Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Large‐eddy simulations of unidirectional water flow over dunes

[1] The unidirectional, subcritical flow over fixed dunes is studied numerically using large-eddy simulation, while the immersed boundary method is implemented to incorporate the bed geometry. Results are presented for a typical dune shape and two Reynolds numbers, Re = 17,500 and Re = 93,500, on the basis of bulk velocity and water depth. The numerical predictions of velocity statistics at the low Reynolds number are in very good agreement with available experimental data. A primary recirculation region develops downstream of the dune crest at both Reynolds numbers, while a secondary region develops at the toe of the dune crest only for the low Reynolds number. Downstream of the reattachment point, on the dune stoss, the turbulence intensity in the developing boundary layer is weaker than in comparable equilibrium boundary layers. Coherent vortical structures are identified using the fluctuating pressure field and the second invariant of the velocity gradient tensor. Vorticity is primarily generated at the dune crest in the form of spanwise "roller" structures. Roller structures dominate the flow dynamics near the crest, and are responsible for perturbing the boundary layer downstream of the reattachment point, which leads to the formation of "horseshoe" structures. Horseshoe structures dominate the near-wall dynamics after the reattachment point, do not rise to the free surface, and are distorted by the shear layer of the next crest. The occasional interaction between roller and horseshoe structures generates tube-like "kolk" structures, which rise to the free surface and persist for a long time before attenuating.
Discriminative Reranking for Spoken Language Understanding

Spoken language understanding (SLU) is concerned with the extraction of meaning structures from spoken utterances. Recent computational approaches to SLU, e.g., conditional random fields (CRFs), optimize local models by encoding several features, mainly based on simple n-grams. In contrast, recent works have shown that the accuracy of CRF can be significantly improved by modeling long-distance dependency features. In this paper, we propose novel approaches to encode all possible dependencies between features and most importantly among parts of the meaning structure, e.g., concepts and their combination. We rerank hypotheses generated by local models, e.g., stochastic finite state transducers (SFSTs) or CRF, with a global model. The latter encodes a very large number of dependencies (in the form of trees or sequences) by applying kernel methods to the space of all meaning (sub) structures. We performed comparative experiments between SFST, CRF, support vector machines (SVMs), and our proposed discriminative reranking models (DRMs) on representative conversational speech corpora in three different languages: the ATIS (English), the MEDIA (French), and the LUNA (Italian) corpora. These corpora have been collected within three different domain applications of increasing complexity: informational, transactional, and problem-solving tasks, respectively. The results show that our DRMs consistently outperform the state-of-the-art models based on CRF.
Control of single axis magnetic levitation system using fuzzy logic control

This paper presents an investigation into a system model for the stabilisation of a Magnetic Levitation System (Maglev's). The magnetic levitation system is a challenging nonlinear mechatronic system in which an electromagnetic force is required to suspend an object (metal sphere) in the air. The electromagnetic force is very sensitive to the noise which can create acceleration forces on the metal sphere, causing the sphere to move into the unbalanced region. Maglev's benefits the industry and the system has reduced power consumption, has increased power efficiency and reduced cost maintenance. The common applications for Maglev's Power Generation (e.g. wind turbine), Maglev's trains and Medical Device (e.g. Magnetically suspended Artificial Heart Pump). This paper presents comparative assessment of controllers for magnetic levitation dynamic response and robust characteristics of conventional PD and fuzzy PD. The main contribution of this paper is a robust fuzzy PD stabilisation scheme.
The selling process : If , at first , you don ' t succeed , try , try , try again

About 40 percent of attempts to sell a house end with the seller not selling. This aspect of behavior has not been studied carefully and, by organizing the data in a way that reveals the behavior of sellers instead of listings, I consider some hypotheses related to the ability of a market process to efficiently allocate resources. First, a change in market conditions may cause the seller to change their decision between the time of listing and the end date. Second, the seller may enter the market as a test and find that the buyers' willingness-to-pay is less than their willingness-to-accept. Third, the seller may end a listing because they are dissatisfied with a broker and wish to switch to a new broker. There is some support for each hypothesis. This research uses historical data. Anybody using this research should consult a qualified professional since neither I nor the University of Windsor will accept any responsibility for costs or consequences associated with this research. Thanks are due to Dinghai Xu, Shi Fu and Yang Wang for their able research assistance. Robin Wiebe's assistance with data and insights has also been useful, though he does not bear any responsibility for errors and omissions. Comments would be appreciated and can be sent to panglin@uwindsor.ca or by mail to the Try, try and try again 1 Economists like to argue that the price system rations the set of potential buyers and sellers so that the most willing sellers trade with the most willing buyers. In this model, it is difficult to understand why 40 percent of people who attempt to sell their house exit from the market before selling. Some people give up, which suggests that the market is sending the wrong signals and wasting scarce resources. Some people start trying to sell again, which suggests that some real estate agents are not doing a good enough job. These examples imply that traditional models of the selling process omit important margins of adjustment. The textbook model of the selling process can be criticized for many reasons, especially in the context of a housing market. First, it is so costly to sell a house and the commonly available information is so poor that professionals are often paid to assist most attempts. Even with their assistance, the process takes many months. Second, theoretical models of the market process tend to focus on the equilibrium outcome. …
SOURCE ROCK EVALUATION OF COALS FROM THE LOWER MAASTRICHTIAN MAMU FORMATION, SE NIGERIA

