Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Averaging Performance of Capacitance and Time Domain Reflectometry Sensors in Nonuniform Wetted Sand Profiles

The averaging behavior of two capacitance water content sensors in nonuniform wetted sand samples was assessed and compared with the averaging behavior of a time domain reflectometry (TDR) water content sensor in identical samples. Four different nonuniform wetting situations were assessed. In one of the four experiments, the orientation of the capacitance sensor was altered, while in another the sensitivity along the length of the sensor was tested. For one of the tested sensor types, the overestimation of the volumetric water content (VWC) was 0.034 compared with the value determined by drying, while the corresponding TDR value deviated 0.009. The conclusion is that in a nonuniform wetted soil profile, the capacitance sensors tested weigh the wet parts more heavily than the dry parts, resulting in an overestimation of the average VWC. Therefore we conclude that the capacitance sensors tested are less suitable for applications in situations where both nonuniform wetted profiles are encountered and accurate VWC measurements are required.
Fuzzy optimization techniques applied to the design of a digital PMSM servo drive

This paper presents a novel design approach by applying gradient optimization with fuzzy step-sizing techniques to the design of a digital permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) servo drive. The servo specifications and design variables are specified and analyzed to formulate a controller optimization problem. The servo responses are then fed back to evaluate the overall system performances, which can be expressed as objective functions with respect to the servo control parameters. According to the objective functions and design specifications, the servo control parameters can be properly tuned toward their optimal values by using the proposed optimization techniques. In order to improve the convergent rate of the optimization process, a fuzzy-logic based step-size tuning strategy is presented. Because of the nonlinear property of the digital servo drives, the tuned servo control parameters may be only optimal for a particular operating point, therefore, once the optimum design is achieved, the proposed fuzzy optimizing controller can perform as an intelligent tuner for on-line gain adaptation under different loading conditions. The proposed fuzzy optimization servo tuner has been realized under a PC-MATLAB-based environment with an on-line controlled digital PMSM servo drive. Simulation and experimental results indicate that the control parameters of a digital PMSM servo drive can be optimized for its dynamic responses under various load conditions.
Damage Pattern Recognition and Crack Propagation Prediction for Crumb Rubber Concrete Based on Acoustic Emission Techniques

In this study, the clustering method of the concrete matrix rupture and rubber fracture damages as well as the prediction of the ultimate load of crumb rubber concrete using the acoustic emission (AE) technique were investigated. The loading environment of the specimens was a four-point bending load. Six clustering methods including k-means, fuzzy c-means (FCM), self-organizing mapping (SOM), Gaussian mixture model (GMM), hierarchical model, and density peak clustering method were analyzed; the results illustrated that the density peak clustering has the best performance. Next, the optimal clustering algorithm was used to cluster AE signals so as to study the evolution behavior of different damage modes, and the ultimate load of crumb rubber concrete was predicted by an artificial neural network. The results indicated that the combination of AE techniques and appropriate clustering methods such as the density peak clustering method and the artificial neural network could be used as a practical tool for structural health monitoring of crumb rubber concrete.
MSEARCH: A Mobile Search Service

The primary goal for this study is to employ SMS technologies to serve the search needs of our clients. In this paper, we propose a mobile search service that was built using the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) on top of SMS technology that allows complex queries and interaction between the user and the system. For example, a text message may be sent by a user to a short code to search for a restaurant like this: restaurant . Our system offers our clients the ability to update their information.
Transformational Higher Education in the Built Environment

Abstract Competency-based training has become synonymous with training per se. It has had a particular and major impact on vocational education and training and it is perhaps unsurprising that professional associations have moved to adopt competency-based accreditation of study programmes. However, this paper will argue that the nature of university education, the constraints on course structure, the traditions of teaching, etc. collectively militate against effective competency-based educational models. At the same time, there are significant questions being raised against the promotion of competencies as an effective measure of professional education. Educational providers, legislators, and professional associations appear to disagree about what competency actually means and what the nature of expertise really is. This paper will draw on the emerging concepts of transformative learning to propose perhaps a more radical response to what appears to be an ongoing (and ultimately losing) battle to condense further and further the professional programmes of study in the built environment. The conceptual framework it presents calls for a displacement of competency and knowledge as the primary drivers of degree programmes in the built environment. Instead it argues for a more psycho-social approach to learning, where certain technical content is replaced with personal transformation as the driver of learning. The psycho-social approach privileges a Case-in-Point method of teaching. It moves the focus of education away from the individual learner gaining a discrete body of abstract knowledge, acquired and subsequently applied in practice. It treats learning as an interpretive process in which understanding is related to action contexts, and not to prescribed conceptual structures.
Study on Effect of Hotel Place Marketing Using Media PPL

