Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring, Understanding, and Estimating the Influence of the Environment on low-power Wireless Networks

After a decade and a half of research in academia and industry, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are seen as a key infrastructure able to monitor the environment in which they are immersed, thanks to their miniaturization, autonomy, and flexibility. Still, outdoor deployments of WSNs (e.g., in forests) are notoriously difficult to get right, partly due to the fact that their low-power wireless communication is greatly affected by the characteristics of the target environment (e.g., temperature, humidity, foliage). In the absence of quantitative evidence about the target application environments, the asset that drives a successful and reliable outdoor deployment is the experience gained from previous deployments, lab-like testbeds, or simulators that however often do not resemble the real-world environments. The general goal of this dissertation is to support the principled design and deployment of WSNs by improving the understanding of how the natural outdoor environment affects the network stack, and providing tools and modeling techniques to address this impact. This constitutes the premise for WSNs to be a credible tool for domain experts (e.g., biologists) operating in this field. Our own practical need to design and deploy a reliable WSN system for wildlife monitoring in the mountains near Trento, Italy, pushed our goals towards a deployment and application oriented perspective, whose ultimate objectives are: supporting the WSN deployment; informing the selection or design of protocols, to ensure they are well-suited to the target environment; deriving models to push the envelope of what can be predicted or simulated beforehand. To achieve these goals we must start from the first step—assessing quantitatively the characteristics of the low-power wireless links in-field, i.e., in the environment where the WSN must be deployed. To this end, we contribute with Trident and Harpoon, tools for in-field connectivity and routing performance assessment that support principled, repeatable, automated, and flexible collection of measurements in the target environment without the need for a tethered infrastructure and without requiring coding from the end user. Then, using these tools we collect a large set of data traces from six campaigns across different years, environments and seasons, whose analysis quantified the impact of the environmental factors on the network stack, focusing primarily on the physical and routing layers. Finally, we exploit the data traces to create models for both estimating the link quality at run-time and reproducing realistic network conditions in simulators. We argue that the tools we expressly designed for gathering in-field empirical traces, the understanding and quantitative characterization of data traces from real environments, and the modeling, together significantly advance the state of the art by rendering the process of designing and deploying a WSN more repeatable and predictable.
Unsteady MHD Pulsatile Blood Flow through Porous Medium in Stenotic Channel with Slip at Permeable Walls Subjected to Time Dependent Velocity (Injection/Suction)

The flow through porous boundaries is of great importance, both in technological and biophysical flows. The present paper is concerned with the study of unsteady pulsatile flow of blood through porous medium in a time dependent constricted porous channel subjected to time dependent suction/injection at the walls of the channel. The blood flow is subjected to a constant transverse magnetic field, considering blood as an incompressible electrically conducting fluid. Due to the permeability of the arterial wall, the no-slip condition at the wall is no longer valid, and one has to consider the slip condition at the channel wall because of more realistic approach. Perturbation analysis is used to solve the system of equations governing the flow. With a view to illustrating the applicability of the mathematical model developed here, the analytic explicit expressions of axial velocity, volumetric flow rate and wall shear stress are obtained. The computed numerical results are presented graphically for different values of the physical parameters of interest, to depict the variations in axial velocity, volumetric flow rate and wall shear stress. doi: 10.14456/WJST.2014. 55
High efficiency line-start interior permanent magnet synchronous motors

This paper presents a successful design of high efficiency small but novel interior permanent magnet motor using NdBFe magnets. It is designed to operate both at line and variable frequencies. Line-start with high inertia load was a special consideration. Time stepping finite element analysis has been used to successfully predict the dynamic and transient performances of the prototype motors. It has been found that the proposed design has yielded successful simulation and experimental results. The maximum load inertia corresponding to the rotor-bar depth has been determined from the simulation results.
Analytical prediction of rotor eddy current loss in brushless machines equipped with surface-mounted permanent magnets. II. Accounting for eddy current reaction field

