Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From Canmore to Kananaskis: where has the last 20 years in footwear science brought us?

Twenty years ago, marked the Fourth Symposium of Footwear Biomechanics (FBS). The symposium was held in Canmore, Alberta, just a short drive from this year’s location in Kananaskis. The meeting attracted over 100 delegates who were exposed to a strong scientific program highlighted by keynote lectures from Drs. Joe Hamill, Thomas Milani, Martyn Shorten and Yasunori Kaneko. Dr. Toni Arndt, the current President of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) and former Chairperson of the Footwear Biomechanics Group, won the Applied Research Prize. Dr. Martyn Shorten won the Basic Research Prize, and today we have the Innovation Award named in his honor. The growth of FBS since that time has been considerable. The 14th biennial FBS in Kananaskis will host more than 200 participants and have over 120 presentations. We have been fortunate enough to bring in nine Keynote and Invited Speakers with backgrounds in both academia and industry. Like previous meetings, the current symposium and the abstracts in this volume of Footwear Science cover a diverse assortment of topics with research ranging from basic to applied, from experimental to theoretical and from athletic to clinical footwear. Traditional topics such as injury and performance remain staples for abstracts accepted in this issue, while topics such as comfort/perception and cushioned/ minimalist footwear have seen a re-emergence of research interest. New themes in footwear science have also appeared, such as research incorporating wearable sensors enabling researchers to collect data outside the laboratory (Matijevich, Bransombe, Scott, & Zelik, 2019). Utilization of new imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (Willwacher et al., 2019), stereo radiography (Myers, Allen, Laz, LawlerSchwartz, & Conrad, 2019) and ultrasound (Garofolini, Ghasem-Zadeh, Taylor, McLaughlin, & Mickle, 2019) are providing non-invasive investigation of internal structures within the human body. Footwear customization through machine learning (Booth, Sijbers, & Huysmans, 2019) techniques are at the forefront of footwear science. In 2011, Editor-In-Chief, Ned Frederick contended that researchers should ‘Embrace variability, use as many subjects and especially trials as possible, be open and perhaps even naive rather than dogmatic, and appreciate the most embarrassing questions for being the gift that they are’ (Frederick, 2011). The current set of abstracts found in this issue of Footwear Science demonstrate that we are well on the way, leveraging new analytical tools, and challenging dogma in the process. With many examples found in these pages, the next twenty years hold promise and excitement, as we collectively continue on our journey of footwear research.
Reducing Lead Times for Organizations Handling Multiple Projects in an Engineer to Order Environment - A Case Study at Jensen Sweden

This report is based on a case study made at an organization working in a multi-project engineer to order environment and aims to shorten the total customer project lead time for their customer projects. The report is based on interviews, workshops and quantitative data collection. Some identified challenges are that the organization is operating with a traditional structure without any appointed project manager. This type of organizational structure hinders effective communication, coordination and collaboration between departments. The structure is an essential element in the organizational design and the effects of it reveals itself in long lead times and unclear responsibilities. The solutions presented in this report are aimed at reorganizing the company structure from a traditional structure to a matrix structure. The report also aims at investigating what type of matrix structure is most suitable for the organization and how a project manager role could be implemented. Furthermore, by changing the organizational structure, processes are also affected, and by doing a business process reengineering, processes can be resettled upstream the supply chain and a more cross functional integration can be achieved. By doing this, the report fulfils its intended purpose to reduce project lead times.
Pinch Grasp and Suction for Delicate Object Manipulations Using Modular Anthropomorphic Robotic Gripper with Soft Layer Enhancements

This paper is an extension of our previous work about a modular anthropomorphic robotic hand with soft enhancements focusing on simultaneous pinch grasp and suction-based object manipulations. The base structure is a tendon-driven robotic hand comprising five fingers and a palm. Each finger consists of two rigid links covered with soft enhancements. The soft enhancements are like the skin and tissues of the robotic hand. The tip of the finger is equipped with a suction module which can be actuated by regulating negative pressure to the soft layers. While our previous work dealt with the rationale behind and the structure of the modular design with kinematic analysis, this paper focuses on analyzing two specific capabilities of the gripper—pinch grasp and suction modality. Experiments validate that the proposed gripper together with the soft enhancement layers is capable of performing delicate single finger suction-based manipulation tasks and two-finger pinch grasp tasks.
An Agent-Based Simulation Model for Parking Variable Message Sign Location Problem

