Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Co-production and self-service: The application of Service-Dominant Logic

Abstract Service-Dominant Logic (S-D logic) theory and related literature is reviewed to demonstrate S-D logic's potential to provide new insights for understanding an important contemporary issue in service delivery: the application of self-service technology (SST) to customer service. S-D logic considers operant resources to be the key to gaining a competitive advantage. Consequently, the most important aspect of the application of SST is the requirement for the customer to provide the operant resource at the point of transaction. It is argued that the implementation of SST could be improved by encompassing an understanding of the resources available to the customer and the value (or lack of value) experienced by the customer in using SST. Gaps in existing knowledge are identified, particularly in relation to the application of SST in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. An agenda for further research is outlined and a range of management implications are discussed.
AUTOMOTIVE COMPONENT VIBRATION: A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO ACCELERATED VIBRATION DURABILITY TESTING

Automotive components must be designed to withstand vibration for many years of service. This paper reviews a method of developing short duration laboratory tests which can simulate many years or many miles of vehicle service. The general automotive vibration environment and proper data analysis techniques are discussed. Recommendations for developing a test specification from field data and for accelerating a laboratory vibration test are reviewed. General vibration test specifications for both chassis and engine mounted components are presented.
Automated supply chain management

Manufacturers are entering a new age of information systems. No longer will large monolithic database applications be the only answer for operational support. The next-generation of applications are decision-support systems that use computing power to generate and evaluate the many courses of action available to an enterprise. Enterprises will use these systems everyday to streamline operations, lower inventories, decrease costs, and increase customer serviceability. These new systems will load data into memory and search for optimal answers. Multiple users will be able to work concurrently but still be connected via distributed computing. These applications will not only help enterprises pre-plan their operations but they will enable the smooth handling of day-to-day anomalies. These intelligent systems are available now and provide distinct competitive advantages to those who exploit them. <<ETX>>
Developing A Diagnostic Decision Support System (DDSS) to Reduce Time To Diagnosis in Paediatric Shoulder Instability

Background: Currently the diagnosis of shoulder instability, particularly in children, is difficult and can take time. These diagnostic delays can lead to poorer outcome and long-term complications. A Diagnostic Decision Support System (DDSS) has the potential to reduce time to diagnosis improve outcomes for patients. The aim of this study was to develop a concept map for a future DDSS in shoulder instability.Methods: A modified nominal focus group technique, involving three clinical vignettes was used to elicit information physiotherapists decision-making processes.Results: Twenty-five physiotherapists, (18F:7M) from four separate clinical sites participated. The themes identified related to ‘Variability in diagnostic processes and lack of standardised practice’ and ‘Knowledge and attitudes towards novel technologies for facilitating assessment and clinical decision making’. Conclusion: No common structured approach towards assessment and diagnosis was identified. Lack of knowledge, perceived usefulness, access and cost were identified as barriers to adoption of new technology. Based on the information elicited a conceptual design of a future DDSS has been proposed. Work to develop a systematic approach to assessment, classification and diagnosis is now proposed.Trial Registration: This was not a clinical trial and so no clinical trial registry is needed.
The Past, Present and Future of Curves

Reading about OIS discounting in the financial press in recent months, it is hard to avoid the following impression: interest rate modeling for vanilla instruments was simple and well understood before the credit crisis of 2008; since the crisis, everything needs to be rethought from first principles, resulting in a paradigm shift in how swaps and other vanilla interest rate instruments are valued and how curves are built, and; institutions around the globe are scrambling to update legacy valuation and risk management systems to cope with this modeling revolution.This position is only reinforced by an examination of recent press releases in the analytics vendor space, which proudly announce the advent of “dual curve” bootstrapping capabilities and list asset classes that can now be priced with the new approach, after a new software release.In general, this is not a bad approximation of reality. Many institutions around the world are indeed expending considerable effort to update legacy systems to cope with the post-crisis market. Many market participants are indeed having to throw out their existing understanding of how vanilla rates derivatives are priced and learn a more sophisticated approach. But the notion that these ideas and techniques themselves are new, dating to the aftermath of the 2008 credit crisis, is false.In fact, several market participants have taken the change comfortably in their stride, requiring only minimal modification of their conceptual and software frameworks to cope with OIS discounting and related effects. A truer characterization of the credit crisis’ effect is one of popularizing this knowledge, hitherto confined to sophisticated trading operations only. In this article, after a brief description of the curve-building problem (Sec. 2), we give a brief history of the development of the ideas that now form the basis of modern curve-building (Sec. 3). In doing so, we identify the key concepts and abstractions that are present in the problem, which in turn form the basis of any generic curve-building system (Sec. 4). We finish the article with two examples of building curves in F3, an analytics platform whose architecture predates the credit crisis, but which has required no changes to keep pace with the recent “revolution” in interest rate modeling. Our conclusion is given in Sec. 7.
Probabilistic transmission expansion planning considering risk of cascading transmission line failures

