Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time Step Considerations When Simulating Dynamic Behavior of High-Performance Homes

Building energy simulations, especially those concerning pre-cooling strategies and cooling/heating peak demand management, require careful analysis and detailed understanding of building characteristics.Accurate modeling of the building’s thermal response and material properties for thermally massive walls or advanced materials like phase change materials (PCMs) are critically important. However, one input variable that many times is not correctly assessed is time-step dependency. This study is part of an ongoing research effort that has led to the verification and validation of the EnergyPlus PCM and Conduction Finite Difference (CondFD) algorithms in EnergyPlus as well as the simplification of enthalpy linearization for PCMs. This paper demonstrates the importance of using the correct time step depending on the simulation objectives and technology analysed. Using field data of different pre-cooling strategies, this analysis shows and explains the time-step dependency shown in some cases. It also suggests appropriate time-step values depending on the application and HVAC controls.
Constructing a deformable human hand model in contact for virtual ergonomic assessment

Skin contact deformation plays a significant role in the virtual ergonomic assessment of handheld products. In this paper, a physical model with nonlinear elasticity and compressing-swelling effect of skin is proposed. Based on the model, we present an efficient contact solving method to simulate physical contact with product surfaces. According to the knowledge of hand surface anatomy, the hand surface skin is partitioned into different regions for being able to specify different physical parameters and for efficient simulation. The realistic contact deformations not only of fingers and a palm in simple contact conditions, but also in more practical grasp postures, were efficiently realized and experimentally verified. The verification results showed that the proposed deformable hand model could effectively approximate contact area, contact force and contact pressure distribution in an acceptable range for virtual ergonomic assessment.
Finance and Economics Discussion Series Divisions of Research & Statistics and Monetary Affairs Federal Reserve Board , Washington , D . C . Reconstruction multipliers

A law issued to allocate reconstruction grants following the 2009 "Aquilano" earthquake has resulted in a large and unanticipated discontinuity across municipalities with comparable damages. Using diff-in-diff analysis we estimate the "local spending" and the "local tax" multipliers according to the composition of the stimulus controlling for the negative supply shock generated by the event. The stimulus prevented a fall in economic activity and the multiplicative effects of tax cuts are estimated much higher than those of spending. Our results underline the importance of countercyclical fiscal interventions and suggest the most effective composition of such a stimulus.
Improving precision of program analysis in the 2 LS framework

The goal of this work is to propose a way to improve precision of program analysis in the 2LS framework, based on its existing concepts, mainly template-based synthesis of invariants. 2LS is a program analysis framework for C programs, which relies on the use of an SMT solver for automatic invariant inference. One of the techniques of 2LS’ main algorithm is abstract interpretation, which is used for invariant inference and thanks to its over-approximations, makes the computation of invariants easier. The proposed solution analyses the computed invariants, and identifies the parts of the invariant that cause an undecidability of the verification. Using the obtained information, the designed method is able to identify the variables of the original program, which determine whether a verification is successful. The solution can be used to locate unbounded or imprecise variables inside loops of the original program, that might be the cause of program errors. Also the output of the designed method can be used in further analyses, now focused on further constraining or refining the values of imprecise variables.
Dimensional e ffects on f ailure of c oncrete l oaded in Mode II and III

Concrete collapse is seldom governed by crack propagation in pure Mode I ( p ning), due to loading and geometrical complexities. Usually, a superposition of the three modes of propagation occurs. In the laboratory, instead, the tests are normally performed by loading structures in Mode I. Moreover, such tests are conducted on smaller samples with respect to the real dimension. These two factors should be analyzed in order to get the actual strength and toughness for real structural members. The Authors proposed the so-called Multifractal Scaling Law, largely validated in presence of failure in pure Mode I and especially in absence of large pre-notches. In the present work, the MFSL is applied to failures in Mode II (sliding) and Mode III (tearing). The interpretation of experimental tests for shear and torsion permits to affirm that the interaction between the microstructural characteristic length and the external structural size governs the scale effects also in Mode II and III .
Environmental Performance and the Cost of Capital: Evidence from Commercial Mortgages and REIT Bonds

