Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motion Path Control of Multi-DOF Handling Manipulator in Industrial Field Based on Vision and C-Space Obstacle Avoidance

In order to realize the intelligentization of the multi-DOF handling manipulator in the industrial field, this paper presents a motion path control approach which combines the vision based identification and localization and C-space (Configuration space) based obstacle avoidance planning. The objects in the image captured by CCD camera can be extracted by gray processing, background subtraction, binarization, and edge detecting, the work pieces and the obstacles can be matched based on roundness and squareness, and then the coordinates of above objects can be obtained by parallax and coordinate conversion. In addition, both the source and destination coordinates in C-space can be obtained by mapping these configurations position and orientation into C-space, and the motion path can be automatically generated by variable step A* search in free area which is built based on solid manipulator model, then the handling work can be finished and obstacle avoidance can also be realized. The results of simulation and experiment demonstrate the scientificalness and effectiveness of this control approach.
New design concept and damage assessment of large-scale cooling towers

The motivation of this paper is to introduce the modern technology of large-scale cooling tower design. Thereby the innovative design concept for the world`s largest cooling tower with a height of 200 m is briefly presented (Harte & Krtzig 2002, Bush et al. 2002). The new concept was considered not only for safety, but also for preservation of the durability of the structure, because cracking damage in large cooling towers in general cause extremely high cost of maintenance and repair. The paper demonstrates numerically the damage process in large cooling towers (Krtzig et al. 2001), and describes some basics of the numerical finite element approach for damage propagation modelling of shell structure. A prototype is analysed to trace the progressive damage process, whereby the changes in the dynamical behaviour of the structure, as mirrored in its natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes, are presented and discussed. Finally, the example shows that such damage processes develop progressively over the life-time of the shell structure.
An analysis of China's energy demand and supply policy framework

The energy and carbon pictures in China have changed dramatically since launching its open‐door policy and economic reforms in late 1978. China is already the world's largest energy consumer and carbon emitter. Its energy use and carbon emissions continue to be on the climbing trajectories beyond 2030 as it is approaching to be the largest economy. Clearly, meeting China's increasing energy needs to fuel its rapid economic growth presents an enormous challenge, not simply for China but for the entire world. This paper focuses on assessing those crucial issues on energy demand and supply in China. Given the inevitable rising trend of China's energy demand and continuous coal dominance in China's energy and power generation mix over the next two decades and beyond, the paper discusses China's efforts toward energy conservation and how China can generate electricity with coal more efficiently and environmentally friendly to limit its impacts. This is followed by examining a variety of policies that China has taken to address its growing dependence on imported oil. The paper also discusses the evolving of China's nuclear power policy, and indicates that the expansion of nuclear power is inevitable in China to cope with its daunting energy security and environmental challenges. The Fukushima accident will have no effect on China's stance on nuclear power, although it, at most, will slightly affect the pace of its development. From a long‐term perspective, widespread use of renewable energy is a real solution. Therefore, the paper discusses in great detail China's dramatic efforts to meet its ambitious renewable targets, focusing on wind power that is identified as a priority for diversifying China's energy mix. All taken together and integrated well, these policies help China to transit to a low‐carbon economy.
Weather or Not to Cycle

This study investigated the relationship between weather conditions and cycling ridership, as well as the hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly trends for use of urban bicycle facilities. A unique data set of cyclist ridership, collected at five automatic counting stations on primarily utilitarian bike facilities in the city of Montreal, Canada, was used. Absolute and relative ridership models were used to analyze the direct and lagging effects of weather variables and extreme weather conditions on hourly cyclist volumes. Precipitation, temperature, and humidity had significant effects on bicycle ridership. After other factors were controlled for, when the temperature doubled, a 43% to 50% increase in ridership could be expected; however, the temperature had a negative effect when it was higher than 28°C and humidity was greater than 60%. The results also showed that bicycle volumes in a given hour were significantly affected not only by the presence of rain in the same hour but also by the presence of rain in the previous 3 h or in the morning only. Daily bicycle volumes were 65% to 89% lower on weekend days than on Monday, the weekday with lowest ridership. This finding confirmed that the analyzed facilities were primarily utilitarian. Further, bicycle volumes peaked in the summer months, with an additional ridership of 32% to 39% with respect to April. Finally, bicycle volumes increased by approximately 20% to 27% in 2009 and 35% to 40% in 2010 with respect to 2008 in the cycling facilities under analysis.
Therapeutic Affordances of Social Media and Associated Quality of Life Outcomes in Young Adults

