Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On-line deadlock-free path-planning algorithms by means of a sensor-feedback tracing

In the sensor-based path-planning, a mobile robot always finds a deadlock-free path towards the goal if such the path exists in an uncertain world, otherwise it automatically sees that there is no deadlock-free path in the world. All the previous sensor-based path-planning algorithms keep two terminations as their deadlock-free characteristic under the following assumptions: 1) a robot faithfully traces an uncertain obstacle at a constant distance; and 2) a robot exactly recognizes its position. However, in general, a mobile robot with the non-holonomic system cannot faithfully trace an uncertain obstacle. Thus in this paper, we discuss deadlock-free characteristics of those algorithms after removing the first assumption in the presence of sensing and control errors. Then we propose some robust versions from the previous algorithms and also give proofs of their deadlock-free characteristics by a non-contact obstacle tracing with some errors.
Agency-Level Incentives and Collaborative Governance: State Mandates and Sustainable Groundwater Management in California

Most studies in collaborative governance examine how system-level variables drive collaboration, yet few have focused on how agency-level incentives shape local governing entities’ responses to mandates for collaboration imposed by higher-level governments. By examining the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, a large-scale governance reform experiment passed by the California legislature in 2014, the authors show that various types of local entities diverge in their collaboration choices due to differences in organizational capacity, issue salience, and the interests they represent. Compared with independent water districts, two other types of special districts—community services districts and dependent water districts—are more likely to participate in consolidated governance. By contrast, irrigation districts are less likely to do so, while cities exhibit no differences. Counties are more likely than independent water districts to be part of consolidated governance only if groundwater management is a highly salient issue within their jurisdictions.
A Design for a Multimedia Server using QuickTime

A multimedia server was developed using the facilities of the MacOS and QuickTime libraries. It allows multiple clients to simultaneously access QuickTime movies and improves significantly on the service provided by the built-in AppleShare file server in the context of multimedia. The parameters that guided the development of the server are presented as are the specific ways in which they limit the performance of the server. Results to performance tests run on both server models are compared indicating the superiority of the new multimedia server in relation to the AppleShare server. Thesis Supervisor: William J. Qualls Title: Associate Professor
Biotextiles: Evolving Textile Design Practices for the Bioeconomy and the Emerging Organism Industry

This chapter situates emerging practices in textiles within the context of the rising bioeconomy and the organism industry. Arguing for a radical shift in textile design processes and the need to embrace new models of biofabrication to transition towards more sustainable fashion and textile production, the chapter refers to a series of design artefacts that embody new biotextiles practices mindful of a bio-circular economy.
Closed-Loop Class-D Amplifier With Nonlinear Loop Integrators

In many integrated class-D audio amplifiers large linear capacitors are used to create the triangular reference signals for generation of PWM signals. In this paper, an integrated class-D amplifier is presented that uses a control loop with area efficient nonlinear gate oxide capacitors. A model is used to show that the nonlinearity does not degrade the THD performance. To limit the maximum voltage on the gate oxide capacitor, a method was used to prevent voltage drift of the integrator output in case the amplifier is clipping. This method also improves the clipping recovery behavior. Measurements and simulations on two amplifiers with linear and nonlinear capacitors confirm that nonlinear capacitors do not introduce additional distortion. Measurements on the amplifier with and without the clipping recovery method confirm the improvement in clipping recovery.
The need for ethical leadership in combating corruption

In this article, we empirically assess the role of ethical leadership in reducing corruption. We also examine whether the effectiveness of ethical leadership in curbing corruption depends on the quality of the reward system in public organizations. We focus on two related components of the reward system: the use of performance-based rewards and procedural fairness. Using data collected through a survey of 741 employees in 154 government and non-profit organizations in Pakistan, we find a negative association between ethical managerial leadership and reports of corruption. We also find that the use of performance-based rewards is associated with fewer incidences of corruption, and that the negative relationship between ethical leadership and corruption is stronger when employees report low levels of procedural fairness. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on and strategies for combating corruption in public organizations. Points for practitioners Ethical managerial leadership can reduce corruption in public organizations in developing countries. The need for ethical leadership is particularly high in organizations that are yet to establish a fair reward system. Moreover, to reduce incidences of unethical behavior and promote ethical behavior, managers in public organizations in developing countries should communicate ethical standards clearly, encourage subordinates to make decisions in an ethical manner, and hold subordinates accountable for unethical conduct.
Pratiques contraceptives des femmes infectées par le VIH suivies en ambulatoire au Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Treichville (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire)

