Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk-Safety Factor Relation for Storm Sewer Design

Recently, the writers proposed a new method for optimal design of diameters and slopes of pipes of storm sewer networks. Uncertainties from various sources are considered and a tradeoff is made between potential rainstorm flood damages and the coast of installation of the sewers. One key step in the proposed method is the establishment of the risk-safety factor relationship. Through a numerical example, this paper presents the details of procedure to establish the risk-safety factor relationship. The usefulness of the relationship so established is neither restricted to the optimal design method proposed.
A vision-based approach for the direct measurement of displacements in vibrating systems

This paper reports the results of an analytical and experimental study to develop, calibrate, implement and evaluate the feasibility of a novel vision-based approach for obtaining direct measurements of the absolute displacement time history at selectable locations of dispersed civil infrastructure systems such as long-span bridges. The measurements were obtained using a highly accurate camera in conjunction with a laser tracking reference. Calibration of the vision system was conducted in the lab to establish performance envelopes and data processing algorithms to extract the needed information from the captured vision scene. Subsequently, the monitoring apparatus was installed in the vicinity of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in the metropolitan Los Angeles region. This allowed the deployment of the instrumentation system under realistic conditions so as to determine field implementation issues that need to be addressed. It is shown that the proposed approach has the potential of leading to an economical and robust system for obtaining direct, simultaneous, measurements at several locations of the displacement time histories of realistic infrastructure systems undergoing complex three-dimensional deformations.
DNA metabarcoding reveals broadly overlapping diets in three sympatric North American hummingbirds

ABSTRACT Hummingbirds, a highly diverse avian family, are specialized vertebrate pollinators that feed upon carbohydrate-rich nectar to fuel their fast metabolism while consuming invertebrates to obtain protein. Previous work has found that morphologically diverse hummingbird communities exhibit higher diet specialization on floral resources than morphologically similar hummingbird communities. Due to the difficulties of studying avian diets, we have little understanding whether hummingbirds show similar patterns with their invertebrate prey. Here, we use DNA metabarcoding to analyze floral and invertebrate diets of 3 species of sympatric North American hummingbirds. We collected fecal samples from 89 Anna's (Calypte anna), 39 Black-chinned (Archilochus alexandri), and 29 Calliope (Selasphorus calliope) hummingbirds in urban and rural localities as well as across an elevational gradient from sea level to 2,500 meters above sea level in California, USA. We found hummingbirds showed high dietary overlap in both invertebrate and plant resources, with few invertebrate and plant families common to most individuals and many families found in only a few individuals. Chironomidae was the most common invertebrate family across all species, and Rosaceae and Orobanchaceae were the most common plant families. Anna's Hummingbirds had significantly higher invertebrate diet diversity than Black-chinned Hummingbirds when found at the same sites, but we found no difference in plant diet diversity among any of the 3 species. Hummingbirds in urban sites had higher plant diet diversity than in rural sites, but we found no effect of elevation on dietary richness. Our study shows how DNA metabarcoding can be used to non-invasively investigate previously unknown life-histories of well-studied birds, lending insight to community structure, function, and evolution. LAY SUMMARY We used DNA metabarcoding on genetic remnants in feces to identify which kinds of flowering plants and invertebrates (insects and spiders) three North American species of hummingbirds use for food. We provide the first report that includes all the components of the diet for Anna's, Black-chinned, and Calliope hummingbirds. We found that all three species eat the same collection of invertebrates and flower nectars; none of them specialize on one or a few kinds of food.
LIMITING FACTORS AFFECTING HAWAIIAN NATIVE BIRDS

Hawai‘i has lost more than half of its endemic avifauna. Causes have varied, but habitat loss, hunting, predation by introduced predators, and disease are those for which we have the best evidence. With the exception of actions taken on behalf of birds in the Leeward Islands, the scale of management actions has not matched the scale of the threats. Species like the ‘Akiapola‘au (Hemignathus munroi), ‘Akepa (Loxops coccineus), Palila (Loxioides bailleui), and Po‘ouli (Melamprosops phaeosoma) are threatened over their entire range. Despite this, management actions are typically limited to areas less than 1% of species ranges. In the absence of any near future means to eliminate avian diseases, the survival of Hawai‘i’s endemic avifauna depends on elimination of habitat modifiers such as feral cattle (Bos taurus), pigs (Sus scrofa), goats (Cupra hircus), feral sheep (Ovis aries), and mouflon (&is musimon). Introduced predators such as cats (Felis catcts), rats (Rattus spp.), feral dogs (Canis ,familiaris), and small Indian mongoose (Herpesfes auropuncfatus) must be eliminated or significantly reduced in numbers over all, or a significant part of, the ranges of the threatened and endangered species of the islands. Failure to do so will result in all but two or three of the commonest species becoming extinct.
Multiregime Adaptive Signal Control for Congested Urban Roadway Networks

