Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Faster Fixed-Time Adaptive Control for Robotic Systems With Input Saturation

In this article, an adaptive antisaturation fixed-time control method with a faster convergence rate is studied for uncertain robotic systems. First, a new segmental sliding variable is constructed to solve the singularity problem brought by the terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) and achieve a faster convergence rate. Second, to approximate and compensate for the model uncertainty and the viscous friction parameter, an adaptive neural network (ANN) is employed. Then, a novel auxiliary system is constructed to mitigate the effects of input saturation. Based on this, a novel nonsingular TSMC algorithm integrated with the ANN and the auxiliary system is designed, so that the trajectory tracking errors of the robotic system can converge within a faster fixed time with actuator saturation. Finally, the superiority and practicability of the present method are verified by comparative experiments.
On hypothesis testing in hydrology: Why falsification of models is still a really good idea

This opinion piece argues that in respect of testing models as hypotheses about how catchments function, there is no existing methodology that adequately deals with the potential for epistemic uncertainties about data and hydrological processes in the modeling processes. A rejectionist framework is suggested as a way ahead, wherein assessments of uncertainties in the input and evaluation data are used to define limits of acceptability prior to any model simulations being made. The limits of acceptability might also depend on the purpose of the modeling so that we can be more rigorous about whether a model is actually fit‐for‐purpose. Different model structures and parameter sets can be evaluated in this framework, albeit that subjective elements necessarily remain, given the epistemic nature of the uncertainties in the modeling process. One of the most effective ways of reducing the impacts of epistemic uncertainties, and allow more rigorous hypothesis testing, would be to commission better observational methods. Model rejection is a good thing in that it requires us to be better, resulting in advancement of the science.
Integrative taxonomy provides evidence for a cryptic lineage in the velvet worm Peripatopsis birgeri species complex (Onychophora: Peripatopsidae) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

During the present study, species boundaries in the velvet worm Peripatopsis birgeri species complex in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, were examined with the use of DNA sequence data, gross morphology, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ecological niche modelling. Mitochondrial CO1 and nuclear 18S rRNA sequence data were used to generate a phylogeny using both a Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood approaches. Both the CO1 sequence data and the combined DNA sequence topology (CO1 + 18S rRNA) revealed the presence of two geographically distinct clades within the P. birgeri species complex. Results from three species delimitation methods (GMYC, PTP and ASAP), were incongruent in determining the number of species within the species complex and generally overestimated the number of operational taxonomic units. The latter result can be attributed to the marked genetic structure within the species complex, a result corroborated by the CO1 haplotype network and statistically significant FST values. Divergence time estimation suggests that the two clades diverged during the Plio/Pleistocene. Niche modelling revealed that the two clades were differentially impacted by bioclimatic variables and occupied different habitats. Gross morphological characteristics, such as leg pair numbers and colour revealed no fixed differences between the two clades, however, a creamy white headband/collar occurred exclusively in specimens of clade 1 (P. birgeri). In contrast, SEM revealed fixed dorsal and ventral scale rank differences between the two clades. The results corroborate the presence of a novel species within the P. birgeri s.s. species complex. Peripatopsis birgeri s.s. is revised and restricted to the southern Drakensberg and a new species, P. polychroma sp. nov. (clade 2), from the northern Drakensberg and adjacent Afrotemperate forests in the interior of KwaZulu-Natal is described. https://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank:org:pub:569557AB-8BC8-49B6-B8AA-96507371297B
Ethnomedicinal knowledge of the rural communities of Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Abstract. Ji A, Hamid A, Andrabi SAH. 2023. Ethnomedicinal knowledge of the rural communities of Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Asian J Ethnobiol 6: 58-64. In the current study, 60 medicinal plants have been collected from Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir (India), belonging to 34 families. The plant parts used were dominated by roots (36%), and the collection of roots has depleted the population of certain plant and may endanger the survival of the rare and slowly reproducing medicinal plants. It was found that the old people possessed a good wealth of traditional information as compared to younger generation Therefore, it is imperative to document the medicinal plants and associated information and to require necessary measures for the conservation of those resources. Herbs dominated all other life forms (49 species). The most typical way to consume the medications was by decoction, 32% (22 species). According to the current study the most prevalent disease addressed by the medicinal plants included was gastrointestinal disorders (25 species). Artemisia absinthium L. had the highest Use Value (UV), i.e., 0.58, while Viscum album L. had the lowest UV (0.17). Locals continue to value herbal treatments as a trustworthy means of curing a variety of ailments.
Pathways towards Sales Performance: Empirical Evidence on the Role of Field Managers’ Monitoring, Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Mentalizing Skills

