Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coordinated Deep Reinforcement Learners for Traffic Light Control

This paper investigates learning control policies for traffic lights. We introduce a new reward function for the traffic light control problem, and propose the combination of the popular Deep Q-learning algorithm with a coordination algorithm for a scalable approach to controlling coordinating traffic lights, without requiring the simplifying assumptions made in earlier work. We show that this approach reduces travel times compared to earlier work on reinforcement learning methods for traffic light control and investigate possible causes of instability in the single-agent case.
IMPLEMENTATION OF VARIOUS SEGMENTATION ALGORITHMS ON SIDE SCAN SONAR IMAGES AND ANALYSING ITS PERFORMANCE

Side Scan Sonar Image Segmentation is an important process prior to object recognition. Extensive research has been carried in creating different algorithms and approaches for Sonar Image segmentation. But it is still difficult to find which algorithm suits well for side scan sonar image partition. In this paper we intend to evaluate the effectiveness of different segmentation algorithms on sonar image.
Can We Predict and Manipulate Memory Intrusions in a Laboratory Setting ?

Memory intrusions, a type of involuntary memory, are experienced by people on a daily basis yet are an under-researched phenomenon in psychology. This study examined how to better describe, manipulate, and predict memory intrusions. Participants (n=47) were tested using the stressful film paradigm to elicit memory intrusions, which were recorded over the following week. Three individual difference measures, working memory, physiological arousal, and anxiety sensitivity, were utilized for comparative analysis. The study was unable to manipulate memory intrusions with visuospatial or eye movement task conditions. Memory intrusion incidence was found to be correlated with anxiety sensitivity cognitive concerns and peaks in heart rate while no correlation with working memory was found. These results add to the current knowledge about memory intrusions phenomenology and correlates. Results also emphasize the need for future research on manipulating memory intrusions and curvilinear relationships between memory intrusion occurrence and both anxiety sensitivity and physiological arousal.
Parameters Identification of a Direct Current Motor Using the Trust Region Algorithm

In this paper, the trust region algorithm was used to identify the parameters of the dynamic model of a permanent magnet direct current (PMDC) motor, using the MATLAB/Simulink Parameter Estimation tool. The objective was to estimate the parameters applying the square wave, pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS) and random signals in the motor excitation. The obtained models were evaluated in open and closed loop, where a speed control project was applied using the entire eigenstructure assignment. The error between the simulated and real curves of velocity and current were evaluated by means of the normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE).
A Two Step Approach for Block Simulation

An important problem in mining is the estimation of global recoverable reserves. A consistent block simulated value requires (i) a fine discretization of the block into a number of nodes, (ii) simulated values at those nodes and (iii) a regularization at the block scale. In presence of large domains with relatively wide spacing data locations, this approach is computationally heavy. A two-step block simulation approach is proposed to handle such problem. The method first partitions the domain into two sets of blocks, uses the point support scales to get simulated values at blocks belonging the first set, that are then used to simulate at second set of blocks. An illustration of the method is given with real data example.
GHz PCB Patch Antenna

This paper presents simulation and measurement results of a microstrip patch antenna at W band, fed by using simple solderless surface mount PCB connector. The antenna is designed on Rogers RO3003 board to be operated at 77 GHz, as the antenna of an automotive radar receiver. To calibrate the measurement setup, TRL (Through-Reflect-Line) calibration kit is also designed on the same PCB board. Antenna reflection coefficient is measured at W band with 2.5 GHz shift in resonant frequency due to board lower dielectric constant at the operating frequency. The antenna co-polarized radiation pattern is measured on patch H plane for a span of 100° at 77 GHz. The antenna has a measured and simulated gain of 5 dBi and 5.75 dBi at θ = 0° and 77 GHz, respectively.
An improved Automatic Text Summarization System for Punjabi Text using Modified Features Selection

ive text summarization [3] attempts to create the summary in natural language by understanding the main concepts from the original document. The generalized summary is produced by this type of summarization. This approach uses linguistic features to examine the text document. The system proposed is used to summarize the text document written in Punjabi language by retaining its relevant sentences using extractive summarization technique. Text summarization techniques can be classified based on the volume of documents available in the collection of text documents. If the summarization is implemented for one document, it is called as the Single document summarization, and if the summarization is implemented for many text documents which are on the same topic, then it is called as the Multi-document summarization technique. Summarization can be divided based on Informative and Indicative summary. With an informative summary, the user can know what the input text is about, but may know some of the content contained in it, and with an indicative summary, the user can know the topics of the text document. Generic and Query based summary is another type of the summarization. Generic summary does not deals with a particular user or a particular group. It deals with broad community of users. However, Query based summary related with the needs of a particular group or an individual.
A Study on Important Issues for Estimating the Effectiveness of the Proposed Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters under Volume Constraints

