Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recursive track-before-detect with target amplitude fluctuations

A particle-based track-before-detect filtering algorithm is presented. This algorithm incorporates the Swerling family of target amplitude fluctuation models in order to capture the effect of radar cross-section changes that a target would present to a sensor over time. The filter is designed with an existence variable, to determine the presence of a target in the data, and an efficient method of incorporating this variable in a particle filter scheme is developed. Results of the algorithm on simulated data show a significant gain in detection performance through accurately modelling the target amplitude fluctuations.
Designing A Shorter Form of the Big Three Perfectionism Scale: An Application of Ant Colony Optimization

The present study has two main purposes. The first is to create a short form of the BTPS and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the short form. The second is to evaluate the performance of the ant colony optimization procedure and discuss the applicability of the ant colony optimization procedure in creating a short form. Results revealed that the 30-item short form of the BTPS can be applied to psychological or educational assessment settings to obtain valid and reliable results related to ten different facets of perfectionism. The current study also showed that the ant colony optimization procedure can be used to create the best short form which has variance, reliability, and high factor correlations between original and short versions of a scale.
Endogenous biomarkers reveal diet partitioning among three sympatric species of swallows

ABSTRACT Since the early 1990s, aerial insectivorous birds have shown serious population declines in North America, but it is not clear if factors common to all species within this guild account for these declines. Among sympatric swallows, population trends differ, and this may be due to differences in ecology operating throughout the annual cycle. Although these species all feed on aerial insects, prey taxa can differ tremendously in their “aeroecology” and use by swallows. We examined the potential for dietary differences among three species of swallows, Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota), and Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), breeding sympatrically in southern Ontario, Canada. Potential interspecific differences in nestling diet were examined using two endogenous biomarkers, DNA barcoding of nestling feces and stable isotope analysis (δ2H, δ13C, δ15N) of nestling feathers. We found evidence for differences in dietary sources of provisioned young where Barn Swallows provisioned more terrestrial-based prey, Cliff Swallows provisioned an intermediate diet, and Tree Swallows the most aquatic-emergent insect diet. We suggest this information may help to identify potential factors contributing to differential declines of aerial insectivores operating on the breeding grounds, including diet quality. LAY SUMMARY Diets of migratory aerial insectivorous birds are flying insects, caught almost exclusively on the wing. This guild has been declining throughout North America but causes of declines are generally unknown. We investigated nestling diets of three species of swallows breeding in the same area in southern Ontario. We thought there would be important differences in the diet among them which would facilitate coexistence. Nestling diet was determined using two approaches, extracting insect DNA from feces and comparing results to a barcode database of diet species/taxa and measuring diet in birds using naturally occurring stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), and hydrogen (δ2H). Nestling diets of all three species differed and importantly show that dependence on aquatic emergent insects was greatest in Tree Swallows, intermediate in Cliff Swallows and least in Barn Swallows. These analyses will inform ideas about differing reasons for population declines of swallow species in North America.
Design and Development of HTR-PM Reactor Protection System

High Temperature gas-cooled Reactor-Pebble bed Module (HTR-PM) Reactor Protection System (RPS) is a dedicated system to be designed and developed according to HTR-PM Nuclear Power Plant reactor protection specifications. HTR-PM RPS has the framework of four redundant channels and has two independent and diverse subsystem x and subsystem y to perform different protection functions, which would decrease the potential common cause failure caused by software and increase the system reliability.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
EMS-vision: gaze control in autonomous vehicles

The paper describes an approach to an optimal gaze control system for autonomous vehicles. This gaze control system should not only determine the viewing direction ad hoc for the present moment, but also plan and optimize the viewing behavior in advance for a certain period of time. For planning the viewing behavior the situation must be predicted. The expression 'situation' includes not only the physical situation, but also the so-called perceptive situation and subjective situation. The perceptive situation takes the present perception status, the present knowledge and the perception capabilities of the autonomous vehicle into consideration. The subjective situation contains locomotion tasks, status of vehicle sensors and actuators and subjective meanings of external objects resulting from the own point of view. For simulating the situation, the states and variances of all objects must be predicted. In the system for EMS-Vision, parts of the gaze control unit are already implemented and tested in both UBM test vehicles VaMoRs and VaMP. The embedding of the gaze control unit in the EMS-Vision architecture is discussed.
Approaches to evaluating the effect of ICT on student learning

This starter guide gives a broad overview of issues surrounding the evaluation of the effectiveness of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) environments. Unfortunately, there is no 18magic bullet 19 which will tell you simply and easily that a certain application of ICT has had an effect on student learning. Indeed, we can 19t evaluate ICT in isolation 13 we have to look at student learning in the teaching and learning environment as a whole. This guide is aimed at teaching staff and project managers involved in developing ICT applications. We will focus on the hardest part 13 planning an evaluation study. Once a plan is in place, people with social science research skills can be employed to do much of the leg-work of the study.
Is User-Validation Necessary for a Spanish Translation of the Microsoft Product Reaction Cards Tool?

