Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stiffness Enhancement and Motion Control of a 6-DOF Wire-driven Parallel Manipulator with Redundant Actuations for Wind Tunnels

As is well known, a wire-driven parallel manipulator is a manipulator whose end-effector is driven by a number of cables instead of rigid links. It shows several promising advantages over its rigid-link counterpart, such as simple light-weight mechanical structure, low moment inertia, large reachable workspace and high-speed motion. In the 1980s, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in America invented a wire-driven parallel manipulator named RoboCrane for shipyards (Albus et al, 1993). So far, wire-driven parallel manipulators have been applied in load lifting, industrial machining, virtual reality and astronomic observation (Dekker et al, 2006; Ning et al, 2006; Ma & Diao, 2005). Because of the advantages and unique features of wires, wire-driven parallel manipulators have attracted a great attention in robotics literature. The first general classification was given by Ming and Higuchi (Ming and Higuchi, 1994). Based on the number of wires (m) and the number of degrees of freedom (n), wire-driven parallel manipulators were classified into three categories, i.e. the incompletely restrained positioning mechanisms (m n+1). Yamamoto et al. presented basic dynamics equations and a feedback control method based on exact linearization for the incompletely restrained positioning mechanisms (Yamamoto et al, 2004). Hithoshi et al. studied a robust PD control using adaptive compensation for translational wire-driven parallel manipulators of a completely restrained type (Hithoshi et al, 2007). Zi Bin et al. developed a fuzzy plus proportional-integral control method for the cable-cabin mechanism of 500m aperture spherical radio telescope (Zi et al, 2008). Yu Kun considered active stiffness control schemes as optimization problem with different criteria for redundantly restrained positioning mechanisms (Yu, 2008). In essence, a wire-driven parallel manipulator can be considered as a complex, time-varying, strong-coupled, multiple input and multiple output, and nonlinear system. Since the wires can only pull and not push on the platform, dynamics and control are key issues for high-precision motion of wire-driven parallel manipulators. Wind tunnel tests of aircraft models are widely utilized to investigate the potential flight dynamics and aerodynamic characteristics of aircrafts at their early developing stage. Wiredriven parallel manipulators have been introduced to wind tunnels as flexible suspension systems of aircraft models in recent years (Liu et al, 2004). The posture of the scale model corresponding to the stream line of airflows can be adjusted by controlling the length of
Mode-locked 2-μm wavelength fiber laser using a graphene-saturable absorber

Abstract. Soliton-like pulses with a 1984-nm center wavelength are produced from a Tm-doped mode-locked fiber laser. The linear cavity has a graphene saturable absorber mirror at one end and a fiber Bragg grating as the output coupler. The laser operates without dispersion compensation, and the repetition rate was tuned from 20 to 5 MHz by the addition of SMF-28 fiber. The dry transfer process used to place the graphene on a mirror could be extended to any optical substrate. This enables integration of graphene with optics such as an optical window coated with a graphene filter or a graphene-saturable absorber placed directly on a semiconductor laser facet.
Dynamic modeling and adaptive VSC of two-link flexible manipulators using a hybrid sliding surface

To suppress the resonance modes of flexible manipulator and to expedite the convergence, a hybrid sliding mode consisting of frequency shaped optimal sliding mode (FSOSM) and terminal sliding mode (TSM) is proposed and applied to two-link flexible manipulator, which is an extension of the authors' previous work (2000). An adaptive variable structure control (AVSC) is designed to estimate the upper bounds on the norm of uncertainties. The adaptation law generates a relatively small gain in the initial stage to reduce the impact to the system and a higher gain at the equilibrium to lower steady state error. Dead zone scheme is introduced to further improve system robustness. Attractiveness of the dead zone for the proposed AVSC is proven. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Raisa Halonen FROM PHOTOGRAPHERS TO VIEWERS – WHAT MAKES EDITORIAL PHOTOS INTERESTING? Licentiate thesis submitted for inspection for the degree of Licentiate of Science in Technology, Espoo, June 13, 2014

The licentiate thesis focused on the editorial interestingness of photos. The term editorial interest was coined in the study; it refers to all factors that contribute to making a photograph editorially interesting in professional workflow. The thesis considered the whole process from taking, editing and selecting editorial photos to viewing the final, published photos. Three research questions were set for the study. The first concentrated on the factors that influence the editorial interestingness of photos in the process of their creation and selection. The second question dealt with the factors, which affect the interestingness of editorial photos according to viewers. These two questions were approached through three case studies. The third research question analyzed what factors of editorial interest are overarching independent of the scenario. The two first cases examined the production perspective of news photos: the first with observations and thematic interviews in a photo agency, the second through a survey integrated in the publishing system of four newspapers. The third case study was conducted as an interestingness evaluation with supporting interviews in a laboratory setting with amateur participants and magazine photos as material. All three cases had five factors of editorial interestingness in common; those factors were overarching independent of test setting, photo genre, and role of evaluator. The factors were aesthetics, affect, novelty-complexity, semantics, and utility. The editorial interestingness of a photo was thus influenced by aesthetic criteria, the ability of the photo to evoke emotion, unexpectedness, content-related criteria, and versatile possibilities of photo use. Viewers considered editorial interestingness to encompass two additional factors: the ability of the photo to attract and hold attention, and self-reference experienced by the viewer. These two were confirmed by literature, which suggested also one additional factor, so called coping potential, i.e. person’s ability to adapt and to cope with a novel, complex view.
Beam steering accuracy in holographic optical tweezers

