Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
2 Enhanced Motion Control Concepts on Parallel Robots

During the last years parallel robots have found their way into industrial applications. Though the ratio of workspace to designspace is usually worse compared to their serial counterparts, parallel robots are superior in terms of stiffness, accuracy and high-speed operation. This chapter takes the development into account and focuses on control concepts of parallel robots used for handling and assembly. To exploit these features, an effective control system is inevitable. Since the nonlinearities of parallel structures are not negligible, control schemes have to include a precise dynamic model. This chapter presents several approaches of model-based control laws and discusses their characteristics, in theory as well as in implementation. All discussed concepts operate on a uniform interface that takes a fully specified trajectory of position, velocity and acceleration in Cartesian space. This design of the interface can be considered as a minor restriction, since trajectories for high-speed operation usually are defined to be jerk limited (C2-continuous) to reduce mechanical stress of the robot. The chapter starts with a brief description of the discrete modeling scheme, afterwards a compact formulation of the robots dynamics is derived. Several control schemes using this model are presented, which can be classified into two major groups depending on the usage of the robot model as feedback or feedforward type. Based on linearization techniques the controllers for each axis are designed independently within a linear framework. The control algorithms are augmented by disturbance observers to reduce distortion of trajectory and tracking error. Besides these classical approaches, nonlinear concepts such as sliding mode are used for control. Using a boundary layer concept and adding discontinuities to the control law ensures global asymptotic tracking with robustness against model uncertainties and disturbances. Chattering formally associated with sliding mode can be coped with modification of the control law by using continuous sliding surfaces. On contrary to the first approaches it is inherently based on nonlinear design. Considering properties of parallel robots the control schemes of described approaches are designed. Explicit design rules are given at hand and discussed. For experiments the concepts are implemented on a planar parallel robot. The unified approaches of modeling and control guarantee transfer to more complex robots. Evaluation of the results starts with a general comparison of control concepts. The effect of the design parameters on closed-loop system dynamics is analyzed theoretically, paying
Analyzing twitter user- generated content changes

User-generated content (UGC) coming from social networks and online communities continuously grows and changes. By analyzing relevant patterns from the UGC, analysts may discover peculiar user behaviors and interests which can be used to personalize Web-oriented applications. In the last several years, the use of dynamic mining techniques has captured the interest of the research community. They are focus on analyzing the temporal evolution of most significant correlations hidden in the analyzed data. However, keeping track of all temporal data correlations relevant for user behaviors, community interests, and topic trend analysts may become a challenging task due to the sparseness of the analyzed data. This Chapter presents a novel data mining system that performs dynamic itemset mining from both the content and the contextual features of the messages posted on Twitter. Dynamic itemsets represent the evolution of data correlations over time. The framework exploits a dynamic itemset mining algorithm, named HiGen Miner, to discover relevant temporal data correlations from a stream of tweet collections. In particular, it extracts compact patterns, namely the HiGens, that represent the evolution of the most relevant itemsets over consecutive time periods at different abstraction levels. A taxonomy is used to drive the mining process and prevent the discarding of knowledge that becomes infrequent in a certain time period. Experiments, performed on real Twitter posts, show the effectiveness and the usability of the proposed system in supporting Twitter user behavior and topic trend analysis.
Combined Experimental-Simulation Based Acoustic Source Localization

Acoustic source localization is a main task in the development of new products. In the last years, considerable improvements have been achieved in acoustic source localization using microphone arrays. However, main restrictions are given by simplified source models and describing the transfer function between source and microphone signal using Green’s function for free radiation. Therefore, obstacles that prevent free radiation will not be appropriately taken into account by this description. Furthermore, reflecting (or partially reflecting) surfaces are not really considered, and the method of using mirror sources is quite limited. To overcome these limitations, we will combine measurement with simulation. The correct transfer function between source and microphone position will be determined by a finite element simulation (FE simulation). An alternative approach would be to solve the corresponding partial differential equation in the frequency domain (Helmholtz equation) with the actual boundary conditions as given in the measurement setup and solve the inverse problem of matching measured (microphone signals) and simulated pressure [1]. The applicability in real world situations and the additional benefit of our combined approach compared to standard beamforming will be demonstrated.
Organic matter distribution in aggregate sizes of a mollisol under contrasting management