There is an ongoing debate about the impact of environmental performance on a firm’s cost of capital, but most academic studies are hindered by methodological challenges. The real estate sector, which is at the nexus of many environmental and energy issues, offers a laboratory to address the relationship in a direct manner. Using a sample of U.S. REITs, we investigate the spreads on commercial mortgages collateralized by real assets, some of which are environmentally certified. We also study spreads on corporate debt, both at issuance and while trading in the secondary market. The results show that environmentally certified buildings command significantly lower spreads as compared to conventional, but otherwise comparable buildings. The spread difference varies between 35 and 36 basis points, depending on the specification. At the corporate level, we document that REITs with a higher fraction of environmentally certified buildings are able to issue bonds at lower spreads, after controlling for a broad set of REIT and bond characteristics. A difference-in-difference analysis of bond spreads in the secondary market corroborates this finding. The results in this paper provide some evidence that the financial market capitalizes the environmental performance of collateral into the pricing of financial products.
900803_TERRA ET AQUA Magazine #152 Binnenwerk.indd

‘AS A SECTOR, WE CAN BE MUCH BETTER AT HANDLING COMPLEXITIES. ’ Forged through his PhD study and more than a decade of research at Delft University of Technology and Deltares, Mark van Koningsveld found his professional calling in the application of science for decision-making. As a recently-appointed professor of Ports and Waterways at Delft University of Technology, he intends to inject the programme with his own strengths in digitisation, simulation and sustainability, building on the legacy of his predecessors. PROFESSOR PORTS AND WATERWAYS AT TU DELFT MARK VAN KONINGSVELD
A stochastic PDE-constrained optimization approach to vibration control of a composite plate subjected to mechanical and electromagnetic loads

It is known from previous studies that mechanical vibrations of a thin plate can be effectively damped by applying electromagnetic field to it. However, application of excessive electric current may lead to overheating and damage of the plate, thus it is crucial to find the proper profile of the electromagnetic field to apply. In addition, the mechanical load is assumed to be stochastic with known discrete distribution. In this work we address the problem to find the optimal profile of the electromagnetic field under stochastic mechanical load which is formulated as a stochastic PDE-constrained optimization problem. The governing system of PDEs is solved numerically and the optimization is done with the aid of a two-stage stochastic programming. The gradient of the objective function is found by using automatic differentiation. Numerical results are presented.
Topological Optimization and Methodology for Fabricating Additively Manufactured Lightweight Metallic Mirrors

Imaging systems for space and airborne platforms have aggressive Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) requirements. High quality, lightweight optics help enable these types of systems. Today typical light weighting techniques are accomplished through removal of material in the back structure with classical machining and the use of low-density, high-stiffness materials such as beryllium. We present a novel methodology for generating lightweight metallic mirrors that are fabricated by growing an additive manufactured blank, fly cutting the surfaces to be mirrored, and post processing the faces by coating them with electroless nickel and then diamond turning. This process was used in a case study for the development of a topology optimized, low-weight and high-stiffness spinning mirror. The mirror was fabricated with selective laser melting and post processed to deliver optical quality mirror surfaces.
Safety of topical ear medication in different clinical situations

Drugs administered directly into the ear canal are used for otitis externa, chronic chronic otitis media and, in some cases, acute inflammation of the middle ear in children with eardrum grommets. In some clinical conditions eardrum is incomplete or absent, or, at the preserved/reconstructed tympanic membrane, the rear wall of the ear canal is open to the antrum. Drugs applied topically to the external auditory canal are acidifying preparations, antiseptic substances and antibacterial or antifungal antibiotics, steroids and also heavy metals in colloidal form. Aminoglycosides, formerly appearing as the most common component of these drugs, because of the very high potential for ototoxicity, gradually disappear from the group of fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Numerous clinical studies have shown high therapeutic efficacy of these compounds in the absence of ototoxicity. In view of the possibility of obtaining a high concentration of antibiotic in the site of infection, and the absence of adverse effects, typical for systemic administration of the drug, they are recommended as monotherapy in chronic otitis externa, exacerbated chronic otitis media, and in cases of acute otitis media in children with grom-
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF NETWORK TOPOLOGY FOR AD-HOC WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK USING ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION ROUTING TECHNIQUE

In an ad-hoc wireless sensor network systems, the life time of sensor nodes is a crucial issue to ensure sustained functionality of the network. For a multi hop wireless sensor network the routing protocol used plays an important role in prolong the life time of the nodes. In this work, a routing technique based Ant Colony Optimization technique has been used and performance evaluation of different network topology is studied such as flat and clustered network. The system has been tested using six Telosb sensor nodes programmed with nesC language based Tinyos 2.1. 2 under Linux operating system. Also a python program has been used to monitor the performance of the network and collect the required data.The obtained results shows a good performance in power consumption when using clustering technique rather than other network topologies.
EXAMINING THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE EMOTION-BASED DECISION-MAKING SCALE