For pt.I see ibid., p.806-9 (2001). An improved analytical model for predicting the rotor eddy current loss in brushless motors equipped with surface-mounted permanent magnets, with due account of the eddy current reaction field, is presented. The model is applied to a brushless DC traction machine, and the predicted rotor loss is compared with the losses deduced from thermometric measurements and from the magnetostatic analytical model. Improved agreement between the predicted and measured rotor loss is achieved over the complete operating speed range.
A magneto-elastic sensor for screening of body position and mobility during sleep

The paper concerns a detector for biomedical screening of sleep apnea which may yield severe reduction of life expectation. The detector is mounted on the thorax including several sensors for respiratory and cardiac activities. A n additional magneto-elastic sensor, which is described in this paper, s hould register both the body position and body movements, both being relevant for diagnostics. The sensor is based on a magneto-elastic bilayer of high bending sensitivity operated in acceleration mode. The sensor is being optimized with respect to material matching, loading (mass optimization) and length, as well as (limited) excursion, resonance frequency and thermal behavior. Application is reported for lab tests on short time events of three kinds: (a) body positions, with focus on back position which favors positive findings, (b) body movements, ranging from arm/leg movement s up to upper body rolls, and (c) physiological activities such as respiration, indicating additional pot entials of the sensor. The magnetic concept promises a component which is compact, robust, free of wear and cheap. It will be used in combination with sensors for respiration effort and cardiac activity, a iming for a robust single-spot home monitoring device for the assessment of sleep apnea syndrome.
3D虛擬實境應用於醫學教育接受度之研究A Study of User’s Acceptance on Three-dimensional Virtual Reality Applied in Medical Education

3D技術應用於教學是一種趨勢，因為3D化的教材可以有效的傳達課程的內容，然而3D教材的極致表現即為虛擬實境（Virtual Reality, VR）。 因此，本研究主要在建立一個「虛擬人體結構輔助教學系統」，該系統以網頁的方式呈現，並用於輔助人體結構學的教學。 本系統提供學習者一個互動的學習環境，主要用於提升醫學相關科系的大學生對人體結構中的神經系統、呼吸系統、血液環循系統、消化系統、泌尿系統及骨骼系統的認知，期望學生能了解人體結構間的空間位置，並提高學習者的學習興趣。 本研究旨在探討醫學相關科系的學生對3D虛擬實境應用於教學上的接受度評估，並依據情境學習理論、虛擬實境和科技接受模式建立研究架構，其研究變數包括：學生對系統的認知易用性、學生對系統的認知有用性與學生對系統的使用意願。 評估的方法採用問卷調查的方式，本研究採用投影式虛擬實境進行教學，以及學生利用桌上型虛擬實境進行自主性學習後，利用該問卷進行評估。 本研究結果顯示：1. 學生的認知易用性可以預測學生的認知有用性。 2. 學生的認知易用性與認知有用性可預測學生的使用意願，其中認知有用性可解釋使用意願49%的變異量。 關鍵詞 互動式學習、科技接受摸式、虛擬實境。 A Study of User’s Acceptance on Three-dimensional Virtual Reality Applied in Medical Education Using three-dimensional (3D) contents for learning virtual reality (VR) is the use of 3D graphic systems in combination with various devices to provide the effect of immersion in the interactive virtual environment. In this study, the authors built a Virtual Body Structures Auxiliary Teaching System (VBS-ATS) based on situated learning and virtual reality theory. This system is a Web-based three-dimensional interactive learning environment that can be used for assisting students to learn human structure. In addition, this system consists of six learning units including Nervous System, Respiratory System, Vascular System, Digestive System, Urinary System, and Skeletal System of a human body. The main purpose of this study attempts to evaluate learners’ perceptions on 3D virtual reality applied in medical education. The instructor uses project virtual reality to present 3D course contents in the classroom. To improve interactivity, learners can use the Web-based 3D learning system through desktop virtual reality to assist their learning when they need. Three research variables: perceived usefulness, perceived easy to use and intention to use, are investigated in this study. Finally, a questionnaire, based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), was developed for evaluating this 3D VR learning environment. Results indicated that perceived easy to use can predict perceived usefulness. Moreover, perceived easy to use and perceived usefulness can predict students’ intention to use the 3D virtual reality system. In addition, perceived usefulness accounts for 49% of variance in intention to use the system. Key Words interactive learning, technology acceptance model (TAM), virtual reality (VR)
POST OCCUPANCY EVALUATION OF PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT IN PUBLIC LOW-COST HOUSING

