Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Assessment of Research and Development in Brain-Computer Interfaces. WTEC Panel Report

Abstract : Brain-computer interface (BCI) research deals with establishing communication pathways between the brain and external devices. BCI systems can be broadly classified depending on the placement of the electrodes used to detect and measure neurons firing in the brain: in invasive systems, electrodes are inserted directly into the cortex; in noninvasive systems, they are placed on the scalp and use electroencephalography or electrocorticography to detect neuron activity. This WTEC study was designed to gather information on worldwide status and trends in BCI research and to disseminate it to government decision makers and the research community. The study reviewed and assessed the state of the art in sensor technology, the biotic/abiotic interface and biocompatibility, data analysis and modeling, hardware implementation, systems engineering, functional electrical stimulation, noninvasive communication systems, and cognitive and emotional neuroprostheses in academic research and industry.
Non-Suicidal Self-injury is associated with Multidimensional Deficits in Interoception: Evidence from Three Studies

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is the deliberate and direct injury of one’s own body tissue without suicidal intent. As the known risk factors for NSSI predispose to a range of psychiatric disorders, there is a limited understanding of the specific individual differences that result in NSSI. Therefore, in three studies, a multidimensional approach examined the novel proposition that deficiencies in aspects of interoceptive processing represent one such individual difference. Study 1 and study 2 used principal component analysis to explore the underlying structure of the sub-scales from a variety of body awareness questionnaires. Three components emerged that were replicated across both studies; ‘interoceptive and emotional ambivalence’; ‘interoceptive awareness’; ‘interoceptive appreciation’. Study 3 extended the model examining the link between NSSI and the objective interoceptive index; ‘interoceptive accuracy’. Those with a history of NSSI were characterised by a difficulty in distinguishing and interpreting interoceptive signals and this effect was mediated by a low appreciation of these sensations. These effects were reliable across all three studies. In study 3, NSSI was also associated with lower interoceptive accuracy. These data suggest that a failure to accurately detect and conceptualise interoceptive signals may lead to a depreciation of the body, predisposing to NSSI. NSSI may serve to resolve the resulting state of emotional and interoceptive uncertainty associated with the body’s function in emotional experience. These findings offer new insight into the interoceptive processes that underlie NSSI and suggest specific pathways that could be addressed during clinical interventions.
Risk compensation in construction workers' activities

Construction has been plagued with serious injuries and deaths for years. Although the technological advances have made the world safer and healthier, researchers have noted that some safety interventions, which had clear objective safety benefits, had failed to achieve the forecast savings in lives and injuries. The purpose of this study was to explore whether the construction workers show risk compensation and engage in greater risk taking when certain types of safety measures are implemented in the construction site. A case study approach was used to achieve the aim of this study. A typical construction site in Sydney was selected as the subject of the case study. Data were collected through direct observations, questionnaires and interviews. The findings confirm that workers show risk compensation behaviours in the construction environment. The risk compensation behaviours of workers varied with the level of experience and whether they have suffered from a past workplace injury. The findings of this study may offer a better understanding of workers’ behavioural patterns in construction environment and the effectiveness of safety interventions. The result of this study may provide supports for designing, implementing and evaluating safety interventions in construction site.
London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: The Official Commemorative Book

The magnificent official celebration of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. A glorious keepsake of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, full of unforgettable images, powerful quotes and fascinating statistics. It traces the whole incredible story, from early preparation through the creation of the Olympic Park, the Torch Relay and the innovative Cultural Olympiad. It explores both Games in detail, revealing how record-breaking athletes, spectators, volunteers and locals have all made London 2012 their own. Beautifully designed and featuring the Games' most evocative photography and a foreword by Sebastian Coe KBE, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: The Commemorative Book captures the magical atmosphere of a once in a lifetime event. Tom Knight has worked in journalism for over 30 years and in that time has covered eight Olympic Games and travelled extensively, covering sport for a variety of newspapers and magazines. For 10 years, he was the Daily Telegraph's athletics correspondent, with a portfolio that included sports politics and doping as well as a number of other Olympic sports. As a freelance writer, he has worked for The Times, The Guardian, the Independent, the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Express and the Press Association. Tom was press officer for the London Marathon for five years and was news editor of Running Magazine. Sybil Ruscoe has been a journalist since 1978, working on national newspapers and in national radio and television. Sybil's covered everything from the General Election to the Olympic Games. She worked on The Derby, the Cheltenham Festival, The Open, Six Nations rugby and Test cricket. In 1999, she joined C4 Cricket, where she was part of its RTS and BAFTA award-winning team and became the first woman to present Test TV coverage in Britain. For five years, Sybil presented Ruscoe & Co, the afternoon show on BBC 5 Live, where she interviewed thousands of people from sport, entertainment and politics. A magnificent commemorative volume to capture all the drama and passion of London 2012. Foreword by Sebastian Coe KBE Sporting statistics, records and full tables of medal winners, plus inspiring quotations from victorious British athletes and evocative colour photographs. Firsthand accounts from those who made it happen: elite athletes, Cultural Olympiad performers, architects and builders, volunteers and organisers - unique insight into a great national event. Range and depth reflects scope of 'the greatest show on Earth' - includes both Games, Cultural Olympiad, Torch Relay, iconic venues and the legacy of London 2012. The perfect present for sports fans, lovers of spectacle and anyone who was there - or wishes they had been!
MONITORING TRAFFIC AND EMISSIONS BY FLOATING CAR DATA