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Emotion-Based DecisionMaking Scale (EBDMS; Barchard, 2001). This scale was designed to measure the tendency to make decisions based upon emotions, one aspect of Emotional Intelligence as defined by Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey (2000). The 149 university students who participated in this study completed the EBDMS twice, one week apart, so we could assess both internal consistency and test-retest reliability. To assess convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity, Tett’s Intuition vs. Reason Scale (Tett, Wang, Gribler, & Martinez, 1997), the International Personality Item Pool Activity Level Scale (Goldberg, 1999), and a familial accord item were administered to each participant once and correlated with the EBDMS scores. The EBDMS had moderate internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and strong convergent validity and discriminant validity, but poor predictive validity for a single-item measure of quality of familial relationships. Item analyses revealed that item 2 reduced internal consistency and lacked convergent validity, and should probably be revised.
Evaluation of Air Samplers Systems in the Monitoring of Bioaerosols at Wastewater Treatment Plants

The study of air quality in open environments typically focuses on air pollution concentration, and not on the presence of bioaerosols, which may bring risks to human health through contamination resulting from microorganisms. A large sewage treatment plant was monitored using two types of air samplers for assessment of bioaerosols: a sampler that uses the system of direct impaction plate with agar medium and another by filtration of air in cellulose acetate membrane with 0.45 μm pore. The samples were in the vicinity of the various stages of treatment as: Grid Coarse, Aeration Tank, Exit of the Effluent and Garden. The microorganisms studied were Pseudomonas sp, Total Coliforms, Thermotolerant Bacteria, E. coli, Salmonella /Shigella, Enterobacteria and Fungi. The samples plated on specific media were incubated at 37°C. The colonies count was made in 24 and 48 hours. The results show that there was a greater concentration of microorganisms in air in the areas of pre-treatment, that the point of greatest concentration of microorganisms was the coarse grid and the microbial group of greater occurrence in all sampling points was fungi. The two sampling systems presented statistically similar results, indicating that the sampler by filtration can be considered a lowcost alternative for monitoring of bioaerosols in open
Calcite precipitation from CO 2H 2 OCa ( OH ) 2 slurry under 1 high pressure of CO 2 2 3

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Rhombohedral calcite precipitation from CO2-H2O-Ca(OH)2 slurry under supercritical and gas CO2 media German Montes-Hernandez, François Renard, Nicolas Geoffroy, Laurent Charlet, Jacques Pironon
DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF A REDUCED ORDER MATHEMATICAL FRAMEWORK TO UNRAVEL THE COMPLEXITY OF TRAUMA INDUCED COAGULOPATHY

In this study 1, we present a novel modeling approach which combines ordinary differential equation (ODE) modeling with logical rules to simulate an archetype biochemical network, the human coagulation cascade. The model consisted of five differential equations augmented with several logical rules describing regulatory connections between model components, and unmodeled interactions in the network. This formulation was more than an order of magnitude smaller than current coagulation models, because many of the mechanistic details of coagulation were encoded as logical rules. We estimated an ensemble of likely model parameters (N = 20) from in vitro extrinsic coagulation data sets, with and without inhibitors, by minimizing the residual between model simulations and experimental measurements using particle swarm optimization (PSO). Each parameter set in our ensemble corresponded to a unique particle in the PSO. We then validated the model ensemble using thrombin data sets that were not used during training. The ensemble predicted thrombin trajectories for conditions not used for model training, including thrombin generation for normal and hemophilic coagulation in the presence of platelets (a significant unmodeled component). We then used flux analysis to understand how the network operated in a variety of conditions, and global sensitivity analysis to identify which parameters controlled the performance of the network. Taken together, the hybrid approach produced a surprisingly predictive model given its small size, suggest1Adapted with permission from Sagar A and Varner JD, “Dynamic Modeling of the Human Coagulation Cascade Using Reduced Order Effective Kinetic Models” (2015) Processes, 3:178–203
FEA-Based Thermal-Mechanical Design Optimization for DBC Based Power Modules

DBC (direct bonded copper) is used as a standard power module substrate by industry. In this paper, the behavior of the thermal spreading for DBC based power modules is studied. To enhance thermal performance, design guide for choosing the optimized layer thickness and substrate size is discussed. Moreover, mechanical failures for difference materials in DBC substrate are briefly summarized. Based on these failure mechanisms, an objective function is used to develop an FEA (finite elements analysis) based optimization model for minimizing thermal-mechanical stress. The optimization platform converges and an optimized DBC substrate was generated successfully. Keywords—power module, DBC, thermal management, mechanical failure, CTE mismatch, optimization design, FEA
CLOUD COMPUTING FOR NEXT-GENERATION SEQUENCING DATA ANALYSIS

