Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A massively parallel track-finding system for the LEVEL 2 trigger in the CLAS detector at CEBAF

The track segment finding subsystem of the LEVEL 2 trigger in the CLAS detector has been designed and prototyped. Track segments will be found in the 35,076 wires of the drift chambers using a massively parallel array of 768 Xilinx XC-4005 FPGA's. These FPGAs are located on daughter cards attached to the front-end boards distributed around the detector. Each chip is responsible for finding tracks passing through a 4/spl times/6 slice of an axial superlayer, and reports two 'segment found' bits, one for each pair of cells. The algorithm used finds segments even when one or two layers or cells along the track is missing (this number is programmable), while being highly resistant to false segments arising from noise hits. Adjacent chips share data to find tracks crossing cell and board boundaries. For maximum speed, fully combinatorial logic is used inside each chip, with the result that all segments in the detector are found within 150 ns. Segment collection boards gather track segments from each axial superlayer and pass them via a high speed link to the segment linking subsystem in an additional 400 ns for typical events. The Xilinx chips are ram-based and therefore reprogrammable, allowing for future upgrades and algorithm enhancements. >
Frequency dispersion of transconductance: a tool to characterise deep levels in III-V FETs

Frequency dispersion of transconductance g m (f) has been exploited to quantitatively investigate the properties of deep traps in III-V FET devices, namely DX centres in GaAs/AlGaAs HEMTs. This method requires simple data acquisition and elaboration and is applied directly to packaged devices. Thermal emission energy E a =0.46 eV and capture cross-section σ=3.10 -14 cm 2 have been obtained for DX centers in AlGaAs, in good agreement with published data. By increasing V DS , we measured also an E n decrease due to hot electron trapping by the DX centres
CONTROL OF CLASS BIOPROCESSES USING ON-LINE INFORMATION OF INTERMEDIATE METABOLITE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION RATES

A class of bioprocesses is defined where intermediate metabolite is produced in one reaction and then is used as substrate in other process reaction. New methods for adaptive control are proposed using estimators of intermediate metabolite production and consumption rates. An optimal tuning procedure for estimator's parameters is applied. As case study, poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid production by mixed culture is given. The simulation results demonstrate a tolerance of the control methods to uncertainty and to lack of measurements of the main process variables.
Microwave measurements of effective dielectric constant of semiconductor waveguides via periodic-structure photoexcitation

In this paper a new method for measurements of the effective dielectric constant of layered or full-substrate semiconductor waveguides at microwave frequencies is presented. The light-induced generation of a photoconductivity grating within the excited waveguide section is utilized. Incoming swept-frequency signals produce a stop-band reflection spectrum which exhibits a dominant major-lobe peak value at the grating center frequency. The effective dielectric constant is calculated from a simple analytical expression by substituting the measured center frequency. Theoretical background, error estimation, and an example are presented.
Design and implementation of the main controller of a solid-state transformer

Design and Implementation of the Main Controller of a Solid-State Transformer L.M. Schietekat Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa. Thesis: MScEng (E&E) December 2011 The Solid-State Transformer (SST) is presented as an alternative to the traditional Line-Frequency Transformer (LFT) used for voltage-level transformation in distribution grids. The LFT technology is highly matured which results in low costs and high efficiency. The SST however, introduces several advantages compared to the LFT, some of which are input unity power-factor, near perfect output-voltage regulation, frequency variation as well as harmonic filtering. The SST consists of three power-electronic converter stages: The input stage, the isolation stage and the output stage. The input and isolation stages are implemented with a multilevelconverter topology incorporating a converter-stack for each phase. Each stack consists of N converter building blocks, called cells. In this thesis the design and implementation of the main controller is presented. The main controller, together with N cell controllers, is responsible for the control of the cells within the respective stack. Three main controllers are thus implemented within the SST. Each cell consists of an Active Rectifier (AR) and a DC-DC Converter (DC-DC). The SST control design thus starts with the AR control which is subsequently expanded to Cascaded Active-Rectifier (CAR) control. Design is completed with the addition of the DC-DC control. Time domain simulations of the ARand CAR-control are presented and discussed. Test measurements, verifying functionality of each control design-phase, are presented and discussed. ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Sustainable Cotton Production By Using Cattle To Graze Harvest Residues In Mexico

