Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulation of Loads on the Carrying Structure of an Articulated Flat Car in Combined Transportation

The article presents the findings of the research into loading on the carrying structure of an articulated flat car under combined transportation. The refined data of dynamic loads on the carrying structure of a flat car under train ferry transportation, as well as the main loading modes in rail track operation were determined by mathematical modeling. The adequacy of the models developed was checked with an F-test. The results of the calculation conducted made it possible to conclude that the hypothesis on adequacy of the models is not rejected. The peculiarities of the structural strength modeling for a flat car within operational loading diagrams are given. The graphics works were conducted in Solid Works. The capacity analysis was conducted by the finite element method in CosmosWorks. The 09G2S steel was used as a construction material. It is determined that the maximum equivalent loads in the flat car support structure do not exceed the admissible loads. Results of the research can be used in designing coupled flat cars to provide their capacity at mixed transportation.
Microbiological treatment of perchlorate contaminated ground waters

There are numerous strains of microorganisms capable of reducing both chlorate and perchlorate under anoxic conditions. These strains can easily be cultivated within biofilm reactors for water and wastewater treatment. Mixed cultures were developed in 14.2-cm long sand columns fed an artificial groundwater amended with acetate, trace minerals and nutrients (ammonia and phosphorus) and contaminated with 20 mg/L of perchlorate. Oxygen was removed within the column by the microbial consortia producing anoxic conditions. Perchlorate was removed to below detectable levels (<4 :g/L) at loading rates of 0.11 gpm/ft; at 0.12 gpm/ft, effluent concentrations were 154 :g/L and increased rapidly with hydraulic loading. These results indicate that it should be possible to treat perchlorate contaminated drinking water either in sand columns during water treatment, or through subsurface bioremediation.
Survey of Clustering Based Financial Fraud Detection Research

Given the current global economic context, increasing efforts are being made to both prevent and detect fraud. This is a natural response to the ascendant trend in fraud activities recorded in the last couple of years, with a 13% increase only in 2011. Due to ever increasing volumes of data needed to be analyzed, data mining methods and techniques are being used more and more often. One domain data mining can excel at, suspicious transaction monitoring, has emerged for the first time as the most effective fraud detection method in 2011. Out of the available data mining techniques, clustering has proven itself a constant applied solution for detecting fraud. This paper surveys clustering techniques used in fraud detection over the last ten years, shortly reviewing each one.
Investigation of Source of Seeps beneath Earthen Dam, Central Massachusetts

Along with design and construction issues related to earthen dams, seeps have been implicated in numerous dam breaches. Geophysics is one technique that can be used to identify areas of possible existing “water seeps” and other high permeability zones within or beneath existing dams. HGI performed such an investigation ad a dam in central Massachusetts using a combination of seismic and GPR methods. Close to 7300 linear feet of GPR and 700 linear feet of MASW data were collected during the survey. In order to provide the greatest resolution and to ensure sufficient signal penetration depth, a multiple frequency GPR program was implemented using 200-, 100-, 70-, and 40-MHz antenna systems. The MASW seismic method was used to obtain data for analyzing the Vs anomalies of soil layers and to provide stratigraphic information to constrain the GPR interpretation, including that for bedrock. The geophysical survey identified areas of possible shallow and deep seepage both within and beneath the dam. These areas were further investigated during a borehole phase of the project. A stratigraphic analysis was also completed to assist in the dam remediation analysis. Till, bedrock surface trends, and other horizons were mapped along the length of the dam. Anomalous shallow seepage zones were detected at a number of locations along the survey traverses, as well as deep seepage potential at and above the bedrock surface. Additional anomalies of interest included a possible former stream channel beneath the dam and an area with a high concentration of boulders.
Development of Josephson voltage standards

Exciting applications of superconductivity are based on the macroscopic quantum state which exists in a superconductor. In this chapter we investigate the behaviour of junctions consisting of two weakly coupled superconductors. These junctions are nowadays called Josephson junctions1 (Josephson, 1962). The macroscopic quantum state results in an exceptional behaviour of these Josephson junctions. They are the basis for various applications in superconductive electronics (cf. Anders et al, 2010), e.g. in the field of metrology for highprecision measurements. The most significant representative of a metrological application is the Josephson voltage standard. This quantum standard enables the reference of the unit of voltage, the volt, just to physical constants. It is nowadays used in many laboratories worldwide for high-precision voltage measurements. The main component of each modern Josephson voltage standard is the highly integrated series array consisting of tens of thousands of Josephson junctions fabricated in thin-film technology. While Josephson junctions are conceptually simple, nearly 50 years of developments were needed to progress from single junctions delivering a few millivolt at most to highly integrated series arrays containing more than 10,000 or even 100,000 junctions. These large series arrays enable the generation of dc and ac voltages at the 10 V level, which is relevant for most applications. Conventional Josephson voltage standards based on underdamped Josephson junctions are used for dc applications. The increasing interest in highly precise ac voltages has stimulated different attempts to develop measurement tools on the basis of Josephson arrays for ac applications, namely programmable Josephson voltage standards containing binary-divided arrays and pulse-driven Josephson voltage standards both based on overdamped Josephson junctions. This chapter describes the development of these modern dc and ac Josephson voltage standards as well as their fundamentals and applications. The development and use of Josephson voltage standards have also been described recently in several review papers (amongst others: Niemeyer, 1998; Hamilton, 2000; Yoshida, 2000; Behr et al., 2002; Kohlmann et al., 2003; Benz & Hamilton, 2004; Jeanneret & Benz, 2009).
Navigating digital publics for playful production: A cross-case analysis of two interest-driven online communities

