Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fostering Systems Engineering Education Through Interdisciplinary Programs and Graduate Capstone Projects

Abstract : The United States Department of Defense is experiencing significant shortages of scientists and engineers, and the shortage is even more severe in the area of Systems Engineering (SE). The challenge is to not only increase the numbers of scientists and engineers, but to improve the system level thought processes of these individuals. Graduate degree programs, as a part of a larger professional development program, are often relied on to provide this higher level perspective. However, many graduate degree programs, especially those at research focused graduate schools, tend to be narrowly focused within sub-disciplines of an academic department. While this may serve the academic community well in terms of furthering research programs and developing future researchers, it is not the only, and may not be the best, approach for educating practicing engineers returning to industry and/or government offices where their newly acquired knowledge will be applied. The graduate SE program at the Air Force Institute of Technology has been conducting defense-focused interdisciplinary and interdepartmental capstone projects over the last few years that have combined students across multiple disciplines on broadly scoped topics using SE to define, scope and integrate the individual research efforts. These projects typically result in multiple thesis documents covering several research investigations with an additional document written by the SE students that provides the unifying framework for integration and, where applicable, transition of the demonstrated technologies. All projects have one or more sponsors, often including one from the operational organizations with the Department of Defense. These sponsors are often actively involved in the conduct of the project, thus providing relevance and subject matter expertise.
Loan Supply Shocks and the Business Cycle

This paper provides empirical evidence on the role played by loan supply shocks over the business cycle in the Euro Area, the United Kingdom and the United States from 1980 to 2010 by applying a time-varying parameters VAR model with stochastic volatility and identifying these shocks with sign restrictions. The evidence suggests that loan supply shocks appear to have a significant effect on economic activity and credit market variables, but to some extent also inflation, in all three economic areas. Moreover, we report evidence that the short-term impact of these shocks on real GDP and loan volumes appears to have increased in all three economic areas over the past few years. The results of the analysis also suggest that the impact of loan supply shocks seems to be particularly important during slowdowns in economic activity. As regards to the most recent recession, we find that the contribution of these shocks can explain about one half of the decline in annual real GDP growth during 2008 and 2009 in the Euro Area and the United States and possibly about three fourths of that observed in the United Kingdom. Finally, the contribution of loan supply shocks to the decline in the annual growth rate of loans observed from the peaks of 2007 to the troughs of 2009/2010 was slightly less than half of the total decline in the Euro Area and the United States and somewhat more than half of that in the United Kingdom. JEL Classification: C32, E32, E51
Op-Amps for Pipeline ADCs

All electrical signals in nature are analog and since most of the signal processing is done in the digital domain, Analog to Digital (ADC) and Digital to Analog (DAC) converters have become a necessity. Flash ADC makes all bit decisions in a single go while Successive approximation ADC makes single bit decision at a time. Flash ADCs are faster but area increases exponentially with bit length while successive approximation ADC is slow and occupies less area. Between these two extremes, many other architectures exist, deciding a fixed number of bits at a time such as pipeline and multistep ADCs. They balance circuit complexity and speed. For medium speed and with high resolution pipelined ADCs are promising. This paper is devoted to study the op-amp requirements for pipelined ADCs and the comparison of different op-amp architectures.
ANTECEDENTS OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION, METACOGNITION AND THEIR EFFECTS ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE FOR MATRICULATION COURSES

Purpose This study examined the interrelationships between a set of antecedent academic intrinsic motivations and metacognitive strategy such as goal orientation, perceived value and religiosity in Fundamental Knowledge for Matriculation courses (FKM). It also investigated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and metacognitive strategy on one hand, and students’ academic performance on the other. Methodology – A total of 471 second-year students (233 males and 238 females) were randomly selected to participate in a survey, following a stratified random sampling. Hypothesized relationships of academic intrinsic motivation, metacognitive strategy and their predictors were then tested by using Structural Equation Modeling. Findings Using bootstrapping (data-based resampling), the findings confirmed the proposed model which suggests that goal orientation and Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction: Vol. 14, No. 2 Dec (2017) perceived values contributed to students’ academic performance directly and indirectly via intrinsic motivation and metacognition. Additionally, the findings also indicate that goal orientation was the main determinant of intrinsic motivation and metacognition, followed by perceived value. It was also found that religious motives within a perceived value construct contributed significantly to students’ academic performance in a direct and indirect manner via intrinsic motivation and metacognitive strategy. Significance – The study suggests the importance of goal orientation especially mastery and performance as well as perceived value and most significantly, religious motive in students’ intrinsic motivation and their use of metacognitive strategies. The study also highlights the significance of intrinsic motivation and metacognitive strategies in students’ academic performance. Hence, it is recommended that learners should be helped to adopt appropriate academic goals, and be encouraged to use metacognitive strategies to enhance their learning
An extended 'Feder'' model of dualistic growth