The use of spatial light modulators (SLMs) to achieve dynamic control of optical tweezers is observed to provide subnanometer precision in single trap positioning. However, some features concerning the digitalized structure of SLMs cause a loss of precision in certain kinds of experiments. In this work, positioning accuracy of holographic optical tweezers (HOTs) is profoundly analysed in these cases, and a correction methodology is proposed in order to improve trap positioning.
Habitat type does not affect population genetic structure in sympatric great tits ( Parus major ) and blue tits ( P. caeruleus )

Populations of two sympatric Parus species, the great tit ( Parus major ) and the blue tit ( Parus caeruleus ), were studied in deciduous and mixed-coniferous forests in southwestern Germany. We analysed the genetic variation of microsatellite and allozyme loci within and among populations to infer dispersal and potential source-sink dynamics in populations of both species that live in different habitat types. The genetic structure was found to be homogeneous across local populations of both species within years and genetic variation differed among years. The homogeneous genetic pattern among habitats suggests high migration and dispersal rates. Despite considerable differences in the breeding performance of individuals from different habitat types, there is no strong genetic evidence for source-sink dynamics in southwestern German populations of the great tit and the blue tit.
Transport, properties, and life cycles of mesoscale eddies in the eastern tropical South Pacific

Abstract. The influence of mesoscale eddies on the flow field and the water masses, especially the oxygen distribution of the eastern tropical South Pacific, is investigated from a mooring, float, and satellite data set. Two anticyclonic (ACE1/2), one mode-water (MWE), and one cyclonic eddy (CE) are identified and followed in detail with satellite data on their westward transition with velocities of 3.2 to 6.0 cm s−1 from their generation region, the shelf of the Peruvian and Chilean upwelling regime, across the Stratus Ocean Reference Station (ORS; ∼20∘ S, 85∘ W) to their decaying region far west in the oligotrophic open ocean. The ORS is located in the transition zone between the oxygen minimum zone and the well oxygenated South Pacific subtropical gyre. Velocity, hydrographic, and oxygen measurements at the mooring show the impact of eddies on the weak flow region of the eastern tropical South Pacific. Strong anomalies are related to the passage of eddies and are not associated with a seasonal signal in the open ocean. The mass transport of the four observed eddies across 85∘ W is between 1.1 and 1.8 Sv. The eddy type-dependent available heat, salt, and oxygen anomalies are 8.1×1018 J (ACE2), 1.0×1018 J (MWE), and -8.9×1018 J (CE) for heat; 25.2×1010 kg (ACE2), -3.1×1010 kg (MWE), and -41.5×1010 kg (CE) for salt; and -3.6×1016 µmol (ACE2), -3.5×1016 µmol (MWE), and -6.5×1016 µmol (CE) for oxygen showing a strong imbalance between anticyclones and cyclones for salt transports probably due to seasonal variability in water mass properties in the formation region of the eddies. Heat, salt, and oxygen fluxes out of the coastal region across the ORS region in the oligotrophic open South Pacific are estimated based on these eddy anomalies and on eddy statistics (gained out of 23 years of satellite data). Furthermore, four profiling floats were trapped in the ACE2 during its westward propagation between the formation region and the open ocean, which allows for conclusions on lateral mixing of water mass properties with time between the core of the eddy and the surrounding water. The strongest lateral mixing was found between the seasonal thermocline and the eddy core during the first half of the eddy lifetime.
Experimental And Numerical Studies On Fire Whirls

In case that conflagration such as urban fire occurred, there is case which the swirl flow, so-called fire whirls sometimes generates. The generation of fire whirls is a rare but potentially catastrophic form of fires. In order to control of fire whirls, it is important to specify the generating mechanism. In this paper, experimental and numerical studies are reported on whirling flames, which modeled fire whirls. A propane burner was used as a fire source of experiment apparatus. The distribution of temperature and velocity of fire whirl were measured in experiments. Moreover, the prediction of fire whirls phenomenon was carried out by using CFD code. The CFD code, which is the FDS Ver.3. 1 developed in NIST, was used for numerical simulation.
INTERACTION AND EEDUCATION: WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT IS NEEDED TO DEVELOP UNIVERSITY TEACHING?

