Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assembly and testing of the ESI camera

The Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI), currently being delivered for use at the Cassegrain focus of the Keck II telescope employs an all-spherical, 308 mm focal length f/1.07 Epps camera. The camera consists of 10 lens elements in 5 groups: an oil-coupled doublet; a singlet, an oil- coupled triplet; a grease-coupled triplet; and a field flattener, which also serves as the vacuum-dewar window. A sensitivity analysis suggested that mechanical manufacturing tolerances of order +/- 25 microns were appropriate. In this paper we discuss the sensitivity analysis, the assembly and the testing of this camera.
Rice seeds information system based on artificial neural network

The objective of this research is to develop an intelligent information system to recognize rice seeds variety based on image processing and artificial neural network (ANN). At first, images of rice seeds were acquired with a color machine vision system. Each image was processed to extract twenty-one quantitative features. The classification ability of all the features was evaluated for different varieties recognition. To ensure system reasoning veracity and intelligence, ANN was used. A digital image-processing algorithm was developed to classify varieties of rice seeds based on external features. As an example of application of the system, the image data of common rice seeds varieties in Zhejiang province were input and the results of practical application proved that this software system achieved desired results.
An integrated activity-based approach for air quality issues

Luc Int Panis Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologische Onderzoek - Universiteit Hasselt luc.intpanis@vito.be Carolien Beckx Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek carolien.beckx@vito.be Theo Arentze Technische Universiteit Eindhoven T.A. Arentze@tue.nl Bijdrage aan het Colloquium Vervoersplanologisch Speurwerk 20 en 21 november 2008, Santpoort
An Application of Neutrosophic Set to Relative Importance Assignment in AHP

The paper addresses a new facet of problem regarding the application of AHP in the real world. There are occasions that decision makers are not certain about relative importance assignment in pairwise comparison. The decision makers think the relative importance is among a set of scales, each of which is associated with a different possibility degree. A Discrete Single Valued Neutrosophic Number (DSVNN) with specified degrees of truth, indeterminacy, and falsity is employed to represent each assignment by taking into account all possible scales according to the decision maker’s thought. Each DSVNN assignment is transformed into a crisp value via a deneutrosophication using a similarity-to-absolute-truth measure. The obtained crisp scales are input to a pairwise comparison matrix for further analysis. The proposed neutrosophic set-based relative importance assignment is another additional novelty of the paper, which is different from all prior studies focusing only on the definition of measurement scales. The presented assignment emulates the real-world approach of decision making in human beings which may consider more than one possibility. It is also shown herein that the single and crisp relative importance assignment in the original AHP by Saaty is just a special case of the proposed methodology. The sensitivity analysis informs that when decision makers have neither absolute truth nor falsity about a scale, the proposed methodology is recommended for obtaining reliable relative importance scale. The applicability of the proposed methodology to the real-world problem is shown through the investment in equity market.
A cluster analysis of daily living skills in school aged children with autism spectrum disorder

For individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) daily living skills (DLS) fall below chronological age and have been linked to factors such as language. Given the impact of DLS on daily life, it is critical to gain a comprehensive understanding of DLS profiles in children to guide effective treatment. Using a large dataset from the Autism Speaks Autism Treatment Network, the current study sought to (1) examine whether there are subgroups of children with ASD defined by both their Vineland-II DLS scores and language abilities and (2) explore the relationship between internalizing and externalizing symptoms on subgroups using the Child Behavior Checklist. A five-cluster solution was found, but one group was subsequently dropped. Four clusters were examined: Low Language-Low DLS (n = 143); Low-Language High DLS (n = 170); High Language-Low DLS (n = 189); and High Language-High DLS (n = 203). The High Language-Low DLS group had significantly higher internalizing and externalizing symptoms as compared to the other groups. The results highlight the importance of targeting DLS in school-age children with ASD, especially for those with comorbid internalizing and externalizing symptom to ensure that the gap between age and functional DLS does not continue to widen.
A Comprehensive Review on Natural Products as Chemical Penetration Enhancer