Feder's (1982) model of dualistic growth is derived in levels, suitable for time-series analysis and (i) extended to contexts where aggregate input data are unavailable (ii) sectoral externalities and productivity differentials are generalised in a two- and three-sector (agriculture-manufacturing-services) context.
An enhanced median filter for removing noise from MR images

In this paper, a novel decision based median (DBM) filter for enhancing MR images has been proposed. The method is based on eliminating impulse noise from MR images. A median-based method to remove impulse noise from digital MR images has been developed. Each pixel is leveled from black to white like gray-level. The method is adjusted in order to decide whether the median operation can be applied on a pixel. The main deficiency in conventional median filter approaches is that all pixels are filtered with no concern about healthy pixels. In this research, to suppress this deficiency, noisy pixels are initially detected, and then the filtering operation is applied on them. The proposed decision method (DM) is simple and leads to fast filtering. The results are more accurate than other conventional filters. Moreover, DM adjusts itself based on the conditions of local detections. In other words, DM operation on detecting a pixel as a noise depends on the previous decision. As a considerable advantage, some unnecessary median operations are eliminated and the number of median operations reduces drastically by using DM. Decision method leads to more acceptable results in scenarios with high noise density. Furthermore, the proposed method reduces the probability of detecting noise-free pixels as noisy pixels and vice versa.
Seasonal rainfall and crop productivity in South West Ethiopia: Preliminary analysis for recent climate

Rainfall is the most important element that limits the productivity of crops. Proper analysis of rainfall trend and understanding of its relationship with land productivity may help in planning purposes. Accordingly, a study was conducted to assess the statistical behavior of monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall in south west Ethiopia (Arba Minch). Furthermore, correlation statistics was employed to explain the relationship between land productivity and the pattern of rainfall for two major crops (teff and maize). The analysis for recent rainfall data (2005 to 2016) showed that the mean annual total rainfall was 962 mm, where the highest was recorded in 2007 (1,141 mm), and the least was in 2009 (638 mm). Similarly, the mean total rainfall for the short and main rainy seasons were 373 and 417 mm, respectively. The main rainy season (June to October) covered nearly 42% of the total rainfall and 39% of the annual rainfall was recorded during the short rainy season (March to May). With respect to the variability of the rainfall record, the short rainy season was more unpredictable than both (which had 34% coefficient of variation), the main rainy season and the total annual rainfall (26 and 15% in their respective orders). The nature of the variability is in agreement with the rest locations in the country, where in most cases, the total annual rainfall is expectable. The correlation analysis revealed that maize productivity had strong positive relationship with the rainfall record of the main and short rainy season, while teff negatively correlated with the distribution of the rainfall during 2011 and 2016. Similarly, rainfall during the month of June had high correlation (0.76) with the yield of teff, while for the same crop, the total rainfall for the month of September had equal negative correlation with the productivity (0.78). Key words: Coefficient of variation, correlation, land productivity, rainfall, trend.
VvWRKY13 enhances ABA biosynthesis in Vitis vinifera

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays critical roles in plant growth and development as well as in plants’ responses to abiotic stresses. We previously isolated VvWRKY13, a novel transcription factor, from Vitis vinifera (grapevine), and here we present evidence that VvWRKY13 may regulate ABA biosynthesis in plants. When VvWRKY13 was ectopically expressed in Arabidopsis , the transgenic lines showed delayed seed germination, smaller stomatal aperture size, and several other phenotypic changes, indicating elevated ABA levels in these plants. Sequence analysis of several genes that are involved in grapevine ABA synthetic pathway identified WRKY-specific binding elements (W-box or W-like box) in the promoter regions. Indeed, transient overexpression of VvWRKY13 in grapevine leaves significantly increased the transcript levels of ABA synthetic pathway genes. Taken together, we conclude that VvWRKY13 may promote ABA production by activating genes in the ABA synthetic pathway.
Exploring Women’s Multi-Level Career Prospects in Pakistan: Barriers, Interventions, and Outcomes

