Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
D-STATCOM FOR VARIOUS LOADING CONDITIONS

During the past few decades, power industries have proved that the adverse impacts on the PQ can be mitigated or avoided by conventional means, and that technique using fast controlled force commutated power electronics (PE) are even more effective. PQ compensators can be categorized into two main types. One is shunt connected compensation device that effectively eliminates harmonics. The other is the series connected device, which has an edge over the shunt type for correcting the distorted system side voltages and voltage sags caused by power transmission system faults. The STATCOM used in distribution systems is called DSTACOM (Distribution-STACOM) and its configuration is the same, but with small modifications. Recent advances in the power-handling capabilities of static switch devices such as 3.3kV, 4.5kV, and 6.5kV Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) with voltage rating commercially available, have made the use of the voltage source inverters (VSI) feasible for high-power applications. High power and high-voltage conversion systems have become very important issues for the power electronic industry handling the large ac drive and electrical power applications at both the transmission and distribution levels. For these reasons, new families of multilevel inverters have emerged as the solution for working with higher voltage levels. Multilevel inverters (MLI) include an array of power semiconductors and capacitor voltage sources, the output of which generate voltages with stepped waveforms. These converter topologies can generate high-quality voltage waveforms with power semiconductor switches operating at a frequency near the fundamental. It significantly reduces the harmonics problem with reduced voltage stress across the switch. This research work is mainly focusing on application of multilevel DSTATCOM for power quality improvement in distribution system with integration of RES. Matlab/Simulink based model is developed and simulation results are presented.
An Analysis of Research Trends in Computer Security over the Last Decade

Recently, text mining has popularly been used not only to identify important topics but also predict future tends in a research field. In this paper, we apply text mining to analyze the research trends in the field of computer security over the last decade. We collected 2,256 papers published in the four major security conferences (CCS, NDSS, USENIX Security and S&P) between 2008 and 2017. We extracted keywords from the title and abstract in each paper and used them to identify important topics based on word frequency counts for each keyword. We analyzed the rankings and the changes in the most frequent keywords every year. Our observations from the analysis would be useful for understanding the popularity of computer security research, and predict potentially important research topics (e.g., SGX, Fuzzing, Blockchain, IoT and SDN) in the near future.
Nanoflow Miscible Viscous Fingering in Real Porous Media: A Mesoscopic Approach

Extended Abstract Viscous fingering has always been an inevitable challenge in porous media when a fluid displaces another fluid under unfavourable mobility ratio. In order to damp the finger growth and stabilize the system, several strategies such as adding viscous chemicals to the displacing fluid and controlling the injection rate, have been proposed. Recently, nanoparticles have been introduced as a promising technique to deal with this hydrodynamic instability. A number of studies, have been recently conducted to examine the effectiveness of the technique, however all of these studies were carried out at the macroscopic scale[1,2]. In order to address the uncertainties in nano-scale, a mesoscopic study has been conducted using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). In this study the effect of nanofluid Brownian and Thermophoretic forces are investigated. A new model for the deposition of the nanoparticles is also presented using a combination of DLVO (Derjaguin, Landau, Vervey, and Overbeek) and kinetic theories. In order to analyze the effects of the nanoparticles on viscous fingering in mesoscopic scale, the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy equations are solved simultaneously using LBM [3]. For an incompressible flow displacement, the system of equations can be written as follows [4].
Woody vegetation diversity and regeneration in an abandoned sugar estate in semi-arid Zimbabwe.

This study assessed woody species diversity and regeneration, 30 years a fter cessation of sugar cane production in Chirundu Estate situated in the Zambezi river valley floor of Zimbabwe. Nineteen plots were studied to compare woody vegetation in the undisturbed and disturbed areas. The undisturbed area had 42 species and exhibited greater (p 0.05) different. It was concluded that vegetation in the disturbed area was still in early stages of succession and the co-existence of early and late succession species indicated some degree of disequilibrium dynamics whilst high herbivory and arid conditions of the estate were attributable to the retarded rate of woody vegetation succession.
Bead-Based Microfluidic System for DNA and RNA detection Catarina

Circulating MicroRNAS (miRNAS) have been studied as a new generation of biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases that can be used for diagnosis and prognosis of a wide range of cardiovascular disorders. The development of a porous bead based microfluidic system that is able to detect miRNA promises great potential for the development of a low-cost, fast, sensitive and portable diagnostic system. In this work, a microfluidic system that uses as immobilization platform agarose beads to detect DNA and RNA was studied, with possible application for miRNAs. PDMS microchannel were sealed against a PDMS membrane. Several immobilization platforms were tested. A DNA probe was immobilized onto the agarose beads surface and fluorescence intensity was measured. Using the beads, fluorescence intensity signal was enhanced 200-fold when compared with an immobilization performed in a bare channel. Protocol optimizations for the flow rate, channel dimension and blocking methods were performed. Chemiluminescence and colorimetric detection methods were also tested with a limit of detection 10pM and 100pM, respectively. Biological matrixes were also used during experiments (Human serum and Fetal Calf serum) and it was verified that it was possible to detect signal.
Estimation of Upper Limb Joint Angle Using Surface EMG Signal