A hierarchical adaptive signal control was developed and implemented in New York City to manage congestion in a complex urban roadway environment. Control strategies, including strategically regulating traffic demand and balancing the queue–storage ratio at critical intersections, work in concert to systematically alleviate congestion and improve mobility. The high usage of electronic toll collection tags in this area allows large amounts of per trip travel time data to be collected (nearly 1 million per trip travel time records daily) and used in real time for effective control. Congestion levels are mapped to different control regimes. Various demand-regulating strategies are applied at the peripheral roadways of the target control zone. These strategies proactively employ signal offsets and splits to exert a tapering and rebalancing effect on the traffic. Demand regulation results in a better use of available network storage spaces while preserving the capacity of the target control zone. Inside the target control area, a dynamic queue-balancing strategy is implemented at selected critical intersections to prevent propagation of spillovers with stabilized or diminished queues. The initial implementation covered 110 intersections in the highly congested central business district of midtown Manhattan New York City. Results to date are summarized.
Coded Modulation and Impairment Compensation Techniques in Optical Fiber Communication

This chapter deals with coded modulation and impairment compensation techniques in optical fiber communication. Probabilistic shaping is a new coded modulation technology, which can reduce transmission power by precoding, reduce bit error rate and improve communication rate. We proposed a probabilistic shaping 16QAM modulation scheme based on trellis coded modulation. Experimental results show that this scheme can achieve better optical SNR gain and BER performance. On the other hand, in order to meet the demand of transmission rate of next generation high speed optical communication systems, multi-dimensional modulation and coherent detection are sufficiently applied. The imperfect characteristics of optoelectronic devices and fiber link bring serious impairments to the high baudrate and high order modulation format signal, causes of performance impairment are analyzed, pre-compensation and receiver side’s DSP techniques designed for coherent systems are introduced.
ASE reflector-based gain-clamped erbium-doped fiber amplifier using an optical interleaver

We use a 50-GHz optical interleaver for the reflection of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) to realize ASE reflector-based gain-clamped erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. The amplifier schemes can secure International Telecommunications Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector grids with 100-GHz channel spacing in the whole conventional band (C-band) for signal amplification gain-clamping characteristics including dynamic ranges lower than -7 dBm are successfully demonstrated.
Education is forbidden : The effect of the Boko Haram conflict on schooling in Nigeria∗

This paper studies the effect of the Boko Haram conflict on schooling in Northern Nigeria. We combine individual level data from three rounds of the Nigeria General Household Survey Panel (GHS-Panel) to detailed geo-referenced conflict data. Using different econometric strategies, we estimate the effect of conflict on both school attainment and attendance. We find that a one standard deviation increase in the number of fatalities in the 20 km radius of each household decreases the number of completed years of education for the cohort exposed to conflict during primary school by 0.6 years, compared to the non-exposed cohort, which translates into a 10 percent drop relative to the average educational achievement. At the same time, controlling for individual heterogeneity, we find that a one standard deviation increase in conflict intensity reduces the probability to be enrolled by 0.5 points. Our results are robust to different econometric specifications, variable definitions, and alternative measures of conflict intensity. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence of the conflict-induced reduction in household wealth as a possible mechanism explaining the negative effect of conflict on schooling.
Impact of cherry picking strategy on medical products' marketing: Moderating role of salesperson gender

*Corresponding Author Email: tareq.hashem@iu.edu. jo The current study aimed at examining the influence of cherry-picking strategy on medical products through the moderating role of salesperson gender. Study adopted the quantitative approach through utilizing the questionnaire as a tool. The questionnaire included statements related to study variables (cherry picking, medical marketing and salesperson gender) on liker 5 scale. Results of study indicated that there an influence of cherrypicking marketing strategy on medical product, in addition to that, salesperson gender moderates the relationship between the dependent and independent variable. Study recommended focusing more on experience of salesperson in addition to increase the attention on gender and its role in moderating the process of marketing and purchase decision.
Impact of technology scaling in SOI back-channel total dose tolerance, a 2-D numerical study using self-consistent oxide code

A new 2D-self-consistent code has been developed and is applied to the understanding of charge trapping in SOI buried oxides and its effect on back-channel MOS leakage in SOI transistors. 2D effects, field-collapse and field-enhancement are observed. Clear indications on scaling trends are obtained with respect to supply voltage and oxide thickness. In thinner oxides, 2D effects are observed for example, the onset of back-channel leakage current is found to be related to the ratio of the channel length on the oxide thickness.
Faculty Supporting Faculty… Supporting Students: Peer Observation and Responsive Teaching Innovations