Utilizing the relational framework of diversity management and social role theory, this exploratory study illuminates the career prospects of women working in the patriarchal society of Pakistan. With the help of Nvivo 12 Plus, themes were generated based on 27 in depth, semi-structured interviews. The findings showed an interrelated web of factors interacting at three levels; macro, meso, and micro; that were explained on the premises of the social role theory. Major impediments to women’s career progress were religious interpretations, socio-cultural factors and Sifarish (i.e., favoritism/nepotism) at the macro-level. At the meso-level, the barriers involved segregation, discrimination, harassment, and lack of work-family balance initiatives at the workplace. The micro-level obstacles involved personal values and needs, queen bee syndrome and a lack of awareness. The experiences of Pakistani women varied based on socio-economic status, marriage, religion and various aspects of individual identity, that intersected with gender and accordingly affected their career outcomes either positively or negatively. Therefore, the study also contributes to the emergent area of intersectional studies which posits that individuals experience various facets of identity concurrently and that these factors do not operate separately but are interrelated and interact. Moreover, the study also highlights the interventions for creating gender parity like clarification of Islamic guidelines, strict accountability of workplace policies, and the provision of work-family balance support. The outcomes highlighted by the respondents included happiness, confidence, agency, and improved quality of life. The paper concludes with implications for theory and practice, limitations, and future research avenues.
Foot Sensation Status of Malay Women with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

This study aimed to identify the foot sensory status of Malay women with type 2 diabetes mellitus and to determine its relation with: demographic factors, glycated haemoglobin level in plasma, and body mass index. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 71 Malay women with type 2 diabetes mellitus who attend three health clinics in Hulu Langat District, Selangor. Foot sensation was assessed using the Semmes-Weinstein Monofilament 5.07 in nine locations on the plantar and dorsal of the feet. Loss of protective sensation was defined as inability to sense the monofilament in one or more sites of either foot. This study found that 56.3% of women had loss of protective sensation, with common sites being the heel, fifth metatarsal head, lateral mid-foot and little toe. Duration of diabetes mellitus were significantly related to foot sensation. The age, HbA1C level and body mass index did not show any significant correlation. Loss of protective sensation may lead to serious foot complication and therefore early screening involving multidisciplinary team is essential for prevention.
IMPACTS OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND CUSTOMER COLLABORATION ON INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF SIGMA KUDOS AB

Software and non-software development organizations have increasingly adopted agile because of its good practices. In spite of its success, knowledge of the impacts of agile practices and how it could improve communication and customer collaboration in information development is yet to be well established in most of these organizations. Especially in companies that produces technical documentation ( information development). This article presents the results from a study which examined the impact of agile practices on effective communication and customer collaboration within information development teams. The research was carried out as a case study at Sigma Kudos AB. where eight participants within a project were compared from the communication and collaboration perspective. The goal of the study is see the benefits that the practices brings to the organization and their customer. Keyword: Information development, communication, collaboration, agile practices
Spectral asymptotics for two-dimensional Schrödinger operators with strong magnetic fields

Abstract. In this paper we study the perturbed quadratic Hamiltonian in two-dimensional case, P (b, ω) = (Dx − by) + D y + ωx − √ b2 + ω2 + V (x, y). Here, b is the strong constant magnetic field, ω 6= 0 is a fixed constant, and the potential V vanishes at infinity. For f ∈ C 0 ((−∞, 0);R) and b large enough, we give a full asymptotic expansion in powers of b of the trace of f(P (b, ω)). Moreover, we also obtain a Weyl formula with optimal remainder estimate of the counting function of eigenvalues of P (b, ω) as b → ∞.
Interactive comment on “Fire in ice: two millennia of Northern Hemisphere fire history from the Greenland NEEM ice core” by P. Zennaro et al

Zennaro at al. report ice core records of ammonium, levoglucosan and BC from the northern Greenland site of NEEM covering the last 2000 yrs. The topic of the manuscript is highly relevant with the scopes of the CP journal: interactions between climate and occurrence of boreal forest fires over the past. However, as detailed below, as it stands, the manuscript has too many weak aspects (structure of the paper, incomplete presentation of the state of the art sometimes missing key previous works, paragraphs sometimes very poorly written, some statements weakly supported). I encourage the authors to take time to improve the manuscript with major revisions specially concerning the structure of the paper, a more accurate presentation of the state of the art, and more in depth comparison of available high-resolution chemical ice core records for Greenland (previous works at Summit and D4, as well as the high-resolution ammonium record at NEEM). C136
A Tableau Decision Algorithm for Description Logic CATSbqr

The graphical representation of the UML class diagram does not have a clear semantics, so that it is unable to auto detect the semantic errors in the model. To solve this problems, somebody provides a tools called description logic CATSbqr,which can transports the class diagram to CATSbqr knowledge base, so it can use the reason mechanism of knowledge base to detect the corrective of the model. But CATSbqr lacks reasoning algorithm for satisfiability and subsumption reasoning tasks at present. Based on this,in this paper a kind of description logic tableaux based satisfiability reasoning algorithm for CATSbqr is presented, after that ,we used the RacerPro reasoned to reasoning the knowledge base which transformation form DLs CATSbqr. The theoretical foundation for the implementation of automatic reasoning of satisfiability , redundancy, and subsumption relation of UML composition association is presented through description logic CATSbqr tableaux reasoning algorithms.
Taylor Rule: A Vector Autoregressive Model Analysis For Turkey