Twenty crossbred beef steers and twenty crossbred beef heifers were randomly allotted to two treatments to evaluate the effect of supplementation on animal performance in animals grazing cotton plant residues: (1) 10 steers and 10 heifers were allowed to graze ad libitum in an 8 ha cotton field after harvest, and (2) 10 steers and 10 heifers grazed in a similar field but received 1kg day −1 of supplement. Water intake and mineral consumptionweremeasureddaily.Cottonplantresidueswereobtainedfromanadjacent10hafieldbycollecting 12 representative samples using a 1m 2 frame, and separating leaves and cottonseeds for lab analysis. Dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), cellulose, lignin, silica, calcium, phosphorus and nitrogen ADF were determined. Supplementation did not affect the total weight gain of the steers or the heifers during the 30-day grazing period. The unsupplemented steers gained 0.500kg day −1 , while the supplemented steers gained 0.466kg day −1 . The supplemented and unsupplemented heifers gained 0.266kg and 0.233kg day −1 , respectively.Water intake did not differ between treatments, but mineral consumption was significantly greater for the unsupplemented calves. The total cotton residues in the soil accounted for about 2,100kg ha −1 of DM. The economic analysis indicated an increased profitability when using steer calves
Degaussing System Design Optimization

Steel ships with a magnetic signature requirement are equipped with a degaussing system to reduce their perceptibility for magnetic influence mines. To be able to reduce the magnetic signature accurately, a proper distribution of coils over the ship is essential. Finding the best distribution of coils is a complex optimisation problem, involving many potential coil locations, many possible positions and headings of the ship in the Earth magnetic field, and the unknown permanent magnetisation. Regression techniques are useful to reduce the complexity of this optimisation problem. In this paper, we discuss the complexity of the optimisation problem and how it can be reduced with the aid of Least Angle Regression (LARS).
The Influence of Gender Ideology in Consumer Behaviour and Gratification amongst Women Magazines in South Africa

Acknowledging the need for gender equity and female empowerment, effect-based research have led to the investigation of publish media content and the influence it has on gender beliefs and women’s self-views. When it comes to the Africa media landscape studies examining women’s representation in magazines remains limited. To overcome this gap in the literature this quantitative descriptive study compare the consumer behaviour and satisfactions of selected women-related magazine titles in South Africa through the lens of the Uses and Gratification Theory. A mobile administrated survey was distributed to 300 regular female magazine readers aged between 18 and 60 years. The findings highlighted that readers, overall, preferred to read magazines during their spare time in the evening either in their bedroom and/or bathroom. It was furthermore also found that the highest gratification dimension of women readers was that of diversion followed by self-development and lastly surveillance. The results of this study can assist the editors and publishers of women-related magazines with an understanding of how gender ideology can influence consumer behaviour and satisfaction. This study contributes to theoryand hypotheses development by testing existing constructs to support the validity of theoretically grounded constructs originally developed in developed countries.
Compact models considering incomplete voltage swing in complementary metal oxide semiconductor circuits at ultralow voltages: A circuit perspective on limits of switching energy

This paper presents a circuit perspective on complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) limits by analyzing a standard CMOS inverter driving a capacitive load at ultralow supply voltages. While the behavior of an inverter is well understood and modeled in the superthreshold region and for sufficiently high supply voltages in the subthreshold region, the analysis at ultralow supply voltages is different. In this region of operation, the voltage levels corresponding to logic “1” and logic “0” are not Vdd and Gnd, respectively. We model the incomplete voltage swing and show that the minimum supply voltage for a CMOS inverter (with pull-up and pull-down devices as ideal conventional metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors) is, indeed, 2kT/q ln 2. The novelty of this approach lies in the fact that it gives an explicit mathematical relationship between the supply voltage and a measure of distinguishability of the binary states defined in terms of the expected voltage swing. The analysis shows tha.
The Application of Visual Attention Mechanism in Road Disaster Identification and early Warning System

Visual attention mechanism is introduced into the traditional road disaster monitoring and early warning system. In this system, the disaster region is the focus of attention (FOA), which happens to be the object needed to process. Ittis algorithm [1]was used to extract the saliency map, then quickly located the regions which may contain disaster according to saliency. The recognition and early warning of disaster can be completed, quickly. This method was tested snowstorms and rolling stones are simulated, and gave the corresponding experimental results. Experiment results show the correctness and efficiency of introducing visual attention mechanism into road disaster monitor and early warning system. It is of great significance and practical value for reducing the computation and improving real-time performance of the total system.
Carrier phase GPS/millimeter-wave radar for vehicle platooning