In the development of robot-assisted rehabilitation systems for upper limb rehabilitation therapy, human electromyogram (EMG) is widely used due to its ability to detect the user intended motion. EMG is one kind of biological signal that can be recorded to evaluate the performance of skeletal muscles by means of a sensor electrode. Based on recorded EMG signals, user intended motion could be extracted via estimation of joint torque, force or angle. Therefore, this estimation becomes one of the most important factors to achieve accurate user intended motion. In this paper, an upper limb joint angle estimation methodology is proposed. A back propagation neural network (BPNN) is developed to estimate the shoulder and elbow joint angles from the recorded EMG signals. A Virtual Human Model (VHM) is also developed and integrated with BPNN to perform the simulation of the estimated angle. The relationships between sEMG signals and upper limb movements are observed in this paper. The effectiveness of our developments is evaluated with four healthy subjects and a VHM simulation. The results show that the methodology can be used in the estimation of joint angles based on EMG.
The Effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Food Spending Among Low-Income Households

The main goal of this paper is to provide current information on the impacts of Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP) on food spending across two food subgroups: food at home (FAH) and food away from home (FAFH). Data was obtained from the BLS‟s Consumer Expenditure Survey and Detailed Monthly Consumer Price Indices from years 1998 to 2009. Censoring of expenditures and the endogeneity of the SNAP participation variable are accounted for with the use of specialized econometric procedures. We found that SNAP participation increases FAH by $25 and decreases expenditures on food away from home by $32. Since the average SNAP benefits received by participants in the program is $80, the marginal propensity to consume of food at home out of SNAP benefits is 0.31.
Kinetics modeling of nanoparticle growth on and evaporation off nanotubes

A kinetic Monte Carlo approach is developed for studying growth and evaporation of nanoparticles on/off nanotubes. This study has been motivated by the recent experimental advances in using nanoparticle evaporation (sublimation) off nanoparticle-decorated nanotubes for nanoscale “thermometry. ” We demonstrate that the considered kinetic Monte Carlo approach can reproduce features of the process that are not included in the phenomenological thermodynamic modeling, as well as provide snapshots of the growth and evaporation process morphology.
Changes in Fungal and Bacterial Diversity During Vermicomposting of Industrial Sludge and Poultry Manure Mixture: Detecting the Mechanism of Plant Growth Promotion by Vermicompost

Agriculture is facing a challenge to develop strategies for sustainability that can conserve non-renewable natural resources, such as soil and enhance the use of renewable resources such as organic wastes. It has been estimated that more than 18 metric tons of organic sludge was generated every day in Korea in 2003 (Anonymous, 2004)while it was 105 metric tonnes per year in India (Chitdeshwari and Savithri, 2004). Among different options for recycling this sludge, application to agricultural land is probably the most reliable and costeffective technique to supply organic matter to field crops (Coker et al., 1987). But direct application of this sludge to agricultural land might cause heavy metal contamination (McGrath, 1994). Under this perspective, industrial sludge (IS) was recycled after bioremediation involving earthworms. Unlike several chemical methods, removal of heavy metals by biological means is more specific, eco-friendly and economical. Begum and Krishna (2010) revealed that heavy metal content in organic wastes reduced after passage through earthworm guts. Therefore, industrial sludge could be recycled through vermicomposting to produce nutrient rich plant amendment. Vermicomposting is the stabilization of organic substrates by microorganisms in presence of earthworms. Though earthworms consume fungi with organic substrates to fulfil their nitrogen requirement, the viable fungal count in earthworm casts was generally higher than that of initial waste substrates during vermicomposting (Edwards and Bohlem, 1996). Ergosterol, marker molecule of fungal cell membrane, is frequently used in microbiology to quantify fungal biomass in infected media. Madan et al. (2002) estimated fungal biomass in soil by FAME assay. Hill et al. (2000) also quantified fungal specific FAME (18:19ωc) to estimate fungal biomass in compost. Yasir et al. (2009) revealed that bacterial biomass also played important role during organic matter decomposition. Muramic acid
Transport of volatile organic compounds across the capillary fringe