This article argues that the set of skills and strategies associated with managing digital publics online represent an emergent literacy practice of importance to literacy researchers and educators. Drawing on two case studies of online communities popular with contemporary youth to learn, play, and socialize, we articulate how youth participants strategically negotiate multiple audiences online with varying levels of publicity in order to achieve learning outcomes. In one case, players of a popular productioncentered video game share their content in ways that garner the specific kind of audience and feedback they need for their projects. In another, members of an online fan fiction community analyze and negotiate expectations of their audience in order to craft media that garners attention and sustains readership. Both examples identify how skills centered on navigating and managing publics – that is, multiple audiences that are permeable across a wider public online – constitute a recognizable and important “new literacy” in digitally mediated learning environments. We situate our empirical studies in sociocultural theories of learning and historicize the work in contemporary digital cultures and the general move from the writerreader relationship to writer-audience relationships to more complex relationships within digital publics. The article ends with considerations for literacy researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in technology-mediated practices of today’s youth.
Determination of Particle Charge to Mass Ratio Distribution in Electrostatic Applications : A Brief Review

Charge to mass ratio is a critical parameter that needs to be determined in order to accurately predict behavior of a charged particle exposed to inertial, electrical and gravitational forces. The effectiveness of various electrostatic applications depends directly on this parameter. Much theoretical and experimental research has been devoted to assess the value of the average charge to mass ratio. However its complex nature limits our ability to accurately determine its value when particles of varying size are present. In this work a brief overview of the scientific literature that explores measurement techniques for determination of charge to mass ratio distribution is presented. Important observations and key aspects regarding these techniques are outlined and suggestions offered of what is needed to determine this parameter as a function of particle size.
A Co-segmentation Method for Image Pairs based on Maximum Common Subgraph and GrabCut

The outputs of a super-pixel-level co-segmentation method for image pairs based on maximum common subgraph (MCS) often contain some background regions and can not completely cover the common objects. Based on this, for each image, we first discard redundant regions which are usually small. Then, we define pixels inside the minimum enclosing rectangle of remaining object regions as possible foreground. And the rest of pixels of the image are defined as background. Finally, we use these preliminarily classified pixels to initialize GrabCut algorithm and execute the algorithm to obtain the final results. Thus, a new pixel-level co-segmentation method which combines maximum common subgraph and GrabCut algorithm is developed like this. Our method is tested on a commonly used image pair dataset. And the results show that the proposed method can efficiently co-segment common objects from image pairs with high Precision 87.8% and Recall 87.7%.
MECSE-12-2007 Petri Net modelling of computer parallelism

Petri Net modelling may be applied to parallel computer systems. For the purpose of projecting the performance of a model, there is flexibility: depending on the availability of computational resources and the desired level of precision, one may choose between a rigorous state-space based estimation or one may fall back upon less precise discrete-event simulation approaches. In this paper a simple Petri Net model of a computer is evolved, highlighting how concepts such as resource contention and latency hiding may be incorporated.
Distributed, Integrated Production of Second and Third Generation Biofuels

