Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current Ice Adhesion Testing Methods and the Need for a Standard: A Concise Review

Ice accretion is a serious problem in cold climates, causing automobile and airplane accidents, as well as severe economic losses throughout various sectors. To combat these issues, many solutions have been developed, such as de-icing materials, which can delay or prevent the adhesion of ice to a surface through chemical, temperature, or physical means. To effectively assess the properties of a de-icing material, ice adhesion testing must be conducted, of which there are numerous types, each with their own characteristics. Unfortunately, the same material, tested with different methods, may provide very different ice adhesion values. This makes it difficult to properly characterize a material’s de-icing properties and compare values across the literature. In this review, we identified the main ice adhesion testing methods and compared ice adhesion values for a particular material with different testing methods. We then discussed some of the main issues with current ice testing methods and identified some of the main factors that may affect ice adhesion values, namely ice quality and the use of a mold, which may significantly affect the final ice adhesion results. Finally, we proposed a new, simple standard testing method, in an attempt to eliminate some of the issues with current ice testing methods.
Grasp detection via visual rotation object detection and point cloud spatial feature scoring

Accurately detecting the appropriate grasp configurations is the central task for the robot to grasp an object. Existing grasp detection methods usually overlook the depth image or only regard it as a two-dimensional distance image, which makes it difficult to capture the three-dimensional structural characteristics of target object. In this article, we transform the depth image to point cloud and propose a two-stage grasp detection method based on candidate grasp detection from RGB image and spatial feature rescoring from point cloud. Specifically, we first adopt the recently proposed high-performance rotation object detection method for aerial images, named R3Det, to grasp detection task, obtaining the candidate grasp boxes and their appearance scores. Then, point clouds within each candidate grasp box are normalized and evaluated to get the point cloud quality scores, which are fused with the established point cloud quantity scoring model to obtain spatial scores. Finally, appearance scores and their corresponding spatial scores are combined to output high-quality grasp detection results. The proposed method effectively fuses three types of grasp scoring modules, thus is called Score Fusion Grasp Net. Besides, we propose and adopt top-k grasp metric to effectively reflect the success rate of algorithm in actual grasp execution. Score Fusion Grasp Net obtains 98.5% image-wise accuracy and 98.1% object-wise accuracy on Cornell Grasp Dataset, which exceeds the performances of state-of-the-art methods. We also use the robotic arm to conduct physical grasp experiments on 15 kinds of household objects and 11 kinds of adversarial objects. The results show that the proposed method still has a high success rate when facing new objects.
Subclinical Atherosclerosis Progression in Obese Children with Relevant Cardiometabolic Risk Factors Can Be Assessed through Carotid Intima Media Thickness

Given the growing obesity rates among children, a more complete evaluation of their potential cardiometabolic risk is needed. Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), a marker of endothelial distress and a predictor of atherosclerotic progression in adulthood, may complete the day-to-day evaluation of children at risk. Multiple risk factors act as additional precipitant causes of atherosclerosis. We analyzed 60 patients aged 6–17 years old by measuring their CIMT using the Aixplorer MACH 30 echography machine automatic measurement software. All subjects were clinically and anamnestically assessed to identify risk factors. CIMT values are significantly higher in older children and boys. Over 20 kg weight gain during pregnancy and other at-risk disorders (p = 0.047), family history of cardiovascular risk (p = 0.049), hypertension (p = 0.012), and smoking (p = 0.015) are linked to increased CIMT. Our study also supports international data on artificial postnatal nutrition, high/low birth weight, and sedentary lifestyle being linked to increased CIMT. Significant correlations were detected between CIMT and the entire lipid panel. Weight excess and abdominal adiposity in children is clearly linked to increased CIMT. Moreover, waist circumference and TG/HDL-c are significant predictors of CIMT. Although each parameter of the lipid panel is correlated to CIMT, fasting glucose is not.
An improved FDTD scheme with polarization piece‐linearity technique for biological tissue modeling

The finite difference time domain (FDTD) has been popular to characterize wave propagation in biological tissue, which permittivity is generally described by Cole‐Cole dispersive model.The FDTD scheme by using fractional derivative to time‐domain polarization equation results in a fast and computational efficient algorithm. The accuracy obtained is, however, not generally as good as thoes of z‐transform and auxiliary differential equation methods. In this article, polarization piece‐linearity and nonlinear optimization techniques are proposed and utilized on the polarization fractional derivative appoach, which improved the accuracy while retains the high speed and efficiency advantage. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:888–891, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26698
Phenotypic Screening of Molecular Docking Enriched Chemical Libraries from Targets Identified in Ischemic Stroke Genome Data by Network-Based Method