: This study presents theoretical investigations on the effectiveness criteria for piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) under volume constraints. Firstly, the importance of the volume consideration is investigated. The powers of different PEHs of variant volumes are investigated under the same resonance frequency. It is found that the power output is strongly dependent on the volume of the transducer. Secondly, the impact of the mechanical damping, the electrical damping, the volume of motion, the normalized power to the volume, and the applied load resistance on the power output are investigated. The investigations are analyzed to ﬁnd the optimized conditions of the applied load and the excitation frequency in order to optimize the power output under volume constraints. The proposed procedure for estimating the effectiveness is to compare the performance of the proposed PEHs to a rectangular-shaped PEH of the same volume. An optimized structure for a rectangular-shaped PEH to be used as the reference is investigated. The power output under the optimized conditions is derived. In order to estimate the effectiveness of the proposed PEHs, the average power over a band of frequencies from the proposed structure must be compared to the average power over the same band of frequencies from the optimized reference harvester
The Effect of CEO Conservatism on Mergers and Acquisitions Decisions

We examine the link between CEOs political ideology – conservatism – and their firms’ investment decisions. We focus on the effect of CEO conservatism on M&A decisions. Our evidence indicates that politically conservative CEOs are less likely to engage in M&A activities. When they do undertake acquisitions, their firms are more likely to use cash as the method of payment, and the target firms are more likely to be public firms and to be from the same industry. Conditional on the merger, CEO conservatism appears to have a significantly positive impact on long-run firm valuation. However, we find no evidence that conservative CEOs create value in the short run. All our results hold after controlling for CEO overconfidence. 1 Assistant Professor of Accounting and Finance, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Dongnyoung.kim@tamuk.edu
Interactive comment on “ Chemistry and deposition in the Model of Atmospheric composition at Global and Regional scales using Inversion Techniques for Trace gas Emissions ( MAGRITTE v 1 . 0 ) . Part B . Dry deposition ” by

The study claims to have developed a new dry deposition scheme for calculating dry deposition velocities (Vd) of trace gases and implemented the scheme in MAGRITTE v1.0. Such a research activity should be encouraged considering the large uncertainties between existing schemes. The authors clearly have done a large amount of work. I have several major concerns listed below for the authors to consider in the revised version of the paper.
The Adaptation and Validation of the Turkish Version of the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety 1 ( PRPSA )

The purpose of this study is to adapt the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) scale into Turkish and study its validity and reliability. The original form of the scale has a single-factor structure and consists of 34 items. The study sample was composed of a total of 322 candidate teachers studying in the School of Education. Three items with fit values below 0.30 from the corrected item-total correlation were excluded from the scale and the analyses were conducted on the remaining 31 items. The construct validity of the scale was confirmed as a single factor through the Mplus software. Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was 0.94, indicating that the scale also has a high level of reliability in the Turkish form. No significant differences were detected between male and female participants’ speaking anxiety scores.
University-Industry Collaboration in Design Fields Management to Promote Reflective Practice by Students

In recent years, there has been a rise in university-industry collaborations in design fields across Japan. Normally, company designers and students have different background knowledge about design and thus their designs also have diverging characteristics. Although this heterogeneity is important in formulating a creative design, it leads to incompatibility in the collaboration process. Therefore, in order to create good performances, management of the collaboration process is necessary to deal with these problems. Through extensive analysis of successful cases of collaboration in Japan, my research indicates that “reflective practice” preformed by students is an important tool in dealing with incompatibility and that management can encourage reflective practice and thus achieve a more desirable collaboration process.
A FULLY SOFTWARE CONFIGURABLE RECEIVER FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

The demand for communication interfaces between a car and the environment increases following the number of stationary applications. In addition there exists a need for a worldwide uniform equipment of a car for cost reduction. All this leads to the need for a software configurable platform that is capable to handle standards like AM, FM, GSM, UMTS, digital broadcasting standards (DAB, Sirius, XM-Sat Radio), analog and digital television and other data links. This presentation describes a fully software reconfigurable multi-channel broadband sampling receiver for standards in the 100MHz band.
A 500 kW L-Band Klystron with Broad Bandwidth for Subharmonic Bunching in the CLIC Test Facility

