Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polarimetric Decomposition Applied to 3D SAR Images of Forested Terrain

In this paper, recently conceived polarimetric array signa l processing techniques are applied for producing 3D images over forested scenes from multibaseline POL-InSAR observations. Subsequently, the optimal scattering mechanisms are investigated using polarimetric decomposition to derive structural forest parameters. This three-dimensional anal ysis is performed by employing multibaseline POL-InSAR datasets over a temperate forest (Traunstein) acquired by the E-SAR system of DLR at L-band and validated against LIDAR measurements.
Improving Patient Safety in the EU: Assessing the expected effects of three policy areas for future action

in this work. This electronic representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for non-commercial use only. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of our research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please see RAND Permissions. Limited Electronic Distribution Rights This PDF document was made available from www.rand. org as a public service of the RAND Corporation.
High Performance 1.8-18ghz 10-dB Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic Directional Coupler

This paper presents a six-section multi-layer asymmetric 10dB directional coupler based on ofiset broadside coupled striplines, using Low Temperature Co-flred Ceramic (LTCC) technology, which operates over a decade bandwidth from 1.8 to 18GHz. It features high performance transitions between the external signal layer and the buried signal layers, as well as a novel mixed flrst section to solve the limitations of the coupler access bends. A prototype was manufactured that exhibits a return loss of better than 15dB, isolation of better than 23dB and a high coupling accuracy of 10:3§0:6dB over the 1.8{18GHz band. This design outperforms previously reported results in terms of bandwidth and shows excellent potential for microwave measurement applications.
Influence of femtosecond surface modification of TiO2 layer to features of organic solar cell

In this research 300 fs pulses of Yb:KGW laser has been applied to form electron transport layer TiO2 of Grӓtzel type organic solar cells (OSC) with different surface roughness. Profiler, AFM, SEM has been used to define surfaces. Scattering of 532 nm wavelength light from ablated regions has been measured. OSC have been formed onto TiO2 and I-V characteristics have been measured. Investigation results demonstrated that laser treatment of TiO2 has impact to the I-V dependencies of OSC. 1. Motivation
Non-traditional Aisle Design for a Manufacturing Facility Layout

Methods for designing a facility layout typically assume that the aisles for interdepartmental travel will be parallel to the exterior walls of the facility. However, by putting aisles at an angle to the exterior walls, more direct routes between departments can be created, reducing travel distance. This paper describes a method to create a facility layout that does not have orthogonal aisles and testing of the resulting layouts shows that travel distance is reduced.
Dietary micronutrient content in pea (PISUM SATIVUM L.) and buckwheat (FAGOPYRUM ESCULENTUM M.) flour

Micronutrient (Fe, Zn etc.) malnutrition is a major public health problem in the most parts of the world. The attempt to solve micronutrient malnutrition could be to increase the consumption of nutri-dense products, like pseudo-cereals or legumes. This study was carried out to determine the mineral (P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo and B) and vitamin (B1 and B2) content of pea (conventional and organic) and buckwheat (raw, roasted, white and dark) flour. Conventional and organic pea flour (PF) was naturally rich in Fe (36.0 mg kg and 64.0 mg kg, respectively). Iron content in buckwheat flour (BF) ranged from 7.2 mg kg (white-BF) to 260 mg kg (dark-BF). Zinc content of BF was between 7.0 mg kg (white-BF) and 24 mg kg (rawand roasted-BF) while that of pea flour ranged from 20.0 mg kg in organic-PF to 24.0 mg kg in conventional-PF. There were small differences in the content of P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Cu, Mo and B between rawand roasted-BF. Ca : P ratio in PF and BF revealed a high concentration of phosphorus compared to calcium. This ratio was less than 1.0. The pea and buckwheat flour showed a good content of vitamins B1 and B2. The highest quantity of vitamins B1 and B2 was observed in roasted-BF under buckwheat flour samples (1.39 mg 100 g and 1.35 mg 100 g, respectively) and in conventional-PF under pea flour samples (1.11 mg 100 g and 0.71 mg 100 g, respectively).
Estimating PMSG Wind Turbines by Inertia and Droop Control Schemes with Intelligent Fuzzy Controller in Indian Development