Son zamanlarda merkez bankalari para politikasi stratejilerini, duruma gore politikalar yerine acikca belirlenmis kurallara dayali olarak belirleme egilimindedir. Merkez bankalarinin uyguladiklari politikalarin tahmin edilebilir olabilmesinin en basit yolu, politika uygulamalarinin merkez bankasinin gelistirdigi basit kurallara gore yurutulmesidir. Merkez bankalarinca yurutulen para politikasinin daha fazla tahmin edilebilir kilinmasi, ekonomik birimleri politika surprizlerine karsi kendilerini garantiye almak zorunda birakmamakta ve politika uygulamalarinin topluma yansiyacak maliyetini azaltabilmektedir. Optimal bir politika kurali karmasik modellere dayali olabilmektedir. Fakat karmasik modeller, duruma gore politikalarin neden oldugu problemlerin cozumunu zorlastirabilir, hatta imkânsizlastirabilir. Cunku karmasik kurallar icin ihtiyac duyulan tum bilgi halk tarafindan takip edilemeyecektir. Taylor Kurali gibi basit kurallar ise daha kolay anlasilabilmekte ve uygulanabilmektedir. Bununla birlikte, Orijinal Taylor Kural’inda doviz kuru yer almamaktadir. Bu calismada ise, Taylor Kurali doviz kurunu da icerecek sekilde genisletilmistir. Bu nedenle, bazi gelismis ulkeler icin gecerli olan Taylor Kurali’ni Turkiye icin gecerliligini Genisletilmis Taylor bilgi setini olusturan degiskenler kullanilarak arastirilmasi amaclanmaktadir. Ancak, bu calisma mevcut literaturden farkli olarak Turkiye icin Taylor Kurali’nin gecerliligi cesitli faiz oranlarina gore model denemeleri yapilarak test edilmeye calisilacaktir. Bu amacla, arastirmada 1986:5-2010:9 donemini kapsayan aylik veriler kullanilarak VAR yontemiyle analiz yapilmistir. Yapilan analiz sonucu, her uc model icin olmasa da genelde Turkiye’de faizlerin Taylor Kurali’na bagliymis gibi hareket ettigi soylenebilir. Ayrica, para politikasi araci olarak MB’nin kisa vadeli krediler icin ongordugu reeskont faiz orani temel alinarak yurutuldugunde daha istenir sonuclar vermesinden dolayi politika yapicilarinin Turkiye icin bu politika seceneginin dikkate almasi gerektigi ifade edilebilir.
The Emerging Role of microRNAs in Polyglutamine Diseases

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding molecules that regulate a large amount of post-transcriptional repressor genes by recognizing semi-complementary target sequences that are normally located in the 3′ UTR of the mRNA. Altered expression of miRNA has been related to several pathological processes, including polyglutamine (Poly Q) diseases. Specific expression patterns in the circulating fluids and brain parenchyma have been speculated as potential biomarkers for Poly Q disease diagnosis and prognosis. Several miRNAs have been consistently identified in diseases including Huntington’s disease (HD) and spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). In our review, we describe the emerging role of miRNAs in Poly Q diseases and provide an overview on general miRNA biology, implications in pathophysiology, and their potential roles as future biomarkers and applications for therapy.
Anesthetics and human epidermal growth factor incorporated into anti-adhesive nanofibers provide sustained pain relief and promote healing of surgical wounds

Background: This study exploited sheath-core-structured lidocaine/human EGF (hEGF)-loaded anti-adhesive poly[(d,l)-lactide-co-glycolide] (PLGA) nanofibrous films for surgical wounds via a co-axial electrospinning technique. Materials and methods: After spinning, the properties of the co-axially spun membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, laser-scanning confocal microscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometry, water contact angle measurements, and tensile tests. Furthermore, a HPLC analysis and an ELISA evaluated the in vitro and in vivo release curves of lidocaine and hEGF from the films. Results: PLGA anti-adhesion nanofibers eluted high levels of lidocaine and hEGF for over 32 and 27 days, respectively, in vitro. The in vivo evaluation of post-surgery recovery in a rat model demonstrated that no adhesion was noticed in tissues at 2 weeks after surgery illustrating the anti-adhesive performance of the sheath-core-structured nanofibers. Nanofibrous films effectively released lidocaine and hEGF for >2 weeks in vivo. In addition, rats implanted with the lidocaine/hEGF nanofibrous membranes exhibited greater activities than the control demonstrating the pain relief efficacy of the films. Conclusion: The empirical outcomes suggested that the anti-adhesive nanofibrous films with extended release of lidocaine and hEGF offer post-operative pain relief and wound healing.