The Lower Maastrichtian Mamu Formation in the Anambra Basin (SE Nigeria) consists of a cyclic succession of coals, carbonaceous shales, silty shales and siltstones interpreted as deltaic deposits. Sub‐bituminous coals within this formation are distributed in a north‐south trending belt from Enugu‐Onyeama to Okaba in the north of the basin.
Inventory and spatial ecology of macrofungi in the Shorea robusta forest ecosystem of lateritic region of West Bengal

Macrofungi are broad in diversity and play an important role in sustaining ecosystems. However, the quantity and quality of their habitat is decreasing and the threat of extinction looms over the remaining 95% of the world's undiscovered fungal species. There is an urgent need for inventorisation, monitoring and conservation of macrofungi and the habitats supporting their growth. This paper focuses on the species richness, assemblage and spatial ecology of the macrofungi whose lifecycles are intricately woven with natural Shorea robusta forests in the lateritic region of West Bengal, India. Decreasing soil productivity, poor regeneration of Shorea seedlings and subsequent habitat degradation for macrofungi are a prime cause of concern.
Supporting co-allocation in an auctioning-based resource allocator for grid systems

we present the overall design for an auctioning based resource trading/acquiring system that can be deployed in wide-area computing systems such as Grid systems. Selecting the winning bids is one of the core issues in any system that utilizes the auctioning paradigm. We identify the unique aspects of our system that impact the winner selection process. More specifically, the necessity to acquire or trade resources as a bundle (i.e., perform co-allocation) presents a challenge to traditional bidding mechanisms. We present a new bidding mechanism called “co-bids” to address this problem. Two heuristics for winner selection with co-bids are proposed. The performance of the heuristics are examined via simulations.
Integrated routing and grooming in GMPLS-based optical networks

This paper proposes an integrated routing and grooming algorithm for IP over WDM networks. Assuming a peer model in GMPLS-Based optical networks, we take into account the combined topology and resource usage information on both IP and WDM layers. Based on a clustering technique called blocking island paradigm, we propose an enhanced blocking island graph (BIG) network model with blocking island hierarchy (BIH) to abstract network resources. The main idea of the algorithm is to keep the integrity and load balance of related blocking islands. We also combine a cost function in the routing algorithm to groom traffic flows into active lightpaths. The complexity of the algorithm is analyzed to show its efficiency. In the simulation, we compare the algorithm with three other integrated routing algorithms in terms of blocking probability. The three algorithms are: the integrated min-hop (IMH) routing algorithm, the maximum open capacity (MOCA) routing algorithm and the IP-WDM grooming (IWG) algorithm. Simulation results show our algorithm has the best performance.
Systematic vs. Non-systematic Algorithms for Solving the MPE Task

The paper explores the power of two systematic Branch and Bound search algorithms that exploit partition-based heuristics, BBBT (a new algorithm for which the heuristic information is constructed during search and allows dynamic variable/value ordering) and its predecessor BBMB (for which the heuristic information is pre-compiled) and compares them against a number of popular local search algorithms for the MPE problem as well as against the recently popular iterative belief propagation algorithms. We show empirically that the new Branch and Bound algorithm, BBBT demonstrates tremendous pruning of the search space far beyond its predecessor, BBMB which translates to impressive time saving for some classes of problems. Second, when viewed as approximation schemes, BBBT/BBMB together are highly competitive with the best known SLS algorithms and are superior, especially when the domain sizes increase beyond 2. The results also show that the class of belief propagation algorithms can outperform SLS, but they are quite inferior to BBMB/BBBT. As far as we know, BBBT/BBMB are currently among the best performing algorithms for solving the MPE task.
A Grammar of Upcountry Sri Lanka Malay

