Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate granules modified by gamma irradiation and their effect as fine aggregates on moisture damage of asphalt mixtures

Recently, the excessive quantity of waste polyethylene terephthalate (WPET) creates a significant environmental concern globally. One way to reuse WPET is in the pavement industry as secondary materials. Nevertheless, based on works of literature review on the use of WPET in asphalt materials, inconsistent findings were reported with an increase and decrease in mechanical properties. To overcome this issue, gamma radiation has been utilized on the WPET. This study investigated the effect of using non-irradiated and irradiated WPET on some engineering properties of asphalt mixes. Marshall Samples incorporating a various amount of WPET (Plastiphalt); 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% and 2.5% by weight of total aggregates were tested based on Marshall Stability (MS), indirect tensile strength (ITS), and resistance to moisture damage. The results of x-ray diffraction (XRD) on the irradiated WPET showed that the degree of crystallinity had increased. The results of Marshall Stability (MS) showed an enhancement with increasing WPET content up to 2.0% for the plastiphalt mixes. Marshall Quotient, and ITS show a decreasing trend with increasing WPET amount for the plastiphalt mixes. Furthermore, results on moisture damage resistance indicated that indirect tensile strength and Marshall Stability ratios were marginally increased for plastiphalt mixes compared to the reference mixture (0% WPET). Comparing the moisture sensitivity tolerance results for the WPET modified mixes shows that irradiated WPET plastiphalt mixes had a better outcome than non-irradiated WPET plastiphalt mixes.
The Ancient Globular Clusters of NGC 1291

We present a new catalog of 81 ancient globular clusters (GCs) in the early-type spiral (SB0/a) galaxy NGC 1291. Candidates have been selected from B, V, and I band images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, which also reveal 17 younger (τ ≲ few × 100 Myr) clusters. The luminosity function shows a peaked shape similar to that found for GC systems in other spiral and elliptical galaxies. The ancient clusters have a bimodal color distribution, with approximately 65% (35%) of the population having blue (red) colors. The red, presumably metal-rich, GCs are more centrally concentrated, as expected for a bulge population; while the blue, presumably metal-poor, GCs are more broadly distributed, consistent with expectations of a halo population. The specific frequency of GCs in NGC 1291 is higher than found previously in most spiral galaxies. However, if we consider just the blue subpopulation, we find S N,blue = 0.50 ± 0.06, quite similar to that found for other spirals. This result supports the hypothesis of a universal population of halo GCs in spirals. The fraction of red GCs in NGC 1291, when compared with those found in other galaxies, suggests that these correlate with host galaxy type rather than with host galaxy luminosity.
Design optimization of double excitation synchronous machines in railway traction

Classical electrical machines such as asynchronous and permanent magnet synchronous machines have been widely applied in traction applications and particularly in railway traction. This thesis, however, evaluate the contribution of a special class of synchronous machine called textbf{D}ouble textbf{E}xcitation textbf{S}ynchronous textbf{M}achine (DESM) for the railway traction. Double excitation term indicates that the field flux of the machine is created by two sources: excitation windings and permanent magnets. The degree of freedom provided by the excitation windings provides the opportunity to work on the energy efficiency improvement target. This thesis will try to answer the question whether DESM is more advantageous over classical machines in a specific driving cycle and in addition, in which cases a DESM performs better.Recent studies have merely optimized the individual components, the major drawback of this approach is that the combination of the best individuals does not necessarily form a best system. In order to achieve more realistic results, a multi-physic models taking into account nonlinear characteristic and various disciplines such as electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical and power electronics will be developed.
Modeling and Control of a DC-grid Hybrid Power System with Battery and Variable Speed Diesel Generators

Hybrid electric power systems (HPS) have successfully been integrated in the road-traffic industry due to enhanced efficiency and environmental benefits. Recently this concept has been implemented in the marine sector. In this master thesis, the construction of a DC hybrid power system for a marine vessel is outlined in detail. The HPS is developed in Matlbat/Simulink and comprises two set of diesel generators with variable speed, six-pulse diode bridges, a battery bank, bidirectional converter and a constant power load (CPL). The associated controllers which are designed includes battery controller, engine speed controller and voltage-exciter controllers. An emphasized focus will lay on structures of voltage-exciter controllers. For this purpose, control structures for operation of generator set alone or together with the battery are investigated. The performance of all controllers are tested for a specific test-bench. In addition to this, specific fuel-oil consumption (SFOC) of the diesel engine will be evaluated through an implemented SFOC-model, where SFOC for operation both with and without battery is compared.
Composable Cachelets: Protecting Enclaves from Cache Side-Channel Attacks

