Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Isolation Pile on the Ground Deformation due to a Deep Pit Excavation

Pit excavation could inevitably introduce ground movement and threaten the safety of nearby existing high buildings, metro tunnels, or roads. To reduce ground movement and protect those existing structures against large deformation, isolation pile is widely used in engineering practices. A series of physical model tests was carried out to investigate the effects of isolation piles on the ground deformation induced by excavating a pit. Digital image correlation (DIC) analysis was employed to study the ground deformation and slip surface under different pile lengths and locations relative to the retaining wall. The results indicate that the ground deformation and the shear band in the ground are less affected by the existence of a pile if the isolation pile’s end is above or slightly extends beyond the slip surface. In contrast, if the isolation pile extends beyond the slip surface sufficiently, even though the ground movement behind the pile is reduced, the settlement of the soil between the pile and retaining wall would be enlarged. Meanwhile, the horizontal deformation shows an arching shape along the depths and has a noticeable value in the middle section of subsoil. The ground deformation behind the isolation pile shows dependence on the pile’s horizontal displacement, regardless of the pile’s length and location. An empirical model is proposed to evaluate the efficiency of isolation piles on settlement protection. The comparison of the prediction and the results from tests and FEA shows a reasonable agreement.
Downlink MISO-NOMA SWIPT Systems with Mini Time Slots

This paper investigates a scheme for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT)-based non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems. A novel SWIPT NOMA protocol is proposed to help the user with the lowest harvested energy by dividing each time slot into mini-slots and adjusting the beamforming of every mini slot to lift the energy level of the lowest energy user under minimum rate constraints. Since the problem is nonconvex, the heuristic scheme is proposed here. Numerical results show that our scheme offers higher harvested energy than that without minislots.
Promoting Students’ Reviewing Skills in Foreign Language Writing through Genre-Based Activities in Linguistic Classes

Recently, genre studies contribute not only to linguistic areas but also to the areas of language education. In language teaching and learning, developing learners’ awareness of various genres, especially those prevail in their future job contexts, is essential in the sense that learners could be better prepared to successfully produce texts of the same genres when required. In this study, genre-based activities (GBAs) were introduced to 40 third-year EFL students in two linguistic classes. The data collection was conducted via class interaction, assignment analysis and informal talks. The data analysis revealed that, despite some limitations in the intervention, GBAs had such positive effects on students’ development of reviewing skills in English writing as: students could link their text evaluation and revision to the contextual features, they tried to read extensively about the features of different genres, and accordingly, they could enhance their genre awareness, resulting in their better evaluation and revision of texts. However, it was found that unfamiliar genres might hinder the effects of GBAs. Texts elicited from students and multimodal texts were more appropriate inputs for novice genre analysts.
Development of non-intrusive flow diagnostic capabilities at the Aero-Physics Laboratory

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. This statement is probably true for all fields of research. However for the fluid dynamicist, a quantitative picture can go on speaking forever, such that every time he or she looks at it they discover something new. Those working in the field of diagnostics continuously find new ways to visualise and quantify complicated flows in ways that were probably at some time thought to be impractical. These include either optimisation of already well established techniques such as Schlieren with the development of higher resolution and faster cameras, or the invention of new methods by the synergy between different disciplines, such as pressure sensitive paints which bring together physics, chemistry and fluids. Ideally most of these diagnostic methods have a low parasitic profile or are completely non-intrusive. The current paper gives a brief overview of the principles and challenges of these methods utilised in the Aero-Physics Laboratory at The University of Manchester. These include the pressureand temperature-sensitive paints (PSP and TSP) and the particle image velocimetry technique (PIV).
Comparison of deep learning sequence-to-sequence models in predicting indoor temperature and humidity in solar dryer dome