This paper presents an exploration on the effect of wind turbine contribution to the frequency control of individual systems that can be used for efficient power production in India. The research includes the study of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG), in wind farms. The WTs are tested for inertia and for droop responses with intelligent fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) that choose Double Input Single Output (DISO) strategy that automatically sets gain constants, as well as combined responses for the WTs. Quantitative analyses are presented for the WTs for benefits and drawbacks including appropriate selection parameters. The analysis includes inertia, droop and combined inertia, droop schemes. The reconnaissance also incorporates inertia with FLC, droop with FLC, inertia and droop with FLC schemes for detailed study of WTs, so as to forecast and achieve proper frequency control. Moreover, the analysis provides the best suited method for frequency control in PMSG.
Revising Scenario Map for Plant Management via Interaction of Stakeholders' Intentions and Constraints

The purpose of this study is to put knowledge of plant safety together and make a map that will help to understand a system of plant and notice new links among components. This map, called the scenario map, can be used for aiding the chance discoveries - decision of various stakeholders of the system based on their awareness of latent dynamics underlying observed events. The trustworthiness of their analysis will be also reinforced by linking relevant data to the nodes and lines in the graph. In order to have stakeholders be aware of information missed in available data, we invented a method of workshop and moved forward with a rough map of plant safety. The first phase attempts to externalize differences in the bodies of knowledge of each participant. In the second, introducing Tsugo Roulette (TR) – the core component of this paper -, latent dynamics where physical and social causalities emerge is externalized. Then participants revise the scenario map based on their thoughts by the second phase, to finally evaluate the utility of nodes and lines in the graph. In accordance with each phase, participants in the workshop could exchange their tsugoes - views of intentions and constraints - and realize new links or nodes to be evaluated highly by experts in the corresponding domain.
Mobile Cloud Computing: A Review

In today’s world, the swift increase of utilizing mobile services and simultaneously discovering of the cloud computing services, made the Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) selected as a wide spread technology among mobile users. Thus, the MCC incorporates the cloud computing with mobile services for achieving facilities in daily using mobile. The capability of mobile devices is limited of computation context, memory capacity, storage ability, and energy. Thus, relying on cloud computing can handle these troubles in the mobile surroundings. Cloud Computing gives computing easiness and capacity such provides availability of services from anyplace through the Internet without putting resources into new foundation, preparing, or application authorizing. Additionally, Cloud Computing is an approach to expand the limitations or increasing the abilities dynamically. The primary favourable position of Cloud Computing is that clients just use what they require and pay for what they truly utilize. Mobile cloud computing is a form for various services, where a mobile gadget is able to utilize the cloud for data saving, seeking, information mining, and multimedia preparing. Cloud computing innovation is also causes many new complications in side of safety and gets to direct when users store significant information with cloud servers. As the clients never again have physical ownership of the outsourced information, makes the information trustworthiness, security, and authenticity insurance in Cloud Computing is extremely difficult and conceivably troublesome undertaking. In MCC environments, it is hard to find a paper embracing most of the concepts and issues such as: architecture, computational offloading, challenges, security issues, authentications and so on. In this paper we discuss these concepts with presenting a review of the most recent papers in the domain of MCC.
A Distributed Control Strategy for an Isolated Residential DC Microgrid

A low-voltage unipolar type dc microgrid , which includes photovoltaic (PV) arrays, Fuel Cells (FCs), batteries and power electronic interfaces, is presented in this study. In order to provide the plug-and-play feature, a distributed control strategy based on Dc Bus Signaling (DBS) is studied. According to the proposed control strategy, the operations of the dc microgrid are categorized into three modes: batteries charging/discharging, Constant Voltage (CV) generation and FCs discharging. These three kinds of modes can be automatically switched by using DBS. Control methods of converters for different microsources are also addressed. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.
Validating Heuristic Analysis As an Effective Method for Identifying Human Factors Issues in The Medical Technology Procurement Process

