Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urban Landscape Features Influence the Movement and Distribution of the Australian Container-Inhabiting Mosquito Vectors Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) and Aedes notoscriptus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract Urban landscape features play an important role in the distribution and population spread of mosquito vectors. Furthermore, current insecticide and novel rear-and-release strategies for urban mosquito management rarely consider the spatial structure of the landscape when applying control practices. Here, we undertake a mark-recapture experiment to examine how urban features influence the movement and distribution of Australian container-inhabiting Aedes vectors. We pay attention to the role of semipermanent water storage containers, called rainwater tanks, and the influence of movement barriers, such as roads, on the spread and distribution of vector populations. Results suggest that Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) (Diptera: Culicidae) were more likely to be captured around rainwater tanks, and that released males travel throughout residential blocks but do not cross roads. Conversely, female Aedes notoscriptus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) movement was uninhibited by roads and rainwater tanks did not influence female distribution or oviposition behavior. Using an isotropic Gaussian kernel framework, we show that vector movement is likely to be greater when applying a temporal effect, than when estimated by traditional methods. We conclude that a greater understanding on the role of urban features on vector movement will be important in the new age of rear-and-release mosquito control strategies, particularly those where estimations of movement are important for ensuring efficacy of application.
Kidney function in minority children and adolescents with metabolically healthy and unhealthy obesity

Metabolic syndrome and/or body mass index (BMI) ≥40 kg/m2 are risk factors for kidney function decline in the general population. To compare creatinine (Cr), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) between minority children and adolescents with metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) and metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO), a chart review was conducted on subjects aged 4 to 20 years with BMI ≥95th percentile from July 2014 to April 2017. They were stratified into MHO and MUO groups. Cr, eGFR and BUN were studied. Total n = 277: MHO n = 105 vs MUO n = 172. Cr was higher and BUN was lower in MUO whereas eGFR did not differ between the groups. Using general linear model, we found that metabolic status predicted BUN (P = .009) but not Cr or eGFR. When age, sex and Tanner stage matched, BUN, Cr and eGFR were similar between the groups. Higher BUN in MHO could be due to higher dietary protein intake. Subjects were divided into BMI ≥40 vs <40 kg/m2, BUN and eGFR were not different. A trend towards higher Cr in those with BMI ≥40 kg/m2 (P = .054) was found; the group being older and taller. After age and height matching, all outcomes were not different. Higher Cr was found in those with elevated blood pressures vs the MHO (P = .047). Those with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥90th percentile had higher Cr than those with systolic blood pressure ≥90th percentile (P = .017). Children and adolescents with MUO, and those with BMI ≥40 kg/m2 did not appear to have early diminished kidney function. Higher Cr, although in normal range, occurred in those with abnormal DBP.
The Weightlifting Encyclopedia: A Guide to World Class Performance

To persons outside the iron game, it seems inconceivable that weightlifting competition consists of just two basic movements lasting several seconds each and that lifters should devote the best years of their lives performing endless repetitions of these motions. No less amazing would be Artie Dreschsler’s Weightlifting Encyclopedia, which encompasses virtually all aspects of this activity in nearly 550 folio-size pages. For iron game insiders, however, Dreschsler’s weighty tome is chock-full of meaningful information, based on decades of widespread experience, reading, and thinking about the sport of weightlifting. It is actually more of a primer (or “guide” as the author calls it), but this volume is truly encyclopedic in its coverage. The prevailing tone is upbeat—unabashedly conveying a sense of confidence that readers, especially budding lifters from the United States, can achieve world class performances. That these noble aspirations can be fulfilled seems possible to the author from two events of the past—the success of Bob Hoffman and York Barbell in raising American lifting to unimagined heights from the 1930s to the 1960s and his own achievement, as a “Bob Hoffman boy grown up,”in breaking a junior world record at the end of that golden age. Befitting the work of a crusader, each chapter is full of didacticisms and infused with the severe and relentless logic of a man with a mission. Sad to say, this enthusiasm may be futile. Olympic lifting in the U.S. is but a shadow of what it was during America’s heyday, and it seems unlikely that Dreschsler’s splendid effort will inspire a renaissance among the current generation of strength athletes. Today, these athletes seem far more inclined to take up bodybuilding, powerlifting, and other sports less hidebound by administrative and incentive structures from the past. Interestingly, the introductory section, “What Weightlifting Is All About,” concentrates more on dispelling commonplace fallacies about the sport than on describing what it is. Powerlifters, however, might question the assertion that “they are simply no match for the best weightlifters in the world in terms of pure strength or power” (p. 5), and many more eyebrows will be raised over the statements that “on a practical level, the advantages of taking anabolic steroids have been virtually eliminated” and that there are “50 to 100 times” as many weightlifters as powerlifters worldwide (p. 8). Notwithstanding these arguable points, it is true that weightlifting is greatly misunderstood and, unlike other sports, in constant need of explanation and justification to the non-lifting public. This negative approach does not extend into the first two chapters on technique and teaching of technique. Here each step of the snatch and the clean and jerk is carefully explained, accompanied by sequence photographs and a clear idea of the consequences of improper form. No aspect of lifting technique-proper breathing, limited bar drop, the hook grip, etc.-is left uncovered. A really attractive feature of Dreschsler’s pedagogy is that he explains thoroughly the advantages
Engineering Responsive Mobile Applications for Android from Reusable Building Blocks

