Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Finding the Quickest Straight-Line Trajectory for a Three-Wheeled Omnidirectional Robot under Input Voltage Constraints

We provide an analytical solution to the problem of generating the quickest straight-line trajectory for a three-wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot, under the practical constraint of limited voltage. Applying the maximum principle to the geometric properties of the input constraints, we find that an optimal input vector of motor voltages has at least one extreme value when the orientation of the robot is fixed and two extreme values when rotation is allowed. We can find an explicit representation of the optimal vector for a motion under fixed orientation. We derive several properties of quickest straight-line trajectories and verify them through simulation. We show that the quickest trajectory when rotation is allowed is always faster than the quickest with fixed orientation.
Estimating the Value of Urban Green Space: A hedonic Pricing Analysis of the Housing Market in Cologne, Germany

Urban Green Space (UGS) such as parks and forests provide a wide range of environmental and recreational benefits. One objective in the conservation efforts of UGS is to analyse the benefits associated with UGS in order to make them more visible and to provide support for landscape planning. This paper examines the effects of UGS on house prices applying a Hedonic Pricing Method (HPM). The data set contains over 85,046 geo-coded apartment transactions for the years 1995- 2012 and contains information on three intrinsic variables of the real estate (e.g. transaction price, floor area and age). In order to examine the capitalization of UGS in real estate prices we further incorporate crosssection geo-coded data for the different types of UGS: forests, parks, farmland and fallow land drawn from the European Urban Atlas (EUA) of the European Environment Agency for the year 2006. In order to control for additional open space categories we further incorporated geo-coded data on water bodies and fallow land. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS) we calculated the coverage of UGS in pre-defined buffers around households as well as the distance in a continuous fashion (Euclidian distance) between UGS and the households. Our results show a capitalization of UGS in real estate prices but the effect of the structural variables is higher. We found a positive price effect of parks, forests and water and an inverse relation between the price variable and the presence of fallow land and farmland.
Preliminary results from EMERSITO, a rapid response network for site-effect studies

On May 20, 2012, at 02:03 UTC, a Ml 5.9 reverse-fault earthquake occurred in the Emilia-Romagna region, northern Italy, at a hypocentral depth of 6.3 km (http://iside.rm.ingv.it/), close to the cities of Modena and Ferrara in the plain of the Po River. The epicenter was near the village of Finale Emilia where macroseismic intensity was assessed at 7 EMS98 [Tertulliani et al. 2012, this issue], while the closest accelerometric station, MRN, located less than 20 km west-ward at Mirandola (Figure 1) recorded peaks of ground accelerations of about 300 cm/s2 (www.protezionecivile.gov.it/resources/cms/documents/Report_DPC_1_Emilia_EQSd.pdf). The mainshock triggered liquefaction phenomena a few kilometers eastwards of the epicenter, around the village of San Carlo. On the same day, two other shocks of Ml 5.1 followed (02:07, 13:18 GMT; http://iside.rm.ingv.it/). On May 29, 2012, at 07:00 UTC another Ml 5.8 earthquake hit the region (http://iside.rm.ingv.it/), with the epicenter close to the village of Mirandola (Figure 1). Three other strong aftershocks occurred afterwards, of Ml 5.3 (May 29, at 10:55), Ml 5.2 (May 29, at 11:00) and Ml 5.1 (June 3, at 19:20). For a detailed description of the seismic sequence, see Moretti et al. [2012], Scognamiglio et al. [2012], and Massa et al. [2012], in this issue. The Emilia seismic sequence resulted in 25 casualties, several of whom were among the workers in the many factories that collapsed during working hours, and there was extensive damage to monuments, public buildings, industrial sites, and private homes. […]
FORCE SENSITIVE RESISTORS CALIBRATION FOR THE USAGE IN GRIPPING DEVICES

This paper aims to present the calibration of a piezoresistive force sensitive sensors for the usage in gripping devices. A short review on existent sensors is presented, with information regarding the piezoresistive sensor functionality. The used calibration technique is presented in parallel with the hardware and software elements. Several test cases were developed in order to obtain forces and contact areas similar with the ones between human fingers and different gripped objects. Differences between several sensors response and accuracy on forces applied in the range of 0.1mN to 1N were observed, allowing us to obtain whole surface mappings of sensor response to the applied force, in a matrix touch patter.
March-2018 THE EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR ON EMPLOYEE ' S PERFORMANCE IN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT : A CASE STUDY

Praveen Kanojia Dr. Hemant Parmar Abstract In the present scenario, every organization required to have skilled and trained employees those who not only work hard for them but also show good character for development of the organization under highly global competition. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of different factors of organizational citizenship behavior on employee's performance within their industrial environment. The data has been collected in form of questionnaires and rated on five point Lickert scale. The data obtained from 70 respondents of six different industries located in Indore and Dewas of Madhya Pradesh (India) and the comparative study performed among different factor of organizational citizenship behavior and its effect on employee's performance in their industrial environment. Study also focus on identifying the relationship amongst job satisfaction, control beliefs of employees within their working environment.
Response of juvenile progeny of seven forest tree species and their populations to simulated climate change-related stressors, heat, elevated humidity and drought