Recently, the hotel business requires to secure various client bases and accompany proper marketing and advertising activities for survival and development. Media PPL has been popular as an effective method to meet these requirements. Many studies have been practiced about the effect of media PPL marketing. This study was practiced to confirm the effect of the hotel place marketing using media PPL and the involvement for character in PPL. The following 4 assumptions are established for these purposes. The first confirms the impact relation between media PPL and hotel image. The second confirms whether the involvement for characters in media PPL influences the impact relation between media PPL and hotel image. The third confirms the impact relation between hotel image and purchasing behaviors. And the last confirms whether the involvement for characters in media PPL influences the impact relation between hotel image and purchasing behaviors. In order to analyze the assumptions established for this study, A questionnaires is carried out and factor analysis, reliability analysis and regression analysis are performed with them. According to the results of these analyses, all of 4 established assumptions are partly accepted.
Steps toward Rationalization of the Enantiomeric Excess of the Sakurai–Hosomi–Denmark Allylation Catalyzed by Biisoquinoline N,N′-Dioxides Using Computations

Allylation reactions of aldehydes are chemical transformations of fundamental interest, as they give direct access to chiral homoallylic alcohols. In this work, we focus on the full computational characterization of the catalytic activity of substituted biisoquinoline-N,N′-dioxides for the allylation of 2-naphthaldehyde. We characterized the structure of all transition states as well as identified the π stacking interactions that are responsible for their relative energies. Motivated by disagreement with the experimental results, we also performed an assessment of 34 different density functional methods, with the goal of assessing DFT as a general tool for understanding this chemistry. We found that the DFT results are generally consistent as long as functionals that correctly account for dispersion interactions are used. However, agreement with the experimental results is not always guaranteed. We suggest the need for a careful synergy between computations and experiments to correctly interpret the data and use them as a design tool for new and improved asymmetric catalysts.
Analysis of a Labor Union's Organizational Structure: Capturing the Synergies of Constructive Conflict in an Organizational Redesign

Closed rational design, the preferred organizational structure in the 1960s, is a top-down linear organization with formal goals, processes and structures (Scott & Davis, 2003) and does not allow for the real-time interfacing necessary in today’s competitive environment. Current and future institutions have a need for reorganization because of the constantly increasing capabilities of Information technology (IT). Today, IT has made the world a much smaller place as we find ourselves communicating with people of varying ethics, morals and values, in a potpourri of cross-national cultural systems. These vast differences mean organizations can no longer operate autocratically in a closed system of rigid rational design, characteristic of tight and inflexible bureaucratic administration. I theorize that organizations that have failed to transition to more interactive open and natural designs force employees to subvert their organization’s rigid rational designs by creating sub-structures to minimize otherwise debilitating conflict resultant of archaic design and subsequent limiting policies. This paper analyzes the structure and operation of a large independent commercial pilot union to determine if the original structure developed during the early 1960s is effective in today’s competitive environment. This paper also seeks to determine if the structure between respective intraunion officer groups, the supporting national committees and support staff at union headquarters fosters a milieu of constructive or destructive conflict outcomes. The analysis strives to determine what changes could be made to transition current conflict resolution processes toward greater transparency and more fruitful conflict outcomes.
Postoperative spinal subdural hygroma without incidental durotomy: illustrative cases

BACKGROUND Spinal subdural hygroma (SSH) is a rare pathological entity occurring as a complication of spinal surgery. It is different from spinal subdural hematoma due to blunt trauma, anticoagulation therapy, spinal puncture, and rupture of vascular malformations. OBSERVATIONS The authors presented five patients with SSH who received decompression for lumbar stenosis. None had incidental durotomy. All presented postoperatively with unexpectedly severe symptoms, including back and leg pain and weakness. Postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed SSH with a characteristic imaging finding termed the “flying bat” sign. Four patients underwent evacuation of SSH, with immediate and complete resolution of symptoms in three patients and improvement in one patient. One patient improved without additional surgery. At surgery, subdural collections were found to be xanthochromic fluid in three patients and plain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in one patient. LESSONS Unexpectedly severe back and leg pain and weakness after lumbar or thoracic spine surgery should raise suspicion of SSH. MRI and/or computed tomography myelography shows the characteristic findings termed the flying bat sign. Surgical evacuation is successful although spontaneous resolution can also occur. The authors hypothesized that SSH is due to CSF entering the subdural space from the subarachnoid space via a one-way valve effect.
Exercise increases phosphorylation of the putative mTORC2 activity readout NDRG1 in human skeletal muscle.