Intelligent raffic mangement is widely acknowledged as a means to optimise the utilisation of existing infrastructure capacities. A major requirement intelligent traffic management is the collection of high quality data on traffic conditions in order to generate accurate real-time traffic information. The approach to be described here generates this information by a fleet of taxis equipped with GPS which act as Floating-Car-Data (FCD) provider for a number of metropolitan areas. The first part of this paper describes the methodology of setting up this data base. The information collected enables various applications such as real-time traffic monitoring, time-dynamic routing and fleet management. The second part of the paper proposes a framwork for using these data additionally to include environmental effects into intelligent traffic managemnt systems. To this end, a mapping between travel times and traffic flows is proposed. Some challenges related to the computation of emissions from velocity profiles are discussed. Equipped thes ingredients, an environmental friendly intelligent traffic management might be in reach.
ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) accreditation for engineering technology

Engineering technology is that part of the technological field that requires the application of scientific and engineering knowledge and methods combined with technical skills in support of engineering activities. It lies in the occupational spectrum between the craftsman and the engineer at the end of the spectrum closest to the engineer. The term engineering technician is applied to the graduates of associate degree programs. Graduates of baccalaureate programs are called engineering technologists. The content of a 4-yr engineering technology program treats the same subject areas as does an engineering program but with more emphasis on application, use of established design concepts, and the laboratory experience rather than on science, conceptual design, and new development. The mathematics content of accreditable baccalaureate programs must contain at least 12 semester-hour credits of mathematics including the study of calculus. Engineering managers should take a hard look at what is really needed in the education of that majority of a personnel who do not work as design and development engineers. Graduates of engineering technology programs may be better qualified than those of some engineering programs for the majority of jobs in our industry today.
Lifetime Warranty Policies: Complexities in Modelling and Potential for Industrial Application

Reliability of products is becoming more and more important due to tough competition in the product market. The effective ways to ensure reliability are to consider design, manufacturing, and provisions for after sales services. One way to signal the reliability of the product is by offering better warranty terms and period associated with sale of the product. The warranty period offered by the manufacturer/dealer has been progressively increasing since the beginning of the 20 Century. In early days of the last Century, warranty period of a new product was generating between three to six months. This was later increasing to two to three years. Currently, some manufacturers are offering up to five years warranty for the products and six or more years warranty some parts. Some of the electrical and electronic products are now being sold with lifetime warranties. Estimation of costs for lifetime is complex because it is often difficult to define life measures of various products for different application. This paper defines lifetime warranty policies and looks into the complexities of modelling warranty costs associated with lifetime warranty policies. It also looks into the potential of these policies for application in the industry.
Managerial Breakthrough: The Classic Book on Improving Management Performance

This new edition incorporates new material on planning and other issues to expand upon Juran's pioneering views of re-engineering. The work contends that the manager's basic function is to create change ("breakthrough") or prevent it ("control"). It demonstrates that each process is governed by a universal sequence of events. By understanding these patterns, managers learn how to do their jobs more effectively. The text features new analyses of the issues that arise whenever organizations introduce change.
Risk Prediction Model for Dengue Transmission using Artificial Neural Networks

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease that has grown dramatically around the world in recent years. It is more prevalent in tropical and subtropical countries. Annually, an estimated 390 million infections occur worldwide. Several studies have shown that climate factors influence this disease. Furthermore, it was shown that the influence of climate factors on dengue incidences was expected to be visible after some lag period. Identifying the climate factors that influence the spread of dengue fever would be helpful in combatting growth of the disease. This study builds an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model for predicting the risk status of dengue incidences based on climate factors. The climate factors, average temperature, rainfall, and average relative humidity with a time lag are used as input parameters to the ANN. The monthly dengue incidences and the data on climate factors from the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka are used for this study. The accuracy of the ANN model prediction is found to be 90%.
Monosodium Glutamate Triggers Neuroendocrine Stress Axis Leading to Apoptosis and Neural Progenitor Cell Activation