Sales performance, field management is one of the main issues of manufacturing, profit oriented, customer centered and marketing firms. In this regards sales workers act as a bridge between customers and top management of the firms. Managers have to keep their work force motivated and pay special attention to build high level of emotional intelligence and interpersonal mentalizing skills among their workers. This study has investigated the parallel mediating effects of emotional intelligence and interpersonal mentalizing skills on the relationship between field managers monitoring and sales workers performance. Population of the study was 800 pharmaceutical firms in Pakistan. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used for selecting sample size. Self-administered questionnaire was adapted from past studies. 400 questionnaires were distributed after getting permission from relevant and concerned officials in national and multinational pharmaceutical firms operating in Pakistan. Medical representatives (med-rep) were contacted to fill the survey. Aim of the study was explained to the med-rep prior obtaining the data. They were made assured that data would be kept confidential. Total 308 completed questionnaires were used in the final analyses. SPSS and AMOS-SEM were used for data analyses. Percentage, frequency, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation, regression and mediation analysis were run. Findings revealed that scales used in the study were found reliable and valid. AVE, CR and Cronbach alpha values met threshold. All predictors and criterion variables such as field managers monitoring, emotional intelligence, interpersonal mentalizing skills, and sales workers performance were positively and significantly related with each other. It was also identified in regression that field managers’ monitoring and emotional intelligence do not predicted sales performance significantly. Only interpersonal mentalizing skills have significant impact on sales performance. Moreover emotional intelligence and Interpersonal mentalizing skills significantly partially mediated between field managers’ monitoring and sales performance. it is concluded that managers, practitioners should pay due attention to build emotional intelligence and interpersonal mentalizing skills among their workforce.
Formal verification of analog and mixed signal circuits using deductive and bounded approaches

This thesis presents novel formal verification techniques to verify the important property of inevitability of states in analog and mixed signal (AMS) circuits. Two techniques to verify the inevitability of phase locking in a Charge Pump Phase Lock Loop (PLL) circuit are presented: mixed deductivebounded and deductive-only verification approaches. The deductive-bounded approach uses Lyapunov-like certificates with bounded advection of sets to verify the inevitability of phase locking. The deductive-only technique uses a combination of Lyapunov and Escape certificates to verify the inevitability property. Both deductive-only and deductive-bounded verification approaches involve positivity/negativity checks of polynomials over semi-algebraic sets, which both belong to the NP-hard set of problems. The Sum of Squares (SOS) programming technique is used to transform the positivity tests of polynomials to the feasibility of semi-definite programs. The efficacy of the approach is demonstrated by verifying the inevitability of phase locking for a third and fourth order CP PLL. Similarly, the inevitability of oscillation in ring oscillators (ROs) is verified using a numeric-symbolic deductive approach. The global inevitability (of oscillation) property is specified as a conjunction of several sub-properties that are verified via different Lyapunov-like certificates in different subsets of the state space. The construction of these certificates is posed as the verification of First Order Formulas (FOFs) having Universal-Existential quantifiers. A tractable numeric-symbolic approach, based on SOS programming and Quantifier Elimination (QE), is used to verify these FOFs. The approach is applied to the verification of inevitability of oscillation in ROs with odd and even topologies. Furthermore, frequency domain properties specification and verification for analog oscillators is presented. The behaviour of an oscillator in the frequency domain is specified, while it operates in close proximity to the desired limit cycle, employing finite Fourier series representation of a periodic signal. To be sufficiently robust enough against parameter variations, robustness of parameters is introduced in these specifications. These frequency domain properties are verified using a mixed time-frequency domain technique based on Satisfiability Modulo Ordinary Differential Equation (SMODE). The efficacy of the technique is demonstrated for the benchmark voltage controlled and tunnel diode oscillators.
The role of leadership programs in shaping social skills of college students in Nueva Ecija

