results available in the open literatures. In a tank-baffle system, the baffle plays an important role in changing the free vibration characteristics of liquid. The slosh response of liquid in a rectangular tank with and without baffle is studied under steady state sinusoidal base excitation. The slosh displacement of liquid may be reduced noticeably by putting baffle in a liquid filled rectangular tank.
Swimming ability in tadpoles of Physalaemus cf. cuvieri, Scinax x-signatus and Leptodactylus latrans (amphibia: anura) exposed to the insecticide chlorpyrifos

We examined the swimming abilities of tadpoles exposed to the organophosphate chlorpyrifos for 24 h (at concentrations of 0, 1, 5 and 10 µg L-1). Scinax x - signatus, Physalaemus cf cuvieri, and Leptodactylus latrans tadpoles were used as biological models. Our findings evidenced decreased swimming speeds in all tadpole species exposed to chlorpyrifos as compared to the control group, although with significant statistical differences only with P. cuvieri and L. latrans. Changes in swimming ability may indirectly lead to death or alter important growth and development parameters, as the reduced ability to swim can result in increased vulnerability to predators and impacts on feeding, thus altering their fitness.
Experiences of people with Multiple Sclerosis using textured insoles: an interpretive phenomenological exploration

Background Impaired balance and mobility is one of the most concerning symptoms experienced by people with Multiple Sclerosis as it reduces their independence. It can be caused by reduced plantar sensation. Textured insoles may have the potential to improve balance and mobility by increasing plantar sensory input but their acceptability has not been investigated. This study aimed to investigate the experience of people with Multiple Sclerosis who wore textured insoles in free living for three months. Method A qualitative study embedded within an exploratory randomised controlled trial. Seven participants with Multiple Sclerosis who were ambulatory with a unilateral walking aid were identified from a larger group in a study into the effects of textured insoles on balance and mobility. Participants who wore textured insoles for three months in free living were recruited to participate in focus groups or individual semi-structured interviews about their experience of wearing the insoles. Themes in the data were identified using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Results Three overarching themes were identified from transcribed data; perceived benefit of the insoles, comfort of the insoles and participants’ awareness of their feet. Participants’ experiences were individual; some found the insoles beneficial and experienced increased mobility confidence whilst others did not. Several participants experienced increased awareness of their foot position. Only those participants who experienced benefits from wearing the insoles would continue to engage with them as an intervention. Conclusions Participants reported different experiences of wearing textured insoles, some experienced significant benefits to mobility confidence and awareness of their feet whilst others did not experience any benefit. Trial registration ISRCTN reference number ISRCTN85766784, date of registration 7th April 2014. https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN85766784
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity (2nd Edition)

Imagine, at a terrifyingly aggressive rate, everything you regularly use is being equipped with computer technology. Think about your phone, cameras, cars-everything-being automated and programmed by people who in their rush to accept the many benefits of the silicon chip, have abdicated their responsibility to make these products easy to use. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum argues that the business executives who make the decisions to develop these products are not the ones in control of the technology used to create them. Insightful and entertaining, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum uses the author's experiences in corporate America to illustrate how talented people continuously design bad software-based products and why we need technology to work the way average people think. Somewhere out there is a happy medium that makes these types of products both user and bottom-line friendly; this book discusses why we need to quickly find that medium.
INFLUENCE OF SERVICE EXCELLENCE ON CONSUMER SATISFACTION OF RIDESHARING INDUSTRY

: The objective of the study was to determine the influence of service excellence on consumer satisfaction in the ridesharing industry of Pakistan. Uber and Careem are two ridesharing services or Transport Network Companies (TNCs) which use mobile-based applications and use GPS to connect passengers and drivers in an efficient way. These ridesharing companies have been operating in the country for the past five years. For TNCs such as Uber and Careem, consumer satisfaction plays an important role in retaining customers and satisfying them thereby boosting their profits. Consumer satisfaction and service excellence are interconnected and associated with each other. This research determined the influence of the five service quality dimensions of SERVQUAL model i.e. assurance, responsiveness empathy, tangibility and reliability on consumer satisfaction of ridesharing services. This questionnaire survey-based research study was carried out on 268 respondents. The collected data was analyzed by Pearson correlation followed by the formulation of the regression model, associating consumer satisfaction with service quality. The research showed that all the service quality dimensions had a positive impact on consumer satisfaction. Assurance, responsiveness, and empathy significantly influenced consumer satisfaction whereas reliability and tangibility had a less significant impact on consumer satisfaction as compared to other service quality parameters. This research study assisted the TNCs in better understanding of service quality parameters which needed improvement for enhancing the consumer satisfaction.
Industrial burner modeling: Final report for the CIEE

The COYOTE computer program was used as basis for a comprehensive numerical model of industrial burners. This program is based on the full multicomponent Navier-Stokes equations and includes a subgrid-scale turbulence model. The model was used to simulate the flows in a laboratory-scale burner being studied experimentally at UC-Irvine. We summarize what has been learned in the last 3 years from simulations of this burner. This model provides detailed information about the flow field in the furnace, making it a useful tool for studying the physics of burners.
The Inflation Report projections: understanding the fan chart

The introduction of an inflation-targeting regime for UK monetary policy in 1992 has placed more emphasis on taking a forward view of inflationary pressure. (1) That forward view is inevitably best described by producing and presenting an explicit forecast for inflation. Between February 1993 (when the Inflation Report was first published) and February 1996, the Bank of England published a two years ahead forecast for the inflation rate in the form of a chart (see Chart 1) showing a path for the central projection of inflation. That chart also gave a measure of the range of uncertainty, as indicated by a blue shaded area around the central projection. The range of uncertainty was based on forecast errors from the previous ten years. The edges of this shaded area were derived by adding to (and subtracting from) the central projection the average absolute value of past forecast errors. Normally, one would have expected the outturn for inflation to lie within the blue area just over half of the time.
Association Between Vision Impairment And Tra�c Safety Outcomes In Low And Middle-Income Countries: Protocol For A Systematic Review

Background: Road tra�c injuries are a major public health concern. The burden and road tra�c fatality rate are especially high in low-and middle-income countries and the socioeconomic impact is profound. Although many authors have studied the correlation between vision and tra�c safety, there is no robust evidence base that could be used in advocacy. This systematic review will test the hypothesis that interventions to improve vision function are associated with good tra�c safety outcomes. Methods: Cochrane guidance on conducting a systematic review and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - Protocols (PRISMA-P) were used to inform the preparation of this protocol and the Cochrane guidance and the main PRISMA guidance will inform the conduct and reporting of the review. We will search MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO host), Web of Science, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) and The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in the Cochrane Library. We will include studies of any design which either attempt to access tra�c safety outcomes of any kind among persons with any vision de�cit or examine vision among persons who use roads. The primary outcome for this review is any measure of tra�c safety or surrogate outcomes. Study selection, data extraction and evaluation of risk of bias will be done by two reviewers. A meta-analysis or narrative data synthesis will be conducted, depending on study quality and homogeneity. Discussion: The results of this review will include summary estimates of vision and the effects of interventions to improve vision function, that are associated with tra�c safety outcomes in LMICs. This systematic review will �ll a gap in the evidence base with policy implications that will be useful for a wide audience and may improve vision of the drivers in LMICs, leading to better tra�c safety outcomes.