Cerebral ischemia (IS) is one of the main cardiovascular diseases threatening life and disability. Like most cardiovascular events, the disease progression of is affects a variety of signaling pathways and changes multiple overexpressed genes in the body. The use of new therapeutic agents to interfere with the disease progression of cardiovascular diseases (such as is) can be achieved by selectively regulating small molecules of the target set of different signal pathways, also known as selective multipharmacology. Phenotypic screening can be an effective method to solve this problem, but the lack of targeted methods for ischemic stroke limits its impact. Here, we aim to identify IS-specific targets by RNA sequencing data with a network-based approach. Molecular docking approach was applied to screen over 210,000 molecules from SPECS compound library. Screening of this enriched library resulted in 605 candidates that led to several potent active hits. The novelty analysis suggested that the structure scaffolds of the compounds were dissimilar to existing IKKB inhibitors, and further biological test result confirmed two identified compounds represented novel IKKB inhibitors. Further, docking exploration with IKKB (PDB id: 4KIK) showed that the three selective compounds were stable inside the binding pocket of IKKB which shared a homology of compound-protein interactions in comparison with the bioactive inhibitor of CHEMBL1762621. Our screening method is expected to produce selective multidrug lead compounds for the development of treatments for complex diseases, such as ischemic stroke.
Effect of Tip Clearance Size on the Ram-Rotor Performance

The ram-rotor presented by Ramgen Power Systems, Inc. is a new kind of compression system based on shock wave compression technology commonly used in supersonic intakes. Compared to conventional axial and centrifugal compressors, it has a simple and compact configuration, and also has advantages of the higher single stage pressure ratio, small volume and light weight. However, its efficiency should be further improved. Based on its inherent advantages, the ram-rotor can be widely used in small aero-engine, medium and small shipping power system, micro gas turbine employed by distributed energy system and power plant in the future. In this paper, the flow field and performance of a ram-rotor with different tip clearance sizes are simulated numerically by adopting the three dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the Spalart-Allmaras turbulent model at the design condition. The purpose of numerical simulation is to investigate the flow details and performance parameters of the ram-rotor under different tip clearance sizes, including the structure of the shock wave, the size and location of flow separation zone, radial distribution of flow parameters at the outlet of the ram-rotor, the characteristics of tip clearance leakage flow, and so on. It has been found that the performance of the ram-rotor is very sensitive to the tip clearance size. The overall performance parameters of the ram-rotor decrease greatly with the increase of the tip clearance size. So, the selection of suitable tip clearance size is one of the key issues in obtaining a high performance of the ram-rotor in the design process. For the ram-rotor with tip clearance, the reflection structure of the shock wave will be destroyed. The flow loss of tip region will be increased with the increase of the tip clearance size. For the ram-rotor with and without tip clearance, the flow parameters distribution trend along the radial direction at the outlet is different.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Evapotranspiration Adjustment Factors in Florida

Actual evapotranspiration (ET) is commonly estimated at daily time intervals as the product of a crop coefficient and a reference-crop evapotranspiration (ET0) that is calculated by using a daily time step. When subdaily time steps are used, crop coefficients must be multiplied by adjustment factors to account for the discrepancy between ET0 calculated by using daily and subdaily time steps. These adjustment factors depend on the method used to calculate ET0. By using the ASCE and FAO-56 Penman-Monteith methods with data from several meteorological stations in Florida, the ASCE equation is shown to be preferable for all locations and seasons because it requires the least adjustment to the crop coefficient when 15-min and 1-h time steps are used. The required adjustment factors depend on location and season, are greatest in the summer, and are approximately the same for 15-min and 1-h time steps. A comparative evaluation between daily ET0 and values of potential evapotranspiration (PET) provided by three p.
Cytotoxic Effects of Phytomediated Silver and Gold Nanoparticles Synthesised from Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis), and Aspalathin