Parking spaces are often in short supply in urban areas. To balance the supply and demand and alleviate the overconsumption of public spaces, parking variable message signs (parking VMSs) are commonly used to release information on space availability to drivers en route. The aim of this study was to find the optimal positions for parking VMSs. To achieve the objective, we first define the major decision point (MDP) as the intersection where the newly generated path deviates from the previous one. When informed that the target parking lot is fully occupied, the driver would divert to an alternative one. The route to the alternative parking lot is indicated as the newly generated path, while the one leading to the original parking lot is denoted as the previous one. Quantitatively, MDPs with the highest frequency of occurrence are selected as the candidate positions. Then, an agent-based simulation is proposed to identify the MDPs induced by changes of space availability and the selection of routes. The results indicate that the proposed location algorithm slightly outperforms the scheme with the completed parking information in terms of average travel time and average travel distance. The algorithm can be further integrated into a simulation package, which may assist in the design and operation of an urban parking guidance and information system.
The Structure and Dynamics of Ringed Galaxies. V. The Kinematics of NGC 1512, NGC 3351, NGC 4725, and NGC 4736

The spirals NGC 1512, NGC 3351, NGC 4725, and NGC 4736 are four large nearby examples of ringed galaxies whose kinematic properties are studied in this paper by means of H-alpha Fabry-Perot interferometry. Velocity fields are first analyzed in terms of pure circular motions, and approximate rotation curves and masses are derived. Then, the kinematics of the inner rings alone are studied using a velocity-position angle diagram, and analyzed in terms of circular rotation, rotation plus uniform expansion or contraction, an unperturbed dispersion orbit, or a perturbed oval bar orbit. The results show, first, that the inner ring in each of these galaxies is a region where H-alpha emission is enhanced compared with regions inside or outside the ring, and hence that the ring is a zone of active star formation. Only for NGC 4725 does the velocity-position angle diagram of the inner ring show an unmistakable asymmetry indicative of significant noncircular motions. However, for all four galaxies, models of stable elliptical orbits provide fits to the inner rings which are just as acceptable as pure rotation or expanding/contracting ring fits. In no case is a unique kinematic model of the ring achievable, owing to inadequate knowledge of the parentmore » galaxy orientation parameters. 55 references. « less
Control Design of LCL Type Grid-Connected Inverter Based on State Feedback Linearization

Control strategy is the key technology of power electronic converter equipment. In order to solve the problem of controller design, a general design method is presented in this paper, which is more convenient to use computer machine learning and provides design rules for high-order power electronic system. With the higher order system Lie derivative, the nonlinear system is mapped to a controllable standard type, and then classical linear system control method is adopted to design the controller. The simulation and experimental results show that the two controllers have good steady-state control performance and dynamic response performance.
3D Printable Linear Soft Vacuum Actuators: Their Modeling, Performance Quantification and Application in Soft Robotic Systems

Conventional robotic systems have proved their versatility in the industry where complex tasks requiring high force, high speed and high precision are desired. However, these rigid-bodied systems cannot collaborate safely with humans. Soft robots which are primarily made of highly compliant materials bring robots and humans together by operating safely in unstructured environments. Soft robots demand dexterous soft actuators that preserve or enhance their softness and safety features. This article reports on modeling, performance quantification, and soft robotic applications of directly three-dimensional (3-D) printed linear soft vacuum actuators (LSOVA), that are manufactured in a single step, using a low-cost and affordable open-source fused deposition modeling 3-D printer. Numerical and experimental results presented show that LSOVA have multiple advantages including high bandwidth (∼6.49 Hz), high output force (∼27 N) and long lifetime (∼21 500 cycles). LSOVA blocked force and linear stroke can be predicted accurately using finite element and analytical models. Furthermore, LSOVA are scalable. The soft actuators can be either assembled in parallel as a bundle, where a linear relationship exists between the number of actuators and the output force or can be scaled up in terms of internal volume where a linear relationship exists between the output force and the internal volume of a single actuator. Finally, LSOVAs were tailored for various robotic applications including soft crawling robots for navigation in tubular systems, soft parallel manipulators for pick and place tasks, soft artificial muscles, soft prosthetic fingers for prosthetic hands, and soft adaptive grippers for gripping applications.
Performance prediction and evaluation in recommender systems: An information retrieval perspective