This research explored how leadership training affected Nueva Ecija college students' academic and social results. Descriptive study was conducted on 100 college students who took leadership training classes. Academic performance, academic engagement, study patterns, learning attitudes, and problem-solving skills were evaluated as academic outcomes. The social outcomes included interpersonal skills, peer relationships, self-esteem, conflict resolution and teamwork abilities. Academic and social outcomes were positively impacted by leadership training, according to the findings. Students reported a high level of academic engagement, positive attitudes toward learning, and beneficial study habits. However, academic performance and problem-solving skills had modest room for development. Socially, students reported great peer connections, high self-esteem, and successful team cooperation, but interpersonal and conflict resolution abilities needed work. The research found that leadership training improves student academic and social skills. It also suggests improving problem-solving, interpersonal skills, and conflict resolution in the programs. These findings have implications for educators and administrators regarding the optimization of leadership training design and delivery. Future research can investigate the longitudinal effects of leadership development and its other possible benefits.
Novel Quantum Phase Transitions in Low-Dimensional Systems

We study a number of quantum phase transitions, which are exotic in their nature and separates non-trivial phases of matter. Since quantum fluctuations, which drive these phase transitions, are stronger in low-dimensions, we concentrate on lowdimensional systems. We consider two different two-dimensional systems in this thesis and study their phase transition. First, we investigate a phase transition in graphene, one of the most famous twodimensional systems in condensed matter. For a suspended bilayer graphene in ν = 0 quantum Hall regime, the conductivity data and mean-field analysis suggests a phase transition from an antiferromagnetic (AF) state to a valence bond solid (VBS) state, when perpendicular electric field is increased. This AF to VBS phase transition is reminiscent of deconfined criticality, which is a novel phase transition that cannot be explained by Landau’s theory of symmetry breaking. We show that in the strong coupling regime of bilayer graphene, the AF state is destabilized by the transverse electric field, likely resulting in a VBS state. We also consider monolayer and bilayer graphene in the large cyclotron gap limit and show that the effective action for the AF and VBS order parameters have a topological Wess-Zumino-Witten term, supporting that the phase transition observed in experiments is in the deconfined criticality class. Second, we study the model systems of cuprate superconductor, which is effectively a two-dimensionalal system in the CuO2 plane. The proposal that the pseudogap metal is a fractionalized Fermi liquid described by a quantum dimer model is extended using the density matrix renormalization group. Measuring the Friedel oscillations in the open boundaries reveals that the fermionic dimers have dispersion minima near (π/2, π/2), which is compatible with the Fermi arcs in photoemission.
Toward optimising reproductive output of Eristalis tenax (Diptera: Syrphidae) for commercial mass rearing systems

Developing mass rearing systems for the drone fly, Eristalis tenax, is a crucial step toward its use as a complementary commercial pollinator. To meet the timing of commercial needs for E. tenax, there is significant value to both predicting and managing reproductive output and development within the rearing protocol. To help achieve this, our study focuses on the laboratory manipulation of adult mating and the timing of the development of eggs in E. tenax. To stagger colony cohorts, egg rearing temperatures ranging from 12 to 30°C were found to be suitable for both successful egg development and hatching viability (97 to 28.3 h to first hatch, respectively). The mating window for E. tenax females was established to commence from 2 weeks post eclosion and reached 75 ± 11% mated at 7 weeks. Reproductive output over 12 weeks was assessed in separate cage manipulation trials: (1) varying the sex ratio with 20:40, 30:30 and 40:20 female and male flies respectively per cage and (2) varying the adult density per cage with 15:15, 30:30, 60:60 and 120:120 female and male flies per cage. Female percentage mated and egg cluster size, which averaged 200.6 ± 4.3 eggs per cluster, did not change between treatments in the sex ratio and density trials. Egg cluster output per female was significantly reduced for treatments across both trials, which had more than 30 females in a cage. A stocking rate of 15:15 produced 86% more eggs per female than expected, a percentage well above that of all other treatments. However, the highest stocking density produced the most eggs when assessed at a per cage level. Fly survival was significantly different between the sexes across both trials with males dying earlier in cages stocked with more females than males. Although the fly colonies were held at constant temperatures and light conditions for 6 months, we found evidence of endogenous overwintering behaviours among flies resulting in lower mating rates, egg hatching success and greater longevity among flies studied over winter.
Acceleration Of Bem With The Cross Approximation For Determination Of Boundary Vorticity

