Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Massification in Universities: Are Assessment Tools Still Reliable? A Reflection from Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

A tremendous increase of the number of students in universities has been experienced by almost every country all over the world including Tanzania. The Increasing number of students has greatly affected the instructors’ workload and general practices of student’s assessment and evaluation. This study aimed at determining the reliability of the assessment tools at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Retrospective record review was done on education undergraduate students who sat for an EDP 100 in 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2017/2018 academic years where the course was selected through random procedures. A total of 214 scripts were systematically randomly sampled from each cohort. The results revealed a drop in internal consistency of the scores obtained from EDP 100 course across the three cohorts. Majority of the questions for the EDP 100 though were moderately difficulty, their discrimination powers were poor. However, the variation in difficulty and discrimination indices for the three cohorts was statistically not significant (p˃0.05 for MCQ and MIQ) except the discrimination index for MIQ which shows significant variations (p˂0.05). It is therefore recommended that similar studies should be done to determine both validity and reliability of the assessment tools for the other subjects at the University.
MOBILITY IMPACTS FROM IMPROVEMENTS TO AN ARTERIAL STREET. FINAL REPORT

The Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation is exploring methods of providing additional roadway capacity for major traffic movements. One method identified is to increase the capacity of the arterial street system. Streets with the potential of serving an enhanced role could be improved to operate at high speeds and a high level of service yet would not be required to satisfy the strict access control and right-of-way needs of a freeway. Strategic arterial was the term selected to describe this new street category. The mobility impacts from improvements to an existing arterial street (US 90A in Houston) and to conceptual corridors were evaluated using computer simulation. Transyt-7F was the computer program used to evaluate the case study improvements that ranged from a do-nothing alternative to providing grade separations at all major intersections. For the conceptual corridor, improvements evaluated included prohibiting left turns, changing the orientation of a grade-separated structure, and modifying the number of signals per mile. The primary measure of effectiveness used to describe the mobility impacts was average through speed. At-grade improvements (e.g., adding lanes or prohibiting left turns) to the existing arterial showed limited increases in through speed due to the highly congested nature of the case study area in the year 2000. Grade-separated improvements were needed to cause significant increases in travel speeds.
UWB ranging in passive UHF RFID: proof of concept

A proof of concept for ultra-wideband (UWB)-based ranging in passive UHF RF identification (RFID) is presented. The proposed method uses the tag's backscatter modulation and thus does not require processing of the UWB signal by the tag. It is evaluated using measurements in an indoor environment similar to a warehouse portal in terms of channel impulse responses. The ranging accuracy is comparable to classical UWB ranging and thus inherently robust to multipath propagation.
Technology adoption and technical efficiency of smallholder farmers in Tolon district of Ghana: double bootstrap DEA approach

The study explored the impact of improved variety adoption on technical efficiency of smallholder maize farmers in Tolon District of northern Ghana. Smallholder maize farmers in the study area were sampled using random sampling technique. Double bootstrap data envelopment analysis was applied to estimate technical efficiency and its determinants. The results indicate that producers in the study area have a bias-corrected technical efficiency of 57% under variable returns to scale (VRS) assumption and 52% under constant returns to scale (CRS) assumption. Controlling for potential endogeneity of the adoption variable, the results indicate that adoption of improved varieties enhance technical efficiency of maize farmers in the study area. Technical efficiency of the farmers increased with herd size but decreased with years of formal education, household size, extension contact, frequency of weeding, and farm size. Ensuring that improved seeds are made available and affordable to smallholder farmers and promotion of livestock rearing are policy measures likely to enhance technical efficiency of smallholder farmers.
Development of a novel in vitro model to study the tryptic : endothelial cells, monocytes and flow