Total and particulate organic matter content in different aggregate sizes can be used as an indicator of land use effect. We hypothesized that tillage reduction increases total (SOC) and particulate soil organic C (POC) contents and the stability of larger aggregates of high-SOC-content Mollisols. Three management systems (continuous pasture (Pp), and continuous cropping under conventional tillage (CT) and notillage (NT)) were evaluated. Oven dried soil samples (0-5 and 5-20 cm), were wet sieved through 2000, 250 and 50 µm sieves after immersion (IW) and capillary (CW) wetting. Particulate organic matter (>50 µm) was separated in both the whole soil and in each aggregate fraction, SOC and mineral associated organic C contents were determined, and POC was calculated by subtraction. Reduced soil disturbance (Pp and NT) yielded more SOC and POC in the whole soil and macroaggregates with higher stability (Pp>NT>CT). Under Pp, macroaggregates showed the highest SOC and POC. Under NT, macroaggregates showed higher SOC and POC and aggregate stability than CT though lower than Pp. Less tillage-induced disruption (Pp and NT) led to higher SOC and POC contents in more stable macroaggregates but continuous no-tillage appeared not to be enough to reverse the effects of long lasting conventional management practices on these Mollisols.
Are There Business Cycles "beyond GDP"? Alternative Measures to GDP at Business Cycle Frequencies

We discuss properties of alternatives or complements to GDP as a measure of welfare at business cycle frequencies. Our results imply that the suggested indicators show practically no cycle at all and their methodologies can be questioned. First, data are not available at an appropriate quality and frequency. Second, the suggested time series sometimes correlate negatively with each other. Third, cross-section and quasi-panel evidence based on different samples of countries reveals no impact of the stance of the business cycle on some suggested welfare measures. Therefore, alternative welfare measures do not show an equal picture on business cycle frequencies compared to GDP-based measures.
Effects of heavy metals toxicity on the biochemical response in tomato plants grown in contaminated silt-soil

Toxic effects of Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Cd 2+ in tomato plants were the reduction in vegetative growth of seedlings and also in flowering and fruiting. Toxicity of these heavy metals resulted in a reduction in chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and soluble sugars, but in an increase in proline. Toxic metal stress caused a 71.71, 77.70 and 11.90% increase in the activities of peroxidase, catalase and ascorbic acid oxidase, respectively. With respect to the total uptake of Cd 2+ , the biggest sink for the metal was provided by roots with 72.80% retention followed by 22% in the stem. Accumulation of Cd 2+ and Zn 2+ gradually increased in the order of root, stem and leaves, but for Cu 2+ that was reversed, that is, it increased in the order of leaf, stem and root. A new consideration of metals bioavailability is discussed in terms of their respective solubility product constants, pH of precipitation, and metal complexation. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/bjsir.v48i4. 9754 Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res. 48(4) , 229-236, 2013
Diurnal variation of precipitation in central Amazon Basin

The diurnal variation of precipitation at four stations in and around Manaus (03°S, 60°W) is studied using hourly observations for the period 2006–2011. The rainfall at midforest stations is 20% greater than that at the city stations, especially in the afternoon hours. The frequency of rain events varies substantially with the hour of the day, but the mean intensity of rain events does not. Daytime [06–18 local time (LT)] frequency is more than two times the nighttime (19–05 LT) frequency. The hours with highest frequency are 12–17 LT. The wet season November through May (NDJFMAM) frequency is approximately three times that of the dry season June through October (JJASO) frequency at all hours and at all stations. The diurnal frequency peak in the afternoon is more pronounced at the forest stations than at city stations. For smaller intensities of hourly rainfall the afternoon peaks are very pronounced while larger intensities of rainfall (15 mm h−1 and above) do not show preference for any hour of the day. Higher rainfall totals in the rainy season are due to more frequent rainfall rather than higher intensities of the rain events. Higher frequencies in the early morning hours close to the river are possibly due to the river breeze effect.
AMICAL: An interactive high level synthesis environment

The AMICAL architectural synthesis system starts with a behavioral specification given in VHDL, performs both scheduling and allocation, and generates a structural description that may feed existing silicon compilers acting at the logic and RT levels. All the synthesis algorithms are implemented as part of an interactive synthesis environment, where automatic and manual design may be mixed. Experiments have shown that the use of AMICAL leads to the best known solutions for most benchmarks. These solutions may be obtained by mixing automatic and manual design or by the use of an automatic exploration of the design space. The response time of AMICAL is reasonably short making it a genuine interactive system. <<ETX>>
Dam Removal Express Assessment Models (DREAM)