The green chemistry approach has continuously been applied for the synthesis of functional nanomaterials to reduce waste, environmental hazards, and the use of toxic chemicals among other reasons. Bioactive natural compounds have been found great potential in this regard and are used to improve the stability, activity, and biodistribution of metal nanoparticles (MNPs). Aspalathin (ASP) from Aspalathus linearis (rooibos) has a well-defined pharmacological profile and functional groups capable of both reducing and capping agents in the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles (NP). This study provides the first report of the phytomediated synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles (AuNPs/AgNPs) via ASP and the green rooibos (GR) extract. The study demonstrated a green chemistry approach to the biosynthesis of nanoparticles of GR-AuNPs, ASP-AuNPs, GR-AgNPs, and ASP-AgNPs. The results showed that GR and ASP could act both as reducing and stabilising agents in the formation of crystalline, with different shapes and dispersity of NPs in the ranges of 1.6–6.7 nm for AgNPs and 7.5–12.5 nm for the AuNPs. However, the ASP NPs were less stable in selected biogenic media compared to GR NPs and were later stabilised with polyethene glycol. The cytotoxicity studies showed that GR-AgNPs were the most cytotoxic against SH-SY5Y and HepG2 with IC50 108.8 and 183.4 μg/mL, respectively. The cellular uptake analysis showed a high uptake of AuNPs and indicated that AgNPs of rooibos at a lower dose (1.3–1.5 μg/mL) is favourable for its anticancer potential. This study is a contribution to plant-mediated metallic nanoparticles using a pure single compound that can be further developed for targeted drug delivery for cancer cells treatments in the coming years.
Relationship between the preference styles of music and fashion and the similarity of their sensibility

Purpose – The recent influence of the mass media communication emphasized the visionary image of the music and eventually the close relationship between the music and fashion industries was formed. Consumers who share a similar taste in music could relate to each other more actively, and as a result, they began to develop similar aesthetic views and emotions. From this matter, the aim of this research is to conduct a survey that would go over a variety of music and fashion preferences of the consumers in order to analyze the relationship between the two. The main objective was to investigate how strongly the preference styles of music and fashion match each other and find similarity of their sensibility.Design/methodology/approach – The participants were directed to choose their preference styles of music and fashion, grade their interest in music and fashion and evaluate their sensibilities by grading their feelings about ten polar paired adjectives.Findings – There indeed is a close relationship between.
Design and Stability Analysis of a 3D Rimless Wheel with Flat Feet and Ankle Springs

A two-dimensional rimless wheel provides a simple model of bipedal walking. The motion of the rimless wheel is stable, and this particular property has clarified the fundamental role of a swing leg in planar bipedal walking that addresses the problem of falling forward. In this paper, a three-dimensional rimless wheel is investigated as a simple model of three-dimensional bipedal walking. The 3D rimless wheel model is useful in understanding the essential dynamics of 3D bipedal locomotion. The model consists of two rimless wheels connected by a link at the center of the wheels, and flat feet connected to the spokes with springs. The first numerical stability studies indicated that the motion of the 3D rimless wheel could be unstable; however, numerical simulations and experimental results showed that for a given slope and physical parameters, including the spring constant at the ankles, a stable motion is obtained. This indicates the usefulness of ankle springs in providing stable bipedal locomotion in three-dimensions.
Moderation

Le Publictionnaire. Dictionnaire encyclopédique et critique des publics est un dictionnaire collaboratif en ligne sous la responsabilité du Centre de recherche sur les médiations (Crem, Université de Lorraine) ayant pour ambition de clarifier la terminologie et le profit heuristique des concepts relatifs à la notion de public et aux méthodes d’analyse des publics pour en proposer une cartographie critique et encyclopédique.
Hybrid Design of Electric Power Generation Systems Including Renewable Sources of Energy

With the stricter environmental regulations and diminishing fossil-fuel reserves, there is now higher emphasis on exploiting various renewable sources of energy. These alternative sources of energy are usually environmentally friendly and emit no pollutants. However, the capital investments for those renewable sources of energy are normally high, and there are also maintenance cost differences to be considered. Furthermore, due to the intermittency of some of these power sources, reliability issues should be addressed when integrating different power sources. In this article, as an example, the design of hybrid generating systems comprising wind turbine generators, photovoltaic panels, and storage batteries is discussed based on multidisciplinary optimization. In this multisource generation system design, three design objectives are considered, that is, system cost, reliability, and pollutant emissions.
Microgravity flight characterization of the International Space Station active rack isolation system