This thesis describes the development of a novel in vitro model of monocytes transmigration under flow and use in the study of early molecular events of atherogenesis. In this work, we focused on how endothelial dysfunction, specifically mediated by disturbed flow from atherosusceptible regions of the vasculature, is both communicated to recruited monocytes as they reside in the subendothelial matrix, and how reciprocally, monocytes may exacerbate the endothelial dysfunctional state. We built and integrated our in vitro model to a unique flow apparatus that can precisely replicate atheroprone and atheroprotective shear stress waveforms. We carefully characterized the model that relies on a fibronectin-coated collagenous matrix seeded with a confluent monolayer of endothelial cells co-cultured with THP1 monocytes under flow. We used the model to draw biological insight from endothelial:monocyte co-cultures under flow. We found that monocytes preferentially accumulate on endothelial monolayers exposed to atheroprone flow. We also observed the upregulation of IL-1p in endothelial cells exposed to atheroprone flow when co-cultured with monocytes but not in endothelial cells alone, in each of three independent experiments; yet the aggregated results are not statistically relevant due to variability. Flow-driven dysfunctional endothelium recruits and interacts with monocytes that soon after transmigration become dysfunctional foam cells. Our novel in vitro model that congregates endothelial cells, monocytes and flow responds to the pressing need to understand the interplay between these protagonist cells during
Human Capital Management: Achieving Added Value Through People

Chapter - 00: Introduction Section - ONE: The essence of HCM Chapter - 01: The concept of human capital Chapter - 02: The concept of HCM Chapter - 03: The process of HCM Section - TWO: The practice of HCM Chapter - 04: Human capital data Chapter - 05: Measuring human capital Chapter - 06: Human capital reporting Chapter - 07: Applications of HCM Section - THREE: The role and future of HCM Chapter - 08: The role of HR in HCM Chapter - 09: The skills HR specialists need for HCM Chapter - 10: The future of HCM
Efficient Production of Wins in Major League Baseball

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied to Major League Baseball salary and performance data from 1985 to 2006 in order to identify those teams which produced wins most efficiently and the characteristics which lead to efficient production. It is shown that on average both National and American League teams over allocate the most resources to first basemen. Additionally, it is found that National League teams should allocate significantly more resources towards starting pitching while American League teams should allocate significantly more resources toward second base. It is also observed that efficient teams use younger less experienced players and employ rosters with a greater number of previous all star appearances.
Genome Wide Characterization and Comparative Analysis of Simple Sequence Repeats in Cucurbita Genomes

Background The Cucurbita genus contains important economic crops in the world, while limited molecular markers have been developed in the past years. Simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers are powerful tools for the study of genetic mapping construction, genetic diversity analysis and genome wide association. The availability of pumpkin genome information has made it possible to analyze SSRs in genome wide across three Cucurbita species. Results In this paper, based on the whole genome sequences, 34,375 SSR loci were found in C. moschata, 30,577 SSR loci were found in C. maxima and 38,104 SSR loci were found in C. pepo. C. pepo has the maximum density of SSRs with an average of 145 SSR/Mb. In general, the frequency in total SSR loci decreased with the increase of the motif length, dinucleotide motifs were the most common motifs in the three species, and for the same repeat types, the SSR frequency decreased sharply with the increase of the repeat number. Most of those SSR loci were suitable for marker development (84.75% in C. moscata, 94.53% in C. maxima and 95.09% in C. pepo). Based on those markers, we compared and analyzed the cross-species SSR markers between C. pepo and other Cucurbitaceae species by silico-PCR. Using these cross-species primers, the high collinear relationships between C. pepo and the other two species were detected, respectively. Furthermore, the application of SSR markers in genetic diversity analysis was tested in C. pepo, the results showed that they were good tools to be used in genetic diversity analysis. Conclusion In this study, the genome wide SSR markers were detected from three Cucurbita species, and some of their applications were proved by comparative genomics and genetic diversity analysis. The large number of genome-wide SSR markers and crossspecies markers would promote the basic and applied studies of Cucurbita species, such as gene mapping, QTLs mapping, comparative genomics and marker-assisted breeding.
Simple and advanced methods for calculating six-pulse diode rectifier line-side harmonics

This paper proposes different methods for estimation of the harmonic currents of the six-pulse diode rectifier, which is a very commonly used topology in industry. Both simple and advanced models are compared and the models are put into a context of practical use for calculating the harmonic distortion in a typical industrial application. Finally, the different models are compared to measurements of a real application and convincing results are achieved concluding that the proposed methods can be used.
Power Conversion Distribution System using a Resonant High Frequency AC Link

A power conversion system configuration based on a 20 kHz, single-phase voltage link is proposed for systems having distributed power requirements. The proposed configuration permits flexibility in the choice of voltage levels in the system without the penalty of bulky magnetic components, has a fast system response, high efficiency, freedom from acoustic noise, and provides a high degree of uniformity and ease of implementation. A zero-voltage switching pulse-density-modulated converter is proposed as the basic interface converter. It is shown that the technique of pulse-density-modulation (PDM) allows low distortion synthesis of fixed or variable amplitude dc and fixed or variable frequency, single- or three-phase ac from the half-cycle pulses of the link voltage. A breadboard system has been built to experimentally verify the models and to complement the theoretical work.
Construction of Length and Rate Adaptive MET QC-LDPC Codes by Cyclic Group Decomposition

