Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term performance of Casaccia plant

A 100 kW plant has been installed on the shelters of ENEA Casaccia Center parking lot in 1991, with the aim to verify the possibility of exploiting already existing structures also ensuring a low visual impact and to test the low-voltage grid interconnection. The operational data collected in the period 1992-2002 have confirmed a final yield of about 2.5 h/d and a performance ratio of about 0.65. In the same period about 42 outage events have been recorded, corresponding to an average unavailability of 12.5%. Good performances have been obtained during the years 1999 and 2001, when the plant has been in service almost 100% of the time. On the whole, after 11 years of operation, the plant is nice looking and working properly, while measurement campaigns have confirmed only a lightly power degradation of the array, according to the expectations.
A Short Review on 3-d Printing of FRP Composites Using Stereolithography

A higher product diversification range with excellent physical, mechanical and chemical properties make Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials a prominent candidate for engineering applications. But, conventional manufacturing techniques always face critical issues during the development of FRP's complex and intrinsic profile. In recent years, Additive Manufacturing (AM) or 3-D printing proves itself a robust technique to produce application-specific parts of FRP composites with a higher degree of customization. In comparison to other 3D printing techniques, Stereolithography (SLA) is able to create mechanically stable objects with higher processing speed. This information paves the way for the present review article. This paper reviews the recent advancement of SLA technique to develop objects of FRP composite materials.
Neo-Bondage: A Fieldwork-Based Account

Abstract On the basis of anthropological fieldwork carried out in South Gujarat in the early 1960s, I described and analyzed a system of bonded labor that dominated the relationship between low-caste farm servants and high-caste landowners (Patronage and Exploitation: Changing Agrarian Relations in South Gujarat, India, 1974). More recently, I have gone back to the study of agrarian bondage of the past in order to explore in greater detail the emergence of unfree labor in the precolonial era and comment on its demise as a result of efforts made by the colonial state, the nationalist movement, and peasant activists (Labour Bondage in West India from Past to Present, 2007). A recurrent research theme during my fieldwork in the last few decades has been drawing attention to practices of neo-bondage (neo because the relationship between bosses and workers is less personalized, of shorter duration, more contractual, and monetized) at the bottom of India's informal-sector economy. Additionally, the elements of patronage that offered a modicum of protection and security to bonded clients in the past have disappeared while the transition to a capitalist mode of production accelerated.
Rhizosphere Microbiomes of Potato Cultivated under Bacillus subtilis Treatment Influence the Quality of Potato Tubers

Plants serve as a niche for the growth and proliferation of a diversity of microorganisms. Soil microorganisms, which closely interact with plants, are increasingly being recognized as factors important to plant health. In this study, we explored the use of high-throughput DNA sequencing of the fungal ITS and bacterial 16S for characterization of the fungal and bacterial microbiomes following biocontrol treatment (DT) with Bacillus subtilis strain Bv17 relative to treatments without biocontrol (DC) during the potato growth cycle at three time points. A total of 5631 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified from the 16S data, and 2236 OTUs were identified from the ITS data. The number of bacterial and fungal OTU in DT was higher than in DC and gradually increased during potato growth. In addition, indices such as Ace, Chao, Shannon, and Simpson were higher in DT than in DC, indicating greater richness and community diversity in soil following the biocontrol treatment. Additionally, the potato tuber yields improved without a measurable change in the bacterial communities following the B. subtilis strain Bv17 treatment. These results suggest that soil microbial communities in the rhizosphere are differentially affected by the biocontrol treatment while improving potato yield, providing a strong basis for biocontrol utilization in crop production.
Normalization by orientation-tuned surround in human V1-V3

An influential account of neuronal responses in primary visual cortex is the normalized energy model. This model is often implemented as a two-stage computation. The first stage is the extraction of contrast energy, whereby a complex cell computes the squared and summed outputs of a pair of linear filters in quadrature phase. The second stage is normalization, in which a local population of complex cells mutually inhibit one another. Because the population includes cells tuned to a range of orientations and spatial frequencies, the result is that the responses are effectively normalized by the local stimulus contrast. Here, using evidence from human functional MRI, we show that the classical model fails to account for the relative responses to two classes of stimuli: straight, parallel, band-passed contours (gratings), and curved, band-passed contours (snakes). The snakes elicit fMRI responses that are about twice as large as the gratings, yet a traditional divisive normalization model predicts responses that are about the same. Here, motivated by these observations and others from the literature, we implement a divisive normalization model, in which there is a preferential inhibition between cells matched in orientation tuning (“tuned normalization”). We first show that this model accounts for differential responses to these two classes of stimuli. We then show that the model successfully generalizes to other band-pass textures, both in V1 and in extrastriate cortex (V2 and V3). We conclude that even in primary visual cortex, complex features of images such as the degree of heterogeneity, can have large effects on neural responses.
Bringing together what belongs together: a recommender-system to foster academic collaboration