Can monosodium glutamate (MSG) acts as a stressor and stimulate the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis? If so, can its effects be compared to Corticosterone (CORT)? In order to test this hypothesis, we put forth a Glutamate model and CORT induced model system in rats to study the orchestration of molecular signaling pathways. Young adult (2 month old) male Wistar rats weighing about 50–100 g body weight were divided into 4 groups. Group I control rats were injected with saline (NaCl 0.9%) and Group II rats with MSG at a dose of 4 mg/kg body weight. Group III control was ethanol‐saline injected and Group IV was CORT injected at 3 mg/kg body weight. Rats were injected subcutaneously with test materials or vehicles for 7 days and maintained for 8, 15 and 30 days and were sacrificed by decapitation. The MSG model showed significant enhanced Crh gene expression in the hypothalamus as an immediate response to stress. On day 15, the expression level was reduced with a significant increase on day 30. Similarly pituitary Pomc mRNA expression was significantly upregulated on day 8 and 30 with an insignificant downregulation on day 15. GR (Nr3c1) gene expression in the cerebral cortex was significantly upregulated on day 8, a normalization on day 15 and a very significant down regulation on day 30. There was no change in the plasma corticosterone. Caspase‐3 showed an upregulated expression in the hypothalamus on day 8, indicating the activation of Caspase‐3‐dependent apoptotic pathways at the mRNA level. Nestin, a neural stem/progenitor cell marker showed a significant up regulation on day 15 followed by normalized expression on day 30. In the CORT model, Crh gene expression in the hypothalamus showed a significant downregulation on day 8, transient normalization on day 15 and a very significant downregulation on day 30. Pomc mRNA showed a significant downregulation on day 8. GR (Nr3c1) displayed an insignificant downregulation across the three time points. In the CORT group, plasma CORT concentration was not changed significantly across the time points when compared to the control. Nestin gene showed a significant downregulation on day 8. Our results reaffirm that the negative feedback is activated in the CORT model, thereby no cell death and repair. Furthermore, our results raise the question whether there is a shift in the negative feedback mechanism (shut off) activated in MSG‐induced stress? The elevated HPA axis sensitization during the MSG exposure is probably due to impaired negative feedback mechanism or an increased intrinsic excitability of the CRH neurons. This feedback escape may, in turn, attenuate presynaptic glutamate input to the CRH neurons resulting in glutamate neurotoxicity. MSG triggers the apoptotic signaling cascade, thereby causing the neural stem cell to onset repair machinery, to suggest that MSG is a stressor and a neurotoxin.
Advanced hybrid vehicle propulsion system study

Results are presented of a study of an advanced heat engine/electric automotive hybrid propulsion system. The system uses a rotary stratified charge engine and ac motor/controller in a parallel hybrid configuration. The three tasks of the study were (1) parametric studies involving five different vehicle types, (2) design trade-off studies to determine the influence of various vehicle and propulsion system paramaters on system performance fuel economy and cost, and (3) a conceptual design establishing feasibility at the selected approach. Energy consumption for the selected system was . 034 1/km (61.3 mpg) for the heat engine and . 221 kWh/km (.356 kWh/mi) for the electric power system over a modified J227 a schedule D driving cycle. Life cycle costs were 7.13 cents/km (11.5 cents/mi) at $2/gal gasoline and 7 cents/kWh electricity for 160,000 km (100,000 mi) life.
Validation of the Spanish version of Migraine Disability Assessment questionnaire (MIDAS) in migraine university students.

Background. The Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire is widely used to determine the degree of migraine-related disability of subjects. So far, and to the best of our knowledge, no Spanish version of this tool has been validated. The questionnaire comprises seven items, with the first five constituting the main scale while the sixth and seventh items referring, respectively, to the frequency and intensity of headache. The present study aims to analyze the clinimetric properties of the Spanish version of the MIDAS questionnaire in a population of university students. Methods. We performed a cross-sectional study of validation for this measuring instrument. A total of 153 subjects participated in the study. We analyzed construct validity using factor analysis, test-retest reliability by the Intraclass Correlation Coeficient (ICC), internal consistency, and concurrent validity with respect to the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Results. Factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure. The questionnaire has good reliability for the MIDAS main-scale score ([ICC=0.81; 95% CI: 0.63 – 0.90]), excellent reliability for headache frequency (ICC=0.90; 95%; CI: [0.79 – 0.95]), and moderately good reliability for headache intensity (ICC=0.63; 95% CI: [0.34 – 0.80]). The analysis also yielded good internal consistency results (α Cronbach=0.797) and a moderate correlation between MIDAS-main scale and the physical summary component of SF-12 (Rho=-0.326; p < 0.001). Conclusions. The Spanish version of the MIDAS questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool to measure migraine-related disability in university subjects. The two additional items provide information that could help clinicians in making decisions.
SIMULATED SEISMIC LOAD TESTS ON REINFORCED CONCRETE COLUMNS. DISCUSSION AND CLOSURE

