Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GIS-based models for ambient PM exposure and health impact assessment for the UK

GIS-based models have been developed to map ambient PM10 and PM25 mass concentrations across the UK. The resulting maps are used for the assessments of air quality required by the EU ambient air quality directives, health impact assessment and the development of UK air quality policy. Maps are presented for 2006 along with projections to 2020. The largest single contribution to the UK population-weighted mean annual mean background concentrations of PM10 in 2006 is estimated to be from secondary PM (43%), followed by the contribution from primary PM (24%). Concentrations are predicted to decline by 15% for PM10 and 13% for PM25 over the period from 2006 to 2020. The extent of exceedence of the 24-hour limit value is predicted to decline from 1.9% to 0.1% of urban major roads over the same period. The potential health benefits of reductions in ambient PM are large. A reduction in concentration of 0.93 μg m-3 as a result of a possible package of measures has been estimated within the UK Air Quality Strategy to result in a reduction in life years lost of approximately 2 - 4 million over a period of 100 years.
Modelling non-Gaussianity from foreground contaminants

We introduce a general class of models for characterizing the non-Gaussian properties of foreground contaminants in the cosmic microwave background with view towards the removal of the non-primordial non-Gaussian signal from the primordial one. This is important not only for treating temperature maps but also for characterizing the nature and origin of the primordial cosmological perturbations and thus establishing a theory of the early universe.
Real time temperature estimation of heat sources in integrated circuits with remote temperature sensors

This paper presents a theoretical study of the possibility to carry out real time estimation of power dissipated in electronic integrated circuits based on remote temperature sensor measurements. Due to the damping of the thermal response, the considered inverse problem is ill-posed; hence special attention has to be paid to the estimation process in order to assure the robustness of the obtained results. First, the authors focused on the issue of the proper placement of the temperature sensors for a given heat source configuration. Once the optimal locations of the sensors were determined, the problem of the estimation of the power dissipated in the heat sources was studied in detail. The tests were carried out for the computer generated input data with several noise levels. For the estimation the function specification algorithm with different number of temperature sensors and variable number of averaged measurements was considered. For all the presented thermal simulations as well as for the generation of the test input data, the authors used their own three-dimensional thermal solver employing the Green's function solution of the heat equation. The numerical experiments served as an indication for the design of a real test integrated circuit.
Single‐phase five‐level
 Z
 ‐source T‐type inverter

This study introduces a new single-phase Z -source T-type inverter (SPZT 2 I) with five-level voltage at the output. The proposed inverter allows the power switches in a phase leg conducting simultaneously without any problems. Moreover, the proposed inverter can produce the buck-boost output voltage with a single-stage power conversion. Two shoot-through control strategies are presented to create a five-level voltage at the output. Operating principles, theoretical analysis, and comparison of the proposed SPZT 2 I with the conventional five-level inverters are illustrated. Also, the simulation results using PSIM software are provided. Finally, a 400 W prototype is constructed to confirm properties of the proposed concepts.
Background texture suppression and defect extraction of high-speed milling surface image

This paper proposed a method to extract the machine defect from the surface images of high-speed milling workpiece and reduced the impact of workpiece surface background texture. Firstly, Wiener filtering method is used to denoise the high-speed milling workpiece surface images. Then, the potential texture images are obtained by using the non-negative matrix decomposition algorithm for learning denoising images unsupervisedly. Next, original images and potential texture images are used to convolute with the imaginary part function of Gabor filter respectively and apply image differencing method to obtain the energy difference images. The binary defect images are extracted after the threshold segmentation method is applied. Application example shows the capability of this method to extract machine defect.
A predictor-corrector algorithm to estimate the fractional flow in oil-water models

We introduce a predictor-corrector algorithm to estimate parameters in a nonlinear hyperbolic problem. It can be used to estimate the oil-fractional flow function from the Buckley-Leverett equation. The forward model is non-linear: the sought- for parameter is a function of the solution of the equation. Traditionally, the estimation of functions requires the selection of a fitting parametric model. The algorithm that we develop does not require a predetermined parameter model. Therefore, the estimation problem is carried out over a set of parameters which are functions. The algorithm is based on the linearization of the parameter-to-output mapping. This technique is new in the field of nonlinear estimation. It has the advantage of laying aside parametric models. The algorithm is iterative and is of predictor-corrector type. We present theoretical results on the inverse problem. We use synthetic data to test the new algorithm.
An App for Every Step: A psychological perspective on interoperability of Mobile Messenger Apps