Higher education institutions are facing an on-going pressure to develop pedagogy which promotes high-quality learning, supports studying in various learning circumstances, and integrates technology. Flexible and meaningful learning possibilities which develop skills for the world of work, like active agency, collaboration and construction of knowledge through interaction with others, are needed in university education. To address these needs, a multidisciplinary network for developing university teaching was introduced at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland in 2011. Even though the main focus of the developmental work is based on the strategy of the university jointly shared among teachers, a bottom-up policy with respect to teachers’ expertise and autonomy directs the whole activity. Interactivity in teaching and learning, as well as flexible and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-supported opportunities to study, have been defined as the main developmental themes so far. In addition, developing pedagogy together with other teachers in a multidisciplinary network and sharing teaching experiences in the university community have been the central courses of action in the project. Developing university teaching is challenging and we supposed that teachers experience several phenomena that could be either very helpful or very hindering. In this article, we analysed the teachers’ experiences of teaching development and their support needs while working on the network project. The following research questions were addressed: 1) What factors did the university teachers consider to be supportive or constraining in the development of teaching in general? 2) What kinds of supportive or constraining factors are emphasised when the development of teaching is focused particularly on eEducation? The data were collected by interviewing 51 teachers who participated in the multidisciplinary network during 2011–2014 and enhanced interactive and ICT-based initiatives in their teaching. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the teacher interviews. The results of the study revealed that the supportive factors in the development of teaching arose from the nature of the development itself, i.e., from the teachers’ opportunities to act as active agents in an authentic process of development. Furthermore, the circumstances of the developmental work also have an essential supportive or constraining role in the development of teaching. The support, at its best, would be when the development of teaching in a university context is recognised as valuable and rewarding, and is also encouraged by the management. However, on the constraining side, utilising ICT challenges both the teachers’ competences in the pedagogical-technological field and the operational environment, including tools and equipment for ICT-based teaching and ICT services of the university.
TANGO V8 - Another Turbo Charged Major Release

The TANGO collaboration continues to evolve and improve the TANGO kernel. A latest release has made major improvements to the protocol and, the language support in Java. The replacement of the CORBA Notification service with ZMQ for sending events has allowed a much higher performance, a simplification of the architecture and support for multicasting to be achieved. A rewrite of the Java device server binding using the latest features of the Java language has made the code much more compact and modern. Guidelines for writing device servers have been produced so they can be more easily shared. The test suite for testing the TANGO kernel has been re-written and the code coverage drastically improved. TANGO has been ported to new embedded platforms running Linux and mobile platforms running Android and iOS. Packaging for Debian and bindings to commercial tools have been updated and a new one (Panorama) added. The graphical layers have been extended. The latest figures on TANGO performance will be presented. Finally the paper will present the roadmap for the next major release.
Transceiver Design for MIMO DCO-OFDM in Visible Light Communication

Direct current-biased optical-orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) is a simple yet spectrally efficient multicarrier modulation scheme for visible light communication (VLC). But in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scenario, which is more practical for VLC due to the LED deployment, the research on DCO-OFDM is still limited and calls for in-depth investigation. In this chapter, we first study the basic modulation scheme of DCO-OFDM, including the design of conventional receiver without considering the clipping noise. Secondly, we present a novel receiver for combating clipping distortion in the DCO-OFDM system, which can reconstruct the clipping noise and subtract it from the received signal. Thirdly, we generalize the results to MIMO scenario and investigate the preliminary transceiver design, which is based on the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) criteria. Based on this, we propose a precoding algorithm to further enhance the performance. Finally, the symbol error rate performance is compared through computer simulations to give the reader a whole picture of the performance of MIMO VLC system.
Mxdrfile: read and write Gromacs trajectories with Matlab.

Progress in hardware, algorithms, and force fields are pushing the scope of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations towards the length- and time scales of complex biochemical processes. This creates a need for developing advanced analysis methods tailored to the specific questions at hand. We present mxdrfile, a set of fast routines for manipulating the binary xtc and trr trajectory files formats of Gromacs, one of the most commonly used MD codes, with Matlab, a powerful and versatile language for scientific computing. The unique ability to both read and write binary trajectory files makes it possible to leverage the broad capabilities of Matlab to speed up and simplify the development of complex analysis and visualization methods. We illustrate these possibilities by implementing an alignment method for buckled surfaces, and use it to briefly dissect the curvature-dependent composition of a buckled lipid bilayer. The mxdrfile package, including the buckling example, is available as open source at this http URL .
Anti-hyperglycemic and Anti-hyperlipemia Effects of Syzygium Cumini Seed in Alloxan Induced Diabetes mellitus in Swiss Albino Mice (Musmusculus)