: Solar Dryer Dome (SDD), which is an agriculture facility for preserving and drying agriculture products, needs an intelligent system for predicting future indoor climate conditions, including temperature and humidity. An accurate indoor climate prediction can help to control its indoor climate conditions by efficiently scheduling its actuators, which include fans, heaters, and dehumidifiers that consume a lot of electricity. This research implemented deep learning architectures to predict future indoor climate conditions such as indoor temperature and indoor humidity using a dataset generated from the SDD facility in Sumedang, Indonesia. This research compared adapted sequenced baseline architectures with sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) or encoder-decoder architectures in predicting sequence time series data as the input and output of both architecture models which are built based on Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) layers such as Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). The result shows that the adapted sequence baseline model using GRU is the best model, whereas seq2seq models yield bigger Mean Absolute Error (MAE) values by almost ten times. Overall, all the proposed deep learning models are categorized as extremely strong with 𝑅 2 ≥ 0.99 . Their results show that
Resolving Super Massive Black Holes with LISA

We study the angular resolution of the gravitational wave detector LISA and show that numerical relativity can drastically improve the accuracy of position location for coalescing Super Massive Black Hole (SMBH) binaries. For systems with total redshifted mass above $10^7 M_{\odot}$, LISA will mainly see the merger and ring-down of the gravitational wave (GW) signal, which can now be computed numerically using the full Einstein equations. Using numerical waveforms that also include about ten GW cycles of inspiral, we improve inspiral-only position estimates by an order of magnitude. We show that LISA localizes half of all such systems at $z=1$ to better than 3 arcminutes and the best 20% to within one arcminute. This will give excellent prospects for identifying the host galaxy.
Anomalous specific heat of supercooled water

We study by Monte Carlo simulations and mean field calculations the specific heat $C_P$ of a cell model that reproduces known properties of water. In the supercooled regime we find \emph{two} $C_P$ maxima that are strikingly similar to very recent experimental results. We show that the maximum at higher temperature is associated with the fluctuations of hydrogen bond formation and that the second maximum at lower temperature is associated with the cooperativity of the hydrogen bonds. If this cooperativity is not taken into account, the lower temperature maximum disappears. Our finding offers a \emph{thermodynamic} interpretation for the two maxima in $C_P$.
Quantum logic for the control and manipulation of molecular ions using a frequency comb

We propose a scheme for the preparation, manipulation and detection of quantum states of single molecular ions. In this scheme, molecular and atomic ions are confined in radio-frequency Paul trap and share common modes of motion. A frequency comb laser field is used to drive stimulated Raman transitions that couple internal states of the molecular ion with the motion of ions. State transfer from the molecular ion to the atomic ion via the common mode of motion results in efficient state detection for the molecule. The coupling of molecular states to the motion and the subsequent sideband cooling of the ions provide a way to prepare the molecular ion in a well-defined state.
Human rights and the city: A case of Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT Human rights are inalienable rights we each possess by virtue of being human. In Canada, Ontario has been at the forefront of progressive human rights policies. Despite this, human rights complaints related to land use regulations have been on the rise. This study pursues three questions: Why are human rights challenges against land-use regulations increasing? What human rights challenges do Ontario municipalities face? and how do they respond? We conclude that despite significant advancements on the human rights front, Ontario municipalities struggle to understand fully their legal and moral obligations and have yet to catch up with new judicial interpretations.
Synaptic behaviour in ferroelectric epitaxial rhombohedral Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin films

The discovery of ferroelectricity in HfO2-based thin films brings tremendous opportunities for emerging ferroelectric memories as well as for synaptic devices. The origin of ferroelectricity in this material is widely attributed to the presence of a polar orthorhombic phase. However, a new ferroelectric rhombohedral phase displaying large polarization with no need of pre-cycling, has more recently been reported in epitaxial Hf0.5Zr0. 5O2 (HZO). In this work, the switching mechanism of the rhombohedral phase of HZO films is characterized by a two-stage process. In addition, the synaptic behaviour of this phase is presented, comparing it with previous reports on orthorhombic or non-epitaxial films. Unexpected similarities have been found between these structurally distinct systems. Even though the epitaxial films present a larger coercive field, the ration between the activation field for intrinsic polarization switching and the coercive field (F a/E c) has been found to be close to 2, in agreement with that reported for other hafnia samples. This is about 5 times smaller than in most other ferroelectrics, confirming this characteristic as a unique feature of hafnia-based ferroelectrics.
Postgrowth annealing of (Ga,Mn) As under As capping: An alternative way to increase T-C

