Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Socio-economic and technological new normal in supply chain management: lessons from COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis paper explores the new normal activities and strategic responses of the service industry towards the challenges created by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and other constructs and validates the measurement scale for socio-economic and technological new normal activities following lockdown and social distancing practices.Design/methodology/approachFirst, structured interviews with 28 participants helped us generate items and develop survey instruments for cross-sectional data collection in the second phase. So, the authors received 256 complete responses from the top and middle management of the services industry. Exploratory factor analysis helped us explore the factors and reliability of the items. Confirmatory factor analysis aided us in generating and confirming the factorial structure of the constructs.FindingsResults indicated that amid COVID-19's pandemic, new normal activities are emerging in which organizations are deploying crisis strategies to safeguard their business and stakeholders. Organizations are re-opening swiftly, focusing on digital transformation, developing digital platforms for ease in working and improved consumer services, to name a few operational changes.Practical implicationsDiscussion on empirical analysis revolves around the guidelines to service industry's managers and top management to improve shortcomings in combating the challenges they face in their operations.Originality/valuePrior studies have provided substantial insights on the COVID-19 pandemic, but relatively little research exists on new normal activities in the supply chain network of the service industry. Among other reasons for such less empirical evidence on new normal activities is the unavailability of a comprehensive tool for measuring the socio-economic and technological new normal activities. This paper is a contribution to bridging this knowledge gap.
Multi-Level Laboratory Performance Evaluation of Conventional and High Polymer-Modified Asphalt Mixtures

Asphalt concrete (AC) overlays have been one of the most common treatments used by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) for maintaining/rehabilitating pavements. However, when the overlay is placed on existing composite pavements or cracked AC pavements, differential movements across any cracks or joints can result in physical tearing of the AC overlay. Thus, the long-term performance of many AC overlays will highly depend on their ability to resist cracking. The purpose of this study was to assess the viability of using high polymer-modified (HP) AC mixtures in Virginia as a crack mitigation technique or when deemed appropriate as a tool for increased resistance to rutting and cracking on higher volume facilities. Another objective was to assess the ability of various testing protocols to discern the performance of pavements through a comprehensive evaluation of three conventional polymer-modified (PMA) and five HP field-produced mixtures placed in Virginia. This included laboratory testing at multiple levels of complexity (basic, intermediate, and advanced) on collected asphalt binders, plant-produced asphalt mixtures, and field cores. The performance characteristics of PMA and HP mixes were evaluated in the laboratory in relation to durability and resistance to rutting and cracking. Based on the mixes tested, stone matrix asphalt (SMA) mixes showed better performance than dense-graded surface mixes (SM) regardless of the asphalt binder type. Moreover, HP mixes showed better performance than PMA mixes regardless of the mixture type. Overall, SMA-HP mixes showed the most promising performance among all evaluated mixes.
The Comparison of the Difference in Foot Pressure, Ground Reaction Force, and Balance Ability According to the Foot Arch Height in Young Adults

Background. Human feet have important roles in supporting, moving and balancing the body. The feet must not only support the weight of the body but must also have the elasticity to absorb the burden associated with supporting excessive body weight. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to compare the difference of foot pressure, ground reaction force, and balance ability according to change of the foot arch during the weight loading. Methods. Total 60 healthy young adults were divided into flexible flat foot group (FFFG, n = 30) and normal foot arch group (NFAG, n = 30) by screening navicular drop test. To compare the foot pressure, the rate of change was calculated by measuring the foot contact area when walking against the foot contact area when standing. The ground reaction force measurement was performed to calculate the contact time of the foot, vertical force peak, and total GRF time-integral value during walking. Besides, a one-leg standing test was performed to measure postural instability according to the height of the foot arch. Results. The FFFG showed a significantly higher contact area than that of the NFAG. Also, there was a significant increase in contact area ratio in FFFG (p < 0.05). The vertical force peak results revealed no significant differences between the two groups. However, for contact time and total GRF time-integral values, the FFFG values were higher than those for the NFAG (p < 0.05). The FFFG had significantly greater COP, velocity, COP path length, and area values than those of the NFAG (p < 0.05). Conclusion. These results show that the flexible flat foot may reduce energy efficiency and increase instability during the dynamic performance and has a high risk of causing secondary problems.
Research on the Application of Improved Association Rule Algorithm in Supply Chain Management

Effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) approach must focus on flexible supply and production processes as well as rapidly respond to change of customer demands. To make up of existing drawbacks of association rule data mining algorithm, the paper brought out an improved algorithm and applies it in the product relativity analysis of SCM. Based on the algorithm, the solution of how the parts be arranged can achieve more cost-effective and higher profits can be achieved by data mining. The mining result can not only guide customers to correctly shopping, but also help manufacturers to design and produce goods, so that the companies can be in a better competitive position.
Integrated N- and O-Glycomics of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Cell Lines

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by a dysregulated expansion of poorly differentiated myeloid cells. Although patients are usually treated effectively by chemotherapy, a high rate of relapsed or refractory disease poses a major hurdle in its treatment. Recently, several studies have proposed implications of protein glycosylation in the pathobiology of AML including chemoresistance. Accordingly, associations have been found between specific glycan epitopes and the outcome of the disease. To advance this poorly studied field, we performed an exploratory glycomics study characterizing 21 widely used AML cell lines. Exploiting the benefits of porous graphitized carbon chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (PGC nano-LC-MS2), we qualitatively and quantitatively profiled N- and O-linked glycans. AML cell lines exhibited distinct glycan fingerprints differing in relevant glycan traits correlating with their cellular phenotype as classified by the FAB system. By implementing transcriptomics data, specific glycosyltransferases and hematopoietic transcription factors were identified, which are candidate drivers of the glycan phenotype of these cells. In conclusion, we report the varying expression of glycan structures across a high number of AML cell lines, including those associated with poor prognosis, identified underlying glycosyltransferases and transcription factors, and provide insights into the regulation of the AML glycan repertoire.
APPRENTICESHIP SKILLS DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE INFORMAL SECTOR OF THE GHANAIAN ECONOMY: THE CASE OF SUNYANI MAGAZINE

Apprenticeship training is one of the several means of developing the skills and competencies of the workforce in every economy. The small and micro-scale engineering enterprises since their inception, have been contributing towards the development of the country. This is particularly so in the manufacturing and engineering sectors where local tools, equipment and machinery are produced and serviced. The Sunyani magazine has become an emerging informal industrial zone where technical skills development is offered to individuals across different areas of engineering. This paper examined the nature of apprenticeship skills development and the associated challenges in an informal industrial zone through a cross-sectional survey. The findings suggest that on-the-job training model without pre- or post-training exams or test characterised the training of apprentices. During the skills development process of the apprentices, the master craftsmen examine the progress of the apprentices to ensure they are progressing and to determine when apprentices have acquired the needed skills to be considered certified. Despite the benefits offered to the local economy, lack of funding for new ventures, lack of government support, tools and equipment constrain the capacity of the informal industrial zone to scale-up its training capacity with the potential of being of greater benefits to the socioeconomic development of the country.
On the field dependence of intrinsic and extrinsic time-dependent dielectric breakdown

In this study the field acceleration of intrinsic and extrinsic breakdown is studied. For the intrinsic mode an exp(1/E)-acceleration law is found, while for the extrinsic mode an new exp(E)-acceleration law for Q/sub BD/ is proposed. This field acceleration model is implemented in a maximum likelihood algorithm together with a new analytical expression for fitting competing Weibull distributions. With this algorithm an extensive t/sub BD/-data set measured at different stress conditions can be fitted excellently in one single calculation. From the result, predictions of low-field oxide reliability are made and the screening conditions in order to guarantee a pre-set reliability specification are calculated.
Sea ice detection from SSMI data based on an improved U-Net convolution neural network

