Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost and time control of construction projects: a survey of contractors and consultants in the UK

Numerous techniques have been developed to control cost and time of construction projects. However, there is limited research on issues surrounding the practical usage of these techniques. To address this, a survey was conducted on the top 150 construction companies and 100 construction consultancies in the UK aimed at identifying common project control practices and factors inhibiting effective project control in practice. It found that despite the vast application of control techniques a high proportion of respondents still experienced cost and time overruns on a significant proportion of their projects. Analysis of the survey results concluded that more effort should be geared at the management of the identified top project control inhibiting factors. This paper has outlined some measures for mitigating these inhibiting factors so that the outcome of project time and cost control can be improved in practice.
PROJETO VERSÁTIL DE ADAPTAÇÃO DO CONTADOR GEIGER-MÜLLER PARA AFERIÇÃO E QUANTIZAÇÃO DE RADIAÇÃO IONIZANTE NO AMBIENTE E EM PESSOAS

Radiação é energia que se propaga a partir de uma fonte emissora através de qualquer meio, podendo ser classificada como energia em trânsito, forma de energia que consegue promover a ionização de moléculas e espécies químicas causando alterações indesejadas, inclusive de saúde. Partículas altamente energéticas como partículas alfa, os elétrons e os pósitrons são emitidos espontaneamente de núcleos radioativos encontrados diariamente na natureza. As lesões e danos nas estruturas fisiológicas são ocasionados pela modificação da estrutura química de moléculas corporais. Devido às atividades naturais e humanas é importante manter um controle acerca das quantidades e doses dessas radiações que estamos expostos a todo tempo, dessa forma decidimos pela criação de um equipamento de medição de radiação ionizante fundamentado na busca de ferramentas nas publicações bibliográficas atuais. Usaremos um aparato de Geiger-Müller circuitado eletronicamente, relativamente simples e de baixo custo, composto por um tubo GeigerMüller, um circuito de alta tensão e um divisor de tensão para a leitura em um micro controlador (medidor) para a leitura e interpretação dos dados. O circuito de alta tensão que alimenta o tubo será projetado de forma a manter 400 V em corrente contínua de maneira estável necessária para o bom funcionamento do equipamento.
Novel Digital Pileup Inspection Circuit for a Gamma Ray Spectroscopy System

Apart from the noise associated with an incident radiation pulse, other sources of error in nuclear radiation measurements are from the dead time required for the processing of the pulse and the pile up of pulses. The schemes employed in analogue processing still result in appreciable errors in the observed results while digital schemes are complex and expensive for most laboratories especially in developing countries. We have designed and implemented a cheaper digital nuclear radiation processing system that will significantly reduce these problems of errors in nuclear spectroscopy. The processing scheme is based on digital pulse processing in both slow (energy) and fast (inspection) channels. The output of the fast channel is used for pileup inspection and slow channel peak capture while the slow channel itself provides for the accurate pulse peak determination required for good energy resolution. The dead time effect is only restricted to the slow channel processing time which is the same as the pileup inspection time. The system functions in a non paralysable dead time effect manner with an appropriately derived dead time and pileup error correction function.
PENERAPAN SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE UNTUK EKSTRAKSI INFORMASI DARI DOKUMEN TEKS

