Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simplified Approach for Broadband RF Testing of Low Loss Magneto-Dielectric Samples

In this paper, an attractive measurement technique is proposed to retrieve the broadband permittivity and permeability of the magneto-dielectric materials. The proposed technique is quite novel which mitigates the major problems associated with the conventional broadband RF material characterization techniques such as numerical instability and phase uncertainty when the length of the sample exceeds the integer multiple of half-wavelength. The approach adopted in this paper is quite unique as it alleviates the error normally caused by the sensitive phase measurement, since it only employs the relative amplitude of the scattering parameters, thus minimizing the measurement uncertainty. The proposed methodology here is based on the development of a unified scheme for the retrieval of dielectric and magnetic properties of magneto-dielectric samples, which is first tested for a number of reference samples using the numerically generated scattering coefficient data. Finally, the proposed technique is experimentally validated by measuring a number of standard samples over a broad microwave frequency range with the help of the coaxial line and the network analyzer. The dielectric and magnetic properties of samples retrieved using the proposed approach is always found to be in good agreement with their actual values available in the literature.
Observer-based regenerative braking control for Four-Wheel-Independent-Actuated Electric Vehicles

A hierarchical control structure, consisting of an upper-layer adaptive sliding mode control and a lower-layer optimization-based control allocation algorithm, is proposed in this paper for regenerative braking (RB) system of Four-Wheel-Independent-Actuated Electric Vehicles(FWIA-EV). The object of this paper is to track the reference velocity profiles and to improve the RB energy recovery by distributing the front and rear wheel braking torques. In the upper-layer controller, an adaptive sliding mode control law is designed to determine the generalized torque required to track the desired velocity profiles. In the lower-layer controller, an optimization-based control allocation algorithm with actuators constraint considerations is designed to assign the generalized torque to four wheels. Simulation results, based on a vehicle model Carsim, show the effectiveness of the control approach.
A Quad-Channel 11-bit 1-GS/s 40-mW Collaborative ADC Enabling Digital Beamforming for 5G Wireless

A $4 \times 11$ bit 1-GS/s 40-mW collaborative analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is presented in a 65-nm CMOS for a four-channel multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) receiver. This work extends the maximal-ratio-combining (MRC) approach to define the ADC resolution in a multichannel environment to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in a power-constrained application. The ADC takes the advantage of the channel diversity by distributing the resolution according to the channel SNR. In addition, it utilizes the correlated information between channels to perform energy-efficient digitization of received signals. The collaborative ADC is designed with eight successive-approximation-register (SAR) ADC units each having a 6-bit of resolution and a 2-bit flash to monitor SNR. With the help of a coarse 2-bit flash, the ADC can detect change in channel SNR and accordingly reconfigure the four ADCs with a variable resolution from 6 to 11 bits with less than 1-ns mode switching time. This collaborative ADC performance is compared with four channel ADCs with uniform 11 and 9 bits of resolution. It reduces area and power by half and 41%, respectively, with only 10% degradation of overall signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR).
Age-friendly cities in the Netherlands: An explorative study of facilitators and hindrances in the built environment and ageism in design

The World Health Organization (WHO) strives to assist and inspire cities to become more ‘age-friendly’ through the Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide. An age-friendly city offers a supportive environment that enables residents to grow older actively within their families, neighbourhoods and civil society, and offers extensive opportunities for their participation in the community. In the attempts to make cities age-friendly, ageism may interact with these developments. The goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which features of age-friendly cities, both facilitators and hindrances, are visible in the city scape of the Dutch municipalities of The Hague and Zoetermeer and whether or not ageism is manifested explicitly or implicitly. A qualitative photoproduction study based on the Checklist of Essential Features of Age-Friendly Cities was conducted in five neighbourhoods. Both municipalities have a large number of visual age-friendly features, which are manifested in five domains of the WHO model, namely Communication and information; Housing; Transportation; Community support and health services; and Outdoor spaces and buildings. Age-stereotypes, both positive and negative, can be observed in the domain of Communication and information, especially in the depiction of third agers as winners. At the same time, older people and age-friendly features are very visible in the cityscapes of both municipalities, and this is a positive expression of the changing demographics.
Reconfigurable and Scalable Multimode Silicon Photonics Switch for Energy-Efficient Mode-Division-Multiplexing Systems

