Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atmospheric Lightning as Essential Climate Variable (ECV) and Its Availability Over India Using NRSC/ISRO Lightning Detection Sensor Network

Atmospheric lightning is an outcome of extreme complex physical processes occurring in the atmosphere. Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning is considered as a natural disaster. Understanding the importance of CG lightning and implication of the lightning phenomena, Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), world meteorological organization, in its report in the year 2016, introduced the lightning as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV). The present report uses the Lightning Detection Sensor Network (LDSN) established by the National Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organization over India to generate the Lightning ECV. A use case of these ECVs are also showcased for an event in Bihar, India, when 42 deaths were reported at locations with large number of CG occurrences.
Characterization of Birch Wood Residue after 2-Furaldehyde Obtaining, for Further Integration in Biorefinery Processing

Latvia is a large manufacturer of plywood in Eastern Europe, with an annual production of 250,000 m3. In Latvia’s climatic conditions, birch (Betula pendula) is the main tree species that is mainly used for plywood production. A significant part of the processed wood makes up residues like veneer shorts, cores, and cut-offs (up to 30%), which have a high potential for value-added products. The aim of this research was to comprehensively characterize lignocellulosic (LC) biomass that was obtained after 2-furaldehyde production in terms of further valorization of this resource. The polymeric cellulose-enriched material can be used in the new biorefinery concept for the production of 2-furaldehyde, acetic acid, cellulose pulp, thermomechanical (TMP) and an alkaline peroxide mechanical (APMP) pulping process. In addition, we experimentally developed the best 2-furaldehyde production conditions to optimize the purity and usability of cellulose in the leftovers of the LC material. The best experimental results in terms of both 2-furaldehyde yield and the purity of residual lignocellulose were obtained if the catalyst concentration was 70%, the catalyst amount was 4 wt. %, the reaction temperature was 175 °C,and the treatment time was 60 min. After process optimization with DesignExpert11, we concluded that the best conditions for maximal glucose content (as cellulose fibers) was a catalyst concentration of 85%, a catalyst amount of 5 wt. %, a temperature of 164 °C, and a treatment time of 52 min.
Students' perceptions of academic performance in Distance Education evaluated by Learning Analytics and Ontologies

Keeping track of student learning progress in the Distance Education it is a challenge for education specialists because it is always not possible to adopt the same evaluation mechanisms as traditional education due to transactional distance between educators and students. To help educators in the process of evaluating the acquisition of skills and monitoring students' learning experiences, we present the SapeS architecture, which uses Learning Analytics and Ontologies to produce information about student performance. This architecture enables both educators and students to intervene in the teaching process and promotes autonomy to students successfully achieve their planned objectives. This proposal was based on the Design Science Research methodology, which enables the production and evaluation of the proposed solution to better understand its viability in the participant's real context.
University Laval Infrared Thermography Databases for Deep Learning Multiple Types of Defect Detections Training

Nowadays, automatic defect detection research by deep learning algorithms plays a crucial role, especially for non-destructive evaluation with infrared thermography. In deep learning research, the databases are the Achilles’ heel during the training in order to preserve optimized performance. In this work, we will present the infrared thermography sequences databases from the Universite Laval Multipolar Infrared Vision Infrarouge Multipolaire (MIVIM) research group for regular and irregular defect analysis in order to provide the best data collection resources for the pretraining of convolutional neural network and feature extraction analysis with future researchers and engineers. The databases will include infrared thermography sequences from regular and irregular defects of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP), glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP), plexiglass, aluminum, and steel, which could be available online for public use and research purposes.
DS1 ion propulsion emissions characterization

The Deep Space One mission is demonstrating the long-duration use of an ion propulsion subsystem (IPS). The NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Applications Readiness Project developed the NSTAR Diagnostics Package (NDP) to monitor the effects of the IPS on the spacecraft environment. The NDP measures contamination, plasma characteristics, electric fields, and magnetic fields. This paper describes the different electrostatic and electromagnetic emissions of the ion engine for each of the thrust levels at which the engine has operated in space and in the test chamber. It shows the E and B fields data from the spectrometer and the associated time domain samples. It identifies the unexpected differences between the engine emissions for different thrust levels. It shows the peculiarities of the transitions from one thrust level to another. Also, it shows the differences in the space and ground test emissions. Examples of other spacecraft emissions are shown for comparisons to the ion engine emissions.
Who Wants to Learn English Online for free?