Materials that are burned directly for energy, such as firewood, wood chips, pellets, animal waste, forest and crop residues are considered primary biofuels. First generation biofuels also include bioethanol produced by fermentation of starch (from wheat, barley, corn, or potato) or sugars (from sugarcane or sugar beet), and biodiesel produced by transesterification of oil crops (including rapeseed, soybeans, sunflower, palm, coconut) and animal fats. Second generation biofuels include bioethanol and biodiesel produced from the residual, non-food parts of crops, and from other forms of lignocellulosic biomass such as wood, grasses, and municipal solid wastes (Inderwildi & King, 2009). Third generation biofuels include algae-derived fuels such as biodiesel from microalgae oil, bioethanol from microalgae and seaweeds, and hydrogen from green microalgae and microbes (Aylott, 2010; Dragone, et al., 2010). “Drop in" fuels like "green gasoline," "green diesel," and "green aviation fuel" produced from biomass are considered fourth generation biofuels (Kalita, 2008). Efforts are also underway to genetically engineer organisms to secrete these fourth generation hydrocarbon fuels. Today, corn is the major source of first-generation bioethanol, with over 12 billion gallons of fuel ethanol produced in 2010 from approximately 4.6 billion bushels of corn (Anon, 2011b) in 190 operating facilities in 26 states. Most are located in the Midwest, near the site of feedstock production (Figure 1), however some are co-located with dairies or beef cattle feeding operations or dairies outside the Corn Belt. The typical size of corn ethanol plants is 50-100 million gallons per year. Table 1 provides a summary of industry growth in the US over the past decade. Ethanol is also the most important biofuel worldwide in terms of volume and market value (Licht, 2006). In 2007, Congress passed the Renewable Fuels Standard 1 (RFS1), which mandated renewable fuel use of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. Congress subsequently passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which made significant changes in the structure and magnitude of the renewable fuel program. The EISA (also called the RFS2) specified use of a total of 15.2 billion gallons/year of renewable fuel by 2012 and 36 billion gallons/year by 2022.1 Also mandated were maximal amounts of corn-based ethanol,
Two-dimensional beam smoothing by spectral dispersion for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion

Two dimensional smoothing by spectral dispersion is analyzed by using diffraction theory calculations. It is shown that by using standard frequency modulated light one can obtain bandwidth limited smoothing over integration times relevant to inertial confinement fusion (about 1 nsec) with modest induced beam divergence. At longer integration times one can obtain bandwidth limited smoothing by increasing the divergence and/or by using more advanced phase modulation methods.
Recent trends in hydrologic balance have enhanced the terrestrial carbon sink in the United States

Climate data show significant increases in precipitation and humidity over the U.S. since 1900, yet the role of these hydro‐climatic changes on the reported U.S. carbon sink is incompletely understood. Using a prognostic terrestrial ecosystem model, we simulated 1900–1993 continental U.S. carbon fluxes and found that increased growth by natural vegetation was associated with increased precipitation and humidity, especially during the 1950–1993 period. CO2 trends and warmer temperatures had a lesser effect. Two thirds of the increase in observed forest growth rates could be accounted for by observed climatic changes, including the confluence of earlier springs and wetter autumns leading to a lengthening of the vegetation carbon uptake period. However, regional differences in precipitation trends produced differing regional carbon sink responses. The strong coupling between carbon and hydrologic cycles implies that global carbon budget studies, currently dominated by temperature analyses, should consider changes in the hydrologic cycle.
A scalar multiplication in elliptic curve cryptography with binary polynomial operations in Galois field

A fundamental building block for digital communication is the Public-key cryptography systems. Public-Key cryptography (PKC) systems can be used to provide secure communications over insecure channels without exchanging a secret key. Implementing Public-Key cryptography systems is a challenge for most application platforms when several factors have to be considered in selecting the implementation platform. The most popular public-key cryptography systems nowadays are RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). ECC is considered much more suitable than other public-key algorithms. It uses lower power consumption, has higher performance and can be implemented on small areas that can be achieved by using ECC. There is no subexponential-time algorithm in solving the Elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem. Therefore, it offers smaller key size with equivalent security level compared with the other public key cryptosystems. Finite fields (or Galois fields) is considered as an important mathematical theory. Thus, it plays an important role in cryptography. As a result of their carry free arithmetic property, they are suitable to be used in hardware implementation in ECC. In cryptography the most common finite field used is binary field o€i³o€i² oˆoo€«›o€¢“oˆ». Our design performs all basic binary polynomial operations in Galois Field (GF) using a microcode structure. It uses a bit-serial and pipeline structure for implementing GF operations. Due to its bit-serial architecture, it has a low gate count and a reduced number of I/O pins. The proposed design is implemented in Verilog HDL. Xilinx ISE is used for synthesis and simulation. The result of Verilog code is checked by using the previous written Matlab code.
Do the citizens of Europe trust their police

Purpose – The maintenance of public order and the control of crime are clearly amongst the primary objectives of global law enforcement agencies. An important antecedent to this is the consideration of public trust in their police force. The purpose of this paper is to utilise data from the fifth round European Social Survey (ESS), to investigate how public social indicators may be highlight the level of trust in a country’s police force. Design/methodology/approach – The results from the ESS are analysed using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), multiply conjunctional causal configurations of the considered social indicators are then established and analysed. Findings – A consequence of using fsQCA, asymmetric causal configurations are identified for the relative high and low limiting levels of trust towards the police in the considered countries. The results offer novel insights into the relationship between social indicators and police trust, as well as expositing a nascent technique (f.
Photoproduction of J/ψ in non-single-diffractive p+p collisions