The security of isolated execution architectures such as Intel SGX has been signiﬁcantly threatened by the recent emer-gence of side-channel attacks. Cache side-channel attacks allow adversaries to leak secrets stored inside isolated enclaves without having direct access to the enclave memory. In some cases, secrets can be leaked even without having the knowledge of the victim application code or having OS-level privileges. We propose the concept of Composable Cachelets (CC), a new scalable strategy to dynamically partition the last-level cache (LLC) for completely isolating enclaves from other applications and from each other. CC supports enclave isolation in caches with the capability to dynamically readjust the cache capacity as enclaves are created and destroyed. We present a cache-aware and enclave-aware operational semantics to help rigorously establish security properties of CC, and we experimentally demonstrate that CC thwarts side-channel attacks on caches with modest performance and complexity impact.
A Resilient Distributed Boosting Algorithm

Given a learning task where the data is distributed among several parties, communication is one of the fundamental resources which the parties would like to minimize. We present a distributed boosting algorithm which is resilient to a limited amount of noise. Our algorithm is similar to classical boosting algorithms, although it is equipped with a new component, inspired by Impagliazzo’s hard-core lemma (Impagliazzo, 1995), adding a robustness quality to the algorithm. We also complement this result by showing that resilience to any asymptotically larger noise is not achievable by a communication-efﬁcient algorithm.
Wind-induced vibrations of a suspension bridge: A case study in full-scale

In 2013, the Norwegian government adopted an ambitious plan to cross the wide and deep-fjords of Western Norway and create a ferry-free coastal highway route. This implies the construction of multiple long-span bridges (even up to 5 km long) and in particular long-span suspension bridges. Because of their size and lightness, such structures will be particularly sensitive to environmental effects including wind turbulence. Yet, there are only relatively few studies available on wind effects on long-span bridges in full-scale and in complex terrains. Sonic anemometers fixed to a measurement mast on land are traditionally utilized to monitor wind turbulence. Recent development of remote wind sensing technologies can introduce a complementary tool for mapping the flow over several kilometres wide fjords, more representative of the future bridge exposure. These challenges are addressed in the present thesis by studying the windinduced vibrations of an existing suspension bridge, in full-scale. The Lysefjord Bridge, located in South-Western Norway is used as a case study. Since November 2013, it has been instrumented with multiple sonic anemometers and accelerometers. During spring 2014, two short measurement campaigns were conducted with single and dual Doppler wind lidar systems to assess their capabilities in capturing the turbulence characteristics relevant to bridge design. This thesis is structured around three main axes that are central for a systematic validation of the buffeting theory in full-scale. Firstly, a detailed investigation of the flow conditions at the bridge site is performed, by utilizing both the data from the anemometers and the Doppler Wind lidars. Secondly,
Exploiting Structure and Input-Output Properties in Networked Dynamical Systems

Large coupled networks of individual entities arise in multiple contexts in nature and engineered systems to produce rich dynamics and achieve complex behaviors. As the state-space dimension increases, the certification of stability and performance properties of these nonlinear dynamical systems becomes an intractable problem. In this thesis we develop decomposition methods that break up such convoluted systems into components of smaller dynamics whose behavior is dependent on the state of the neighboring components. These methods explore useful input-output properties of the subsystems in conjunction with the topology of their interconnections, providing results that scale well to large-scale networks.We begin by developing a mathematical approach to analyze spatial pattern formation in developmental biology that combines graph-theoretical and dynamical systems methods to systematically predict the emergence of patterns. This approach models the contact between cells by a graph and exploits its symmetries to create partitions of cells into classes of equal fate. Using monotone systems theory, we derive verifiable conditions that determine whether patterns consistent with such partitions exist and are stable. Then, we propose an engineered synthetic circuit that mimics contact inhibition by using diffusible molecules to spontaneously generate sharply contrasting patterns. Using a compartmental model, we determine a condition that serves as a parameter tuning guide for patterning.We next focus on exploring the symmetric topology of the interconnection to provide efficient certification of performance properties of large networks. Performance certification can be cast as a distributed optimization problem for which the existence of a solution is equivalent to the existence of a solution with repeated variables. We demonstrate that fast certification of stability and performance is possible by searching over solutions in a reduced order domain.Finally, motivated by the stochastic behavior of biological networks, we provide stochastic stability results for systems modeled by stochastic differential equations. We use stochastic passivity properties of the subsystems and a diagonal stability condition of the interconnection matrix together with the passivity gains to guarantee stochastic stability and noise-to-state stability.
Intercropping of Maize (Zea mays L.) with Spear mint (Mentha spicata L.) as Supplementary Income Generation at Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center, South Ethiopia

