Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complete methodology on generating realistic wind speed profiles based on measurements

The wind speed represents the main exogenous signal applied to a Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) and determines its behavior. The erratic variation of the wind speed, highly dependent on the given site and on the atmospheric conditions, makes the wind speed quite difficult to model. Moreover, wind modelling for medium and large time scales is poorly treated in the present literature. This paper presents methods for generating realistic wind speed profiles based on real measurements. The wind speed profile is divided in a lowfrequency component (describing long term variations) and a turbulence component (corresponding to fast, high frequency variations). For modelling the low frequency component two methods are implemented and compared: one based on the Van der Hoven spectrum and one based on auto regressive models. The importance of the turbulence component is also analyzed and modelling methods based on white noise filtering are presented.
Modeling of mixing bread dough process using computational techniques

Mixing theory is important for its relevance in understanding some of the most fundamental problems involving bread dough flows, and for its practical impact in connection with bakery industry and other food industries. Mixing is a crucial operation in the bakery industry. The bread dough is a very complex material, considered viscoelastic whose behavior depends on moisture content and temperature. This article aim is to develop advanced technology for modeling bread dough mixing, in order to provide a predictive capability of optimum design parameters of dough mixers using computational techniques.
Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age

In the 1630s, the Netherlands was gripped by tulipmania: a speculative fever unprecedented in scale and, as popular history would have it, folly. We all know the outline of the story - how otherwise sensible merchants, nobles, and artisans spent all they had (and much that they didn't) on tulip bulbs. We have heard how these bulbs changed hands hundreds of times in a single day, and how some bulbs, sold and resold for thousands of guilders, never even existed. Tulipmania is seen as an example of the gullibility of crowds and the dangers of financial speculation.But it wasn't like that. As Anne Goldgar reveals in "Tulipmania", not one of these stories is true. Making use of extensive archival research, she lays waste to the legends, revealing that while the 1630s did see a speculative bubble in tulip prices, neither the height of the bubble nor its bursting were anywhere near as dramatic as we tend to think. By clearing away the accumulated myths, Goldgar is able to show us instead the far more interesting reality: the ways in which tulipmania reflected deep anxieties about the transformation of Dutch society in the Golden Age.
Measuring the Impact of Urban Amenities on Metropolitan Wages

My research will be presented as follows. Section II will review noteworthy research on urban amenities. Section III will present my theoretical model. Section IV will discuss data sources. Section V will present the empirical model developed by applying available data to the paper’s theoretical model. Section VI will show results obtained from the empirical model. And finally, Section VII will summarize conclusions from my study as well as their implications for public policy and future research. This article is available in The Park Place Economist: http://digitalcommons.iwu. edu/parkplace/vol15/iss1/14 52 The Park Place Economist, Volume XV
Optimal hierarchies with diverse decision-makers

We analyze the optimal decision-making hierarchy in an organization when decision-makers of limited liability have preferences conflicting with the organization's objective and exert externalities on their counterparts. In a horizontal hierarchy, every decision is made by a different agent. In a vertical hierarchy, one agent is in charge of all decisions. Only this agent is incentivized. This advantage is outweighed if there is a horizontal hierarchy so that the decision-makers' preferences are close to the organization's objective with respect to the decision they are in charge of but far from the organization's objective for the other decisions.
Toxicity of manufactured copper nanoparticles - A review

The health effects of nanoparticles (NPs) are raising considerable and growing concerns from the public and government around the world. Nano-metals are new forms of metal with special properties, but are characterized by having a particle size of less than 100 nm. Copper is an essential trace element and its deficiency leads to different diseases in humans. In general, copper NPs have been reported among the most toxic nanomaterials in mammals. The toxicity of nano-copper depends on sex. The increase in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) plays an important role in copper-induced organic dysfunction.In this review, we will not only summarize the tissues toxicology induced by nano-copper, but also we will discuss the functions of ROS and RNS in the pathogenesis and toxicity in different organs, DNA damage as a result of oxidative stress, changes in Blood biochemical indexes, and the mechanism of the nano-copper induced apoptosis.
The Factors of Growth of Small Family Businesses – a Robust Estimation of the Behavioural Consistency in Panel Data Models