The CERN requirement is for a microwave amplifier which will provide pulsed microwave power for a sub-harmonic bunching system in the CFT3 accelerator test facility. The microwave output is required to have a peak power level of greater than 500 kW over a 150 MHz bandwidth centred upon 1500 MHz. The application has a combination of parameters which are difficult to fulfil with existing tube types. In particular the required frequency band is centred around 1.5GHz, which lies outside the radar bands where most of the tubes of this type are found in manufacturer's catalogues. The requirement for a minimum bandwidth of 150 MHz would suggest a coupled cavity travelling wave tube (TWT) for this application. However, the peak power level of 500 KW is above that which can be easily obtained with such a TWT. TMD Technologies Ltd. has built a number of broadband klystrons, using a special Resonant Coupled Cavity Output (RCCO) system, which have given the required percentage bandwidths over a range of peak power levels from 50 kW to 2.5 MW. This experience suggests that such a klystron could provide the best solution for the requirement. TMD manufactures a klystron (PT6006) which produces an output power of 100KW with a bandwidth of 100MHz at a slightly lower frequency in L–Band. It was thought that this tube could provide the basis for the required design as this type of broadband klystron amplifier produces wider bandwidths at higher power levels. The requirement of five times the peak power should enable a design with 10% bandwidth to be produced. The existing klystron has a pulsed cathode gun and solenoid beam focusing. This paper reports work carried out in a CERN funded design study to find the best solution to satisfy the requirement.
Exophoric and Endophoric Awareness

This research aims to shed light on the impact of exophoric and endophoric instruction on the comprehension (decoding) skills, writing (encoding skills), and linguistic awareness of English as Foreign Language learners. In this line, a mixed qualitative quantitative approach was conducted over a period of fifteen weeks on sixty English major students enrolled in their first year at the Lebanese University, fifth branch. The sixty participants were divided into two groups (30 experimental) that benefited from instruction on exophoric and endophoric relations and (30 control) that did not have the opportunity to study referents in the designated period of the research. The participants sat for a reading and writing pretest at the beginning of the study; and they sat again for the same reading and writing assessment at the end of the study. The results of the pre and post tests for both groups were analyzed via SPSS program and findings were as follows: hypothesis one stating that students who are aware of endophoric and exophoric relations are likely to achieve better results in decoding a text than are their peers who receive no referential instruction, was accepted with significant findings. Hypothesis two stating that students who are aware of endophoric and exophoric relations are likely to perform better in writing than their peers who receive no referential instruction , was accepted with significant findings. Hypothesis three stating that, students who learn endophoric exophoric relations become aware of referents and their linguistic function, was also asserted with significant findings. The study answered the research questions can endophoric and exophoric awareness influence the reading comprehension and writing structure of English as foreign language learners? Does instruction on referents boost learners’ awareness on the linguistic function of endophoric and exphoric relations? Recommendations for teachers, learners, curriculum designers, and future research have been incorporated.
Identification of red wine categories based on physicochemical properties

This paper mainly carried out the analysis of red wine categories. The red wine dataset is subjected to dimension reduction and clustering of samples through empirical analysis. First, factor analysis is performed on the 13 variables, and the complex variables are classified into five types of factors, namely the bitter trophic factor, the visual evaluation factor, the hue factor, the pH factor and the mineral element factor. Second, the samples were clustered by K-mean cluster analysis, and the samples were clustered into three different varieties. According to the cluster center, the characteristics of each variety can be summarized. Through a series of empirical analyses, a rough portrait of the red wine characteristics can be made and categories can be clustered in this data set.
Shunt Active Power Filter: A Review on Phase Synchronization Control Techniques

Owing to the destructive impacts of harmonic currents, the topic of reducing their impacts on power system has attracted tremendous research interests. In this regard, a shunt active power filter (SAPF) is recognized to be the most reliable instrument. It performs by first detecting the harmonic currents that are present in a harmonic-contaminated power system, and subsequently generates and injects corrective mitigation current back into the power system to cancel out all the detected harmonic currents. This means that other than the ability to generate corrective mitigation current itself, it is actually more important to make sure that the SAPF is able to operate in phase with the operating power system, so that the mitigation current can correctly be injected. Hence, proper synchronization technique needs to be integrated when designing the control algorithms of SAPF. This paper critically discusses and analyzes various types of existing phase synchronization techniques which have been applied to manage operation of SAPF; in terms of features, working principle, implementation and performance. The analysis provided can potentially serve as a guideline and provision of information on selecting the most suitable technique for synchronizing SAPF with the connected power system.
Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatographic Seperation And Quantification Of Baclofen And And Its Potential Impurities In A Injection Formulation