In mice, exercise is suggested to activate the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2) in skeletal muscle, and mTORC2 is required for normal muscle glucose uptake during exercise. Whether this translates to human skeletal muscle and what signaling pathways facilitate the exercise-induced mTORC2 activation is unknown but important to determine given the important role of mTORC2 in metabolism. We herein tested the hypothesis that exercise increases mTORC2 activity in human skeletal muscle and investigated if β2-adrenergic receptor (AR) activation mediates exercise-induced mTORC2 activation. We examined several mTORC2 activity readouts (p-NDRG1 Thr346, p-Akt Ser473, p-mTOR S2481, and p-Akt Thr450) in human skeletal muscle biopsies after uphill walking or cycling exercise. In mouse muscles, we assessed mTORC2 activity readouts following acute activation of muscle β2-adrenergic or Gs signaling and during in vivo and ex vivo muscle contractions. Exercise increased phosphorylation of NDRG1 Thr346 in human soleus, gastrocnemius, and vastus lateralis muscle, without changing p-Akt Ser473, p-Akt Thr450, and p-mTOR Ser2481. In mouse muscle, stimulation of β2-adrenergic or Gs signaling and ex vivo contractions failed to increase p-NDRG1 Thr346, while in vivo contractions were sufficient to induce p-NDRG1 Thr346. In conclusion, the mTORC2 activity readout p-NDRG1 Thr346 is a novel exercise-responsive signaling protein in human skeletal muscle. Notably, contraction-induced p-NDRG1 Thr346 appears to require a systemic factor. Unlike exercise, and in contrast to published data obtained in cultured muscles cells, stimulation of β2-adrenergic signaling is not sufficient to trigger NDRG1 phosphorylation in mature mouse skeletal muscle.
Eutectic Formation of Naproxen with Some Dicarboxylic Acids

Eutectic formation with additives is one of the established methods to improve the dissolution behaviors of active pharmaceutic ingredients (APIs). The improvement is mainly due to the increase in the surface area for dissolution, which originates from the finely divided micro-domains generated through the phase separation of the miscible liquid components upon solidification. The present study is to identify eutectic-forming additives for naproxen (NPX), a class II API of the biopharmaceutical classification system. A particular aim was to develop a eutectic mixture with NPX at least over 20 wt%, a minimum to be practical for oral delivery. Screening based on the proximity of the solubility parameter values identified dicarboxylic acids (succinic acid, glutaric acid, and suberic acid) as desirable additives for NPX. Binary melting diagrams were constructed to confirm the eutectic compositions, and the eutectic mixture with suberic acid (NPX 55 wt%) was further investigated. The dissolution (at pH 5.0) of the melt crystallized eutectics was enhanced compared to the simple physical mixture of the same compositions and neat NPX, which was attributed to the microscopically observed lamellar structures. The current study should support the systematic investigations of API eutectic mixtures by selecting appropriate eutectic-forming additives.
Bandwidth improvement of circularly polarised arrays using sequential rotation

The authors report on the sequential rotation technique to minimize the severe bandwidth limitations associated with circularly polarized patch antennas. The technique is applicable to all circularly polarized antenna rays. The theory and experimental results are discussed as applied to a patch array. It is confirmed that remarkable antenna bandwidth improvements may be obtained through the use of sequential rotation. <<ETX>>
Leakage Current Monitoring for Electrical Loads Based on Internet of Things

Electrical equipment protection system is required to maintain electrical equipment. A detection system is needed that handles specific protection and performs monitoring. One of the electrical equipment protection systems which detect leakage current. The residual current device (RCD) circuit is a circuit that detects leakage current using a coil. The output value of the RCD circuit is the induced voltage. This study describes the development of an internet of things-based leakage current monitoring system is implemented on three different electrical loads. Electrical loads using the lamps with the power of 3, 5, and 9 watts. The microcontroller is used to process the induced voltage value data and Wi-Fi module is used to connect to the Internet network and database. Then, we use a database of Blynk server as an online monitoring system. System test results show that the leakage current monitoring system to electrical load with different loads can work well with the threshold voltage as a set-point.
Canadian Telecommunications Policy: Closing the Window on Foreign Investment

