Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PROTECTION OF BRIDGE PIERS FROM SCOUR

A series of flume experiments revealed a possible method of reducing local river bed scour at bridge piers and, thereby, reduce the risk of bridge failures. The method involves the construction of a "sacrificial pier". This is a false pier constructed upstream of the bridge pier at risk. This relocates scour away from the bridge pier concerned. Four piles in a diamond formation were found to provide the greatest scour protection. Subsequently three prototype schemes have been installed in the United Kingdom to verify these laboratory findings. The measurement of real time scour for both protected and unprotected piers at these sites is being undertaken using custom built apparatus. Details of the laboratory results, site installations and instrumentation are presented in this paper. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 858602.
MEMS print heads for industrial printing

Abstract: With the recent prospect of micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) print heads broadening their applications beyond digital printing for office use into industrial printing for the direct patterning of micro/nano devices and circuits, MEMS print heads have attracted renewed attention as a key player for realizing printed electronics. Cost-effectiveness, flexibility and environmental friendliness in fabrication are the main drivers of industrial printing. This chapter introduces MEMS print heads – especially, a new type referred to here as the electro hydro dynamics (EHD) print head. This has emerged recently as a viable and even better alternative to the conventional piezoelectric MEMS print heads for industrial printing, as it offers a higher resolution and thickness of patterning and can eject a high viscosity of ink. Nowadays, not only EHD droplet ejection, but also the EHD printing system for industrial applications is being investigated intensively with commercialization in mind. Furthermore, performance indices such as repeatability and stability are becoming a major issue to solve. This chapter also addresses briefly the effort to improve such reliability related indices.
Morphological evolution of galaxies over the last 8 billion years

In this chapter I describe the motivation behind this Thesis work. I briefly review the main theoretical aspects and the very broad observation al scenario, explaining the fundamental goals of this work and summarizing its most rele vant contributions to the study of galaxy evolution. The review of previous work, b oth observational and theoretical, is by no means to be intended as exhaustive nor c omplete, and I certainly by–pass to mention several important steps in extragalacti c s ronomy research, as well as to address many issues which are still relevant today. It i s only meant to set this work in a context, thus allowing its fundamental aspects to be hig hlighted. 1.1 The hierarchical Universe The Aristotelian cosmology (see Figure 1.1) dominated the Western thinking for early 2000 years. Aristotle’s Cosmos was a brilliantly integrated whole, which holistically link ed Matter, Place, Motion, Cause, and Value. The relations between Man, Nature , nd God were never in doubt. Everything was connected and reinforcing.That mainly ex plains why the Copernicus’ innocent suggestion raised such furor. The current, only few tens of years old, standard model for our Unive rse, the Hot Big Bang model, draws everything we see today from an initial state of exceedingly hig h temperature and density. Starting from this initial condition, the Universe expanded for almost 14 billion
Arctic Coastal Erosion

With the recent increase of interest in Arctic, the need rises for new tools for understanding the typical mechanisms of this very unique and so vulnerable area. The coast, which concentrates nearly all of the human activities, is in the front line and probably the most critical part of the system. Trough the past decades, mappings of the Arctics shorelines point out huge erosion rates and show the threat of a climate change upon the coast. Recent studies seem to link those tremendous moves to the annual thermal variations within the soil. However, the mechanisms of thermal abrasion that are suggested to be at the hearth of the process are not yet completely understood. In answer for the need of numerical models for thermal analysis of the erosion process, this thesis proposes a toolbox specially designed, based on literature review and fieldwork data. Trough the chapters, the reader shall find essential tools for estimations of the heat transfer into a soil and complete understanding of the physical mechanisms behind. Critical parameters that influence the erosion process are highlighted. To assess the operational deployment of those tools, a thermal analysis of a site has been performed. The conclusions demonstrate the capacity of numerical models to underline the critical gears of the heat transfers, and hopefully will help understanding the erosion processes of this particular place.
Learning to Remember: Early Stage Exploration of user Requirements in an Education APP

We present a new approach, Mind Genomics, to understanding the needs of prospective users with respect to a teaching APP designed to promote improved memorization of important texts. Using small-scale experiments, using the systematically varied messages in the form of stories or vignettes, Mind Genomics uncovers the customer-requirements of the APP. These vignettes are combinations of ideas about the product, its use, and the benefits to be obtained. The pattern of reactions to these vignettes reveals which specific features and benefits ‘drive interest. ’ Mind Genomics does not require the respondent to intellectualize the need, an intellectualization which introduces response biases, and perhaps demand an answer that the respondent may not know. Rather, the deconstruction of the pattern of the immediate responses assigned almost automatically and without deep thinking, clearly reveals the underlying needs. The results from this small-scale study suggest three radically different mind-set segments. Mind Genomics, finds application where the respondent’s job is to make decisions, and where one would like to reduce the biases due to what the respondent expects the appropriate answer to be. We show how Mind Genomics can become an early-stage, rapid, affordable, and scalable system for deep understanding of human judgments.
Passive Solar Systems Performance under Conditions in Bulgaria