Physical experiments were conducted to investigate the transport of a dissolved volatile organic compound (trichloroethylene, TCE) from shallow groundwater to the unsaturated zone under a variety of conditions including changes in the soil moisture profile and water table position. Experimental data indicated that at moderate groundwater velocities (0.1 m/d), vertical mechanical dispersion was negligible and molecular diffusion was the dominant vertical transport mechanism. Under these conditions, TCE concentrations decreased nearly 3 orders of magnitude across the capillary fringe and soil gas concentrations remained low relative to those of underlying groundwater. Data collected during a water table drop showed a short-term increase in concentrations throughout most of the unsaturated zone, but these concentrations quickly declined and approached initial values after the water table was returned to its original level. In the deep part of the unsaturated zone, the water table drop resulted in a long-term decrease in concentrations, illustrating the effects of hysteresis in the soil moisture profile. A two-dimensional random walk advection-diffusion model was developed to simulate the experimental conditions, and numerical simulations agreed well with experimental data. A simpler, one-dimensional finite-difference diffusion-dispersion model was also developed. One-dimensional simulations based on molecular diffusion also agreed well with experimental data. Simulations which incorporated mechanical dispersion tended to overestimate flux across the capillary fringe. Good agreement between the one- and two-dimensional models suggested that a simple, one-dimensional approximation of vertical transport across the capillary fringe can be useful when conditions are appropriate.
Voxel-Wise Time-Series Analysis of Quantitative MRI in Relapsing-Remitting MS: Dynamic Imaging Metrics of Disease Activity Including Pre-Lesional Changes

Abstract : Previous MRI studies in MS have retrospectively analyzed normal-appearing brain tissue in locations where typical MS lesions ultimately appeared, finding pre-lesional changes in several MRI metrics. However, studies have not been entirely consistent and the development of a prototypical MS lesion cannot as yet be prospectively predicted. The primary objective of this project is to validate the preactive lesion hypothesis in MS by identifying the spatiotemporal imaging signature of white matter destined to undergo acute, focal inflammation and demyelination-specifically, one that will allow reliable, prospective detection of nascent lesions before they appear on conventional (non-quantitative) imaging. The specific aim is to acquire a longitudinal set of quantitative MRI metrics in MS patients and perform a multivariate spatiotemporal analysis of pre-lesional, normal-appearing white matter, seeking spatially clustered interval changes that presage the appearance of a typical MS plaque.
A Framework for Automated Progress Monitoring Based on HOG Feature Recognition and High Resolution Remote Sensing Image

Construction target monitoring became one of the key concerns of the construction field. Computer vision based monitoring methods like 2D image, video and 3D laser scan methods have difficulties in meeting real-time and data objectivity requirements. This paper points out the applicability of high resolution remote sensing image (HRRSI) in this task. This paper proposes a way for enhancing Histogram of Gradients (HOG) feature for HRRSI. HOG is applied as the key feature for machine learning, which is carried out by the boosting method. To overcome the complexity of HOGs in HRRSIs, this paper builds a feature framework according to the top, side and height characteristics of engineering ground objects. Based on the feature framework, this paper presents a HRRSI based framework for construction progress monitoring. Through an application case, the performance of the framework is presented. Judging from the result, this method is robust under different seasonal and illuminative conditions.
The influence of watershed run‐off on the hydrology, forest floor litter and soil carbon of headwater wetlands

The effects of land use and land cover (LULC) on aquatic systems have been extensively studied however less research has focused on headwater wetlands. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of watershed land conversion and associated run‐off on the hydrology and carbon cycling of headwater wetlands in coastal Alabama, USA. A total of 15 headwater wetlands were selected to reflect a range of surrounding LULC across coastal Alabama. Land use and soil data were utilized to estimate watershed run‐off curve numbers (CN) that were used with precipitation data to calculate surface run‐off (Q). Within each wetland, water level recorders were installed to monitor ground water levels for 1 year and data were used to generate hydrological metrics related to stage and flashiness. Data varied among sites, but wetlands with higher watershed CN tended to have a greater tendency for water level measurements to exceed the normal fluctuation range (outliers). Carbon dynamics associated with leaf litter and soil storage were also measured during this time period. Leaf litter traps were installed to determine litter fall carbon input (CLF). Bimonthly monitoring of forest floor carbon (CFF) was conducted to evaluate its relationship to watershed run‐off. Soil carbon content was quantified in each wetland by collecting 40‐cm cores analysed at 10 cm sections. Watershed run‐off characteristics (CN and Q) were significantly related to mean CFF and CFF : CLF (CFF adjusted for the amount of CLF) suggesting that hydrologic export and possibly decomposition increased with run‐off. Surface soil (0–10 cm) carbon content was related to median groundwater level; however, no relationship was detected between soil carbon and CN or Q. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Avoidant Addresses in Japanese Families Reflect Family Conflicts

The study focused on Avoidant Addresses (AAs) in Japanese families and investigated the links between daily use of AAs in the family and family conflicts. The participants were 329 Japanese college students. They reported forms of address used daily among each of their family members. They also rated the frequency of conflicts among each of their family members. The results show that parent-child relationships with AAs experienced significantly higher frequency of parent-child conflicts than those without. The families with AAs also experienced a higher frequency of family conflicts than those without. Use of AAs might be unacceptable in Japanese families and reflect parent-child and family conflicts.
Treatment adherence and differentiation in individual versus family therapy for adolescent substance abuse.

