Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design science and living lab research for innovation and development in South Africa

We provide an overview of design science research methodology as well as Living Labs and how these two methodologies compare, the uniqueness of both and how they can support each another within a specific context. An example is provided to indicate how design research has been applied within a Living Lab environment where an artefact (Digital Doorway) was designed and deployed in a South African rural community in the North West Province. This shows how innovation and development is supported within a specific context. The main objective is to indicate how design science was applied to support the deployment of an artifact (the solar panel digital doorway) in an open innovation environment (Living Labs) where users from the rural community of the North West Living Lab were involved in providing feedback on the design and development of the artifact. To effectively plan and manage a large-scale project like the Digital Doorway where a multidisciplinary team work collaboratively to co-create and co-design an artifact like the digital doorway, it becomes imperative to provide an overview of how each of these research designs can support the end deliverable or product. Feedback from users was applied to improve the product to suit their needs and context. The end result was that a more robust and applicable product can be provided to support rural community development and to involve the community in the innovation life cycle through design science research and living lab processes.
Quantum realism and quantum surrealism

In this thesis we explore the questions of what should be considered a "classical" theory, and which aspects of quantum theory cannot be captured by any theory that respects our intuition of classicality. This exploration is divided in two parts: in the first we review classical results of the literature, such as the Kochen-Specker theorem, von Neumann's theorem, Gleason's theorem, as well as more recent ideas, such as the distinction between $\psi$-ontic and $\psi$-epistemic ontological models, Spekkens' definition of contextuality, Hardy's ontological excess baggage theorem and the PBR theorem. The second part is concerned with pinning down what should be the "correct" definition of contextuality. We settle down on the definition advocated by Abramsky and Branderburger, motivated by the Fine theorem, and show the connection of this definition with the work of George Boole. This definition allows us to unify the notions of locality and noncontextuality, and use largely the same tools to characterize how quantum mechanics violates these notions of classicality. Exploring this formalism, we find a new family of noncontextuality inequalities. We conclude by reviewing the notion of state-independent contextuality.
Efficient Arithmetic for the Implementation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography

The technology of elliptic curve cryptography is now an important branch in public-key based crypto-system. Cryptographic mechanisms based on elliptic curves depend on the arithmetic of points on the curve. The most important arithmetic is multiplying a point on the curve by an integer. This operation is known as elliptic curve scalar (or point) multiplication operation. A cryptographic device is supposed to perform this operation efficiently and securely. The elliptic curve scalar multiplication operation is performed by combining the elliptic curve point routines that are defined in terms of the underlying finite field arithmetic operations. This thesis focuses on hardware architecture designs of elliptic curve operations. In the first part, we aim at finding new architectures to implement the finite field arithmetic multiplication operation more efficiently. In this regard, we propose novel schemes for the serial-out bit-level (SOBL) arithmetic multiplication operation in the polynomial basis over F2m . We show that the smallest SOBL scheme presented here can provide about 24-26% reduction in area-complexity cost and about 21-22% reduction in power consumptions for F2163 compared to the current state-of-the-art bit-level multiplier schemes. Then, we employ the proposed SOBL schemes to present new hybrid-double multiplication architectures that perform two multiplications with latency comparable to the latency of a single multiplication. Then, in the second part of this thesis, we investigate the different algorithms for the implementation of elliptic curve scalar multiplication operation. We focus our interest in three aspects, namely, the finite field arithmetic cost, the critical path delay, and the protection strength from side-channel attacks (SCAs) based on simple power analysis. In this regard, we propose a novel scheme for the scalar multiplication operation that is based on processing three bits of the scalar in the exact same sequence of five point arithmetic operations. We analyse the security of our scheme and show that its security holds against both SCAs and safe-error fault attacks. In addition, we show how the properties of the proposed elliptic curve scalar multiplication scheme yields an efficient hardware design for the implementation of a single scalar multiplication on a prime extended twisted Edwards curve incorporating 8 parallel multiplication operations. Our comparison results show that the proposed hardware architecture for the twisted Edwards curve model implemented using the proposed scalar multiplication scheme is the fastest secure SCA protected scalar multiplication scheme over prime field reported in the literature.
Performance Assessment of Several Filters for Removing Salt and Pepper Noise, Gaussian Noise, Rayleigh Noise and Uniform Noise

Digital images are prone to a variety of noises. Denoising of image is a crucial fragment of image reconstruction procedure. Noise gets familiarized in the course of reception and transmission, acquisition and storage & recovery processes. Hence de-noising an image becomes a fundamental task for correcting defects produced during these processes. A complete examination of the various noises which corrupt an image is included in this paper. Elimination of noises is done using various filters. To attain noteworthy results various filters have been anticipated to eliminate these noises from Images and finally which filter is most suitable to remove a particular noise is seen using various measurement parameters. KeywordsImage de-noising; Image restoration techniques; Noise models; Average filter; Median filter; Poisson noise; Gaussian noise; PSNR; MS.
Numerical modelling and evaluation of the temperature distribution in an Earthmover Tyre: establishing a safe operating envelope.