Sri Lanka Malay is a variety of Malay which has undergone heavy influence from its adstrates Sinhala and Tamil since the first Malay immigrants arrived in Ceylon in the 17th century. While the lexicon is overwhelmingly Malay, the grammar has diverged considerably from its Austronesian origins and become solidly South Asian. Where other Malay varieties are morphologically isolating and have prepositions, postposed modifiers and verb-medial word order, Sri Lanka Malay is agglutinative and has postpositions, preposed modifiers and verb-final word order. These changes all happened within the last 350 years. Sri Lanka Malay is therefore a very important language for scholars of language contact and (rapid) language change. This grammar describes the sociohistorical circumstances in which this language developed and gives a full overview of its phonology, morphology, syntax and pragmatics, which makes it a useful resource for Austronesianists. Similarities to the contact languages Sinhala and Tamil are highlighted to incorporate the South Asianist’s perspective. Besides the traditional form-to-function description (what does morpheme X do? ), this description also covers the converse perspective, i.e. function-to-form (How can function Y be expressed in the language? ). This makes this book also a valuable resource for typologists, syntacticians and semanticists.
The assemblage diaspore+quartz in metamorphic rocks: a petrological, experimental and thermodynamic study

The upper pressure limit of pyrophyllite is given by the equilibria (i) pyrophyllite=diaspore+quartz and (ii) pyrophyllite=diaspore+coesite. High‐P experimental investigations carried out to locate equilibrium (i) yield brackets between 497 °C/24.8 kbar and 535 °C/25.1 kbar, and between 500 °C/23 kbar and 540 °C/23 kbar. Equilibrium (ii) was bracketed at 550 °C between 26.0 and 28.3 kbar. In the experimental P–T range, equilibria (i) and (ii) are metastable with respect to kyanite. A stable P–T grid is calculated using thermodynamic data derived under consideration of the present experimental results. According to these data, the lower pressure limit of the assemblage diaspore+quartz according to equilibrium (i) range from about 12 kbar/300 °C to 20 kbar/430 °C (in the presence of pure water). The upper stability of diaspore+quartz is limited by the reaction diaspore+quartz=kyanite+H2O at about 450 °C (nearly independent of pressure) and, to higher pressure, by the quartz=coesite transition. Equilibrium (ii) is metastable over the whole P–T range.
Parallel palette mode decoding for HEVC SCC

Palette mode is one of the major coding tools for the Screen Content Coding (SCC) extension to HEVC standard. On the other hand, as the parallel computing capability explosively grows in recent computing industry, people are exploring the possibility of parallelism as much as possible, to achieve video codec products with higher speed and larger throughput. However, the newly introduced palette technology poses great challenges to the implementations of SCC decoder. Under the current palette framework, the pixel reconstructing process has to wait until all the palette indices are parsed, and cannot be operated in parallel due to the syntax dependencies. This paper intends to investigate an efficient parallel decoding architecture for the emerging palette mode to tackle these conundrums. Each largest 32 × 32 coding unit (CU) using palette mode is split into multiple sub-CUs and coded independently. We did integrated investigation to illustrate the trade-off between parallelism and coding efficiency, as an important guidance for SCC codec parallel implementation. We tested the scenario to split the CU into 8 sub-CUs, which can achieve 320% speed acceleration with negligible loss in RD performance.
Cooperative signal processing scheme for multiple-cell based on evidence theory

Cooperative communication is the key technology for the signal processing, especially for the interference coordination. On the other hand, Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory is a branch of mathematics, which concerns the combination of some empirical evidence to construct a coherent picture of reality. To coordinate the different signal, base-stations in wireless systems are connected by a backbone network, which can help information exchange through the network between the base-stations. In this paper, we introduce the evidence theory to the problem of joint detection in the cellular cooperation networks. Taking advantage of multiple information sources, more reliable decision statistics can be achieved. Distributed multiuser detection algorithm is proposed with local passing information among neighbor base stations, and the performance is compared in terms of error rate. Simulation results verify that the proposed method outperforms conventional detection algorithms.
A method for detecting complex correlation in time series

We propose a new method for detecting complex correlations in time series of limited size. The method is derived by the Spitzer's identity and proves to work successfully on different model processes, including the ARCH process, in which pairs of variables are uncorrelated, but the three point correlation function is non zero. The application to financial data allows to discriminate among dependent and independent stock price returns where standard statistical analysis fails.
Surface Mobilities of Cations in Clays1

