Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Sliding Mode Control for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Platoon Systems With Positive Definite Topologies

This paper is concerned with the distributed control of vehicle platoons. The dynamics of each vehicle are nonlinear and heterogeneous. The control objective is to regulate vehicles to travel at a common speed while maintaining desired intervehicle gaps. The information flow topology dictates the pattern of communication between vehicles in the platoon. This information is essential to effective platoon control and, therefore, plays a central role in affecting the design and performance of platoon control strategies. Our key contribution is a unified distributed control framework that explicitly incorporates and supports a diversity of information flow topologies. Specifically, we propose a distributed sliding mode control (DSMC) framework for a class of generic topologies. The DSMC constructs the topological sliding surface and reaching law via a so-called “topologically structured function. ” The control law obtained by matching the topological sliding surface and topological reaching law is naturally distributed. The Lyapunov stability analysis is carried out for the closed-loop system in the sense of Filippov to cope with the discontinuity originated from switching terms. Moreover, a tradeoff between tracking precision and chattering elimination is discussed with a continuous approximation of the switching control law. The effectiveness of the DSMC for platoons is verified under four different topologies through numerical simulation.
Research on Correlation among Organizational Commitment, Organizational Learning and Organization Effectiveness: Using District 300E2 of Lions Clubs International as an Example

This study aims to probe into relationship between participation motivation and organizational commitment for organizations. By SPSS 19.0, it conducts data analysis and distributes 300 questionnaires. 282 questionnaires are retrieved, including 257 valid ones. Valid questionnaire rate is 85.7%. Main purpose of this study is to reorganize theories and literatures related to organizational commitment, organizational learning and organization effectiveness in Taiwan and foreign countries and construct conceptual framework in order to find if personal background variables of members in District 300E2 of Lions Clubs International influence organizational commitment, organizational learning and organization effectiveness. It explores correlation between organizational commitment and organizational learning. Finally, it attempts to find if organizational commitment and organizational learning influences organization effectiveness. According to findings, organizational commitment positively influences organizational learning. Thus, it supports the hypothesis of this study that organizational commitment positively and significantly influences organizational learning. It shows that the two factors influence each other. According to data analysis, organizational commitment positively and significantly influences organization effectiveness; besides, organizational learning positively and significantly influences organization effectiveness. They all support the hypotheses of this study.
Corporate governance code and earnings management: The French case

Suite aux crises et scandales financiers successifs, les codes de gouvernance, comprenant un ensemble de recommandations volontaires, se sont developpes de par le monde. A ce jour, la question de leur efficacite reste largement ouverte et debattue dans le contexte international, et francais en particulier. L’objectif de l’article est d’etudier l’influence de la conformite a un code de gouvernance sur les pratiques de gestion des resultats en France. Cette question se pose notamment apres la mise en place de la loi DDAC (2008), qui prevoit pour les societes cotees francaises la reference a un code de gouvernance selon le principe « appliquer ou expliquer ». Les resultats de l’etude montrent que les societes de l’indice SBF120 ont renforce progressivement leur mise en conformite au code sur la periode (2006-2013). Par ailleurs, la conformite au code (et l’evolution de cette conformite) sont associees negativement a la gestion comptable et reelle des resultats. Les dispositions du code relatives au conseil de direction et aux comites specialises semblent limiter la gestion des resultats, alors que les dispositions relatives aux dirigeants et a leurs remunerations sont sans effet sur cette gestion. Ces resultats semblent confirmer l’impact favorable du code de gouvernance sur la qualite des resultats comptables.
Torrefaction for biomass co-firing in existing coal-fired power stations BIOCOAL

Torrefaction is considered to be a pre-treatment technology to make biomass more suitable for co-firing applications. Especially, the improved grindability of biomass after torrefaction may enable higher co-firing rates in the near future. Torrefaction is, however, a technology that is not commercially available yet. This work contributed to the development of torrefaction by means of extensive parametric research, process simulations and process design. Experimental work has revealed that torrefied biomass can be produced with a grindability comparable to coal and with a combustion reactivity comparable to wood. The process can be operated at high process energy efficiency; typically 96% thermal efficiency and 92% net process efficiency (including the internal electricity consumption). Reactor technology based on moving-bed principles is identified very promising reactor for torrefaction. A production plant of 60-kton/a product requires a capital investment of 5.2 to 6.3 M€. The total production costs amount in the range of 40 to 56 €/ton product (excluding feedstock costs), which is 2 to 2.8 €/GJ. It is recommended to further develop moving-bed technology for torrefaction by means of pilot-scale testing (prototype) and to investigate other important product properties such as hydrophobic nature and leeching behaviour in relation to operating conditions.
Does Food Market Modernisation Lead to Improved Dietary Diversity and Diet Quality for Urban Vietnamese Households?

