Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrokinetic Strengthening of Marine Clay Adjacent to Offshore Foundations

Skirted foundations have been used increasingly to provide uplift resistance and to carry structural loads in offshore structures. When soft clay soils are encountered in a site, the soil shear strength is one of the major concerns in the design of skirted foundations with respect to the bearing capacity. Originated from the problem facing offshore engineering practice, this study is focused on electrokinetic strengthening of soft marine clays adjacent to skirted foundations. A series of laboratory electrokinetic experiments was conducted in a natural marine clay. A steel plate was embedded in the soil during the electrokinetic treatment to simulate part of a skirted foundation. The design, execution and results of the electrokinetic tests are reported. The results show that the undrained shear strength of the soil around the embedded steel plate was increased considerably after the electrokinetic treatment. It is also evidenced that the soil shear strength was further increased with time after the electric field was withdrawn, attributable to electrokinetics induced soil particle cementation during post-treatment ionic diffusion. In order to obtain uniform strength increase between the electrodes, to reduce energy consumption and to prolong the service life of electrodes, the effects of polarity reversal and current intermittence under a constant applied voltage were also investigated.
Innovation networks in metropolitan regions - the case of the Vienna urban region

Metropolitan regions are important locations of innovation networks. They comprise a broad variety of high tech firms, producer services, research organizations, financial organizations, training institutions and other private and public organizations which are contributing to innovation. Such regions, however, are typically larger than the administrative entity of the core city. This applies also to the greater Vienna urban region, the most important concentration of innovation-related institutions in Austria. This paper analyses the potential role of the municipal authorities of Vienna in supporting and shaping the metropolitan innovation system. This is a complex task because many important elements of the innovation networks of local firms are located outside the city or the metropolitan region. And even those organizations which have their physical location in the city are sometimes controlled from abroad (e.g. foreign owned subsidiaries) or by other, in particular national, administrative levels (e.g. federal universities). Based on a survey of innovation networks in the Vienna urban region, basic structural features of these networks - types of partners, their location and the kind of relations between them - are presented. From these results, conclusions concerning the design of urban innovation policy - its potential scope and effectiveness, reasonable priorities and inevitable limits - are drawn.
Adaptive and Resilient Flight Control System for a Small Unmanned Aerial System

The main purpose of this paper is to develop an onboard adaptive and robust flight control system that improves control, stability, and survivability of a small unmanned aerial system in off-nominal or out-of-envelope conditions. The aerodynamics of aircraft associated with hazardous and adverse onboard conditions is inherently nonlinear and unsteady. The presented flight control system improves functionalities required to adapt the flight control in the presence of aircraft model uncertainties. The fault tolerant inner loop is enhanced by an adaptive real-time artificial neural network parameter identification to monitor important changes in the aircraft’s dynamics due to nonlinear and unsteady aerodynamics. The real-time artificial neural network parameter identification is done using the sliding mode learning concept and a modified version of the self-adaptive Levenberg algorithm. Numerically estimated stability and control derivatives are obtained by delta-based methods. New nonlinear guidance logic, stable in Lyapunov sense, is developed to guide the aircraft. The designed flight control system has better performance compared to a commercial off-the-shelf autopilot system in guiding and controlling an unmanned air system during a trajectory following.
EVALUATING PURCHASING POWER PARITY IN HYPERINFLATION AND LOW INFLATION COUNTRIES A CASE OF STRUCTURAL BREAKS

The theory of purchasing power parity has continually been evaluated over the years using different approaches that could be in favour of the theory. Some studies have obtained data from low-inflation and high-inflation countries to test for the theory. In this study, ADF and KPSS tests are employed, testing for unit root of 5 countries’ effective exchange rate, in which they are split into hyperinflation and low inflation countries. Other tests such as the Bai-Perron test are employed to test for structural breaks over time. In contrast to previous studies that used the CPI and WPI, this study finds that PPP is not valid in both hyperinflation and low inflation countries. This therefore infers that PPP is not suitable for exchange rate determination in these economies.
Identification of a Heterogeneous Orthotropic Conductivity in a Rectangular Domain