There is a growing body of literature exploring the general population’s use of social media for assistance in dealing with stigmatized health issues. This study presents novel research examining the relationship between social media use and young adults. It utilizes a therapeutic affordance (TA) framework. Quantitative results from this study are complemented by qualitative data. The relationships between distinct social media and their TA (a–b) are presented to highlight their potential to impact positively on social and emotional well-being outcomes. Evidence includes broad support for “connection,” “narration,” and “collaboration” TAs in this context and the relationship between the use of distinct social media and perceived quality of life (QOL) outcomes (a–c). TA provides an appropriate and valuable theoretical framework which is useful for the development of an evidence-base from the analysis of young adult’s social media usage. An analysis of the association between social media and their QOL outcomes is presented according to the TA relationship pathway (a–c–b). The adoption of a TA framework enables a nuanced analysis of significant associations between specific social media, TA, and improved QOL outcomes. This study demonstrates the significant association between social media and perceived QOL outcomes in young adults.
Building Capacity and Enhancing Engagement – Innovative Approach at The Scarborough Hospital

TSH’s proactive approach towards building employee capacity and enhancing engagement as it prepares to address imminent transformational workforce shift in the health care sector, is embodied in its innovative Code Career program. A discussion of the unique components will highlight the pioneering journey that the organization embarked upon towards achieving its goals of attracting, engaging and retaining high-performing employees. It is a well-researched fact that the opportunity for career development and progression is a key driver of employee attraction and engagement. Capacity must be built internally and externally through short-term and long-term plans, on a system as well as localized basis. Value propositions must inspire and endear in order to attract and engage. Actions must speak louder than words. All of these concepts come visibly and vibrantly alive in the novel and leading-edge Code Career program – establishing the organization firmly as an innovative leader committed to building employee capacity and enhancing employee engagement.
Bicycle Parking Analysis with Time Series Photography

Data and analysis of bicycle parking are necessary to evaluate facility designs and parking plans and for analysis of bicycle use more generally. Data and analysis of bicycle parking inform efforts to promote bicycle use and provide direction for policy makers and planners. However, there is a lack of research and data related to bicycle parking, and no standardized methodology exists for data collection. Measures such as duration and turnover have long been identified with vehicular parking studies, but these measures have not been standardized in the literature related to bicycle parking. This paper proposes a methodology for collecting detailed bicycle parking data. This methodology uses digital photography to capture parking data, including arrival and departure times, parking durations, and turnover rates. A trial data collection suggested ways in which the data could be used to answer specific research questions. In addition, the feasibility of the proposed methodology was evaluated, and the work effort needed to perform the collection and analysis was quantified. The methodology appeared to be useful for further academic research related to bicycle parking and had potential to provide valuable information for universities and public transportation agencies as they planned for, monitored, or improved bicycle parking facilities.
Traceable magnetic field strength measurements to 120 kHz

With the advent of a series of reports on studies of the effects of magnetic fields on human health there has been a demand for traceable calibrations of the plethora of instruments produced for this type of measurement. To meet this and ongoing requirements, a facility has been established at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) for low AC magnetic field calibrations up to a frequency of 120 kHz and for improved DC calibrations, made possible by an ambient field cancellation system. A prime consideration for low magnetic field calibrations is the level of the ambient field and the field gradient. The paper describes the surveys carried out which highlight the significant effect of transient disturbances from the electric train service, choice of materials for fitting out the laboratory, and the means of cancelling the ambient magnetic field using a triaxial Helmholtz coil and servo system. Details of the design, construction and calibration of a Helmholtz coil system for producing magnetic field strengths at high frequencies are given together with the requirements of the key circuit elements (power supply, current measurement system). An outline of the design, construction and calibration of a NPL triaxial Helmholtz coil system is also given.
A high-performance micro electret power generator based on microball bearings

