Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pore-Level Study Of Grain-Shape Effects On Petrophysical Properties Of Porous Media

A fundamental property for porous media is the relationship between macroscopic physical and petrophysical properties and the morphology or shape of individual grains. Although it is widely accepted that grain anisotropy can affect physical and petrophysical properties of porous media, the exact relationship is not well understood because of the difficulty of separating grain shape effects from those due to other textural properties of clastic rocks, such as grain size, sorting, roundness, and packing. We develop and successfully test a new synthetic pore-scale model to represent clastic rocks with variable grain-size distributions and ellipsoidal grain shapes. The model also includes the structural effects of compaction and cementation. Numerical simulations consider four grain packs with equal grain size but different grain aspect ratios. Results indicate that the calculated permeability depends on grain shape. Grain interaction and rearrangement during sedimentation and compaction cause the long axes of ellipsoidal grains to preferentially align with the horizontal plane perpendicular to the applied overburden stress. Important observed effects on permeability include: (1) after grain sedimentation, ellipsoidal grain packs exhibit a lower permeability in the vertical direction than in the horizontal directions, while permeability of spherical grain packs shows the opposite behavior, and (2) during compaction, permeability anisotropy remains in sphere packs, but disappears in ellipsoid packs due to the combined effects of compaction and preferential grain orientation. At equal porosity, the grain pack with the highest grain aspect ratio exhibits the highest permeability, which is consistent with experimental observations (Fraser, 1935).
A Hybrid Deep Learning Model for Fire Detection and Trigger Alert

The important advantage of image processing from a fire detection device is flexibility through its predictive software. This fireplace detection model can be utilized nearly everywhere in a commercial building, shopping mall and many different public places. This device makes use of cameras to identify fires. The digicam input machine is processed after which the proposed identification technique is applied to detect fires and thermal signatures. Fireplace lights patterns are detected within the pix (photo or media input) to decide if there is a fire or not and take appropriate action.
Explaining Internal Behavior in a Fuzzy If-Then Rule-Based Flood-Forecasting Model

This paper presents a popular fuzzy rule-based model for river flow forecasting for an Indian basin. To set up the fuzzy rules, a cluster estimation method is adopted to determine the number of rules and the membership functions of variables involved in the premises of the rules. The most appropriate set of input variables was determined by trial and error procedure to test the coherence of the different input variables in forecasting flood. It is observed that the last time steps of measured runoff are dominating the forecast. The developed model is used to forecast up to 12 h in advance. The values of three performance evaluation criteria namely, the coefficient of efficiency, the root-mean-square error and the coefficient of correlation, were found to be very good and consistent for flows forecasted 1 h in advance by the model. The performance is decreasing as the forecast horizon is increasing and a reasonable forecast is obtained up to 9 h ahead. A set of fuzzy rules is extracted and used for understanding of the behavior of the developed model. It is observed that the developed model follows the trend of the input membership grade in antecedent part of the fuzzy model. DOI: 10.1061/ASCEHE.1943-5584.0000146 CE Database subject headings: Floods; Forecasting; Fuzzy sets; Hydrologic models. Author keywords: Flood forecasting; Fuzzy if-then rules; Membership grade; Knowledge extraction; Fuzzy model.
All-Frequency-Two-Port-Quasi-Absorptive Planar Bandpass Filter With Quasi-Flat Group Delay and Multi-Transmission-Zero Extended Stopbands

A microwave planar bandpass filter (BPF) with in-band-quasi-flat-group-delay characteristics and two-port-quasi-reflectionless behavior for an infinite spectral range is presented. It is composed of the in-series cascade connection of three multipath-delay-line transversal filtering sections (TFSs) with Wilkinson-type power-division/combination stages. In this manner, by means of the composite action of these TFSs, an in-band-quasi-Bessel-type bandpass filtering response with multi-transmission-zero (TZ) stopbands and two-port-quasi-absorptive nature for a finite frequency interval is attained. To further extend such quasi-reflectionless bandwidth from dc to infinite theoretically, as well as the stopband range, one-port-quasi-absorptive wide-band filtering cells are inserted at both the input and output accesses of the overall quasi-flat-group-delay BPF. For experimental demonstration purposes, a microstrip prototype centered at 5 GHz is designed, manufactured, and characterized.
Impact of Industrial Development on Groundwater & Surface Water Quality in Industry Dominating Sectors of Chandigarh, India