This paper investigates the problem of identifying a heterogeneous transient orthotropic thermal conductivity in a two-dimensional rectangular domain using initial and Dirichlet boundary conditions and fluxes as overdetermination conditions. The measurement data represented by the heat fluxes are shown to ensure the unique solvability of the inverse problem solution. The finite-difference method is employed as the direct solver which is fed iteratively in a nonlinear minimization routine. Exact and noisy input data are inverted numerically. Numerical results indicate that accurate and stable solutions are obtained.
The Impact of Financial Reward on Job Satisfaction and Performance: Implications for Blue Collar Employees

Job satisfaction has been tested and proven as one of the factors that connect employees to their organization. Additionally, job satisfaction leads to better employee performance. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of financial rewards on job satisfaction and employee performance of the Blue Collar employees in the construction, contracting and printing industries in Lebanon. The data for this study were collected using self-administered questionnaires from 250 employees working in the construction contracting and printing sectors in Lebanon. The response rate was 52 percent (129 employees) after data screening; the data were analyzed using SPSS to describe the demographic profile of respondents and multiple linear regression analysis to test the relationship between variables. The hypotheses proposed to be tested through the research were verified. As expected, the results show a significant relationship between financial rewards and job satisfaction. Furthermore, job satisfaction bears positive relationship on employee performance. The organization should consider financial rewards as one of the factors in promoting job satisfaction that leads to employee performance among employees in the construction contracting and printing sectors.
Anti-Prm Antibody as an Autoantibody in Dengue Virus Infection

We have reported that anti-prM antibody is an enhancing antibody that enhances DV infection of non-Fc receptor bearing cells by dual specificity. We identified the epitope recognized by this anti-prM antibody, M3, which is located at the a.a. 53-67of the prM protein nearby the prM/M cleavage junction and these anti-M3 antibodies could be detected in dengue patients sera. Surprisingly, this anti-prM antibody not only recognizes the prM protein of dengue virions, but also cross-reacts with epithelial cells, endothelial cells as well as T cells. The binding of anti-prM antibody to endothelial cells was dose-dependent and could be blocked by M3 peptides. Human M3-specific antibodies from dengue patient sera were demonstrated to be able to bind to endothelial cells and mediate ADE infection on K562 cells. Furthermore, the anti-prM antibody will mediate the antibody - dependent cell phagocytosis, leading to the similar severe form of DHF/DSS. In conclusion, anti-prM antibody plays two roles in the pathogenesis of dengue virus infection: to be an enhancing antibody and an autoantibody as well.
The Use of Herbal Medicine in Children

The herbal medicine has been widely used in children for the treatment of several symptoms and the prevention of diseases before accessing the hospital for professionals help. There are 3 kinds of marketed herbal medicine including empirical based herbal medicine ( jamu ), standardized herbal medicine ( obat herbal terstandar ) and clininically tested herbal medicine ( fitofarmaka ). This study aimed to investigate the utilization of the marketed herbal medicine along with non marketed ones which was known as the Indonesian original herbal medicine ( Obat Asli Indonesia, OAI ) in children. The cross sectional study was conducted by interviewing 91 parents whose children were hospitalized in RSUD Meuraxa, Banda Aceh. The interview was conducted using a structured questionnaire from 4 to 29 September 2014. The result showed that the Indonesian original herbal medicine was used most frequently followed by herbal ( jamu ), standardized herbal and clininically tested herbal medicine. The utilization of herbal medicine was associated with the knowledge of parents and did not correlate to their economic level. All of the parents did not know the side effects of herbal medicine to their children’s body and few of them knew the indication of herbal remedies. Overall, it was concluded that eventhough the knowledge of parents about the safety and activity of herbal medicine was not sufficient the use of herbal medicine in children was common
Damage Identification of Wind Turbine Blades Using Piezoelectric Transducers

