Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spark Plasma Sintering of Intermetallics and Metal Matrix Composites

Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) or Field Assisted Sintering (FAST) is a new and innovative sintering technology with increasing importance for the preparation of several materials including composites or functionally graded materials. The process is based on hot pressing with an application of a pulsed electrical current instead of using an external heating source. Due to the pulsed electrical current and the so called “spark plasma effect” very high heating rates and short processing times can be realized. Therefore grain growth can be inhibited and materials with submicron or nanosized microstructures or composites with unique compositions can be prepared leading to improved properties. This presentation will describe examples of spark plasma sintered intermetallics and metal matrix composites. Microstructure and properties will be compared with those of conventionally sintered specimens.
NANO HYDROTALCITE AS A NOVEL CATALYST FOR BIODIESEL CONVERSION

Nano hydrotalcite (Mg–Al) was prepared and characterized by powder X–ray diffractrograme (XRD), infra red spectroscopy (FT–IR), thermal studies (TGA) and Scanning Electron Microcopy (SEM) techniques. The formation of hydrotalcite was confirmed by powder XRD technique. The prepared Mg-Al hydrotalcite was used as a catalyst for transesterification of Pongamia oil for the first time, and the conditions of the transesterification were optimized. 6:1 ratio of methanol and catalyst, and 65°C temperature gave a maximum biodiesel conversion of 90.8 %.
Abstracting Big Data Processing Tools for Smart Cities

Large volumes of data from various sources are generated continuously in cities. The processing and analysis of these data play a key role in the implementation of initiatives for smart cities. In order to process urban Big Data, it is essential to use high-performance tools to accelerate processing and provide quick answers. However, this use is not trivial because Big Data tools are not interoperable and require from their users knowledge of parallel and distributed computing and databases. In this work, we compare popular open-source Big Data processing frameworks and propose a software system to abstract and facilitate their use in smart city applications. The architecture of the system is composed by an interface to specify dataflow models as well as services to interpret these models and instantiate them in different Big Data tools. An implementation of the system on top of a smart city platform is also addressed.
Towards a Self-Calibratable Gravimeter on a Chip : Theoretical Study

In this paper, we provide a theoretical study of our proposed gravimeter on a chip. A gravimeter is a device used to measure gravity or changes in gravity. There are several kinds of conventional gravimeters: pendulum, free falling body, and spring gravimeters. They are all large, expensive, delicate, and require an external reference for calibration. What is new and different about our proposed gravimeter is its micro-scaled size which increases portability, robustness, and lowers it costs; and its ability to self-calibrate on chip, which increases its autonomy. Gravimeters are most often used in geophysical applications such as measuring gravitational fields for navigation, oil exploration, gravity gradiometry, earthquake detection, and possible earthquake prediction. Precisions of such gravimetry can require measurement uncertainties on the order of 8 2 20 20 10 m Gal s     . In our study we present the self-calibration method of a proposed MEMS gravimeters and we predict its ability to achieve the necessary accuracy and precision needed for its use as a gravimeter or sub-micro-G accelerometer. For practical reasons, our MEMS design to adhere to the design constraints of a standard SOI foundry process.
Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Sensing Layer for Tetracycline Chemical Sensor Based on Piezoelectric Quartz Crystal Transducer

Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for tetracycline was prepared via precipitation polymerization at 60°C for 24 h using methacrylic acid as the monomer, trimethylolpropane methacrylate (TRIM) as the crosslinker, 2,2-azobis–isobutyronitrile as initiator, dichloromethane as porogen and tertracycline HCl as template. After template-removal by methanol-acetic acid solvent extraction, the MIP suspension was coated as sensing layer of a piezoelectric quartz crystal transducer. The molecular recognition of tetracycline in the MIP coating was indicated by a corresponding frequency shift of the sensor response. The sensor response was optimized by varying the amount of coating and pH of solution measured. Different parameters like linearity (r=0.9921), sensitivity (41 Hz/ln [conc]), response time (2.4 min), and dynamic range of solutions (1 × 10-6 to 1 × 10-3 μg/mL tetracycline) were obtained. A decrease in sensitivity and selectivity ratio was observed for oxytetracycline and chlortetracycline in the selectivity study done. Acceptable % recovery was observed for milk and honey matrices. The developed tetracycline sensor is a possible cheaper methodology for screening and quantitation of low levels of tetracycline in foods.
HPLC-UV DETERMINATION OF INDAPAMIDE IN THE PRESENCE OF ITS MAIN SYNTHESIS AND DEGRADATION IMPURITIES . METHOD VALIDATION