This report describes the continued design and development of an instant voice communication application for Android, with specific focus on creating a highly responsive, stable application that is intuitive to use and integrates well with the Android environment. Existing building blocks have been redesigned with cleaner layouts and smaller state spaces, and new reusable blocks have been added. Techniques and principles for optimizing an application for responsiveness will be presented, along with specific measures for Android and Arctis. Another goal has been to create the first Arctis application to be released on the Android market. As a part of the design process, we have researched the development of Android services in Arctis. All service implementation variants have been examined, and the available patterns for communicating between a foreground activity and a background service have been analyzed and compared. The result is a general development methodology for creating a single Android application from two Arctis system models representing a background service and a foreground user interface, with the necessary Arctis modifications included.
LANE CHANGE MANUEVER FOR AHS APPLICATIONS

This paper studies automatic control of a vehicle for lane change maneuvers as part of lateral motion control for Automated Highway Systems ( AHS). Two controllers are designed for lane change maneuvers: Frequency Shaping Linear Quadratic (FSLQ) optimal controller and sliding mode controller. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the two controllers.
A Fuzzy ANP Based Grey Relational Approach to Evaluate CRM System in Context of Bangladesh

This study aims to select a suitable CRM (customer relationship management) system among different possible alternatives for organization’s in Bangladesh. Since, evaluating CRM system on the basis of lot of attributes leads us to Multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) problems. In this study, a hybrid MCDA models were used. FuzzyANP (Analytic Network Process) and GRA (Grey Relational Analysis) approaches were adopted to solve the problem. The study explored that the Hubspot CRM was optimal solution in context of Bangladesh. Our research will beneficial to the organizing for better customer support. As far our knowledge goes, this is the first attempt to select CRM softwares in context of Bangladesh.
Unmanned surface vehicles - game changing technology for naval operations

The last 15 years have seen a great deal of well-publicised research and development of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) throughout the world. The naval requirements for stealthy reconnaissance in the littoral and the possibilities of driving down the costs of civil seabed survey operations have combined with the intrinsically interesting technical challenges of producing cost effective UUVs to generate a vibrant research community.
Electronic Service Quality and Perceived Value in Mobile based Services

: Indonesia is one of the countries with the highest number of mobile user growth in the world. To support its services, telecommunications companies provide mobile-based services. This paper aims to determine the service quality attributes of mobile services, and reveal their relationship with another variable, Perceived Value. The survey was conducted electronically on users of the mobile services application (My-Telkomsel) in Surabaya, Indonesia. 523 and 115 respondents were collected for E-S-Qual and E-Recs-Qual scale, respectively. The collected data was further tested using SmartPLS software. The result was: E-S-Qual which consists of Efficiency, System Availability, Fulfilment, and Privacy has a significant effect on Perceived Value. As for the E-RecS-Qual, only the Responsiveness variable has a significant effect on Perceived Value. Two other variables, Compensation and Contact, have no significant effect. This research could encourage service providers to put emphasize on certain quality attributes. In addition, this study provides insight regarding the effect of service quality on Perceived Value.
Complete Streets Policy Analysis 2011

Complete Streets policies formalize a community’s intent to plan, design, operate, and maintain streets so they are safe for all users of all ages, incomes, ethnicity, and modes of travel. Policies direct decision-makers to consistently fund, plan for, design, and construct community streets to accommodate all anticipated users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, motorists, and freight vehicles. Complete Streets policy adoption continues to accelerate rapidly: 146 communities adopted policies in 2011, compared to the 80 new policies analyzed at the end of 2010. By the start of 2012, more than 350 policies were in place at all levels of government, directing the transformation of community transportation networks into Complete Streets. This report documents the growth of that diverse movement and its strengths by analyzing the more than 350 existing written policies adopted by states, regions, counties, and communities before January 1, 2012. The main report includes listings of the strongest policies overall, as well as those that show particular strength in a single element.
Particle motion in granular materials: three dimensional imaging of slow flows and compaction

