Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Explicit incorporation of spatial variability in a biomass dynamics assessment model

The sustainable management of fisheries has largely relied on stock assessment models that assume stocks are homogeneous throughout their domain. However, ignoring complex underlying spatial patterns can lead to increased risk of failures in management. Utilizing geostatistical approaches in conjunction with a traditional fishery biomass dynamics model, we develop a spatially-explicit modelling framework that treats the underlying population dynamics as spatial processes. Simulation experiments demonstrate that this approach reliably estimates variance parameters and accurately captures true patterns of population change. We further demonstrate the utility of our modelling framework in a real setting using data from the Canadian Maritimes Inshore Scallop Fishery. The model captures time-varying spatial patterns in both population characteristics and fishing pressure without explicit knowledge of the underlying mechanisms and retains the ability to scale up to the whole spatial domain with less associated uncertainty than for temporal models. These results lead to improved scientific advice for management, future-proofing of the assessment to shifts in stock productivity and fishing effort, and provide information that can be used to develop more effective management approaches.
New results on traffic sign recognition

In cooperation with Daimler-Benz AG within the European PROMETHEUS project the authors are developing a real-time traffic sign recognition system. The system is installed in a test vehicle of Daimler-Benz that operates autonomously on European highways and performs a vision based environmental analysis that includes, among others, road tracking, obstacle detection, lane traffic analysis and traffic sign recognition. Within the traffic sign recognition the authors' group provides a real-time detection and classification of traffic signs. The authors' traffic sign classifier (TSC) is based on the color segmentation system CSC (Color Structure Code) developed in their group. The authors present details of their latest CSC-evaluation strategies for the TSC. The authors have succeeded in developing a feature space for the localization of all traffic sign candidates. The main features of an object are the typical color, its form and the inclusion of certain forms and colors. The feature space allows a fast classification of the traffic sign candidates following a hierarchical decision graph. The overall decision of whether it is a traffic sign or not is made by a fuzzy control system handling the probabilities of all the single decisions. In addition the authors present several statistical evaluations for some thousands of images that will show the quality of their TSC. For a real-time behavior the authors tested different hardware components (C40, Motorola PC601, T 805) in a TIP system (transputer image processing) and they explain the results.
Application of Cross-Nested Logit Model to Mode Choice in Tel Aviv, Israel, Metropolitan Area

Currently, modal split modeling is done mainly by means of disaggregated mode choice models. The almost absolute dominance of multinomial and nested logit models over other mode choice models among applied transportation modelers is attributable to their theoretical soundness, to their simple and understandable analytical structure, and to the calibration procedures that have been developed. Typical urban transport systems, however, are characterized by a variety of modes including private (automobile), public transit (bus, suburban rail, light rail, and subway), and various combinations of these. Analysis reveals that the nested logit model based on the assumption of groupwise similarities among modes is not a suitable modeling tool in such situations. A cross-nested model that is derived from the generalized extreme value class and that can be thought of as a generalization of the nested logit model is proposed. The model takes into account the cross similarities between different pure and combined modes. The cross-nested structure allows for the introduction of the differentiated measurement of pairwise similarities among modes as opposed to the inflexible groupwise similarities permitted by the nested logit model. The proposed model is described, and it is compared with alternative modeling constructs.
Language Error in Aviation Maintenance: Data from Asia

English is the language of aviation, including aviation maintenance. As more maintenance work is outsourced to non-English-speaking countries, language error may be a problem. A study of 254 maintenance personnel at nine sites in Chinese-speaking countries measured the reported incidences of seven scenarios and tested intervention effectiveness. Four of the scenarios had reported incidence of 4-5 per year, and the expected causal factors were reported. A test of interventions to work documentation revealed that participants tended to maintain a constant level of accuracy and speed to produce this level. A Chinese translation of the document was the only significant intervention, giving about a 10% speed advantage.
Development of an advanced frontal dummy thorax demonstrator

Thoracic injuries are one of the dominant causes of fatalities and severe injuries in car crashes today. THORAX‐FP7 is a collaborative medium scale project under the Seventh Framework which focuses on reduction and prevention of thoracic injuries through an improved understanding of the thoracic injury mechanisms and the implementation of this understanding in an updated design for the thorax‐shoulder complex of the THOR dummy as well as in human boy models. The models and dummy will enable the design and evaluation of advanced restraint systems for a wide variety (gender, age and size) of car occupants. This paper presents results achieved during the first three years of the project related to dummy hardware developments. The hardware development involved five steps: 1) Identification of the dominant thoracic injury types from field data, 2) Specification of biomechanical requirements, 3) Identification of injury parameters and necessary instrumentation, 4) Dummy hardware development and 5) Evaluation of the demonstrator dummy. The accident surveys were reported in a previous IRCOBI paper. This paper describes the selection of human response data suitable for assessment of frontal dummy performance, studies into the injury criteria which are independent of the loading type and the dummy developments done so far.
An investigation of turbulent accelerated flow along smooth prismatic chutes