Physico-chemical analysis was carried out to assess the extent of chemical pollution in surface water & ground water as affected by industrial effluents in industry dominating sectors in Chandigarh, India. Sampling was done in the month of November, 2011. Both the groundwater (GW) & surface water (SW) samples collected at selected points were analyzed for temperature, pH, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, total hardness, dissolved oxygen (DO) & chemical oxygen demand (COD). It has been observed that decreased pH & increased alkalinity make this water unpalatable. Both the GW as well as SW, at all the sampling spots are very hard and cannot be considered suitable for drinking purposes. The levels of calcium & magnesium were also not within prescribed limits. The lowest level of DO in some sampling spots indicates that industrial activities consume dissolved oxygen present in the water. COD was found to be in acceptability range in SW as well in GW at most of the sampling spots. The results suggested that SW & GW in most of the sectors is polluted & not fit for human consumption without treatment. It is therefore recommended that careless disposal of the waste should be discouraged & if possible, there is need to treat the waste properly before dumped in to the environment. The values of all the parameters have shown significant variations between GW & SW at 5% level of significance.
Antiviral activity of zinc against hepatitis viruses: current status and future prospects

Viral hepatitis is a major public health concern globally. World health organization aims at eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. Among the hepatitis causing viruses, hepatitis B and C are primarily transmitted via contaminated blood. Hepatitis A and E, which gets transmitted primarily via the feco-oral route, are the leading cause of acute viral hepatitis. Although vaccines are available against some of these viruses, new cases continue to be reported. There is an urgent need to devise a potent yet economical antiviral strategy against the hepatitis-causing viruses (denoted as hepatitis viruses) for achieving global elimination of viral hepatitis. Although zinc was known to mankind for a long time (since before Christ era), it was identified as an element in 1746 and its importance for human health was discovered in 1963 by the pioneering work of Dr. Ananda S. Prasad. A series of follow up studies involving zinc supplementation as a therapy demonstrated zinc as an essential element for humans, leading to establishment of a recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 15 milligram zinc [United States RDA for zinc]. Being an essential component of many cellular enzymes and transcription factors, zinc is vital for growth and homeostasis of most living organisms, including human. Importantly, several studies indicate potent antiviral activity of zinc. Multiple studies have demonstrated antiviral activity of zinc against viruses that cause hepatitis. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the findings on antiviral activity of zinc against hepatitis viruses, discusses the mechanisms underlying the antiviral properties of zinc and summarizes the prospects of harnessing the therapeutic benefit of zinc supplementation therapy in reducing the disease burden due to viral hepatitis.
Propagation of chirped solitons on a cw background in a non-Kerr quintic medium with self-steepening effect

We study the existence and stability of envelope solitons on a continuous-wave background in a non-Kerr quintic optical material exhibiting a self-steepening effect. Light propagation in such a nonlinear medium is governed by the Gerdjikov–Ivanov equation. We find that the system supports a variety of localized waveforms exhibiting an important frequency chirping property which makes them potentially useful in many practical applications to optical communication. This frequency chirp is found to be crucially dependent on the intensity of the wave and its amplitude can be controlled by a suitable choice of self-steepening parameter. The obtained nonlinearly chirped solitons include bright, gray and kink shapes. We also discuss the stability of the chirped solitons numerically under finite initial perturbations. The results show that the main character of chirped localized structures is not influenced by finite initial perturbations such as white noise.
Are All Short-Term Institutional Investors Informed?

We examine whether being a hedge fund has any differential effect on the previously documented empirical relation between investment horizon and informativeness of institutional investors’ trades. We find that the positive and significant relation between short-term institutional demand and future stock returns exists only among hedge funds, while such relation does not exist for non–hedge fund institutions with short investment horizons. We also provide evidence that our results are not driven by (false) presumptions that hedge funds represent the majority of short-term institutional investors or that hedge fund demand constitute the lion’s share of the short-term institutional demand.
Bioinspired Cable-Driven Actuation System for Wearable Robotic Devices: Design, Control, and Characterization