SUMMARY Recent studies have shown that power system blackouts occur much more likely than might be expected, and their probability distribution follows power law. Cascading outages have been reported as the major cause of the large blackouts; therefore, the risk of cascading outages is significant and should be considered in operating and planning assessments of the power systems. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Power Systems Engineering Research Center and University of Alaska (OPA) is a model developed on the basis of self-organized criticality to study cascading outages of transmission lines. In this paper, a modified version of the OPA model is used for considering risk of cascading transmission line outages in transmission expansion planning. The proposed method finds a set of effective candidate lines having higher capability for suppressing cascading outages; then, the original OPA is exploited over the planning horizon to analyze long-term reliability of the system. The benefit of each prospective transmission line is derived by the following two innovations in calculating the risk of blackouts: (i) the power law for finding the probability of blackouts; and (ii) a nonlinear estimation of the cost of the blackouts. Accordingly, the savings associated to each candidate line is calculated. These values are used to find the optimal plan using benefit/cost analysis. Two IEEE test systems are investigated to examine the applicability and scalability of the proposed method. The investigations revealed that the proposed method provides more effective scenarios, which entail considerable saving to society. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
IETM Usability: Using Empirical Studies to Improve Performance Aiding

Abstract : Substantial expectations have been set about the effectiveness and role that high level Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) for performance aiding will play in enabling lesser skilled U.S. Navy maintainers to perform their jobs. This empirical study about the design and effectiveness of high level IETMs provides baseline and comparative data about two high level IETM interfaces used for one F/A-18 aircraft maintenance task. Eight maintainers whose experience levels varied from new (less than one month) to very experienced (more than eight years) participated in this study. Both baseline and with IETM data collection efforts occurred at China Lake Naval Weapons Station. Study results include performance data and insights about needed improvements to attain correctness, speed, and ease of use in information search, navigation and magnification activities. Differences in expert and novice preferences and performance were documented to inform future adaptive interface design efforts. The maintainers who participated were unanimously enthused about the possibility of having improved IETMs on small mobile computers for performance aiding in the near future.
Physical basis of tap test as a quantitative imaging tool for composite structures on aircraft

Tap test is a simple but effective way for finding flaws in composite and honeycomb sandwich structures; it has been practiced in aircraft inspection for decades. The mechanics of tap test was extensively researched by P. Cawley et al., and several versions of instrumented tap test have emerged in recent years. This paper describes a quantitative study of the impact duration as a function of the mass, radius, velocity, and material property of the impactor. The impact response is compared to the predictions of Hertzian-type contact theory and a simple spring model. The electronically measured impact duration, τ, is used for generating images of the tapped region. Using the spring model, the images are converted into images of a spring constant, k, which is a measure of the local contact stiffness. The images of k, largely independent of tapper mass and impact velocity, reveal the size, shape and severity (cf. Percent stiffness reduction) of defects and damages, as well as the presence of substructures and.
Validation of the Standard Ship Motion Program, SMP: Improved Roll Damping Prediction

Abstract : Refinement in calculating the roll damping characteristics of surface ships, particularly in the speed-dependent lift damping terms, has significantly improved the prediction of lateral ship motions. Incorporation of these refinements into the new revised ship motion computer program has greatly enhanced the accuracy and usefulness of the program. Validation of the roll damping computations is presented in this document through the comparison of computer-predicted damping with model test data for a number of ships. Relatively good agreement is found between the analytical and experimental results. (Author)
Speaker verification with missing features in noisy environments

These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 2140 (2000)Faculte des sciences et techniques de l'ingenieurLaboratoire de traitement des signaux 1Jury: Martin P. Cooke, Frederic de Coulon, Borge Lindberg, Alfred Rufer, Christian Wellekens Public defense: 2000-3-28 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-2140Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2005-03-16, modified on 2016-08-08
Evaluating the performance of Diagnostic Agent for Building Operation (DABO) and HVAC-Cx tools using the Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed

Automated commissioning tools are designed to facilitate the commissioning process, thereby decreasing the time and the skill level required to carry out necessary quality control measures. As a result, they enable more thorough testing of building HVAC systems to improve occupant comfort and the persistence of correct system operation. As a part of the International Energy Agency's Annex 47 research project, two tools were developed to perform automated commissioning: (1) the Diagnostic Agent for Building Operation (DABO) tool, developed by Natural Resources Canada, and (2) the heating ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system commissioning tool, HVAC-Cx, developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. This article investigates the performance of these automated commissioning tools for the ongoing commissioning of air-handling units using data from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed as a means to conduct a repeatable evaluation over a range of operating conditions.
WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS ARE REQUIRED TO UNDERSTAND CLIMATE CHANGE

A large body of international research shows that school students frequently hold misconceptions about the science of climate change. In order to investigate students’ understanding of this complex topic in more detail, a concept inventory (CI) is being developed for the key scientific concepts underlying climate change. This paper reports on the first stage of this process: determining which concepts should be included. A Delphi study was conducted to consult 18 academics, researchers and high-school teachers with expertise in the topic. A literature review was also carried out to determine which concepts were cited as important for understanding climate change. The final list of concepts to be covered by the CI is a synthesis of these.
A Test of the Congruence Hypothesis in the Think Manager—Think Male Research Paradigm

Researchers who design studies based on Schein’s (1973, 1975) think manager-think male (TMTM) research paradigm ubiquitously conclude that the greater incongruence between beliefs about managers and women, compared to managers and men, is problematic for women in leadership roles. However, this hypothesis is never directly tested. Using polynomial regression analysis, the congruence hypothesis was tested via the evaluations of the respondents’ current supervisors as criteria. The hypothesized congruence effect was not found. In other words, there was no observed relationship between the congruence of people’s beliefs about men, women, and leaders, and their subsequent evaluations of women leaders. The results of this study raise concerns about the validity of the conclusions of TMTM studies.
Implementation and Analysis of Surfing Pipelines

High performance digital systems make extensive use of pipelines. Three years ago, “surfing” pipelines were proposed. A timing pulse propagates through the surfing pipeline, and the individual logic elements of the pipeline are modified so that their delays are smaller in the presence of the pulse than in its absence. This creates an “event attractor” where events in the data path occur at the rising edge of the timing pulse. These attractors reduce timing uncertainties and improve the performance of the pipeline. A circuit technique called “preswitching” was proposed to implement the delay variation required for surfing. In this thesis, we demonstrate a working, surfing chip and address issues of power consumption and robustness. We demonstrate surfing by the design, fabrication and test of a chip using preswitching surfing circuits. The surfing ring in this chip supports two, independent waves of computation separated only by the surfing effect – no latches or other storage elements are used. We operated the ring for over 48 hours and 2 ∗ 1015 surfing events and never observed an error. The preswitching circuits in this chip exhibit unacceptable power consumption, motivating our work on energy-efficient designs. We introduce a new family of surfing circuits based on charge-sharing, dynamic gates. The design and simulation of a carry-lookahead adder show that this
Fatigue Failure of Concrete in Tension

Concentric tensile and flexural tensile fatigue tests were carried out on plain concrete specimens. The effects of pulsating tensile loadings as well as of alternating tensilecompressive loadings were studiep. The results of the constant-amplitude tests have been presented in S-N diagrams and a Goodman diagram. From these results it emerged that fatigue life was strongly reduced by alternation of the stress from tension to compression. Furthermore the number of cycles to failure for wet specimens was lower than for dry ones. It was also found that for equal load signals applied, flexural tests resulted in longer fatigue lifes than concentric tests, probably because of the possibility of redistribution of stresses. The longitudinal strains of the concentric tests were analysed. This resulted in a strong relation between strain rate and fatigue life. The concentric tests were continued with program-loading tests in order to check Miner's rule. Based on strain rate Miner's rule could be verified and Miner's number, M = 1, at failure turned out to be safe in general.
Modeling and Frequency Tracking of Marine Mammal Whistle Calls