The introduction of human factors methods to the medical technology procurement process has been advocated as a means for improving patient safety, increasing the likelihood of successful technology adoption, and reducing financial risks associated with litigation and decreased time to obsolescence [1] As such, several human factors methods, including heuristic analysis (HA) have been employed by two medical institutions as described in [2,3] to influence procurement decisions. HA is a commonly employed usability method because it is inexpensive, does not require a lot of advanced planning, and can be done without acquiring formal usability facilities. HA refers to the evaluation of an interface by a human factors expert against a standard set of known usability principles. It facilitates the identification of design flaws in an existing design that may pose potential safety and usability problems. [4,5] The objective of this study was to validate the effectiveness of HA as a method for identifying human factors issues as part of the medical device procurement process, and to evaluate the reproducibility of HA results, by comparing the results of two HAs. The HAs were each conducted by two different human factors engineers (HFEs) at two different Toronto area hospitals on the same IV Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) pump being considered for purchase. The hospitals that participated in this work were the University Health Network (UHN) and the Trillium Health Centre (THC). There was a three-year time period between the evaluations at each hospital as a result of different procurement cycles. During that time the product that both hospitals evaluated changed only slightly. For example, when UHN evaluated the pump the power cord was very snug and difficult to insert, THC found that it was too easily pulled out. Also, when UHN evaluated the pump the design allowed a patient to stop the pump and reprogram it but not re-start the pump. The version evaluated by THC required a key to unlock the cover before these actions could be taken. A study by Karoulis and Pomportsis [6] shows that evaluator expertise is an important factor for identifying critical problems in a heuristic analysis. Both of the evaluators in this research are “double specialists”, meaning they have expertise in the development and evaluation of user interfaces as well as knowledge of the medical domain [7,8]. Both have three years of experience conducting human factors evaluations of medical devices using a variety of human factors methodologies.
Anti-Oxidant and Membrane Stability Studies in Tinospora cordifolia

Tinospora cordifolia plant extracts were selected for this study to establish Anti oxidant and membrane stability activities, with estimation of total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant (AOA) and their total flavanoid content (TFC), the DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical) screening assay and DNA Nicking Assay . The amount of TPC varied from 15.42 mg/g gallic acid in Tinospora cordifolia. It also showed high TFC (30.40μg/mg) and high AOA (82.50%), DPPH: IC 50 were 30. 40μg/ml. In membrane stability assay Tinospora cordifolia revealed at the dose of 400mg/ml showed 24.2%, when compared to Standard drug at 40mg/ml showed (Aspirin) 21.5%. Tinospora cordifolia plant metabolites possess TFC, TPC, DNA nicking assay, and heat induced hemolysis in human RBC membrane models respectively. Since this plant extract were the potential source of natural favonoids and polyphenols with a wide range of biological activities, with a promising AOA and further, the active components can serve as a beneficial sources for anti inflammatory activities
Commercial antimicrobials mouthrinses on caries and periodontitis-related biofilm control: a review of literature

This review aims to discuss the antimicrobial potential of different mouthrinses in respect to the control of dental caries and periodontal disease. The survey was conducted using PubMed and the following keywords: "antimicrobial agent " or "antiplaque agent," "dental biofilm" and "dental caries" or "periodontal disease" or "gingivitis". Only studies published in English, from 2011 to 2015, in journals with impact factor greater than 0.8, were selected. We found a total of 22 papers, 13 related to dental caries and 9 related to periodontal disease. Among the 13 studies involving cariogenic bacteria and/or biofilm, 6 were conducted in vitro, 3 in situ and 4 in vivo . Among 9 studies involving periodontal disease, 2 were in vitro and 7 in vivo . The main active agents tested were: CHX-Chlorhexidine, CPC-cetylpyridinium chloride and EO-Essential oils (alcohol/or alcohol-free). CHX was compared to EO in 6 studies, showing superiority in 3 studies, similarity in 1 study and inferiority in 2 studies. CPC has shown lower effect in plaque reduction compared to CHX and EO. There is still controversy about the effect of alcohol, but some studies have shown superiority for EO and CHX with alcohol on cariogenic and periodontopathogenic biofilms, respectively, when compared to alcohol-free version; for CPC, no difference was found. More clinical studies are needed for better understanding the mechanism of action and the differences in performance among the antiplaque agents. Keywords Antimicrobial agents; Dental biofilm; Dental caries; Oral diseases; Periodontitis.
Biosynthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Bacteria Isolates from Wastewater

Background and Objectives: Development of ecofriendly processes for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles is of great importance in the field of nanotechnology. Microorganisms such as bacteria could be suitable candidates for bioproduction of nanoparticles due to their simplicity and high compatibility with the environment. The aim of this study was to use bacteria isolates from the effluent of wastewater treatment plants to produce silver nanoparticles. Methods: For identifying silver-resistant microorganisms, we used the agar diffusion method using PHG II medium containing 0.5 mM silver to determine minimum inhibitory concentration. Bacterial identification was done with biochemical testing and polymerase chain reaction (colony PCR). Finally, silver nanoparticles were produced in the desired bacteria, and the properties of these nanoparticles were studied. Results: We found five silver-resistant bacteria among which Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain MS8 showed the highest resistance (MIC= 6 mM). The bacterium was able to synthesize silver nanoparticles in spherical shapes. The results obtained from visual observations using UV-VIS, TEM and XRD showed that the bacterium was able to reduce silver ions into silver nanoparticles with maximum size of 20 nm. Conclusion: Based on our findings, this bacterium could be useful for biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles.
Spectral killers and Poisson bracket invariants