Proses ekstraksi informasi (Information Extraction atau IE) adalah proses pengubahan dokumen teks tidak terstruktur dengan domain tertentu ke dalam sebuah struktur informasi yang relevan. Di dalam tugas akhir ini domain yang digunakan adalah lowongan pekerjaan. Kebanyakan iklan lowongan pekerjaan yang terdapat di berbagai website perusahaan maupun website khusus lowongan pekerjaan di Indonesia merupakan dokumen teks berbahasa campuran, Indonesia dan Inggris. Pada tugas akhir ini akan dikaji proses ekstraksi informasi pada dataset berbahasa campuran, dengan menerapkan teknik pembelajaran mesin. Pendekatan pembelajaran mesin yang digunakan adalah pendekatan statistik, dengan metode klasifikasi token. Algoritma klasifikasi yang digunakan adalah Support Vector Machine (SVM) dengan uneven margin, yang didesain khusus untuk imbalanced dataset. Sedangkan strategi tagging yang digunakan adalah strategi Begin/End (BE) tagging. Adapun eksperimen yang dilakukan mencakup analisis performansi SVM dengan uneven margin untuk ekstraksi informasi pada dataset berbahasa campuran, pengujian parameter pembelajaran terbaik, dan perbandingan dengan algoritma klasifikasi lain, yaitu Nave Bayes dan KNN. Hasil eksperimen menunjukkan bahwa performansi SVM dengan uneven margin untuk ekstraksi informasi pada dataset lowongan pekerjaan berbahasa campuran sangat baik, dengan akurasi mencapai 85%. Dengan demikian dapat disimpulkan bahwa sistem ekstraksi informasi yang diimplementasikan dapat diterapkan pada lingkungan bursa kerja di Indonesia. Selain itu, algoritma SVM dengan uneven margin juga memiliki performansi yang lebih unggul dibandingkan dengan kedua algoritma lainnya.
Wind Turbine Generator System Safety and Function Test Report for the Southwest Windpower H40 Wind Turbine

The objective of this test was to evaluate the safety and function characteristics of the Whisper H40 wind turbine. The general requirements of wind turbine safety and function tests are defined in the IEC standard WT01. The testing was conducted in accordance with the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) Quality Assurance System, including the NWTC Certification Team Certification Quality Manual and the NWTC Certification Team General Quality Manual for the Testing of Wind Turbines, as well as subordinate documents. This safety and function test was performed as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Field Verification Program for small wind turbines.
Utility Benchmarking And Potential Savings of Multi-Unit Residential Buildings (MURBs) In Toronto

Building energy, water and solid waste benchmarking and developing meaningful performance indicators can help government and building owners to make effective decisions on improving their buildings' efficiency. For this study, information on 120 Multi-Unit Residential Buildings (MURBs) has been provided. The study entails the following steps: performing energy (weather normalized using the Princeton Scorekeeping Method (PRISM)), water, and solid waste benchmarking for the 120 MURBs, developing meaningful performance indicators; determining performance ranking; and estimating different levels of savings (energy, water, solid waste, cost, and GHG emissions). The most appropriate performance indicator and the benchmarking range for energy, water, and solid waste are as follows, energy consumption normalized by square metre, 141-580 kWh/m
Successful crisis-driven human resource management in German consulting firms : an evolutionary perspective

The present study exams the management of human resources in turbulent economic times with particular reference to the top 25 management and the top 25 it German consultancies during the period of 2001 to 2003 as well as 2008 and 2009, where central aspects of this phenomenon are the success of such HRM practices, their emergence and evolvement over time. More specifically it pursues 1) to develop an empirically grounded theoretical framework with regard to crisis-driven HRM (CD HRM) in large German consultancies from an evolutionary perspective and 2) to design an excellence model of crisis-driven HRM by taking into account the specifics of the consultancy industry. --- While the evolutionary model is supposed to answer the question "how" (evolutionary dynamics) and "why" (evolutionary logic and effects) particular aspects of CD HRM (evolutionary object) in consulting firms changed over time, the excellence model is aimed at improving managerial decision-making and diagnosis in general as well as benchmarking activities and audits with respect to successful CD HRM. --- To address both ojectives, the research design followed the phases of the cognitive process inherent in the grounded theory (GT) - comprehension, synthesis and theorizing. The phase of comprehension started with deriving an indicator model from the existing literature on CD HRM along four evolutionary categories in the particular context of the German consulting industry and resulted in indicating concepts, preliminary propositions (PP) and research questions (RQ), for the purpose of guiding the emergence of an empirically grounded theory. --- The second part of the phase of comprehension included collection of qualitative and quantitative data as well as the process of synthesis, which was facilitated by the interaction between data collection and data analysis. This part was outlined as a three-stage longitudinal study (January 2007 to March 2010) whereby the outcome of each stage served as input for the next, based on a large variety of data collection and analysis tools. --- The results of the study presented in form of six multiple case studies, lead to an evolutionary-related theoretical model with regard to CD HRM in consulting firms which refer to the phase of theorizing. A further outcome of the present study, addressing in particular the second research objective and also in accordance with the research process of GT is an excelllence model of CD HRM. Following the notion of assessing business excellence, the pursued model represents a framework based on interrelated components with their weights both measuring and ensuring success of HRM. --- Finally, some conclusions and lessons learnt are drawn with regard to contemporary direction in which CD HRM evolves considering the very specifics of German consultancies. In addition, implications for decision-makers and HR experts in consulting firms as well as suggestions for future research are outlined.
KnowSeq R/bioc package: Beyond the traditional RNA-seq pipeline. A breast cancer case study.