This study of demographics is aimed to help LMOOC designers develop courses that are more appealing to prospective learners, and thus fight low completion rate which remains one of the main drawbacks of MOOCs. In addition, as the world battles against the COVID-19 pandemic looking for alternative learning approaches is unavoidable. The data presented in this paper were collected between 2016 and 2020 by means of a questionnaire that over 29,000 participants completed upon registration. The questionnaire, which included three multiple-choice questions aimed at obtaining responses regarding age, level of education and gender, revealed that most learners were middle-aged adults who held a university degree. In addition, our findings seemed to indicate that female learners are more likely to take the courses than their male counterparts. The aforementioned findings, which provide an insight into the demographics of EFL MOOCs in Spanish-speaking contexts, is a good starting point for further research which could ultimately help educational authorities know the impact of EFL MOOCs and enable the latter to reach a wider audience.
Complex simulation of electron process of deep submicron MOSFET based on energy balance equation

A new physico-mathematical model of the accelerated calculation of characteristics of deep sub-micron (≃100 nm) MOSFETs, which are being studied and used in modern microelectronics, is suggested. This model combines the advanced quasi-hydrodynamic description of high-field electron drift which is taken into account for thermo-diffusion component of the electron flow and used among the continuity equation so-called energy balance equation. The last controls the distribution of electron temperature flow, thereby determines the behavior of spatial changes of effective mobility in transistor's channels. Unique speed of software implementation of the model in a great measure is due to using special approximations in description of spatial-doped parameters of device stuctures, but allows the adequate account for spreading of source-drain regions, peculiarities of LDD engineering, halo implant effects in the substrate at the near channel with source and drain, gate poly-depletion effects and so on.
Conservative Out-of-Core Rendering of Large Dynamic Scenes Using HDLODs

Rendering of large scenes in external memory is one of the most important problems of computer graphics, which is used in such areas as CAD/CAM/CAE, geoinformatics, project management, scientific visualization, virtual and augmented reality, computer games and animation. Unlike static scenes, for which a number of effective approaches have been proposed, in particular, levels of detail (LOD), rendering of large dynamic scenes with a given level of the tolerance and trustworthiness remains a big challenge. This paper discusses and investigates the possibility of using the previously proposed method of hierarchical dynamic levels of detail (HDLOD) for conservative rendering of dynamic scenes with a deterministic nature of events in external memory. The carried out series of computational experiments prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the method for real industrial scenes when employed in combination with memory management techniques.
Archives for the people: public libraries and archives in New South Wales1

Preserving and providing access to local archives is one of the roles performed by public libraries in New South Wales. This role is not mandated, nor is it a stated priority for public libraries. Local government records are regulated by legislation, but what of the other records documenting the lives of rural and city communities? In many cases the library’s local studies collection becomes the default home of the archives of local community organisations and of individuals whose personal papers are acquired by libraries. In some cases, the library shares the role of maintaining local archives with historical societies, museums and universities. The result is a functioning example of distributed custody, where public libraries and other local institutions take responsibility for local archives. This paper is a case study that draws on two major surveys of local studies collections undertaken by the State Library of NSW, the first in 1984 and the second in 2013–2014. It concludes that public libraries have been critical for over 50 years in ensuring that local archives have been acquired and managed, despite there being no explicit regulatory or policy frameworks for doing so.
A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH IN UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA: EVIDENCE FROM NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY 4 (2015-16)

Mother needs special medical care during pregnancy, delivery, and after delivery; as a mother, she is more prone to adverse health outcomes or death due to the unsafe and unhygienic methods of managing pregnancy and childbirth. According to the World Health Organization reports, globally, 0.53 million maternal deaths occur annually, out of which 0.12 million (22%) deaths occur only in India. A newborn child needs regular health check-ups as well as nutrition supplements to avoid deficiency diseases and illness. Child health is a foundation for adult health and well-being; therefore, it is imperative to certify good health. Healthy children assure healthy adults who, in turn, ensure good progress and development of the Country (Usmani and Ahmad, 2017). According to NHM, around 81% of under-five child death occurs in one year of birth that marks approximately 10.5 lakh newborn demises; however, 57% of under-five deaths occur in the first one month of life, constituting 7.3 lakh neo-natal deaths annually within the Country. Data and methods: data from National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-2016) on maternal and child health indicators for 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh state were used. Spatial analysis namely Moran\'s-I and LISA were applied to evaluate the maternal and child health indicators through all the districts of the state. Result: Each indicator portrayed prominent coverage variation across the Uttar Pradesh districts in this analysis. Among all the districts, the lowest ANC occurrence was observed mainly in the central part, PNC in the eastern region, SBA in 20 districts mainly of the western and eastern part. The prevalence of full immunization among the children was very high, primarily in the districts of the East region; high PNC among the children was perceived in the districts of eastern, central, and Bundelkhand part of the state. PNC prevalence among the women was found to be highest in the western part of Uttar Pradesh.
Mixed Manganese Dioxide on Magnetite Core MnO2@Fe3O4 as a Filler in a High-Performance Magnetic Alginate Membrane