Abstract: The study aimed to evaluate response and phenotypic plasticity of juvenile progeny of seven forest tree species Pinus sylvestris, Picea abies, Quercus robur, Fraxinus excelsior, Alnus glutinosa, Betula pendula and Populus tremula and their populations to climate change-related stressors, simulated in a phytotron - heat and elevated humidity and heat and drought - in comparison to performance in ambient (control) conditions. Treatment effect on sapling morphometric, physiological and biochemical traits was significant except for health condition, transpiration and photosynthetic rates and water use efficiency (WUE). Species effect and species-by-treatment interaction were strongly significant in most traits studied, indicating a great inter-specific variability of responses to the applied treatments. Compared to control, stem diameter increment was lower for most species following both hot-wet and hot-dry treatments, while treatment impact on height increment was less pronounced and sometimes even positive. Drought caused significant defoliation in P. tremula, A. glutinosa and B. pendula, while under hot-wet treatment the defoliation in most species was lower than in control. Following hot dry treatment, WUE in P. abies, P. sylvestris and B. pendula was lower than following both hot-wet treatment and control, while in P. tremula, A. glutinosa and Q. robur WUE was higher. This suggests that the latter species are able to maintain a balance between photosynthesis and transpiration. Photosynthetic rate was highest in P. tremula, B. pendula and A. glutinosa, however it was much more negatively affected by water deficit in these three species than in other tested species. In most cases, drought had a negative effect on production of pigments in deciduous tree species, which, together with increased amounts of malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide, indicated a presence of an oxidative stress. Significant population effect and population-by-treatment interactions found for most traits showed different plasticity and response of tree populations to the treatments. Although, only 19% of the populations showed significant ecovalencies. Some of the observed reactions may not be considered as adaptive acclimation as decreasing growth of some species and populations indicates deteriorating performance which may lead to changes in their competitiveness, thus compromising regeneration, persistence of natural successions and sustainability of forest ecosystems.
Internet banking, consumer adoption and customer satisfaction

Despite the importance of Internet banking in many financial institutions, fewer studies have focused on consumer adoption and customer satisfaction especially in the African setting. With technology implementation, a new phenomenon in Uganda’s banking sector and many customers has not yet embraced it, this study was conducted to determine the factors that influence consumer adoption of Internet banking service as well as examine the relationship between Internet banking service, customer adoption and customer satisfaction. The major instrument for the data collection was a questionnaire that was designed on a 5-point Likert scale to be able to collect good quantitative data. The study established that there was a significantly positive relationship between Internet banking and customer satisfaction which is consistent with the findings of Al-hawari and Ward (2005). The study recommended that more emphasis and efforts be laid on targeting individual clients. In addition, Internet banking service providers ought to look out for indicators of innovative ways of creating awareness about the service through participation in trade organizations, exhibitions as well as adoption of new technologies of Internet banking. Key words: Internet banking, customer satisfaction.
Enhancing Corporate Environmental Management Through Environmental Management Systems

Current environmental management aims to minimize the negative impacts of firms throughout their life cycle, and involves some tasks. Popular strategies such as Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) and Environmental Stewardship (ES) are being carried out with challenges, hence the need for Environmental Management Systems (EMSs). EMS shows adherence to a sustainable environmental policy, the meeting of appropriate environmental objectives, and the ability to demonstrate to a wide-range of interested parties that the system objectives are met. Implementing EMS consists of a cyclical management process, aimed to achieve continual environmental improvement. The International Standard Organization (ISO) has published ISO 14000 series of standards, with a view to providing organizations worldwide with the structure for managing environmental impacts of their activities, products and services, and to have a uniform EMS for use as an environmental management tool for sustainable development. The series is made up of documents related to EMS and those related to environmental management tools. However, in spite of the industrial popularity and business benefits of the ISO series, their impacts are not felt in Nigeria. NESREA, the enforcement agency in Nigeria is recommended to strengthen regulatory frameworks, especially by enhancing CSR and ES with EMSs to help improve organizational environmental compliance.
Inheritance of aroma in aromatic rice (OryzasativaL.)genotypes

The inheritance pattern of aroma in rice (OryzasativaL.) was carried out in thecrosses among three non-aromatic and two aromatic varieties. All the F1 plants of thethree crosses were non-aromatic indicating that the gene controlling aroma in the parentswas recessive. The segregation ratio of non-aromatic to aromatic plants was 3:1 in F2plants confirming the monogenic inheritance of aroma.
Title A model of cell motility leading to biphasic dependence oftransport speed on adhesive strength

