Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sliding mode tracking control for unmanned helicopter using extended disturbance observer

This paper presents a robust control technique for small-scale unmanned helicopters to track predefined trajectories (velocities and heading) in the presence of bounded external disturbances. The controller design is based on the linearized state-space model of the helicopter. The multivariable dynamics of the helicopter is divided into two subsystems, longitudinallateral and heading-heave dynamics respectively. There is no strong coupling between these two subsystems and independent controllers are designed for each subsystem. The external disturbances and model mismatch in the longitudinal-lateral subsystem are present in all (matched and mismatched) channels. This model mismatch and external disturbances are estimated as lumped disturbances using extended disturbance observer and an extended disturbance observer based sliding mode controller is designed for it to counter the effect of these disturbances. In the case of heading-heave subsystem, external disturbances and model mismatch only occur in matched channels so a second order sliding mode controller is designed for it as it is insensitive to matched uncertainties. The control performance is successfully tested in Simulink.
Competitiveness of halal industry in Maghreb countries

To ensure that the countries produce halal products in order to remain in the international market, then they must make sure that they remain competitive in the market. Therefore, this study was to measure the competitiveness of the halal industry in the Maghreb countries which consist of five countries, namely Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The methodology of this study was using halal market share in the country and revealed comparative advantage (RCA). The study found that Mauritania is the most competitive country for halal industry because of it has the highest RCA value and followed by Morocco and Tunisia. While the countries that have lower competitiveness are Algeria and Libya. Therefore, the government and industry should plays a role to improve the competitiveness of their national halal industry and to ensure they remain competitive in the international halal market.
A THEORY FOR THE PHASED-ARRAY WEATHER-RADAR TO MEASURE CROSSBEAM WIND, SHEAR AND TURBULENCE

The theory of measuring crossbeam wind, shear, and turbulence within the radar’s resolution volume V6 is described. Weather radar interferometry is formulated for such measurements using phased-array weather-radar. The formulation for a Spaced Antenna Interferometer (SAI) includes shear of the mean wind, allows turbulence to be anisotropic, and allows receiving beams to have elliptical cross sections. Autoand cross-correlation functions are derived based on wave scattering by randomly distributed particles. Antenna separation, mean wind, shear, and turbulence all contribute to signal decorrelation. Crossbeam wind cannot be separated from shear and thus crossbeam wind measurements are biased by shear. It is shown that SAI measures an apparent crossbeam wind (i.e., the angular shear of the radial wind component). Whereas the apparent crossbeam wind and turbulence within V6 cannot be separated using monostatic Doppler techniques, angular shear and turbulence can be separated using the SAI.
Title Social withdrawal behavior in institutionalized toddlers : Individual , early family and institutional determinants Permalink

Eighty-five Portuguese children, aged 12 to 30 months, placed in residential institutions were assessed to investigate the influence of variations in the institutionalization experience of social withdrawal behavior, after taking into account potentially confounding individual characteristics and pre-admission experiences. In light of the limited attention in institutionalization research on social withdrawal, the determinants of the identified predictors of withdrawal symptoms also were examined. Current quality of care experienced in the institution, operationalized in terms of the absence (vs. presence) of a preferred attachment relationship, predicted social withdrawal, such that absence of such a relationship forecasted greater withdrawal. Moreover, existence of a preferred attachment relationship was itself predicted by better child socioemotional functioning, greater caregiver sensitive-responsiveness, and better quality of individualized care provided by the staff. Abstracts translated in Spanish, French, German, and Japanese can be found on the abstract page of each article on Wiley Online Library at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imhj.s translated in Spanish, French, German, and Japanese can be found on the abstract page of each article on Wiley Online Library at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imhj.
Identifying a transition climate zone in an arid river basin using the evaporative stress index

Abstract. Aridity indices have been widely used in climate classification. However, there is not enough evidence for their ability in identifying the multiple climate types in areas with complex topography and landscape, especially in those areas with a transition climate. This study compares a traditional meteorological aridity index (AI), defined as the ratio of precipitation (P) to potential evapotranspiration (PET), with a hydrological aridity index, the evaporative stress index (ESI) defined as the ratio of actual evapotranspiration (AET) to PET in the Heihe River Basin (HRB) of arid northwestern China. PET was estimated using the Penman–Monteith and Hamon methods. The aridity indices were calculated using the high-resolution climate data simulated with a regional climate model for the period of 1980–2010. The climate classified by AI shows a climate type for the upper basin and a second type for the middle and lower basin, while three different climate types are found using ESI, each for one river basin, indicating that only ESI is able to identify a transition climate zone in the middle basin. The difference between the two indices is also seen in the interannual variability and extreme dry/wet events. The magnitude of variability in the middle basin is close to that in the lower basin for AI, but different for ESI. AI had a larger magnitude of the relative interannual variability and a greater decreasing rate from 1980 to 2010 than ESI, suggesting the role of local hydrological processes in moderating extreme climate events. Thus, the hydrological aridity index is better than the meteorological aridity index for climate classification in the arid Heihe River Basin.
IMPACT OF PROLONGED REDUCED-PRESSURE CONDITION PRIOR TO PRECURSOR LABELING ON THE LABELING EFFICIENCY OF F-18 FLUOROCHOLINE SYNTHESIS