The drug delivery within the stratum corneum of the skin prevails a challenging area for the pharmaceutical field, especially to the formulation scientists. Several investigations revealed that the lipid domain, which is the integral component of the transport barrier, must be breached if it is to be delivered transdermally at an appropriate rate. In particular, transdermal drug delivery has intrigued researchers with multiple suggestions because multiple dosing or insufficient drug delivery or characteristics of various drugs often results in low therapeutic effects. The application of permeation or penetration enhancers may prolong the number of drugs that can be offered topically. The application of any natural permeation enhancer is innoxious over the artificial permeation enhancers. The natural permeation enhancers are investigated, so notably include essential oils, terpenes, terpenoids, fatty acid esters, etc., have a certain effect in the transdermal drug delivery system. Despite decades of investigation on the natural chemical penetration enhancer, the researchers could not establish the effectiveness of natural penetration enhancers clinically due to the lack of in vivo models. Several factors, like solubility, solvent selection, experimental models, etc., has restricted the application and development of natural penetration enhancers in topical drug delivery systems, especially in the patches. Therefore, further investigation needs to do on skin irritation to decide natural penetration enhancers controlling optimum enhancement effects with minimal skin irritation. This review gives a comprehensive literature survey on naturally obtained chemical penetration enhancers and their future possibilities. Keywords: Topical Drug delivery system, Natural products, Penetration enhancer, Stratum corneum, In vivo models.
Estimation of dispersion effects from robust design experiments with censored response data

A method is presented for estimating dispersion effects (DE) from robust design experiments (RDE) with control and noise factors involving censored response data. This method is developed to discern the significance of DE from RDE and the method aims at analyzing a multi‐level/multi‐factor experiment. This method imputes censored data by a regression based imputation technique, assuming that the distribution of lifetime before and after censoring is identical. This method also models the residuals to identify important DE, assuming that the distribution of the observed random variables of the model is the same with or without censored response data. Finally, the method is demonstrated through a numerical example. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Implementing Secure e-Government Activities Using Grid Computing in the Context of Digital Bangladesh

The grid is a massive interconnection of computing resources distributed geographically across different administrative domains. Members of the grid can securely access these computing resources according to granted permissions, thus benefiting f rom greater computing power and storage. On the grid, applications will run faster and will enjoy large computing power and storage capability. This paper discusses the potential challenges of the grid for e- government in the concept of digital Bangladesh. The paper introduces the grid, e-government, and tries to establish an appropriate match between the two. This is achieved by comparing the grid concept, standards and implementation with e government as seen from the five viewpoints suggested by the standards and architectures of e-government applications. Key iss ue is to adapt the VO concept and implementation to an e- government application domain for Bangladesh.
Basal phylogenetic asymmetry in species-rich natural taxa of plants: a multivariate study

Abstract Sister groups at the root of large plant clades (with ≥1000 extant species) are described in terms of variables expressing species richness, geographical distribution, age, diversification rate and speed of molecular evolution. Standard statistical tools and principal component analysis are used to determine and visualize their relationships. In the majority of the 167 groups examined, one clade (the minor) has many fewer species than its sister (the major clade). A striking phenomenon is that many minor clades (17%) contain four or fewer species only. Asymmetry is largely, but not generally reflected by proportions in geographical range and relative speed of molecular evolution: species in the minor clade are more widely distributed than the major clade in 8 groups and – based on available information – we detected longer maximum branch lengths on the minor lineage in 14 cases. The basal lineages considerably differ in diversification rate; the differences are of the same magnitude in many groups as the diversification rate itself calculated for families and orders by other authors. For the major clade, we found a positive relationship between the species richness of clades and geographical range, and negative correlation between the logarithm of species richness and clade age.
Segments: An alternative rainfall problem

Abstract Elliot Soloway’s Rainfall problem is a well-known and well-studied problem to investigate the problem-solving strategies of programmers. Kathi Fisler investigated this programming challenge from the point of view of functional programmers. She showed that this particular challenge gives rise to five different high-level solution strategies, of which three are predominant and cover over 80% of all chosen solutions. In this study, we put forward the Segments problem as an alternative challenge to investigate the problem-solving skills of functional programmers. Analysis of the student solutions, their high-level solution strategies, and corresponding archetype solutions shows that the Segments problem gives rise to seven different high-level solution strategies that can be further divided into 17 subclasses. The Segments problem is particularly suited to investigate problem-solving skills that involve list processing and higher-order functions.
Sol-Gel Coating Membranes for Optical Fiber Sensors for Concrete Structures Monitoring