A novel integrated scalable multimode switch (SMS) is experimentally demonstrated using tapered multimode-interference-based couplers and Ti/W metal heater phase shifters for mode-division-multiplexing (MDM) silicon photonics switching. The SMS allows path-reconfigurable switching of the first two (TE0 and TE1) or the first three (TE0, TE1, and TE2) transverse electric (TE) modes using the same device achieving footprint efficiency for higher bandwidth density. A proof-of-concept realization of the two-mode switch demonstrates the (de)multiplexing and switching of broadband optical signals over the TE0 and TE1 modes exhibiting <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula>6.5 dB insertion loss (IL) in the bar state and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula>7.3 dB IL in the cross state at 1550 nm with less than <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula>14 dB crosstalk. Simultaneous switching of two parallel TE modes (TE0+TE1) exhibits less than <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula>7.0 dB IL and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula>11.9 dB crosstalk at 1550 nm. An aggregated bandwidth of 2 × 10 Gb/s is experimentally achieved while switching between two non-return-to-zero PRBS31 data signals with <9.8 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>s switching time and >17.7 dB switching extinction ratio (ER) for individual-mode transmission, and <7.6 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>s switching time and >12.0 dB switching ER for dual-mode transmission. The SMS is scalable to switch higher order TE modes with lower energy consumption (up to 63% less) than the single-mode switches indicating its potential application in energy-efficient MDM photonic networks.
Malaria Infected Erythrocyte Classification Based on the Histogram Features using Microscopic Images of Thin Blood Smear

Objectives: This paper aims to develop a system for malaria infected erythrocyte classification based on the histogram feature set. Method: The method consist of pre-processing, segmentation, feature extraction based on the histogram of different color channels, feature selection and malaria infected erythrocyte classification using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) and Naive Bayes. Findings: The experimental analysis of all the classifiers with the different combinations of features has been carried out on clinical database. Based on the experimental results it may be concluded that ANN provides the higher classification rate in comparison to other classifiers which provides an overall accuracy of 96.32% and F-score of 85.32% respectively. Applications: The proposed system may be used for the automatic recognition of the malaria infected erythrocytes in the thin blood smears.
Design and implementation of a Gazetteer

The objective of this work is the analysis and subsequent remodeling of a Gazetteer service from a previous project (DIGMAP) in order to adapt it to the needs of a European project (EuropeanaConnect). The goal is to produce a Gazetteer service for use by another service dedicated to scan text for geographic references a Geoparser. The end result was a service that complies with current standards and practices defined for a service of its nature. First a detailed description of the concept of a Gazetteer and its history is presented along with any other relevant concepts for the purposes of understanding the performed work. This is followed by a survey of several related initiatives in the area of Gazetteers that were relevant in developing concepts, methods and technologies for that area. Then a study of the more pertinent issues currently in research for the purposes of Gazetteer development. Afterwards, we give a definition of the actual problem and requirements for the purposes of this work followed by a description of the planned architecture for the Gazetteer and the actual implementation. Next we test some components of the system, presenting statistics regarding the data stored in the gazetteer, to determine its quality and reliability. We finish with a description of end results, personal conclusions and draw plans for future work.
Development of a Simulation Environment for Signal Processing Algorithms

The development of a simulation environment for the study of signal processing algorithms is discussed. The project was divided into two parts. The first and the major part was the development of MATLAB, a matrix manipulation program, into a suitable simulation environment for studies in signal processing. The second part used the software tools developed by the first in performing a simulation study involving the use of state space models in parameter estimation. Developing software tools in MATLAB included expanding the original inbuilt set of tools to enable the users to write their own functions effectively. This meant creating a set of sophisticated tools and adding these to the source of the MATLAB program. The method for adding functions to the MATLAB library for use by the whole programming community has been detailed. A large set of signal processing functions have been added to the MATLAB library, thus increasing the power of MATLAB as a signal processing simulation environment. The problem of approximate realization which constitutes the second part of the project, has been dealt with at the simulation stage. Starting out with noisy data, the aim was to develop a state space model which approximated this data. Different ways of arriving at a solution have been considered. The results of the simulation studies are detailed.
The mediating effect of internal integration on the relationship between supply chain integration and operational performance: Evidence from Moroccan manufacturing companies