Field experiment was conducted in 2011 up to 2013 cropping season to investigate maize based farming system by inclusion of spearmint. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with four replications. The result showed that sole planting of spearmint gave significantly higher essential oil yield, leaf fresh weight, above ground biomass than planting as intercropped with maize. However, intercropping didn't show significant variation on plant height, shelling percentage and grain yield of the main crop. Land equivalent ratio (LER) indicated yield advantages for all intercrop combinations, especially at 42cm inter row spacing of spearmint intercropped with maize followed by 36cm inter row spacing of spearmint intercropped with maize. Similarly, Maize intercrop with spearmint at 42cm inter row spacing of spearmint gave higher monetary advantage index (41747) followed by 36cm inter row spacing of spearmint intercropped with maize (37496) than planted at sole. This indicate that intercropping maize at 42cm inter row spacing of spearmint followed by 36cm inter row spacing of spearmint is biologically efficient, economically feasible and more profitable than planting alone.
Experimental mafic rock dissolution rates within

16 Far-from-equilibrium batch experiments have been performed to study the low temperature 17 dissolution potential of crystalline submarine basalts (from Juan de Fuca Plate and Mid- 18 Atlantic Ridges) and of a highly altered gabbro from the Troodos ophiolite (Cyprus) in presence 19 of seawater and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). The experiments have been carried out at 40 °C for up 20 to 20 days with initial pH of ~4.8 and under ~1 bar pCO 2 to identify the progressive water-rock 21 interactions. Elemental steady-state release rates from the rock samples have been 22 determined for silicon and calcium, the solution concentrations of which were found to be the 23 most effective monitors of rock dissolution. Mass balance calculations based on dissolved Si 24 and Ca concentrations suggest the operation of reaction mechanisms focussed on the grain 25 surfaces that are characteristic of incongruent dissolution. Also, basic kinetic modelling 26 highlights the role of mass-transport limitations during the experiments. Ca release rates at 27 pH ~5 indicate significant contributions of plagioclase dissolution in all the rocks, with an 28 additional contribution of amphibole dissolution in the altered gabbro. Si release rates of all 29 solids are found to be similar to previously studied reactions between seawater and basaltic 30 glass and crystalline basalt from Iceland, but are higher than rates measured for groundwater- 31 crystalline basalt interaction systems. This comparison with previous experimental results 32 resumes the debate on the role of experimental variables, such initial rock mass and 33 crystallinity, pCO 2 , and fluid chemistry on dissolution processes. Our new data suggest that 34 CO 2 -rich saline solutions react with mafic rocks at higher rates than fresh water with low pCO 2 , 35 at the same pH. Most significantly, both ophiolitic gabbro and Juan de Fuca basalts show Si 36 and Ca release rates similar or higher than unaltered crystalline basalt from Iceland, 37 highlighting the potential substantial role that ophiolitic rocks and offshore mafic reservoirs 38 could play for the geological storage of CO 2 .
Detailed hydrodynamic characterization of harmonically excited falling-film flows: A combined experimental and computational study

Alexandros Charogiannis,1 Fabian Denner,2 Berend G. M. van Wachem,2 Serafim Kalliadasis,3 and Christos N. Markides1,* 1Clean Energy Processes (CEP) Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom 3Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom (Received 9 February 2016; published 17 January 2017)
Theater as the STEAM Engine for Engaging Those Previously Disengaged

This chapter connects the use of creative dramatics with engaging students previously disengaged with STEM classes. It elucidates a variety of reasons how creative dramatics allows STEM teachers and their students to succeed. Each of the assertions is backed by citations of research studies, classroom practice, and details of the theoretical underpinnings. Also included are detailed descriptions of three effective classroom methodologies using theater in STEM classes, along with specific examples of each that include student and teacher interactions.
Economic losses due to earthquake - induced structural damages in RC SMRF structures