Turbulent chute flow was investigated experimentally and numerically for various flow conditions. The Navier‐Stokes equations are solved with the k − ε turbulence model on a structured non‐orthogonal grid. A method based on water continuity was used to calculate the movement of the water surface. Using an adaptive grid in the vertical direction, the location of the water surface was recalculated from an initially horizontal profile. After several iterations a steady solution emerged. The velocity distribution in longitudinal and vertical directions and pressure distribution along the chute were calculated. The numerical model was calibrated and verified using experimental data model studies. Reasonable agreement was found between the experimental results and that from the numerical model. Multiple‐regression equation was developed for computing the water surface profile along chute.
New Results on Classification Modeling of Noisy Tensor Datasets: A Fuzzy Support Tensor Machine Dual Model

In this article, classification problems for a class of tensor datasets with a noisy environment are investigated. To address such issues, a novel fuzzy support tensor machine (FSTM) dual model with robustness is established. First, for each input sample in the noisy tensor dataset, we define three kinds of fuzzy membership functions, such as linear, cosine, and exponential forms. In particular, the reconstruction process from one-dimensional (1-D) vector data to third-order tensor data is also derived in the Appendix. Second, the original optimization model of an FSTM on fuzzy membership is designed by constructing the vector pattern of the traditional support vector machine (SVM) models into a tensor pattern. Next, by introducing the Lagrangian multiplier method and tensor-Tucker decomposition method to the original FSTM model, an FSTM dual model without tensor inner product operation is obtained for the first time. Such a dual model with tensor-Tucker decomposition form can avoid conservativeness caused by the vectorization of tensor data in the traditional SVM model. Furthermore, an FSTM classifier is derived by the designed numerical algorithm, and the classification generalization error bound of the FSTM model with a general form is developed. It is worth noting that a linear least-squares FSTM (LLS-FSTM) equation with tensor-Tucker decomposition is also designed in the Appendix to further reduce the slightly time-consuming problem of the solving the dual optimization model FSTM. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to verify the feasibility and validity of the derived FSTM classifier.
Water Management in PEM Fuel Cells: Controllability Analysis and Steady-state Optimization for Temperature Control

Abstract This paper presents a controllability study of the water management inside anode channel by regulating the stack temperature for PEM fuel cell systems with dead-ended anode. Moreover, this work includes the design of a steady-state target optimizer which calculates the temperature set-point profiles that minimize the stack degradation and the hydrogen leaks. The control architecture is successfully simulated and the results show promising performance.
Method of robot episode cognition based on hippocampus mechanism

This paper proposes a method to realize the robot’s self-learning of unknown environment by using a episode cognitive model inspired by the hippocampus. The episode cognitive map constructed through self-learning is suitable for robot navigation in an unknown environment. Which solve the problem of robustness of the robot’s perception in complex and dynamic environments. The model we propose is called the hippocampus episode cognitive network (HEC), which is based on the physiological functions of the hippocampus CA1, CA3 and the dentate gyrus combined with the adaptive resonance theory (ART) network. Extract new events through the incremental generation of cognitive neurons, and encode the events into episode through spatio-temporal connections. The episode nodes can be connected to generate a episode cognitive map. This method can realize learning, storage, and update information for autonomous mobility robots in unknown environment. On the basis of the episode cognitive map, the path trajectory can be predicted through the playback of the episode neuron. The experimental results on the mobile robot show that this method can effectively improve the robot’s adaptability for positioning and mapping in a complex and dynamic environment.
Identification and Characterization of a Novel Plasmid-Encoded Laccase-Like Multicopper Oxidase from Ochrobactrum sp. BF15 Isolated from an On-Farm Bio-Purification System