This paper presents energy performance of 12 passive solar systems for three climatically different zones of Bulgaria. The results are compared with a base-case residential house that has a design typical for these areas. The different passive solar systems are compared on the basis of the percentage of solar savings and the yield, which is the annual net benefit of adding the passive solar system. The analyses are provided based on monthly meteorological data, and the method used for calculations is the Solar Load Ratio. Recommendations for Bulgarian conditions are given. 5 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.
An improved mixed-error non-equilibrium stock-production model and its application to some Brazilian fish stocks

A new and more comprehensive estimation method for stock-production models is proposed, to provide more reliable stock assessment when data availability is limited. Using difference equations to implement a non-equilibrium production model, the new approach (named POEEM, for Process and Observation Errors Estimation Method) incorporates uncertainties due to both process and observation errors, employing a non-linear model fitting approach. The method has been evaluated using both simulated and real data sets, and has been applied to data from some Brazilian fish stocks. The weighting ratio between process and observation errors has proved to be a crucial factor in determining the model results, and a fully satisfactory method for selecting this ratio is still required. Sensitivity analyses conducted with the simulated data have been used to study the behaviour of the method for a range of exploitation and noise levels. Data series with low and medium levels of noise yielded consistent results irrespective of the level of exploitation, whereas very noisy data series did not provide reliable results. For comparison, data from a previously analysed stock was also tested with POEEM and resulted in peculiar results for the stock status and management advice. Data from four demersal species caught off southeastern Brazilian coast were also analysed employing POEEM, and more conventional methods. For all of them further analyses on mapping some parameters sensitivity must be conducted in order to increased the reliability of the results. Two species have the POEEM estimated assessment trend corroborated by independent biological studies. King weakfish is apparently on the verge of a collapse, with very low levels of production and biomass. Jamaican weakfish is around its maximum sustainable yield and the exploitation level on this stock should not be intensified. For the other two species, high levels of uncertainty were responsible for contradictory outcomes. For whitemouth croaker, the balance between process and observation error could not be consistently achieved, because of high amount of observation noises. For grey triggerfish, the assessment revealed a collapsed stock, but previous biological studies do not corroborate this scenario. Discarding onboard and fleet behaviour appear to be confusing the analysis of this data series. In general, the new method seems to be capable of giving useful results, consistent with biological studies, when a limited amount of data is available. However, further work is needed to find a satisfactory method for fixing the weighting ratio. In order to improve the Brazilian stock assessments, both fishery and biological data must be continuously collected to maintain and update the results, and effort data needs to be collected for other fleets, and incorporated in the analysis.
Out-of-home care in childhood and socio-economic functioning in adulthood: ONS Longitudinal Study 1971-2011

BackgroundChildren who spent time in non-parental care report poor outcomes in many aspects of their later lives on average, but less is known about differences by type of care. We examined whether socioeconomic, family, and living arrangements of adults who had been in non-parental care across the first three decades of adult life varied by type of care (residential, non-relative and relative). MethodsWe used longitudinal data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (LS). Participants were aged<18 years and had never been married at baseline of each census year from 1971-2001 (n=242,843). Separately for each adult follow-up age (20 to 29; 30 to 39; 40 to 49), multi-level logistic regression models were used to compare socioeconomic, family, and living arrangements by different out-of-home care (OHC) experiences.ResultsAny OHC increased the likelihood of poorer functioning in the three domains of socioeconomic circumstances, family formation and relationships, and living arrangements. This was evident in their 20s, 30s and 40s; the most adverse outcomes were observed for those with a history of residential care, followed by non-relative OHC, and the least adverse outcomes for relative OHC. Moderation by childhood census year, age in OHC, and gender altered the relationship between OHC and some, but not all, adult outcomes. The strongest, most consistent, evidence was for widening of inequalities in age 20-29 outcomes across childhood census years and weakest evidence for any moderation of age 40-49 outcomes by age when in OHC.ConclusionEnduring inequalities in social and economic functioning for OHC-experienced adults were found. The evidence overwhelmingly supports the policy to place children in relative care whenever possible, with residential care the least favoured option.
Ship detection in SAR images based on recurrent feature pyramid network and rotatable bounding box