We introduce a quasi-cyclic construction method for improving performance of length and rate adaptive Multi-Edge Type LDPC (MET-LDPC)codes below Block Error Rate (BLER)10−5Proposed method allows to construct nested code families with a code length variability based on 5G eMBB modular lifting of Base Graph 2. Constructed codes are optimized by code distance and graph properties. Simulation results under 50 iterations of sum-product decoding over an AWGN channel with QPSK modulation are provided for comparing to 5G eMBB codes. It shows near the same performance for information length $k < 600$, 0.1 − 0.3 dB coding gain on $k > 600$ under rate 1/3, and coding gain around 0.3 dB under rate 1/5.
Input filter design for power factor correction circuits

The issues involved in the design of power factor correction circuit input filters are significantly different than those involved in the design of input filters for DC-DC power converters. So far, there exist no guidelines for high-frequency AC power converter input filter design. This paper addresses these issues and proposes the use of a high order, actively damped filter to achieve the required EMI attenuation and power factor requirements. The new filter topology typically provides 50% filter size reduction over the standard filter designs, and simultaneously minimizes the filter-converter interaction. <<ETX>>
A System for the Acquisition and Analysis of Image Sequences to Model Longitudinal Driving Behavior

This thesis describes a system which was designed and implemented for the collection of many long and detailed vehicle trajectories with the same or nearly the same conditions of weather, traffic, road and surroundings to improve stimuli-response models (longitudinal driving behavior). Possible platforms and sensors were evaluated and a helicopter was chosen due to its widespread use for many applications, its flexibility and hovering properties. A camera with the resolution 1392x1040 and frame rate 15 was selected to record a sequence of images. The image sequence contains locations of vehicles as a function of time. The vehicle extraction method detects many similar vehicles which contain only few details and with different motion, particularly vehicles having low speed and low contrast. Both vehicle extraction and tracking methods are sequential and only require very small amount of memory. The results are reliable due to the temporal connectivity in the vehicle extraction and spatio-temporal connectivity in the tracking method. Trajectories obtained with the system described above can be used to get insights into drivers' behavior towards improved predictive models. The system can be used for dynamic traffic management using the real time trajectory extraction by a hardware implementation of the procedure. If the real time extraction of trajectories is not an issue, trajectories can be improved by analyzing them and then give a feed back to the vehicle identification system. Integration of the results from spatio-temporal analysis can further improve the identification system.
Improved diagnostics for sleeping sickness

The aim of this work was to explore an alternative to existing methods of detection for Human African Trypanosomiasis (also known as sleeping sickness). A new approach to diagnostics for sleeping sickness is needed, since the existing methods of detection employed in the field have significant shortcomings in terms of sensitivity, cost or ease of operation. In this work, the enrichment of trypanosomes from blood using travelling electric fields and the selective lysis of cells using optoelectronic tweezers will be presented. Both techniques allow for the enrichment of trypanosomes from blood samples but the first is more suited for an application as a point-of-care device, while the latter is also applicable to other cell types and offers greater flexibility. Besides demonstrating and quantifying the experimental results the work includes simulations to further explain the phenomena and investigate the underlying mechanisms. The results presented here offer a new method to enrich trypanosomes, a central step in any potential diagnostic tool. They open up the possibility to develop a new solution to the challenges posed by sleeping sickness diagnostics and allow for miniaturisation and automation of the process.
Alternate aircraft fuels prospects and operational implications

The NASA is investigating the subject of the use of alternate fuels or aviation fuels derived from energy resources other than naturally occurring crude oil. This paper presents the results obtained thus far of investigations conducted by and for the NASA's Langley Research Center, aimed at assessing the potentials of coal-derived aviation fuels. Coal has been identified as one of the more plentiful remaining U. S. energy resources (an order magnitude greater than crude oil) and was selected as the energy source for this investigation. The fuels considered were synthetic aviation kerosene, liquid methane, and liquid hydrogen. Synthetic aviation kerosene was selected for study because the use of such a fuel is likely to cause fewer changes to the present air transportation system than would other fuels. Liquid methane and liquid hydrogen were selected for study because of their high energy content per kilogram. The Langley investigations have included the areas of fuel production, air terminal requirements for aircraft fueling, and the performance characteristics of aircraft designed to utilize alternate fuels. In the fuel production studies the energy requirements associated with the production of each of the three selected fuels have been determined, as have estimates of the fuel prices.
Ancient coins, find spots, and import restrictions: A critique of arguments made in the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild’s “test case”