Title of dissertation: PARICLE MOTION IN GRANULAR MATERIALS: THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGING OF SLOW FLOWS AND COMPACTION Steven Charles Slotterback, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Dissertation directed by: Professor Wolfgang Losert Department of Physics Granular materials have been a subject of study for centuries. Their bulk properties are well known and are quite reproducible. However, it is not well understood how motions at the grain level relate to bulk behaviors. In this thesis, we describe the use of a 3D imaging technique to determine the motions of individual grains in known geometries. We use a method known as the Refractive Index-Matched Scanning (RIMS) method to locate and track centers of individual grains in dense granular piles. This method enables us to capture grain scale rearrangements where other techniques, such as displacement field imaging, may fail. We may also track motions of grains with respect to their nearest neighbors in order to measure local flows. We first apply the RIMS method to the study of a gentle compaction process, known as thermal cycling. We track the centers of grains between temperature cycles, capturing cycle-to-cycle displacements. The tracks are used to generate dynamic Voronoi volumes about the centers of grains at each cycle. We are able to observe fluctuations in the shapes of the Voronoi volumes which correlate strongly with subsequent motion of grains. We find that the grains move preferentially toward the centroid of the vertices of their respective Voronoi cells. We then study grain motions in quasistatic flows in a split-bottom geometry. We observe nearest neighbor separation events during both steady and cyclic shearing processes. We find a critical strain beyond which there is a qualitative change in the breakage of contacts between neighbors. Cyclic shear flows with amplitudes below this critical strain settle into a nearly reversible flow pattern, while those with amplitudes above the critical strain remain in a persistent diffusive, irreversible state. Overall, the RIMS method is a powerful tool for probing the structure of slow granular flows. We are now able to examine particle level rearrangements which were previously explored in simulations. Furthermore, with a modification of the image processing technique, it is possible to apply the RIMS method to the study of other sorts of granular flows, such as those with bidisperse grains, or even those with detectable orientations. PARICLE MOTION IN GRANULAR MATERIALS: THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGING OF SLOW FLOWS AND COMPACTION
APPLICATION OF A MICRO-SIMULATION MODEL TO ESTIMATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TOLL PRICING ALTERNATIVES ON THE DIVERSION OF TRAFFIC TO TOLL FACILITIES

The main objectives of this project were to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative toll reduction scenarios on diverting traffic to Turnpike facilities such as SR417. PARAMICS, a microscopic simulation software was validated using available data for a network of major highways and arterials in the surrounding Central Florida area to provide acceptable simulation accuracy based on pre-identified performance measures such as traffic volume and travel speed. The validated UCF-PARAMICS network model was used to test and evaluate the alternative toll reduction scenarios. The results from these scenarios demonstrated that under no change in the toll structure, the diversion of traffic volumes to SR417 was insignificant under all lane closure/incident scenarios. Moreover, the 50% toll reduction on SR417 and the 50% toll reduction for both SR417 and SR528 had a similar effect on the hourly traffic volume diverted to SR417. The same conclusion was applied for 100% toll reduction on SR417 only and toll reduction on both SR417 and SR528. As a result, there appears to be no added benefit due to toll reduction on SR528. Moreover, I-4 has the least travel time from the northern end to the southern end of the network when travel time includes the toll cost. So, usually no significant diversion happens off of I-4 to SR417 even under incident/lane closure and toll reduction scenarios. For people who value time significantly more than out of pocket toll cost, the toll roads are better alternatives when an incident/lane closure occurs on I-4. Finally, future research may use these and other scenarios to estimate the economic benefits of toll reduction in this well-defined real life network.
SIMULATION-BASED OPTIMIZATION OF PRODUCT PRIORITIZATION IN A MANUFACTURING FLOWSHOP AT GKN AEROSPACE