Mobile Messaging Apps (MMAs) such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, LINE, Signal or Snapchat are used by many consumers next to the traditional electronic communication services (ECS) SMS texting and phone calls. While with ECS the idea of full end-to-end interoperability is one of the key features, initial research (28 qualitative interviews) conducted by us indicate that consumers use different MMAs to negotiate their social ties. In this paper, we extend this research with an analysis of the functionalities of 139 MMAs and 20 in-depth interviews focusing on how consumers use individual services to manage stages of intimacy in relationships, communicate a message’s urgency, or craft social messages. We find that the technological seams between various MMAs indeed fulfil important functions as they enable consumers to mediate competence, relatedness and autonomy as defined in Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Furthermore, the paper shows how the choice of MMA reflects different stages of relationship development. Finally, we show that consumers also rely on technological seams between MMAs to feel autonomous and competent in their social interactions as the choice of MMA and functionality according to the specificities of the situation adheres to a finely grained social code. For policy makers and regulators, our results indicate that imposing interoperability obligations on MMAs is likely to reduce consumers’ well-being given the importance of technological seams to enact self-determination.
The gLite Workload Management System

The gLite Workload Management System represents a key entry point to high-end services available on a Grid. Being designed as part of the european Grid within the six years long EU-funded EGEE project, now at its third phase, the WMS is meant to provide reliable and efficient distribution and management of end-user requests. This service basically translates user requirements and preferences into specific operations and decisions – dictated by the general status of all other Grid services – while taking responsibility to bring requests to successful completion. The WMS has become a reference implementation of the "early binding" approach to meta-scheduling as a neat, Grid-aware solution, able to optimise resource access and to satisfy requests for computation together with data. Several added value features are provided for job submission, different job types are supported from simple batch to a variety of compounds. In this paper we outline what has been achieved to provide adequate workload and management components, suitable to be deployed in a production-quality Grid, while covering the design and development of the gLite WMS and focusing on the most recently achieved results.
Convolutional neural network for noise reduction to improve the quality of images obtained using active-pulse television measuring systems

The paper presents a software implementation of an image recovery algorithm using a convolutional neural network. An example of using the developed algorithm in the context of noise reduction of images obtained using active-pulse television measuring systems is presented. The result obtained with a convolutional neural network is better than classical filtering algorithms (PSNR higher by 2.01 dB).
Optical stress probe: in-situ stress mapping with Raman and Photo-stimulated luminescence spectroscopy

The optical stress probe system, developed in this work, provides a non-invasive method of monitoring and mapping the optical properties of a material during in situ stress tests. The design and construction of such a system was achieved by coupling a fiber optic probe based spectrometer system with an electromechanical loading system. This novel instrumentation integration enables the quantitative study of Raman or Photo-stimulated luminescence peak shifts with stress, known as piezospectroscopy. It further enables mapping of these spectral shifts over a surface of the specimen under load. To achieve this, a focusing method was developed that optimizes the intensity of specific optical bands of interest with the probe position. Individual software programs for the various systems that make up the instrumentation including the spectrometer, load frame and the XYZ stage were integrated and a single user interface was created. The system was calibrated by replicating published linear correlation between compressive stress and spectral peak position, 2.5cm−1/GPa for polycrystalline alumina.
A CMOS analog front-end chip for amperometric electrochemical sensors

This paper reports a complimentary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) analog front-end chip for amperometric electrochemical sensors. The chip includes a digital configuration circuit, which can communicate with an external microcontroller by employing an I2C interface bus, and thus is highly programmable. Digital correlative double samples technique and an incremental sigma–delta analog to digital converter (Σ–Δ ADC) are employed to achieve a new proposed system architecture with double samples. The chip has been fabricated in a standard 0.18-μm CMOS process with high-precision and high-linearity performance occupying an area of 1.3 × 1.9 mm2. Sample solutions with various phosphate concentrations have been detected with a step concentration of 0.01 mg/L.
Fiber optic sensing subsystem for temperature monitoring in space in-flight applications

Fiber Optic Sensor (FOS) technology presents long recognized advantages which enable to mitigate deficient performance of conventional technology in hazard-environments common in spacecraft monitoring applications, such as: multiplexing capability, immunity to EMI/RFI, remote monitoring, small size and weight, electrical insulation, intrinsically safe operation, high sensibility and long term reliability. A key advantage is also the potential reduction of Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT) time achieved by the multiplexing capability and associated reduced harness. In the frame of the ESA’s ARTES5.2 and FLPP-Phase 3 programs, Airbus DS-Crisa and FiberSensing are developing a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) – based temperature monitoring system for application in space telecommunication platforms and launchers. The development encompasses both the interrogation unit and the FBG temperature sensors and associated fiber harness. In parallel Airbus DS - Crisa is developing a modular RTU (RTU2015) to provide maximum flexibility and mission-customization capability for RTUs maintaining the ESA’s standards at I/O interface level [1]. In this context, the FBG interrogation unit is designed as a module to be compatible, in both physical dimensions and electrical interfaces aspects, with the Electrical Internal Interface Bus of the RTU2015, thus providing the capability for a hybrid electrical and optical monitoring system.
Design and control of manufacturing systems: a discrete event optimisation methodology

