Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Material Flows Incurred by Activities at Project Sites

The execution of numerous projects is dependent on the movement of large quantities of heterogeneous material to and from project sites. This has to be done in a timely manner to successfully produce desired outputs, e.g. buildings, concerts, peacekeeping operations and sport events. Considerable logistics challenges are thus associated with activities undertaken at project sites and so far limited knowledge exists of the nature of these challenges and how they are managed by involved organizations. To facilitate further development of theory and practice, the purpose of this thesis is therefore to explore characteristics of material flows incurred by activities at project sites and how these flows are managed. This is to result in the development of a model which highlights projects and the context they operate in from a logistics perspective. To develop this model, multiple case studies have been conducted and analysed using literature from the areas of logistics, project management and organizational theories. Research has predominantly been inductive in nature and empirical data has been collected through interviews, site-observations and documents. Aspects that have been explored are similarities and differences between temporary organizations in how they access and manage resources as well as how they divide responsibility for logistics activities. Additionally, the coordination of material flows to and from project sites has been investigated and the characteristics of these flows have been explored. The model developed in the study consists of four components. The components are: the task to be carried out in a project, the temporary organization formed to carry out the task, the supply network formed to provide the temporary organization with resources and the material flows incurred by activities at project sites. The model highlights similarities, differences and important challenges found in the way material flows incurred by activities at project sites are managed in the studied projects. It also pinpoints some of the unique characteristics associated with these material flows. By providing a synthesis of the findings from the study, the model contributes to facilitate the transfer of the results to researchers and practitioners. However, many aspects of the subject in focus in this thesis still need to be further explored. Suggestions for further research are thus given.
Identifying and assessing an enabler for achieving high performance: middle management support for improvement

"From Wall Street to Washington, from boardrooms to union halls, -what anybody with power is most scared of is change. Any kind of change. " Lee lacocca, Former President, Ford Motor Corp. and Chrysler Corp. (Quoted in O'Toole, 1995) The aim of this research is to develop a scale to measure middle management support for organisational improvement. Middle management support for improvement is critical to the achievement of high performance, and can therefore be described as an enabler of high performance. The EFQM Excellence Model, the primary organisational excellence award in Europe, also describes enablers of high performance, but it does not include middle management support for improvement. Although the literature includes many articles on the importance of middle management support for improvement, there is a lack of information on methods for measuring it. Research is undertaken to identify the primary attributes of middle management support for improvement. The resulting questionnaire is used to collect data on middle management support for improvement in four organisations in the US and the UK. The reliability of the questionnaire is evaluated, and the questionnaire is revised based upon the findings. The revised questionnaire is shown to have strong validity and reliability. The relationship between organisational performance and middle management support for organisational improvement is discussed. A shortened version of the EFQM Excellence Model self-assessment is developed. Data are collected using this questionnaire at the four participating organisations. The results of the EFQM and middle management support questionnaires are compared. There appears to be a correlation between middle management support for improvement and the EFQM enablers, but more research is needed in this area. The primary contribution of this research is the development of a reliable and valid scale to measure middle management support for improvement. Recommendations are provided for further research opportunities.
Mycobiota and Mycotoxins Contaminating Rice Grains in El Minia, Governorate, Egypt

The mycological analysis of 51 samples of rice grains collected from different localities in El-Minia Governorate revealed the isolation of 54 species of fungi belonging to 21 genera. Most common mycobiota (genera) were Aspergillus and Penicillium being isolated from 96.07% and 54.9% of samples contributing 63.08% and 21.89% of total fungal counts. The prevalent species were represented by Aspergillus flavus, A. candidus, A. niger, Penicillium chrysogenum, P. islandicum especially on Dichloran Rose Bengal Chloramphenicol Agar medium (DRBC). These species in addition to some osmophilic fungi including A. chevalieri, A. montevidensis, A. rubrum were also common when Dichloran Glycerol agar (DG18) was used for the culturing of rice samples. About 12.5% of samples analysed for natural occurrence of mycotoxins were contaminated either with Aflatoxin – B1 (100-200 µg/ kg), ochratoxin –A (50-100 µg/ kg) or sterigmatocystin (10-20 µg/ kg). The majority of fungal strains tested for their mycotoxin production in liquid cultures were able to produce variable levels of aflatoxin B1, Aflatoxin G1 , Ochratoxin –A , terrein , gliotoxin and fumagillin
Kalman Filters for UXO Detection: Real-Time Feedback and Small Target Detection