This study investigates the possible mechanisms through which modern food markets may affect Vietnamese households&#8217; dietary diversity and diet quality using data from a survey of 1,700 urban households with seven&#8208;day food recall. We calculate Household Dietary Diversity Scores to measure dietary diversity, and use consumption frequencies of micronutrients (vitamin A and heme iron) and a macronutrient (protein) to create a household measure of diet quality. We estimate a Poisson regression model using a two&#8208;step control function approach to address the potential endogeneity of our key explanatory variable, modern market food expenditure shares. Higher modern market food expenditure share is positively and significantly associated with consumption frequency of heme iron, but there are no significant associations with consumption of vitamin A and protein. We further explore indirect linkages between food expenditure shares and dietary diversity, which in turn, may be linked to household diet quality. Results from a system of equations show that the food expenditure share variable has no significant relationship with dietary diversity, but dietary diversity is positively and significantly associated with diet quality. Our results indicate that alone, policies which encourage &#8216;food market modernisation&#8217; are not enough to improve diet quality in urban Vietnam.
Economic Analysis of Consumer Demand for Indigenous Chicken Eggs in Kenya

The World health organization recommends a daily protein requirement of 55 grams per person to avert health and nutritional related problems. This requirement is hardly met in majority of developing countries’ households especially in the sub Saharan African. Indigenous chicken eggs have potential to position themselves as a major source of proteins in these households due to their low prices compared to other sources of proteins. However, average per capita egg consumption in Kenya has remained low compared to the world average. Consequently, no research has been done to determine factors that influence egg consumption in Kenya. It is on the basis of this research gap that this study is conducted with three specific objectives; to characterize indigenous chicken egg consumers, to estimate the level of preferences in different egg types and to determine factors influencing household demand for indigenous chicken eggs in the counties of Makueni and Nairobi in Kenya. A total of 174 respondents were sampled in across sectional survey design using a multistage sampling technique. The data was collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics, non parametric Kendall coefficient of concordant test and multiple regression models in STATA 11.0 version. Results showed that there was a significant agreement ( p<0.01 ) among consumers in the ranking of indigenous chicken eggs as the most important compared to all other eggs available in the market. Gender, age, education, price, income and household size had a significant effect ( p<0.01 ) on demand for indigenous chicken eggs. All variables estimated had the expected sign. Policy should focus on these factors in order to increase both consumption levels and competitiveness of the egg value chain. Keywords : Indigenous chicken eggs, demand, Kendall coefficient and multiple regression models.
High speed electro-absorption modulators in indium phosphide generic integration technologies

• A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
ASSESSMENT OF MEDICATION EFFICACY ON DETERMINANTS OF PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS AMONG DIABETES MELLITUS PARTICIPANTS

Introduction: The prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) among adults has been increased considerably across the globe, and has contributed a substantial proportion in annual mortality rate. Diabetes and psychiatric disorders are having such an interface that they both influence each other in several ways. Objectives: The study was conducted to assess the prevalence, determinant factors, prescription pattern, efficacy and adverse reactions in diabetic patients associated with psychiatric illness in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study was carried out for a period of ten months in General Medicine and Psychiatric Department, Basaveswara Medical College Hospital and Research centre, Chitradurga. Results: In this study, a total of 101 diabetic patients with or without co-morbidities were enrolled in the study. Among them, 27 in-patients were associated with psychiatric illness which was considered as co-morbid condition. The prevalence of psychiatric illness with diabetes mellitus was found to be 26.7% which is highly significant with the p-value (0.00). A higher prevalence was noticed with age group 41-50 years and with male gender. The common determinant factors of psychiatric illness in diabetic patients were being women, having no income, being at the age of menopause, having no physical activity, being illiterate and being single or widowed. Among the anti-diabetic drug prescriptions, there was a higher percentage of use of insulin and the most commonly prescribed drug was combination of Glimepride + Metformin (sulfonylurea and biguanide). The most commonly prescribed anti-psychotic drugs were chlordiazepoxide and alprazolam. Conclusion: The study reveals a high prevalence of psychiatric illness in diabetic patients with determinant factors of psychiatric illness in diabetic patients were being women, having no income, being at the age of menopause, having no physical activity, being illiterate and being single or widowed. Key Words: Prevalence; Determinant factors; Diabetes mellitus; Psychiatric illness
Detecção da direcionalidade do movimento humano utilizando perturbações do sinal eletromagnético de interfaces IEEE 802.11