GKN Aerospace in Trollhattan manufactures different components for aircraft engines and aero derivative gas turbines. A new workshop has recently been installed that is highly automated and includes operations such as laser welding, x-ray and burring. Their production flow is mostly based on first in first out rules except for the x-ray stations where the workers can select which part they want to begin with. Currently, the workers select the parts based on experience which sometimes is not the most optimal solution. Therefore, they want to improve their selection process in order to reduce delays in their production which is why a priority system is required. Simulation based optimization will be used in order to find near optimal priority lists.Experts at GKN Aerospace have created a discrete event simulation model over their workshop using SIMUL8. In order to find near optimal priority lists for the workshop a new optimization program needs to be created that is compatible with SIMUL8. The program will need to fulfill some requirements to both work as an optimization program and also to be used by the workers at GKN Aerospace.Since multi objective evolutionary algorithms have the advantage of exploring the objective space, this type of method is utilized. The objective is to minimize the total delay in the system which makes this a single-objective optimization problem but since the simulation model contains stochastic behavior the result will differ between each run and therefore several replications is needed. With several replications more outputs can be read, in this case mean value and standard deviation will make this a multi objective optimization problem.The question that is investigated throughout this thesis is: Can a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm efficiently find a robust solution with low delays by considering both mean value and standard deviation as objectives? The aim of this project is to create a priority system that uses an optimization algorithm which together with the simulation model can optimize the production at GKN Aerospace. The purpose of the optimization algorithm is to find robust solutions with low delays in order to improve the production at GKN Aerospace. With the priority system GKN Aerospace may improve their process by following priority lists which has been optimized and therefore reduce waste in form of delays. With the aim of reducing both standard deviation and mean value, a robust solution may be found which means that a small change in the production will not disturb the outcome of the workshop.During this project a priority system was created that considers both the developer and the workers at GKN Aerospace. The priority system is web based where the workers uses a web browser to access the priority list while the developer uses an experiment system in order to improve the underlying optimization algorithm. With the experiment system the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II was implemented in order to solve the real case problem.
CENTRAL AREA AUTO RESTRAINT: A BOSTON CASE STUDY

Convenience, travel patterns, and transportation facilities of the Boston metropolitan area served to elect Boston as a case study for auto restraint schemes. This report analyzes the benefits and costs, and political and administrative feasibility of several measures designed to restrain auto use and reduce traffic congestion in the central area. Specific restraint policies examined herein include: increases in central area parking charges, special area licenses for the use of central area streets, and a small auto-free zone. Applications of these measures during morning, midday, and evening peak periods are considered. All restraint measures produced positive net benefits. The highest net benefits were generated by parking surcharges and area license schemes, with estimated gains of $15 to $24 million in 1975 and perhaps a doubling of annual benefits over 10 to 20 years. The optimal parking surcharge or license fee is in the range of $0.50 to $1.00 per vehicle, which reduces the number of autos entering Boston's central area by 15 to 35 percent. This report not only provides a summary of the results of both the cost/benefit and travel impact analysis and the political analysis, but also presents recommendations for restraint measures that are both socially beneficial and easily implemented.
The Art of Getting Things Done: A Practical Guide to the Use of Power

Foreword by Paul Pedersen Preface Introduction: Thinking about Power The Background of Power Acquisition: Politics, People, and Resources Abilities and Skills for Power Acquisition Strategies for Power Acquisition and Maintenance Tactics in Power Acquisition and Maintenance: Gaining Support Tactics in Power Acquisition and Maintenance: Dealing with Opponents Developing a Knowledge of Resource Exchanges, Strategies, and Tactics Summary: What the Sophisticated Know Bibliography Index
Seafood choices : balancing benefits and risks

The fragmented information that consumers receive about the nutritional value and health risks associated with fish and shellfish can result in confusion or misperceptions about these food sources. Consumers are therefore confronted with a dilemma: they are told that seafood is good for them and should be consumed in large amounts, while at the same time the federal government and most states have issued advisories urging caution in the consumption of certain species or seafood from specific waters. Seafood Choices carefully explores the decision-making process for selecting seafood by assessing the evidence on availability of specific nutrients (compared to other food sources) to obtain the greatest nutritional benefits. The book prioritizes the potential for adverse health effects from both naturally occurring and introduced toxicants in seafood; assesses evidence on the availability of specific nutrients in seafood compared to other food sources; determines the impact of modifying food choices to reduce intake of toxicants on nutrient intake and nutritional status within the U.S. population; develops a decision path for U.S. consumers to weigh their seafood choices to obtain nutritional benefits balanced against exposure risks; and identifies data gaps and recommendations for future research. The information provided in this book will benefit food technologists, food manufacturers, nutritionists, and those involved in health professions making nutritional recommendations.