The effect of clay content and temperature on the electrica conductivity of two Na-kao inite clays is investigated. The effect of the type of cation is examined in the Camp-Berteau montmorillonite. The ionic surface mobilities (i.e. corrected for tortuosity effects) are calculated from the conductivity results. In Na-kaolinite clays, surface mobility steadily increases with increasing cay content and attains about 40% of its solution value when clay content becomes about 70% by weight. In montmorillonite clays, surface mobility increases until clay content reaches about 35% by weight. Higher clay contents result in nearly constant values for the surface mobilities. In the series of alkali metal cations, surface mobilities increase from Cs⁺ (attains about 7% of its solution value at 55% clay) to Na⁺ (attains about 60% of its solution value at 55% clay); activation energies increase from Na⁺ (4.6 kcal/eq. at 55% clay) to Cs⁺ (5.6 kcal/eq at 55% clay). The ionic mobilities and activation energies can be correlated with the polarizabilities of the ions. It is suggested that the mobility of an ion along a clay surface is influenced more by crystallographic than by hydrated ionic volume. The large negative entropies of activation, calculated on the basis of the transition theory of rate processes, are interpreted in terms of hydration effects when an ion moves from one site to another. The agreement between self-diffusion coefficients calculated from the electrical conductivity data and the values which may be found in the literature is very good. The applicability of the electrical conductivity method for investigating purely geometrical effects is discussed.
3D printed soft skin for safe human-robot interaction

The purpose of this research is the development of a soft skin module with a built-in airtight cavity in which air pressure can be sensed. A pressure feedback controller is implemented on a robotic system using this module for contact sensing and gentle grasping. The soft skin module is designed to meet size and safety criteria appropriate for a toy-sized interactive robot. All module prototypes are produced using a muti-material 3D printer. Experimental results from collision tests show that this module significantly reduces the impact forces due to collision. Also, using the measured pressure information from the module, the robotic system to which these modules are attached is capable of very gentle physical interaction with soft objects.
Characterization of the Two Overlapping Papain-like Proteinase Domains Encoded in Gene 1 of the Coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus and Determination of the C-Terminal Cleavage Site of an 87-kDa Protein

Abstract In a previous report, we showed that proteolytic processing of an 87-kDa mature viral protein from the coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) 1a and 1a/1b polyproteins was mediated by two putative overlapping papain-like proteinase domains (PLPDs) encoded within the region from nucleotides 4243 to 5553 of ORF 1a (Liuet al.,1995). In this study, we demonstrate that only the first domain, PLPD-1, is responsible for this cleavage, as deletion of the second domain did not affect the formation of the 87-kDa protein. Site-directed mutagenesis studies further showed that a previously predicted nucleophilic cysteine residue (Cys1274) and a histidine residue (His1437) were essential for the proteinase activity, indicating that they may be important components of the catalytic center of the proteinase. Meanwhile, expression of a series of deletion mutants revealed that the 87-kDa protein was encoded by the 5′-most 2.6 kb of ORF 1a. Deletion and amino acid substitution mutation studies demonstrated that the Gly673–Gly674dipeptide bond was most likely the cleavage site responsible for releasing the C-terminus of the 87-kDa protein from the 1a and 1a/1b polyproteins.
Alternative Trading Systems

Using proprietary data, we examine institutional orders and trades filled by alternative electronic trading systems. Our data consist of almost 800,000 orders (corresponding to 2.15 million trades) worth approximately $1.6 trillion, between the first quarter of 1996 and the first quarter of 1998. These data allow us to distinguish between orders filled by external crossing systems, electronic communication networks (ECNs) and traditional brokers. We find that external crossing systems are used largely to execute orders in listed stocks, while ECNs concentrate in Nasdaq stocks. On average, broker-filled orders are larger, have longer duration, and higher fill rates than orders executed by alternative trading systems. Controlling for variation in order characteristics, difficulty, and endogeneity in the choice of trading venue, we find that realized execution costs are substantially lower on external crossing systems and ECNs. Our results shed light on the emergence of alternative electronic trading systems that provide significant competition for order flow, for both exchanges and dealer markets.
Intensive metrics for the study of the evolution of open source projects: Case studies from Apache Software Foundation projects

Based on the empirical evidence that the ratio of email messages in public mailing lists to versioning system commits has remained relatively constant along the history of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), this paper has as goal to study what can be inferred from such a metric for projects of the ASF. We have found that the metric seems to be an intensive metric as it is independent of the size of the project, its activity, or the number of developers, and remains relatively independent of the technology or functional area of the project. Our analysis provides evidence that the metric is related to the technical effervescence and popularity of project, and as such can be a good candidate to measure its healthy evolution. Other, similar metrics -like the ratio of developer messages to commits and the ratio of issue tracker messages to commits- are studied for several projects as well, in order to see if they have similar characteristics.
The Iapetus suture zone in England, Scotland and eastern Ireland: a reconciliation of geological and deep seismic data

Deep seismic profiles in the Irish and North seas have successfully imaged crustal structure across the Iapetus suture zone. A problem with current interpretations is that the reflectors chosen as the suture project to the top of the basement well to the south of the Solway Line, the palaeontologically defined trace of the suture. We present a revised interpretation in which a reflectivity boundary common to all the profiles is identified as the leading edge of imbricated Avalonian crust, in effect the footwall of the suture zone. This projects to the surface close to the Solway Line, obviating the need to invoke northward backthrusting of the suture.