Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Three dimensional periodic foundations for base seismic isolation

Based on the concept of phononic crystals, periodic foundations made of periodic materials are investigated in this paper. The periodic foundations can provide low frequency band gaps, which cover the main frequency ranges of seismic waves. Therefore, the periodic foundations are able to protect the upper structures during earthquake events. In this paper, the basic theory of three dimensional periodic foundations is studied and the finite element method was used to conduct the sensitivity study. A simplified three-dimensional periodic foundation with a superstructure was tested in the field and the feasibility of three dimensional periodic foundations was proved. The test results showed that the response of the upper structure with the three dimensional periodic foundation was reduced under excitation waves with the main frequency falling in the attenuation zones. The finite element analysis results are consistent with the experimental data, indicating that three dimensional periodic foundations are a feasible way of reducing seismic vibrations.
Tactile display in electronic musical instruments

Unlike acoustical instruments, electronic musical instruments display a synthetic sound source, which in fact can only be heard and not felt. Tactually displaying attributes of the sound (e.g., pitch, volume envelope, timbre) enables the performer to improve muscular control. Several technologies for enhancing tactual display of the sound source, as well as ways of control will be described. For example, input devices such as gloves and gesture trackers and other technologies were adapted from virtual reality research. These developments led to the realisation that the link between sound source and its “feel” was missing. For instance, a sharp sound should have a clearly tangible threshold, and a dull sound a more soft feel. (3 pages)
Regression Function Characterization of Synchronous Machine Magnetization and Its Impact on Machine Stability Analysis

vii and steady state synchronous machine models. The trigonometric model developed in this work, has been applied to a conventional synchronous machine model and extensive stability performance analysis has been carried out. This further reveals the usefulness of the proposed trigonometric magnetization model and the importance of the inclusion of magnetization in stability analysis. The other magnetization model developed in this research is incorporated into a state space synchronous machine model that is used in steady state performance analysis of the machine.
Transient propagation in lossy coplanar waveguides

Propagation of picosecond Gaussian and rectangular pulses along a lossy coplanar waveguide is investigated in detail. To this end, a new empirical formula for attenuation constant is proposed for discussing the conductor and leakage losses associated with the coplanar waveguide in which the thickness and conductivity of signal strip and ground planes are finite. This formula is obtained by comparing the results by the modified spectral-domain approach with those by the previous empirical formulas. Based on this new empirical formula, an efficient time-domain propagation model is established and applied to analyze the transient characteristics of Gaussian and rectangular pulses propagated along a lossy coplanar waveguide. In particular, the transient propagated pulses calculated by different empirical formulas are discussed and compared with those of the experimental data.
Real-time motion detection with candidate masks and region growing for moving cameras

Abstract. A fast and reliable motion detection method is proposed for moving cameras. Existing methods generally build background models and then apply background subtraction for moving pixels detection. In background modeling, statistical methods and/or features, such as edges, local binary patterns are used. Parameters of the proposed methods need to be updated adaptively for better performance. In recent studies, adaptive learning rates are used with main and candidate background models. Simple and adaptive thresholding methods are used for foreground detection in different studies. We build a statistical background model with hue–saturation–value color space and perform background subtraction with the contribution of optical flow vectors. Dense optical flow is applied between warped the background model and the current frame to estimate optical flow vectors. If a pixel has a larger magnitude, we set a weight value for each pixel in the background subtraction process. Then, we extract two candidate foreground masks and apply some postprocessing techniques to determine the final mask. Our proposed method works fast in real time, and the experimental results on two different datasets show that our approach has the highest performance compared with the methods in the literature.
Relating track geometry to vehicle performance using neural network approach

Abstract As part of a research that led to the development of the performance-based track geometry (PBTG) inspection technology, the Transportation Technology Center, Inc., Pueblo, CO, USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads, has developed a technique relating track geometry to vehicle performance, real-time. This technique is based on the neural network (NN) approach, an emerging powerful tool in recognizing complex patterns and non-linear relationships between many inputs and an output, such as the relationship between track geometry and vehicle response. On the basis of this technique, many NNs have been developed (trained) from actual vehicle/track interaction test results. For a given vehicle type, the trained NNs directly relate three-dimensional track geometry and vehicle operating speed to vehicle performance. The effects of other track conditions such as lubrication, rail profile, and track stiffness are indirectly considered on the basis of their statistical distributions from test results. Because the PBTG inspection is intended to optimize the track geometry maintenance, the vehicle types selected for testing to date were the ones most sensitive to track geometry (in North America, these are the tank car, covered hopper car, and coal gondola car). However, more NNs for other vehicle types can be easily trained on the basis of the NN technique developed using actual vehicle performance and track geometry test results.
αVβ3 Integrin Expression Is Essential for Replication of Mosquito and Tick-Borne Flaviviruses in Murine Fibroblast Cells