Abstract : Marine mammal whistle calls present an attractive medium for covert underwater communications. High quality models of the whistle calls are needed in order to synthesize natural-sounding whistles with embedded information. Since the whistle calls are composed of frequency modulated harmonic tones, they are best modeled as a weighted superposition of harmonically related sinusoids. Previous research with bottlenose dolphin whistle calls has produced synthetic whistles that sound too "clean" for use in a covert communications system. Due to the sensitivity of the human auditory system, watermarking schemes that slightly modify the fundamental frequency contour have good potential for producing natural-sounding whistles embedded with retrievable watermarks. Structured total least squares is used with linear prediction analysis to track the time-varying fundamental frequency and harmonic amplitude contours throughout a whistle call. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the capability to accurately model bottlenose dolphin whistle calls and retrieve embedded information from watermarked synthetic whistle calls.
Communication of Construction Health and Safety Information in Design

Although all parties involved in the construction industry may address their respective responsibilities, the lack of integration between each organization often results in communication problems which jeopardize health and safety (H&S). Of particular note is the communication during the design phase. All information pertaining to the project must be readily accessible for all parties, to ensure smooth and hitch-free project execution. This paper presents the challenges in the communication of H&S information in the design phase of construction projects derived from semi structured and focus group interviews with 53 construction practitioners in the UK. It characterizes the various aspects of collaborative communications at this stage and highlights the problem area. Keywords: Construction H&S, Communication in Construction, Communication of H&S, Design Phase and Construction Management
Ice Core Drilling and the Related Observations at SE-Dome site, southeastern Greenland Ice Sheet

In order to construct reliable deposited-aerosol database on the Anthropocene (from 1850 to 2020), we obtained a 250-meter-long ice core from the Southeastern Greenland Dome on May and June 2021, where is one of the highest accumulation domes in Greenland. The age of the ice core at a depth of 250 m was roughly estimated to be AD 1827 based on the timescale from a previously analyzed shallower ice core. The age of the sampled ice core satisﬁed the prerequisite conditions for constructing aerosol deposition database for Anthropocene. In addition, surface elevation, borehole temperatures, and internal stratigraphy of the ice sheet were performed, and meteorological and snow-pit observations were also conducted. Furthermore, we sampled aerosol and snow from the ice sheet for chemical and physical analyses.
Experimental Validation of the Butyl-Rubber Finite Element (FE) Material Model for the Blast-Mitigating Floor Mat

Abstract : This report was written by the author under the Engineer Scientist Exchange Program activity in the US Army Research Laboratory from April 2013 to September 2014. To clarify the accuracy of finite element (FE) material models for butyl rubber, the component-level loading test was conducted on drop testers in various loading conditions. The test results are compared with the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) results of each FE-material model, and the errors in each material model are discussed on various metrics.
Evaluation of Piping Integrity in Thinned Main Feedwater Pipes

Significant wall thinning due to flow accelerated corrosion(FAC）was recently reported in main feedwater pipes in 3 Korean pressurized water reactor(PWR) plants. The main feedwater pipes in one plant were repaired using overlay weld method at the outside of pipe, while those in 2 other plants were replaced with new pipes. In this study, the effect of the wall thinning in the main feedwater pipes on piping integrity was evaluated using finite element method. Especially, the effects of both the overlay weld repair and the stress concentration in notch-type thinned area on the piping integrity were investigated. The results are as follows : (1) The piping load carrying capacity may significantly decrease due to FAC. In special, the load carrying capacity of the main feedwater pipe was reduced by about 40% during about 140 months operation in Korean PWR plants. (2) By performing overlay weld repair at the outside of pipe, the piping load carrying capacity can increase and the stress concentration level in the thinned area can be reduced.
Investigating the deployment of project management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary description of the doctoral thesis investigating the field of project management (PM) deployment. Researchers will be informed of the current contributions within this topic and of the possible further investigations and researches. The decision makers and practitioners will be aware of a set of tools addressing the PM deployment with new perspectives.Design/methodology/approach – Research undertaken with the thesis is based on quantitative methods using time series statistics (time distance analysis) and comparative and correlation analysis aimed to better define and understand the PM deployment within and between countries or groups.Findings – The results suggest a project management deployment index (PMDI) to objectively measure the PM deployment based on the concept of certification. A proposed framework to empirically benchmark the PM deployment between countries by integrating the PMDI time series with the two dimensional comparative analys.