Abstract : Improvement in the detection and discrimination of UXO using the EMI regime has been consistent during the last two decades, in both instrument hardware and detection software. There is nonetheless still a disparity between the often idealized environments considered ( golf course situation) and the reality in the field. Working on diminishing this disparity, various SERDP programs focus on developing versatile (next generation) instruments as well as robust software for data processing in realistic environments, yielding ever improved classification performance. The current protocol for surveying fields is typically organized in two stages. First the sensors are used in a survey mode, or dynamic mode, collecting data over large areas and flagging locations which may be contaminated by a subsurface UXO. The flagging process is typically based on magnetic field amplitude, based on the rationale that high amplitudes may correspond to buried UXO and should therefore be further investigated. Hence, at the second stage, the sensors return to the locations of interest for more in depth data collection in order to feed the identification and classification algorithms with high quality and diverse data. Flagging based on field amplitude, however, has potential drawbacks: the magnetic field in the EMI regime decays fast and a deep UXO may not produce a strong response while still being potentially hazardous.
Enhanced Situation Awareness in Sea, Air and Land Environments

Summary United States (US) military Special Forces teams currently use 2D visual displays for navigation information in the air, in water, and on the ground. These current displays demand the user’s visual attention, which can compromise mission effectiveness, and using visual displays in low light visibility environments can cause fatigue, degrade performance, and compromise a clandestine situation. If navigation equipment that is dependent on visual displays were integrated with a tactile display, the need to use vision for navigation could be minimized. The operator could be more effective if his eyes were used to survey the surroundings rather than continuously monitor a visual display. The Tactile Situation Awareness System for Special Forces (TSAS-SF) was developed to investigate the potential of tactile displays for Special Forces operations. The TSAS-SF will upgrade present 2D visual navigation displays and will provide non-visual, non-audible navigation information to Special Forces personnel by interfacing navigation information with a tactile display. This new capability will provide 2D direction cues to the skin, which will free the user’s visual senses for higher priority tasks (e.g. contact identification and classification). Preliminary testing in a High Altitude, High Opening (HAHO) parachute environment and a ground environment, and earlier testing in an underwater environment (McTrusty, Walters, 1997, Rupert, McTrusty, Peak, 1999), have demonstrated that navigation can be performed faster with tactile cues than visual cues, and superior navigational accuracy can be achieved with less mental fatigue on the operator. These results suggest that a tactile display that provides ‘eyes free’ and ‘hands free’ air and ground navigation information may provide the opportunity to devote more time to other instruments and tasks when operating in high workload conditions. These effects can increase mission effectiveness. The preliminary results from the air and ground navigation tests justify continued testing and evaluation to extend the capabilities of the tactile display, for use as an operational device for navigation in sea, air and land environments.
Design of small interfaces

Many modern devices with different kinds of characteristics have been invading the market in recent years and nowadays the market place is flooded with them.Users are experiencing a storm of new technology and a massive variety of new functions. This current work purposes an innovative approach for the design of small interfaces that can be used by a company to increase their own competitiveness or to develop research studies in an academic domain. With a wide range of research about concepts, interfaces, classification, products history, market tendency, user preferences, guidelines examples and ergonomics in visual and touch channels, was developed a new and effective guideline for small interfaces. With the evaluation of two systems (tablet and smartphone), was possible to do improvements on the design in order to garatee an effective guideline as the final result. The guidelines that we set out to create incorporate research into human anatomy as well as behaviour when using the Tablet. This was done with volunteering test subjects as well as close observation of each user and how they reacted to the tablet and how quickly the adapted and recognised icons within the interface. We also looked into other areas such as the social implications of owning a tablet and the typical demographics of tablet users. This research allowed use to gain a better understanding and insight into the mind of the user so we could deliver an interface to user that was not only what they needed but also one that they wanted to use.
Solar Adoption and Energy Consumption in the Residential Sector

This dissertation analyzes the energy consumption behavior of residential adopters of solar photovoltaic systems (solar-PV). Based on large data sets from the San Diego region that have been assembled or otherwise acquired by the author, the dissertation quantifies changes in energy consumption after solar-PV installation and determines whether certain household characteristics are correlated with such changes. In doing so, it seeks to answer two related questions: First, Do residential solar adopters increase or decrease their electricity consumption after they install a solar-PV system? Assuming that certain categories of residential adopters increase and others decrease, the second question is Which residential adopters increase and which decrease their consumption and why? The database that was used to conduct this analysis includes information about 5,243 residential systems in San Diego Gas & Electric's (SDGE the solar companies that sold and installed them; individual customer electric utility billing data; metered PV production data for a subgroup of these solar systems; and data about the properties where the systems are located. Primarily, the author was able to conduct an electricity consumption analysis at the individual household level for 2,410 PV systems installed in SDGE age of the home; the climate zone (inland or coastal) where the home is located; the home's pre-installation energy consumption; home characteristics such as assessed value and square footage; and the identity of the solar installation contractor. Aside from extending the literature on the rebound effect to the context of home-based energy generation, this study links to the innovation diffusion literature by focusing on solar innovators to understand more about the characteristics that may drive behavior, or conditions under which they also adopt clean energy technologies and practices. The results have clear policy relevance with regard to the development and coordination of policies to promote integration of solar and energy efficiency. Currently several public policies are being developed at various levels of government to encourage both, based on application of the economically rational concept of the loading order , the California policy that places energy efficiency as the state's highest priority energy resource. However, there has been little study of the interrelationships between them or how these innovations are implemented in practice. This dissertation begins to fill that gap.
A Hybrid Multi-gate Model of a Gallium Nitride (GaN) High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) Device Incorporating GaN-substrate Thermal Boundary Resistance