Since the automated Sanger sequencing method dominated in the 1980s (1), considered as the first-generation sequencing technology, researchers first have the opportunity to construct steadily an effective ecosystem for the production and consumption of genomic information. A large number of computational tools have been developed to decode the biological information from the sequence databases in the ecosystem. Due to the expensive cost of using the first-generation sequencing technology, only a few bacteria, whose organisms possess relatively small and simple genomes, were sequenced to publish. However, along with the completion of the Human Genome Project in the beginning of the 21st century, studies on large-scale genome analysis became feasible depending on an unprecedented proliferation of genomic sequence data, which was unimaginable only a few years ago. The advent of newer methods of sequencing, known as next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies (2), threatens the conventional genome informatics ecosystem in terms of the storage space, as well as the efficiencies of transitional tools when analyzing such huge amounts of data. The medical discoveries of the future will largely rely on our ability to dig out the “treasure” from the massive biological data. Thus,
ADVISER+: Toward a usable web-based algorithm portfolio deviser

The present study offers a more user-friendly and parallelized version of a web-based algorithm portfolio generator, called ADVISER. ADVISER is a portfolio generation tool to deliver a group of conﬁgurations for a given set of algorithms targeting a particular problem. The resulting conﬁg-urations are expected to be diverse such that each can perform well on a certain type of problem instances. One issue with ADVISER is that it performs portfolio generation on a single-core which results in long waiting times for the users. Besides that, it lacks of a reporting system with visualizations to tell more about the generated portfolios. ADVISER is extended as ADVISER + to overcome both of these issues while introducing new tuning based portfolio generation capabilities.
Research on the Effect Evaluation and the Time-series Evolution of Public Culture's Internet Communication under the Background of New Media: Taking the Information Dissemination of Red Tourism Culture as an Example

The emergence of new online media has promoted the communication of public cultural information, and systematic evaluation of its communication effectiveness has become an increasingly important research topic. This article aims to enrich and improve the evaluation index system for the effect of public cultural network communication and provide suggestions for improving the effect of public cultural network communication and constructing a good communication ecology. Based on factors such as propagation force, guiding force, and influence, this article crawled 78,140 pieces multi-source heterogeneous of nine Altmetrics index data from Sina Weibo, Baidu, Sogou, Bilibili, and other platforms, constructs the evaluation index system of public culture network communication effect under the background of new media, and quantifies and analyzes the network communication effect of red public culture in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. On this basis, the time-series evolution of communication effect is modeled and analyzed, and the law of communication is found systematically. The study finds that the communicating effect of red public culture varies significantly and has a large room for improvement overall; the communicating effect improves steadily with seasonal changes, and the communicating effect in summer and autumn is better than the other two seasons; the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (1,1,1) model can better present the dynamic changes of cultural communication system after the first-order difference of the time-series data. This article innovatively embeds the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei red culture in the public cultural construction system and research system, and a comprehensive communication effect evaluation index system is constructed to measure the effect of public culture network communication under the background of new media and analyze its dynamic evolution.
The Effectiveness of Selected Human Resources Management Practices on Organisational Performance and Objectives ( A Case Study of the Libyan Iron and Steel Company )

A considerable body of literature suggests that Human resource management is effective. Nonetheless, the term HRM is ambiguous, the precise ways in which it works uncertain, and hard empirical evidence as to its impact on organisational performance and objectives is short to lacking. The present study investigates executives’ perceptions of HRM, organisational performance, and realisation of organisational objectives at the Libyan Iron and Steel Company (LISCO). Results suggest that LISCO executives have positive perceptions of LISCO’s implementation of HRM, of LISCO performance, and of LISCO’s realisation of its objectives. However, regression analysis suggests some HRM practices have little impact on LISCO performance, and even fewer on LISCO’s realisation of objectives. The one exception to this is human resource planning. This suggests that, if anything, the most important aspect of HRM is its integration into an organisation’s strategic thinking, not the specific form it takes.
The use of a simple metric as criteria for the selection and composition of more robust ensembles.

This article presents an analysis of the main difﬁculties found in the construction of neural network ensembles applied to pattern classiﬁcation. Strategies for the generation of accurate agents, which have good margin of generalization and, at the same time, are relatively different in order to build more effective and robust ensembles, are empirically evaluated and compared. A simple yet effective metric to compare and predict with reasonable accuracy a ensemble’s generalization ability is proposed and its effectiveness is experimentally demonstrated.