In situ postgrowth annealing of (Ga,Mn)As layers under As capping is adequate for achieving high Curie temperatures (TC) in a similar way as ex situ annealing in air or in N2 atmosphere practiced earlier. Thus, the first efforts give an increase of TC from 68 to 145 K after 2 h annealing at 180 °C. These data, in combination with lattice parameter determinations and photoemission results, show that the As capping acts as an efficient sink for diffusing Mn interstitials.
A High-Speed FPGA-Based True Random Number Generator Using Metastability With Clock Managers

True random number generators (TRNGs) are fundamentals in many important security applications. Though they exploit randomness sources that are typical of the analog domain, digital-based solutions are strongly required especially when they have to be implemented on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based digital systems. This brief describes a novel methodology to easily design a TRNG on FPGA devices. It exploits the runtime capability of the Digital Clock Manager (DCM) hardware primitives to tune the phase shift between two clock signals. The presented auto-tuning strategy automatically sets the phase difference of two clock signals in order to force on one or more flip-flops (FFs) to enter the metastability region, used as a randomness source. Moreover, a novel use of the fast carry-chain hardware primitive is proposed to further increase the randomness of the generated bits. Finally, an effective on-chip post-processing scheme that does not reduce the TRNG throughput is described. The proposed TRNG architecture has been implemented on the Xilinx Zynq XC7Z020 System on Chip (SoC). It passed all the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800–22 statistical tests with a maximum throughput of $300 \times 10^{6}$ bit per second. The latter is considerably higher than the throughput of other previously published DCM-based TRNGs.
On numerical positivity of ample vector bundles with additional condition

As for the definitions of ample vector bundles and of numerically positive vector bundles, see Definition 1. 10 and Definition 1. 9 in § 1. In § 1, we recall definitions and some properties of such notions as invariant polynomials, positive polynomials, Chern cohomology classes, numerically positive vector bundles, and ample vector bundles. And we list notations concerning to Grassmann varieties, to Schubert cycles, and to flag manifolds. In § 2, we prove the following theorem.
An investigation of oil leakage from automotive driveshaft radial lip seals

There is an ever-increasing stringent directive for environmental protection, even for the previously rather negligible lubricant leakage from vehicular drivetrains. Leakage from transmissions and differential units are no longer permitted and can lead to excessive warranty costs. Additionally, the trend in component downsizing, including for sealing systems has indirectly altered the leakage behaviour of transmissions. To guarantee leakage-free operation, it is important to establish standardised methods of manufacturing processes, particularly for surface topography of shafts. The paper investigates the leakage from two different shaft machining processes: corundum and cubic boron nitride (CBN) grinding. The performance of passenger car transmission sealing system is ascertained with the development and use of a novel detailed representative fully instrumented test rig. A test protocol is set up to assess the performance of shafts during break-in period and correlate shaft topographic data with its measured performance. The results show that the measured oil leakage correlates well with the shaft surface skewness whilst no particular trend is observed with Ra, Rz and shaft lead angle values, which form the basis of most current standards used in industry. Overall, it was observed that shafts with negative skewness in their roughness profile produced lesser leakage. A basic analytical predictive method is also developed which corroborates with the measured data.
MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDIES OF MONOMERIC WILDTYPE AND MUTANT (H81A, H49R) SOD1 WITH EDARAVONE AND RILUZOLE