This paper considers the problem of vehicle platooning in AHS (automated highway systems). The previous reported relative navigation system is applied to vehicle platooning which is designed for formation flight. In this system, GPS plays an important role in not only positioning but also keeping safety with the desired spacing between a preceding vehicle and a following vehicle. In order to prevent collision of GPS outage, MMWR (millimeter-wave radar) is used. Simulations for the platoon consisted of four vehicles on the highway are presented to illustrate the applied relative navigation system.
REVIEW ON OPERATING SYSTEMS AND ROUTING PROTOCOLS FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are highly distributed networks consists of small, lightweight wireless nodes, deployed in large numbers to monitor the environment or system by the measurement of physical parameters such as temperature, pressure, or relative humidity. Some of the applications of wireless sensor networks includes military or border surveillance, health care, environment, industrial process control and so on. Operating system (OS) support for WSNs plays a central role in building scalable distributed applications that are efficient and reliable. This paper will help both OS developers and OS users. With OS developers, they will know what has worked in previous OSes and what has not. With OS users, they know the features of existing sensor network OSes, so they can select a sensor network OS that is the most appropriate for their application. In this paper we provide an overview of operating systems for wireless sensor networks namely TinyOS, MANTIS, Contiki, RetOS, MagnetOS and routing protocols used for routing information from source to destination.
`Don't Kill Me, I'm a Kyrgyz!': An Anthropological Analysis of Violence in the Osh Ethnic Conflict

The summer 1990 Kyrgyz-Uzbek ethnic violence in former Soviet Central Asia is studied using microlevel socio-anthropological analysis of the texts of the criminal court's sentences as the major source material. Ethnic violence is examined in terms of space, time, the actors, the motives and the forms of manifestation. Some general conclusions are drawn and some Soviet and Central Asian specifics are established. Rumours and myths based on socially constructed perceptions and on informational simplicity, as well as a situation of group social paranoia, were found to be key elements in precipitating ethnic violence. These findings suggest the reconsideration of existing ontological and positivistic interpretations.
What does the Pandemic Mean for Experiential Learning? Lessons from Latin America

This study presents survey evidence of Latin American college students’ perceptions of the switch from in-person instruction toward online instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three key findings emerge that present a negative outlook for higher education in programs that rely heavily on experiential learning. First, undergraduate students are not fully satisfied with the quality of online education received during the pandemic, especially the quality of experiential learning-based courses. Second, students perceive lower teaching quality independently of the course type as the main factor affecting learning. Third, students who experienced adverse stress and other limitations during the pandemic expressed difficulties in learning and have concerns about their educational paths, although just a small group expressed intentions to switch careers. These findings may affect long-term education in agricultural and applied sciences and show that remote education has not been successfully addressed in many countries of this region.
Combined hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide priming modulate salt stress tolerance in acclimated and non-acclimated oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) plants

We examined the combined effects of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and nitric oxide (NO) on the responses of oilseed rape(Brassica napus L.) plants to salt stress under acclimated and non-acclimated conditions. The results of the shoot and root dry weight traits together with the measurement of malondialdehyde (MDA) indicated that salt acclimation with a low concentration of NaCl (50 mM) could not alleviate the inhibitory effect of high salinity (200 mM NaCl). Under acclimated conditions, seed priming with H2O2 or NO resulted in effective protection against salt stress, however, maximum amelioration of salt stress was found by the combined treatments of H2O2 + NO. Interestingly, in the salt-exposed non-acclimated plants, only seed priming with H2O2 + NO was effective in improving salt tolerance. Pretreatment with H2O2 + NO tended to limit Na translocation into photosynthetic organs to prevent salt damages. Additionally, a large increase in salicylic acid contentwas correlated with phenylalanine ammonia lyase activation and flavonoid biosynthesis was observed when oilseed rape plants exposed to salinity in the presence of H2O2+NO. Interestingly, in this study, endogenous NO content of H2O2–primed plants exhibited a significant increase under non-saline conditions, indicating that H2O2 influences NO accumulation. In addition, oilseed rape plants primed with H2O2 + NO exhibited lower MDA and H2O2 content, contributing to the better induction of antioxidative enzyme activities. Higher levels of antioxidant enzyme activities maintained the integrity of cell membranes, resulting in better plant growth under salt stress. Taken together, our results revealed that oilseed rape plants pretreated with H2O2 + NO exhibited more effective tolerance to salt stress than plants that were pretreated with H2O2 or NO alone.
Connectionist models of a crude oil distillation column for real time optimisation