ABSTRACT It is of great significance to accurately obtain the polar sea ice for the study of global hydrosphere and polar climate. The U-Net convolutional neural network (CNN) can achieve end-to-end pixel-level semantic segmentation, and it can learn comprehensive image information as much as possible through the training process. The vertical polarization at 37 GHz and 19 GHz of Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) is used as the input of the improved U-Net CNN, and the improved U-Net CNN is proposed to detect the sea ice. In order to improve the accuracy of sea ice detection, anew feature fusion structure based on the improved U-Net CNN is constructed, which further refines the features of different semantic levels. By using batch normalization (BN), dropout regularization and modifying the loss function to improve the U-Net convolutional neural network, the accuracy of sea ice detection is improved. The results were compared with the NASA Team algorithm, which showed that the improved U-Net CNN is afeasible solution. The sea ice obtained from MODIS data is real result, and our comparison with NASA team algorithm and U-Net CNN showed that the modified U-Net CNN improves the accuracy of sea ice detection to 75%. Therefore, the improved U-Net CNN significantly improves the accuracy of sea ice detection. The improved U-Net CNN had the ability to combine multiple nonlinear transformation functions to solve the problems of sea ice identification, which improved the accuracy and robustness of sea ice detection.
Electrocatalysis: Fundamentals and Applications

1 Electrochemical Engineering Group, School of Sciences and School of Engineering, Fundamental Electrochemistry Laboratory, J. R. Rodo No. 1843, UDELAR, C.P.11100 Montevideo, Uruguay 2Electrocatalysis Laboratory, INIFTA, UNLP, C.C. 16, Suc. 4, 1900 La Plata, Argentina 3Departemento de Quimica-Fisica, P.O. Box 38207 ULL, La Laguna, Spain 4Laboratorio de Hidrogenio, Instituto de Fisica “Gleb Wataghin”, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil
Hemodynamic Effects of Permanent His Bundle Pacing Compared to Right Ventricular Pacing Assessed by Two-Dimensional Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography

We compared the effects of right ventricular (RVP; n = 26) and His bundle (HBP; n = 24) pacing in patients with atrioventricular conduction disorders and preserved LVEF. Postoperatively (1D), and after six months (6M), the patients underwent global longitudinal strain (GLS) and peak systolic dispersion (PSD) evaluation with 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography, assessment of left atrial volume index (LAVI) and QRS duration (QRSd), and sensing/pacing parameter testing. The RVP threshold was lower than the HBP threshold at 1D (0.65 ± 0.13 vs. 1.05 ± 0.20 V, p < 0.001), and then it remained stable, while the HBP threshold increased at 6M (1.05 ± 0.20 vs. 1.31 ± 0.30 V, p < 0.001). The RVP R-wave was higher than the HBP R-wave at 1D (11.52 ± 2.99 vs. 4.82 ± 1.41 mV, p < 0.001). The RVP R-wave also remained stable, while the HBP R-wave decreased at 6M (4.82 ± 1.41 vs. 4.50 ± 1.09 mV, p < 0.02). RVP QRSd was longer than HBP QRSd at 6M (145.0 ± 11.1 vs. 112.3 ± 9.3 ms, p < 0.001). The absolute value of RVP GLS decreased at 6M (16.32 ± 2.57 vs. 14.03 ± 3.78%, p < 0.001), and HBP GLS remained stable. Simultaneously, RVP PSD increased (72.53 ± 24.15 vs. 88.33 ± 30.51 ms, p < 0.001) and HBP PSD decreased (96.28 ± 33.99 vs. 84.95 ± 28.98 ms, p < 0.001) after 6 months. RVP LAVI increased (26.73 ± 5.7 vs. 28.40 ± 6.4 mL/m2, p < 0.05), while HBP LAVI decreased at 6M (30.03 ± 7.8 vs. 28.73 ± 8.7 mL/m2, p < 0.01). These results confirm that HBP does not disrupt ventricular synchrony and provides advantages over RVP.
Technology of Internet of Things Responding to Natural Disasters