This paper presents the experimental results of active-sensing structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques, which utilize piezoelectric transducers as sensors and actuators, for determining the structural integrity of wind turbine blades. Specifically, Lamb wave propagations and frequency response functions at high frequency ranges are used to estimate the condition of wind turbine blades. For experiments, a 1 m section of a CX-100 blade is used. The goal of this study is to assess and compare the performance of each method in identifying incipient damage with a consideration given to field deployability. Overall, these methods yielded a sufficient damage detection capability to warrant further investigation. This paper also summarizes the SHM results of a full-scale fatigue test of a 9 m CX-100 blade using piezoelectric active sensors. This paper outlines considerations needed to design such SHM systems, experimental procedures and results, and additional issues that can be used as guidelines for future investigations.
Modeling solid-state dewetting of a single-crystal binary alloy thin films

Dewetting of a binary alloy thin film is studied using a continuum many-parameter model that accounts for the surface and bulk diffusion, the bulk phase separation, the surface segregation and the particles formation. Analytical solution is found for the quasistatic equilibrium concentration of a surface-segregated atomic species. This solution is factored into the nonlinear and coupled evolution PDEs for the bulk composition and surface morphology. Stability of a planar film surface with respect to small perturbations of the shape and composition is analyzed, revealing the dependence of the particles size on major physical parameters. Computations show various scenarios of the particles formation and the redistribution of the alloy components inside the particles and on their surface. In most situations, for the alloy film composed initially of 50% A and 50% B atoms, a core-shell particles are formed, and they are located atop a wetting layer that is modestly rich in the B phase. Then the particles shell is the nanometric segregated layer of the A phase, and the core is the alloy that is modestly rich in the A phase.
Gamification and its effect on employee engagement and performance in a perceptual diagnosis task

Gamification is an emerging phenomenon that has been advocated for its potential to improve organisational outcomes. The present study aimed to examine the effect of gamification in a perceptual diagnosis task. Forty participants completed a 22-minute visual search task. To investigate the role of game mechanics participants were divided into four conditions resulting from the factorial combination of the narrative mechanic (narrative and control condition) and the points mechanic (Points and no-points control condition). Attention effort, motivation, and work engagement were measured through performance metrics, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and self-report questionnaires. The results revealed points significantly increased task performance while narrative significantly increased intrinsic motivation and prefrontal oxygenation. These findings may provide much needed contributions to the literature surrounding gamification. It was also revealed that fNIRS measures of frontal activation may be a reasonable objective indicator of initial cognitive effort. This presents significant real world applications for objectively measuring motivation.
Development of interfaces for impaired users

This paper presents EyeSEC, a project being conducted in DEE/ISEC in the area of Assistive Technology, which aims to create alternative technologies to compensate for functional limitations and facilitate the independence of elderly and impaired users. The main goal is to merge the data from eye-tracking, provided by vision sensors embedded in eyeglasses, with head movement's data, provided by inertial sensors. This non-invasive interface that uses low cost sensors can be used to drive electric wheelchairs or as an interface with the computer. Streszczenie. Zaproponowano technologie interfejsu dostosowaną do mozliwości uzytkownikow niepelnosprawnych. Zastosowano czujniki w obudowie okularow umozliwiające śledzenie ruchu oczu. System moze byc pomocny przy uzywaniu wozkow inwalidzkich, ale takze w obsludze komputera. (Usprawnienia interfejsow dla niepelnosprawnych uzytkownikow)
Toward a Computational Model of the Upper Extremity