Space flight experiment test results of a Space Station Active Rack Isolation System (ARIS) are presented. The purpose of ARIS is to isolate microgravity sensitive science experiments mounted in Space Station racks from structural vibrations present on the large Space Station orbital structure. The overall objectives of the experiment were 1) to test and evaluate the ARIS design modifications made from 1997 to 2000 as a result of prototype flight testing performed on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, 2) to characterize isolation performance on the International Space Station, 3) to assess the impact that rack payload disturbances have on the microgravity environment, 4) to test alternative umbilicals designed to improve isolation performance, and 5) to gain on-orbit operational experience and validate procedures. The scope of the material presented is limited to microgravity performance issues, so only results related to the first four objectives are presented. Over a year of flight testing was completed, and ARIS consistently has performed extremely well such that station vibrations were isolated to levels well below the science requirement.
Optimization loop based on adjoint sensitivity analysis for flows through porous media with adsorption

In the past few years, the development of inverse design and optimization methods has opened up new possibilities. The adjoint method is of great significance in that context, since it permits high fidelity to flow‐physics at comparatively low computational costs. The present work focuses on adsorbed gas storage systems. Its contribution is the development of an alternative approach to the adjoint contour problem, which ensures that the latter is as well‐posed as the physical problem, itself. This approach proves to be fully consistent with Cacuci's methodology for computing sensitivity derivatives, which enables us to extend their scope. It allows for the evaluation of sensitivities with respect to parameters other than those pertaining to geometry, that is, to those that control the system operation such as average mass flux, convective heat transfer, inlet and external temperature. The main goal of this work is to obtain and validate a basic structure of an optimization loop algorithm (OLA) based on adjoint method, applied to adsorption natural gas storage systems, with pressure and density of adsorption as objective functions.
Development of a Hybrid Technique Utilising Image Processing and Fuzzy Logic for Dynamically Detecting a Movable Colour Object

The drive behind this research is to devise an autonomous method for dynamically detecting a movable coloured object within ambiguous environments. Based on a study of different methods of automation using image processing techniques, those with the highest potential of operating effectively and efficiently in a complex environment of varying light intensity were identified. A hybrid system has been developed which utilises the selected image processing algorithms and fuzzified readings from distance sensors, to extract an identifiable colour area in the acquired image frames. Subsequently the identified colour is used to recognise the blob area within the frame containing the moving object to be tracked. Based on the location and area of this blob, the hybrid system will dynamically identify the exact location of the target mobile object. This system mounted on an autonomous mobile robot constantly monitors the detected object.
What drives people to repost social media messages during the COVID‐19 pandemic? Evidence from the Weibo news microblog

Abstract COVID‐19 poses an unprecedented challenge to human society. To cope with the pandemic, people seek information from various communication channels. Microblog websites are highly influential information channels for the public to get timely information during the pandemic. Building on the heuristic‐systematic processing model, this study identifies the multiple characteristics (content, author, and social features) that may play a role in triggering long cascades of reposts of COVID‐19‐related news microblogs. With a large‐scale news microblog database collected from Weibo and an innovative information gain method, we find that heuristic thinking plays a dominant role in COVID‐19 pandemic‐related news microblog reposting decisions and further discloses the specific influencing factors of such behavior.
Geographic information system technology and its applications in civil engineering

Abstract Geographic information system (GIS) technology is attracting interest from a broad range of civil engineering disciplines because of its potential to provide a new environment for problem solving which could lower costs, improve quality, and support multi-discipline analysis for complex projects. This paper reviews the primary components and capabilities of GIS technology and shows how it is used in many civil engineering applications, including infrastructure management, transportation, land use planning, water resources engineering, and environmental engineering.
Energy-Based Seismic Design of Ductile Cladding Systems

Advanced cladding connections take advantage of the interaction between architectural cladding panels and the building structure to dissipate energy. At the same time, like other passive dissipators, they provide additional lateral stiffness to the structure. A design criterion formulated in terms of energy provides the optimal balance of stiffness and energy dissipation to be added to the structure by the connections. Nonlinear models of advanced connections were incorporated into a two-dimensional structural model of a building with two cladding panels per bay. The response of the structure to a variety of seismic motions is presented. Time histories of the energy demand and supply to the building, both with and without cladding, trace the response of the structure to earthquake excitations. Results show that, when designed according to the proposed criterion, energy dissipative elements can be responsible for the total hysteretic energy dissipated in the structural system. The reduction in displacements (e.g., interstory drift) will depend on the position of the modified fundamental frequency of the structural system with respect to the critical frequency of excitation.