Dr. Glory Tobiason is Clinical Faculty in the Education Department at the University of California Los Angeles. Her research focuses on understanding and supporting the work of teachers—and in particular on how to develop faculty as teachers through nonevaluative, collaborative peer observation. She teaches graduate and undergraduate research methods courses, and prior to entering academia, she spent nine delightful years as a teacher in primary and secondary schools.
Communicative Interactive Partially Observable Monte Carlo Planning

Communicative Interactive POMDPs (CIPOMDPs) provide a ToM (Theory of Mind) approach to interaction and communication among agents in a partially observable stochastic environment. The sophistication of nested opponent modeling comes at a high computation cost. Monte Carlo simulations provide a highly efﬁcient technique for both tree search and belief state updates. As POMCP has been shown to scale well to POMDP problems with large state spaces, we adopt the technique to communicative interactive POMDPs. The approach provides scalability for a higher time horizon when the number of interactive states explodes in size and signiﬁ-cantly improves time for policy computation compared to the ofﬂine point-based approach.
Analysis of stable limit cycle in passive walking

Passive walking robot without actuator and control could dynamically walk down by the interaction between walker's dynamics and environment. Furthermore, this motion is attractive because its gait is natural. It has been suggested that the dynamics of passive walking inherently generates gait cycle. And, it is interesting to note that this robot exhibits a stable limit cycle and its gait bifurcates for larger slope angle. Dynamics of passive walking may give us the key to understand human locomotion and to develop better biped robots. Many researchers have studied this category of biped robot. However, its mechanisms are not well understood for now. In this paper, we focus on the stable limit cycle and analyze its dynamics.
Irma 5.2 multi-sensor signature prediction model

The Irma synthetic signature prediction code is being developed by the Munitions Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/RW) to facilitate the research and development of multi-sensor systems. There are over 130 users within the Department of Defense, NASA, Department of Transportation, academia, and industry. Irma began as a high-resolution, physics-based Infrared (IR) target and background signature model for tactical weapon applications and has grown to include: a laser (or active) channel (1990), improved scene generator to support correlated frame-to-frame imagery (1992), and passive IR/millimeter wave (MMW) channel for a co-registered active/passive IR/MMW model (1994). Irma version 5.0 was released in 2000 and encompassed several upgrades to both the physical models and software; host support was expanded to Windows, Linux, Solaris, and SGI Irix platforms. In 2005, version 5.1 was released after extensive verification and validation of an upgraded and reengineered ladar channel. The reengineering effort then shifted focus to the Irma passive channel. Field measurements for the validation effort include both polarized and unpolarized data collection. Irma 5.2 was released in 2007 with a reengineered passive channel. This paper summarizes the capabilities of Irma and the progress toward Irma 5.3, which includes a reengineered radar channel.
Short and Medium Term Mine Planning in Selective Underground Mining considering Equipment Performance

Generally, mine planning is undertaken towards the development of production plans using fixed parameters, which provide little flexibility towards changing production plans in case of unplanned events. Therefore, it is important to introduce variables during the planning process, which would allow the mine planning to have a better alignment with real mining conditions and would allow the decrease in the operational uncertainty towards the development of a more agile production plan. The mine layout grows every day but it is very common that the equipment productivity is calculated with fixed parameters, which does not consider the size of the new developments and, thus, it does not consider the changing performance of the equipment, which will affect the mine production because of the associated changes in haulage time, variability in the equipment ́s tasks and other influences resulting from the changing mine layout. This paper evaluates influence of the changes in the equipment performances over a shortand medium-term mine plans on the mine production. The results show that the change in scheduling and sequencing of the activities and the new mine plan are more realistic when equipment performance is included in the evaluation in comparison with a scheduling that only considers resources constraints. The methodology was developed using tools currently available at the DELPHOS Mine Planning Laboratory, UDESS and DSIM, and by simulating the working scenario with varying performance of the equipment.
ECG for high-throughput screening of multiple diseases: Proof-of-concept using multi-diagnosis deep learning from population-based datasets

Electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities are linked to cardiovascular diseases, but may also occur in other non-cardiovascular conditions such as mental, neurological, metabolic and infectious conditions. However, most of the recent success of deep learning (DL) based diagnostic predictions in selected patient cohorts have been limited to a small set of cardiac diseases. In this study, we use a population-based dataset of>250,000 patients with>1000 medical conditions and>2 million ECGs to identify a wide range of diseases that could be accurately diagnosed from the patient's first in-hospital ECG. Our DL models uncovered 128 diseases and 68 disease categories with strong discriminative performance.
A Functional Classification Framework for the Conceptual Design of Layered Manufacturing Technologies