The paper quantifies the role of factors associated with the growth (or decline) of micro and small businesses in European economies. The growth is related to the levels of employment and value added in enterprises, as well as, ten institutional variables. We test the data for consistency of behavioural patterns in various countries and gradually remove outlying observations that can lead to erroneous conclusions when using the classic estimators; this is a quite unique approach in panel data analysis. In the first part of this paper we outline a highly robust method of estimation based on fixed effects and least trimmed squares (LTS). In its second part we apply this method on the panel data of 28 countries in 2002-2008 testing for the hypothesis that micro and small businesses in Europe use different strategies for their growth. We run a series of econometric tests where we regress employment and total net production in micro and small businesses on three economic factors: gross capital returns, labour cost gaps in small relative to large enterprises and GDP per capita. In addition, we test the role of 10 institutional factors in the growth of family businesses.
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer with Shredded Fibers: Quasi-Isotropic Material Properties and Antenna Performance

A carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminate, with the top layer consisting of shredded fibers, is proposed and manufactured. The shredded fibers are aligned randomly on the surface to achieve a more isotropic conductivity, as is desired in antenna applications. Moreover, fiber shreds can be recycled from carbon fiber composites. Conductivity, permittivity, and permeability are obtained with the Nicolson-Ross-Weir method from material samples measured inside rectangular waveguides in the frequency range of 4 to 6 GHz. The decrease in material anisotropy results in negligible influence on antennas. This is shown by measuring the proposed CFRP as ground plane material for both a narrowband wire monopole antenna for 5.9 GHz and an ultrawideband conical monopole antenna for 1–10 GHz. For comparison, all measurements are repeated with a twill-weave CFRP.
Shear wave speed and attenuation in water-saturated glass beads and sand

The frequency dependence of shear wave attenuation in water-saturated glass beads and sand contains distinguishable frequency bands in which different power laws apply. The bands are separated by relaxation frequencies. This is unlike the case of the dry granular medium, which is known to be proportional to the first power of frequency. The Biot-Stoll model of wave propagation in porous media captures the lower relaxation frequency, which is driven by a relaxation process in the relative motion between the pore fluid and the granular frame. A modification that includes squirt flow at the grain contacts is necessary to capture the higher relaxation frequency, which is a consequence of a relaxation process in the fluid motion within the grain contact region. There is evidence to suggest that the viscosity of the thin fluid film in the grain contacts may deviate from that of the bulk fluid due to ionic forces. Comparisons ar e made to published experimental measurements.
An Inverse Problem Study: Credit Risk Ratings as a Determinant of Corporate Governance and Capital Structure in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Credit risk rating is shown to be a relevant determinant in order to estimate good corporate governance and to self-optimize capital structure. The conclusion is argued from a study on a selected (and justified) sample of (182) companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SHSE) and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) and which use the same Shanghai Brilliance Credit Rating & Investors Service Company (SBCR) assessment criteria, for their credit ratings, from 2010 to 2015. Practically, 3 debt ratios are examined in terms of 11 characteristic variables. Moreover, any relationship between credit rating and corporate governance can be thought to be an interesting finding. The relationship we find between credit rating and leverage is not as evident as that found by other researchers for different countries; it is significantly positively related to the outside director, firm size, tangible assets and firm age, and CEO and chairman office plurality. However, leverage is found to be negatively correlated with board size, profitability, growth opportunity, and non-debt tax shield. Credit rating is positively associated with leverage, but in a less significant way. CEO-Board chairship duality is insignificantly related to leverage. The non-debt tax shield is significantly correlated with leverage. The correlation coefficient between CEO duality and auditor is positive but weakly significant, but seems not consistent with expectations. Finally, profitability cause could be regarded as an interesting finding. Indeed, there is an inverse correlation between profitability and total debt (Notice that the result supports the pecking order theory). In conclusion, it appears that credit rating has less effect on the so listed large Chinese companies than in other countries. Nevertheless, the perspective of assessing credit risk rating by relevant agencies is indubitably a recommended time dependent leverage determinant.
The Reversal of Stock Market Trends as a Behavioral Bias: Evidence from Tunisian Stock Exchange

This paper examines the behavioral bias in Tunisia, a country with a small stock market in terms of capital, but surprisingly dynamic in comparison to other emerging markets. Our study is consistent with Jegadeesh & Titman (1993)i¯ approach as presented to highlight an analysis of such reversal phenomena of portfolio returns, and provides explanatory factors to the so-called market trends reversal. The empirical investigation is based on a weekly database for a period from January 2002 to January 2013 related to stock prices and index values of market capitalization (TUNINDEX). The empirical test demonstrates the existence of winner-loser phenomenon in accordance with over-reaction hypothesis stating that portfolios with the worst past performance outperform, during the subsequent periods, those having produced best past performance and vice versa.
Agricultural Technology Adoption, Seed Access Constraints and Commercialization in Ethiopia