The number of gene expression analyses has grown exponentially over the last years. The main triggers of this increase are the reduction in the sequencing cost per sample and the technological advances, specially in the computing scope. Those analyses generally involve a number of steps. Firstly, a raw samples alignment and a quality analysis are needed. After that, a Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) extraction and a subsequent gene enrichment can be performed. The development of intelligent predictive tools results essential in bioinformatics given that there exists a real need of assistance for decision-making systems towards precision medicine. Therefore, KnowSeq incorporates novel steps of feature selection and classifier design in the traditional RNA-seq pipeline. No tool exists in the research community that achieves this complete RNA-seq analysis, encapsulating all those steps in one single tool. In order to show the functionalities provided by the general pipeline designed for the KnowSeq package, an application to a real problem is presented. Concretely, an analysis of a breast cancer set of patients collected from the controlled repository GDC portal is performed, keeping paired samples between tumour and control. As results show, KnowSeq achieves extracting more relevant biological knowledge related with breast cancer from the RNA raw data acquisition. KnowSeq is available through Bioconductor. KnowSeq R/bioc package is born with the purpose of providing an integrative tool, containing the necessary steps to address complex RNA-seq analyses in a modular and flexible way. In this paper a breast study case is addressed with KnowSeq, obtaining outstanding results and demonstrating the validity of KnowSeq to carry out gene expression analyses.
Aligning pay and results : compensation strategies that work from the boardroom to the shop floor

Aligning pay and results, Howard Risher moving to a pay-for-performance strategy - lessons from the trenches, Edward Sullivan. Part 1: aligning executive pay and annual company results, Richard J. Barrister, Jr, William Gentry aligning executive pay and the creation of economic value, Jude Rich aligning compensation and stock ownership, Eric Marquardt aligning directors' compensation with company performance, Pearl Meyer. Part 2: paying for competence - rewarding knowledge, skills and behaviours, Jim Kochanski, Howard Risher paying employees to develop new skills, Marc Wallace, Fred Crandall. Part 3: aligning pay to group results, Tom Wilson aligning pay and team results, Steve Gross global pay and results, Neil Coleman communicating pay - using marketing principles to sell compensation, Richard Anthony. Part 4: using pay as a tool to achieve organizational goals, Howard Risher.
Arc Hazard Assessment for DC Applications in the Transit Industry

During accidental faults on electrical power systems, workers may be exposed to hazards from electrical arcs. A prime concern is the exposure of workers to the intense radiated component of the arc energy, which has the potential to cause skin burns. In the United States of America, it has been reported that approximately 80% of electrical injuries are due to burns from exposure to radiant and convective energy from electrical arcs. Arc hazard analysis is a safety assessment, dedicated to protecting workers who might be exposed to radiated thermal energy from electric arcs. In this paper, the focus is on incident energy released from direct current (DC) arcs, which should be of particular interest to the transit industry.
Strategy in Action: How School Systems Can Support Powerful Learning and Teaching