The explosion of haul truck tyres due to internal heat generation during operation can lead to loss of life and severe damage to the vehicle and the surroundings. This thesis describes the development of a nite element model for the numerical modelling of a 23.5R25 earthmover tyre using MSC.Marc/Mentat. The numerical model is subjected to di erent combinations of in ation pressures, loads and rolling velocities to obtain a working knowledge of the heat generation in the tyre cross-section as a function of these conditions. This function is used to give an indication to the maximum temperature in the tyre's cross-section during steady-state heat transfer conditions. As a result, this function can be used to ensure that maximum temperature in the tyre cross-section remains within a safe operating envelope to prevent the explosion of these tyres. The static tyre deformation obtained from the numerical analysis was compared to experimental data provided by the manufacturer to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed numerical model. From the results obtained it was concluded that the numerical tyre results were consistent with the experimental data within a maximum percentage di erence of 3.9 %, 2.5 %, 3.4 % and 9.7 % for the vertical tyre de ection, the overall tyre width, the tyre's contact width and the tyre's contact length, respectively. Thus, it was concluded that the numerical model represented the deformation of the actual tyre to an acceptable extent. The thermal results could not be experimentally veri ed and therefore its accuracy could not be determined explicitly. However, from the theoretical description of the method used to simulate the heat generation rate in numerical models, it was evident that the heat generation rate will ultimately be a function of the tyre's deformation and its rolling velocity. Thus, the assumption was made that the accuracy of the static tyre behaviour could be used to provide some measure of veri cation of the thermal results. Furthermore, thermal results were consistent with the expected temperatures observed in industry when the tyre is subjected to similar conditions. Thus, the thermal results were used to establish an equation that predicted the expected maximum temperature in the tyre's cross-section as a function of the tyre's vertical de ection, its velocity and the ambient temperature of the surroundings. This equation could in turn be used to maintain allowable temperature conditions in the tyre during operation. Furthermore, it was concluded that the rolling velocity of the tyre will have the most signi cant e ect on the heat generation in the tyre and therefore should be managed accordingly. ii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za
3D Modelling Seashells

We detail how 3D printing techniques can be used to design and create concrete models of seashells, gathering the works of 19th century biologists on seashell shapes and more recent results of mathematicians and computer scientists about shell decoration patterns. Using only open-source softwares and standard computers, we illustrate the fact that the exploration of seashells variety can be conducted by anyone.
The energy and thermal performance of UK modular residential buildings

This research concerns the in-use performance of light-gauge steel modular construction used for residential purposes. The aim was to investigate ways to reduce the in-use energy consumption of new buildings, while ensuring thermal comfort. Data were collected from two case study buildings in the UK, one in Loughborough and the other in London, using a variety of methods including building measurement, building monitoring, inspections, and a detailed review of the construction documentation. The case study buildings were monitored using EnOcean enabled wireless sensor networks and standalone temperature sensors. Monitoring data included electricity consumption in individual rooms, often by end use, space heating use, internal temperature and relative humidity, and external temperature. Building measurements included blower door tests to measure fabric air leakage rates, infrared thermal imaging to identify fabric defects and weaknesses, and ventilation system flowrate measurements. Inspections and the review of documentation allowed problems with design, manufacture and construction to be identified. A particular concern for thermally lightweight construction is the risk of overheating, therefore overheating analyses were undertaken. The research identified weaknesses in the design, construction and operation of the case study buildings resulting in increased energy use and poor thermal comfort, particularly overheating. The modular construction studied requires specific design changes to improve the fabric and building services, in order to reduce energy use. There are also specific recommendations for quality control on site to ensure critical stages are correctly completed, such as installing rigid insulation. There are also more general recommendations for how a company operates because this can influence performance; there ought to be greater attention to holistic design and greater collaboration with suppliers and contractors to determine robust solutions. Overheating was a problem in the London case study, and more research is required to understand the scale of the problem. Avoidance of overheating must be a focus in the design of new buildings. The findings suggest that once the problems with the design and quality control on site are rectified, offsite modular construction can be used to consistently and reliably provide low energy homes.
DUAL ACTIVE TUNED MASS DAMPERS FOR REDUCING RESPONSE OF ASYMMETRIC BUILDINGS