A deteccao de fluxos de movimento em ambientes fechados demanda a aquisicao e implantacao de sensores especializados. As perturbacoes que podem afetar o sinal eletromagnetico utilizado por interfaces de rede 802.11 tornam esse tipo de dispositivo um sensor de fluxos de movimento de baixo custo e amplamente disponivel. Grande parte dos ambientes possuem interfaces 802.11 implantadas, tornando o uso desse tipo de dispositivo como sensor de fluxo de movimento bastante viavel por nao demandar a aquisicao de nenhum novo equipamento. Neste trabalho, apresentamos o WiDMove, uma proposta que visa detectar fluxos de movimento em ambientes fechados utilizando as medidas de qualidade do canal oferecidas pelo padrao IEEE 802.11n, conhecidas como Channel State Information (CSI). Nossa proposta e baseada em tecnicas de processamento de sinais e de reconhecimento de padroes, as quais nos permitem extrair e classificar assinaturas de fluxos de movimento usando as medidas CSI. Em testes de laboratorio com interfaces 802.11 convencionais, coletamos medidas CSI influenciadas por 8 individuos distintos e extraimos as assinaturas de entrada e saida utilizando, dentre outras tecnicas, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Short- Time Fourier Transform (STFT) e Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT). Treinamos dois tipos de modelos, um baseado em um classificador do tipo Support Vector Machine (SVM) e outro baseado em redes neurais do tipo Multi Layer Perceptral (MLP). Validamos esses modelos atraves de testes de acuracia media e de tecnicas de validacao cruzada, incluindo as tecnicas K-Fold e Leave-One-Out. Os testes demonstraram que o WiDMove pode atingir uma acuracia media superior a 93% e que e possivel treinar uma rede neural com acuracia de cerca de 97%.
Robust sliding-mode formation control and collision avoidance via repulsive vector fields for a group of Quad-Rotors

ABSTRACT This paper is focused on solving the collision avoidance problem for a group of Quad-Rotors which are affected by external disturbances when they are moving in a horizontal plane by means of Repulsive Vector Fields (RVFs). The RVFs are included in an attractive potential function control strategy, that allows the Quad-Rotors to reach the desired position in a geometric pattern, together with a Continuous Sliding-Mode Control (C-SMC) strategy based on Sliding-Mode Observers (SMOs) that are used to estimate, in a finite-time, the linear and angular velocities, respectively. For this purpose, a parameter, which depends on the distance among the Quad-Rotors and their velocities, is designed in order to scale the RVFs properly. In this sense, the repulsion force will be proportional to the velocity and acceleration of the Quad-Rotor when it detects any obstacle. A RVF not properly scaled may result in a collision or a Quad-Rotor movement far away from its desired position. The combination between the C-SMC strategy, the SMOs, the attractive potential functions and the RVFs robustly solves the formation control and avoidance collision problem under the presence of disturbances. Numerical simulations illustrate the performance of the RVFs when the Quad-Rotors are in risk of collision.
Corporations, human rights and the environmental degradation–corruption nexus

It is often the case that harms to societies go hand in hand. This seems to be true when looking at cases in which corporations are accused of contributing to human rights abuses, environmental degradation and corruption in developing nations. This article considers the relationships between these three harms from the perspective of corporations as actors involved in producing those harms. Based on a cross-case analysis of 45 cases in which this nexus of harms is found, this article assesses the atrocity crimes/environmental degradation/corruption-nexus, by studying agency (crime scripts), actors (industries and corporations) and connections (how are the three harms related? ) in these cases. The analysis shows that corporations are mostly indirectly involved in atrocity crimes, but directly involved in environmental harm and corruption. Extractive industries are overrepresented and the many entanglements with state agents qualify as state-corporate crime. The relations between the harms are multifaceted and can be causal, spurious and synonymous by nature.
TOXIC METAL RESIDUES IN NON-EDIBLE ANIMAL BYPRODUCTS