A gradient HPLC with UV detection method was developed for the quantitative determination of indapamide in the presence of 6 of its synthesis and degradation impurities. The separation of analytes was performed on X-Terra, C18, 250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm (Waters) column using a mixture of aqueous Na2EDTA, acetonitrile and methanol, with detection at 254 nm. The developed method was validated and is suitable for in process purity evaluation of indapamide synthesis, indapamide stability in bulk and in pharmaceutical dosage forms.
Health effects of low-level radiation in shipyard workers

The Nuclear Shipyard Workers Study (NSWS) was designed to determine whether there is an excess risk of leukemia or other cancers associated with exposure to low levels of gamma radiation. The study compares the mortality experience of shipyard workers who qualified to work in radiation areas to the mortality of similar workers who hold the same types of jobs but who are not authorized to work in radiation areas. The population consists of workers from six government and two private shipyards.
Model Based Off-Line Method for Velocity Trajectory Compensation

The velocity compensation method proposed in this paper computes the value of velocity compensation in the off-line mode to compensate the effects of non-linear dynamics of the robot. This paper explains a methodology that utilizes a priori knowledge of the robot dynamics to improve the path tracking accuracy by generating an additional velocity compensation based on robot dynamics. The strategy for off-line velocity compensation entails the determination of inverse dynamic model of the robot system. This model consists of inverse dynamic model of robot and the inverse model of the controller. The inverse dynamic model of robot is highly nonlinear where as controller model is linear. Both these models need to work in closed loop that demands for linear presentation of the robot inverse dynamics. In this work, a body oriented method for linear form of dynamics equation and PI controller model will be used. The proposed velocity compensation algorithm will be demonstrated for a spray painting robot using SIMULINK environment of the MATLAB. The results will be evaluated at joint as well as Cartesian level. Finally, the path tracking error with and with considering compensation will be determined for the case problems.
Cylinder-to-cylinder and cycle-to-cycle variation in combustion process in radial aircraft engine

Cycle-to-cycle variation in combustion in a single cylinder of a radial engine has an impact on that in others and the entire engine. Steadyand transient-state engine operation was investigated, and the transient states were generated by cyclic changes in the timing of fuel injection to a given cylinder, having others operated on the same mixture composition. The measurement of pressure in the combustion chamber allowed for specifying indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) in all cycles. The time series of IMEP were studied with mathematical techniques of non-linear dynamics, i.e. a wavelet transform and a multifractal analysis. Controlled disturbances in mixture composition in a single cylinder can have an impact on certain cylinders only. Cylinders 3, 5, 7 and 9 are most responsive to such disturbances, which proves their least cycle-to-cycle variation in combustion.
1 Numerical Simulation of Aerated-Liquid Injection with Various Nozzle Designs