A rolling model for cell motility is proposed here where the movement of cell is treated as a result of the continuous release and growth of adhesions at the trailing and leading edge of the cell, respectively. The appearance of actin polymerization is key in this model as it breaks the symmetry of adhesion characteristics. The cell speed predicted here is in the correct range and exhibits a biphasic relationship with the cell-substrate adhesive strength which is consistent with experimental observations. We will show that this biphasic dependence of cell speed on adhesivity is due to the interplay between the energy dissipation associated with cell movement and the thermal fluctuations of actin filaments necessary for polymerization. Our results also suggest that the mobility of adhesion molecules is not only unnecessary but may actually limit cell motility.
National Information Ecology: A New Institutional Economics Perspective on Global E-Commerce Adoption

Building off of the new institutional economics and e-commerce adoption literatures, we conduct a crosscountry analysis assessing the impact and effect of national information ecology on global e-commerce adoption in the years of 2003 and 2007, respectively. We utilize a secondary dataset from the Global E-readiness Rankings of the Economist Intelligence Unit, which evaluated information environments and e-commerce adoption in major economies around the world. The results of the analysis indicate that at the infant stage of e-commerce, supportive government policies, effective legal environment and compatible socio-cultural infrastructure were powerful facilitators of e-commerce adoption. As e-commerce becomes more prevalent, supportive government policies and socio-cultural infrastructure foster e-commerce activities, while the effect of the legal environments becomes negligible. The study presents evidence that national information ecologies, shaped by various institutional environment factors, exert influence on a country’s e-commerce adoption at different stages of e-commerce development. It is one of the first cross-country studies on the relationship between national institutional environments and e-commerce adoption and the research findings have managerial and policy implications for global e-commerce development.
Culturable bacterial phylogeny from a shallow water hydrothermal vent of Espalamaca (Faial, Azores) reveals a variety of novel taxa

Phylogenetic diversity of the 16S rRNA gene asso-ciated with the domain bacteria was examined at the level of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) using the rarefaction analysis from a newly identified shallow water hydrothermal vent, Espalamaca in the Azorean Island Faial (Horta), North Atlantic Ocean. Diluted sea water nutrient agar amended with metals manga-nese, lead, iron and element sulphur, could help in re-trieving highest OTUs (95) from the vent and 39 OTUs from nonvent. Molecular tools implemented on bac-terial census indicated the occupancy of γ-Proteobacteria by 55.78%, α-Proteobacteria by 21.05% and 12.63% of Bacteroidetes in the total population. Occurrence of novel species maximized with α-Proteobacteria (11/20) followed by Bacteroi-detes (5/12) signified the necessity of studying these groups to strengthen the biodiversity database. Shan-non index (H') and the Chao I richness estimator illu-strated a strong bacterial community in the venting area. The current study confers many bacterial genera which were not reported earlier in any of the shallow water vents and adds 33 new taxa to the database.
Mediterranean Forecasting System: forecast and analysis assessment through skill scores

Abstract. This paper describes the first evaluation of the quality of the forecast and analyses produced at the basin scale by the Mediterranean ocean Forecasting System (MFS) ( http://gnoo.bo.ingv.it/mfs ). The system produces short-term ocean forecasts for the following ten days. Analyses are produced weekly using a daily assimilation cycle. The analyses are compared with independent data from buoys, where available, and with the assimilated data before the data are inserted. In this work we have considered 53 ten days forecasts produced from 16 August 2005 to 15 August 2006. The forecast skill is evaluated by means of root mean square error (rmse) differences, bias and anomaly correlations at different depths for temperature and salinity, computing differences between forecast and analysis, analysis and persistence and forecast and persistence. The Skill Score (SS) is defined as the ratio of the rmse of the difference between analysis and forecast and the rmse of the difference between analysis and persistence. The SS shows that at 5 and 30 m the forecast is always better than the persistence, but at 300 m it can be worse than persistence for the first days of the forecast. This result may be related to flow adjustments introduced by the data assimilation scheme. The monthly variability of SS shows that when the system variability is high, the values of SS are higher, therefore the forecast has higher skill than persistence. We give evidence that the error growth in the surface layers is controlled by the atmospheric forcing inaccuracies, while at depth the forecast error can be interpreted as due to the data insertion procedure. The data, both in situ and satellite, are not homogeneously distributed in the basin; therefore, the quality of the analyses may be different in different areas of the basin.
Semiparametric latent variable regression models for spatiotemporal modelling of mobile source particles in the greater Boston area