SUMMARY Research background In recent decades, laccases (p-diphenol-dioxygen oxidoreductases; EC 1.10.3.2) have attracted the attention of researchers due to their wide range of biotechnological and industrial applications. Laccases can oxidize a variety of organic and inorganic compounds, making them suitable as biocatalysts in biotechnological processes. Even though the most traditionally used laccases in the industry are of fungal origin, bacterial laccases have shown an enormous potential given their ability to act on several substrates and in multiple conditions. The present study aims to characterize a plasmid-encoded laccase-like multicopper oxidase (LMCO) from Ochrobactrum sp. BF15, a bacterial strain previously isolated from polluted soil. Experimental approach We used in silico profile hidden Markov models to identify novel laccase-like genes in Ochrobactrum sp. BF15. For laccase characterization, we performed heterologous expression in Escherichia coli, purification and activity measurement on typical laccase substrates. Results and conclusions Profile hidden Markov models allowed us to identify a novel LMCO, named Lac80. In silico analysis of Lac80 revealed the presence of three conserved copper oxidase domains characteristic of three-domain laccases. We successfully expressed Lac80 heterologously in E. coli, allowing us to purify the protein for further activity evaluation. Of thirteen typical laccase substrates tested, Lac80 showed lower activity on 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), pyrocatechol, pyrogallol and vanillic acid, and higher activity on 2,6-dimethoxyphenol. Novelty and scientific contribution Our results show Lac80 as a promising laccase for use in industrial applications. The present work shows the relevance of bacterial laccases and highlights the importance of environmental plasmids as valuable sources of new genes encoding enzymes with potential use in biotechnological processes.
Recent advances of integrated microfluidic suspension cell culture system

Abstract Microfluidic devices with superior microscale fluid manipulation ability and large integration flexibility offer great advantages of high throughput, parallelisation and multifunctional automation. Such features have been extensively utilised to facilitate cell culture processes such as cell capturing and culturing under controllable and monitored conditions for cell‐based assays. Incorporating functional components and microfabricated configurations offered different levels of fluid control and cell manipulation strategies to meet diverse culture demands. This review will discuss the advances of single‐phase flow and droplet‐based integrated microfluidic suspension cell culture systems and their applications for accelerated bioprocess development, high‐throughput cell selection, drug screening and scientific research to insight cell biology. Challenges and future prospects for this dynamically developing field are also highlighted.
Hybrid RSOA and fibre Raman amplified long reach feeder link for WiMAX-on-fibre

A distributed fibre Raman amplified long reach optical access feeder link using a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier in the remote base station is experimentally demonstrated for supporting WiMAX-over-fibre transmission. The measured values for the error vector magnitude for quadrature phase shift keying and 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation after 40 km of fibre transmission meet the IEEE 820.16 standard requirements.
Does tourism activity reduce the size of the informal economy? Capturing long-term heterogeneous linkages around the world

This paper investigates the long-term and causal relationship between tourism activity and the informal economy in 76 countries from 1995 to 2015. We explore this relationship at the global level and by country group, using panel, co-integration techniques that indicate the existence of a long-run co-integration relationship between tourism and informal economy for the whole sample and at the level of country groups. Additionally, the paper analyzes the long-run coefficients of the model by using fully modified ordinary least square regressions (FMOLS). The results from FMOLS evidence a negative and significant impact of tourism on the informal economy at the global level and in high, upper-middle, and lower-middle income countries, but a positive link in low-income countries. However, the results reveal a heterogeneous long-run relationship within country groups. Also, the result of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test indicates bidirectional causality in the global sample, but the direction of causality varies by country group. The main policy implication derived from our findings suggests that in order to reduce the size of informal economy, policy-makers should foster tourism activities. JEL Classification : J01, L83, C23, O57, C00, C01
Oil price shocks, equity markets, and contagion effect in OECD countries

This paper revisits the dynamic linkages between the Brent oil market and OECD stock markets. Econometrically, we use a multivariate corrected dynamic conditional correlation fractionally integrated asymmetric power ARCH (c-DCC-FIAPARCH) process, controlling main financial time-series features such as asymmetry, volatility, and long memory. Based on daily data for 17 OECD stock markets from March 16, 1998 to February 23, 2018, we show three main findings. First, the impact of oil price shocks on the relationship between oil and stock markets is more pronounced during periods of global turmoil and asymmetric in all countries. Second, we do not observe a proper ‘contagion effect’ across all countries. Finally, this paper identifies five groups of countries based on the shape of the dynamic conditional correlation, which indicates that the relationship between oil and stock markets is segmented geographically. The findings have several policy implications.
New Methods to Support Table-Based Creation Processes