Wearable robotic devices interact with humans by applying the assistive force in parallel with muscle–tendon systems. Designing actuations in mimicking the natural activation patterns of human muscles is a promising way to optimize the performance of wearable robots. In this article, we propose a bioinspired cable-driven actuation system capable of providing anisometric contractions (including concentric and eccentric contraction) assistance or nearly acting as a transparent device in an efficient manner. A novel clutch–spring mechanism is employed to accomplish switches between assistive modes and the transparent mode. Corresponding control strategies coordinating with the mechanical design were presented and described in detail. Multiple evaluations were conducted on a test bench to characterize the system's performance. The closed-loop bandwidth of the system running concentric assistance control was 18.2 Hz. The R-squared values of linear fitting under eccentric assistance control were above 0.99. The engagement time of the proposed clutch was about 90 ms. Applying the actuation to an ankle exoskeleton, multiple walking experiments with electromyography measurements were performed on five subjects to show its application potential in existing wearable robots. Experimental results revealed that the proposed design could reduce soleus muscle activity by 27.32% compared with normal walking. This study highlights the importance of functional bionic design in human-assistance-related devices and introduces a general actuation system that could be directly applied to existing cable-driven wearable robots.
Fatigue of NbOx-Based Locally Active Memristors—Part II: Mechanisms and Modeling

NbOx materials have shown considerable potential for the applications of artificial neurons due to their volatile threshold switching (TS) behavior, fast switching speed, and low power consumption. The TS can be attributed to its negative differential resistance (NDR) effect associated with heat accumulation. Experimental data show that the degradation of a NbOx-based neuron device is manifested by the shift in transition voltages, including threshold and hold voltages, and shrinkage in the voltage window. This problem strictly undermines the device reliability, and meanwhile, the mechanism is yet to be confirmed. In this work, a physical model involving the role of oxygen vacancies (Vos) is developed to further elucidate the TS behavior in NbOx-based devices. For the first time, a continuous drift of the operation voltages upon unipolar biases is simulated and attributed to the redistribution of Vos. We propose and experimentally demonstrate an efficient method that can mitigate the Vo migration problem, leading to a great improvement in the device endurance. Our developed model is not only closer to the real nature of the TS process in NbOx but can also provide more insight into the performance optimization of this important class of devices.
Comparison of Prophet with Machine Learning Regression Models for Long and Short-Term Manufacturing Forecasting

This paper compares Facebook's Prophet with classic regression-based machine learning algorithms for short-term and long-term forecasting in a client's manufacturing system. The study uses advanced forecasting methods on four different real-world datasets with rich temporal features and complex patterns to provide insights for businesses in the manufacturing industry. The results showed that Prophet outperformed other models for short-term forecasting with an error percentage of 36.82% when the data trends changed rapidly over a shorter period. On the other hand, tree-based algorithms performed better for short-term forecasting with more stable trends in the training data. For long-term forecasting, the Least Absolute Selection and Shrink-age Operator regressor and Random Forest regressor emerged as the superior models, with error percentages of 39.60% and 39.60% respectively. The computational analysis demonstrates that Bayesian Ridge and Least Absolute Selection and Shrinkage Operator regressors perform better than other models. This study provides guidance to practitioners and decision-makers in the manufacturing industry on selecting applicable forecasting models based on the relevant time horizon.
Changes in chemical properties of 48 intensively grazed, rain-fed dairy paddocks on sandy soils over 11 years of liming in south-western Australia

Soil testing was conducted during 1999–2009 to determine lime and fertiliser phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and sulfur (S) requirements of intensively grazed, rain-fed, ryegrass dairy pastures in 48 paddocks on sand to sandy loam soils in the Mediterranean-type climate of south-western Australia. The study demonstrated that tissue testing was required in conjunction with soil testing to confirm decisions based on soil testing, and to assess management decisions for elements not covered by soil testing. Soil testing for pH was reliable for indicating paddocks requiring lime to ameliorate soil acidity, and to monitor progress of liming. Soil P testing proved reliable for indicating when P fertiliser applications were required, with no P being required when soil-test P was above the critical value for that soil, and when no P was applied, tissue testing indicated that P remained adequate for ryegrass production. Soil testing could not be used to determine paddocks requiring fertiliser K and S, because both elements can leach below the root-zone, with rainfall determining the extent of leaching and magnitude of the decrease in pasture production resulting from deficiency, which cannot be predicted. The solution is to apply fertiliser K and S each year, and use tissue testing to improve fertiliser K and S management. Research has shown that, for dairy and other grazing industries in the region, laboratories need measure and report every year soil pH and soil-test P only, together with measuring every 3–5 years the P-buffering index (estimating P sorption of soil), organic carbon content, and electrical conductivity.
The Impact of Financial Sector Development on Economic Growth: Evidence from Sri Lanka