ABSTRACT: Reduction of response is important in buildings that are built in the earthquake prone area. The use of tuned mass dampers (TMDs) either as passive or active ones has been considered by many researchers. This paper attempts to consider reduction of response of asymmetric buildings due to earthquakes by the use of dual active TMDs. Two TMDs are placed at a particular floor to reduce building vibrations. Before applying active control, passive TMDs were optimized by using real coded genetic algorithms (RCGAs). It is obtained that the frequency ratio of TMDs decreases when the mass ratio of TMDs increases. On the other hand, the damping ratio of TMDs increases when the mass ratio increases. Having obtained the optimum properties of TMDs, control forces are applied to the TMDs. As the capacity of the actuators is limited, bounded control forces are considered by utilizing a continuous function as candidate of control algorithms. Numerical examples to a nine-story asymmetric building subjected to earthquake excitations are then presented. It is noted also that, for dual active TMDs, increasing mass of TMDs has small effect to the total response reduction.
Statistical mechanics of relativistic spin-1 bosons in a magnetic field

The quantum mechanics of charged, massive, spin-1 bosons in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field (HMF) is studied using a six-component wavefunction formalism. The energy eigenvalues are compared with those previously obtained via other formalisms, the equations of motion of certain operators are given, and the positive and negative energy eigensolutions are obtained by the use of a ladder operator method. The six-component current for the case of general external electromagnetic fields is also displayed and finally, the employment of the eigensolutions and current in a study of a spin-1 boson-antiboson plasma is discussed.
A critical review of constitutive models for solders in electronic packaging

Owing to their superior electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, solder joints are the most widely used interconnection materials in electronic product packaging. Because the failure of the whole electronic packaging is often induced by the failure of solders, modeling and simulation of solder joint performance are quite important in ensuring the quality and reliability of electronic products. In fact, the accuracy of reliability design of electronic packaging is dependent on accelerated reliability tests, material constitutive models, finite element modeling, and fatigue-life prediction models. Here, the material constitutive model plays the most important role in the development of electronic reliability design because the stress, strain, and strain energy density adopted in finite element modeling and fatigue-life prediction are all computed and derived from the constitutive model. In this work, the constitutive models developed for simulating the complex stress and strain response of solders are critically reviewed. To make the description concise and comprehensive, the constitutive models were categorized into two types: the constitutive models with and without the definition of yield surface. The prediction capabilities, application scope, merits and shortcomings, and objective suggestions for the further development of constitutive models for solders in electronic packaging are proposed.
PDE4 Inhibition by Rolipram Protects against Alcohol‐induced ER Stress and Hepatocyte Death in An Alcoholic Liver Injury Model

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a major cause of liver‐related mortality in the US. However, there is still no FDA‐approved therapy for ALD, and therefore identifying therapeutic targets is needed. Previously, our group demonstrated that chronic ethanol exposure to monocytes/macrophages and hepatocytes decreased levels of the second messenger, cAMP, by upregulating the cAMP‐degrading enzyme, phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4), leading to inflammation and steatosis. The objective of the current study was to investigate if the PDE4‐specific inhibitor, rolipram, could protect against alcohol‐induced hepatic injury and to identify the underlying protective mechanisms both in vivo and in vitro.
From quality control to structural reliability : where Bayesian statistics meets risk analysis

Quality inspection plays an important role in the production processes of structural material as well as in design and construction activities, inherently stimulating a higher performance with respect to the investigated activities or properties. In case of the conformity assessment of concrete compressive strength, the concrete strength distribution is filtered due to the rejection or acceptance of certain lots and this filter effect can be qualified using Bayesian updating techniques. A methodology based on numerical integration and Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations is applied to update prior knowledge with respect to the hyperparameters of concrete strength distributions, considering the conformity criteria for concrete strength according to EN206-1. Further, as a consequence of this filter effect, conformity control has a positive influence on the reliability of concrete structures and this effect is quantified here by classical FORM calculations. Finally, also the variance reduction effect of conformity control with respect to structural reliability calculations is quantified, illustrating the reducing vulnerability to parameter uncertainties when performing structural reliability calculations.
Coercivity enhancement in the SrRuO3/SrMnO3 superlattices