Environmental pollution by heavy metals is a major problem worldwide. Domesticated animals such as cattle and camel share the same environmental conditions like human and they are exposed to heavy metals via different sources. Therefore, these animals are considered as ideal bio-indicators for human exposure to heavy metals. Heavy metals accumulate in the different tissues of the animals. Estimation of toxic metal residues such as arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in the animal edible tissues had been extensively studied. However, estimation of such toxicants in the non-edible animal byproducts had received little attention. Additionally, non-edible animal byproducts are frequently used in many industries such as animal feed additives and leather fabrication. Therefore, this study was undertaken to estimate the residual concentrations of As, Hg, Pb and Cd in the hair, hides and bones of cattle and camel slaughtered at Zagazig, Abo-Hammad and Belbies cities, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. Metal-metal correlations were additionally calculated. The achieved results indicated exposure of cattle and camel to high levels of heavy metals, particularly lead and arsenic. Camel had higher concentrations (mg/kg ww) of arsenic compared with cattle particularly in hair (38.57 ± 8.77 and 22.48 ± 1.91 in camel and cattle, respectively). Bone had the highest load of the measured metals among examined samples. For instances, in camel, elemental concentrations (mg/kg ww) in bone were 34.53 ± 6.16 (As), 3.41 ± 0.56 (Hg), 2.76 ± 0.36 (Pb) and 0.11 ± 0.01 (Cd). Samples collected from Zagazig city were highly contaminated compared with other locations. Significant positive correlations were observed between lead - mercury, lead - cadmium and arsenic- mercury ( r <0.0001 in each). Contaminated non-edible animal byproducts should be hygienically disposed and avoid its introduction to downstream industries. It is highly recommended to control environmental pollution with heavy metals in Egypt. Key words: bone; domesticated animals; hair; heavy metals; hide
Latency-Aware Path Planning for Disconnected Sensor Networks With Mobile Sinks

Data collection with mobile elements can greatly improve the load balance degree and accordingly prolong the longevity for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this pattern, a mobile sink generally traverses the sensing field periodically and collect data from multiple Anchor Points (APs) which constitute a traveling tour. However, due to long-distance traveling, this easily causes large latency of data delivery. In this paper, we propose a path planning strategy of mobile data collection, called the Dual Approximation of Anchor Points (DAAP), which aims to achieve full connectivity for partitioned WSNs and construct a shorter path. DAAP is novel in two aspects. On the one hand, it is especially designed for disconnected WSNs where sensor nodes are scattered in multiple isolated segments. On the other hand, it has the least calculational complexity compared with other existing works. DAAP is formulated as a location approximation problem and then solved by a greedy location selection mechanism, which follows two corresponding principles. On the one hand, the APs of periphery segments must be as near the network center as possible. On the other hand, the APs of other isolated segments must be as close to the current path as possible. Finally, experimental results confirm that DAAP outperforms existing works in delay-tough applications.
Simple Finite Horizon Bubbles Robust to Higher Order Knowledge

An asymmetric information model of a finite horizon "nth order" rational asset price bubble is presented, where (all agents know that)-super-n the asset is worthless. Also, the model has only two agents, so the first order version of the bubble is simpler than other first order bubbles in the literature. Copyright The Econometric Society 2004.
Empirical Analysis of Object Oriented Quality Suites

As object oriented paradigm is becoming more pervasive, it becomes necessary that the software engineering methodologies have quantitative measurements for accessing the quality of software at both the architectural and component level. These measures allow the designer to access the software in early stages of the development process and making changes, that will reduce complexity and improving the quality of the product at the development phase. Object Oriented Design metrics is an essential part of software engineering. An empirical study of applying the design measures to asses the software quality is presented. The two metrics suites namely Chidamber and Kemerer (CK) Metrics and Metrics for Object-Oriented Design (MOOD) Metric Suite are used in this study. Using these metrics suite, various design metrics namely Depth of Inheritance Tree (DIT), Coupling Between Object Classes (CBO), Response for a Class (RFC), Number of Children (NOC), Method Inheritance Factor (MIF), Attribute Inheritance Factor (AIF), Method Hiding Factor (MHF), Attribute Hiding Factor (AHF), Polymorphism Factor (POF) for three latest versions of JfreeChart software have been analyzed to predict the software quality. The results of this empirical analysis will help the software developers and academicians in improving the software quality while developing software products using the Object-oriented (OO) approach.
Advanced Cache Supported Path on Roads

Way arranging is a fundamental operation of course route administrations. It discovers course between our required beginning spot and completion put. Presently there are number of uses is available like GPS and computerized mapping. Be that as it may, due to sudden variety in driving direction, losing of GPS flag like many issues we have to propose this way arranging technique. We propose a framework, money based way arranging strategy. It react to us with deference our question, moreover it return result that beforehand questioned that put away in our database. Our framework method diminishes right around fifty level of calculation dormancy by and large.
Surgery combined with photodynamic therapy in the treatment of disfiguring acne inversa: the efficacy of reconditioning

Address for correspondence: Xu Chen, Fang Fang, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Skin Diseases and STIs, Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing, China, 12 Jiangwangmiao St, 210042 Nanjing, China, e-mail: chenx@pumcderm.cams. cn, fangfangjh@126.com Received: 12.11. 2017, accepted: 28.12. 2017. Surgery combined with photodynamic therapy in the treatment of disfiguring acne inversa: the efficacy of reconditioning