In this paper, we present a fast boundary element method (BEM) algorithm for the solution of the velocity-vorticity formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The Navier-Stokes equations govern incompressible fluid flow, which is inherently nonlinear and when discretizised by BEM requires the discretization of the domain and calculation of domain integrals. The computational demands of such method scale with O(N2), where N is the number of boundary nodes. To accelerate the solution process and reduce the computational demand, we present two different approaches, the subdomain method and an approximation procedure with hierarchical structure. Several approximation techniques exist, such as multipole approximation methods FMM (fast multiple method), SVD (singular value decomposition method), wavelet transform method and a cross approximation method. In this paper, we present the cross approximation method in combination with the hierarchical H-structure. The cross approximation method can reduce the computational demands from O(N2) to O(N log N). There are many forms of the cross approximation, like the algebraic cross approximation and the hybrid cross approximation. Here, we applied the algebraic cross approximation form. The main advantage is that we did not need to evaluate the integral and then to change it with a degenerate kernel function. The cross approximation algorithm was used to solve the kinematics equation for unknown boundary vorticity values. Results show that an increasing of the compression rate has a negative influence on the solution accuracy. On the other hand, the solution accuracy increases with computational grid density. Tests were performed using the 3D lid-driven cavity test case with Reynolds numbers up to 1000. Solution accuracy was similar for all Reynolds numbers considered. In conclusion, the tests showed that our implementation of the algebraic cross approximation for the acceleration of the solution of the kinematics equation can be applied to decrease the computational demands and to accelerate the BEM.
Mandarin Directional Serial Verb Constructions: A Constructionist Approach

This thesis presents a neo-constructionist theory to account for a couple of puzzles centring around the Mandarin directional serial verb constructions (DSVC), such as song tang jin lai ‘send soup enter come'. Mandarin DSVCs are divided into seven types. I first look into the word order alternations observed with certain types of DSVCs. I find that the word order variants differ in telicity and their interaction with the aspectual morpheme le, the potential morphemes de/bu and the negation bu/mei. Then the DSVCs involving no word order alternations are also examined. I compare the distribution of le and the locative object in all types of DSVCs. The relation between the metaphoric interpretation and the syntactic position of directional verbs is also discussed. To cover the data, I propose that syntax first generates an eventuality-encoding structure for the lexical items to be inserted. In this structure, VP is sandwiched between a series of functional projections including ResP, PathP, DeicP, RealiseP and IAsP. VP represents the process of the event; ResP expresses the result state; PathP describes a moving track; DeicP encodes deictic information; RealiseP accommodates the aspect marker le; IAspP calculates telicity value. Different options for the insertion of the directional verbs (under Res, Path or Deic) result in the word order alternations. And the observed syntactic and semantic characteristics of DSVCs can all be captured by the interaction among these projections. The proposal is sympathetic to many other constructionist theories in the belief of an impoverished lexicon, the idea that syntactic structure is basically event structure, and the decompositional approach that spans one item to different heads. Overall, this work not only contributes to our understanding of how DSVCs are syntactically represented, but also shows the explanatory power of the constructionist approach in modelling the human language faculty.
Moving contact-line mobility measured

Contact-line mobility characterizes how fast a liquid can wet or unwet a solid support by relating the contact angle $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ to the contact-line speed $U_{CL}$ . The contact angle changes dynamically with contact-line speeds during rapid movement of liquid across a solid. Speeds beyond the region of stick–slip are the focus of this experimental paper. For these speeds, liquid inertia and surface tension compete while damping is weak. The mobility parameter $M$ is defined empirically as the proportionality, when it exists, between $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ and $U_{CL}$ , $M\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=U_{CL}$ . We discover that $M$ exists and measure it. The experimental approach is to drive the contact line of a sessile drop by a plane-normal oscillation of the drop’s support. Contact angles, displacements and speeds of the contact line are measured. To unmask the mobility away from stick–slip, the diagram of $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ against $U_{CL}$ , the traditional diagram, is remapped to a new diagram by rescaling with displacement. This new diagram reveals a regime where $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ is proportional to $U_{CL}$ and the slope yields the mobility $M$ . The experimental approach reported introduces the cyclically dynamic contact angle goniometer. The concept and method of the goniometer are illustrated with data mappings for water on a low-hysteresis non-wetting substrate.
Pseudo fuzzy cosets of a HX group

In this paper, we define the concept of pseudo fuzzy cosets of a fuzzy HX subgroup of a HX group and pseudo fuzzy cosets of an anti fuzzy HX subgroup of a HX group with suitable examples. Also We discussed some of their properties. Mathematics Subject Classification: 20N25, 03E72, 03F055, 06F35, 03G25