Aerated-liquid injection, or 'barbotage', or effervescent, is considered one of the injection schemes capable of delivering well-atomized sprays. By creating two-phase mixtures upstream of the injector nozzle, aerated-liquid injectors increase the production of smaller droplets needed for fast vaporization. Recent advances in experimental techniques using synchrotron x-ray diagnostics have allowed for the increased development of both quantitative and qualitative data in the near field and internal structure of these injectors. The present effort conducts highly resolved numerical simulations of two-phase flow within 'outside-in' aerated injector designs using sharp interfacecapturing techniques. The ‘outside-in’ design injects nitrogen from an outer plenum chamber into a co-flowing liquid stream. Various injector nozzle designs are compared to determine the flow conditions at the nozzle exit. Data obtained through x-ray radiography and fluorescence techniques are used to validate current computational simulations. The effects of grid refinement and volume-fraction smoothing within the surface tension model are used to study the levels of mixing and break-up within the liquid as it exits the injector nozzle. ILASS Americas, 29 Annual Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems, Atlanta, GA, May 15-18, 2017 __________________________________________ * Corresponding author, Brett.Bornhoft. ctr@us.af. mil
Bearings coefficients effects on chaotic and bifurcation behavior of flexible rotor systems subjected to rub-impact

This study investigates the influence of end-support conditions on the chaotic and bifurcation behavior of a rotating flexible shaft-disk system. The system is modeled as a continuous shaft with a rigid disk in its mid span whilst supported by multi-coefficients bearings. Both Coriolis and centrifugal effects due to shaft flexibility are included. The partial differential equations of motion are extracted using the Rayleigh beam theory and the assumed mode method is used to discretize them in order to be solved numerically. The analytical tools used in this work include time series, phase plane portrait, power spectrum, Poincaré map, bifurcation diagrams, and Lyapunov exponents. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the effects of end-supports stiffness and damping coefficients on the chaotic vibration behavior of a rotating system. Periodic, sub-harmonic, quasi-periodic, and chaotic states have been observed for each case. As demonstrated, inclusion of the bearing effects can primarily change the speed ratios at which rub-impact occurs. The principal and cross-coupling stiffness and damping coefficients have quite different effects in the chaotic behavior of the system.
Effect of Thermal Manipulation during Embryogenesis on Hatching Traits

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of thermal manipulation (TM) during different embryogenesis stages of broiler breeder eggs at embryonic days (ED): T1 (1-5), T2 (8-12), T3 (14-18), T4 (19-21) and T5 was control (no TM) on hatching results and subsequent chick characteristics. Three thousand Ross-308 eggs from twenty seventh weeks old breeder flock were used. Eggs were randomly divided into five treatments with four replicates per each treatment (150 eggs / replicate). Two identical incubators were used. In the first incubator all eggs were incubated at 37.7 oC and 60-65% relative humidity (RH). The eggs thermally treated eggs were transferred into the second incubator and was kept at 38.7 ̊C and 60-65% RH. After four (4) hours (hrs) of thermal treating during all embryonic stages of all TM groups, the eggs were returned to the first incubator, immediately. It was found that: thermal manipulation did not affect the hatchability percentage of total and fertile set eggs, normal birds percentage, chick quality and body temperature (C) at hatch. Thermally manipulation improved significantly male percentages and male/female ratio mainly during ED 19-21 than control group. In conclusion, high incubation temperatures altered sex ratio in favor of more male percentage without affecting hatchability and chick quality. Key-Words: Thermal Manipulation, Embryogenesis, Hatching Traits, Sex Ratio.
Complex-background Image Denoising Algorithm Based on Wavelet Transform