The use of advanced sensing devices for concrete and reinforced concrete structures (RCS) is considered a rational approach for the assessment of repair options and scheduling of inspection and maintenance strategies. The immediate benefits are cost reduction and a reliable prevention of unpredictable events. The use of optical fiber sensors (OFS) for such purposes has increased considerably in the last few years due to their intrinsic advantages. In most of the OFS, the chemical transducer consists of immobilized chemical reagents placed in the sensing region of the optical sensor by direct deposition or by encapsulation in a polymeric matrix. The choice of the support matrix impacts directly on the performance of the OFS. In the last two decades, the development of OFS functionalized with organic–inorganic hybrid (OIH) sol–gel membranes have been reported. Sol–gel route is considered a simple method that offers several advantages when compared to traditional synthesis processes, allowing to obtain versatile materials with unique chemical and physical properties, and is particularly valuable in the design of OIH materials. This review will provide an update of the current state-of-the-art of the OFS based on OIH sol-gel materials for concrete and RCS since 2016 until mid-2021. The main achievements in the synthesis of OIH membranes for deposition on OFS will be discussed. The challenges and future directions in this field will also be considered, as well as the main limitations of OFS for RCS monitoring.
Effect of Teacher Participation on Decision-making Processes on Performance in Secondary Schools in Mombasa County, Kenya

Decision-making is one of the tools that the school management uses to run schools. Teachers play an important role in the performance of schools. This paper looked at the effects of teacher participation in decision-making processes on performance. The study was conducted in public secondary schools in Mombasa County, Kenya. The study used the mixed methods approach where qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. The study targeted 474 teachers in 24 public schools in the County. These 10 schools were selected through purposive sampling and 110 teachers were selected through the simple random sampling technique. Data were obtained through questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data using mean, frequencies, standard deviation and percentages and the findings were presented using tables. The study found that teachers were partially involved in the decision-making process in the school since they participated mostly in one area more than the others. The findings from the study draw the conclusion that teachers in Mombasa County do not participate fully in the decision-making process in their schools. The study recommends that teachers be more empowered and engaged in decision-making processes in all aspects of the school system.
The mismatch between long-term monitoring data and modelling of solids wash-off to gully pots

ABSTRACT Urban runoff remobilises solids and their associated pollutants from urban-built environments and transports them to drainage systems via gully pots. This study presents an extensive monitoring campaign on the solids loading to drainage systems, including 104 gully pots as sampling locations and lasting 2 years. The solids loading is modelled with Build-Up and Wash-Off (BUWO) models and a Regression Tree (RT). The performance of the RT is substantially better than the performance of the BUWO models, such that it is not recommended to use a single BUWO model to predict the loading of a set of gully pots/catchments. It is discussed whether the generally observed mismatch between monitoring data and wash-off models, both in this study and in literature, points to a fundamental misunderstanding of the underlying processes. Finally, the results show that an increased street sweeping frequency does not significantly reduce the solids loading to drainage systems.
Corporate Social Responsibility through SDGs: Preliminary Results from a Pilot Study in Italian Universities

Background: In the broad scientific debate on the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the strategic planning of universities and on the use of monitoring the results of the strategy of the indicators relating to the pursuit of sustainable development goals (SDGs), there is a lack of studies demonstrating the effective degree of institutionalization of CSR in universities. Methods: This analysis constitutes a pilot study relating to the Italian university context. The study was carried out through an analysis on the contents of the three-year strategic performance plans (2020–2022) drawn up by individual universities and compulsorily published on the national portal of the Public Function Department, as required by article 10, paragraph 1, letter (a) of Legislative Decree 150/2009. A matrix was made with the information extracted by the documents and relative to the presence of the SDGs in the strategic performance plan. Consequently, using a Likert scale, the different degrees of institutionalization of CSR in the strategic plan of the universities were coded. Results: The results of the pilot study highlighted that the strategic planning of Italian universities’ CSR practices and the challenges of sustainable development are hardly ever systematically addressed. Therefore, there is a low degree of institutionalization of CSR in the Italian university system, even though the literature shows a high cultural and scientific commitment to establish university and post-graduate study courses with corporate social responsibility and sustainable development content and an increasing trend in the use of the accountability tools such as the social report or the sustainability report. Conclusions: It is necessary to share the results of scientific research on CSR and SDGs with the government and governance bodies of universities in order to harmonize the CSR and sustainability culture of these bodies with that of academics.
Assessing Changes in the Reproduction Number of COVID-19 in Cameroon