We find optimal upper bounds for spectral invariants of a Hamiltonian whose support is contained in a union of mutually disjoint displaceable balls. This gives a partial answer to a question posed by Leonid Polterovich in connection with his recent work on Poisson bracket invariants of coverings.
Parametrisation of the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process in global climate models

Clouds and especially mixed phase clouds are still one of the main sources of uncertainty of climate models. [IPCC, 2013] The Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process is a central process that governs the phase distribution in these clouds. Six different parametrisations for the phase distribution from models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), as well as six versions of the Rotstayn parametrisation, are implemented into the atmospheric global climate model ECHAM6 and the sensitivity of the model, as well as the change in climate sensitivity, are tested. The different parametrisations have a strong direct influence on the clouds as well as an indirect effect the on rest of the model. Parametrisations that produce less supercooled droplets at very low temperatures generate a lower total cloud water content and they also lower the climate sensitivity of the model.
The Study of Fans’ Brand Loyalty in Iranian Professional Football League

The brand associations are everything that is connected with the brand in its customers’ mind (Aaker, 1991). According to the Keller’s customer- based brand equity model attributes, benefits and attitudes have been considered as the dimensions of brand associations (Keller, 1993). In sport industry, a sport team can be regarded as a brand and the fans are considered as the customers. So, fans’ brand loyalty to sport teams is similar to customers’ brand loyalty to other industries (Logger, 2010). And, Sport managers consider brand of teams as the basis of marketing strategies for attracting customer loyalty and fans loyalty(Gladden and Funk, 2002). Therefor, This research aims to study the effects of brand associations’ dimensions (attributes, benefits, and attitudes) on fans’ brand loyalty in professional football league of Iran. A ten-minute pen and paper questionnaire was distributed to fans of five superior teams of Iranian professional football league in 2009-2010 seasons. A sample of fans (912) have responsed Team’s Association Questionnaire developed by Gladden and Funk (2001) was used for data collection. To analyze the hypotheses of this study which consist of the cause and effect relationships between brand associations’ dimensions and fans’ brand loyalty, Structural Equation Model (SEM) was utilized. The findings showed three dimensions of brand associations influenced on fan’s brand loyalty of which the attitude was the most important. Benefits and attributes were placed in the second and third rank respectively. In addition, the obtained model of this research highlighted strong interactional effects between the three mentioned dimensions of brand associations. But some of subscale Influenced brand loyalty more strongly than the others between fans of Iranian professional football league. Subscales of importance(0/71), products delivery (0/69), and identification (0/61)were the most effective respectively. Totally, findings of this study verified influencing brand associations’ on fans brand loyalty in Iranian football leagues. So, the executives of Iranian clubs should notice these elements, and use them to improve the promotion of their brand for earning advantages like earning more revenue because of attendance of more fans in the stadium, selling more tickets, increasing the purchasers of the club’s brand products, absorbing investment, and increasing the price of club’s shares. References
Complex Interactions in Metacommunities, with Implications for Biodiversity and Higher Levels of Selection

Two common features of biological communities are (a) complex interactions among species, which make community dynamics sensitive to initial conditions, and (b) spatial heterogeneity, which fragments large-scale ecological systems into a mosaic of patches, hereafter termed a metacommunity. This computer simulation study examines the effect of complex interactions on the global and local dynamics od metacommunities. Patches are physically identical and differ only in the initial proportion of species that colonize the patches. The random variation is then magnified by deterministic interactions that cause patches to follow different trajectories based on initial conditions. After a period of interaction, individuals from all patches join a global pool of dispersers that colonize a new generation of patches. Complex interactions can have at least two important effects on metacommunity dynamics. First, the number of species coexisting in the metacommunity can greatly exceed the number of species coexisting in any single patch, despite the fact that the patches are physically identical, the species do not differ in colonization ability, and stochastic effects are absent after the colonization stage. Second, complex interactions provide a new source of variation upon which natural selection can operate at the patch level, providing a mechanism for the evolution of more » functionally organized communities. 59 refs., 11 figs., 2 tabs. « less