Malaysian government has introduce public low-cost housing during Malaysian Plan as an initiative to help the low-income household owners and squatters. However, in developing the low-cost housing, the quality and environmental aspects should be emphasized. Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is an approach in assessing existing building performance and future development of buildings to ascertain feedback from occupants after the building has been occupied for some time. This paper determines the physical environment based on occupants preference by using the POE tools. Physical environment elements obtained through literature review consists of facilities, spaces and services offered in each housing unit. A sum of 13 physical environment elements were measured by 868 occupants in Johor’s Public Low-cost Housing. Convenience sampling technique was the method used to determine the adequacy of sample throughout data collection process, subsequently it has been analyzed using frequency and factor statistics. The study reveals that physical environment elements were playing the crucial role in every housing unit. However, dwelling unit features, housing conditions and location were mainly the highest preference amongst occupants. In fact, physical environment elements plays an entirely crucial role in developing occupant’s comfort and satisfaction. Nevertheless, a few physical elements that show the least preferable amongst occupant such as external utilities and services, management, lighting and ventilation need to be given more attention in order to create a better environment in the future.
SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT IN AGRICULTURE: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RESOURCE LIST OF METHODS

Sustainability assessment is fundamental to improving the long-term viability of agricultural systems. A variety of assessment tools have been developed for the practitioner to evaluate sustainability at multiple levels, from field to farm. This report is a compilation of annotated references on assessment methods from published and unpublished sources. Each section contains a methodological description, a list of published sources, and a list of relevant programs and contacts. While not exhaustive, the report presents a range of tools and applications that are currently in use or are in testing for future use.
Strengthening Mechanisms in Carbon Nanotubes Reinforced Metal Matrix Composites: A Review

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-reinforced metal matrix composites are very attractive advanced nanocomposites due to their potential unusual combination of excellent properties. These nanocomposites can be produced by several techniques, the most reported being powder metallurgy, electrochemical routes, and stir or ultrasonic casting. However, the final mechanical properties are often lower than expected. This can be attributed to a lack of understanding concerning the strengthening mechanisms that act to improve the mechanical properties of the metal matrix via the presence of the CNTs. The dispersion of the CNTs is the main challenge in the production of the nanocomposites, and is independent of the production technique used. This review describes the strengthening mechanism that act in CNT-reinforced metal matrix nanocomposites, such as the load transfer, grain refinement or texture strengthening, second phase, and strain hardening. However, other mechanisms can occur, such as solid solution strengthening, and these depend on the metal matrix used to produce the nanocomposites. Different metallic matrices and different production techniques are described to evaluate their influence on the reinforcement of these nanocomposites.
Challenges and Opportunities for Design, Simulation, and Fabrication of Soft Robots

Abstract This article describes new opportunities in soft robotics and some potential avenues to overcome challenges associated with the realization of these opportunities. New opportunities include new applications that exploit novel amorphous nonrigid dynamics, a new design space due to the elimination of traditional manufacturing constraints, more opportunities for modeling and mimicry of natural systems, and increased safety and mechanical compatibility with humans. Challenges include limited simulation and design automation tools, lack of soft actuation methods, and difficulty in manufacturing and component standardization. Both computational (e.g., evolutionary design tools) and mechanical (porous and jamming materials) approaches are proposed to alleviate these needs.
Integrating battery management into energy management for hybrid heavy-duty trucks