Aim: The purpose of this work is to assess changes that occur on COVID-19 infection in Cameroon since the start of the epidemic. Study Design: We use a data-based analysis on longitudinal data of reported COVID-19 cases in Cameroon. Place and Duration: The data for the study were obtained from the reports of confirmed COVID-19 cases from an official website between March 7, 2020 to September 29, 2021. Methodology: A modified Susceptible-Infected-Recovered-Deceased (SIRD) model for the contagion was used to describe the cumulated cases of COVID-19 during different phases of the epidemic that correlated with highest spikes. The approach features several aspects: one is that model parameters can be time-varying, allowing us to capture possible changes of the epidemic behaviour, due for example to containment measures enforced by authorities or modifications of the epidemic characteristics, country events, and COVID-19 vaccine introduction; the second aspect is that the model accounts for a social distancing parameter. The time-varying parameters was handled using a phase-to-phase modelling in which initial parameters were the number of susceptible individuals at the end of each phase. In addition, daily incidence data were used to estimate daily reproduction number. Secondly, we used an Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) approach to analyse the dynamic of the effective reproduction number R and forecast the new number of infected contacts. Results: There was less than 54% compliance of social distancing during all phases. The reproduction number was above 1 during each phase of the analysis. As of September 2021, it was 2.43 suggesting a constant increase of infection. Time-series of the reproduction number was unseasonal and stationary. Forecasting of R gave a value of more than 2, suggesting a continued rise in the number of infected cases in the Country in the next coming months. Conclusion: It is uncertain when the pandemic will last in the country. While social distancing is in decrease, prevention through vaccination is an option to reach more people and stop the propagation of the disease.
New Microstrip Bandpass Filter Designs Based on Stepped Impedance Hilbert Fractal Resonators

ABSTRACT The proposed microstrip bandpass filters in this paper have compact sizes and narrow band responses which are the requirements of modern wireless communication circuits. These filters are constructed from dual-edge coupled resonators; each resonator is based on applying step impedance resonator generator on first and second iteration of Hilbert fractal resonators on each segment of each iteration level. They have been designed for the industrial, scientific, and medical band (ISM) band applications at a centre frequency of 2.4 GHz using a substrate with a dielectric coefficient of 9.6 and thickness of 0.508 mm. The performance of bandpass filters has been analysed using a method of moments (MoM) based on software package, Microwave Office 2009, from Advanced Wave Research Inc., which is widely adopted in microwave research and industry. Simulation responses show that these filters possess good frequency response characteristics with second harmonics suppression. Moreover, these filters showed noticeable miniaturization which is an important feature for many communication applications. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement.
ANALYSIS OF E-CRM, E-MARKETING ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY WITH INTERVENING VARIABLES OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AT PT. INDOFOOD CBP SUKSES MAKMUR Tbk.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of E-CRM and E-Marketing on customer loyalty and intervening satisfaction of consumers of PT. Indofood. In this study, the authors use Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the Partial Least Square (PLS) approach to answer research problems related to the effect of E-CRM and E-Marketing on customer loyalty with the intervening variable of customer satisfaction. This study indicates that based on the results of hypothesis testing, E-CRM affects customer loyalty with the intervening variable of customer satisfaction, as well as the results of testing the hypothesis that E-Marketing affects customer loyalty with the intervening variable of customer satisfaction.
Vibration Control Based on a Probabilistic Nonlinear Processing of the Piezoelement Output Voltage

This paper deals with the so-called SSDI technique which is a semi-passive approach developed to address the problem of structural vibration damping. This technique takes advantage of an original non-linear processing of the voltage generated by piezoelements. It was shown that the original control law corresponding to the SSDI technique was optimal in the case of mono-modal solicitations. In the case of wide band multi-modal solicitation it is not ever true. This paper proposes a novel multi-modal control law for the SSDI technique. It is based on a probabilistic description of the piezovoltage and results in an optimization of the energy dissipated in the nonlinear device connected to the piezoelectric elements.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
Switching Arc Energy Limitation Approach for LV Circuit Breakers

This paper presents an experimentally verified approach to deriving switching arc energy limitations for low-voltage (LV) circuit breakers (CBs). Air-insulated contactors equipped with additional vacuum-insulated (VI) arcing contacts were tested for AC and DC current interruption efficiency, respectively. In the study, the contact arrangements of reed relay VI contact switches of low current breaking capacity combined with air-insulated contactors were examined. Tests were performed on selected LV CBs inductively loaded for LV power network rated voltages. A comparative analysis of the arc energy resulting from various arc time durations recorded during the switching-off operation was performed. Using a variety of either basic CB air-insulated contact systems or combined contact systems, a practical assessment of the proposed idea for enhancing the arc quenching efficiency was undertaken. As a result of the implementation of the proposed idea, the arc burning duration time was indicated as being hundreds of times shorter. In most cases, a complete arc reduction was achieved. Moreover, the resulting arc energy dissipation during the breaking operation was substantially minimized. Consequently, a significant increase in the total current breaking capacity of the tested CBs was achieved.