The process of ethanol dehydration via pervaporation was performed using alginate membranes filled with manganese dioxide and a mixed filler consisting of manganese dioxide on magnetite core MnO2@Fe3O4 particles. The crystallization of manganese dioxide on magnetite nanoparticle surface resulted in a better dispersibility of this mixed filler in polymer matrix, with the preservation of the magnetic properties of magnetite. The prepared membranes were characterized by contact angle, degree of swelling and SEM microscopy measurements and correlated with their effectiveness in the pervaporative dehydration of ethanol. The results show a strong relation between filler properties and separation efficiency. The membranes filled with the mixed filler outperformed the membranes containing only neat oxide, exhibiting both higher flux and separation factor. The performance changed depending on filler content; thus, the presence of optimum filler loading was observed for the studied membranes. The best results were obtained for the alginate membrane filled with 7 wt. % of mixed filler MnO2@Fe3O4 particles. For this membrane, the separation factor and flux equalled to 483 and 1.22 kg·m−2·h−1, respectively.
Fiscal Deficit, Economic Uncertainty and Macroeconomic Performance in Nigeria

Fiscal deficit, economic uncertainty and macroeconomic performance have gained currency in recent public discussion among policy analysts and economists. The scale of the debates raises a question of whether or not economic uncertainty dampens the ability of deficit financing to achieve its desired objectives. This paper investigated the impact of budget deficit in an uncertain economic environment on gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation. Measures of macroeconomic performance are real GDP and inflation. Other explanatory variables include credit to financial sector (proxy for financial sector development), fiscal deficit, capital and recurrent expenditure. The paper measures economic uncertainty using exchange rate volatility through GARCH model and adopted the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds methodology. This approach allows the splitting of the variables into expected and unexpected variations which could be estimated using VAR. The results showed that economic uncertainty has an adverse effect on economic performance by creating passive expectation about the future. Uncertainty erodes the confidence of both foreign and domestic investors about future cash-flows and the stability of the economic environment as well as the safety of investors’ assets. This impact would be visible in the existence of substantial sunk cost. The results approximate the submission that conducive economic environment along with appropriate mix of fiscal policy promotes real economic activity and stabilizes the price level. Improved economic conditions builds confidence in economic agents to invest in real productive activity, enables fiscal deficit to achieve its desired objective of stimulating economic activity and signals great optimism in the financial transaction system leading to improved funding of the private sector.
Ethnic Group Attachment as The Main Predictor to Inculcate Altruistic Prosocial Behavior Among Malaysian Indigenous (Orang Asli) Adolescents

Studies suggest that the Orang Asli adolescents who feel attached to their ethnic group engage in more altruistic prosocial behaviors. However, the psychological mechanisms that account for this association are not clear. Drawing on social identity and self-categorization theories, this study examined the association between social attachments (i.e., parental attachment, school attachment, peer attachment, and ethnic group attachment) and kindness value on altruistic prosocial behavior. Assessed among 402 Orang Asli adolescents, result shows that there were positive significant relationships between parental attachment, ethnic group attachment and kindness value on altruistic prosocial behavior. Meanwhile, there was a negative significant relationship of peer attachment on altruistic prosocial behavior. Further analysis revealed that ethnic group attachment served as the strongest predictor in inculcating altruistic traits among the Malaysian Orang Asli. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings were addressed. This study revealed that individuals with strong ethnic group attachment exhibited altruistic acts motivated by strong family values. While values from the dominant culture (in this case, American values) results in egoistic prosocial behavior, that is, helpful action that is based on reciprocity. This assistance in the form of egoistic prosocial activity is provided in order to seek for future mutual help. However, it is still unclear whether from the exposure of the Orang Asli to the mainstream community will influence their altruistic prosocial act that yet to be explored.
Jack-in-the-Net: Adaptive Networking Architec- ture for Service Emergence

Summary In this paper, we propose a radically new paradigm of the adaptive networking architecture for service emergence: Jack-in-the-Net (Ja-Net). In Ja-Net, services are implemented by a collection of multiple entities called cyber-entities. These cyber-entities have functionality related to their service and follow simple behavior rules (e.g., migration, reproduction, energy exchange, mutation, death) similar to biological entities. In Ja-Net, useful emergent services and behaviors (e.g., scalability, adaptation, evolution, security, survivability, and sim
Man-Made Target Structure Recognition With Polarimetric Correlation Pattern and Roll-Invariant Feature Coding