In order to solve the noise pollution problems of the complex-background image in the transmission process, a new threshold noise reduction algorithm is put forward. Several methods of image de-noising had been analyzed based on the wavelet transform; wavelet threshold function prototype had been studied; a new improved wavelet threshold de-noising method was presented based on the traditional soft-threshold and hard-threshold de-noising method. This method can adjust the threshold function flexibly according to the actual environment and ameliorate the "over-kill" or "over-protection" phenomenon obviously while the images are reconstructed. In order to explain the noise reduction effect of the new method accurately, this paper put different images as the original images, put the salt & pepper and Gaussian noise as the noise source, and then the results of noise reduction with the new threshold function de-noising method and the others de-noising methods are analyzed, the results show that the new threshold method is superior to the other methods for noise reduction based on both the human eye visual standard and PSNR evaluation standard, verify the validity of the de-noising method. Keywords-complex-background; image de-noising; wavelet transform; threshold de-noising
Chapter 10 SIMULATION AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Live simulation exercises and computer-based simulations have an important role to play in emergency management. The needs and requirements of the stakeholders vary according to the different phases of emergency management. In this chapter we discuss how simulation may be used to support the stakeholders in each phase of the emergency. Several technologies exist for developing computer-based simulations. We focus on two technologies that have recently become popular in emergency management: agent-based and virtual reality. Developing a simulator requires understanding how emergency personnel make decisions, how they diagnose a situation, how they communicate and cooperate with other emergency personnel, and how these things are affected by the constantly changing crisis environment. In short, we need to know the cognitive activities of emergency personnel. Based on a cognitive engineering approach, we describe a methodology for developing a computer-based simulator. We show how this methodology has been applied in developing a simulator for evaluating different rescue plans and testing new communication technologies. Developing computer-based simulators of real-life situations is notoriously difficult. Problems with developing computer-based simulators are discussed and some recommendations are proposed.
Whole genome amplification effect on segmental copy-number changes and copy-number neutral loss of heterozygosity analysis by oligonucleotide-based array-comparative genomic hybridization in human myeloma cell line

Whole genome amplification (WGA) is an approach designed to overcome small amounts of DNA for genome-wide genetic tests used in many clinical applications. Various strategies of WGA have been developed; however, none of them can guarantee the absence of amplification bias. In this study, a total of four multiple displacement amplification (MDA)-based and two PCR-based WGA kits were compared in their effect on segmental copy-number (CN) changes and copy-number neutral loss of heterozygosity (cnnLOH) detection by three microarray platforms: CGH/4×44K (Agilent), CGH+SNP/4×180K (Agilent) and CGH+SNP/4×180K (OGT). Genomic imbalancesrich myeloma cell line U266 was used as material. The main outcomes are as follows: 1) MDA-based WGAs showed higher tendency to generate false positive imbalances in contrast to PCR-based WGAs with higher risk of false negativity; 2) the specific risk of false positivity and/or negativity increased with decreasing CN segments size; 3) single-cell WGAs showed significantly worse effect on results in comparison to WGAs with nanogram level of DNA as input; 4) PCR-based WGAs were incompatible with cnnLOH analysis based on SNP in restriction digestion sites and also showed higher risk of cnnLOH false negativity when combined with analysis based on simple hybridization. In conclusion, the results of this study help to choose WGA according to individual user requirements and options. Moreover, we have shown a strategy to verify and validate segmental CN changes detection by DNA array protocol including any WGA for any purpose to attain the highest efficiency without an unnecessary WGA bias.
Faster R-CNN Implementation using CUDA Architecture in GeForce GTX 10 Series

Open-source deep learning tools has been distributed numerously and has gain popularity in the past decades. Training a large dataset in a deep neural network is a process which consumes a large amount of time. Recently, the knowledge of deep learning has been expand with introducing the integration between neural network and the use of graphical processing unit (GPU) which was formerly and commonly known to be used with a central processing unit (CPU). This has been one of the big leap forward in deep learning as it increases the speed of computing from weeks to hours. This paper aims to study the various stateof-the-art GPU in deep learning which included Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB) with Caffe network. The benchmark of the performance is run on three latest series of GPU platforms as of year 2017 by implementing Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (R-CNN) method. Different parameters are varied to analyze the performance of mean average precision (mAP) on these different GPU platforms. The best result obtained in this paper is 60.3% of mAP using the GTX 1080.
Numerical Simulation of the Gas-Solid Flow by DEM-CFD Approach with Application to a