This paper demonstrates that the aftermath of the 700 MHz (megahertz) wireless spectrum auction in 2014 closed the policy window which opened previously in 2012 to allow modest reform of the Canadian telecommunications sector. A literature review on telecommunications policy emphasizes that Canada retains significant barriers to foreign direct investment, despite changes to the 2012 federal budget. The paper introduces Kurt Lewin’s force field analysis, a theoretical model originating in psychology and change management theory, to develop a tool for measuring the opening and closing of policy windows. Finally, applying this tool to telecommunications policy demonstrates that the federal government’s recent effort to promote foreign competition has stalled and will not likely resume until a new policy window forms.
Survey on energy harvesting cognitive radio networks

Energy harvesting network (EHN) is a trending topic among the recent researches. This substantial attention is due to the limitations, operational cost and risks of the conventional power suppliers, such as fossil fuel and batteries. Moreover, EHN are expected to enhance energy efficiency by harvesting energy of RF and renewable sources. In contemporary research works, EHN is applied to CR technology. This energy harvesting cognitive radio network (EHCRN) is expected to utilize both energy and electromagnetic spectrum efficiently. However, EH-CRN is facing enormous challenges related to technical design. Some of these challenges are reviewed in recent surveys. However, other challenges such as optimizing the network throughput and EH-CRN implementation models were not the focus of these researches. Therefore, the aim of this survey is to review EH-CRN research works by focusing the survey perspective on maximizing the network throughput and the implementation models.
Low-power low-voltage 4-2 compressors for VLSI applications

This paper presents new 4-2 compressor architectures, a full-swing bipolar double pass-transistor 4-2 compressor, a new full-swing BiNMOS 4-2 compressor, a reduced-swing bipolar double pass-transistor 4-2 compressor and a reduced-swing double pass-transistor BiNMOS 4-2 compressor, that outperform a standard CMOS 4-2 compressor up to 3 times in power-efficiency at supply voltages 1.5 V-3 V. The bipolar double pass-transistor 4-2 compressor is more power-efficient than a standard CMOS 4-2 compressor even at a fanout of 1. All remaining proposed 4-2 compressors have a lower crossover capacitance with a standard CMOS 4-2 compressor than previously reported low-power 4-2 compressors. Circuits were designed and fabricated in 0.8 /spl mu/m BiCMOS technology.
Design of Magnetic Hydrogels for Hyperthermia and Drug Delivery

Hydrogels are spatially organized hydrophilic polymeric systems that exhibit unique features in hydrated conditions. Among the hydrogel family, composite hydrogels are a special class that are defined as filler-containing systems with some tailor-made properties. The composite hydrogel family includes magnetic-nanoparticle-integrated hydrogels. Magnetic hydrogels (MHGs) show magneto-responsiveness, which is observed when they are placed in a magnetic field (static or oscillating). Because of their tunable porosity and internal morphology they can be used in several biomedical applications, especially diffusion-related smart devices. External stimuli may influence physical and chemical changes in these hydrogels, particularly in terms of volume and shape morphing. One of the most significant external stimuli for hydrogels is a magnetic field. This review embraces a brief overview of the fabrication of MHGs and two of their usages in the biomedical area: drug delivery and hyperthermia-based anti-cancer activity. As for the saturation magnetization imposed on composite MHGs, they are easily heated in the presence of an alternating magnetic field and the temperature increment is dependent on the magnetic nanoparticle concentration and exposure time. Herein, we also discuss the mode of different therapies based on non-contact hyperthermia heating.
Comparison and analysis of the emissions of a small non-road spark-ignition engine operating under different alcohol–gasoline blended fuels

In this experimental study we focused our interest on comparing the effect of lower and higher molecular mass alcohol–gasoline-blended fuels on the regulated emissions emitted by a small non-road spark-ignition engine. Twenty-one test fuels were used in this experimental study that included gasoline as a reference as well as low and high molecular mass alcohol–gasoline blends containing 5%, 10%, 20% and 40% v/v. In exhaust gases that originated from alcohol gasoline test fuels, low CO/HC and high CO2/NOx emissions were observed as the total percentage of alcohol in the blend increased. Methanol–gasoline blends seemed to achieve good combustion efficiency, but the engine will require a catalytic converter against high NOx emissions. Butanol–gasoline blends in several cases gave lower emissions in comparison with the ethanol and propanol–gasoline blends. Finally, the pentanol–gasoline blends showed exactly the same emission patterns as those of neat gasoline.