How can we systemically improve the quality of classroom instruction and the learning and achievement of students? In an era when isolated examples of excellence are not good enough, we need systems that support improvement and excellence for all. This book describes how systems can effectively engage in this complex, challenging, and crucial work. The authors explore three core competencies of high-performing school systems: (1) understanding what the work is a deep understanding of the core business of facilitating learning, a vision of what that looks like, and an awareness of where the system is in relation to that vision; (2) knowing how to do the work a theory of action for improving instruction, a focus on key strategies, and effective alignment of resources; and (3) building the individual and organizational habits of mind that foster continuous improvement. Each chapter includes examples that illustrate key concepts in action, questions to spur self-assessment in key areas of competence, and tools and resources for building capacity at different levels and stages of development. "
Preliminary system design study for a digital fly-by-wire flight control system for an F-8C aircraft

The design of a fly-by-wire control system having a mission failure probability of less than one millionth failures per flight hour is examined. Emphasis was placed on developing actuator configurations that would improve the system performance, and consideration of the practical aspects of sensor/computer and computer/actuator interface implementation. Five basic configurations were defined as appropriate candidates for the F-8C research aircraft. Options on the basic configurations were included to cover variations in flight sensors, redundancy levels, data transmission techniques, processor input/output methods, and servo actuator arrangements. The study results can be applied to fly by wire systems for transport aircraft in general and the space shuttle.
Meta-synthesis of player typologies

This paper investigates different ways in which players have been categorized in game research literature in order to distinguish relevant customer segments for designing and marketing of game’s value offerings. This paper adopts segmentation and marketing theory as its bases of analysis. The goal is to synthesize the results of various studies and to find the prevailing concepts, combine them, and draw implications to further studies and segmentation of the player base. The research process for this study proceeded from large literature search, to authorcentric (Webster & Watson 2002) identification and categorization of previous works based on the established factors of segmentation (demographic, psychographic, and behavioral variables) in marketing theory. The previous works on player typologies were further analyzed using concept-centric approach and synthesized according to common and repeating factors in the previous studies. The results indicate that player typologies in previous literature can be synthesized into seven key dimensions: Skill, Achievement, Exploration, Sociability, Killer, Immersion and In-game demographics. The paper highlights for further studies the self-fulfilling and self-validating nature of the current player typologies because their relatively high use in game design practices as well as discusses the role of game design in segmentation of players.
A skin surface characterization system based on capacitive image analysis

During the last few years, several methods have been proposed in order to study and to evaluate characteristic properties of the human skin by using non-invasive approaches. Mostly, these methods cover aspects related to either dermatology, to analyze skin physiology and to evaluate the effectiveness of medical treatments in skin diseases, or dermocosmetics and cosmetic science to evaluate, for example, the effectiveness of anti-aging treatments. To these purposes a routine approach must be followed. Although very accurate and high resolution measurements can be achieved by using conventional methods, such as optical or mechanical profilometry for example, their use is quite limited primarily to the high cost of the instrumentation required, which in turn is usually cumbersome, highlighting some of the limitations for a routine based analysis. This thesis aims to investigate the feasibility of a noninvasive skin characterization system based on the analysis of capacitive images of the skin surface. The system relies on a CMOS portable capacitive device which gives 50 micron/pixel resolution capacitance map of the skin micro-relief. In order to extract characteristic features of the skin topography, image analysis techniques, such as watershed segmentation and wavelet analysis, have been used to detect the main structures of interest: wrinkles and plateau of the typical micro-relief pattern. In order to validate the method, the features extracted from a dataset of skin capacitive images acquired during dermatological examinations of a healthy group of volunteers have been compared with the age of the subjects involved, showing good correlation with the skin ageing effect. Detailed analysis of the output of the capacitive sensor compared with optical profilometry of silicone replica of the same skin area has revealed potentiality and some limitations of this technology. Also, applications to follow-up studies, as needed to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of treatments in a routine manner, are discussed.
Making the most of the communications repertoire: choosing between the mobile and fixed-line