The paper presents a computational study of the gas-solid flow in a three-dimensional spouted bed by a combined approach of discrete element method and computational fluid dynamics (DEM-CFD). The coupling between the discrete particle and continuum gas was achieved by applying the principle of Newton’s third law of motion. As a result, it is found that the motion of particles was forming a distinct circulation between center zone and boundary zone of the 3D spouted bed in macro, and there was a stagnant zone near the bottom of the bed in which the particle velocity is almost zero near the wall, they do not move anywhere. Pressure drop will be affected by wind speed and particle density. With enhancing of wind velocity, pressure drop appears an increasing trend until it is up to a certain value, and then the curve will have a certain degree of back and keep in an extension; Adding particle density, pressure drop and its swing is increased markedly. The results of this study provide important information in the spouted bed and may be helpful for better application and modification of this type of spouted bed to the industrial process. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
Nonlinear homogeneous order separation for Volterra Series Identification

This article addresses identification of nonlinear systems represented by Volterra series. To improve the robustness of some existing methods, we propose a pre-processing stage that separates nonlinear homogeneous order contributions from which Volterra kernels can be identified independently. The proposed separation method exploits phase relations between test signals rather than amplitude relations that are usually used. This method is compared with standard separation process. Its contribution to identification is illustrated on a simulated loudspeaker with nonlinear suspension.
The syntax of Polish cardinal numerals

This paper presents an overview of Polish cardinal numerals with reference to their history and development. It shows that higher (once nominal) numerals 5< have undergone numeralisation and now lexicalise the head of NumP, whereas the lower ones 1-4 remained adjectival and belong in its specifier. To account for the puzzling issues of the Polish numeral system, particularly for the so-called Accusative Hypothesis (a descriptive fact about numeral expressions with cardinals 5< according to which they are intrinsically accusative), an analysis is proposed in which these numeral expressions are introduced by a null light preposition (p). This preposition is an instance of a defective (interpretable) tense head (iT) and is argued to be the source of the said accusative case. An account of case changes (or lack thereof) within numeral expressions is proposed based on Case Hierarchy and case-inclusion analyses. Lastly, it is shown how the numeral expressions remain nominal (DPs) despite being introduced via p.
LONG MEMORY AND STRUCTURAL BREAKS IN MODELLING THE VOLATILITY DYNAMICS OF VIX-ETFS

This paper investigates for the presence of structural breaks in Volatility Index (VIX) ETFs returns. Using daily data that spans from October 3, 2011 to December 31, 2013, the study examine the existence of structural changes in tested VIX-ETFs series variance via Iterated Cumulative Sums of Squares (ICSS). Then, the study continues to investigate the implication of structural breaks in VIX-ETFs volatility clustering estimation process. The study employs ARFIMA and FIGARCH models to measure the long memory in VIX-ETFs returns, and compares with and without the structural break. Imposing identified the breaks in the variance of returns series, the study models their relationship by incorporating those breaks in the volatility clustering procedure, like ICSS-ARFIMA-FIGARCH. The results of dual long memory in VIX-ETFs are relation with term structure of VIX-ETFs and are better estimation with imposing structure breaks model.
The relationship between dry eye and lactoferrin levels in tears

Abstract Background: Dry eye is a common ophthalmic problem and lactoferrin (LF) is one of the most important components of the immune system. Preliminary findings have suggested that LF concentration in tears may be linked to the risk of dry eye. Objective: We investigated the relationship between dry eye and lactoferrin levels in tears. Material and methods: LF levels in the tears of 40 patients with dry eye and 35 healthy controls were measured by radial immunodiffusion assay. Statistical analysis was used to study the correlation between LF levels and results of both Schirmer’s and tear film break-up time tests and the age of the subject. Results: The concentration of LF was significantly decreased in the tears of dry eye subjects compared with control subjects (P<0.001). There is a positive relationship between LF in tears and results from Schirmer’s and tear film break-up time tests in non-Sj⃞gren’s syndrome (r=0.48 and 0.78 respectively P<0.001), while there is a negative relationship between LF and age (r= -0.74, P<0.005). Conclusions: Decreased LF in tears is a factor in the pathology of dry eye. When treating non-Sj⃞gren’s syndrome, treatment with LF could be added to artificial tear treatment.