Simulation optimisation has gained a great attention due to its success in the design of complex manufacturing systems. In this paper, we look at manufacturing as a special class of queueing systems and propose the Discrete Event Optimisation (DEO) methodology, which provides a formal way to develop integrated mathematical models for the simultaneous simulation and optimisation. In the case, the obtained model is a mixed integer linear programming model; the methodology provides a formal way to generate approximations of them. The analytical properties of DEO models are analysed for the first time in the framework of sample path optimisation and mathematical programming. The methodology represents a reference for the use of mathematical programming as a way to model simulation optimisation for queueing systems. The applicability of the DEO methodology to complex problems is showed using the task and buffer allocation problem in a production line.
Simulation of Driver Control for an Electric Vehicle

This work presents a design and simulation of electric vehicle driver control. A driver controller is responsible of generating suitable values of control inputs that ensures accurate vehicle trajectory tracking. A good driver controller is needed to study vehicle motion and comfort, energy consumption, electronic stability control, electronic brake force distribution, antilock braking system, suspension system, etc. In this paper, simple PID controllers are designed, tuned and simulated. Simulations results show accurate trajectory tracking of an electric vehicle.
Further applications of scheme for reducing numerical viscosity: 3D hypersonic flow

A Total Variation Diminishing (TVD) scheme implemented in a non structured finite volume formulation for solving the 3D Euler equations is presented. To simultaneously, achieve adequate accuracy in smooth flows, high resolution at flow discontinuities and to avoid spurious oscillations, different flux limiter functions are applied in a wave-to-wave basis. By appropriately using compressive limiter functions with waves of the family two to four (linear waves), and diffusive limiter functions with waves of the family one and five (non linear waves), important reductions of the numerical viscosity can be achieved. This sort of adaptive scheme has satisfactorily been applied to the shock tube problem and to the slip interface between two parallel flows. It has also been used when computing the flow over a spherically blunted bi-conic body at free stream Mach numbers varying from five to fifteen. The results obtained with the blunted body are presented here, and they show that the new adaptive scheme besides being less diffusive, it does not lose robustness regarding other TVD methods.
The 2nd International Conference on Advanced Materials (ICAM-2017)

Preface Second International Conference of Advanced Materials (ICAM 2017) Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan 10-13 July 2017 On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Second International Conference of Advanced Materials ICAM 2017. After the success of ICAM 2015 held at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Irbid, we decided to continue the ICAM conferences and organize the second edition at JUST on 10-13 July 2017. This conference is a clear sign of the strong commitment of JUST to be a front liner in Jordan and the region.
Gaussian process regression model for the prediction of the compressive strength of polyurethane-based polymer concrete for runway repair: A comparative approach

Polyurethane (PU) composites have increasingly been used as construction materials to maintain civil engineering structures such as road pavement, runway, parking area, and floor systems in buildings. This study developed polyurethane polymer concrete (PC) mixtures by mixing aggregate-to-PU resin at 0.9: 0.1 and 0.85: 0.15 ratios by weight. The Machine Learning algorithms, including Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), Classification and Regression Tree (CART), and Support Vector Regression (SVR) model were employed to predict the compressive strength of PUPC mixtures as a repair material. The models were trained on the dataset of flexural strength (MPa), density (kg/m3), and PU composition (%), applied as input variables. The result revealed that the compressive stress-strain curves of PU-based polymer concrete exhibit linear elastic behavior under compression. The developed models demonstrate high prediction accuracy of PUPC’ strength. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) was used to check the performance of each model, and the result obtained showed that the GPR model predicted the compressive strength with the highest accuracy with an NSE-values of 0.9619 and 0.9585 at the training and testing phase, respectively. The finding in this study could offer valuable insight into using these proposed models for compressive strength prediction of PU-based polymer concrete
Reconstructing Hyperons with the ANDA Detector at FAIR

Hyperon production and the study of their properties is an important part of the physics programme of the future ANDA experiment at FAIR. Antihyperon-hyperon pairs will be produced in antiproton-proton collisions through the annihilation of at least one light antiquark-quark (u, d) pair and the creation of a corresponding number of antiquark-quark s pairs. By measuring the decay products of the hyperons, spin observables such as the polarisation can be measured. Many hyperons have a long life-time which gives rise to final state particles originating from displaced vertices. A pattern recognition algorithm using information from the ANDA Straw Tube Tracker is extended to reconstruct not only the transversal, but also the longitudinal components of charged tracks. A Hough transform and a path finding method as tools to extract the longitudinal components are being developed.
Public Value: A New Means to Peel an Apple?