This study presents the development of connectionist or artificial neural network (ANN) models of a crude oil distillation column that can be utilised for real time optimization (RTO). The column is an actual distillation tower in operation in a refinery in Malaysia. Connectionist models developed for RTO are different than for process control applications because they are steady state, multivariable models. Training data for the network models was generated using a reconciled steady state process model simulated in the Aspen Plus process simulator. All ANN models were coded and simulated in MATLAB. Two types of feedforward network models were developed and compared: multi-layer perceptron (MLP) with adaptive learning rates and radial basis function networks (RBFN). The RBFN models were found to yield better and more consistent predictions with shorter training times than the MLP models. Grouping suitable output variables in a network model were found to give better predictions, and allow the complex, multivariable model of the crude tower to be more manageable.
Look-ahead approach to power system loadability enhancement

The paper presents a new look-ahead approach to loadability (static voltage stability limit) enhancement of power systems. Most researchers have used approaches that optimise the reactive losses/reactive reserves based on present operating condition. Although reactive power optimisation based on such strategies may result in an increase in distance to collapse, such an increase may not be sufficient. This is because a key factor in loadability enhancement is the reflection of load increase scenario in the optimisation problem. The proposed approach achieves this objective without making the problem too complex. The objective is to minimise reactive power losses near critical loading such that constraints at both loadings are satisfied. Results for two sample test systems, IEEE 30 bus and IEEE 14 bus have been obtained with local as well as look-ahead optimisation strategies to demonstrate the superiority of the latter over the former.
Managing Collective Enterprise Information Systems Compliance: A Social and Performance Management Context Perspective

In today’s environment characterized by business dynamism and information technology (IT) advances, firms must frequently update their enterprise information systems (EIS) and their use policies to support changing business operations. In this context, users are challenged to maintain EIS compliance behavior by continuously learning new ways of using EIS. Furthermore, it is imperative to businesses that employees of a functional unit maintain EIS compliance behavior collectively, due to the interdependent nature of tasks that the unit needs to accomplish through EIS. However, it is particularly challenging to achieve such a collective level of EIS compliance, due to the difficulty that these employees may encounter in quickly learning updated EIS. It is, therefore, vital for firms to establish effective managerial principles to ensure collective EIS compliance of a functional unit in a dynamic environment. To address this challenge, this study develops a research model to explain collective EIS compliance by integrating theoretical lens on social context and performance management context with social capital theory. It proposes that social context, an organizational environment characterized by trust and support, positively affects collective EIS compliance by developing business–IT social capital that enhances mutual learning between business and IT personnel. Furthermore, the performance management context, an organizational environment characterized by discipline and “stretch,” is seen to have a direct and beneficial effect on collective EIS compliance as well as an indirect, moderating effect on the causal chain among social contexts, business–IT social capital, and collective EIS compliance. General empirical support for this research model is provided via a multiple-sourced survey of managers and employees of 159 functional units of 53 firms that use EIS, as well as their corresponding IT unit managers. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Meshless deformable models for LV motion and strain computation from TMRI

OF THE DISSERTATION Meshless Deformable Models for LV Motion and Strain Computation from TMRI by Xiaoxu Wang Dissertation Director: Dimitris N. Metaxas Tagged MRI(TMRI) provides a direct and noninvasive way to reveal the in-wall deformation of the myocardium. Due to the through-plane motion, the 3D trajectories and strain of material points cannot be calculated directly from 2D TMRI images. With the intersections of three orthogonal tagging planes as cue points, we build a meshless volumetric deformable model to track the displacement of every material point in the heart wall. Meshless deformable models describe an object as point clouds inside of the object boundary. Each material point in the object is represented as a parameterized function of its coordinates in the model coordinate system, and the model is deformed by updating these parameters. The similarity transformation of each point is computed by assuming its neighboring points are doing the same transformation. The deformation is computed iteratively when the cue points match the target locations in the consecutive image frame. The 3D strain field is computed from the 3D displacement field with Moving Least Squares (MLS). We validate the performance of meshless deformable models with a numerical phantom and demonstrate that the meshless method outperform the finite element method (FEM). Meshless deformable models can track the trajectories of any material
Performance enhancement of a class of nonlinear systems by disturbance observers

A large class of single-input single-output (SISO) nonlinear systems is considered. The nonlinearity in a system of this class has the property that its output can be decomposed as the summation of the outputs of a stable SISO linear time-invariant system and a bounded function of time. For the class of systems under consideration, disturbance observers are designed to estimate the effects of nonlinearities and to cancel them subsequently. The designed disturbance observers are thus able to make the nonlinear systems behave linearly and to enhance their performance. Examples are given to show disturbance observers can suppress the effect of dead-zone nonlinearity and limit-cycles caused by backlash.