The Flavivirus genus includes a number of important viruses that are pathogenic to humans and animals and are responsible for outbreaks across the globe. Integrins, a family of heterodimeric transmembrane molecules expressed in all nucleated cells mediate critical functions of cell physiology and cell cycle. Integrins were previously postulated to be involved in flavivirus entry and to modulate flavivirus replication efficiency. In the present study, mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF), lacking the expression of αVβ3 integrin (MEF-αVβ3−/−), were infected with four different flaviviruses, namely yellow fever virus (YFV), West Nile virus (WNV), Usutu virus (USUV) and Langat virus (LGTV). The effects of the αVβ3 integrin absence in double-knockout MEF-αVβ3−/− on flavivirus binding, internalization and replication were compared to the respective wild-type cells. Binding to the cell surface for all four flaviviruses was not affected by the ablation of αVβ3 integrin, whereas internalization of USUV and WNV was slightly affected by the loss of αVβ3 integrin expression. Most interestingly, the deletion of αVβ3 integrin strongly impaired replication of all flaviviruses with a reduction of up to 99% on virus yields and a strong reduction on flavivirus anti-genome RNA synthesis. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that αVβ3 integrin expression in flavivirus-susceptible cell lines enhances the flavivirus replication.
Characterization of paper mill effluent using indicators and source tracking methods

Monitoring of indicator organisms is conducted to assess potential risk of pathogen exposure from freshwaters such as recreational waters and drinking water sources. Total coliforms, fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli and enterococci are the most commonly measured indicator organisms. Their presence can indicate the potential presence of fecally transmitted pathogens. In Wisconsin, E. coli are used for determining potential human health risk in recreational waters. However, it has been shown that E. coli can survive and reproduce in a variety of aquatic environments, including in the activated sludge process of paper mills. Previous monitoring in a river in Wisconsin receiving paper mill effluent indicated that the mill was contributing to elevated E. coli levels that could affect the number of closings at a public beach located downstream from the mill. The goal of this study was to understand the public health implications of the E. coli at the beach. Samples were collected upstream and downstream of the paper mill's wastewater treatment plant discharge as well as within the mill processes. Samples were analyzed for indicator organisms (coliforms, E. coli, and enterococci) and microbial source tracking (MST) targets. Although indicator concentrations were typically below detection limits in the mill process water, indicators regrew in the activated sludge wastewater treatment process such that fecal coliforms and E. coli were detected in all wastewater treatment plant effluent samples. Although the paper mill effluent periodically appears to affect the E. coli levels at the downstream beach, MST results demonstrate that E. coli from the mill is not of human fecal origin, and therefore not likely a cause for health concerns.
Common-Mode Voltage Elimination in Multilevel Power Inverter-Based Motor Drive Applications

The industry and academia are focusing their efforts on finding more efficient and reliable electrical machines and motor drives. However, many of the motors driven by pulse-width modulated converters face the recurring problem of common-mode voltage (CMV). In fact, this voltage leads to other problems such as bearing breakdown, deterioration of the stator winding insulation and electromagnetic interferences (EMI) that can affect the lifespan and correct operation of the motors. In this sense, multilevel converters have proven to be a useful tool for solving these problems and mitigating CMV over the past few decades. Among other reasons, because they provide additional degrees of freedom when comparing with two-level converters. However, although there are several proposals in the scientific literature on this topic, no complete information has been reviewed about the CMV issues and the different multilevel alternatives that can be used to solve it. In this context, the objective of this work is to determine how multilevel power converters provide additional degrees of freedom to make the reduction of the CMV possible by using specific modulation techniques, making it easier for engineers and scientists in this field to find solutions to this problem. This document consists of a descriptive study that collects the strengths and weaknesses of most important multilevel power converters, with special emphasis on how CMV affects each of them. In addition, the differences of modulation techniques aimed to the CMV reduction are explained in terms of output voltage, operating linear range, and generated CMV. Considering this last, it is recommended to use those modulation techniques that allow the generation of CMV levels of 0 V in order to be able to completely eliminate said voltage.
A new proteid salamander (Urodela, Proteidae) from the middle Miocene of Hambach (Germany) and implications for the evolution of the family