Introduction La planification familiale est une stratégie à haut impacts pour la réduction de la mortalité maternelle et pour la prévention de la transmission mère-enfant du VIH. L'objectif de cette étude était de décrire les pratiques contraceptives des femmes infectées par le VIH suivies en ambulatoire au CHU de Treichville Méthodes Une enquête transversale descriptive a été réalisée dans les unités de soins ambulatoires aux personnes vivant avec le VIH du CHU de Treichville du 1er avril au 30 juin 2016. Durant cette période, toutes les patientes VIH positives en âge de procréer, fréquentant les services de gynécologie-obstétrique, pneumo-phtisiologie, dermatovénérologie et médecine interne ont été invitées à renseigner un questionnaire standardisé portant sur les caractéristiques sociodémographiques, médicaux et les pratiques contraceptives Résultats Au total, 283 femmes ont accepté de participer à l'étude, l'âge médian était de 36 ans avec une parité moyenne de 1,7. Les patientes étaient nullipares dans seulement 22,3% des cas et vivaient en couple dans 54,8% des cas. Elles n'avaient pas d'enfant avec le conjoint actuel dans 68,2% des cas. Le conjoint était informé du statut VIH dans 51,6% des cas. Elles étaient sous traitement antirétroviral dans 92,9% des cas avec une médiane de CD4 de 382 éléments/ml. La majorité des patientes (62,9%) avaient déclaré utiliser une méthode contraceptive moderne. Elles utilisaient surtout les progestatifs injectables (45,5%) et l'implant (32,6%). La pratique de la double protection n'a été signalé par seulement 17,4% d'entre-elles. Le niveau scolaire secondaire et supérieur (OR=2,23 [1,35-3,69], p=0,01), la multiparité (OR=1,84 [1,11-3,06], p=,002) et la révélation du statut VIH au conjoint (OR=1,86 [1,14-3,03], p < 0,01) étaient les facteurs significativement associés à l'utilisation de la contraception Conclusion Les pratiques contraceptives des femmes infectées par le VIH dans notre expérience restent globalement décevantes. Il faut développer des stratégies visant à améliorer l'intégration de la planification familiale dans la prise en charge les femmes infectées par le VIH.
Testing and improving the middleware infrastructure for the CERN accelerator controls

This document presents concepts and implementation of the middleware infrastructure for the CERN accelerator controls redeveloped and improved for the needs of the Large Hadron Collider operation. The first part depicts the CERN organization. The second one takes a look at the fundamentals of control systems as they are implemented in nowadays CERN facilities. Next chapters describe work of the author with CERN Control Middleware system (CMW), which at the time of author’s stay at CERN, underwent final phase of its development. Almost all main functionality had already existed. What was to be done was to implement a testing platform that would guarantee its reliability, stability and infallibility during the operation of the LHC. This included general testing of the libraries and development of scalability tests that would show the limits of the software, also with comparison to other, already existing solutions. These topics are described in chapter three. Chapter four shows the details on CMW-RecorderPlayer, an application developed by the author for more complex testing scenarios and diagnosis of running software. The last part focuses on the details of implementation and functionality of the CMW-Proxy, another application developed by the author of the thesis. CMW-Proxy is mainly being used to take off load from overloaded front-end servers and to decrease data transfer bandwidth between the servers and their clients. The proxy can also be used as a gateway from general network into the realm of the Technical Network by any authorized client seeking a transparent way to communicate with front-end computers.
Decomposition of intra-household disparity sensitive fuzzy multi-dimensional poverty index: A study of vulnerability through Machine Learning

The traditional multi-dimensional measures have failed to properly project the vulnerability of human-beings towards poverty. Some of the reasons behind this inability may be the failure of the existing measures to recognise the graduality inside the concept of poverty and the disparities within the household in wealth distribution. So this work wants to develop a measure to estimate the vulnerability of households in becoming poor in a multidimensional perspective through incorporating the intra-household disparities and graduality within the causal factors. Dimensional decomposition of the developed vulnerability measure is also under the purview of this work. To estimate the vulnerability and dimensional influences with the help of artificial intelligence an integrated mathematical framework is developed.
THE LAW OF WORD LENGTH IN A VOCABULARY

In the literature we can flnd linguistics laws that are then ex- ploited by many applications. This paper presents an empirical law that describes the frequency of the words of a given length in a language's vocab- ulary, as well as the length of distinct words in a corpus. This is a law that applies to any language.
ULTRACENTRIFUGE SEPARATIVE POWER MODELING WITH MULTIVARIATE REGRESSION USING COVARIANCE MATRIX