Abstract. Ship detection in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images plays an important role in remote sensing, but it is still full of challenges in the deep learning area. The primary problem is that ships in SAR images have different sizes and orientations. The off-the-shelf detectors are not able to adapt to the situation. Recurrent feature pyramid networks are presented to detect ships with different sizes especially the small ones. Rotatable region proposal network is used for locating ships with a tighter rectangle. Rotatable anchors with sizes, aspect ratios, and angles are designed according to the distribution of ships in dataset. Multiratio region-of-interest pooling is used for projecting arbitrary-oriented proposals to fixed length vectors. Angle-related intersection-of-unit (ArIoU) is used for evaluating the intersection of rotatable proposals. ArIoU can be an indicator for nonmaximum suppression (NMS) and also is used for preparing negative and positive proposals. A loss function is proposed to compute loss between bounding boxes. The sinusoidal function is used for solving the problem of unstable angle. We also use a dataset called SSDD+ (SAR ship detection dataset plus) to evaluate different methods. Experiments based on SSDD+ show that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance. The dataset and the code will be public at https://zhuanlan.zhihu. com/p/143794468.
U.S. Housing Prices and the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: To Update, or Not to Update, that is the Question

Did the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima in March 2011 cause individuals to reappraise the risks they attach to nuclear power plants? We investigate the change in housing prices in the U.S. after the Fukushima event to test the hypothesis that house prices in the proximity of power plants fell due to an updated nuclear risk perception. Using a difference-in-differences approach we do not find evidence in support of the hypothesis that individuals reappraise the risks associated with nuclear power plants. House prices close to nuclear reactor sites did not fall relative to house prices at other locations in the U.S.
Degradation monitoring in IRIS steam generators

We present a degradation monitoring technique based on unscented Kalman filtering (UKF), which uses a nonlinear system model without linearization to estima te the status of the component/state variables. To test the applicability of the methodology, the fouling of tubes is chosen among various degradation mechanisms for the IRIS (International Reactor Innovative and Secure) steam generators (SGs). The degradation monitoring algorithm diagnoses the tube fouling and estimates the thickness of the crud deposited on the s econdary side of the SG along with the increase in the pressure drop triggered by fouling. A stand -alone SG model developed with the RELAP5 code was used to simulate the transient behavior of the SG and drive an UKF state estimate. By using the secondary side outlet temperature as the measurement and the nodal pressures along the secondary side as states, UKF gener ated accurate estimates of the crud layer thicknesses for different crud formations.
The Buyer's Option in Multi-Unit Ascending Auctions: The Case of Wine Auctions at Drouot

"This paper studies multi-unit ascending (English) auctions with a buyer's option. The buyer's option gives the winner of an auction the right to purchase any number of units at the winning price. We develop a theoretical model and derive the optimal strategies for the bidders. The model predicts various behavioral implications (e.g., the winner never exercises the option, the price declines…) that are tested using a unique data set on wine auctions held at the Paris-based auction house Drouot. We also analyze why the buyer's option is used. Estimating the model in a structural econometric way, and using counterfactual comparisons, we find that the buyer's option does not affect the seller's revenue (relative to a system where the units are auctioned sequentially without the option). Drouot, however, saves a lot of time with the option and this effect represents a considerable amount of money. The time-saving effect seems thus to be the primary purpose of the buyer's option. " Copyright Blackwell Publishing 2005.
Adding a Freight Network to a National Interstate Input-Output Model: Implications for California

In this study, the authors develop a model which allows for the analysis of the economic consequences of a terrorist attack on any major element of the U.S. highway network. This is accomplished by adding a freight network to a national multiregional economic impact model and making freight traffic flows endogenous. The approach is based on the National Interstate Economic Model (NIEMO) and is further elaborated as TransNIEMO (Transportation network and the National Interstate Economic Model). The new model enables the state-specific and industry-specific economic impacts of any significant changes in the nature of highway freight movements to be studied. While the model was tested for selected freight movements in and out of California, the results are encouraging enough to have the model elaborated and tested for hypothetical disruptions of freight traffic throughout the U.S.
ON THE CHARACTERIZATION OF SUCTION IN SWELLING CLAY