Objective: The goal of this preliminary work was to observe the impact of the prolonged reduced-pressure condition prior to labeling stage on the F-18 Fluorocholine labeling yield at the end of synthesis. Methods: At this present work, the condition inside the reactor vial prior to labeling stage was manipulated. In the first technique of syntheses of F-18 Fluorocholine, the condition inside the reactor vial was set at 0 atmospheric pressure (0 atm) while in the second technique the condition inside the reactor was set at reduced-pressure (between-0.65 to-0.85 bars) with the delay time of 120 seconds. At the end of the synthesis, the impact of the prolonged reduced-pressure condition prior to precursor labeling was measured in terms of labeling yield of F-18 Fluorocholine. Results: With the second technique, the labeling yield of F-18 Fluorocholine was elevated from 9.7% (the first technique) to 24.3%. Conclusion: This preliminary work indicates that delay in a reduced-pressure condition prior to labeling step has greatly improved the labeling yield of F-18 Fluorocholine at the end of synthesis. Using this approach, the labeling yield of F-18 Fluorocholine was elevated from 7.5% to 24.3%.
Electroweak baryogenesis from a dark sector

Adding an extra singlet scalar $S$ to the Higgs sector can provide a barrier at tree level between a false vacuum with restored electroweak symmetry and the true one. This has been demonstrated to readily give a strong phase transition as required for electroweak baryogenesis. We show that with the addition of a fermionic dark matter particle $\chi$ coupling to $S$, a simple UV-complete model can realize successful electroweak baryogenesis. The dark matter gets a CP asymmetry that is transferred to the standard model through a $CP\ portal\ interaction$, which we take to be a coupling of $\chi$ to $\tau$ leptons and an inert Higgs doublet. The CP asymmetry induced in left-handed $\tau$ leptons biases sphalerons to produce the baryon asymmetry. The model has promising discovery potential at the LHC, while robustly providing a large enough baryon asymmetry and correct dark matter relic density with reasonable values of the couplings.
QUERY FORM Book : Briann Mapping : An Encyclopedic Reference ( BRNM ) Chapter : 00189 Please e-mail your responses and any corrections to :

Our decisions are affected not only by objective information about the available options but also by other people. Recent brain imaging studies have adopted the cognitive neuroscience approach for studying the neural mechanisms of social influence. A number of studies have shown that social influence is associated with neural activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum, which are two brain areas involved in the fundamental and not exclusively social mechanisms of performance monitoring. Therefore, the neural mechanisms of social influence could be deeply integrated into our general neuronal performance-monitoring mechanisms.
Growth and Storage Root Development of Sweetpotato Inoculated with Rhizobacteria Under Glasshouse Conditions

A pot experiment was conducted to determine the effects of rhizobacterial inoculation on growth and storage root development of Sepang Oren sweetpotato. Inoculation positively affected plant growth. The highest growth was observed on plants inoculated with Klebsiella sp. which increased shoot dry weight by 23% compared to control. Five of the isolates were able to produce sweetpotato storage roots. Klebsiella sp. and Erwinia sp. produced higher storage root yields of 35.15 and 8.22 g plant-1, respectively, compared to the other treatments. The inoculation significantly increased the uptake of nutrients in plant tissue and the concentrations of nutrients in soil. The results suggest that Klebsiella sp. and Erwinia sp. are potentially effective as bioenhancers and biofertilizers for sweetpotato.
Are There Barriers To Entry in Offshore Production of Oil and Gas

Two issues are addressed in this paper. First, I present what I believe to be a flaw in the persistence in profits hypothesis. In response, I suggest a possible modification to account for markets in which rents are present. Second, I present my preliminary findings in my attempt to determine whether offshore barriers to entry are present in US crude oil and natural gas production. I review my early stage results at estimating a translog cost function for US crude oil and natural gas producing firms.
Title Robust image segmentation by texture sensitive snake underlow contrast environment