This paper presents sample runs of the Dam Removal Express Assessment Models (DREAM) presented in the companion paper, Cui et al. (2006): DREAM-1 for simulation of sediment transport following the removal of a dam behind which the reservoir deposit is composed primarily of noncohesive sand and silt, and DREAM-2 for simulation of sediment transport following the removal of a dam behind which the upper layer of the reservoir deposit is composed primarily of gravel. The primary purposes of the sample runs presented here are to validate some of the assumptions used in the model and to provide guidance as how accurately the field data should be collected. Sample runs indicate that grain size distribution of the reservoir sediment deposit is the most important piece of information needed during the field campaign. Other than the grain size distribution of the reservoir sediment deposit, errors within a reasonable range in other parameters do not result in significant variations in the predicted depositional patterns downstream of the dam, although different magnitudes of sediment deposition may result from such errors. Sample runs also indicate that when the reservoir deposit is composed primarily of gravel, sediment deposition downstream of the dam following dam removal may not propagate far downstream of the dam, and may be limited to isolated reaches where sediment transport capacity is low. Farther downstream sediment deposition becomes progressively smaller due to the attenuation of sediment transport and gravel abrasion. When the reservoir deposit is primarily fine sediment, however, there may be more extensive sediment deposition (both larger area and higher magnitude) downstream of the dam following dam removal. Dredging part of the sediment in advance reduces the downstream impact due to the reduced volume, and the extra distance provided by dredging allows for attenuation of sediment transport. Sample runs with staged dam removal indicate that it provides only limited benefit compared to a one-time removal in case the reservoir deposit is composed primarily of coarse sediment, but may provide significant benefits in case the reservoir deposit is composed primarily of fine sediment. The benefits of a staged removal for the latter case include reduced magnitude and area of deposition as well as reduced suspended sediment concentration downstream of the dam.
Parametric and Nonparametric Regression with Missing X’s—A Review

This paper gives a detailed overview of the problem of missing data in parametric and nonparametric regression. Theoreti- cal basics, properties as well as simulation results may help the reader to get familiar with the common problem of incomplete data sets. Of course, not all occurences can be discussed so this paper could be seen as an introduction to missing data within regression analysis and as an extension to the early paper of (19).
The Hausdorff dimension of -expansions with deleted digits

A process and apparatus for the gaseous reduction of sized iron ores wherein a steam-hydrocarbon fluid mixture, having a steam : carbon molar ratio ranging from 0.9:1 to 1.8:1, is catalytically reformed to produce a reducing gas mixture containing about 85 to 98 percent by volume carbon monoxide plus hydrogen, with a hydrogen:carbon monoxide volume ratio of at least 2:1. The reducing gas is transferred directly at elevated temperatures to a shaft furnace for reduction of ores therein, and the spent reducing gas is cleaned, cooled and dried, for use as fuel and/or cooling the reduced ores.
EcoGEnIE 0.1: Plankton Ecology in the cGENIE Earth system model

Abstract. We present an extension to the cGENIE Earth System model that explicitly accounts for the growth and interaction of an arbitrary number of plankton species. The new package ( ECOGEM ) replaces the implicit, flux-based, parameterisation of the plankton community currently employed, with explicitly resolved plankton populations and ecological dynamics. In ECOGEM, any number of plankton species, with ecophysiological traits (e.g. growth and grazing rates) assigned according to organism size and functional group (e.g. phytoplankton and zooplankton) can be incorporated at run-time. We illustrate the capability of the marine ecology enabled Earth system model ( EcoGENIE ) by comparing results from one configuration of ECOGEM (with eight generic phytoplankton and zooplankton size classes) to climatological and seasonal observations. We find that the new ecological components of the model show reasonable agreement with both global-scale climatological and local-scale seasonal data. We also compare EcoGENIE results to a the existing biogeochemical incarnation of cGENIE. We find that the resulting global-scale distributions of phosphate, iron, dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity and oxygen are similar for both iterations of the model. A slight deterioration in some fields in EcoGENIE (relative to the data) is observed, although we make no attempt to re-tune the overall marine cycling of carbon and nutrients here. The increased capabilities of EcoGENIE in this regard will enable future exploration of the ecological community on much longer timescales than have previously been examined in global ocean ecosystem models and particularly for past climates and global biogeochemical cycles.
Egg yolk androgen levels increase with breeding density in the European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris

1. High breeding density can cause elevated plasma androgen levels in adult birds. Since maternal androgens are deposited into egg yolk, high breeding density may result in elevated yolk androgen levels as well. 2. The relationship between breeding density and yolk androgen levels was examined in the European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris. The concentration and total content of yolk androstenedione and yolk testosterone were measured in eggs from 24 clutches distributed across nine different colonies of nestboxes. 3. Yolk androstenedione and testosterone levels were significantly higher in colonies where a greater proportion of nestboxes had active nests. 4. Yolk testosterone levels were significantly higher, and yolk androstenedione levels were marginally higher, in colonies with a greater absolute number of active nests. 5. Yolk androgen levels were not related to the number of active nests in adjacent nestboxes. 6. We conclude that female starlings nesting in colonies with higher breeding densities transfer more androgen to their eggs. 7. This relationship may be mediated by increased interfemale aggression, particularly towards floater females searching for mates or nests to brood parasitize, in high-density colonies. Such a relationship between maternal environment and maternal yolk androgens may represent adaptive maternal modification of offspring phenotype or a non-adaptive physiological constraint which females cannot avoid.
Cosmological perturbations in generalized gravity theories: conformal transformation