In this work, the least-squares methodology with covariance matrix is applied to determine a data curve fitting in order to obtain a performance function for the separative power δU of an ultracentrifuge as a function of variables that are experimentally controlled. The experimental data refer to 460 experiments on the ultracentrifugation process for uranium isotope separation. The process control variables, which significantly influence the δU values, are chosen in order to give information on the ultracentrifuge behaviour when submitted to several levels of feed flow F and cut θ and product line pressure Pp. The response curves are made relating the separative power with the control variables F, θ and Pp, to compare the fitted model with the experimental data and finally to calculate their optimized values.
État actuel et perspectives d'évolution des objectifs de sélection chez les ruminants

Le but de toute selection animale est d'ameliorer les caracteristiques genetiques des populations sur un ensemble de caracteres heritables et d'interet pour les generations a venir. C'est cet ensemble de caracteres que les geneticiens cherchent a resumer dans une fonction - dite " objectif de selection " - qui vise a donner une valeur de synthese des reproducteurs ou des races. La determination de l'objectif de selection d'une population animale necessite d'integrer la diversite des systemes de production et des caracteres d'interet economique, mais aussi des caracteristiques difficiles a quantifier d'un point de vue economique et biologique. Les index de synthese (IS) sont des instruments privilegies pour selectionner efficacement les animaux selon les orientations definies par les acteurs d'une race. Idealement, ils sont bases sur des etudes economiques associant des recettes et des couts a l'amelioration genetique des caracteres. Cette fonction peut etre tres complexe a etablir, notamment pour integrer les interets des divers acteurs de la filiere concernee, evaluer le benefice economique espere de la selection pour certains caracteres " non marchands ", ou apprehender l'evolution actuelle du contexte technique, economique et social. La prise en compte d'objectifs techniques consiste alors a fixer des niveaux de reponse souhaites sur les caracteres pour definir les ponderations des IS. Un bilan de la situation actuelle et les perspectives d'evolution sont presentes dans cette synthese. Les IS en races bovines sont bases sur des raisonnements technico-economiques integrant des systemes de production diversifies, mails ils ont ete elabores il y a 10 a 15 ans. Ils necessitent donc d'etre revisites tant pour inclure de nouveaux caracteres que pour actualiser les ponderations economiques des caracteres deja pris en compte. En ovins et caprins, les IS sont pour le moment bases sur des considerations techniques dans toutes les races, meme si les premieres propositions economiques voient le jour depuis 2012. Il convient aussi de mettre a jour les IS en integrant des nouveaux caracteres sur la base de considerations technico-economiques mais aussi societales. C'est l'objet du projet CASDAR OSIRIS (2012-2014) en construisant un outil generique a l'ensemble des 5 filieres de ruminants, capable de calculer l'incidence economique d'evolution des caracteres en fonction des conditions economiques et techniques propres a chaque filiere.
Utvärdering och beslutsunderlag för placering av IT-plattform : En fallstudie av Microsoft SharePoint

The availability of so called cloud services has increased during the last years, which in turn means that many of the classical solutions often found locally, now are offered in the cloud. A decision if a cloud solution should be used is affected by many different aspects, which in many cases are unique for the specific organization. Therefore there is a need for a method which takes all these important criteria’s into account, but also creates a good overview of the different options. At the same time the organization’s subjective perception also has to be taken into account, so that the material can serve as a solid foundation for a decision of which option that should be used. The goal of this study has been to contribute with new information and also to practically prove how this type of material can be created and used to motivate a decision. This has been dealt with as a case study, by comparing three different platform options for Microsoft SharePoint and rank them accordingly, after an already existing method for multi-criteria decision making. The method used ended up to be Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is an established method used in many other areas and takes subjective perception into account. The study has shown that it is possible to use AHP for this kind of comparison and that it will give you an overview between the different options, but also select the one most appropriate to use according to the
Past and Present of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) in Digital Learning Environment (DLE): A Meta-Empirical Review

Taking into consideration all the work that has been done in the field of regulating the learning processes that happen in one's own mind, there arises a thirst to review all the existing models of self- regulated learning that have been discovered and implemented until now. A considerable number of researchers and their research have long recognized the potential and benefits of the instructional tools available in digital learning environments (DLEs) which are particularly helpful for learners to develop self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors. This has led to the discussion of a comprehensive analysis and zooming in to novel features in sheer volume of available literature, which is covered in this paper. A comprehensive analysis over models in chronological order is conducted under following aspects: model evaluation, measuring instruments for learning strategy and supported empirical results. Accumulating all this knowledge into this paper will rather be beneficial to researchers as they will obtain the required theoretical insights gained from the provided meta-analytic evidence. This will enable those people who work with digital learning environments to think about and explicitly take note of the degree to which learners have gained this novel capacity of self-learning.
Acoustic echo control. An application of very-high-order adaptive filters