Numerous countries have been affected by natural disasters, the seriousness of which consequences is self-evident, such as power failure, building collapse and communication interruption. With the rapid development of science and technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) has become one of the most important part of current information technology. More and more countries and regions have realized the significance of IoT in dealing with natural disasters and are making efforts to put IoT into use. This paper summarizes the latest progress of IoT with fog computing, swarm robots and other advanced technologies in coping with natural disasters on four aspects. It focuses on how the IoT and other information technologies can solve problems encountered in natural disasters to a certain extent
Microstrip Lines and Slotlines

Microstrip Lines Quasi-Static Analyses, Dispersion Models and Measurements: Introduction. Quasi-Static Analyses of Microstrip. Microstrip Dispersion Models. Microstrip Transitions. Microstrip Measurements. Microstrip Lines II Fullwave Analyses, Design Considerations and Applications: Methods of Fullwave Analysis. Analysis of Open Microstrip. Analysis of Enclosed Microstrip. Design Considerations. Other Types of Microstrip Lines. Microstrip Applications. Microstrip Discontinuities I Quasi-Static Analysis and Characterization: Introduction. Discontinuity Capacitance Evaluation. Discontinuity Inductance Evaluation. Characterization of Various Discontinuities. Microstrip Discontinuities II Fullwave Analyses and Measurements: Planar Analysis. Fullwave Analysis. Discontinuity Measurements. Slotlines: Slotline Analysis. Design Considerations. Slotline Discontinuities. Other Slotline Configurations. Slotline Transitions. Slotline Applications. Susceptance Calculation for the Transverse Resonance Method. Sensitivity Expressions for Slotline Impedance and Wavelength. Finlines: Analyses of Finlines. Design Considerations. Transitions. Coplanar Lines: Coplanar Waveguide and Coplanar Strips: Analysis. Design Considerations. Losses. Effect of Tolerances. Comparison with Microstrip Line and Slotline. Transitions. Discontinuities in Coplanar Waveguide. Coplanar Line Circuits. Coupled Microstrip Lines: General Analysis of Coupled Lines. / Characteristics of Coupled Microstrip Lines. Measurements on Coupled Microstrip Lines. Design Considerations for Coupled Microstrip Lines. VLSI Interconnects. Discontinuities in Coupled Microstrip Lines.
The influence of uncertain loading on topology-optimized designs

The design of structures using topology optimization can improve the structural performance and save material, in turn reducing costs. Using a framework of large-scale, three-dimensional topology optimization implemented by the authors in an open-source multiphysical software, we investigate the influence of uncertain loading on the optimized design. Direct differentiation is used to reveal the relationship between displacements and applied force, giving an efficient and effective tool to postprocess optimized topologies. The developed methodology for the assessment of the sensitivity with respect to applied forces is explored using two three-dimensional examples: the classic MBB cantilever and a cableway pylon. The advantages and limitations of this method are discussed.
Design and Development of a New Rotating Electromagnetic Field Generation System for Driving Microrobots

This article presents the design, optimization, and testing of a new rotating electromagnetic field generation system for actuating magnetic microrobots. Its unique feature lies in that the proposed six-coil electromagnetic actuation system produces a uniform rotating magnetic field with a large 3-D workspace, which is enabled by conducting an architectural optimization of the system in consideration of both electric issues and geometry constraints. To maintain a low working temperature, each coil is fabricated with silicone grease for filling the gap among the copper wires and integrated with a water cooling fan for reducing the effect of coil heating. An analytical model is established to determine the dominant structural parameters, which are optimally tuned by resorting to genetic algorithm (GA) to achieve the best actuation performance. A prototype magnetic field generation system is developed for experimental testing. Experimental studies are carried out by driving various magnetic microrobots, including helical microswimmers and microparticles. Results indicate that the developed system can effectively actuate the microrobots with precision motion tracking, validating the effectiveness of the developed rotating magnetic field generation system.
Shifting Power Dynamics? The Role of Civil Society Organizations in the Policymaking for Mozambique’s Extractive Sector