A broad class of generalized gravity theories can be cast into Einstein gravity with a minimally coupled scalar field using a suitable conformal rescaling of the metric. Using this conformal equivalence between the theories, we derived the equations for the background and the perturbations, and the general asymptotic solutions for the perturbations in the generalized gravity from the simple results known in the minimally coupled scalar field. Results for the scalar and tensor perturbations can be presented in unified forms. The large-scale evolutions for both perturbations are characterized by corresponding conserved quantities. The simple result for the scalar perturbation is possible mainly due to our proper choice of a gauge-invariant combination which corresponds to the perturbed scalar field in the uniform-curvature gauge.
Maintaining Curriculum Consistency of Technical and Vocational Educational Programs through Teacher Design Teams

Maintaining the quality and relevance of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) curricula is a great challenge for TVET institutions in developing countries. One major challenge lies in the lack of curriculum design expertise of TVET academics. The purpose of this multiplecase study is to explore the potential of professionally supported Teacher Design Teams (TDTs), a group of department teachers working collaboratively on a curriculum (re)design task, as an institution-based strategy for improving the relevance of TVET programs to the needs of the concerned stakeholders, namely industry. The study describes how four TDTs from different TVET college departments redesigned their programs systematically and relationally to improve their internal and external consistency. The findings indicated that although the teams found the re-design task a challenge, they felt positive about the TDT experience and its outcomes. The teams also perceived the consistency of their programs to have improved. The criticality of the support offered to the teams and the variety of the teams’ design work were salient themes captured during the design process. It is concluded that professionally supported TDTs can be an efficient strategy for maintaining the consistency of the TVET curriculum
Meta-analysis on the Effects of Fashion Product Attributes on Fashion Product Purchasing Decision

Fashion companies need to pay attention to the fashion product attributes affecting purchase in order to improve competitiveness. However, individual studies conducted in the clothing and textile field have difficulties in integrating the study results, due to differences in study subjects. This study aims to statistically integrate existing different study results released in the past ten years through a meta-analysis, and present unified information to offer more effective information to fashion companies.
Spectral detector for interference time blanking using quantized correlator

Given the large flow of data to be processed, quantized correlators are widely used in radio astronomy. Unfortunately, the occurrence of non-Gaussian interference combined with a coarse quantization can strongly alter the shape of the estimated spectra. The final spectral estimation can be preserved by blanking the correlator in real-time. A new interference detection criterion is proposed within this framework. It uses the real-time capabilities of correlators and compares contaminated and non-contaminated correlation functions. No a priori information on the interfering signals is required. Simulations, using synthetic and actual data, are presented. This new technique of real time detection can significantly improve the quality of spectral line observations.
Calm Medication Reminder

Approximately 50.000 people of the Danish population have been diagnosed with epilepsy. Among these 75% of the patients develop the disease during their childhood. To prevent unpredictable epileptic seizures it is necessary to take the medication at a regular interval. It can be a struggle for many children to remember the medication on a regular basis. A solution to this has been created, which consists of a tablet and a computer with a program that can remind the patient to take the medication when he gets up in the morning. This is observed through a pressure sensor in the patient’s bed and a sensor detecting if the medication is taken. If not, a notification can be sent to the patient and his relatives. The working prototype has created acceptable preliminary results. However some implementations are necessary to bring the technology into the home of patients. More thorough tests with actual users with epilepsy are also needed. Keywords; Calm technology, adherence, epilepsy, teenagers,adolescents, phidget sensors, preventive, home monitoring
Can we measure working memory via the Internet? The reliability and factorial validity of an online n-back task

: The aim of this study was to check whether an online n-back task conducted in the uncontrolled environment of the Internet can yield valid and reliable data. For this purpose, 169 participants completed an online n-back task with n1, n2 and n3 blocks on their home computers. The results have shown acceptable reliability for overall accuracy and reaction time indices across n1, n2, n3 blocks, as well as for reaction time indices for each n block. Unacceptable reliability has been found for separate n levels accuracy indices and for response bias indices. Confirmatory factor analysis has revealed that, among 8 proposed measurement models, the best fit for the data collected is a model with two uncorrelated factors: accuracy consisting of n1, n2, n3 indices and reaction time consisting of n2, n3 indices. The results of this study have demonstrated for the first time that a reliable administration of online n-back task is possible and may therefore give rise to new opportunities for working memory research. Can we measure working memory via the Internet? The reliability and factorial validity.