Magnetic superlattices consisting of ferromagnetic SrRuO3 and antiferromagnetic SrMnO3 have been grown on (001)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates using the pulsed laser deposition technique. Zero-field-cooled and field-cooled out-of-plane hysteresis loops with different range of magnetic fields have been measured for the series of superlattices. The coercive field of the ferromagnetic layer in SrRuO3–SrMnO3 superlattices is 12 times larger than that of the thin film of SrRuO3. This enhancement in the coercive field can be explained using the concept of the interplay of the pinning energy and the microscopic biased field.
Contribution to Incomplete and Noisy Information Problem Solving by Artificial Intelligence Principles Applying

Engineering or manufacturing domain knowledge is rarely in the form required by these systems. Furthermore, we have to solve a lack of information, presence of incomplete and noisy knowledge about solved complex diagnostic system from reliability, optimal and predictive manufacturing point of view. Decision support purposes require for the knowledge provider to know about primary "cause-effect" relationships but not be in a position to assert that other relationships are nonexistent. The use of maximum entropy inference in reasoning with uncertain information is commonly justified by an information-theoretic argument. This contribution deals with a possible objection to this information-theoretic justification, presents a probabilistic reasoning methodology and a maximum entropy application, which can estimate missing information by making some sort of global assumption and provide advice based on the knowledge available. Some diagnostic problems could be operated in a chaotic fashion. Achieved results showing how the fractal dimension and entropy describing the chaotic motion depend on the operating characteristics of the device. Diagnostic frequency waves could also lead to chaotic fluctuations in the time evolution of the transmitted intensities.
Optimization of vibro-diagnostic method for marine rotating pumps

Techno-economical optimization of vibro-diagnostic method implies defining of the minimal number of vibro-diagnostic information, which could be used for precise and definite diagnosis of broad spectra of failures or malfunctions with all types of rotating machines in standard use, including marine pumps. Economic optimization is done based on competitive advantage approach, but in coherence to technical aspect. Techno-economical optimization in this research is analysed more from the aspect of the optimization problem new formulation, then from the aspect of mathematical apparatus for solving the problem. In this case, the optimization is based on establishing the possibility of certain defect appearance at marine rotating machines and implementation of causal relations between diagnostic model and defined goal functions values.
Involvement of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) secretion in radiation surviving tumor cells derived from breast cancer cell line

Radiotherapy is an effective approach for the treatment of many types of cancer. However, it has been reported that the malignant capacities of tumor cells can be increased in those tumors that survive radiotherapy. Here, we constructed radiation‐ surviving tumor cells (IR cells) by using the human breast cancer cell line MCF7, in the manner of our previous report. We focused on angiogenesis in IR cells, because angiogenesis in breast cancer is highly associated with unfavorable patient prognosistic criteria, such as tumor metastasis and relapse. To analyze angiogenesis in IR cells, we performed a tube formation assay and plasma clot assay by using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). However, IR cells had the same levels of angiogenic activity compared to that of parental cells. On the other hand, the secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was enhanced by about 1.9‐fold in IR cells as estimated by ELISA. From microarray analysis, the gene expression of NRP1 and CXCL14 was upregulated in IR cells. These results suggest that increased CXCL14 expression prevents angiogenesis in IR cells, even though NRP1 may promote upregulation of VEGF expression by autocrine signaling. Further studies are necessary to clarify the function of upregulated‐VEGF in IR cells, and may elucidate their possible role in controlling the behavior of tumors surviving radiotherapy.
Participatory Design of a System for Computer-supported Distance Art Therapy

Rapid expansion of the Internet has resulted in the emergence of electronic counselling and psychotherapy services. These services show great potential to make therapy accessible to a wider range of people, for example people whose mobility is limited by disability or illness. Research is needed to assess the possibilities and pitfalls of this new form of mental health care. In this paper we describe a participatory design process during which we developed a system to support distance art therapy and simultaneously identified key issues to consider for research and practice in this rapidly evolving field. We present the design rationale, the context, and a description of our interaction with the participatory design team. The process significantly changed perceptions of the usefulness of distance art therapy on the part of the research team, and yielded both a workable computer system and a list of advantages and potential problems of online mental health services.
Indoor target localization using single marginal antenna with virtual radars support

In urban target localization, the presence of walls creates virtual radars (VRs), which can be exploited to aid in localization process. The fact that multipath changes with the radar locations, which are referred to as aspect dependence property, enable us to find a radar location, which reduces wall uncertainties. This paper proposes single-antenna target localization in an enclosed structure taking advantage of VRs. Using ultra-wideband signals, we can resolve the target returns and estimate the correct location by solving monostatic loci at real and VR locations. Simulation results show that the method can precisely and accurately localize the target for a wide range of timing errors.