Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Versatile Microfluidic Mixing Platform for High- and Low-Viscosity Liquids via Acoustic and Chemical Microbubbles

Microfluidic mixers have been extensively studied due to their wide application in various fields, including clinical diagnosis and chemical research. In this paper, we demonstrate a mixing platform that can be used for low- and high-viscosity liquid mixing by integrating passive (utilizing the special circulating crossflow characteristics of a zigzag microstructure and cavitation surfaces at the zigzag corners) and active (adding an acoustic field to produce oscillating microbubbles) mixing methods. By exploring the relationship between the active and passive mixing methods, it was found that the microbubbles were more likely generated at the corners of the zigzag microchannel and achieved the best mixing efficiency with the acoustically generated microbubbles (compared with the straight channel). In addition, a higher mixing effect was achieved when the microchannel corner angle and frequency were 60° and 75 kHz, respectively. Meanwhile, the device also achieved an excellent mixing effect for high-viscosity fluids, such as glycerol (its viscosity was approximately 1000 times that of deionized (DI) water at 25 °C). The mixing time was less than 1 s, and the mixing efficiency was 0.95 in the experiment. Furthermore, a new microbubble generation method was demonstrated based on chemical reactions. A higher mixing efficiency (0.97) was achieved by combining the chemical and acoustic microbubble methods, which provides a new direction for future applications and is suitable for the needs of lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems and point-of-care testing (POCT).
A Low-Voltage Multi-Band ZigBee Transceiver

This paper presents a low-voltage ZigBee transceiver covering a unique frequency band of 780/868/915/2400 MHz in 180 nm CMOS technology. The design consists of a receiver with a wideband variable-gain front end and a complex band-pass filter (CBPF) based on poles construction, a transmitter employing the two-point direct-modulation structure, a Ʃ-Δ fractional-N frequency synthesizer with two VCOs and some auxiliary circuits. The measured results show that under 1 V supply voltage, the receiver reaches −93.8 dBm and −102 dBm sensitivity for 2.4 GHz and sub-GHz band, respectively, and dissipates only 1.42 mW power. The frequency synthesizer achieves −106.8 dBc/Hz and −116.7 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1 MHz frequency offset along with 4.2 mW and 3.5 mW power consumption for 2.4 GHz and sub-GHz band, respectively. The transmitter features 2.67 dBm and 12.65 dBm maximum output power at the expense of 21.2 mW and 69.5 mW power for 2.4 GHz and sub-GHz band, respectively.
COMPARISON BETWEEN LIGHTNING DATA AND CLOUD TOP TEMPERATURES IN FINLAND

Lightning is a phenomena which occurs when a Cumulonimbus (Cb) cloud is electrified enough so that an electrical discharge occurs. The electrification of Cb is caused by the collisions of certain hydrometeors (graupel [mm] and ice crystal [μm]) in the presence of supercooled water. Supercooled water can exist in a cloud if convection is efficient enough (i.e. there is a very strong updraft) so that liquid water is transported at higher altitudes and above the freezing level. The temperature profile of the troposphere is one key element that dictates the strength of convection (warm at surface, cold near tropopause). So, if the temperatures at the cloud top are known, one can estimate the probability and the intensity of lightning. The goal of this study is to examine how cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning and intracloud (IC) lightning corresponds to Cloud Top Temperatures (CTTs) in Finland by comparing the flash rates in ±5 minute time windows around the satellite overpass time. The dataset contains 43 cases from four days from the summer 2005. The results suggest that for CTTs colder than 218 K lightning activity is very intense, which can be seen especially in the number of CGs. For CTTs ≥ 218 K, flash rates are quite similar in all cases. The lightning data is from the Finnish Meteorological Institutes (FMI) lightning location system (5 IMPACT sensors and 3 SAFIR sensors) and the CTTs are from Satellite Application Facility on support to Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting (SAFNWC).
Strategies of Collision Avoidance: Should I brake or should I go

Collision avoidance during locomotion can be achieved by a variety of strategies. While in some situations only a single trajectory will successfully avoid impact, in many cases several different strategies are possible. Locomotor experiments in the presence of static boundary conditions have suggested that the choice of an appropriate trajectory is based on a maximum-smoothness strategy. Here we analyzed locomotor trajectories of subjects avoiding collision with another human crossing their path orthogonally. In such a case, changing walking direction while keeping speed or keeping walking direction while changing speed would be two extremes of solving the problem. Our participants clearly favored changing their walking speed while keeping the path on a straight line between start and goal. To interpret this result, we calculated the costs of the chosen trajectories in terms of a smoothness-maximization criterion and simulated the trajectories with a computational model. Data analysis together with model simulation showed that the experimentally chosen trajectory to avoid collision with a moving human is not the optimally smooth solution. However, even though the trajectory is not globally * Corresponding author at: Center for Sensorimotor Research, Marchioninistr 23, 81377 Munchen, Germany. E-mail addresses: s.glasauer@lrz.uni-muenchen.de, sglasauer@nefo.med.uni-muenchen.de (S. Glasauer). 1 Manuscript for publication: Basili P, et al. Strategies of locomotor collision avoidance. http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.gaitpost. 2012.08. 003 Gait & Posture (2012) smooth, it was still locally smooth. Modeling further confirmed that, in presence of the moving human, there is always a trajectory that would be smoother but would deviate from the straight line. We therefore conclude that the maximum smoothness strategy previously suggested for static environments no longer holds for locomotor path planning and execution in dynamically changing environments.
Leveraging Machine Learning for High-Resolution Restoration of Satellite Imagery