Members of the urodele family Proteidae currently account for eight extant species within two genera and at least four extinct species within three genera. The clade has a clear disjunct geographical range, with the extinct Paranecturus and the extant Necturus in North America and the extinct Mioproteus and the extant Proteus in Europe and Asia. A recent phylogenetic analysis supported a Eurasian clade including both fossil and living species found east of the Atlantic Ocean. However, the finding of a new proteid salamander, herein named Euronecturus grogu, from the Miocene of western Germany sheds new light on the evolution of this family, challenging the idea of all Eurasian members of the group deriving from a single lineage separated from the North American ones at least prior to the Oligocene. This new proteid taxon is based on five isolated atlases found in late Orleanian (MN 5) sediments in Hambach 6C, and displays features that are unknown in any other proteid, such as the presence of secondary dorsal crests, small and posteriorly‐directed postzygapophyses, and (in at least some specimens) a wide and deep ventral fossa between the anterior cotyles. A phylogenetic analysis recovered the new taxon in an early‐branching position within Proteidae, sister to all other proteids but the late Maastrichtian Paranecturus. It thus suggests the presence in Europe of a second proteid lineage, currently known only in the middle Miocene, that appears unrelated to the Mioproteus–Proteus clade.
Comparison of Three Individual Identification Algorithms for Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) after Automated Detection

Photo-identification of individual sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) is the primary technique for mark-recapture-based population analyses for the species The visual appearance of the fluke — with its distinct nicks and notches — often serves as the primary visual differentiator, allowing humans to make recorded sightings of specific individuals. However, the advent of digital photography and the significant increase in volume of images from multiple projects in combination with pre-existing historical catalogs has made applying the method more challenging. with the required human labor for de-duplication (reduction of Type II errors) and reconciliation of sightings between large datasets too cost- and time-prohibitive. To address this, we trained and evaluated the accuracy of PIE v2 (a triplet loss network) along with two existing fluke trailing edge-matching algorithms, CurvRank v2 and Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), as a mean to speed comparison among a high volume of photographs. Analyzed data were collected from a curated catalog of well-known sperm whales sighted across years (2005-2018) off the island of Dominica. The newly-trained PIE model outperformed the older CurvRank and DTW algorithms, and PIE provided the following top-k individual ID matching accuracy on a standard min-3/max-10 sighting training data set: Rank-1: 87.0%, Rank-5: 90.5%, and Rank-12: 92.5%. An essential aspect of PIE is that it can learn new individuals without network retraining, which can be immediately applied in the presence of (and for the resolution of) duplicate individuals in overlapping catalogs. Overall, our results recommend the use of PIE v2 and CurvRank v2 for ID reconciliation in combination due to their complementary performance.
Switched-capacitor circuits with reduced sensitivity to amplifier gain

A new technique for reducing the effect of finite amplifier gain in switched-capacitor circuits is described. The principle is to perform a preliminary charge transfer operation preceding every desired charge transfer operation, thus obtaining a close approximation of the finite gain error which is stored and subsequently used for correction. This provides excellent suppression of the finite gain effect, independent of the relationship between the clock rate and the signal frequencies. The technique is quite general in nature and can be applied in a wide variety of switchedcapacitor circuits. Its major applications will be in precision analog signal processing circuits like precision amplifiers, A/D and D/A converters, and analog arithmetic building blocks. Simulation studies indicate that this technique has the potential to reduce the amplifier gain requirements in such circuits by one to two orders of magnitude. This would simplify amplifier design and increase the high-frequency capability of these circuits.
DEVELOPMENT OF A HEALTH-BELIEF-MODEL-BASED INSTRUMENT TO ASSESS WORKER BELIEFS ABOUT USING PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Occupational illness is a problem in the United States that affects thousands of workers. Of the numerous occupational illnesses reported each year, most are preventable through the use of personal protective equipment. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess the significance of the determinants that predict the use of personal protective equipment in a small industrial shop setting. The aim of the study was to develop a valid and reliable theory-driven instrument to assess the determinants so that effective interventions can be constructed to improve the use of personal protective equipment in the occupational setting. The health belief model was used as the theoretical basis for the instrument. The procedures selected for this study employed an expert and an employee focus group to establish instrument validity. A two-judge content validity index was calculated using judges from the expert focus group. Reliability was established by test-retest administration of the instrument using a pilot group. An analysis of Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the test-retest reliability of the health belief model constructs used in the instrument. The focus groups established that the instrument is valid. Reliability of the instrument varied by construct, with the majority of the constructs having sufficient reliability to make the instrument useful for assessing determinants of behavior i
Source Contribution Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration Signals via Enhanced Independent Component Analysis