Current research on Hispanic consumers focuses on Hispanics as a market segment, not their user experience, usability preferences, or cultural differences. This study evaluated the effectiveness of three versions of the Microsoft Product Reaction Cards (MPRC) tool in Spanish when capturing user experience feedback from Hispanic consumers. Since the MPRC tool has never been used in Spanish there was a need to determine whether a user-validated translation can enhance user feedback from Hispanic Consumers better than a direct translation or a translator-validated translation of the same tool. The goal was to determine whether there were any differences in the feedback elicited from Hispanic participants based on the type of Spanish translation of the MPRC tool they were provided (direct translation, translator-validated, and user-validated). The direct translation of the MPRC was done by using the first choice provided in Spanish to the English word in Google Translate. The exact wording provided in Spanish was used as the direct translation for the English word. The translator-validated translation was created by one translator after revising the results from the direct translation. The user-validated translation was created based on an online study with 52 bilingual participants in English and Spanish. Results indicate that the participants in the direct-translation list and translator-validated list were not significantly more satisfied than the participants using the user-validated list. Furthermore, translation quality ratings were not significantly higher for the translator and user-validated translation conditions. Participants seemed resilient to translation quality perhaps due to their bilingualism. Future research should address the effects of bilingualism on reading comprehension of material with poor translation quality.
Connecting the Dots: Links Between Teacher Knowledge, Print Exposure and Planning for Instruction

To deliver high quality English Language Arts Instruction, teachers must possess specific content knowledge in order to develop a well-rounded instructional program. The aim of the present study was two-fold; first, to investigate correlations between pre-service teachers’ print exposure, their knowledge of print exposure, and how they plan for instruction (N = 35); second, to deepen knowledge of print exposure through a two-week intervention and determine if successfully deepening knowledge affects a change in planning for instruction. The first experiment revealed correlations between participants’ print exposure, their knowledge of print exposure and related concepts, and how much time they allocate for student reading. The second experiment employed an experimental design with participants randomly assigned into an experimental group (n = 17) or a control group (n = 18). The investigation showed that knowledge of print exposure can be significantly increased through a two-week intervention, and that this knowledge had a significant effect on how much time participants allocated for student reading when planning for instruction.
Vector approach for self-excitation and control of induction machine in stand-alone wind power generation

This study presents a detailed investigation on self-excitation of a squirrel-cage induction generator (SCIG) used in a wind energy conversion system. Air-gap flux of the SCIG is gradually built up through controlled current injection from a voltage source converter (VSC), connected directly across its stator terminals. Dc voltage of the VSC is ramped from a small initial value, which is the rectified output of the small terminal voltage developed because of remanent magnetism. Increase in air-gap flux increases generator terminal voltage and output power which further increases the dc bus voltage. The field-oriented control method is appropriately applied both for control of voltage build-up as well as dynamic transients. The critical factors deciding this collaborative excitation are analysed and sufficient conditions are derived analytically. System modelling and analytical results are validated through numerical simulation and verified on a 2.2 kW laboratory prototype.
Efficiency improvement of piezoelectric-transformer DC-DC converter

Piezoelectric-transformers (PT) have a lot of merits in comparison with magnetic transformers. We have previously presented some types of piezoelectric-transformer DC-DC converters (PT-converters) for AC-adapters, but their efficiency was restricted. The maximum efficiency was less than 80%. Furthermore, the frequency characteristics of efficiency are not good due to the power loss generated in the input filter circuit of the PT. In this paper the improvement of the converter efficiency by using a different rectifier circuit topology and a synchronous-rectifier technique is described. Furthermore, the frequency characteristics of efficiency are improved by using a different topology of the input filter circuit and its optimum design. As a result, the converter efficiency has been increased up to 88% and the frequency characteristics of the efficiency is also improved.
Detecting Excessive Daytime Sleepiness With CNN And Commercial Grade EEG

Epworth sleepiness scale is a self-assessment method in sleep medicine that has been proven to be a good predictor of obstructive sleep apnea. However, the over-reliance of the method making the process not socially distancing friendly enough in response to a global covid-19 pandemic. A study states that the Epworth sleepiness scale is correlated with the brainwave signal that commercial-grade EEG can capture. This study tried to train a classifier powered by CNN and deep learning that could perform as well as the Epworth with the objectiveness of brainwave signal. We test the classifier using the 20 university student using the Epworth sleepiness test beforehand. Then, we put the participant in 10 minutes EEG session, downsampling the data for normalization purposes and trying to predict the outcome of the ESS in respect of their brainwave state. The AI predict the reaching 65% of accuracy and 81% of sensitivity with just under 100.000 dataset which is excellent considering small dataset although this still have plenty room for improvement.
ANALISIS FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI KEPUTUSAN PASANGAN USIA SUBUR DALAM PENGGUNAAN ALAT KONTRASEPSI DI KABUPATEN BADUNG