We have discussed the application of high-order adaptive filters to the problem of acoustical echo cancellation with particular application to hands free telephone systems. We described a means to achieve robust performance. We further presented methods for reducing computational complexity that allow implementation in low-cost, fixed-point digital signal processors. Progress in technology will allow the use of more sophisticated algorithms at lower cost in the near future.
AN 1 H-NMR-TECHNIQUE FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT SCREENING IN QUALITY AND AUTHENTICITY CONTROL OF FRUIT JUICE AND FRUIT JUICE RAW MATERIALS - SGF-PROFILING

The “natural” and “healthy” image of fruit juices and derived products is one of the reasons leading to their dynamic evolution in the global food sector. The fruit juice industry purchases its raw materials in a world-wide market. Despite a general trend in the food industry to install suitable traceability systems, the need for analytical control of authenticity and legal conformity has increased over the last years. Due to the relatively large natural variability and more-and-more ingenious adulterations observed on the market, sophisticated control has become an important economic factor in the fruit juice industry. Therefore the European fruit juice industry runs an own independent and global advanced quality control system for raw materials, SGF/IRMA (SGF International e.V. Sure Global Fair International Raw Material Assurance). SGF/IRMA co-operates with national and regional control organisations for market finished fruit juice products organised in the European organisation EQCS (European Quality Control System). Such control systems, official control bodies and individual companies have to analyse a very large number of products. The whole range of possible quality deviations can not be tested by routine analyses for cost reasons in every case.
Insights into the Importance-Performance Paradox of Software Product Attributes

The importance–performance analysis (IPA) is widely used for identifying which quality attributes should be improved for maximizing user satisfaction. The two dimensional grid of IPA are based on user-perceived attribute importance and performance. If the user-perceived attribute importance is high but its performance low then enhancing the performance of this attribute is likely to result in higher user satisfaction. But some studies have found that user importance may depend on attribute performance. This confounds the IPA analysis. Yet there is no study which has investigated whether this phenomenon is applicable for IS (Information Systems) products. This study conducted with an ERP system users show that user importance of an attribute is indeed dependent on its performance. For some attributes users overestimate their importance when the performance is low and underestimate them when the performance is high while for others the reverse is the case. Implications of this phenomenon for practice are discussed.
Building scalable geo-replicated storage back ends for web application

The goal of this paper is to develop a scalable geo replicated storage back ends for web applications. Web application mostly requires a storage system replicate across different sites also scalable. Generally we use traditionally database having strict consistency guarantee and programming ease, but in concern in geo replicated no SQL are scalable and efficient. For scalable and geo replicated storage for web application we have two system Walter and Lynx. Walter supports transactions and replication of data across sites. Walter have new isolation property called PSI(Parallel snapshot isolation) that allows asynchronously data replication. For implementing PSI Walter uses two techniques one is preferred sites and counting sets. Lynx is database backend for scaling web application. It support optimizing query via denormalization, secondary indexes and join view. A Distributed Transaction Chain (DTC) used to sequence transaction on different node with guarantee that all transactions execute exactly once despite failure. So many application will be developed like micro blogging, social networking. Using these methods applications are capable for providing scalability across geo replicated site.
CHANGES IN SCAPULAR MOTION DURING A SIMULATED BASEBALL GAME

The importance of role of the scapula in throwing motion is reported in many clinical situations. Therefore, stability of the scapula in relationship to the entire moving arm is key point in the throwing motion. However, the scapular motion is often ignored in conventional biomechanical research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in scapular motion during a simulated baseball game.
IMPLEMENT ATION OF DIGITAL WATERMARKING USING VHDL

Digital watermarking technology is a frontier research field and it serves an important role in information security. Digital Watermarking is a technology of embedding watermark with intellectual property rights into images, videos, audios and other multimedia data by a certain algorithm. The basic characteristics of digital watermark are imperceptibility, security, reliability, low complexity of watermarking algorithm and security of the hiding place. According to the analysis of the definition and basic characteristics of digital watermarking technology, the system model of digital watermarking is given. The system consists of two modules which are watermark embedding module and watermark detection and extraction module. In this paper we employed the two dimension wavelet transform on the Windows platform by using VHDL program language to embed the watermark. VHDL implementation is done to save resources and for faster operation. The embedding and retrieving of watermark using this is faster than that done through high level programming languages. The experiment result shows that the digital watermark is non-perceptible; the watermark information can be extracted even if it has been attacked, and the expected effect can be achieved.