Issues of placelessness, the spatial and social relations created by television’s emergence as a dominant medium, have been around since the mid-1980s. With the triumphant march of mobile telephony these issues today appear to gain new significance, and are seen in a new light. Social science focussing on mobile communication increasingly recognizes that the mobile telephone is not only a revolutionary instrument that connects people globally, it is also a powerful tool for connections on a more local scale: an organizer of life in small spaces and communities. The volume contains papers by, among others, Joshua Meyrowitz, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Mark Poster, and James Katz.
Congressional Oversight Over-looked: Police Patrol versus Fire Alarms

Scholars have often remarked that Congress neglects its oversight responsibility. We argue that Congress does no such thing: what appears to be a neglect of oversight really is the rational preference for one form of oversight-which we call fire-alarm oversight-over another form-police-patrol oversight. Our analysis supports a somewhat neglected way of looking at the strategies by which legislators seek to achieve their goals.
Modelos Vetoriais de Correção de Erros Aplicados à Previsão de Crescimento da Produção Industrial

In this paper we implement and evaluate several forecast econometric vectorial autoregressivemodels for quarterly Industrial GDP. We have built co-integration vectorrestriction for several sets of variables (Industrial GDP, long interest rates, short interestrates, spread, inflation) in order to assess the improvement on forecast performance.A expectative variable of growth of industrial production among firms was alsoutilized and was proved to be valuable. The predictive power of different modelswas evaluated from diverse loss functions evaluated on out-of sample invariable sizerolling-window method. Additionally, we have considered also combining forecastmethods, following the subject literature which has been indicating this approach asone the most efficient (BATES e GRANGER, 1969). We have concluded, the use of co-integration vector may improve substantiallythe forecast performance. Specialy, the interest rate spread has been proved to be aimportant leading indicator of industrial activity as well as the expectative variable(FGV). Furthermore, the c combining forecast models over-performed generally,apart others very good results of individual models.
Empirical Mode Decomposition and Analysis of Non-Stationary Cardiac Signals

Each year 400,000 North Americans die from sudden cardiac death (SCD). T- wave alternans (TWA) refers to an alternating pattern in the T-wave portion of the surface electrocardiogram (ECG) and has been shown as a risk stratifier for SCD. These subtle changes in the T-waves are in the micro-volt scale and ambulatory ECG recordings usually contain biological noise. Also, data non-stationarity owing to heart rate variability and the amplitude variability in TWA magnitude can limit the accuracy of the detection techniques. This necessitates the need for robust detection algorithms for processing such non-stationary data. In this thesis, we have proposed an Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) based scheme combined with the Instantaneous Frequency (IF). EMD decomposes the signal into several monocomponent signals called Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). IF extracted from these IMFs provides an accurate estimate of time varying frequency components and hence can aid during characterization of TWAs. In order to validate the performance of the proposed detection technique, the feature vectors extracted from the IMFs were fed to a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifier. The performance assessment was carried out using two datasets: (a) Synthetic TWAs: 72 signals obtained from publicly accessible Physionet database and (b) TWAs from patients: 55 ambulatory ECG signals obtained from the Toronto General Hospital. Using an unbiased leave-one-out cross validation strategy, maximum overall classification accuracies of 86.1% and 81.8% were achieved for TWA detection from synthetic and ambulatory ECG recordings respectively. In addition, the usability of the proposed technique has been investigated to assess its suitability for addressing another cardiovascular problem stroke. Atrial Fibrillation (AF) has been identified as a risk factor to increase the chances of stroke. The most common method in studying the complex AF electrograms is to employ dominant frequency (DF) analysis; however, due to signal non-stationarity DF does not always provide the best estimate of the atrial activation rate. As a result, analyzing the electrograms via EMD and IF has been investigated as the second contribution of this work.