Extraction of effective information from measured vibration signals is a fundamental task for the machinery condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. As a typical blind source separation (BSS) method, independent component analysis (ICA) is known to be able to effectively extract the latent information in complex signals even when the mixing mode and sources are unknown. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to overcome two major drawbacks of the traditional ICA algorithm: lack of robustness and source contribution evaluation. The enhanced ICA algorithm is established to escalate the separation performance and robustness of ICA algorithm. This algorithm repeatedly separates the mixed signals multiple times with different initial parameters and evaluates the optimal separated components by the clustering evaluation method. Furthermore, the source contributions to the mixed signals can also be evaluated. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through the numerical simulation and experiment studies. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4005806]
State of the Art: Limit Equilibrium and Finite-Element Analysis of Slopes

In the past 25 years great strides have been made in the area of static stability and deformation analysis. The widespread availability of microcomputers has brought about considerable change in the computational aspects of slope stability analysis. Analyses can be done much more thoroughly, and, from the point of view of mechanics, more accurately than was possible without computers. Still, engineers performing slope stability analyses must have more than a computer program. They must have a thorough mastery of soil mechanics and soil strength, a solid understanding of the computer programs they use, and the ability and patience to test and judge the results of their analyses to avoid mistakes and misuse. Realistic analyses of deformations of slopes and embankments were not possible until about 25 years ago. They are possible now mainly because the finite-element method has been developed and adapted to these applications. The principal requirement for achieving reasonably accurate and useful results fro.
Do school leaders in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi predominantly practice a transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire style of leadership?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the predominant leadership style of school leaders in Abu Dhabi. The leadership style deployed by a school leader affects the performance of the school and its pupils. Methods for identifying the leadership style of school leaders in the UAE have varied, and it is difficult to conclude what the predominant leadership style is. Some studies have sought only to identify a specific leadership style, whilst others have focussed on a particular school type. Changes and improvements cannot be made without an understanding of the baseline leadership style. Design/methodology/approach The 36-item multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ)5x questionnaire (Bass and Avolio, 2004) is used to quantitatively understand the full range of school leaders’ leadership styles, with 167 respondents from across both public and private schools. Findings School leaders predominantly exhibited transformational leadership, practising transactional leadership less frequently and rarely using laissez-faire leadership. This is a positive finding for schools in the UAE; transformational leadership has been shown to result in improved subordinate and organisational performance. Differences between school leaders in public and private schools were tested and are discussed. Dimension reduction techniques were used to assess the structure of the 36-item MLQ5x but did not provide results that met minimum requirements for acceptability. Possible reasons for this are discussed. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to fully explore and baseline an understanding of the predominant leadership style amongst school leaders in the UAE, identifying the full range of leadership styles – transformation, transactional and laissez-faire – in both public and private schools.
Time to market prediction using type‐2 fuzzy sets

Purpose – Time to market is the essential aim of any new product introduction process. Performance measures are simple quantities that indicate the state of manufacturing organisations and are used as the basis of decision‐making at this crucial early stage of the process. Fuzzy set theory is a method for using qualitative data and subjective opinion. Fuzzy sets have been used extensively in manufacturing for applications including control, decision‐making, and estimation. Type‐2 fuzzy sets are a novel extension of type‐1 fuzzy sets. Aims to examine this subject.Design/methodology/approach – This research explores the increased use of type‐2 fuzzy sets in manufacturing. In particular, type‐2 fuzzy sets are used to model “the words that mean different things to different people”. Findings – A model that can leverage design process knowledge and predict time to market from performance measures is a potentially valuable tool for decision making and continuous improvement. A number of data sources, such as pro.