The analysis of wetting and consequent swelling of unsaturated clays requires the specification of water potential in the unsaturated regime. Conventional characterization of water potential in unsaturated soils is done in terms of "retention curves" that specify a relation between suction and water content. In all conceptual models of unsaturated soils, suction is assumed to depend on the geometry of the "water-filled pore space. " A first order characterization of this geometry is proposed in terms of water content, void ratio, and initial conditions. Despite this fact, conventional retention curves are presented as a relation between suction and water content, regardless of the void ratio. Moreover, in conventional laboratory techniques for the determination of suction there is no control over the void ratio, and each point on the retention curve corresponds to a different void ratio if swelling soil is tested. The present paper presents a laboratory technique for the determination of suction as a function of water content, void ratio, and initial conditions. Preliminary experimental results show that void ratio may have a substantial effect on suction, particularly in the low suction range. It is also demonstrated that the dependence of suction on void ratio has a significant effect on the analysis of the flow and swelling processes, to the extent that use of conventional suction curves in the analysis may lead to unreasonable results.
Technology implementation barriers in the Malaysian herbal industry: A case study in northern Malaysia

Technology is an essential component in all types of organisations and most organisations have reasons to implement new technology.The most fundamental justification for new technology implementation is that the technology must be able to contribute to strong competitive advantages and also increase or create long-term profit.In most small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there are barriers or obstacles in implementing these technologies.This paper the qualitative study aimed in investigating barriers faced by the Malaysian herbal industry in implementing technologies in their factory.Most of the local herbal manufacturing firms are categorised as SMEs which are usually considered to be lagged behind larger companies in technology usage. As this was an exploratory research, a case study method is used as it gave us the in dept exploration in order to develop and understand the importance of the identified variables our qualitative results suggest that the main constraints in implementing technologies are lack of technical specialist and capital and also internal managerial problem
Factors affecting student adoption of microblogging tools: A test of competing models

As new technologies develop, educators explore the feasibility of using these technologies to improve learning. Microblogging is one such technology. Given the propensity of students to use micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, it is important to understand whether these technologies would be adopted by students for educational use. This study explores whether students will adopt twitter as a supplemental learning tool. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has be used extensively to understand adoption but it has been criticized for being too parsimonious to generalize across gender and culture. An alternate model, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) has since been proposed to address this failing. Hence, in this study, two competing models were tested using two sample s: a sample of US students and a sample of female Qatari students. Hence, the study will not only inform practice by providing information about a potential educational delivery method, it will provide additional evidence on the generalizability of studies based on these two models of technology adoption.
C

We present Hubble Space Telescope optical coronagraphic polarization imaging observations of the dusty debris disk HD 61005. The scattered light intensity image and polarization structure reveal a highly inclined disk with a clear asymmetric, swept back component, suggestive of significant interaction with the ambient interstellar medium (ISM). The combination of our new data with the published 1.1 μm discovery image shows that the grains are blue scattering with no strong color gradient as a function of radius, implying predominantly submicron-sized grains. We investigate possible explanations that could account for the observed swept back, asymmetric morphology. Previous work has suggested that HD 61005 may be interacting with a cold, unusually dense interstellar cloud. However, limits on the intervening interstellar gas column density from an optical spectrum of HD 61005 in the Na i D lines render this possibility unlikely. Instead, HD 61005 may be embedded in a more typical warm, low-density cloud that introduces secular perturbations to dust grain orbits. This mechanism can significantly distort the ensemble disk structure within a typical cloud crossing time. For a counterintuitive relative flow direction—parallel to the disk midplane—we find that the structures generated by these distortions can very roughly approximate the HD 61005 morphology. Future observational studies constraining the direction of the relative ISM flow will thus provide an important constraint for future modeling. Independent of the interpretation for HD 61005, we expect that interstellar gas drag likely plays a role in producing asymmetries observed in other debris disk systems, such as HD 15115 and δ Velorum.
UDEC - A Generalised Distinct Element Program for Modelling Jointed Rock.

Abstract : A NEW COMPUTER PROGRAM, UDEC, has been developed which simulates the behavior of jointed rock masses subjected to high and transient loadings. It is an explicit, time-marching procedure that models assemblages of discrete blocks or particles that interact mechanically. The program includes modes that describe the behavior of rigid blocks, simple deformability, and full deformability. The modes and other components are also designed to interact so as to model other kinds of physical behavior, such as fluid interaction, edge-to-edge contact, and soft corners. (Author)
Implementing a Corporate Repository: The Models Meet Reality

Partial table of contents: TODAY'S MODELS AND THEIR ROLE IN APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Good CASE Environments Evaluating Today's Models Creating Models from Code THE MODELING ENVIRONMENT The Current MIS Perspective on Modeling INTEGRATING TODAY'S MODELS: THE NEED FOR A BRIDGE Viewing Models Through the Eyes of the Tool CASE Metadata THE REPOSITORY AS THE BRIDGE A Repository's Purpose A Look at Repository Standards Distributed Repositories REPOSITORY IMPLEMENTATION Getting There: Step 2 Model Integration Establishing and Populating the Repository Putting the Repository to Use References Index.