Personalised recommender systems aim to help users access and retrieve relevant information or items from large collections, by automatically finding and suggesting products or services of likely interest based on observed evidence of the users? pref-erences. For many reasons, user preferences are difficult to guess, and therefore recommender systems have a considerable variance in their success ratio in estimating the user? s tastes and interests. In such a scenario, self-predicting the chances that a recommendation is accurate before actually submitting it to a user becomes an interesting capability from many perspectives. Performance prediction has been studied in the context of search engines in the Information Retrieval field, but there is little if any prior research of this problem in the recommendation domain. This thesis investigates the definition and formalisation of performance predic-tion methods for recommender systems. Specifically, we study adaptations of search performance predictors from the Information Retrieval field, and propose new predictors based on theories and models from Information Theory and Social Graph Theory. We show the instantiation of information-theoretical performance prediction methods on both rating and access log data, and the application of social-based predictors to social network structures. Recommendation performance prediction is a relevant problem per se, because of its potential application to many uses. Thus, we primarily evaluate the quality of the proposed solutions in terms of the correlation between the predicted and the observed performance on test data. This assessment requires a clear recommender evaluation methodology against which the predictions can be contrasted. Given that the evaluation of recommender systems is an open area to a significant extent, the thesis addresses the evaluation methodology as a part of the researched problem. We analyse how the variations in the evaluation procedure may alter the apparent behaviour of performance predictors, and we propose approaches to avoid misleading observations. In addition to the stand-alone assessment of the proposed predictors, we re-search the use of the predictive capability in the context of one of its common applications, namely the dynamic adjustment of hybrid methods combining several recommenders. We research approaches where the combination leans towards the algorithm that is predicted to perform best in each case, aiming to enhance the per-formance of the resulting hybrid configuration. The thesis reports positive empirical evidence confirming both a significant pre-dictive power for the proposed methods in different experiments, and consistent improvements in the performance of dynamic hybrid recommenders employing the proposed predictors.
Design of Wideband Slot Antenna Array with Stereoscopic Differentially Fed Structures

In this paper, a wideband slot antenna element and its array with stereoscopic differentially fed structures are proposed for the radar system. Firstly, a series of slots and a stereoscopic differentially fed structure are designed for the antenna element, which makes it possess a wide bandwidth, stable radiation characteristics, and rather high gain. Moreover, the stereoscopic feeding structure can firmly support the antenna’s radiation structure and reduce the influence of feeding connectors on radiating performance. Secondly, a 4 × 4 array is designed using the proposed antenna element. And a hierarchical feeding network is designed for the array on the basis of the stereoscopic differentially fed structure. For validation, the antenna element and 4 × 4 array are both fabricated and measured: (1) the measured −10 dB impedance bandwidth of the antenna element is 62% (6.8–12.9 GHz) and the gain within the entire band is 5–9.7 dBi and (2) the measured −10 dB impedance bandwidth of the array is approximately 50% (7 to 12 GHz) with its gain being 14–19.75 dBi within the entire band. Notably, measured results agree well with simulations and show great advantages over other similar antennas on bandwidth and gain.
The gamma radiation shielding effectiveness of textured steel yarnbased fabrics

Apart from three basic weaves namely plain, twill and sateen weaves, there are derivative of these weaves. The idea behind developing these weaves is to obtain physical and aesthetic characteristics in the fabric somewhat different than those obtained with the basic weaves. In derivative weaves properties intermediary between these main groups are obtained. This is achieved by rearranging the basic weave structures by the application of certain methods to give the desired result [1]. As a generalized notion, the radiation is propagation of electromagnetic or particle energy which are two portions of radiation concept. However, the radiation is the general name of different characteristic energies. Radiations kinds realize the radiation spectrum. Many of radiation kinds are known by the people such as visible light, heat, radio waves, ultra violet waves (UV) and micro waves but not know they are radiation. All radiation types of electromagnetic energy are made by the same thing which is just electric and magnetic field coupling but different frequencies. Visible region is the frontier in the large electromagnetic radiation spectrum. As energy value, under the light all kinds of radiations cannot damage the matter although make a specific interaction. After light energy (figure 1) the radiation has a name: ionizing radiation and nuclear radiation. UV region starts to damage the matter by separating the electrons. While the frequency increases the energy of the radiation decreases. Visible region has several eV (electronvolt, 1 eV = 1.6 × E–19 Joule) unit energy but The gamma radiation shielding effectiveness of textured steel yarn based fabrics
The Noninvasive Blood Pressure Measurement Based on Facial Images Processing

This paper proposes a noninvasive method of physiological parameter measurement with the collected facial video images for continuous online monitoring. Blood pressure (BP) is one of the important physiological indexes for human health prognoses. Based on the photoplethysmograph (PPG) technology, the variation of the facial skin color along with the heart beating can thus be captured via the camera. So the related BP information can be extracted from the blind source signal separation. The detailed procedure of the BP measurement from the facial video is explained, including video collection, face tracking, signal pre-processing, and BP signal extraction. The systolic and diastolic BP model can be derived based on the radial resonance theory and the involved parameters are fitted via the sampling data. Experiments are performed in different scenarios to discuss the impact factors on the BP detection together with error compensation analysis. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed BP online measurement can be used as an indicator to monitor the status of the human health continuously.
A 0.7-V 28-nW CMOS Subthreshold Voltage and Current Reference in One Simple Circuit