Abstract This study presents the seismic performance assessment of reinforced concrete frame structures designed to modern buildings codes, for calculating the economic losses due to earthquake-induced structural damages. The structures investigated in the present research considered four (3, 5, 8, and 10 storeys) prototype special moment resisting frame (SMRF) structures designed to Uniform Building Code–97/Building Code of Pakistan. Quasi-static cyclic tests were carried out herein on special moment resisting beams in order to develop damage scale and beam reparability cost ratio. The considered structures were analyzed in a calibrated FE based software SeismoStruct using incremental dynamic analysis procedure employing a set of seven natural design spectrum compatible ground motion records. Damage to structural components was identified for each intensity level and integrated over the whole structure, with the required repair cost, to calculate the structure repair cost ratio (RCR). The structure RCR is correlated with the seismic intensity to develop seismic vulnerability curves, which can be used for the economic loss estimation (direct repairability cost) of SMRF structures given the seismic intensity.
Effects of Two Warm Up Protocol on Vertical Jump Performance in Mini Volleyball Players

Warm-up exercises are necessary before performing of explosive movement in any sporting event especially to improve performance as well as injury prevention in forceful jumping. The aim of this study was to compare effects of routine static stretch and newly dynamic movement as warm up protocols on jumping performance. Fifty seven male mini volleyball players (10.84 ± 1.24 yrs) participated in warm up exercise protocol in 2 consecutive weeks, three sessions for static stretch warm up and three other sessions for dynamic warm up every other nonconsecutive day. Static stretch consists of seven movements hold 12 seconds; relaxing 8 seconds and 12 seconds for each lower limb. Dynamic warm up includes 12 movements lasting 8 minutes. After each movement vertical jump test was performed, while Paired t test used to determine differences between two applied warm up exercise protocols. Significant increase has shown in vertical jump following dynamic warm up comparing to static stretch (p<0.05). Due to results, performing dynamic movement may be more effective to prior to perform high power and explosive skills such as jumping.
Assessment of K-12 Outreach Group Project Highlighting Multidisciplinary Approaches in the Oil and Energy Industry

A need exists to inspire female high school students to study engineering, and one approach is to expose students to the different engineering disciplines and highlight current technological problems that require multidisciplinary approaches. The objective of a week-long residential summer program was to introduce high school females to six engineering disciplines and multidisciplinary approaches through interactive topic lessons, a real-world group project and professional development sessions to excite female students about current engineering applications and careers. The group project tasked students with the problem of designing and implementing a hydraulic fracturing site given a variety of site condition design constraints. The interactive structure of the open-ended design project uniquely provided high school students with the opportunity to gain personal, interpersonal and technical engineering skills while highlighting the significance of multidisciplinary approaches to current technological advancements within the oil and energy industry. Assessment instruments of student performance during the group project included: (a) an oral presentation rubric utilized by program instructors to evaluate team presentations on delivery, content, organization, and audience awareness; (b) preand post-program questionnaires to evaluate the impact of the team project on students’ grasp of the importance of multidisciplinary design approaches; and (c) a preand post-program Likert scale assessing student perception in self-development of engineering skills following the completion of the group project and summer program. The evaluation of the team presentations indicated that following the completion of the summer program’s open-ended project, students were able to work in multidisciplinary teams while explaining the roles the different disciplines culminating to an engineering design.
STUBBLE BURNING: CAUSE, IMPACT AND MITIGATION

rop residue burning is not a recent trend adopted by Indian farmers during crop harvesting, especially in the months of OctNov before sowing of Rabi season crop. But last few years it has been an alarming issue due to increasing pollution, mainly air and soil, which causes detrimental effects in not only human beings but also on the environment. According to the survey, India produces 371 million tones of crop residue annually, out of which wheat and rice contribute 27-36% and 51-57%, respectively. Uttar Pradesh is the largest in this regard, followed by Punjab, Maharashtra, and West Bengal. A large number of farmers have engaged in stubble burning techniques as they have a very short time span for preparation of land to next crop sowing during the winter season. Although Govt. has introduced new machineries such as combine harvester that helps farmers to cut the mature crop leaving behind a small portion of crop biomass(straw) above ground (up to 9.0 t ha -1 ) that makes farmers difficult to sow next crop in this point, needs time for land preparation. As farmers are not furnished and prepared to manage the large mass of residues left in the field, to avoid delay sowing of next crop, farmers used to burn the stubble in their own land which they think of economic and cost effective strategy to manage these crop residues.