This article examines the driving forces behind farmers’ decisions to adopt agricultural technologies and the causal impact of adoption on farmers’ integration into output market using data obtained from a random cross-section sample of 700 farmers in Ethiopia. We estimate a Double-Hurdle model to analyze the determinants of the intensity of technology adoption conditional on overcoming seed access constraints. We estimate the impact of technology adoption on farmers’ integration into output market by utilizing treatment effect model, regression based on propensity score as well as matching techniques to account for heterogeneity in the adoption decision, and for unobservable characteristics of farmers and their farm. Results show that knowledge of existing varieties, perception about the attributes of improved varieties, household wealth (livestock and land) and availability of active labor force are major determinants for adoption of improved technologies. Our results suggest that the adoption of improved agricultural technologies has a significant positive impact on farmers’ integration into output market and the findings are consistent across the three models suggesting the robustness of the results. This confirms the potential direct role of technology adoption on market participation among rural households, as higher productivity from improved technology translates into higher output market integration.
Management matters: Testing a mitigation strategy for nitrous oxide emissions on intensively managed grassland

Abstract. Replacing fertilizer nitrogen with biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) through legumes has been suggested as a strategy for nitrous oxide (N 2 O) mitigation from intensively managed grasslands. While current literature provides evidence for an N 2 O emission reduction effect due to reduced fertilizer input, little is known about the effect of increased legume proportions potentially offsetting these reductions, i.e. by increased N 2 O emissions from plant residues and root exudates. In order to assess the overall effect of this mitigation strategy on permanent grassland, we performed an in-situ experiment to quantify net N 2 O fluxes and biomass yields in two differently managed grass-clover mixtures. We measured N 2 O fluxes in an unfertilized parcel with high clover proportions vs. a fertilized control parcel with low clover proportions using the eddy–covariance (EC) technique over two years. Furthermore, we related the measured N 2 O fluxes to management and environmental drivers. To assess the effect of the mitigation strategy, we measured biomass yields and quantified biologically fixed nitrogen using the 15 N natural abundance method. The mitigation management effectively reduced N 2 O emissions by 54 % and 39 % in 2015 and 2016, respectively. These reductions in N 2 O emissions can be attributed to the absence of fertilization on the clover parcel. Differences in clover proportions during periods with no recent management showed no measurable effect on N 2 O emissions, indicating that decomposition of plant residues and rhizodeposition did not compensate the effect of fertilizer reduction on N 2 O emissions. Annual biomass yields were similar under mitigation management, resulting in a reduction of N 2 O emission intensities from 0.42 g N 2 O-N kg −1 DM (control) to 0.28 g N 2 O-N kg −1 DM (clover parcel) over the two years observation period. We conclude that N 2 O emissions from fertilized grasslands can be effectively reduced without losses in yield by increasing the clover proportion and reducing fertilization.
Does a learning style preference for processing information through reflection impact on the academic performance of a cohort of undergraduate pharmacy students

Background: Reflective processes have shown to improve clinical decision making skills. Furthermore, students tend to develop certain learning styles, some utilising reflective processes while others do not. Aims: To investigate the relationships between reflective and non-reflective learning styles, and academic performance of pharmacy students. Methods: Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (Kolb, 2007) and a demographic questionnaire were administered to first year undergraduates. Analysis was conducted using the statistical procedure, ANCOVA. Results: 209 completed questionnaires (response rate 91%) indicated pharmacy students have a stronger preference for the assimilator (44%) learning style. Students who preferred to process information through reflection achieved greater academic success compared to those students who did not ( p <0.05). Gender was also a significant factor ( p <0.05). Conclusion: This study presents evidence that suggests aspects of effective learning may involve reflection. Further research into the methods by which pharmacy students prefer to learn and their relationship with academic outcomes are recommended.
The relationship among facial features, facial impression, and recognition memory for faces

The present study investigated relationships among physical features, impressions, and recognition memory for faces. The stimuli were pictures of male and female faces. First, the sizes, lengths, and angles of physical features of the faces were measured, and then a principal components analysis was performed. Second, 108 university students evaluated the impressions of the faces by the semantic differential technique, and then a factor analysis was performed. Third, 80 university students performed recognition memory tasks for the faces. Subsequently, the analyses of correlations, partial correlations, and ANOVA were performed on the principal component scores of the physical features, the factor scores of impressions, and the recognition performance. The results of the analyses showed that: (a) the impression of facial uniqueness formed from eyes and eyebrows facilitated recognition memory for the faces and (b) the physical features of a small mouth and a round jaw facilitated recognition memory.
Assessing NASA’s Safety Culture: The Limits and Possibilities of High‐Reliability Theory