Man-made target recognition is of great significance for many applications within microwave remote sensing. The scattering diversity of various man-made target structures makes radar target identification a difficult task. This work aims at mitigating this issue by mining and utilization of man-made target scattering diversity in polarimetric rotation domain with the interpretation tool of polarimetric correlation pattern. The optimal polarimetric roll-invariant feature set is collected from polarimetric correlation pattern. Then, a polarimetric roll-invariant feature coding scheme is developed for man-made target structure recognition. Moreover, polarimetric radar measurement errors in terms of channel coupling and imbalance are also considered. Experimental studies with electromagnetic computation datasets including canonical structures and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) target and real spaceborne polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data of a ship target are carried out. Compared with the Cameron decomposition, the proposed method exhibits better recognition performance and stronger robustness, especially for oriented man-made structures.
Risk Factors and Association of Environmental with The Incidence of Acute Respiratory Infection in Toddlers: Study on Working Area of Lubuk Kilangan Public Health Center

Received 11 July 2021 Accepted 21 August 2021 Published 10 September 2021 Air Pollution and environmental factors are closely related to the incidence of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI). House construction and the environment that do not meet health requirements and environmental pollution such as smoke from industry, transportation facilities, and indoor air pollution are risk factors for the source of ARI. This study aims to find out the association between environmental risk factors and the Incidence of ARI in toddlers in the working area of Lubuk Kilangan Public Health Centre. This study used a descriptive-analytical research design with a crosssectional approach, using a random sampling technique, a sample of 96 toddlers was obtained. Data analysis in this study used Chi-Square and tIndependent tests, PM10 concentrations (p=0,009) ventilation area (p=0.000), occupancy density (p=0.029), humidity (0.000), and lighting (p=0.000). Meanwhile, for SO2 concentration in this study, there was no relationship with the incidence of ARI in toddlers (p = 0.302). Based on the results obtained It is hoped that sanitarian staff and related institutions will further increase public knowledge, especially about home sanitation, healthy lifestyles, and the impact of exposure to pollutant concentrations from industry, so that they can control risk factors that can cause ARI. Keyword:
Observations on traffic flow patterns and traffic engineering practice

Border Gateway Protocol allows ASs to apply diverse routing policies for selecting routes and propagating reachability information to other ASs. This enables network operators to configure routing policies so as to control traffic flows between ASs. However, BGP is not designed for the inter-AS traffic engineering. This makes it difficult to implement effective routing policies to address network performance and utilization problems. Network operators usually tweak routing policies to influence the inter-domain traffic among the available links. This can lead to undesirable traffic flow patterns across the Internet and degrade the Internet traffic performance. In this paper, we show several observations on Internet traffic flow patterns and derive routing policies that give rise to the traffic flow patterns. Our results show that an AS can reach as much as 20\% of the prefixes via a peer link even though there is a path via a customer link. In addition, an AS can reach as much as 80\% of the prefixes via a provider link even though there is a path via a peer link. Second, we analyze the cause of the prevalence of these traffic patterns. Our analysis shows that an AS typically does not receive the potential route from its customers or peers. Third, we find that alternate routes have with lower propagation delay than the chosen routes for some prefixes. This shows that some traffic engineering practices might adversely affect Internet performance.
A Fully Integrated 5.2-GHz CMOS Variable Gain LNA for 802.11a WLAN

A fully integrated 5.2GHz variable gain low noise amplifier (VGLNA) in a 0. 18μm CMOS process is proposed in this paper. The VGLAN can achieve a maximum small signal gain of 17.85 dB within the noise figure (NF) of 2.04 dB and a minimum gain of 2.04 dB with good input return loss. The LNA’s P1dB in the high gain mode is -17.5 dBm. The LAN consumes only 14.58 mW from a 1.8V power supply.
Calculation of quantized DOEs based on a continuous series approach

A new method of calculation of binary-phase and quantized diffractive optical elements (DOEs) is proposed. The design uses a specific series expression for the quantized DOE transmission function and is based on the gradient search algorithm for the optimization of truncated series approaching the quantized complex transmission function. Fast designs of binary beam shapers and multiorder binary gratings with equal order intensities are reported with the efficiency in the range of 70 - 75% and the root-mean-square errors of 3 - 5%. The design of binary DOEs that transform the gaussian beam into Gauss-Hermite (0,1) and (1,1) complex amplited distributions is also presented.
A Novel USB Key Design with Online Emulation Debugging Functions

This paper presents a novel design scheme on USB key device. The design use Oregano Systems 8051 IP core. Compared with the standard 8051, Oregano Systems 8051 has 10 times the performance improvements at the same frequency. Details of the design internal structure and novel online debugging mechanism are introduced. The design allows online debugging on USB key, greatly accelerates the development process. The design has been implemented on Altera’s Stratix FPGA and got practical verification.