A discussion of a paper with the aforementioned title by Watson and Park, published in this journal (Volume 120, Number 6, June 1994), is presented. The discussion focuses on the length of column over which confinement reinforcement should be placed, based on level of axial load. Discussers Moehle, Rodriguez and Lehman note the methodology of the authors and then offer an alternative perspective based on a first-order equation. Discussion is followed by closure from the authors.
Evaluation of AASHTO cracking protocol: quantifying distress in asphalt pavement surfaces

As part of a contract with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration evaluated AASHTO Protocol PP 44, "Quantifying Cracks in Asphalt Pavement Surface". The objective of this project was to determine the effectiveness of the protocol as a procedure to collect, process, and report performance data for network level pavement management needs. The AASHTO cracking protocol was evaluated in a systematic and rational approach for more than one year. The evaluation consisted of three primary activities including: a pilot study to determine the feasibility of using the protocol; a benchmark survey to ensure the results obtained were compatible with expert opinion; and a production testing study in which a full evaluation was conducted for a subsection of the pavement network to determine the feasibility of using the procedure at the network level. Overall, we conclude that the protocol is suitable for use as a process to determine the network level crack condition for a state pavement network.
Meaning

/ . Edmonson: Introduction (11-21). The context-defining remarks advanced here are meant to clarify the status of the field of 'ethnolinguistics' at the threshold of the last quarter of the twentieth century. Although it seems an overstatement to say that the field ever became 'the same as general linguistics' (12), ethnolinguistics clearly was the core concern of linguistics throughout the second quarter of the century in this country, as Edmonson says. The events of the third quarter have indeed brought about a proliferation of such 'hyphenated' concerns as psycholinguistics, biolinguistics, sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, computational linguistics, and mathematical linguistics. But at the same time the 'core' concern of linguistics has undergone an important redefinition, proceeding in various ways out of the work of such scholars as Zellig Harris on the formalization and 'idealization' of models of natural language structure. Expansion at the periphery has thus been counterbalanced by contraction at the core. Linguistics per se became more a branch of mathematical logic than of anthropology. Edmonson's view of current ethnolinguistics as 'only a problematic part of the linguistic spectrum' (12) is thus only partially accurate, as the 'spectrum' in which it exists is peripheral rather than central to the field. And the new emphases on semantics and internal variation do not, as he implies, originate from the fact that ethnolinguistics 'lies close to the heart of the major theoretical issues of contemporary linguistics' (12) so much as they constitute refinements in analytic models in order to cope with refractory problems in formal linguistic description. It is true that such modifications seem to be reshaping the core concerns of linguistics yet again, but it appears unlikely that these concerns will ever
Patterns of Anatomical Injury Severity to Different Types of Road Users in Road Crashes

Detailed injury descriptions from road crashes are essential for road injury prevention analysis. This study aims to describe the anatomical injury severity of the victims and its relation to the types of road users. Injury data and diagnoses were collected from the accident and emergency departments from hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A total of 14,196 victims were enrolled, of which 173 (1.22%) suffered major trauma (ISS ≥ 16). Severe injuries in this study are defined as victims with any injury of AIS score ≥ 3 on at least one of the body region. A majority of vehicle occupants sustained external injuries (34.4%) while severe injuries commonly occurred to the head region with internal organs the most frequently (73.5%) injured; specifically cerebrum subdural hematoma. Most frequent region of injury for motorcyclists commonly found at the lower extremity region (27%), in which abrasion is the common type of injury. Severe injuries to motorcyclists also frequently occur at the lower extremity region (43.4%) and head (42.8%). Severe head injuries to motorcyclist were common at the cerebrum section. Pedestrian injuries frequently occur at the lower extremity region (32%); majority suffering fibula fracture while severe injuries commonly occurred to the cerebrum part of the head region. Findings from this study show underlying patterns of injuries sustained by each type of road users and would be useful in helping researchers and engineers design a new and improved safety device that can help reduce injuries in future road crashes.