Robust image segmentation plays an important role in a wide range of daily applications, like visual surveillance system, computer-aided medical diagnosis, etc. Although commonly used image segmentation methods based on pixel intensity and texture can help finding the boundary of targets with sharp edges or distinguished textures, they may not be applied to images with poor quality and low contrast. Medical images, images captured from web cam and images taken under dim light are examples of images with low contrast and with heavy noise. To handle these types of images, we proposed a new segmentation method based on texture clustering and snake fitting. Experimental results show that targets in both artificial images and medical images, which are of low contrast and heavy noise, can be segmented from the background accurately. This segmentation method provides alternatives to the users so that they can keep using imaging device with low quality outputs while having good quality of image analysis result.
Mechanical behavior of micro-drops in EWOD systems: drop extraction, division, motion and constraining

Digital microfluidics is now foreseen as a convenient way to perform many biological processes like DNA or protein manipulation and detection, and cell analysis. A promising method for droplet displacement is electro-wetting on dielectric (EWOD). It has been recently shown that many basic manipulations of drops can be achieved in such EWOD based microsystems. In order to contribute to the developments of such microsystems, we have used a numerical approach based on surface energy minimization to better understand the physical phenomena and to improve the topological design of an EWOD microchip. We show that the problem is mostly topological and that the shape and arrangement of the electrodes is a predominant factor. We present here the computational approach and the consequences for the realization of an EWOD microsystem.
Slotted TDMA Multichannel MAC for Overlapped Vehicular Networks with SDN-based Distributed System

The IEEE 802.11p, IEEE 1609, and wireless access in vehicular environment (WAVE) standards are developed to be used on multi-channels in dedicated short range communication (DSRC) spectrum. While the vehicular networks will be inevitably installed in overlapped manner in metropolitan area, most research works of VANETs, however, are focused on the coordinated multichannel MAC protocol operations in a single isolated ad hoc network environment without considering overlapped vehicular network environments that include interferences from neighbor networks. In this paper, we propose a slotted TDMA Multichannel MAC (STMC-MAC) for overlapped vehicular networks (OVN) with software-defined networking-based distribution system (SDN-DS) as infrastructure. The proposed STMC-MAC guarantees reliable delivery of basic safety message (BSM) with bounded delay and scalability on OVN with SDN-DS for metropolitan area with high vehicular density. The proposed STMC-MAC provides higher scalability, reliability, and flexibility in BSM and non-BSM data exchanges at various VN-ESS topologies and different level of vehicular density. The proposed scheme had been implemented on NS-3 network simulator, and the performances of the proposed scheme are measured, analyzed, and compared with existing approaches.1
Hedging effectiveness of constant and time varying hedge ratio for maritime commodities

iv Table of Contents v List of Equations vii List of Graphs viii List of Tables ix 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Importance of Derivative Tools 2 1.2. Research Contribution 4 1.3. Research Interest 4 1.4. Structure of the Thesis 5 2. Development of Derivative Trading 7 2.1. History 7 2.2. Development of Hedge Ratio and Hedging Effectiveness 7 2.3. Verification of Research Gaps 8 3. Methodology – Data – Preliminary Statistics – Empirical Research 10 3.1. Hedge ratio and hedging effectiveness: 10 3.2. Presentation of model(s) 11 3.2.1. Model 1. Ordinary Least Square: 11 3.2.2. Model 2. The OLS-GARCH model: 12 3.2.3. Model 3. The Bivariate VAR Model: 12 3.2. 4. Model 4. The Vector Error Correction Model: 13 3.2. 5. Model 5. Bivariate-GARCH Model: 14 3.3. Data analysis 15
Epoxy adhesives modified with nano- and micro-particles for in-situ timber bonding: Effect of microstructure on bond integrity

The bond integrity of thixotropic, shear-thinning epoxy adhesives for in situ bonding of FRP connections into timber was investigated. The manufacture of such joints requires adhesives which can produce thick bond-line where the bonding environment does not allow any use of pressure and heat. Four adhesives were evaluated based on a standard adhesive to which nano-silica, nano-rubber and ceramic micro-particles were added to modify rheology and improve adhesive bonding. Viscosity and shear stress of the adhesives were measured as a function of shear rate. The rubber-modified formulation was found to possess the highest viscosity and required higher shear stress to reduce its viscosity. The wettability of nanomodified adhesives on timber substrates was assessed by contact angle measurements and the rubber-modified formulation possessed the highest contact angle which was expected from viscosity measurements. The shear strength of timber to adhesive interfaces was measured using block shear tests and pull-out tests on FRP rods bonded into timber. The addition of nano- and micro-filler additions increased the bond strength of the base adhesive by up to 20%. However the measured contact angle negatively correlated with measured bond strength. Overall, the less ductile micro-particle-filled adhesive delivered the highest shear strengths when bonding timber and FRP rods.
Bankruptcy Risk Perception in Silesian Companies in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis: Survey Evidence