This paper integrates the Battery Management System (BMS) into the Energy Management system to achieve a robust strategy for Hybrid Electric Heavy-duty Trucks (denoted as HEVs), where the requested battery lifetime is guaranteed for typical real-world driving situations. The developed control strategy, called Integrated Energy Management (IEM), utilizes a dynamic battery lifetime model to predict and manage the battery lifespan. Simulation results for different ambient temperatures and driving cycles demonstrate the robustness of the IEM strategy.
Time-domain reactive power concepts for nonlinear, nonsinusoidal or nonperiodic networks

Two methods for extending the definition of reactive power beyond the sinusoidal steady state are presented. Reactive power concepts are created that can be useful in the state-space analysis of nonlinear or nonperiodic systems. All definitions and results are given purely in the time domain without using Fourier analysis or other orthogonal function expansions. <<ETX>>
Multiple material additive manufacturing – Part 1: a review

Interest in multifunctional structures made automatically from multiple materials poses a challenge for today's additive manufacturing (AM) technologies; however the ability to process multiple materials is a fundamental advantage to some AM technologies. The capability to fabricate multiple material parts can improve AM technologies by either optimising the mechanical properties of the parts or providing additional functions to the final parts. The objective of this paper is to give an overview on the current state of the art of multiple material AM technologies and their practical applications. In this paper, multiple material AM processes have been classified and the principles of the key processes have been reviewed comprehensively. The advantages and disadvantages of each process, recent progress, challenging technological obstacles, the possible strategies to overcome these barriers, and future trends are also discussed.
Factors relating to engineering identity

Engineering identity is believed to relate to educational and professional persistence. In particular, a student's sense of belonging to the engineering community is critical to that path. The primary research questions were: 1) which students self-identify as engineers? ; and 2) what are the key factors that relate to self-identification? To address these research questions, a cross-sectional study of all undergraduate engineering students at a medium sized, Midwestern private university was conducted in the spring of 2009. The majority of engineering students did self- identify as engineers, with educational progression, gender and future career plans all being significant attributes. The factors that students most frequently identified as being necessary to be considered an engineer were intangible in nature and included: making competent design decisions, working with others to share ideas and accepting responsibility. Students' self-identification as engineers can be linked to a sense of belonging to the engineering college, as well as organisational recognition.
The life cycle hypothesis and consumption inequality

The life-cycle hypothesis predicts that the cross-sectional variance of the marginal utility of consumption is equal to its own lag plus a constant and a random component. Using fairly general preference specifications and some assumptions about the nature of the random component, we provide an explicit test of this hypothesis. Our approach, unlike Deaton and Paxson's (1994) analysis, circumvents the necessity to identify a pure age profile of the cross sectional variance of consumption and yields a well specified statistical test. This test is applied to data from the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy. The results do not reject the restrictions implied by the theoretical model.
An inspection robot for feeder cables-snake like motion control

The authors discuss the basic control structure for an inspection robot for feeder cables. Since the feeder cables stretch over an extremely long distance, automatic inspection is necessary. Feeder cables have many irregular points, i.e feeder branches, insulators, and so on, and thus development of such robots is difficult. As a first stage of the development, an attempt has been made to build a prototype which can pass through vertical-type irregular points. The prototype has a multicar structure with joint connections and a snakelike motion control architecture. The mechanical structure and control architecture are described, and it is shown that such a robot can run on the cable smoothly with enough speed, and can avoid vertical irregular points. <<ETX>>
Holonic multi-agent systems