High-resolution imaging of satellites through the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere plays a pivotal role in space situational awareness. Imaging of this type requires screening thousands of images to select a few promising ones that can be combined into a restored image. The quality of the restoration depends on the selected images. We propose a novel image selection method, based on machine learning techniques. In particular, we select a small set of images that well-represent the estimated Fourier coefficients of the satellite images. This is done using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso). We compare the reconstruction based on our selection method with the current state-of-the-art technique, which is based on a greedy Fourier analysis.
An Electrokinetic Process Coupled Activated Carbon Barrier for Nickel Removal from Kaolinite

Electrokinetic (EK) remediation coupled with activated carbon barrier was evaluated to remove nickel (500 mg/kg) from kaolinite. Laboratory experiments were performed by applying a constant voltage to create electric field strength of 1 or 1.25 V/cm for 3 days. Findings showed that the barrier filled with activated carbon could prevent the formation of reverse electro-osmotic flow, which had an adverse effect on the Ni(II) removal. Application of activated carbon barrier into EK process resulted in an increase of Ni migration from 11 to 47%.
Application of SAR Interferometry Using ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 Data as Precise Method to Identify Degraded Peatland Areas Related to Forest Fire

Deforestation in peatland areas such as Kalimantan, Indonesia has been going on for decades. The deforestation has indirectly increased peatlands to become degraded and flammable. The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry approach for identification of degraded peatlands can be performed using ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data by converting land deformation data generated from SAR interferometry analysis into water table (WT) depth data using Wosten models. Peatlands with WT depth conditions of more than 40 cm are classified as degraded peatlands which are flammable. By using fire data from previous studies, this research confirms that identification of degraded peatlands using SAR interferometry approach by ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 is more reliable with high precision related to forest fires, with a precision level of 88% compared to 5% precision level using the WT depth monitoring system that has been installed in Central Kalimantan. The highest wavelength of ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 (L-Band) data can resolve the limitation due to temporal and volumetric decorrelation, compared to C-Band and X-Band satellite data. The combination methods of SAR interferometry approach and the real-time WT depth monitoring system to identify degraded peatlands can be more efficient, faster, and accurate. The advantage of this research result shows that SAR interferometry analysis can reach blank spot areas that are not covered by the observation station of WT depth monitoring system. It also gives a benefit as a guide to select precise locations of observation stations related to degraded peatland and forest fire.
Industrial smelting tests and organization of production of ferrosilicon aluminum (FSA) in Kazakhstan

Ye. Mukhambetgaliyev, e-mail: mr._west@inbox.ru S. Baisanov, V. Tolokonnikova Abishev Chemical-Metallurgical Institute, Karaganda, Kazakhstan A. Zharmenov National Center on complex processing of mineral raw materials of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty Yu. Khayn ICMD International Corporation of Metal and Alloy Development Holding GmbH, Isernhagen, Germany Results of the industrial tests on production development of ferrosilicon aluminum alloy are showed. The made tests on smelting of ferrosilicon aluminum in electric furnaces with 1,2, 5 and 9 MVA showed a basic possibility to receive alloy of FS55А15, FS55А20 and FS65А10 grades with using of the carbonaceous raw materials in Saryadyrsky and Ekibastuz coal fields. The optimum parameters of the smelting process of FS55А15, FS55А20 and FS65А10 alloys were defined at the Ekibastuz mini-plant and “KSP Steel” LLP. The average power consumption varied within the interval of 9,1 12 MWh per 1 ton of alloy depending on a smelting grade of alloy. Increase in aluminum content in alloy composition might be with the rising in ash level of carbonaceous raw materials. The smelting process is characterized with hot furnace condition and active release of alloy.
Semantic Relation Extraction for Extensive Service of a Cultural Database

Semantic relation extraction is a significant topic in natural language processing. It aims at discovering semantic relations between entities with various important applications such as knowledge acquisition, web and text mining, information retrieval and search engine, text classification and summarization.The propose of this research is to discovery semantics relation among a focused set of entities in a cultural archive. The approach is based on a set of relation templates which are determined by relation type and their arguments. The experimental performs a promising resource ranging between 88-100% of accuracy with moderate processing time per document.
The Effect of Modifiers and Method of Application on Fine-Coal Combustion