The global financial crisis exerted a strong impact on both the financial and the real sphere of the economy. In companies, the global financial crisis caused serious turbulences connected with the rapid changes of the business environment. This risen the risk of worsening financial situation of the companies and boosted the threat of bankruptcy. In general, the worsening of financial performance tightens the decisionmaking processes in a company and thus may result in further difficulties. The most commonly known mechanisms indicate the role of capital structure decisions. The application of debt capital raises potential problems with the repayment of debt. Thus, the bankruptcy risk can be regarded as the consequences of the improper capital structure characterised by too high level of the financial leverage (so called over-leverage) (Shapiro, Balbirer, 2000, p. 464-465; Emery, Finnerty, Stowe, 2004, p.681; Megginson, Smart, 2006, p. 499-505; Fabozzi, Peterson, 2003, p. 591-594; Higgins, 2007, p. 204). Accordingly, the problems within the operating performance of a company may increase the risk of bankruptcy. The unpredictable fluctuations of operating revenues and operating costs may lead to the decline of operating return rates, and also strengthen the over-leverage effect (Ehrhardt, Brigham, 2009, p. 606; Baker, Powell, 2005, p. 298; Lumby, Jones, 2011, p. 429). Finally, the problems
Study of the effectiveness of steel cable dampers for the seismic protection of electrical equipment

This paper deals with the problem of the seismic protection of high voltage electrical equipment by using steel cable dampers (wire-ropes). The wire-rope isolators, often used in shock and vibration problems, are here proposed as seismic isolation devices. The main results concerning an experimental campaign devoted to the identification of the mechanical characteristics of these devices, are illustrated and discussed. In particular, experimental tests, carried out on six different isolators and consisting of imposed harmonic displacements, have shown an asymmetric behaviour of the devices along the vertical direction (tension-compression) and a symmetric behaviour along the main horizontal directions (Shear, Roll). Moreover, the cycles are independent of excitation frequency and fully dissipative, which corresponds to have high values of damping ratio. Subsequently, using the classical Bouc-Wen model properly modified, the cycle behaviour of the isolators has been modeled and the relative parameters have been identified. Finally, the seismic response of a 420 kV circuit breaker, equipped with four wire-rope isolators, has been evaluated: the results confirm the high efficiency of the wire-rope as base isolation system.
Lexical Diffusion and Gramaticalization: The Case of Tibetan slob sbyong byed

Lexicalization and grammaticalization are two of the most important processes in linguistic change (Laurel and Traugott, 2005; Hopper and Traugott, 2003). Spoken Standard Tibetan (SST) offers an example of both these processes applying sequentially to the phrase slob sbyong byed, 'to study; to learn. ' This phrase is an instance of a full verb byed becoming a light verb (grammaticalization) after compounding (lexicalization). In Tibetan, three light verbs: byed, rgyag and gtong compete lexically. This lexical competition can be treated under the Lexical Diffusion Theory proposed by Wang (1969; 1979).
Comparison of Two Femtosecond Laser Systems For Two-Photon Imaging of RPE Cells

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a retinal disease that affects the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells in the macular region. It is the leading cause for blindness in the Western world. In the RPE, enlarged lipofuscin granules show autofluorescence that is monitored through confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope (cSLO) in clinical practice today. This work focuses on a new approach. The lipofuscin is imaged by means of a two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) ophthalmoscope. This offers intrinsic three dimensional resolution and a larger sensing depth. A conventional cSLO (HRT, Heidelberg Engineering, Germany) has been modified for TPEF imaging at video rate speed (20 Hz). Two different femtosecond (fs) lasers have been used for the setup. A modelocked Ti:Sa laser (Mira 900, Coherent, USA) and a compact, all diodepumped, solid-state Nd:glass fsd oscillator (femtoTRAIN Nd-Glas V1.0, High Q Laser, Austria). The first images of the high-speed TPEF ophthalmoscope on retinas from donor eyes are presented. The results show the potential for in vivo TPEF imaging of the human eye in everyday clinical use.
A multi-view stereo based 3D hand-held scanning system using visual-inertial navigation and structured light

3 Production Engineering Research Institute(PRI), LG Electronics, LG-ro 222, Jinwi-myeon, Pyeongtaek 451-713, Korea Abstract. This paper describes the implementation of a 3D handheld scanning system based on visual inertial pose estimation and structured light technique.3D scanning system is composed of stereo camera, inertial navigation system (INS) and illumination projector to collect high resolution data for close range applications. The proposed algorithm for visual pose estimation is either based on feature matching or using accurate target object. The integration of INS enables the scanning system to provide the fast and reliable pose estimation supporting visual pose estimates. Block matching algorithm was used to render two view 3D reconstruction. For multiview 3D approach, rough registration and final alignment of point clouds using iterative closest point algorithm further improves the scanning accuracy. The proposed system is potentially advantageous for the generation of 3D models in bio-medical applications.