In this paper, a high-performance micro electret power generator fabricated by simple bulk micromachining technology is presented. It has microballs as movable bearings for harvesting changing low-frequency vibration energy from the environment. The silicon V-grooves where the microballs slide have very smooth (1 1 1) planes, and so the device is sensitive to very slight vibration and almost has no resonant frequency. A plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition SiO2/Si3N4 double layer was used as the electret. The device was fabricated by simple micromachining technology suitable for mass production except for microball assembly. The influence of various frequencies and accelerations on the performance was studied in detail. The measurement results of this electret micro power generator show that the optimal load is proportional to the frequency, and inversely proportional to the acceleration. The peak-to-peak output charge and output power were 72 nC and 5.9 µW respectively at 20 Hz and 0.7 g with the optimal resistive load 626 kΩ. The work frequencies range from 100 Hz to a lower frequency (1 Hz). 112 nW can still be obtained in the minimum acceleration of 0.05 g at 10 Hz with the optimal resistive load, indicating that this device has high sensitivity. The possible application of our device in scavenging energy from low-frequency irregular movements, such as human motion, was proved by a primary experiment.
Detection of beaked whale clicks in underwater noise recordings

Combined visual and acoustic surveys for beaked whales (BWs) were carried out between 15th August and 25th September 2008, and between 8 July and 2 August 2009 in an area of the Coral Sea used for naval exercises. These surveys were part of a collaborative project between the Universities of Sydney, Queensland, Curtin University and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) aimed at trialling methods for detecting BWs, and determining their distribution across the exercise area. One of the methods trialled in the survey was the deployment of high-frequency (HF) noise loggers on drift moorings for 2-3 days at a time. A HF noise logger was developed by the Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST) at Curtin University specifically for this project. The HF noise loggers were deployed autonomously on drift moorings for durations ranging from 1 hour to over 3 days during the Coral Sea surveys. Over the two surveys, there were 14 deployments in the survey area, which combined recorded 225 hours of underwater sound sampled at 192 ksps. Thousands of clicks that are likely to be BW echolocation clicks were detected in the HF noise logger recordings.
Reviewing and reporting results

About the book: From the moment the first corporate university (CU) was created and the term was coined, the central metaphor of university has proved a double-edged sword. The emphasis on university has been a driving force in moving companies beyond a restricted and siloed approach to training, to a central vision for learning within the organization. On the other hand, there have been failures and many corporate universities have struggled to bring a business rigour to learning or to align their development with the key business and financial drivers of the organization. Handbook of Corporate University Development draws on experience from around the world, to provide anyone responsible for strategy and learning – at senior levels in government, education and business – with a picture of current best practice. The Handbook is not a prescriptive 'how-to', rather an exploration of key issues such as: • Who owns a corporate university initiative? • How is the funding managed? • How is the CU aligned with business strategy? • How do CU directors and project managers deploy resources? • How do they deal with suppliers? • How do they report and measure CU performance? • What are the processes and technologies needed to provide and support different forms of learning? • How can you blend different media? • How do you assess what learning has taken place? • What are the future prospects and potential for corporate universities? It is time for the corporate university to demonstrate how business rigour, handled deftly and with strong and perceptive leadership, can revolutionize learning both inside and outside the organization. Handbook of Corporate University Development is an important catalyst towards this process.
Student‐based Assessment in a Multi‐disciplinary Problem‐based Learning Environment

Engineering education in Australia must respond to a changing environment so that the nation continues to produce engineering graduates able to contribute towards the development of society in the face of local, national and international pressures. To address these changes, engineering schools are introducing teaching initiatives aimed at developing a range of skills including people, problem‐solving and self‐directed learning skills. Many of these programs encourage student learning through active participation with the subject matter; however, they also place a considerable burden upon staff because of the assessment load required to ensure that students attain the required competencies. Student‐based assessment strategies are often proposed as techniques for enhancing student learning by transferring the ownership and some of the responsibility for the assessment process to the student body. This paper examines the literature relating to student‐based assessment and presents some assessment strategies suitable for a problem‐based learning course in embedded systems design.
Theory and Design of Microwave Filters

This is a thorough, graduate-level text which provides a single source for filter design including basic circuit theory, network synthesis and the design of a variety of microwave filter structures. The aim is to present design theories followed by specific examples with numerical simulations of the designs, with pictures of real devices wherever possible. The book is aimed at designers, engineers and researchers working in microwave electronics who need to design or specify filters.
Evaluation of Extension Agents Commitment to the Agricultural Loans and Inputs Supply Programme on Special Rice Production in Delta State, Nigeria

