Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A study of indoor propagation: Theory and results of the wireless communication system for the Space Station Freedom

The experimental methods used to collect the propagation data from the Space Station Freedom are discussed. For the space station modules considered it can be seen that, when the units have a large number of random scatterers, the fields tend to follow a Rayleigh distribution when the transmitter is stationary and the receiver moves throughout the volume. If both transmitter and receiver remain stationary, the field distribution becomes Rice-distributed. This would agree with the general theory that a Rice-distributed field has a strong line-of-sight component affecting the distribution. Finally, it is shown that, when the volume lacks sufficient scatterers, the field distribution no longer behaves predictably. This is due to the fact that, when the obstacles are removed, the module begins to resemble a simple cylindrical cavity and lacks enough random qualities to create a Rayleigh or Rice field distribution. <<ETX>>
Evaluation of Tomato Varieties for Pest and Disease Adaptation and Productivity in Botswana

Six varieties of tomato were evaluated for pest and disease adaptation and productivity in Botswana.Tomato varieties were planted under a complete randomized block design experiment with fourreplications at farmers’ field in Maun, Botswana (Southern Africa). Tomato varieties were evaluated foryield, nematode and late blight resistance. The quantitative data on yield of tomato and qualitative data onnematode and late blight resistance and farmers perception on the varieties were collected. Inferential anddescriptive statistical methods were used for data analysis where two ways analysis of variance andranking scales were applied. Harvested fruits of tomato were graded into six categories of fruits namely,marketable, small, cracked, cat face, rotten and pest damaged. Tomato variety Zeal produced the highesttotal yield whereas Six Pack variety gave the lowest total yield. Heinz 1370 was the highest severelyaffected tomato variety by nematodes as well as by the late blight disease and thus produced the lowestmarketable fruit percentage. On an average, FA 593 was the least affected variety by nematode and lateblight. None of the six tomato varieties was found resistant to nematode pest and late blight disease.Therefore, there is a need to develop nematode and late blight resistant tomato varieties. Farmers’preferred tomato variety Zeal followed by FA 593. Based on the yield performance, nematode and lateblight resistance rating and the farmer’s perception, Zeal was found to be the best tomato variety followedby FA 593 for pest and disease adaption and productivity in Botswana.
On the effectiveness of decoupling capacitors in reducing EM radiation from PCBs

The effectiveness of using decoupling capacitors (decaps) between power and ground planes in a typical PC or workstation printed circuit board (PCB) is studied from an electromagnetic-compatibility (EMC) point of view. By examining the radiation from the board, the effects of the total number of decaps, the placement of decaps, and lead inductances are investigated. The novelty of the present studies is that they focus directly on electromagnetic radiation as opposed to the more traditional investigation of decaps by only examining their equivalent impedances. <<ETX>>
Navigation system based on ceiling landmark recognition for autonomous mobile robot

In this paper, we propose a vision based navigation system for autonomous mobile robots which recognizes air-conditioning device (anemo) as landmarks located on ceiling. Because landmarks on ceiling are not obstructed by any objects, robots can find them easier than landmarks on the floor. In the recognition process, gathering quadrangles in the image are regarded as anemo, the gravity center and the slope of these quadrangles are calculated. Then the navigation system can calculate the distance and the angle of the anemo from map information. As a result, the navigation system can identify the present robot's position and orientation. By the proposed algorithm, if the landmark is not being taken completely, the landmark is inferred by partial information. In the experiments, we compared the error made by the robot which are navigated by our system with the error made by the robot which moves based on deadreckoning. <<ETX>>
Longitudinal velocity and road slope estimation in hybrid electric vehicles employing early detection of excessive wheel slip

Vehicle speed is one of the important quantities in vehicle dynamics control. Estimation of the slope angle is in turn a necessity for correct dead reckoning from vehicle acceleration. In the present work, estimation of vehicle speed is applied to a hybrid vehicle with an electric motor on the rear axle and a combustion engine on the front axle. The wheel torque information, provided by electric motor, is used to early detect excessive wheel slip and improve the accuracy of the estimate. A best-wheel selection approach is applied as the observation variable of a Kalman filter which reduces the influence of slipping wheels as well as reducing the computational effort. The performance of the proposed algorithm is illustrated on a test data recorded at a winter test ground with excellent results, even for extreme conditions such as when all four wheels are spinning.
Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide

Agile/iterative methods: From business case to successful implementationThis is the definitive guide for managers and students to agile and iterative development methods: what they are, how they work, how to implement them-and why you should.Using statistically significant research and large-scale case studies, noted methods expert Craig Larman presents the most convincing case ever made for iterative development. Larman offers a concise, information-packed summary of the key ideas that drive all agile and iterative processes, with the details of four noteworthy iterative methods: Scrum, XP, RUP, and Evo. Coverage includes: Compelling evidence that iterative methods reduce project risk Frequently asked questions Agile and iterative values and practices Dozens of useful iterative and agile practice tips New management skills for agile/iterative project leaders Key practices of Scrum, XP, RUP, and EvoWhether you're an IT executive, project manager, student of software engineering, or developer, Craig Larman will help you understand the promise of agile/iterative development, sell it throughout your organizationaeand transform the promise into reality.
Sleep, sleep spindles, and cognitive functions in drug-naive patients with ﬁ rst-episode psychosis

Meanwhile ﬁ ndingsareinconclusiveduetosomeconfoundingfactors,suchastheheterogeneityofthedisorder,drugregimen,anddurationoftheillness.Thereare a few studies in the literature that have been conducted on drug-free patients with ﬁ rst-episode psychosis (FEP). Based on this knowledge, we aimed to explore sleep characteristics, sleep spindles, and neuropsychological pro ﬁ les of the drug-naive patients with FEP. Methods: The study sample consisted of 21 drug-naive patients with FEP and 21 healthy participants. Polysomnography recordings were conducted for 2 subsequent nights. A neuropsychological test battery was administered for assessing cognitive functions. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale was applied to measure symptom severity of the patients. Spindle detection was performed visually. Results: According to the results of the study, the patient group ’ s percentage of stage N2 sleep and sleep ef ﬁ ciency index was lower than in the control group. Among sleep spindle parameters, spindle density was found to be reduced in the patient group. The results of neuropsychological tests measuring executive functions, learning, andmemory support theideathat thereis aglobalcognitivedeterioration fromtheearlycourseof thedisorder.Inthe psychotic group, negative symptoms were negatively correlated with verbal memory, learning, verbal ﬂ uency, and semantic organization. We found that the percentage of stage N3 sleep decreasedwhilenegativesymptomseverityincreased.Inaddition,thepercentageofstageN1sleepincreasedasnegativesymptomseverityincreased.Reduction in stage N3 sleep was associated with an impairment in learning, verbal ﬂ uency, and response inhibition. The sleep spindle density and cognitive functions did not show any associations. Conclusions: Takentogether,these ﬁ ndingssuggestthatpatientswithFEPshowglobalcognitiveimpairment(exceptforattentionandprocessingspeed),which is associated with changes in sleep architecture and higher score in a scale assessing negative symptoms. We conclude that cognitive function and spindle parameters differ nonlinearly among patients with FEP. Study Impact: We found a decrease in the percentage of stage N2 sleep and sleep ef ﬁ ciency index in the FEP group compared with the healthy control group. Moreover, the density of sleep spindles was found to be reduced in FEP. Patients with FEP showed impairments in learning, memory, cognitive ﬂ exibility, verbal ﬂ uency, response inhibition, and working memory and these de ﬁ cits were associated with the changes in sleep architecture and severity of the negative symptoms. The percentage of stage N3 sleep was negatively correlated with negative symptom severity. On the contrary, the amount of stage N1sleepwaspositivelycorrelatedwithnegativesymptoms.Wedidnot ﬁ ndanyassociationsbetweensleepspindledensityandanyofthecognitivedomains. We conclude that cognitive function and spindle parameters differ nonlinearly among patients with FEP.
Modeling lane-changing behavior in presence of exclusive lanes

Lane-changing behavior is significantly affected by presence of exclusive lanes like high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, value priced lanes, heavy vehicle lanes etc. The state-of-the-art driving behavior models often fail to capture the special types of lane-changes that occur in presence of exclusive lanes. This paper extends our previous research on developing a generalized lane-changing model and enhances it by introducing an exclusive lane-specific component in the model. The target lane-changing model is first estimated with disaggregate data collected from Interstate-395, Virginia that does not have any exclusive lanes. The model is then augmented using aggregate data collected from Interstate-80, California that has an HOV lane. The model is validated and compared with the existing lane-changing model within the microscopic traffic simulator MITSIMLab. Statistical comparisons of measures of performance indicate that the new model outperforms the previous model. The improvements in the modeling capability are further strengthened by independent validation within three commercial microscopic simulators VISSIM, AIMSUN and PARAMICS.
Na+ - NH4+ cation exchange study on treated zeolitic volcanic tuff in fixed bed column