Abstract In 2012 the Mozambican government announced the revision of the mining and petroleum laws in consultation with civil society organizations (CSOs). This followed the discovery of world class gas reserves in the Rovuma Basin, and growing demands for transparency, fair sharing of revenues and protection of national interests, from all quadrants. Given this, what was the role played by CSOs? Did they influence the process at all, or did the consultation serve as a tool to strengthen the regime’s interests and legitimacy? Building on Gramsci and African scholarship that conceptualizes the state and civil society as relational social forces that co-influence each other through shifting power balances, the study reveals that CSOs influenced the development of the mining and petroleum laws by performing four essential roles: expertise, agenda-setting, representative and monitoring. The government accommodated some of CSOs demands, even though the consultation process was not fully open. The findings build on a mix of interviews with members of CSOs and other qualitative sources (laws, news and reports) and underline the need to analyse state and civil society beyond dichotomous and homogenizing categories. They also contribute to a flourishing literature on the role of civil society in competitive authoritarian regimes.
Clinical Informationist Services Challenges: A Qualitative Content Analysis of the Literature

ABSTRACT This study analyzed the literature to identify the challenges of Clinical Information (CI) services. Qualitative content analysis of 29 articles led to identify four main categories including performance (educational and clinical); personal (attitude, psychological, skill, knowledge, and time); management; and technological challenges. Proper implementation of clinical informationist services and evaluation of their advantages to improve the quality of services requires understanding the challenges and barriers associated with these services. The results of the current study can help policymakers in the field of education, as well as employers and managers to improve the quality of clinical informationist services.
Assessing the Capability of Intensive Police Programmes to Prevent Severe Road Accidents: A Systematic Review

In order to prevent road fatalities, police organizations all across the world have implemented various enforcement programmes (random breath testing, sobriety checkpoints, random road watch, photo-radar, mixed programmes and red-light cameras) that are designed to deter deviant driving behaviours, which significantly increase the risks of serious accidents. Our systematic review assesses the effect of tough police interventions. It appears that all of the evaluated studies-except three-led to an average decrease, ranging between 23 and 31 per cent, of accidents causing injuries.
Taxonomy of Cybersecurity Awareness Delivery Methods: A Countermeasure for Phishing Threats

—Phishing is a serious threat to the Internet users and has become a vehicle for cybercriminals to perpetrate large-scale crimes worldwide. A wide range of technical and educational measures have been developed and used to address phishing threats. However, the technical anti-phishing measures have been widely studied in the current literature whereas comprehensive analysis of the non-technical anti-phishing techniques has generally been ignored. To close this gap, we develop a new taxonomy of the most common cybersecurity training delivery methods and compare them along various factors. The work reported in this paper is useful for various stakeholders. For organizations conducting or considering phishing training, it helps them understand the various awareness training and phishing campaigns capabilities and design an appropriate program with a meaningful return. For researchers, it offers a clearer understanding of the main challenges, the existing solution space, and the potential scope of future research to be addressed.
Zero-Ohm transmission lines for millimetre-wave circuits in 28 nm digital CMOS

The design, analysis, modelling and measurement of transmission lines with very low characteristic impedance in 28 nm bulk CMOS is presented. The so-called zero-Ohm lines are very well suited for power distribution networks and AC shorts in millimetre-wave circuits because of their accurate modelling up to extremely high frequencies and because they do not require metal–insulator–metal capacitors, which are usually not available in digital CMOS processes. Instead, they rely on simple metal structures, which can optionally be enhanced by integrating MOS capacitors. Applying transmission line theory, the lines can be described with models, which are scalable in length and width. Implemented test structures demonstrate a compact line of 450 μm length, which transforms an open circuit to an impedance close to 0 Ω for frequencies above 1 GHz.