Treatment adherence and differentiation in dynamic cognitive-behavioral therapy and multidimensional family therapy for adolescent substance abuse were evaluated with a treatment adherence process measure. Full-length videotapes of 90 treatment sessions (36 clients) were reviewed by nonparticipant raters. Adherence scales for each treatment generated through factor analysis of observational ratings demonstrated sound interrater reliability and internal consistency. Therapists in each condition used techniques unique to their own model and avoided those unique to the competing model. Individual therapists emphasized behavioral and substance-use interventions, whereas family therapists focused on interactional and affective interventions. Challenges in conducting adherence research that compares individual and family treatments are addressed. as are implications of these results for advancing treatment development for adolescent drug users.
Demand for Beef from Cattle Administered Growth Hormones or Fed Genetically Modified Corn: A Comparison of Consumers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States

We compare consumer valuations of beef ribeye steaks from cattle produced without growth hormones or genetically modified corn in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Results suggest that French consumers place a higher value on beef from cattle that have not been administered added growth hormones than U.S. consumers; however, valuations of non-hormone-treated beef are statistically indistinguishable across Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Results also suggest that European consumers place a much higher value on beef from cattle that have not been fed genetically modified corn than U.S. consumers. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
Stochastic Geometry and Wireless Networks, Volume 2: Applications

This volume bears on wireless network modeling and performance analysis. The aim is to show how stochastic geometry can be used in a more or less systematic way to analyze the phenomena that arise in this context. It first focuses on medium access control mechanisms used in ad hoc networks and in cellular networks. It then discusses the use of stochastic geometry for the quantitative analysis of routing algorithms in mobile ad hoc networks. The appendix also contains a concise summary of wireless communication principles and of the network architectures considered in the two volumes.
An integrated model of lexical chaining: application, resources and its format

Lexical chaining has become an important part of many NLP tasks. However, the goodness of a chaining process and hence its annotation output depends on the quality of the chaining resource. Therefore, a framework for chaining is needed which integrates divergent resources in order to balance their deficits and to compare their strengths and weaknesses. In this paper we present an application that incorporates the framework of a meta model of lexical chaining exemplified on three resources and its generalized exchange format.
POSTICA PHASE DENOISING FOR RESTINGSTATE COMPLEXVALUED FMRI DATA

Magnitude-only resting-state fMRI data have been largely investigated via independent component analysis (ICA) for exacting spatial maps (SMs) and time courses. However, the native complex-valued fMRI data have rarely been studied. Motivated by the significant improvements achieved by ICA of complex-valued task fMRI data than magnitude-only task fMRI data, we present an efficient method for de-noising SM estimates which makes full use of complex-valued resting-state fMRI data. Our two main contributions include: (1) The first application of a post-ICA phase de-noising method, originally proposed for task fMRI data, to restingstate data, which recognizes voxels within a specific phase range as desired voxels. (2) A new phase range detection strategy for a specific SM component based on correlation with its reference. We continuously change the phase range within a larger range, and compute a set of correlation coefficients between each de-noised SM and its reference. The phase range with the maximal correlation determines the final selection. The detected results by the proposed approach confirm the correctness of the post-ICA phase denoising method in the analysis of resting-state complexvalued fMRI data. Index Terms Independent component analysis (ICA), complex-valued fMRI data, resting-state fMRI data, phase de-noising, phase range detection
An Exploration of the Factors Affecting User's Satisfaction with Mobile Payments

Mobile payment allows consumers to make more flexible payments through convenient mobile devices. While mobile payment is easy and time save, the operation and security of mobile payment must ensure that the payment is fast, convenient, reliable and safety in order to increase the users’ satisfaction. Therefore, this study based on technology acceptance model to explore the impact of external variables through perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on users’ satisfaction. The data analysis methods used in this study are descriptive statistical analysis, reliability and validity analysis, Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis to verify the hypotheses. The results show that all hypotheses are supported. However, mobile payment is still subject to many restrictions on development and there are limited related researches. The results of this study provided insight into the factors that affect the users’ satisfaction for mobile payment. Related services development of mobile payment and future research suggestions are also offered.