This conceptual paper examines the public value framework developed by Moore (1995) and Benington and Moore (2011) and uses the framework analytically as a way to address demand in policing and to prioritise and justify actions. It is therefore a potential tool for evidencebased policing. This paper examines the policing context in which the public value framework may be useful, and then examines existing theory and evidence about its use in policing. In the United Kingdom ‘traditional’ crime is reported to be falling but the demand on policing services is increasing and changing in nature. A decrease in overall measured crime is incongruent with increases in serious and organised crime, child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse and cyber offences. It is estimated that there may be as many as 3 million unrecorded fraud and cyber incidents (Thornton, 2015). There is undoubtedly a greater demand on specialist skills, time and resources from police forces. Much of the emerging threat is complex and virtual in nature, involving multiple partners and where there are no easy, agreed or known solutions. Counterterrorism, mental health, violence, child sexual exploitation and missing persons are all issues where public expectations of the police are high. Yet the strategic management tools from the 1990s onwards focus on organisational goal setting, targets and key performance indicators, ignoring wider outcomes and often creating performance rigidity, reinforcing silo mentality and reinforcing the gaming of performance data. In May 2015 the newly elected UK government announced a review of all forces that were still setting arbitrary targets, despite numerous warnings to desist. This paper explores and reports whether and how, in a time of limited resources yet expanding expectations, the public value framework can be used as an underpinning philosophy while also providing a prompt for practical actions for policing activity.
Using an optical fibre anemometer to measure the speed of the electric wind in a negative polarity, atmospheric corona discharge

Coronas are partial discharges that occur in regions of non-uniform electric fields adjacent to conductors stressed to high voltages. Negative, Trichel-pulse coronas in air occur when a dc, negative-polarity, high voltage is applied to a conductor. Trichel pulses in atmospheric air generate significant amounts of ozone as well as electrical and acoustic noise. Under the right conditions these coronas can be a precursor to complete electrical breakdown of the air gap due to a reduction in the density of neutral molecules resulting from a combination of localised heating and convective air flow generated by the movement of negative ions. An optical fibre anemometer, based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer has been constructed to measure the speed of the wind generated in the point-plane gap of a negative, Trichel-pulse corona discharge in atmospheric air. The sensing arm of the fibre interferometer is subjected to controlled, repetitive bursts of infrared radiation from a CO2 laser and the combination of localised heating and convective cooling by the corona wind results in fringe shifts which are directly calibrated to the speed of the wind. This paper reports on the nature of the calibration process and presents some radial profiles of wind speed in the corona gap.
Peer-to-Peer Energy Transfer by Power Gyrators Based on Time-Variable-Transformer Concept

A control strategy based on matching the source and load changes of the order of milliseconds, called peer-to-peer energy transfer, is introduced. This energy transfer enables a decoupled energy transfer system in common bus networks. To realize the transfer with a pair of two-port circuits, a power gyrator is derived from the phasor-based model of a bidirectional ac/dc converter, based on the concept of a time-variable transformer. Power-gyrator timing synchronization is achieved by communication, and a peer-to-peer energy transfer system is developed. Experimental and simulation results are compared, and it is demonstrated that peer-to-peer energy transfer can be used for decoupling common bus voltage networks.
Drought variability in the eastern Australia and New Zealand summer drought atlas (ANZDA, CE 1500–2012) modulated by the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation

Agricultural production across eastern Australia and New Zealand is highly vulnerable to drought, but there is a dearth of observational drought information prior to CE 1850. Using a comprehensive network of 176 drought-sensitive tree-ring chronologies and one coral series, we report the first Southern Hemisphere gridded drought atlas extending back to CE 1500. The austral summer (December–February) Palmer drought sensitivity index reconstruction accurately reproduces historically documented drought events associated with the first European settlement of Australia in CE 1788, and the leading principal component explains over 50% of the underlying variance. This leading mode of variability is strongly related to the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation tripole index (IPO), with a strong and robust antiphase correlation between (1) eastern Australia and the New Zealand North Island and (2) the South Island. Reported positive, negative, and neutral phases of the IPO are consistently reconstructed by the drought atlas although the relationship since CE 1976 appears to have weakened.