This research work presents the results of studies on the effect of modifiers comprising the salts CuSO 4 ·2H 2 O, NaCl, NH 4 Cl, MgSO 4 ·7H 2 O, CaCl 2 , and urea at various concentrations on the combustion of fine coal. The tests were carried out in a 12-kW laboratory boiler equipped with a rotary-grate retort furnace. The emission levels and concentrations of CO, CO 2 , SO 2 , NO x , and TOC in the flue gas were measured using analyzers. A modifier composed of 350 ppm Cu, Na, Mg, NH 4 + , Ca, and urea showed particularly high activity in the combustion of fine coal. The flue-gas levels of CO, NO x , and SO 2 were reduced by approximately 9%, 12%, and 10%, respectively, in comparison with the modifier-free sample. In this case, the boiler efficiency also increased from 65% in the tests with no modifier to 76% in the tests with the modifier. The proprietary application system, enabling the modifier to be added in exact amounts to the variable flow of fine coal, is also described. It was found that the use of the modifier in coal combustion tests results in lower emissions of harmful fuel components, a higher amount of heat obtained from the fuel unit mass, lower corrosive impact of the fuels, lower boiler maintenance costs, and extended service life.
Preparation and Characterization of Electrospun Pectin-Based Films and Their Application in Sustainable Aroma Barrier Multilayer Packaging

Pectin was first dissolved in distilled water and blended with low contents of polyethylene oxide 2000 (PEO2000) as the carrier polymer to produce electrospun fibers. The electrospinning of the water solution of pectin at 9.5 wt% containing 0.5 wt% PEO2000 was selected as it successfully resulted in continuous and non-defected ultrathin fibers with the highest pectin content. However, annealing of the resultant pectin-based fibers, tested at different conditions, developed films with low mechanical integrity, high porosity, and also dark color due to their poor thermal stability. Then, to improve the film-forming process of the electrospun mats, two plasticizers, namely glycerol and polyethylene glycol 900 (PEG900), were added to the selected pectin solution in the 2–3 wt% range. The optimal annealing conditions were found at 150 °C with a pressure of 12 kN load for 1 min when applied to the electrospun pectin mats containing 5 wt% PEO2000 and 30 wt% glycerol and washed previously with dichloromethane. This process led to completely homogenous films with low porosity and high transparency due to a phenomenon of fibers coalescence. Finally, the selected electrospun pectin-based film was applied as an interlayer between two external layers of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) by the electrospinning coating technology and the whole structure was annealed to produce a fully bio-based and biodegradable multilayer film with enhanced barrier performance to water vapor and limonene.
A Portable Wireless Device for Cyclic Alternating Pattern Estimation from an EEG Monopolar Derivation

Quality of sleep can be assessed by analyzing the cyclic alternating pattern, a long-lasting periodic activity that is composed of two alternate electroencephalogram patterns, which is considered to be a marker of sleep instability. Experts usually score this pattern through a visual examination of each one-second epoch of an electroencephalogram signal, a repetitive and time-consuming task that is prone to errors. To address these issues, a home monitoring device was developed for automatic scoring of the cyclic alternating pattern by analyzing the signal from one electroencephalogram derivation. Three classifiers, specifically, two recurrent networks (long short-term memory and gated recurrent unit) and one one-dimension convolutional neural network, were developed and tested to determine which was more suitable for the cyclic alternating pattern phase’s classification. It was verified that the network based on the long short-term memory attained the best results with an average accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of, respectively, 76%, 75%, 77% and 0.752. The classified epochs were then fed to a finite state machine to determine the cyclic alternating pattern cycles and the performance metrics were 76%, 71%, 84% and 0.778, respectively. The performance achieved is in the higher bound of the experts’ expected agreement range and considerably higher than the inter-scorer agreement of multiple experts, implying the usability of the device developed for clinical analysis.
Analysis of the Drought Mitigated Mechanism in Terraced Paddy Fields Using CWSI and TVDI Indices and Hydrological Monitoring

Food security is often threatened by droughts during rice production. Although most of the rice is produced in lowland or irrigated “wet” rice fields, terraced paddy fields are important in the rice production system in island or mountainous countries. With the intensifying frequency of El Nino periods in recent decades, there has been a risk of droughts in terraced paddy areas. To mitigate drought, remote sensing data analysis could be an efficient and reliable tool for obtaining scarce ground monitoring data. In this study, crop water stress index (CWSI) and temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI) were applied to evaluate the drought intensity, and hydrological monitoring data was provided as a support for the evaluation. The results indicated that droughts normally occurred during the dry season, and intensified during El Nino periods. CWSI and TVDI were visible to predict drought occurrences in the watershed area. TVDI overestimated the drought inside Keduang watershed compared to CWSI because of the complex condition of the terraced paddy area, including the hydrology in this area. The complex topography, high groundwater table, and continuous plot-to-plot irrigation helped to maintain the water availability and mitigated the drought impact for rice production in the studied terraced paddy field.
Motivation for Entertainment Media and Its Eudaimonic Aspects Through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory

There truly has been a “rise of the machines. ” The presence of media in people’s everyday lives is growing exponentially. The last century introduced radio and television. The last 25 years have seen the emergence of the Internet and interactive video games. Even more recent was the advent of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, which are not yet ten years old. The accessibility of media continues to intensify: As we write, sales of wristwatch devices able to receive text, images, and video are swiftly coming to market. Today one can engage rich multimedia content on demand throughout the day almost anywhere one is. As these new technologies have become available, people have embraced them in a truly viral way, spending ever-escalating portions of their lives in “screen time. ” Although some of this screen time is transactional in nature (e.g., gathering information via watching a news program), a large percentage is solely concerned with entertainment. Critics of this entertainment-enabled media culture are many (Johnson, 2005); their concerns are typically linked with the assumption that most screen time is not “meaningful” activity, and involves mainly ephemeral hedonic satisfactions or escape. Given the sheer amount of time involved, a further question is what activities and satisfactions entertainment screen time displaces or crowds out in people’s lives. Such concerns are hardly new – indeed they are as old as mass media itself. In a 1778 essay entitled On Novel Reading, Vicessimus Knox reacted to the explosion of printed fiction in his time, stating: “If it is true, that the present age is more corrupt than the preceding, the great multiplication of novels probably contributes to its degeneracy” (Brantlinger, 1998). Although fears of degeneracy and indolence seem to be reinvigorated with the emergence of each new form of entertainment, these fears may have peaked with our new age of television and interactive video games (Johnson, 2005; Rigby & Ryan, 2011). To be entertained is to be mentally occupied, or diverted. The concept is fundamentally about something “holding” one’s attention and interest with an end goal of pleasure or satisfaction. Because consuming entertainment is a discretionary act, the satisfactions that lead people to select entertainment experiences, including media such as films and video games, have long been of interest to motivational psychologists (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1973; Rigby & Ryan, 2011). Other psychologists more generally have been concerned with the larger question of whether time spent with media entertainment contributes to, or detracts from, both subjective well-being (or happiness) and eudaimonia. Eudaimonia concerns living a life that is not just focused on obtaining immediate pleasures, but rather one of pursuing meaning, virtues, and excellences – a life of fully realizing one’s best human
SMALL ROCKET ENGINES

Within the scope of a GSTP project, a Belgian-German research team performed experiments and simulations to characterise the behaviour of a liquid cooling film and to provide benchmark data for simulation models. The experiments were performed at DLR's M11.1 air vitiator test facility in Lampoldshausen, Germany. Ethanol was used as film coolant. Apart from being a potential renewable hydrocarbon fuel, ethanol is a suitable substitute fluid for monomethyl-hydrazine, which it is currently being used as propellant and film coolant in small liquid rocket engines. Compared to the situation in a real rocket engine, the experiment was designed to simplify the boundary conditions for the simulations by avoiding chemical reactions of the film with the hot gases as far as possible and to limit the phenomena subject to investigation to heat and mass transfer effects of a liquid cooling film subjected to heating and shear forces. The experimental setup used a planar film injector in a rectangular hot gas duct. Additionally to measurements of the pressure and temperature of the fluids at inlet and outlet of the test section, thermocouples were installed in the film cooled channel wall to provide information on the axial evolution of the film cooling efficiency. Furthermore, the channel provides optical access for nonintrusive measurement techniques. The von-Karman-Institute used this access to apply laser-based measurements of the temperature of the liquid film. DLR used a dedicated Background-Oriented Schlieren (BOS) technique to provide additional information on the evolution of the film thickness. Several tests have been performed in spring 2019. The test data have been analysed and are currently being used to benchmark simple engineering models as well as high-fidelity CFD models to predict the behaviour of liquid cooling films in rocket engines. Abbreviations, Acronyms & Symbols  Ramp angle ? ̇? Mass flow rate [g/s], [kg/s] BOS Background-Oriented Schlieren M Blowing ratio [-] CAD Computer Aided Design MMH Monomethylhydrazine CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics p Pressure [bar] DLR Deutsches Zentrum für Luftund Raumfahrt ρ Density [kg/m3] ESA European Space Agency t Thickness [mm] H, h Height [mm] T Temperature [K] L Length [mm] v Velocity [m/s] LIF Laser-induced Fluorescence W Width [mm] DOI: 10.13009/EUCASS2019-150