A basic 22-segment model of the upper extremity is formulated that can allow computational testing of hypotheses about the control and coordination of the upper extremity by the central nervous system. The formulation allows for further analytical, anatomical, physiological, and bio-mechanical expansion and improvement of the model. It allows for inclusion of all passive structures: ligaments, membranes, soft tissues, and cartilages. The formulation is based on the state space formulation of the Newton-Euler method applied to multi-body systems. Extensive use is made of three-segment rigid body modules, constraints, reduction of dimensionality, projection, and matrices of large dimensions.An example, gliding motion of a rigid body on a circular surface (as in wiping a dish with a pre-specified force of contact) shows the application of some of the concepts and feasibility of the developed routines. The control is based on analogous strategies in living systems where co-activation of agonist-antagonist muscular systems and precise reference inputs implement the desirable trajectories of motion and where an integral feedback of the force implements the desired forces of contact.
Nonlinearities and the nexus between inflation and inflation uncertainty in Egypt: New evidence from wavelets transform framework

How does inflation uncertainty interact with inflation rate? The purpose of this article is to assess this question in Egypt in a wavelets transform framework. We investigate the direction of causality in the relationship inflation-inflation uncertainty by combining component GARCH model, wavelets decomposition and scale-by-scale nonlinear causality test. We find a strong evidence in favor of Friedman-ball hypothesis in both time domain and the different frequencies. This study succeeds to resolve the inconsistencies and to point a robust nonlinear effect of inflation on inflation uncertainty, which is more intense at high frequency bands than at low ones. We attribute this result to the complexity in predicting how strongly and how quickly prices will respond to monetary policy, the asymmetry between inflation booms and recessions, the incidence of exogenous shocks, the co-movement of permanent shocks with inflation and the downward expectations of monetary authorities.
Exploring Visitors' Profiles of Pick-Your-Own Farms in Japan

This paper examined a recent trend of rural orientation in Japan from a perspective ofdiversification of rural economy. Firstly, recent trend of rising number of entrants to farming understood as a part of growing interest for rural life-style. Secondly,characteristics of visitors to pick-your-own farms were examined by statistical tests. Characteristics of up-market and niche market are revealed, which was roughly identical with the findings in the European countries such as those who have higher academic background, higher orientation for outdoor recreation, and are severe on quality of services and goods they receive. Thus, it is necessary to provide authentic quality of the service and goods on the one hand and preserve the rural environment on the other. Therefore farm policy integrating farming and rural policy measures will be necessary further.
Monitoring the lowermost tropospheric ozone with thermal infrared observations from a geostationary platform: performance analyses for a future dedicated instrument

Abstract. In this paper, we present performance analyses for a concept geostationary observing system called MAGEAQ (Monitoring the Atmosphere from Geostationary orbit for European Air Quality). The MAGEAQ mission is designed to include a TIR (thermal infrared) spectrometer and a broadband VIS (visible) radiometer; in this work we study only the TIR component (MAGEAQ-TIR). We have produced about 20 days of MAGEAQ-TIR tropospheric ozone pseudo-observations with a full forward and inverse radiative transfer pseudo-observations simulator. We have studied the expected sensitivity of MAGEAQ-TIR and we have found that it is able to provide a full single piece of information for the ozone column from surface to 6 km (about 1.0 DOF (degrees of freedom) and maximum sensitivity at about 3.0 km, on average), as well as a partially independent surface–3 km ozone column (about 0.6 DOF and maximum sensitivity at about 2.5 km, on average). Then, we have compared the tropospheric ozone profiles and the lower (surface–6 km) and lowermost (surface–3 km) tropospheric ozone column pseudo-observations to the target pseudo-reality, produced with the MOCAGE (MOdele de Chimie Atmospherique a Grande Echelle) chemistry and transport model. We have found very small to not significant average biases (
Resting spore formation in the marine diatom Thalassiosira nordenskioeldii under iron- and nitrogen-limited conditions