This study explores theapplication ofreversed phaseliquid chromatography (UPLC) for the simultaneous quantification of Baclofen and its potential impurities in a pre-filled syringe. The separation of impurities from Baclofen was achieved on Acquity BEHC18 100 x 2.1,1.7 μm, using a simple inexpensive buffer (potassium phosphate, 0.01 M), a mixture of acetonitrile and methanol as the mobile phase. The mobile phase was pumped at a flow rate of 0.3 mL min -1 using a simple linear gradient elution mode. The sample components were detected by UV-VIS detector at 225 nm. The method can resolveBaclofen and Pharmacopeia (USP and Ph. Eur) impurities in a single chromatographic injection within 8 minutes of run time. The method is validated as per the current ICH guidelines for method Validation for parameters like Precision, Linearity, Accuracy, and Robustness.A linear correlation of 0.999 was achieved between the analytes concentration and detector response between LOQ to 150% of the target specifications. The method is linear, accurate and precise between LOQ and 150% of the target concentration.
EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS TO SOLVE LOOSELY CONSTRAINED PERMUT-CSPS: A PRACTITIONERS APPROACH

Permutation constraint satisfaction problems (permut-CSPs) can be found in many practical applications, wherein most instances usually have a low density of constraints. This paper explores two evolutionary approaches to solve this kind of problem from a practical perspective. A test case that captures the main characteristics present in real world applications is used to design and test the performance of a PSO agent and a GA agent, which are also systematically tuned to determine the best congurations using statistical analysis. We conclude that the PSO agent provides a bettert to the nature of loosely constrained permut-CSPs, resulting in better performance. This paper focuses on the trade-off between development costs (including tuning) and the performance of both evolutionary algorithms, and aims to help practitioners choose the best algorithm and conguration for these problems.
OCR On-the-Go: Robust End-to-End Systems for Reading License Plates & Street Signs

We work on the problem of recognizing license plates and street signs automatically in challenging conditions such as chaotic traffic. We leverage state-of-the-art text spotters to generate a large amount of noisy labeled training data. The data is filtered using a pattern derived from domain knowledge. We augment training and testing data with interpolated boxes and annotations that makes our training and testing robust. We further use synthetic data during training to increase the coverage of the training data. We train two different models for recognition. Our baseline is a conventional Convolution Neural Network (CNN) encoder followed by a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) decoder. As our first contribution, we bypass the detection phase by augmenting the baseline with an Attention mechanism in the RNN decoder. Next, we build in the capability of training the model end-to-end on scenes containing license plates by incorporating inception based CNN encoder that makes the model robust to multiple scales. We achieve improvements of 3.75% at the sequence level, over the baseline model. We present the first results of using multi-headed attention models on text recognition in images and illustrate the advantages of using multiple-heads over a single head. We observe gains as large as 7.18% by incorporating multi-headed attention. We also experiment with multi-headed attention models on French Street Name Signs dataset (FSNS) and a new Indian Street dataset that we release for experiments. We observe that such models with multiple attention masks perform better than the model with single-headed attention on three different datasets with varying complexities. Our models outperform state-of-the-art methods on FSNS and IIIT-ILST Devanagari datasets by 1.1% and 8.19% respectively.
Improving the process of restocking sanitary appliances using the internet of things

This research aims to improve the process of restocking sanitary appliances using the Internet of Things (IoT). Two sub-processes are identified: cleaning personnel restocking sanitary appliances and the vendor restocking the inventory of clean towels and soap flacons. Two problems for each of these sub-processes are identified. First, restocking sanitary appliances is infrequent, which often results in full trash bins, empty soap dispensers and empty towel dispensers. Second, because signals from cleaners on the inventory levels are unreliable, it can result in empty or excessive inventories. To address the problems, three IoT prototypes are made. For towel dispensers, soap dispensers and trash bins. The result is an application on which cleaners can see the state of the sanitary appliances and anticipate when they need to be restocked, reducing the risk of empty appliances. The application can recognize when an appliance is replaced, updating inventory levels in the order management system, so that replacement orders can be based on real-time usage. The last step is the redesign of the two sub-processes, for which a number of advantages are identified, compared to the current process: vendor-managed inventory can take place without the involvement of the customer; no more excessive inventories (which are costly); no more empty inventories (thus no empty towel and soap dispensers); enable pay for usage instead of fixed price; smaller inventory is needed to achieve same service level.
Singularity Analysis for Redundant Manipulators of Arbitrary Kinematic Structure

This paper presents a technique to identify singularities of any rank for a robot of any kinematic structure. The technique is based on computing the gradient of singular values of the robot Jacobian. The algorithm deals with the situations when two or more singular values become nearly equal and their corresponding singular vectors are ill-defined. Also, an algorithm is developed to identify the physically meaningful singular directions from the high dimensional singular subspaces of high-rank singularities. The suggested technique is applied to a 4-DoF and a 7-DoF robot to show its efficacy at identifying robot singularities of all ranks and dealing with the ill-defined singular directions.