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of financial sector development on economic growth in Sri Lanka by taking two complementary sectors, namely banking and equity markets, to represent the financial sector. All previous studies in the Sri Lankan context have examined this relationship employing either the banking sector variables or equity market variables to represent the financial sector. This study is in favour of the supply-leading hypothesis and it tests the empirical validity of the hypothesis. The proposed model has been estimated with five banking sector variables and two equity market variables. Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach is employed to identify the existence of short- and long-run relationships. The study relies on quarterly data from 2002:01 to 2020:04. Findings reveal that there exists a long-run relationship between financial sector variables and economic growth. More specifically, the size of financial intermediaries, interest rate, monetization, and size of the stock market have a significant positive impact on economic growth in the long-run. Somewhat surprisingly, the availability of credit to the private sector has a significant negative impact. All seven variables significantly influence economic growth in the short-run. Overall, the results of this study support the supply-leading hypothesis or the notion that financial sector development affects economic growth. These findings are mostly in line with previous literature. The results of seven diagnostic tests show that the estimated model is adequate for the purpose and estimation results are reliable. The study has some important policy implications. Keywords: Financial sector development, Economic growth, Banking sector development, Equity market development, ARDL
Some comments on magnetotelluric response function estimation

A new set of computational procedures are proposed for estimating the magnetotelluric response functions from time series of natural source electromagnetic field variations. These combine the remote reference method, which is effective at minimizing bias errors in the response, with robust processing, which is useful for removing contamination by outliers and other departures from Gauss-Markov optimality on regression estimates. In addition, a nonparametric jackknife estimator for the confidence limits on the response functions is introduced. The jackknife offers many advantages over conventional approaches, including robustness to heterogeneity of residual variance, relative insensitivity to correlations induced by the spectral analysis of finite data sequences, and computational simplicity. These techniques are illustrated using long-period magnetotelluric data from the EMSLAB Lincoln line. The paper concludes with a cautionary note about leverage effects by high power events in the dependent variables that are not necessarily removable by any robust method based on regression residuals.
Seasonal response of air-water CO2 exchange along the land-ocean aquatic continuum of the northeast North American coast

Abstract. This regional study quantifies the CO2 exchange at the air–water interface along the land–ocean aquatic continuum (LOAC) of the northeast North American coast, from streams to the shelf break. Our analysis explicitly accounts for spatial and seasonal variability in the CO2 fluxes. The yearly integrated budget reveals the gradual change in the intensity of the CO2 exchange at the air–water interface, from a strong source towards the atmosphere in streams and rivers (3.0 ± 0.5 TgC yr−1) and estuaries (0.8 ± 0.5 TgC yr−1) to a net sink in continental shelf waters (−1.7 ± 0.3 TgC yr−1). Significant differences in flux intensity and their seasonal response to climate variations is observed between the North and South sections of the study area, both in rivers and coastal waters. Ice cover, snowmelt, and intensity of the carbon removal efficiency through the estuarine filter are identified as important control factors of the observed spatiotemporal variability in CO2 exchange along the LOAC.
The role of interest in the unsustainability of growth: analytical findings using an accounting model

Abstract In the context of the long-standing debate on growth-versus-environment, notably the possibility that serious environmental policies will slow down growth, the question has been raised if interest can be compatible with zero growth. We develop a simple accounting model that describes the value added of the financial sector being positively associated with interest income. This allows us to derive formally that interest is compatible with zero growth for both simple and compound interest. The findings indicate that on its own, interest or compound interest does not add to the growth of gross domestic product (GDP). What matters instead is whether savings – be it from interest or other income – are invested productively or not. In other words, the condition for non-growth is that interest income is either directly spent by the creditor or indirectly by the debtor, rather than being invested in capital expansion, education, or innovation. Such investments would result in a more productive economy generating economic growth. These findings generalize, and add transparency to, previous studies which used more complicated models involving particular theoretical assumptions about the functioning of the macroeconomy.
Environment perception in the context of 3D terrestrial laser scanning

Institute of Maths, Physics and Computer Science Department of Computer Science Doctor of Philosophy Environment perception in the context of 3D terrestrial laser scanning by Marek Ososinski Terrestrial laser scanning has become a popular way of digitising buildings and complex environments. Laser scanning was adopted as the means of capturing 3D data in many fields, including architecture, engineering and environmental survey. It was only a matter of time for the Heritage sector to start using the technology. This thesis describes the scientific contributions from the collaboration project that explored the viability of automating the laser data acquisition process. The project concentrated on the reduction of the skill set required by the operator of the laser scanner as well as the improvement of the usability of large datasets. The contributions involved the development of a new data representation method, a new visibility estimation metric and an improved volumetric decimation algorithm.