In this work Na+ NH4+ cation exchange process was studied on various samples of treated zeolitic volcanic tuff (ZVT). Irrespective of the treatment applied (washing, NaCl, acid, thermal), the Na+ concentration evolution closely mirrors the NH4+ concentration evolution indicating that Na+ NH4+ is the main ion exchange process that takes place. Cation exchange capacities (CEC) between 5.42 and 33.8 mg NH4+/g were obtained suggesting that not all treatments improved the ZVT’s abilities to remove ammonium from wastewater. Changes in flow rate, Na+ concentration, NH4+ concentration, ZVT amount, and ZVT grain size have all influenced the CEC in the considered system.
Fabrication and finite element analysis of vibrating parallel film actuator made with cellulose acetate for potential haptic application

The present study investigates a film actuator made with dielectric cellulose acetate films separated by narrow spacers as a means of electrostatic actuation for potential haptic application. Fabrication process for the actuator is explained along with experiments conducted over a wide frequency range of actuation frequency. A valid finite element simulation of the actuator is made on the quarter section of the actuator by using full 3D finite elements. Vibration characteristics such as fundamental natural frequency, mode shape and output velocity in the frequency range for haptic feeling generation are obtained from the finite element analysis and compared with the experimental results. Experimental results demonstrate that the finite element model is practical and effective enough in predicting the vibration characteristics of the actuator for haptic application. The film actuator shows many promising properties like high transparency, wide range of actuation frequency and high vibration velocity for instance.
Local immunomodulation and muscle progenitor cells induce recovery in atrophied muscles in spinal cord injury patients

injury. Objectives: Restore muscular trophism and voluntary contractile capacity through cell therapy in atrophied muscles in SCI patients. Setting: Out Patient Treatment, Universidad Maimonides, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Methods: After receiving spinal cord cell therapy and intensive rehabilitation, 7 chronic complete spinal cord injury (SCI) patients (4 people with paraplegia and 3 people with quadriplegia) regained muscular electrical activity in previously denervated territories. However, signs of severe muscular atrophy persisted. Looking to reverse chronic muscular atrophy, atrophied muscles with electrical activity were implanted with autologous type 1 macrophages (Mo1) and autologous tissue-specific T helper 1 Cells (Th1) associated with autologous muscular progenitor cells (MPC). The Mo1 and Th1 used cells were named Effector Cells (EC). Each muscle received between 6 to 8 implants, one every 6 weeks. Cellular therapy was combined with intensive rehabilitation program. Results: Sonogram and histological signs of recovery started eight weeks after the first implant. Sonograms showed progressively muscle volume increasing and gradually replacement of hyperechogenic muscle tissue by hypoechogenic muscle bands (resembling normal muscular structure). New bands were distributed parallel to the main muscle axis, along the entire muscular length. Histological samples of hypoechogenic bands showed new and normal muscular tissue. Changes were seen in 7/7 patients. Non-significant side events were detected in any patient over the 24 months of follow up. Conclusions: The results presented here suggest that the combination of immune and regenerative cell therapy may play an important therapeutic role in clinical and histological recovery of chronic muscular
Distributed quantitative precipitation forecasts combining information from radar and numerical weather prediction model outputs

Applications of distributed Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts (QPF) range from flood forecasting to transportation. Obtaining QPF is acknowledged to be one of the most challenging areas in hydrology and meteorology. Recent advances in precipitation physics, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models, availability of high quality remotely sensed measurements, and data dictated forecasting tools, offer the opportunity of improvements in this area. Investigative studies were performed to quantify the value of available tools and data, which indicated the promise and the pitfalls of emerging ideas. Our studies suggested that an intelligent combination of NWP model outputs and remotely sensed radar measurements, that uses process physics and data dictated tools, could improve distributed QPF. Radar measurements have distributed structure, while NWP-QPF incorporate large scale physics. Localized precipitation processes are not well handled by NWP models, and grid average NWP-QPF are not too useful for distributed QPF owing to the spatial variability of rainfall. However, forecasts for atmospheric variables from NWP have information relevant for modeling localized processes and improving distributed QPF, especially in the Summer. Certain precipitation processes like advection and large scale processes could be modeled using physically based algorithms. The physics for other processes like localized convection or residual structures are not too well understood, and data dictated tools like traditional statistical models or Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are often more applicable. A new strategy for distributed QPF has been proposed that utilizes information from radar and NWP. This strategy decomposes the QPF problem into component processes, and models these processes using precipitation physics and data dictated tools, as appropriate and applicable. The proposed strategy improves distributed QPF over existing techniques like radar extrapolation alone, NWP-QPF with or without statistical error correction, hybrid models that combine radar extrapolation with NWPQPF, parameterized physically based methods, and data dictated tools alone. New insights are obtained on the component processes of distributed precipitation, the information content in radar and NWP, and the achievable precipitation predictability. Thesis Supervisor: Rafael Bras Title: Bacardi and Stockholm Water Foundations Professor, CEE, MIT
Study of a geo-multicast framework for efficient message dissemination at unmanned level crossings