A holonic multi-agent paradigm is proposed, where agents give up parts of their autonomy and merge into a super-agent"(a holon), that acts - when seen from the outside - just as a single agent again. We explore the spectrum of this new paradigm, ranging from definitorial issues over classification of possible application domains, an algebraic characterization of the merge operation, to implementational aspects: We propose algorithms for holon formation and on-line re-configuration. Based on some general criteria for the distinction between holonic and non-holonic domains, we examine domains suitable for holonic agents and sketch the implementation of holonic agents in these scenarios. Finally, a case study of a holonic agent system is presented in detail: TELETRUCK system is a fleet management system in the transportation domain.
Analysis of Charge Transport: A Mathematical Study of Semiconductor Devices

This volume is divided into seven chapters, which are formed under the format of modelling, computational foundations and mathematical theory. The modelling chapters provide an elementary discussion of the drift-discussion system for semiconductors, and introduce an hierarchy of moment models, based upon the Botlzmann transport equation. The final four chapters deal exclusively with the drift-diffusion model.
Investigation of the HTS microstrip filters based on dual-mode ring resonators

The design and realization of the HTS dual-mode microstrip ring resonator narrow-band filters is presented. As a design tool LIBRA has been used. Two types of superconductors and substrates have been used: YBCO on sapphire and TBCCO on LaAlO/sub 3/. Two-pole Tchebyshev type filters and four-pole elliptic filters have been realized.
Hemolytical Profile Of Streptococcus Spfrom Nasal Swab Isolation At Traditional Farm In Bongkasa Village, Abiansemal Subdistrict, Badung Regency, Bali.

Streptococcus sp is Gram positive cocci and aligned like chain. This bacteria can be found normally in upper respiratory tract. Streptococcus sp can be divided into two groups; able to hemolize blood and unable. B-hemolytic Streptococcus tend to be more pathogen than the others. Therefore this research about Streptococcus sp’s hemolysis profile is very important. The samples of this research is an isolated swine nasal swab from a traditional pig farm in Bongkasa Village. 20 samples were used in this research. Samples were grown in Blood Agar media to find out the capability of bacteria for hemolizing blood. Catalase test used for differentiating Streptococcus sp and Staphylococcus sp, followed by oxydase test after. Result of the research shows positive samples of Streptococcus sp divided by hemolysis profile is 11 isolates whereas 36,4% isolates were Alfa hemolysis, 54,6% were B hemolysis, and 9% isolates were Gamma hemolysis.
Optimization of Composite Process Parameters on Fracture Toughness of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics

The objective of the work was to investigate statistical analysis of fracture toughness of the glass fiber reinforced composites at different stacking sequences, strain rate and crack length. The glass reinforced Vinylester composites prepared by hand lay-up technique with various stacking sequences such as 0/90, 45/-45 and chopped strand orientations. 3-point bending for fracture toughness test for various notch depth ratio’s as per linear elastic fracture mechanics concept was conducted. Further the initial notch depth method was adopted to find the critical stress intensity factor KIC for the given notch depth ratio. Design of experiment using the Taguchi L9 array was formulated to understand the influence of parameters on fracture toughness. ANOVA was performed to find out the influencing weightage factor for fracture toughness. Regression analysis was used to develop a mathematical model that gave the contribution of individual parameters on responses. The fracture surface was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The DOE response surface methodology showed the stacking sequence of [45/-45/0/90/Chopped]3s, with strain rate of 0.5 mm/min and without notch having the highest fracture toughness of 81.36 Mpa . ANOVA was carried out to know the statistical significance of factors influencing fracture toughness, Results showed that notch depth ratio was the most influencing factor with 68.67 % and stacking sequence with 24%. Accuracy of developed regression model was 90.61 % (R2), which indicating the confidence level of regression.
GA-FDTD based design of metamaterials

Metamaterials have been widely explored in recent years [1]. They exhibit unique electromagnetic features that cannot be achieved from ordinary materials in nature, such as in-phase reflection of electromagnetic waves, negative effective dielectric permittivity and permeability, etc. Metamaterials are normally composed of periodic structures. Due to the computational complexity, the analysis and design of antennas and microwave components based on metamaterials poses a significant challenge to the electromagnetic society.