Purpose: This paper aims to explain the direct effect of supply chain integration on operational performance of manufacturing companies and the mediating effect of internal integration on the relationship between external integration and operational performance.Design/methodology/approach: From an organizational capabilities perspective we consider internal integration as a set of intra-organizational capabilities and customer integration and supplier integration as a set of inter-organizational capabilities. In the basis of a sample of 75 Moroccan manufacturing companies, we used PLS – Structural Equation Modeling to study the direct effect of customer integration, internal integration and supplier integration on operational performance of manufacturers and to analyze the mediating effect of internal integration. Findings: The results show that customer integration, internal integration and supplier integration are all positively and significantly related to operational performance of the manufacturer and internal integration mediates relationship between costumer integration and operational performance but not relationship between supplier integration and operational performance. Research limitations/implications: This study focuses on a set of best practices for integrating flows and business processes that industrial companies need to implement in order to create value for final consumer and show how to use internal integration practices to benefit more from external integration.Originality/value: The result of this study extends the developing body of literature on supply chain integration by analyzing the effect of interaction between internal and external integration on the operational performance towards an organizational capabilities perspective in a specific Moroccan industrial context.
Planar Textile Off-Body Communication Antennas: A Survey

Fully textile smart wearables will be the result of the complete integration and miniaturization of electronics and textile materials. Off-body communications are key for connecting smart wearables with external devices, even for wireless power transfer or energy harvesting. They need to fulfill specific electromagnetic (EM) (impedance bandwidth (BW), gain, efficiency, and front to back radiation (FTBR)) and mechanical (bending, crumpling, compression, washing and ironing) requirements so that the smart wearable device provides the required performance. Therefore, textile and flexible antennas require a proper trade-off between materials, antenna topologies, construction techniques, and EM and mechanical performances. This review shows the latest research works for textile and flexible planar, fully grounded antennas for off-body communications, providing a novel design guide that relates key antenna performance parameters versus topologies, feeding techniques, conductive and dielectric textile materials, as well as the behavior under diverse measurement conditions.
Specific professional skills development for engineering studies: Spatial orientation

The spatial skills are an active field of research, especially in the engineering area. Several authors connect high levels ofspatial kills with the success in technical careers. One of the components of spatial skills is spatial orientation. Many studiesshow that providing the appropriate material may develop spatial skills. However, a plan aiming for the development ofspatial orientation skills in formal teaching is still missing. This paper presents an innovation in the teaching strategiesthrough a Geographic Information Technologies workshop which aim is development of the spatial orientation. Theworkshop’s study was completed during four academic courses with 248 university engineering students involved. Acontrol group was created with 35 students using conventional teaching methods for determining if the increase in thespatial orientation skill is due to the effect of this workshop. The result shows significant statistical gains over the spatialorientation skill of 19.21 degrees. The results from the control group confirm that students who have not undertakenspecific training didn’t develop their spatial orientation skill.
MIREX 2011 AUDIO TAG CLASSIFICATION USING WEIGHTED-VOTE NEAREST NEIGHBOR CLASSIFICATION

In this long abstract, we present an algorithm for automat- ically annotating music with tags that is fast, scalable and relatively easy to implement. It uses acoustic similarity for propagating tags among audio items. The algorithm makes use of a variety of acoustical features, ranging from spectral features, to rhythm, tonal and highlevel features (such as mood, genre, gender). These features are then transformed into a reduced d-dimensional space, and finally combined with tempo and semantic features. A k-Nearest Neighbor classifier — with a modified weighting function and two dif- ferent distance measures — is performed in order to propose tags to new music items.
Benchmarks for Discrete Fourier Transforms in R

The base DFT calculator in R, stats::fft, uses the Mixed-Radix algorithm of Singleton (1969). In this vignette we show how this calculator compares to FFT in the fftw package (Krey et al., 2011), which uses the FFTW algorithm of Frigo and Johnson (2005). For univariate DFT computations, the methods are nearly equivalent with two exceptions which are not mutually exclusive: (A) the series to be transformed is very long, and especially (B) when the series length is not highly composite. In both exceptions the algorithm FFT outperforms fft.
Minimum curvature trajectory planning and control for an autonomous race car

ABSTRACT This paper shows a software stack capable of planning a minimum curvature trajectory for an autonomous race car on the basis of an occupancy grid map and introduces a controller design that allows to follow the trajectory at the handling limits. The minimum curvature path is generated using a quadratic optimisation problem (QP) formulation. The key contributions of this paper are the extension of the QP for an improved accuracy of the curvature approximation, the introduction of curvature constraints and the iterative invocation of the QP to significantly reduce linearisation errors in corners. On the basis of the resulting raceline, a velocity profile is calculated using a forward-backward-solver that considers the velocity dependent longitudinal and lateral acceleration limits of the car. The advantages and disadvantages of the proposed trajectory planning approach are discussed critically with respect to practical experience from various racetracks. The software stack showed to be robust in a real world environment as it ran successfully on the Roborace DevBot during the Berlin Formula E event in May 2018. The lap time achieved was within a tenth of a second of a human driver and the car reached about and 80% of its acceleration limits.
Lightweight Lossless Compression for $N$ -Dimensional Data in Multi-Sensor Systems