Collisions among trains and cars at road/rail level crossings (LXs) can have severe consequences such as high level of fatalities, injuries and significant financial losses. As communication and positioning technologies have significantly advanced, implementing vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) in the vicinity of unmanned LXs, generally LXs without barriers, is seen as an efficient and effective approach to mitigate or even eliminate collisions without imposing huge infrastructure costs. VANETs necessitate unique communication strategies, in which routing protocols take a prominent part in their scalability and overall performance, through finding optimised routes quickly and with low bandwidth overheads. This article studies a novel geo-multicast framework that incorporates a set of models for communication, message flow and geo-determination of endangered vehicles with a reliable receiver-based geo-multicast protocol to support cooperative level crossings (CLXs), which provide collision warnings to the endangered motorists facing road/rail LXs without barriers. This framework is designed and studied as part of a $5.5 m Government and industry funded project, entitled 'Intelligent-Transport-Systems to improve safety at road/rail crossings'. Combined simulation and experimental studies of the proposed geo-multicast framework have demonstrated promising outcomes as cooperative awareness messages provide actionable critical information to endangered drivers who are identified by CLXs.
Effects of microwave pulse-width damage on a bipolar transistor

This paper presents a theoretical study of the pulse-width effects on the damage process of a typical bipolar transistor caused by high power microwaves (HPMs) through the injection approach. The dependences of the microwave damage power, P, and the absorbed energy, E, required to cause the device failure on the pulse width τ are obtained in the nanosecond region by utilizing the curve fitting method. A comparison of the microwave pulse damage data and the existing dc pulse damage data for the same transistor is carried out. By means of a two-dimensional simulator, ISE-TCAD, the internal damage processes of the device caused by microwave voltage signals and dc pulse voltage signals are analyzed comparatively. The simulation results suggest that the temperature-rising positions of the device induced by the microwaves in the negative and positive half periods are different, while only one hot spot exists under the injection of dc pulses. The results demonstrate that the microwave damage power threshold and the absorbed energy must exceed the dc pulse power threshold and the absorbed energy, respectively. The dc pulse damage data may be useful as a lower bound for microwave pulse damage data.
Comparative Identification and Characterization of Myosin Heavy Chain Isoforms in Avian Skeletal Muscle

Organisms require muscles capable of meeting the functional demands of locomotion. Many of the contractile properties of muscle are tightly correlated to the expression of specific myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms. While the identification and characteristics of mammalian MHC isoforms have been well documented, comparatively little is known about avian MHC expression. The diversity of locomotor styles and life histories observed in birds suggests that the locomotor muscles of these species must operate over a wide range of contractile conditions that may be achieved, in part, by the differential expression of MHC isoforms. Specifically, it was hypothesized that, due to their very rapid wingbeat frequencies, the MHC expression of hummingbird flight muscle would differ from that of larger-bodied species to enable rapid muscle shortening. Further, the unique contractile requirements associated with different locomotor and life history strategies across avian species would lead to varying MHC isoform expression both intraand interspecifically. The aim of this thesis was to explore the MHC expression in avian skeletal muscle across species, muscle groups, and life history stages. While MHC expression appeared to vary across muscle groups tasked with performing different locomotor activities, the MHC expressed by the flight muscle initially appeared relatively
Allocation of transmission losses based on cooperative game theory and current injection models

This paper introduces a reasonable and fair approach to allocate the transmission losses under a pool-based electricity market. The approach adopts the concept of Shapley value from cooperative game theory and utilizes equivalent current-injected generation and constant-impedance load models based on a converged power flow solution. The method is useful to decide a fair tariff of transmission loss charge. A 6-bus power system is tested to demonstrate the proposed method.
Music can induce positive affect before football training, but is it maintained throughout training?

In a sport setting, affective states interact with other constraints to influence athlete skill acquisition and performance. The importance of affect in skill acquisition is given weight through the underpinnings of representative and affective learning design frameworks. However, there is currently a lack of understanding how the affective states of athletes change throughout training activities. This study aimed to understand how association football players’ affective states changed throughout training. Prior to four training sessions, positive and negative music was used as a treatment to induce affective states in 12 competitive-elite youth footballers (M = 17.36 , SD = 1.11 years). During training, players participated in a series of six small-sided games, and their affective states (valence and arousal) were monitored prior to each game using the Affect Grid. RM-MANOVA revealed that the music treatment was able to effectively influence affective states. Further, positive affect remained high for some time throughout training, whereas affective states returned to pre-treatment levels at the beginning of training when athletes listened to negative music prior to the training session. Musical interventions may offer a suitable solution for practitioners to implement affective learning designs into their training.