This paper presents a low-power and high-precision voltage and current reference (VCR) in one simple circuit. The voltage reference is derived from the threshold voltage difference between an I/O (i.e., 3.3-V NMOS) and standard (i.e., 1.8-V NMOS) transistors with temperature-independent bias current, and the current reference is the voltage reference divided by a temperature-insensitive resistor. The resistor is made up by series connection of a proportional-to-absolute-temperature (PTAT) NWELL resistor and a complementary-to-absolute-temperature (CTAT) high-resistance poly resistor in series. Implemented in a standard 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS process, the proposed VCR circuit takes an active area of only 0.055 mm<sup>2</sup>. The measured voltage and current references (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{V}_{\mathrm {ref}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{I}_{\mathrm {ref}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) at room temperature are 368 mV and 9.77 nA, respectively. The measured average temperature coefficient (TC) of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{V}_{\mathrm {ref}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{I}_{\mathrm {ref}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> are 43.1 ppm/°C and 149.8 ppm/°C over a temperature range of −40~125°C with one-time trimming and the variation coefficients are 0.35% and 1.6%, respectively. The measured voltage and current line sensitivities are 0.027%/V and 0.6%/V, respectively. The minimum supply voltage is 0.7 V with a total power consumption of 28 nW. The measured power supply ripple rejection (PSRR) of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{V}_{\mathrm {ref}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is −65 dB @DC and −39.4 dB at frequencies higher than 1 Hz.
A Competitive Intelligence framework to support decisionmaking based on Rough Set Theory

Given the increasing complexity of the economic context, it is important for each company to master information and build a robust strategic planning process. Competitive Intelligence (CI) is important for companies to manage their information. CI identifies opportunities and determinants of success, anticipates threats and prevents risks. CI becomes an imperative for any company wishing to sustain its growth and innovation sustainably. In addition, decision-makers have a key role to play when making decisions, some of which can have a significant impact and therefore justify the effort to reflect and deliberate on possible options before making a decision. Strategic decisions can be defined as important and far-reaching decisions in terms of actions taken, resources committed, number of actors involved and impact on all future operations. Our answer to this challenge is an approach that uses Rough set theory. Our approach is designed to support decisionmaking and respects the characteristics of strategic decision support in complex, uncertain and evolving situations. Rough set theory can effectively process data and information in complex system. In this article, we propose a CI approach where we used the rough set theory to generate rules in order to help decision makers make a decision in a complex and multi-criteria situation and under a context of uncertainty. We applied our model on the choice of implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) within the company.
Improving the Performance of pH Sensors With One-Dimensional ZnO Nanostructures

In this study, pH sensors with ZnO nanorods (NRs) or film were fabricated by using a low-cost and simple hydrothermal method. A 100 nm ZnO film was deposited on a glass substrate via radio frequency magnetron sputtering as a seed layer. With the potential method to measure pH value, an AD623 amplifier was used as the readout circuit, and a Pt electrode was used as the reference electrode. The analyte solution included buffer solutions to measure the response potential and repeatability of the sensor at pH 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10. Both ZnO pH sensors exhibited excellent reusability and reproducibility. The sensitivity and linearity of the ZnO NR-based sensor were 44.56 mV/pH and 0.983, respectively, while those of the ZnO film-based sensor were 34.82 mV/pH and 0.992, respectively.
Co-modulation Masking Release Begins in the Auditory Periphery

Understanding speech in noisy environments can be difficult, especially for people with hearing loss. The background noise can cover up the sounds of interest. Normally, the auditory system works to alleviate this problem by tagging and then cancelling the noise. Our experiments are aimed at understanding the mechanism of this noise cancellation process. We hypothesize that non-linear signal processing in the mammalian cochlea (the most peripheral part of the auditory system) is the basis of noise cancellation. To test this hypothesis, we measured the responses of auditory-nerve fibers (ANFs) to sounds embedded in background noise with different statistical properties. ANFs are typically categorized according to their spontaneous firing rate (SR) which covaries with many other aspects of their neural coding properties. We found that low-SR ANFs showed strong neural correlates of noise cancellation, whereas in high-SR ANFs the effect was much weaker. ANF responses support the hypothesis that cochlear non-linearities underlie noise cancellation in complex listening environments. The weakened non-linearities characteristic of the hearing-impaired cochlea could negatively impact listening in noisy places. Future improvements in the signal-processing algorithms for auditory prostheses may help restore better hearing in background noise.