Abstract The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) has launched multiple legal challenges aimed at undermining import restrictions on ancient coins into the United States in bilateral agreements with foreign countries. One key component of the ACCG’s argument is that the State Department has inappropriately restricted certain types of coins according to where they were made rather than where they are found, as mandated by the 1983 Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act. Although the ACCG has thus far been unsuccessful, it has not been pointed out that existing import restrictions on coins, in fact, have been written to include coins that tended to circulate locally and that are found primarily within the borders of the country with which the bilateral agreement is made. The ACCG’s argument is thus on shaky ground. As the ACCG continues to press ahead with new litigation, it is worth drawing attention to realities and probabilities of ancient coin circulation as they pertain to protected coins.
Detecting False Data Injection Attacks in Peer to Peer Energy Trading Using Machine Learning

In peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, the incorporation of distributed energy resources with unprotected data, originating from sources such as home energy management systems that are connected through the Internet, provokes vulnerabilities that can manifest security breaches. In this article, two threat scenarios based on a novel false data injection attack (FDIA) model in a local P2P energy trading system are explored. In these scenarios, an attacker gains free energy by manipulating prosumers’ consumption and demand. Precise and fast attack detection is needed to guarantee suitable countermeasures to prevent potential risks. We propose a novel instance-based machine learning (ML) classifier for detecting FDIAs. In contrast to black-box ML models, our algorithm provides a transparent decision-making procedure with significant predictive performance. We apply our detection model to a real-world dataset from Austin, Texas. Our experimental results show superior performance as compared to several popular interpretable and non-interpretable ML methods. On average, we achieve a 96.10 percent detection rate, a 96.18 percent accuracy rate, and a false negative rate of 1.97 percent with our approach.
The continuing relevance of the library as a third place for users and non-users of IT: the case of Canada Bay

The purpose of this paper is to consider how libraries support the development of community networks both physically and digitally. To do this, a case-study methodology was employed, including a combination of data about the library and qualitative interviews with library users considering their experience of the library. This paper proposes that libraries act as ‘third places’ spatially connecting people; libraries also build links with online media and play a critical role in inclusively connecting non-technology users with the information on the Internet and digital technology more generally. The paper establishes the value of libraries in the digital age and recommends that libraries actively seek ways to develop links between non-technology users and activity on the Internet. It addresses the need to reach these types of non-technology users in different ways. Further, it suggests that libraries utilise their positioning as third places to create broader community networks, to support local communities beyond existing users and beyond the library precinct.
Software Project Management: Readings and Cases

From the Publisher: SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT focuses on the models used in software development and on the tools which improve the productivity and quality of the development process. This work represents definitive and late breaking research in the project management area. To further illustrate the ideas covered in the research articles,Kemerer applies them to real-world situations through the use of book-ending case studies.
2/spl times/2 electrooptical switch in silicon-on-insulator waveguide

A 2/spl times/2 Mach-Zehnder interferometer electrooptical switch integrated in silicon-on-insulator using multimode interference 3-dB couplers as splitter and combiner has been proposed and fabricated. Free carriers plasma dispersion effect was utilized to realize light modulation in silicon. Switching operation was achieved at an injection current of 358 mA and which can be much reduced by optimizing the PIN structure and improving fabrication process. Extinction ratio of 7.7 dB and crosstalk of 4.8 dB has been observed.
Principles of Foundation Engineering

Originally published in the fall of 1983, Braja M. Das' Seventh Edition of PRINCIPLES OF FOUNDATION ENGINEERING continues to maintain the careful balance of current research and practical field applications that has made it the leading text in foundation engineering courses. Featuring a wealth of worked-out examples and figures that help students with theory and problem-solving skills, the book introduces civil engineering students to the fundamental concepts and application of foundation analysis design. Throughout, Das emphasizes the judgment needed to properly apply the theories and analysis to the evaluation of soils and foundation design as well as the need for field experience.