Objective: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal motor neuron disorder that causes progressive loss of the upper and lower motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. SOD1 was the first gene linked to ALS, in which more than 150 mutations throughout the sequence of the protein have been found to be associated with ALS. Methods: The drugs that can interact and inhibit the misfolding or revert the misconformation of the protein can be useful in the treatment of ALS. Monomer apo SOD1-WT and MBR SOD1 mutants (H81A, H49R) were docked with the only two FDA-approved drugs for ALS that are edaravone and riluzole to assess if the ALS patients carrying these particular protein aggregates will derive any therapeutic efficacy. Results: The drugs were found to interact with both wild-type and mutant SOD1 at different positions and the type of interaction, degree of interaction and their binding energies were determined. SOD1-WT has hydrophobic interactions at V103, H110, and R115 and hydrogen bond at H110 with edaravone. SOD1-WT has hydrophobic interactions at T54, F64 and hydrogen bond at D52, T58 with riluzole. Both SOD1 mutants has a hydrogen bond at its H46 residue for both drugs. SOD1-H49R mutant has hydrophobic interactions at F45 with riluzole. SOD1-H81A mutant has hydrophobic interactions at F45 with edaravone. Conclusion: Both the mutants L42A residue has a hydrophobic interaction with edaravone. Interaction of drugs with protein and its mutants may make it possible to restore the stability of SOD1 structure and attenuate disease progression in ALS patients carrying these mutations.
Improving THz Transmission Distance for Delay-Sensitive Services via Mobile Computing

Next-generation wireless networks are expected to support delay-sensitive applications such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). In AR/VR applications, computational jobs are offloaded to the edge computing server. Such offloading process requires transmissions of large data packets with low latency. Terahertz (THz) band can provide hundreds of GHz bandwidth and thus is promising in enabling ultra-high speed data transmissions. However, THz transmission distance is limited due to its inherently severe propagation loss. This paper considers to improve THz transmission distance with the help of mobile computing. The key idea is that, if mobile devices can handle partial computational jobs, the data transmission rate requirement is lowered, which in turn helps to improve THz transmission distance. Specifically, we aim to maximize THz transmission distance by jointly optimizing users' job offloading decisions and transmission carrier frequencies. To that end, we first introduce a delay-violation probability to characterize the delay constraints for delay-sensitive services. Based on the derived delay-violation probability, we formulate a THz transmission distance maximization (THz-TDM) problem. This THz-TDM problem is non-convex. To solve this issue, we derive in closed-form the expression of the achievable transmission distance with respect to carrier frequency and data rate. Subsequently, we propose a Hungarian-ADMM based iterative algorithm (HAB) and a low-complexity Rearrangement Inequality-like algorithm (RIL). The proposed RIL involves no iterations but only applies to the case where the edge computing server queue stability constraint is relaxed. Numerical results show that the developed schemes can effectively improve THz transmission distance.
Cosmological constraints on generalized Chaplygin gas model: Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach

We use the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to investigate a global constraints on the generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model as the unification of dark matter and dark energy from the latest observational data: the Constitution dataset of type supernovae Ia (SNIa), the observational Hubble data (OHD), the cluster X-ray gas mass fraction, the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. In a non-flat universe, the constraint results for GCG model are, Ωbh2 = 0.0235+0.0021−0.0018 (1σ) +0.0028−0.0022 (2σ), Ωk = 0.0035+0.0172−0.0182 (1σ) +0.0226−0.0204 (2σ), As = 0.753+0.037−0.035 (1σ) +0.045−0.044 (2σ), α = 0.043+0.102−0.106 (1σ) +0.134−0.117 (2σ), and H0 = 70.00+3.25−2.92 (1σ) +3.77−3.67 (2σ), which is more stringent than the previous results for constraint on GCG model parameters. Furthermore, according to the information criterion, it seems that the current observations much support ΛCDM model relative to the GCG model.
Rotor position angle control of permanent magnet synchronous motor based on sliding mode extended state observer