This study aims to: 1) analyze the effect of age, education level, number of children, husband's support, role of family planning officers, and public perception simultaneously on the decision of fertile age couples (PUS) in the use of contraceptives in Badung Regency. 2) analyze the effect of age, education level, number of children, husband's support, role of family planning officers, and partial public perception of the decision of fertile age couples (PUS) in the use of contraceptives in Badung Regency. The research population was all couples of childbearing age (PUS) in Badung Regency, with a total sample of 156 respondents determined by the slovin method. The research method used is observation, structured interviews, and in-depth interviews. The data analysis techniques used were descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and logistic regression analysis. The results of the study found that age, education level, number of children, husband's support, role of family planning officers, and public perception simultaneously had a significant effect on the use of contraceptives in Badung Regency. Then, age, number of children, husband's support, and public perception partially have a positive and significant effect on the use of contraceptives, while the level of education and the role of family planning officers partially have no significant effect on the use of contraceptives.
DIRECT DIGITAL DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF MESHING IN WORM-GEAR DRIVE

A direct digital design method (DDDM) of worm-gear drive is proposed. It is directly based on the simulation of manufacturing process and completely different from the conventional modeling method. The loaded tooth contact analysis (LTCA) method is analyzed, in which the advanced surface to surface searching technique is included. The influence of misalignment errors and contact deformations on contact zone and transmission error (TE) is discussed. Combined modification approach on worm tooth surface is presented. By means of DDDM and LTCA, it is very convenient to verify the effect of worm-gear drive's modification approach. The analysis results show that, the modification in profile direction reduces the sensitivity of worm-gear drive to misalignment errors and the modification in longitudinal direction decreases the TE. Thus the optimization design of worm-gear drive can be achieved prior to the actual manufacturing process.
Ethanol diesel dual fuel clean combustion with FPGA enabled control

Sophisticated engine controls have progressively become vital enablers for implementing clean and efficient combustion. The low temperature combustion in diesel engines is a viable combustion mode that offers ultra-low nitrogen oxides and dry soot emissions, yet only feasible under tightly controlled operating conditions. In this work, the dual fuel application of ethanol and diesel is studied for clean and efficient combustion. A set of real-time controllers has been configured to control the common-rail pressure and injection events, in concert with the use of two fuels in a high compression ratio diesel engine. An improved control algorithm has been implemented into the field programmable gate array devices to promptly execute the injection commands of the port and direct injection events. Such reliable and prompt control of fuel injection has been identified as critical to safely enable simultaneously low nitrogen oxides and soot combustion, especially when excessive or inadequate rate of exhaust gas recirculation is imminent. High load clean combustion was achieved with the improved control system.
Most effective mean for lactate clearance in Olympic wrestling (Medio más eficaz en el aclaramiento de lactato en luchadores olímpicos)

This research project determined the most effective training mean for lactate clearance using the subaerobic functional area in Olympic wrestling athletes of the freestyle modality. Eight Olympic wrestlers participated (age: 20.1±2.74 years), using a four-phase crossover study design, in which the athlete performed active recovery alternating each of the training means (Elliptical machine, treadmill, crank ergometer and stationary bicycle); lactate samples were taken 5 minutes after each bout and 15 minutes after finishing the active recovery. The elliptical machine presented the highest average efficiency, with 56.6%, followed by the treadmill with a 54.1% efficiency average; the repeated measures ANOVA F test evidenced differences among the means (p = .001). Likewise, differences were found when performing the post hoc comparisons of minimal significant difference, between the elliptical machine with respect to the crank ergometer (p = .001) and the stationary bicycle (p = .007), but they were not registered between the elliptical machine and the treadmill (p = .737). Of the means analyzed in this study, the highest efficiency in the process of blood lactate clearance during active recovery was evidenced by the elliptical machine and treadmill. Resumen. La presente investigación determinó el medio de entrenamiento más eficaz en el aclaramiento de lactato utilizando el área funcional subaeróbica en deportistas de lucha olímpica de la modalidad de libre. Participaron ocho luchadores olímpicos (edad: 20.1±2.74 años), utilizando un diseño de estudio cruzado de cuatro fases, en el que el deportista realizó la recuperación activa alternando cada uno de los medios de entrenamiento (Elíptica, banda trotadora, ergómetro de manivela y cicla estática); las muestras de lactato fueron tomadas a los 5 min finalizado cada combate y a los 15 min de terminar la recuperación activa. La elíptica presentó el mayor promedio de eficacia, con un 56.6%, seguido de la banda trotadora con un 54.1%; la prueba F de ANOVA de medidas repetidas evidenció diferencias entre los medios (p = .001). Asimismo, se encontraron diferencias al realizar las comparaciones post hoc de diferencia mínima significativa, entre la elíptica con respecto al ergómetro de manivela (p = .001) y la cicla estática (p = .007), pero no se registraron entre la elíptica y la banda trotadora (p = .737). De los medios analizados en este estudio, la mayor eficacia en el proceso de aclaramiento de lactato sanguíneo durante la recuperación activa, lo evidenciaron la elíptica y la banda trotadora.
Modified Sierpinski square fractal antenna covering ultra-wide band application with band notch characteristics