Summary. Traffic particle concentrations show considerable spatial variability within a metropolitan area. We consider latent variable semiparametric regression models for modelling the spatial and temporal variability of black carbon and elemental carbon concentrations in the greater Boston area. Measurements of these pollutants, which are markers of traffic particles, were obtained from several individual exposure studies that were conducted at specific household locations as well as 15 ambient monitoring sites in the area. The models allow for both flexible non‐linear effects of covariates and for unexplained spatial and temporal variability in exposure. In addition, the different individual exposure studies recorded different surrogates of traffic particles, with some recording only outdoor concentrations of black or elemental carbon, some recording indoor concentrations of black carbon and others recording both indoor and outdoor concentrations of black carbon. A joint model for outdoor and indoor exposure that specifies a spatially varying latent variable provides greater spatial coverage in the area of interest. We propose a penalized spline formulation of the model that relates to generalized kriging of the latent traffic pollution variable and leads to a natural Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for model fitting. We propose methods that allow us to control the degrees of freedom of the smoother in a Bayesian framework. Finally, we present results from an analysis that applies the model to data from summer and winter separately.
Teaching Learning Based Algorithm for calculating optimal values of Sensing error probability, Throughput and Blocking Probability in Cognitive Radio

We consider Teaching Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) to optimize the sensing error probability, Throughput and Blocking Probability in Cognitive Radio (CR) network. Sensing error probability, Throughput can be optimized by finding the optimal values of false alarm probability and detection probability. Blocking Probability can be optimized by finding the optimum value of number of guard channels. Results of TLBO are compared with Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm
Investigation of the relationship between permafrost distribution in NW Europe and extensive winter sea-ice cover in the North Atlantic Ocean during the cold phases of the Last Glaciation

Atmospheric model simulations with different extents of sea-ice are compared with reconstructed European mean annual temperatures derived from permafrost indicators. Analysis of the results suggest that during cold phases of the Last Glacial, the southern margin of permafrost in western Europe was controlled by the latitude of the winter sea-ice margin in the North Atlantic Ocean. In this case reconstructions of permafrost extent in Europe may be used to constrain past winter sea-ice conditions in the North Atlantic Ocean. Accordingly, extensive North Atlantic sea-ice cover southwards to at least 501N is inferred during four phases of the Last Glaciation: (1) Early Pleniglacial (74–59 cal kyr BP), (2) the Hasselo Stadial (41.5–40 cal kyr BP), (3) the LGM (23–19 cal kyr BP) and (4) the Younger Dryas (12.7–11:5 cal kyr BP). The extensive sea-ice cover for the phase of maximum cold disagrees with recent studies suggesting a relatively warm North Atlantic during the LGM, while it agrees with the original CLIMAP reconstruction. Moreover, the estimate for the Younger Dryas cooling conflicts with reconstructions based on marine proxy data. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Identification of Microsatellite Markers for Finger Millet (Eleusine Coracana) by Analysis of Roche 454 GS-FLX Titanium Sequence Data

Finger millet is an important cereal cultivated in Eastern Africa as well as Southern India. It is a staple crop that is characterized by ability to thrive on a variety of environmental conditions, excellent grain storage quality and ability to withstand significant levels of salinity. Scientific research aimed at improving this important cereal has been negligible and it is regarded as one of the orphaned crop species. The aim of this project was to isolate microsatellite markers from finger millet by analyzing data provided following 454 GS-FLX Titanium sequencing. This is a next generation sequencing platform that confers the potential of isolating a greater number of microsatellites at a much lower cost than the conventional Sanger sequencing platform. These markers are hyper variable, and exhibit wide genomic distribution, co-dominant inheritance, reproducibility, multi-allelic nature and chromosome specific location. The 2 genotypes of finger millet studied were obtained from ICRISAT, Nairobi. These were KNE 755 and KNE 796. In silico tools were used to mine for the microsatellites from sequence data obtained after enrichment and 454 GS-FLX sequencing of finger millet genomic DNA. These tools included NGSQC, for quality screening, MIRA for sequence assembly, SciRoKo for SSR mining and BatchPrimer3 for primer design. In vitro analysis was undertaken to evaluate the markers supplied by Ecogenics. This involved PCR analysis followed by allele calling using the Gene Mapper software package. The allelic data generated was subjected to statistical analysis using PowerMarker to reveal polymorphism. The in silico study resulted in the identification of 92 primers that were unique from the published as well as the Ecogenics supplied primers. From the in vitro study, 49 markers were polymorphic and the average polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.4153. These markers are a significant addition to the existing 82 SSRs. They are also valuable tools that will be useful for conducting further genomic studies in finger millet, including MAS, fingerprinting studies as well as assaying genetic diversity. This study has demonstrated the use of NGS to rapidly and cost-effectively generate genomic sequences containing SSR motifs. It points to the possibility of using cutting edge technology to advance research in underutilized crops such as finger millet by researchers in Kenya. It also shows that it is possible to develop abundant genomic resources for hitherto understudied crops which have great significance to the development of third world countries in Africa and Asia.