Context: Syzygium cumini commonly known as jamun, a tree grown throughout India is used in traditional medication for the treatment of different diseases and ailments of human beings. Objective: In this study, the seed extract of Syzygium cumini was evaluated for anti-hyperlipidemic activity in alloxan induced diabetic mice. Materials and methods: LD50 and acute toxicity studies of Syzygium cumini (SC) were done. Hyperglycemia was induced in mice by alloxan. Three days after alloxan induction, the hyperglycemic mice were treated with Syzygium cumini orally at the dose of 150 and 250 mg/kg body weight daily for 21 days. After 21days of treatment, the animals were sacrificed and serum glucose and lipid profiles were estimated in the serum. Results: The LD50 was found to be 1000 mg/kg; 150 and 250 mg/kg doses were selected as no toxic symptoms were observed at both doses. SC significant (p<0.05) reduced serum glucose level, CH, TG-C, LDL-C, VLDL-C and increased HDL-C, body weight and liver, kidney weight. Conclusion: The above results prove potential of hypoglycemic and anti-hyperlipidemic activity Syzygium cumini.
FIELD EVALUATION OF PASSING SIGHT DISTANCE PARAMETERS

Drivers require a sufficient distance on a two-lane highway to ensure that they can safely maneuver past an impeding vehicle. The passing behaviour of drivers is an important element of safe passing maneuvers. In this paper, field studies were conducted in different countries to determine the passing behaviour of drivers. The study involved participants of both genders in different age groups. A passing profile was established using experimental data collected by Dual Camera Car DVRs and a GPS data logger device that records the instantaneous speeds and positions of different passing vehicles. Using the collected data, linear regression models were established for the initial time, passing time, and acceleration of the passing vehicles. The independent variables of the models were driver gender, age, driving experience, and average weekly driving hours. A passing sight distance (PSD) model was then developed using the mechanics of passing maneuvers on two-lane highways. The results of the proposed model were compared with those of the design guides and existing models. The comparison revealed that the existing PSD models are either too liberal or too conservative. The proposed PSD model, which reflects current driver behavior, should be of interest to highway designers
Social wasps trapped in the Czech Republic with syrup and fermented fruit and comparison with similar studies (Hymenoptera Vespidae)

Eight species of social wasps were trapped in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with syrup as bait. Vespa crabro L. , Vespula germanica (F.), and Vespula vulgaris (L.) dominated trap catches at most sites, comprising 32, 28, and 35% of the wasps trapped respectively. Nearly all wasps captured were females of the worker caste. Greatest diversity of wasps in traps was from late July into early August. A capture of one Polistes nimphus (Christ) was a new elevational record for this species in the Czech Republic. Nearly all Vespula wasps trapped were species in the Vespula vulgaris species group, with Vespula rufa (L.) conspicuously absent from traps.
Relationship between Professional Ethics and Organizational Commitment

The purpose of this paper is to investigate relationship between professional ethics and organizational commitment in food industry in Kurdistan province. In this study researchers have used the Allen and Meyer’s model for identification of organizational commitment. For accessing the objective sample of 210 people of 15 food industry in Kurdistan province was selected. The results of this study have shown that, there is a significant relationship between professional ethics and organizational commitment and its dimensions. Keywords: Organizational commitment, affective commitment, continuance commitment, normative commitment, Professional ethics
Simplified model of interconnect layers under a spiral inductor

We demonstrate the feasibility of using effective medium theory to reduce the computational complexity of full-wave models of inductors that are placed over interconnects. Placing inductors over interconnects is one way that designers can tackle the problem of reducing overall chip size, however this has heretofore been a difficult option to evaluate because of the prohibitive memory requirements and run times for detailed simulations of the inductor. Here we replace the interconnects with a homogeneous equivalent layer that mimics their impact on the inductor to within 2% error, but reducing runtime and memory use by 90% or more.
An apparatus for imaging liquids, cells, and other wet samples in the scanning electron microscopy

We present a technique of scanning electron microscopy that is adapted to the study of wet samples. The wet environment is protected in a small chamber enclosed by a membrane, which is thin enough for energetic electrons to go through and interact with the sample studied. We detail both the technique and the general mechanisms of signal formation in the imaging of samples through a membrane. We first describe our setup and the properties required for the membrane, the main element in this method. Some simple measurements for its characterization are given, guiding the choice of material and thickness. We then go on to describe the capabilities of the technique in imaging a variety of different samples. We evaluate the accessible contrast and resolution, and the current needed to obtain them. Low contrast samples can be imaged with an improvement in resolution over optical microscopy. High contrast samples like gold markers labeling a biological cell can be imaged with a resolution of the order of 10 nm. The resolution depends on the location of the particle in the sample: the closer to the membrane, the better the resolution. We believe such a result opens up potential applications for routine experiments in biology, and expect this new technique to find numerous applications in domains where liquid samples are investigated such as soft materials science.