Recently, significant enhancements of J/$\psi$ production at very low transverse momenta were observed by the ALICE and STAR collaboration in peripheral hadronic A+A collisions. The anomaly excesses point to evidence of coherent photon-nucleus interactions in violent hadronic heavy-ion collisions, which were conventionally studied only in ultra-peripheral collisions. Assuming that the coherent photoproduction is the underlying mechanism which is responsible for the excess observed in peripheral A+A collisions, its contribution in p+p collisions with nuclear overlap, i.e. non-single-diffractive collisions, is of particular interest. In this paper, we perform a calculation of exclusive J/$\psi$ photoproduction in non-single-diffractive p+p collisions at RHIC and LHC energies base on the pQCD motivated parametrization from world-wide experimental data, which could be further employed to improve the precision of phenomenal calculations for photoproduction in A+A collisions. The differential rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of J/$\psi$ from photoproduction are presented. In comparison with the J/$\psi$ production from hadronic interactions, we find that the contribution of photoproduction is negligible.
Digital Controller Candidate for Point-of-load Synchronous Buck Converter in Tri-mode Mechanism

A digital controller with a low-power approach for point-of-load synchronous buck converters is discussed and compared with its analog counterpart to confirm its feasibility for system integration. The tri-mode digital controller IC in 0.35 µm CMOS process is presented to demonstrate solutions that include a PID, quarter PID, and robust RST compensators. These compensators address the steady-state, stand-by, and transient modes according to the system operating point. An idle-tone free condition for S–D DPWM reduces the inherent tone noise under DC-excitation. Compared with that of the traditional approach, this condition generates a quasi-pure modulation signal. Experimental results verify the closed-loop performances and confirm the power-saving mechanism of the proposed controller.
Kimmo Berg and Mitri Kitti Equilibrium Paths in Discounted Supergames Aboa Centre for Economics

This paper examines the subgame-perfect pure-strategy equilibria in discounted supergames with perfect monitoring. It is shown that all the equilibrium paths are composed of fragments called elementary subpaths. This characterization result makes it possible to compute and analyze the equilibrium paths and payoffs by using a collection of elementary subpaths. It is also shown that all the equilibrium paths can be compactly represented by a directed graph when there are finitely many elementary subpaths. In general, there may be infinitely many elementary subpaths, but it is always possible to construct finite approximations. When the subpaths are allowed to be approximatively incentive compatible, it is possible to compute in a finite number of steps a graph that represents all the equilibrium paths. The directed graphs can be used in analyzing the complexity of equilibrium outcomes. In particular, it is shown that the size and the density of the equilibrium set can be measured by the asymptotic growth rate of equilibrium paths and the Hausdorff dimension of the payoff set. JEL Classification: C72, C73
The CCP Selector: Scalable Algorithms for Sparse Ridge Regression from Chance-Constrained Programming

Sparse regression and variable selection for large-scale data have been rapidly developed in the past decades. This work focuses on sparse ridge regression, which considers the exact $L_0$ norm to pursue the sparsity. We pave out a theoretical foundation to understand why many existing approaches may not work well for this problem, in particular on large-scale datasets. Inspired by reformulating the problem as a chance-constrained program, we derive a novel mixed integer second order conic (MISOC) reformulation and prove that its continuous relaxation is equivalent to that of the convex integer formulation proposed in a recent work. Based upon these two formulations, we develop two new scalable algorithms, the greedy and randomized algorithms, for sparse ridge regression with desirable theoretical properties. The proposed algorithms are proved to yield near-optimal solutions under mild conditions. In the case of much larger dimensions, we propose to integrate the greedy algorithm with the randomized algorithm, which can greedily search the features from the nonzero subset identified by the continuous relaxation of the MISOC formulation. The merits of the proposed methods are elaborated through a set of numerical examples in comparison with several existing ones.
The role of perceived value in vertical brand extensions of luxury and premium brands

Abstract This study examines the role of perceived value in the relationship between brand attitude, perceived fit, extension attitude and consumers’ purchase intention of downscale vertical extensions of luxury and premium brands in two product categories: cars and shoes. Results from 236 individuals with different income levels show that extension attitude is positively related to purchase intention both directly and indirectly, via the perceived value of the extension; the latter is more strongly correlated than extension attitude to consumers’ purchase intention. Brand attitude is also positively associated with perceived value. Overall, perceived value partially mediates the relationships of brand attitude and of extension attitude with purchase intention. The product category affects the strength of some of the relationships in the model, including the role of fit.