A microstrip line feed modified Sierpinski square fractal antenna for ultra-wide band (UWB) with band notch characteristics is presented. UWB operation (3.1–10.6 GHz) is achieved by increasing the numbers of iteration and rectangular grooved ground plane. The band rejection characteristic is realised by a ∩ -slot in the feed line. The proposed antenna has a volume 34 × 34 × 1.6 mm3 with a square shape structure and shows omnidirectional radiation patterns. The measurement results indicate that the antenna offers UWB operation and a notch at 5.5 GHz (5–6 GHz) for a reflection coefficient below −10 dB which covers the wireless local area network band. Acceptable agreement is obtained between the simulated and measured antenna performance parameters. These characteristics demonstrate that the proposed antenna is an attractive candidate for UWB applications.
Photovoltaic-powered water pumping-design, and implementation: case studies in Wyoming

A photovoltaic-powered water pumping project comprising of several rural electric cooperatives and their customers is described in detail. A number of remote water pumping installations in the state of Wyoming, USA, are currently operating as a result of this project. The design, installation and performance monitoring of these systems are discussed. In general, it can be stated that PV-powered water pumping in this state has been a cost-effective alternative to distribution line extension or other conventional means of water pumping. Customer satisfaction, in terms of functional adequacy and low maintenance requirements of these systems, is high. The benefit for the electric utilities concerned, are cost savings and better customer relations. >
Analysis on Peeping Image Enhancement of Coal Mine Borehole Based on Wavelet Packet Decomposition

According to the characteristics of wavelet packet decomposition and reconstruction, an image enhancement method is put forward by decomposing wavelet packet and adjusting enhancement coefficient of band signal by the energy size. First, borehole peep images were decomposed by wavelet packet, and obtained the signal bandwidth of each layer after wavelet packet decomposition combined with Fourier transform. Secondly, energy of each band signal was calculated, wavelet packet decomposition coefficients according to the size of band energy were enhanced and weakened. Finally, the wavelet packet images were reconstructed. Project case indicates that this method can effectively enhance the images, especially the information of fractured surrounding rock.
Velocity‐Porosity Relations in Carbonate and Siliciclastic Subduction Zone Input Materials

The mechanical, physical, and frictional properties of incoming materials play an important role in subduction zone structure and slip behavior because these properties influence the strength of the accretionary wedge and megathrust plate boundary faults. Incoming sediment sections often show an increase in compressional wave speed (Vp) and a decrease in porosity with depth due to consolidation. These relations allow seismic‐velocity models to be used to elucidate properties and conditions at depth. However, variations in these properties are controlled by lithology and composition as well as cementation and diagenesis. We present an analysis of shipboard measurements of Vp and porosity on incoming sediment cores from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) expeditions at the Hikurangi Margin, Nankai Trough, Aleutian Trench, Middle America Trench, and Sunda Trench. Porosity for these samples ranges from 5% to 85% and Vp ranges from 1.5 to 6 km/s. Vp‐porosity relations developed by Erikson & Jarrad (1998), https://doi.org/10.1029/98JB02128 and Hoffman & Tobin (2004) https://10.2973/odp.proc.sr.190196. 355.2004, with a critical porosity of ∼30%, can represent carbonate‐poor (<50 wt% CaCO3), mainly hemipelagic, incoming sediment regardless of the margin. But these relations tend to underestimate porosity in incoming sediments with carbonate content greater than 50 wt%, which appear to have a critical porosity of between 45% and 50%. This discrepancy will lead to inaccuracy in estimates of fluid budget and overpressure in subduction zones. The velocity‐porosity relation in carbonate sediments is non‐unique due to the complexity that results from the greater susceptibility of carbonate rocks to diagenetic processes.