After the demise of the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board sharply criticized NASA’s safety culture. Adopting the high-reliability organization as a benchmark, the board concluded that NASA did not possess the organizational characteristics that could have prevented this disaster. Furthermore, the board determined that high-reliability theory is “extremely useful in describing the culture that should exist in the human spacefl ight organization. ” In this article, we argue that this conclusion is based on a misreading and misapplication of high-reliability research. We conclude that in its human spacefl ight programs, NASA has never been, nor could it be, a high-reliability organization. We propose an alternative framework to assess reliability and safety in what we refer to as reliabilityseeking organizations.
Test Rig Landing Gear Free-Fall System Model Simulation and Design Optimization Using Matlab

In order to comply with the safety level demanded by civil certification requirements and military standards, alternative methods of extending retractable landing gear are provided in practically all airplanes of this type currently flying throughout the world. However, the emergency extension operation system design is not unique and architectures comprising simpler systems like free-fall or spring-assisted up to more complex systems like auxiliary hydraulics-assisted or pneumatics-assisted ones can be found in different airplanes. The airplane landing gear free-fall operation comprises a redundant, dissimilar and independent mechanically operated method of extending airplane landing gear due to a main hydraulic system failure or an electrical system malfunction. This paper aims at describing the modeling and simulation of a general landing gear emergency extension system built in a test rig, for a non-assisted type system, applying only an extension by gravity. Due to the low associated cost, satisfactory results and capability of easily assessing the trade-offs between different systems configurations, modeling applying computational software has become a frequent practice in aeronautical industries with the purpose of reducing product development cycle. Therefore, a parametric model of the landing gear emergency extension system was created in MATLAB ® Simulink ® and the system performance at nominal and particular operational conditions could be predicted by running several model simulations. Afterwards, through the assistance of MATLAB ® tools, discrete and continuous optimization processes were accomplished to illustrate the benefits of applying these techniques to improve system operation response. An optimum damping condition permits the attenuation of the impact effects suffered by aircraft structure when landing gear falls by gravity in an emergency operation, as well as the assurance of sufficient energy for landing gear locking at the end of its downward movement.
Actionable Cultural Understanding for Support to Tactical Operations (ACUSTO): The Effect of Data Quality on Spatial Analysis Results

Abstract : Developing cultural information into cultural knowledge for military operations is predominantly an intelligence activity that takes place within the Military Decision Making Process. The products of such efforts are routinely classified and unusable by the tactical war fighter. The Actionable Cultural Understanding for Support to Tactical Operations (ACUSTO) research effort was undertaken to provide a product for enhanced cultural understanding that will be accessible to the tactical war fighter. This is done by combining spatial and explicit content analysis of open source news media to provide cultural understanding in the operational environment that can be disseminated down to the lowest tactical level. The development of actionable intelligence for counterinsurgency parallels the study of civilian criminal events (widely covered in open source media) and can exploit the methodological approaches that emphasize spatially explicit information. Crime research is conducted at aggregate levels, which implies the aggregation of a series of points representing events to areas representing higher scales. This work focused on data quality in point pattern analysis, and on the effect that different levels of data accuracy and precision have on policy recommendations.
Effect of Free-Edges on Melt Pool Geometry and Solidification Microstructure in Beam-Based Fabrication Methods

Davis, Joy Elizabeth, M.S., Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Wright State University, 2010. Effect of Free-Edges On Melt Pool Geometry and Solidification Microstructure in Beam-Based Fabrication Methods. Laser and electron beam-based additive manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V are under consideration for application to aerospace components. A critical concern for these processes is the ability to obtain a consistent and desirable microstructure and corresponding mechanical properties of the deposit. Based on the Rosenthal solution for a moving point-heat source, recent work has developed simulation-based process maps for the thermal conditions controlling microstructure (grain size and morphology) in beam-based deposition of semi-infinite geometries, where a steady-state melt pool exists away from free-edges. In the current study, the Rosenthal solution is modified to include the effects of free-edges. This is accomplished by the superposition of two point-heat sources approaching one another, with the line of symmetry representing the free-edge. The result is an exact solution for the case of temperature-independent properties. Dimensionless results for melt pool geometry, solidification cooling rate and thermal gradient are determined with MATLAB, and plotted as a function of distance from the free-edge. Finite element analysis is used to verify results for 2-D and 3-D geometries in both small-scale and large-scale (higher power) processes. Results are further plotted on solidification maps to predict trends in microstructure for Ti-6Al-4V. Results suggest that melt pool geometry is more sensitive to free-edges than solidification microstructure, particularly for small-scale processes. This is an important result for process developers.