In this workshop, we aim to explore new ways to interact with tables. We want to combine the latest research findings in the area of tabletops with the requirements and specific needs of creative people that love their work setting - paper and pen, sketching, and books. The goal is to identify common requirements and suggest a design space to foster future developments and interdisciplinary projects. Author Keywords Creativity, support tools, art and science, multidisciplinary.
Reconfigurable hardware systems

In this paper we'll make a short review, of the evolution of reconfigurable devices and their role inside reconfigurable systems, that we'll use to introduce an new emerging field: reconfigurable computing. We'll give the clues to understand its possibilities, as well as the applications that better suit to this techniques and systems in the midway between pure hardware and software solutions.
Gate oxynitride grown in nitric oxide (NO)

Gate oxynitride was grown in NO for the first time. This approach can provide a tight N accumulation near the Si/SiO/sub 2/ interface. Much lower thermal budget is required for an NO process than an N/sub 2/O process to produce an oxynitride with useful properties. Submicron MOSFET's with NO oxynitride showed superior current drive characteristics and comparable hot carrier immunity to those with N/sub 2/O oxynitride. <<ETX>>
Three-dimensional finite-element method with edge elements for electromagnetic waveguide discontinuities

When three-dimensional electromagnetic problems are solved by the finite-element method based on a functional with three components of electric or magnetic field, spurious solutions appear if the traditional tetrahedral elements are used. It is shown in the present work that the finite-element method using edge elements succeeds in suppressing spurious solutions and that it succeeds in analyzing three-dimensional electromagnetic waveguide problems in the case of metal wedges. >
Using Web Video Conferencing to Conduct a Program as a Proposed Model toward Teacher Leadership and Academic Vitality in the Philippines

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted private basic education in the Philippines to hold a professional developmental program for faculty members using web video conferencing (WVC). Given the uncertainties of WVC educational quality and the challenge of shifting to a fully online environment, this study aimed to evaluate the use of web video conferencing and the development of a faculty development program on sustaining teacher leadership and academic vitality through research. The training was held for nine weeks, and 33 faculty members of the institution participated. Quantitative data include survey questionnaires on perceptions on action research, perceptions on technology integration, training proficiency, and pedagogical practices. Qualitative data include analysis of video recordings, reflection journals, observation notes, and actual research outputs. It utilized descriptive developmental action research using a convergent mixed-method approach, and thematic analysis. Findings show that the use of WVC as a mode of delivery proved successful in creating an effective educational experience for all the participants as evidenced by their enhanced teacher leadership skills and academic vitality. These skills were demonstrated through their willingness to promote professional inquiry as shown by their actual research outputs and demonstration of high proficiency in the adoption of technology integration.
Design of a Hardware and Software based Test Bed for Railway Signalization Systems

Abstract It is vital that an interlocking system is thoroughly tested before its deployment. The conduction of the tests of an interlocking system on the real field is cumbersome and expensive. It is necessary that fast and efficient methods are utilized to test the hardware and the software of interlocking systems before its final installation. In this manuscript, the design of hardware and software based test beds for a railway signalization system is presented.
Precise measurement of residue cover by means of image processing techniques.

Precise Measurement of Residue Cover by Means of Image Processing Techniques V. ASADI1 A. JAFARI 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Majlesi Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, IRAN 2 Assistant Prof. Agricultural Machinery Dept. Shiraz University, Shiraz, IRAN
Real-Time Dynamic Control of a Stewart Platform

This paper presents a real-time control strategy for the parallel robots such as the Stewart-Gough platform. The strategy is implemented using xPC Target (a Matlab toolbox), achieving sample rates higher than 1 kHz for the control loop. A modified explicit dynamic model, based on the virtual work principle, allows the formulation of dynamic control schemes, commonly used to control serial manipulators. Based on this approach, a computed torque control with friction compensation is implemented for a Stewart-Gough platform. Experimental results are compared with a classic uncoupled control strategy.
Index Modulation Based on Four-Dimensional Spherical Code and Its DNN-Based Receiver Design

A novel index modulation with spherical code and its constellation mapping are proposed. We derive the closed form of the approximation bound of the bit error rate (BER) of the OFDM-IM system based on four-dimensional spherical code. Our derived BER is very close to the simulation results. And different constellation mapping method have different BER performance and the gap is less than 0.2 dB. To reduce the detection complexity which is caused by the high-dimensional modulation, a DNN-based receiver with partial-connected layer is proposed. Simulation results show that our proposed DNN-based receiver can greatly reduce the complexity while its BER performance is close to the classical maximum likelihood detection method.