The study evaluated the activities of Extension agents on Agricultural Loans and Inputs Supply Programme participant farmers’ rice output/income. Data were collected with the aid of questionnaire from 60 Extension agents (participating in the ALIS programme) randomly selected from 6 LGAs (where the programme is being implemented) of Delta State. Data were also collected from 80 participant and 80 nonparticipant farmers’ of the programme. Results of data analysis reveals that all the Extension agents are males and are married. Most (40%) of them belong to the age bracket of 30 – 39 years, with a high proportion (48.3%) of them having HND/first degree and a good number of them (28.3%) having 5 – 6 years experience in the ALIS programme. Major functions carried out by the Extension agents in the ALIS programme were advisory role (2.75), training farmers on inputs use (2.67) and demonstrating inputs use (2.65). The roles of the Extension agents on the farmers made a significant difference in out (176.25kg) and income N 53,468.75 in favour participants. Important inputs provided by the extension agents are farm size, improved seeds and farm chemicals like fertilizer and urea. Some important constraints facing the programme according to the Extension agents were limited coverage of farmers (3.23), wrong selection of programme participants (3.22), late delivery of inputs (3.15) and poor funding of the programme (3.05). Based on findings the study recommends that efforts should be made to deliver inputs promptly to farmers, ensure all necessary inputs are timely made available to farmers and in adequate quantities, there is need to ensure that only those farmers who depend on rice farming are selected to participate in the programme. Keywords : Extension agents; agricultural production; inputs; loans; technologies; evaluation
Social hierarchies and social networks in humans

Across species, social hierarchies are often governed by dominance relations. In humans, where there are multiple culturally valued axes of distinction, social hierarchies can take a variety of forms and need not rest on dominance relations. Consequently, humans navigate multiple domains of status, i.e. relative standing. Importantly, while these hierarchies may be constructed from dyadic interactions, they are often more fundamentally guided by subjective peer evaluations and group perceptions. Researchers have typically focused on the distinct elements that shape individuals’ relative standing, with some emphasizing individual-level attributes and others outlining emergent macro-level structural outcomes. Here, we synthesize work across the social sciences to suggest that the dynamic interplay between individual-level and meso-level properties of the social networks in which individuals are embedded are crucial for understanding the diverse processes of status differentiation across groups. More specifically, we observe that humans not only navigate multiple social hierarchies at any given time but also simultaneously operate within multiple, overlapping social networks. There are important dynamic feedbacks between social hierarchies and the characteristics of social networks, as the types of social relationships, their structural properties, and the relative position of individuals within them both influence and are influenced by status differentiation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.
Analysis of Brainwave Characteristic Frequency Bands for Logic Reasoning

The traditional E-learning often offers the online examination to assess the learning effect of a student after completion of the online learning. Basically, this traditional learning assessment mechanism is a passive and negative assessment mechanism, which cannot provide an real-time learning warning mechanism for teachers or students to find out problems as early as possible (including such learning conditions as “absence of mind” resulting from poor learning stage or physical or psychological factor), and the post-assessment mechanism also cannot assess the learning effectiveness provided by the online learning system. This research paper attempts to acquire the electroencephalogram to analyze the characteristic frequency bands of the brainwave related to learning and formulate the learning energy for the learner at the time when the learner is reasoning logically via the proposed brain-wave detector based on the cognitive neuroscience. With the analysis of characteristic frequency bands, the physical and psychological conditions of an online leaner can be provided instantly for teachers for assessment. Given that the learning system is integrated into the proposed brainwave analytic sensing component, the system not only can provide learners an instant learning warming mechanism, but also help teachers and learning partners to further understand the causes of learning disorder of learners, and can also provide relevant learning members with timely care and encouragement.
Lane Departure Warning System Research and Test Development

According to Traffic Safety Facts 2005, single-vehicle crashes resulted in over 58% of all vehicular fatalities on the nation’s roadways during that year. Of these fatal crashes, almost 15,000 occurred either off of the roadway or on the shoulder. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recognized that technologies such as electronic stability control and other emerging safety technologies can potentially reduce a great number of these fatal crashes. One emerging technology that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration believes may have great potential to save lives is lane departure warning. These systems assist the driver by providing a warning (passive or active) that their vehicle is about to depart the road lane. The actual number of lives saved would depend upon the effectiveness of the lane departure warning system. This paper will discuss both the past and present research that has been conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It will give a general overview of the performance and potential safety benefits of the technology. Information on the type of sensors and performance testing to evaluate lane departure warning systems will be presented, including examples of them. Data from past field operational tests and test track research documenting system performance will be shown.