During the last years, multi-sensor acquisition systems have experienced a great diffusion. One of the main limiting factors is related to the huge amount of data generated within these systems and that must be carefully addressed to guarantee a certain efficiency. A solution consists in compressing data before transmission or storage. Furthermore, a lossless compression is required in monitoring applications, such as biomedical applications, where even very small signal variations can convey important information about the physical process under analysis. In this paper, we propose the lossless compression algorithm for multi-sensor systems characterized by low computational capabilities. The proposed method is based on a modified Golomb code that takes an advantage of the definition of union sets to reduce the redundancy associated to the prefix of codewords. The experimental results show that a compression gain up to 50%–60% can be achieved in different contexts.
A DISCUSSION ON THE WAYS OF DEALING WITH RISKS EMBEDDED IN PROJECT

The current research dissertation is on the topic – A discussion on the ways of dealing with risks embedded in project. It aims to analyse the strategies for reducing risks in the embedded project. The research mainly concentrates on concept and technique of risk management strategy to reduce the risks related with the project. In this entire process of research, the researcher evaluates the company’s current condition, the issues it is facing and the loopholes present in its risk reducing strategy. For this purpose, the researcher also delves deep into the existing literature upon the current and related topics, so that the researcher gains a clear insight of the study area. As the company is facing problem due to the project risks, this research also supplies the company with some useful recommendations to mitigate issues. To carry out a disciplined research work, the researcher applies positive research paradigm, deductive approach of research and explanatory design of investigation. The researcher carries out primary research for this topic and through the primary investigation, yields a combination of quantitative as well as qualitative data. For collecting data, 3 operational managers and 2 Risk Management Officers were interviewed and asked about their point of view in having risk management team within the company and what kind of progression does it make in development of the companies. The researcher found that risks in project management may create big issues for both the company and its customers in future. The learner has recommended development of risk quotient designs so that risks can be measured and mitigated.
Building Wireless Control Applications with XBee and LabVIEW

This study analyzed the application of the XBee technology for control applications embedded in big machinery. In particular, it presented the control layout, topology, design of frames, and error control mechanisms that are required for implementing wireless control networked applications. This study was devoted to presenting experimental use cases of wireless control systems that help the scientific community to design and implement new control systems. Experimental tests were carried out over a Single Input Single Output (SISO) control application to evaluate its use in close loop applications. The results of these tests have been discussed in detail. In order to clarify the use of XBee in control applications, a high precision positioning application has been presented. It involved a piezoelectric actuator that was remotely controlled by means of a Proportional Integral (PI) controller, which was implemented in LabVIEW over a NI myRIO platform. Both the sensor and the actuators were connected with the NI myRIO by means of the XBee anthenae. The results showed that even though XBee technologies present some drawbacks, such as a lower performance when compared to wired connections and the influence of interferences, they have the potential to be used in some scenarios for non-critical control applications.
Numerical Analysis of Impact Fracture of Laminated Glass - A Review

LG comprises of two layers of glass and one or more layers of polymer film (inter-layer) that is sandwiched in-between by putting under heat and pressure. Inter-layer improves mechanical properties like impact strength, fracture toughness and failure mode of LG [1]. As area of impact increases there is possibility of increment of the impact resistance. The fracture of LG is designed so as to the Inter layer keeps together broken pieces that can possibly cause dangerous incidents or accidents. The LG dampens the energy of impact and improves the brittle fracture behavior when compared with monolithic glass. This functionality forces designers to use LG wherever there may be an injury risk due to glass fracture. A good no of theoretical studies [2-8], experimental studies [9-22] numerical studies [10,23-45], LS DYNA and ABAQUS based studies [18-36] and discrete element (DE)/finite element (FE) based studies are reported to analyze impact failure of LG. The present work is focused on reviewing the numerical algorithms used to model the impact fracture of LG.
Mining Rare Sequential Patterns in Large Transaction Databases

Sequential pattern is an important research topic in data mining and knowledge discovery. During the discovery of sequential patterns, only the frequent sequences are considered while all the infrequent sequences are ignored. However, some infrequent patterns can provide very useful insight view into the data set and a new kind of knowledge discovery problems called as rare sequential pattern and its discovery algorithm are proposed in this paper. Experiments on the synthetic data set show that the proposed algorithm is efficient and scalable. Keywords—data mining, algorithm, rare sequential pattern, sequence