ABSTRACT To achieve fast, accurate control of the position angle of the rotor of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM), traditional auto disturbance rejection control often has many adjustable parameters and complex tuning problems. Sliding mode control technology is introduced into the extended state observer (ESO) part of the auto disturbance rejection controller, and a new sliding mode approach law is designed based on several typical sliding mode approaches, which simplifies parameter tuning while retaining the original anti-interference performance of auto disturbance. In addition, the nonlinear state error feedback control law in active disturbance rejection control is enhanced to improve the component order PID control law, which can improve the response speed and robustness of the system, and prove the stability of the controller. Finally, the simulation of the PMSM rotor position control system based on the sliding mode ESO is carried out, and the results verify the validity of the method.
The EVN view of the highly variable TeV active galaxy IC310

Robert Schulz∗a,b, Matthias Kadlera, Eduardo Rosc,d , Dorit Eisenacher Glawiona, Uwe Bachc, Dominik Elsassera, Christoph Grossbergere,b, Ingo Kreykenbohmb, Karl Mannheima, Cornelia Mullera,b, Jonas Trustedta, Jorn Wilmsb aLehrstuhl fur Astronomie, Universitat Wurzburg, Campus Hubland Nord, Emil-Fischer-Strasse 31, 97074 Wurzburg, Germany bDr. Remeis Sternwarte & ECAP, Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Sternwartstr. 7, 96049 Bamberg, Germany cMax-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hugel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany dObservatori Astronomic & Departament d’Astronomia i Astrofisica, Universitat de Valencia, 46071 Valencia, Spain eMax-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85741 Garching, Germany E-mail: robert.schulz@physik.uni-wuerzburg.de
The reverse design of a tunable terahertz metasurface antenna based on a deep neural network

The reverse design of a tunable terahertz metasurface antenna is proposed based on the deep neural network (DNN). To obtain the tunable properties of the terahertz antenna, the phase‐changed material vanadium dioxide (VO2) is introduced by controlling the voltage without changing the structures of the metasurface antenna. To improve the efficiency and accuracy of the terahertz antenna, the DNN is used to establish the relationship of amplitude and phase for the antenna unit. The prediction errors are below 10%. The radiation direction of the antenna can be changed from 0° to 52° by the VO2 with different states. The prediction error of angle is only 1° difference from the theoretical calculation. This reverse design method can be extended to other metasurface devices with improved efficiency and accuracy.
A Low-Profile and Wide-Angle Scanning Planar Ultrawideband Modular Antenna With Ultra-Thin Loading Window

Ultrawideband phased antenna array has been widely used in communications, radars and detection. However, the high profile and poor wide-angle scanning characteristics have always been the critical limitation for many available ultrawideband antenna applications. In this paper, an ultra-thin loading window (UTLW) is proposed to replace the wide-angle impedance matching (WAIM) superstrate in the planar ultrawideband modular antenna arrays (PUMA), and reduces the profile height greatly. The UTLW consists of two strips in parallel, and each strip is loaded with one resistor and two capacitors. Following the equivalent circuit model (ECM) of the PUMA, the resistance and capacitance are specially designed to make the complex impedance of the UTLW equal to the impedance introduced by the WAIM. A dual-polarized PUMA with an UTLW achieves 6-18 GHz impedance bandwidth with active VSWR <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathbf \le }~2.6$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for scanning up to 60° and active VSWR <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathbf \le }~3$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for scanning up to 70° in E/D/H plane. The profile height of the proposed PUMA is only less than <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.07\boldsymbol {\lambda _{l}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, or, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.24\boldsymbol {\lambda _{h}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with reference to the typical Nyquist half-wavelength spacing frequency. A <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$20\,\,\bf {\mathbf \times }\,\,20$ </tex-math></inline-formula> prototype PUMA with the UTLW was fabricated and its measured results were found consistent with the simulation results.