Resting spore formation was investigated in the neritic and oceanic strains of Thalassiosira nordenskioeldii under iron- and nitrate-depleted conditions at 5°C and 10°C. Both strains immediately formed resting spores under nitrate-depleted conditions with almost 100% composition after 4-8 and 3-6 d cultivation periods at 5°C and at 10°C, respectively. However, resting spore formation in both strains under iron-depleted conditions increased with incubation time more gradually, and after 15 d of cultivation, spore composition ranged from 60% in the neritic strain at 5°C to 1% in the oceanic strain at 10°C. In addition, chlorotic cells with smaller cell volume compared with vegetative cells were observed under iron-depleted conditions. Sinking rates of vegetative cells, iron-limited cells and spores and nitrate-limited resting spores cultivated at 5°C were 1.24 + 0.14, 3.41 ± 0.43 and 9.22 ± 1.04 m d -1 , respectively, slightly faster than those at 10°C. The faster sinking rates in iron-limited resting cells and resting spores than in vegetative cells may prevent their habitat from expanding to high-nitrate low-chlorophyll oceanic regions with low iron concentrations.
By-Catch and Discard Composition of Dhow Penaeid Trawl Fisheries in Hormuzgan Province, the Northern Persian Gulf

The present study aims to recognize dhow prawn trawl by-catch from Hormuzgan coastal waters (Northeast Persian Gulf). Sampling was carried out of 36 hauls by using traditionally wooden dhow among prawn fishing season in 2011. The catch composition consisted of 31.66% target species prawns, mainly banana prawn (Penaeus merguiensis) and 68.34% by-catch. The total by-catch was 4,622.67kg comprised of 56 species and 37 families. Species composition of by-catch was 81.08% Teleostei, 0.1% Elasmobranchs and 18.8% Invertebrates. Ulmaridae, leiognathidae and Mullidae were the most abundant families with mean CPUE of 10.06, 9.97 and 7.73 kg/hour, respectively. CPUE, Occurrence indices and catch percentage of species (based on Wt %) have been calculated. Prawn-toby-catch ratio was computed at 1:2.15. It was estimated that annual volumes of the entire fleet dhow prawn trawls in Hormuzgan coastal waters consisted of 5,728 tons of by-catch. The investigation of the by-catch showed the large pressure on commercial and non-commercial fish stocks in the fishing grounds of northern Persian Gulf; Therefore, fishery managers need to consider other species when determining catch or effort limits, prawn fishing season and area restrictions.
Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cylinder with an aspect ratio of 8

The three-dimensional time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations (Boussinesq approximation) for an incompressible viscous fluid are approximated using finite-differences. A uniform cylindrical mesh consisting of LxMxN discrete points in the radial (r), azimuthal (φ) and axial (z) directions respectively is superimposed on the solution domain. The energy and vorticity transport equations are solved using a modified transient Samarskii-Andreyev ADI scheme. The elliptic equation for the vector-potential is solved using by direct Fourier series using a fast Fourier transform algorithm. Transient numerical solutions of time dependent threedimensional equations for Rayleigh-Benard convection in a vertical cylinder are presented. Results are presented for aspect ratio (radius to height) of 8, a Prandtl number Pr=7 and Rayleigh numbers 1000 ≤ Ra ≤ 20000.
Parity theorems revisited: An ARDL bound test with non-parity factors

The research question addressed in this paper is, do inflation and interest rate differences across two major economies fully drive the long-run exchange rate changes if controls for non-parity factors are embedded? Exchange rate behaviour research is once again an interesting topic given the availability of powerful econometric approaches to resolve unsolved issues. We re-examine the exchange rate behaviour of the US economy, applying a more appropriate econometric model using 55 years of quarterly data. The model explains 96% of variation in exchange rates, which testifies to the modelâ€™s appropriateness. The error correction estimate indicates a time-to-equilibrium of 0.139 per quarter; that is, full adjustment takes seven quarters. Tests indicate evidence of a long-run relationship among the exchange rate, prices, and interest rates. The coefficients on both parity factors (prices and interest rates) are statistically significant with correct theory-suggested signs. These findings constitute strong evidence in support of parity and non-parity theorems while confirming that the US currency behaviour over 1960â€“2014 is consistent with parity and non-parity theories.