Abstract : This report describes a pseudo-analytical thermal model of gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), which combines analytical heat spreading models with spreading width boundary conditions derived from two-dimensional finite element thermal simulations. We successfully produced an accurate GaN HEMT hybrid model capable of evaluating the impact of thermally important device parameters on junction and individual layer temperatures. A parameter space investigation, covering GaN-substrate thermal boundary resistance (TBR), gate pitch, substrate thickness, substrate thermal conductivity, and GaN thickness validated the hybrid model against full finite element numerical analysis and provided insight into device thermal behavior. This modeling showed near junction thermal resistance contributions from the GaN and interface TBR stay relatively constant with gate number and pitch down to 5 m. Alternatively, the thermal profiles in the substrate layers and below show strong interaction between gates; the magnitude of those components scale directly with gate number and increase significantly with decreasing gate pitch. Also finite substrate and GaN thicknesses produce a minimum temperature rise dependent on downstream thermal resistance. Finally, increasing substrate thermal conductivity, by replacing a silicon carbide (SiC) substrate with higher thermal conductivity diamond, appears to only be advantageous if the TBR does not increase substantially beyond the SiC range.
Full Scale Dynamic Behaviour of an RC-Building under low to moderate seismic motions: 1-Year Recordings in Grenoble City Hall (France)

In countries with a moderate seismic hazard, the classical method developed for countries with strong earthquakes to estimate the behaviour and subsequent vulnerability of buildings during earthquakes are often inadequate and not financially realistic. An alternative method is proposed whereby the structural characteristics of the building are obtained by using experimental values of the modal parameters. This article describes the application of an advanced modal analysis technique (Frequency Domain Decomposition) to process ambient vibration recordings taken at the Grenoble City Hall building (France). The frequencies of ambient vibrations are compared with those of low-to-moderate earthquakes recorded by the permanent accelerometric network that was installed to monitor the building. The frequency variations of the building under moderate earthquakes are shown to be slight and therefore ambient vibration frequencies are relevant over the entire elastic domain of the building. The modal parameters extracted from ambient vibrations are then used to determine the lumped-mass model in order to reproduce the building motion under moderate earthquakes.
Vitamin D levels in Children with Gastrointestinal System Disorders

Vitamin D deficiency is common in gastrointestinal system disorders for various reasons. We aimed to evaluate Vitamin D levels of children who suffer from gastrointestinal system disorders and to identify disease which leads to Vitamin D deficiency commonly. The data and files of children on follow-up at least for 3 months on pediatric gastroenterology outpatient clinic were retrospectively screened between March 2015 and December 2016. Totally 294 patients were included to the study. 138 (47%) were male and 156 (53%) were female of patients. Mean age of patients was 80.04 ± 65.24 (1-225) months. Thirty one (10%) patients had Vitamin D deficiency (<12 ng/ml) and 57 (20%) patients had Vitamin D insufficiency (12-20 ng/ml). Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency was mostly found in winter season (18% and 29% respectively) and was mostly seen in children with Inflammatory bowel disease, Gastroesophageal reflux disease and Celiac Ortadoğu Tıp Dergisi / Ortadogu Medical Journal ORTADOGU MEDICAL JOURNAL 2019; 11(4): 542-547 543 disease. According to the age groups vitamin D deficiency was lower in adolescent age group. In conclusion we emphasized that it would be logical to determine vitamin D levels in adolescent patients and for children with Inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease and gastroesophageal reflux disease in pediatric gastroenterology outpatient clinic.
Constraints on the Design of Long-Haul Soliton Systems