There exist many different layered manufacturing technologies for the realization of prototypes and fully-functional artifacts. Although extremely different in solution principle and embodiment, there exists functional commonality between each technology. This commonality affords the authors an opportunity to propose a new classification framework for layered manufacturing technologies. In addition to using it as a means of classifying existing processes, the authors present the framework as a tool to aid a designer in the conceptual design of new layered manufacturing technologies. The authors close the paper with an example of such an implementation; specifically, the conceptual design of a novel means of obtaining metal artifacts from three-dimensional printing.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
A BEM And FEM Analysis Of Fluid–structure Interaction In A Double Tank

In this paper we present a fluid–structure interaction analysis of shell structures with compartments partially filled with a liquid. The compound shell was a simplified model of a fuel tank. The shell is considered to be thin and Kirghoff–Lave linear theory hypotheses are applied. The liquid is ideal and incompressible. Its properties and the filling levels may be different in each compartment. The coupled problem is solved using a coupled BEM and FEM in-house solver. The tank structure is modelled by FEM and the liquid sloshing in fluid domain is described by BEM. The method relies on determining the fluid pressure from the system of singular integral equations. For its numerical solution the boundary element method was applied. The boundary of the liquid computational domain is discretized by nine-node boundary elements. The quadratic interpolation of functions and linear interpolation of flux are involved. The natural frequencies were obtained for the cylindrical double tank with two compartments.
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF HYDRAULIC JUMP CHARACTERISTICS IN CONTRACTIONS AND EXPANSIONS

Hydraulic jump is one of the most important phenomena in a rapid changing flow. It occurs when flow change from supercritical into subcritical and there is an increase in the depth over a small distance. In the present study, the characteristics of hydraulic jumps in contractions and expansions with curved walls were investigated for five Froude numbers in the range 5.8<Fr1<9.1. The values of the depths and instantaneous velocities were measured at different locations in the hydraulic jumps throughout the transition. The results of the study indicated that energy dissipation in the contraction compared with the expansion decreased on average by 8.74%. On the other hand, the values of the second depth and the jump length increased by 1.8 and 2.5 cm in average. Also, the findings of the study revealed that as the longitudinal distance from the beginning of jump increased, the maximum amount of Reynolds intensions increased in the contraction and decreased in the expansion.
The Role of Negative Automatic Thoughts as a Mediator in the Relationship between Maternal Attachment and Depressive Symptoms among Late Adolescents of Pakistan

Introduction: Negative automatic thoughts refer to subconscious thinking patterns in response to irrational and self-defeating stimuli. Individuals who are depressed tend to have biased negative automatic thoughts. Therefore, there is a need to refine our understanding of what contributes to the development of adolescent depressive symptoms. The current study examined the mediating role of negative automatic thoughts in the link between maternal attachment and depressive symptoms among late adolescents in Pakistan. Methods: This cross-sectional study focused on 936 (males=423, females=513) students aged 17 to 19 years old, who were selected through multistage cluster sampling technique. Respondents answered self-report questionnaires which assessed maternal attachment, depressive symptoms, and negative automatic thoughts. Structural equation modelling was utilised to analyse the relationships among the research variables. Results: The findings indicated that 39.3% had negative automatic thoughts; whereas, 5.6% experienced severe depressive symptoms. Correlational analysis showed that maternal attachment had a negative association with depressive symptoms and negative automatic thoughts. In contrast, depressive symptoms were positively related to negative automatic thoughts. Structural analysis revealed that negative automatic thoughts partially mediated the association of maternal attachment with depressive symptoms among late adolescents. Findings specifically demonstrated that those with insecure maternal attachment tend to have negative automatic thoughts, which subsequently lead to depressive symptoms. Conclusion: In conclusion, findings highlight the importance of secure attachment to the mother and positive automatic thoughts in combating depressive symptoms; thus ensuring a healthy psychological development for adolescents.
HAPDAR-An Operational Phased Array Radar

The HAPDAR (HArd Point Demonstration Array Radar) described is a multifunction phased array radar in operation at the White Sands Missile Range. The principle design feature is the TACOL (Thinned Aperture Computed Lets) array. The array and system design concepts are discussed and a detailed physical, frmctional, and analytical description of the radar is presented. Recently obtained operational test results OII array pat- terns and multitarget tracking performance are discussed and compared with
Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman

This book introduces the main substantive and theoretical strands of this `turn to culture' through the medium of a particular case study: that of the Sony Walkman. Using the example of the Walkman, the book indicates how and why cultural practices and institutions have come to play such a crucial part in our lives, and introduces some of the central ideas, concepts and methods of analysis involved in conducting cultural studies.