Erbium doped fibre amplifiers now allow the possibility of deploying optically transparent systems over trans-oceanic and trans-continental distances. However it is now well established that fibre non-linearities cannot be ignored in such systems. For example, when a single channel system is operated in the anomalous dispersion régime, ie. with λ > λ0 where λ0 is the wavelength of zero chromatic dispersion, self phase modulation (SPM) may lead to pulse compression or pulse break up. When operated with λ < λ0, SPM leads to increased dispersion and pulse broadening. A choice may be made to avoid the non-linearities as far as possible; for example by minimising the amplifier spacing, by using the minimum optical power consistent with the required electrical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and by careful choice of the operating wavelength with respect to λ0. Alternatively, one may choose to use actively the fibre non-linearity to design a soliton based system operating in the anomalous dispersion régime. This paper attempts to consider some of the design constraints for such a system. In particular it considers a system operating at 5Gbit/s over a total distance L sys of 6000km.
The effects of flow on therapeutic protein aggregation

To date, over 70 monoclonal antibody (mAb) biopharmaceuticals have been approved, allowing effective treatment of serious diseases such as cancer. In addition to improving human health, these powerful medicines are very valuable, generating billions of dollars in sales annually. Like all proteins, environmental changes can cause mAbs to unfold, misfold and aggregate. Aggregation can block the progress of mAbs to market, as aggregates have been linked to adverse effects in patients. The hydrodynamic forces mAbs encounter during their manufacturing process have long been thought to be one of the causes of aggregation. This link remains tenuous, however, partly due to a lack of knowledge surrounding how specific flow fields (e.g. shear and extensional flows) perturb protein structure. To assess the effects of flow on therapeutic protein aggregation, a recently developed, bespoke Extensional Flow Device (EFD) was characterised, which mimics the hydrodynamic forces mAbs encounter at manufacturing scale. In this thesis, the model proteins BSA and three mAbs (WFL, mAb1 and STT) were subjected to the defined fluid fields present in the EFD, with the resulting aggregates characterised using an array of biophysical techniques. The data show that protein aggregation can be induced by extensional flow. The extent of aggregation depends on a protein’s sequence and topology, in addition to the flow conditions and buffer composition. For example, the mAbs WFL and STT show disparate aggregation behaviour following hydrodynamic stress, despite having >99 % sequence identity, with the generic mAb1 somewhere in between the two. Reinforced by data from a screen of 33 clinically relevant mAbs, the data in this thesis support future use of the EFD to: explore flow-induced protein aggregation mechanisms; improve mAb bioprocessing and; screen mAb candidates to select sequences and/or formulations which are resistant to potentially deleterious hydrodynamic forces, facilitating the development of next-generation mAb therapeutics.
Simulator Sickness in the Flight School XXI TH-67 Flight Motion Simulators

Abstract : In 2005, the U.S. Army debuted the TH-67 Creek flight motion simulator (FMS). Comments from the first class to use the devices indicated an unusually high number of instructor pilots (IPs) and student pilots (SPs) experienced severe simulator sickness (SS). To investigate the potential problem, a pre-study was conducted using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) to collect data from three, 5-day class cycles from 73 IPs and 129 SPs. Based on an analysis of these data, along with operator comments, recommendations to reduce SS were provided. The post study was conducted one year later to test the effectiveness of the recommendations at reducing the SS symptoms. SSQ data were collected on 25 IPs and 50 SPs, over one, 3-day class cycle. After the recommendations were implemented, there was a significant reduction in SSQ scores in both IPs and SPs for three of the four SSQ subscales. Overall, IPs reported significantly greater SS than SPs across all four SSQ subscales. The implementation of the recommendations, which were based on previous findings, reduced SS in the TH-67 FMSs.
Method for Predicting Transmembrane Helices in Protein Sequences

The increasing protein sequences from the genome project require the oretical methods to predict transmembrane helical segments (TMHs). So far, several prediction methods have been reported, but there are some deficiencies in prediction accuracy and adaptability in these methods. Here, a method based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) has been developed to predict the number and location of TMHs in membrane proteins,80 proteins with known 3D structure from Mptopo database are chosen at random as data sets (including 325 TMHs). TMHs prediction is carried out for the membrane protein sequences and obtain satisfactory result. To verify the feasibility of this method, 80 membrane protein sequences are treated as test sets, 308 TMHs can be predicted and the prediction accuracy is 96.3%Compared with the other prediction results , the obtained results indicate that the proposed method has higher prediction accuracy.
Control System Development and Flight Test Experience with the MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Take-Off Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV)

This paper describes the control system development of the MQ-8B Fire Scout autonomous helicopter. It includes a discussion of the system identification process and some details on implementing the identification output into a six degree of freedom simulation. Inner loop control law synthesis using classical, and two different modern design tools for meeting specific stability and performance metrics is also presented. This is followed by the details of the classical outer loop design process. Finally, some preliminary flight test results are presented from the successful initial flights.