The amount of information available to researchers today has increased in the last years at an unfathomable speed. Web 2.0 technology, especially social network tools and new communication platforms have added more points of access to the exploding number of informational offers. As scientists are increasingly using Web 2.0 for research, knowledge management, communication, and collaboration it is becoming more and more important for the users of these tools to be able to filter out (from their perspective and in the given situation) unwanted information. Moreover, it is even more important for researchers to filter through known and even unknown content to find relevant information, broaden their scope of knowledge about a certain field, remain up‐to‐date on the state‐of‐the‐art and expand their reach to other institutions or domains. One possibility to make users aware of content available in their field of interest is through the use of recommender systems. We would like to outline how we propose a new recommender system using a method‐mix of data mining and social network analysis (SNA). This science proxy project is targeted towards resolving unwanted fragmentation with the help of recommendations extracted from publishing data from conferences such as EC‐TEL and – on the intervention side – with the help of the networked communication instrument ‘Flashmeeting’1. This recommender system aims at supporting scientists in the field of TEL to increase the quality of their collaboration in the wider community of peers.
An Optimum Shift-and-Weighted brightness mapping for low-illumination image restoration

ABSTRACT Images captured under low-illumination environments often impose difficulties in revealing objects of interest. An effective approach, Optimum Shift-and-Weighted Brightness Mapping, is here proposed that can optimally enhance the image for higher brightness, information content, and colour vividness. Specifically, the input-output brightness mapping is determined by a shifted spline curve and a larger amplification is allowed for low-brightness pixels. A weighting function is further applied such that high brightness pixels are preserved. The final enhanced image is obtained by inserting the extracted high frequency components from the original input to the brightness boosted image. The algorithm is adaptive to image contents where parameters are optimized using the efficient golden section search instead of relying on user specified coefficients. Experimental results, from a large set of test images, showed that better quality images could be obtained on a variety of low-illumination scenarios as compared to several recent approaches.
The Interface between Human Factors and Design

Software designers with limited knowledge of human factors often play a crucial role in the design of user interfaces. The thesis of this paper is that the field of human factors needs to be concerned with the design of interfaces between itself and the rest of the design community. We identify the mission objective for the human factors-design interface as improving the overall quality of design by enhancing communication and the transfer of knowledge. A selected set of requirements for the interface includes (1) communication, from human factors to designers, of proven and relevant design approaches, and (2) communication, from designers to human factors, of pertinent design constraints and methods of integrating human factors concerns and data into design. A discussion of concepts for the human factors-design interface describes and analyzes educational technologies (e.g., video classes and short courses), an electronic gatekeeper (a bulletin board-like system through which human factors experts and designers communicate), and design analysis software (which automatically apply human factors principles to designs).
Space Use of Predatory Larval Dragonflies and Tadpole Prey in Response to Chemical Cues of Predation

Abstract. Chemical cues are frequently a key source of information to aquatic organisms. Both predators (kairomones digestive metabolites) and prey (alarm and damage-released cues) may generate chemical cues during their interactions, and different cue types can have different informational values. How predators and prey use the information from chemical cues to make spatial movement decisions influences both their direct interaction rates and their interactions with other species. We measured the spatial response of predatory larval dragonflies (Anax junius) and predator-naïve green frog (Lithobates clamitans) tadpoles exposed to several types of chemical cues using experimental mesocosms. We found tadpoles only responded with spatial avoidance when exposed to both Anax kairomones and conspecific alarm cues together, whereas Anax did not exhibit consistent spatial responses to any cue type. Our results suggest tadpole prey selectively respond to environmental information from chemical cues (possibly to minimize costly antipredator behavior due to responding to insufficient information or reflecting a need for associative learning). They also show predatory dragonflies may use nonchemical information to make space use decisions (possibly due to inability to detect the same chemical cues as tadpoles).
Effects of High-Frequency (HF) Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) on Upper Extremity Motor Function in Stroke Patients: A Systematic Review

Background and Objectives: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is being widely used for treating upper extremity paresis after stroke, however, evidence of applying high-frequency rTMS (HF-rTMS) on the ipsilesional hemisphere for upper extremity motor recovery remains limited. This systematic review aimed to investigate the effect of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for upper extremity motor function recovery after a first-time ischaemic stroke. Materials and Methods: This systematic review was prepared according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A comprehensive literature search was performed to identify all studies published before 12 February 2021. The search was performed on the following databases: PubMed, Ovid, The Cochrane Library. Results: A total of 6440 studies were found in the databases and four trials were included in the review. Three of the studies were randomized control trials (RCT), and one was a pseudo-RCT. Three of the studies showed good methodological quality and one study was rated as excellent. Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) was performed in three out of four studies and the score significantly increased in the HF-rTMS treatment group compared with sham stimulation in all trials. Other measures used in the studies were handgrip strength, shoulder abduction, Motricity Index, Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), and Box and Block, although these tests did not show unanimous results. Overall, all four studies conveyed significantly better results in at least one test that was performed for hand motor function evaluation in a 10 Hz stimulation group while none of the tests showed any advantage for sham stimulation groups. Two studies reported headache as an adverse event (six patients in total). Conclusion: The overall results showed that HF-rTMS may increase impaired upper extremity motor function better than sham stimulation in stroke patients.
Fatigue Performance of Friction Welded Studs

Early in the life of the Genesis spar, cracking developed at the welded connections between the riser guide supports and the hull wall plate. The cracking was caused by the movements of the top-tensioned risers within the steel guide frames in the moon pool of the structure. The remedial action taken to minimize the riser movements and its effects on the hull involved the use of novel rubber bumpers, which were installed in lieu of the steel guides. The bumpers around the periphery of the moon pool were fastened to the hull wall via threaded studs that were friction welded to the hull wall plate underwater. This paper describes a testing program specifically designed to qualify the fatigue performance of the stud-plate friction welds. Results verify the use of the F2 S-N curve from British Standard 7608 with a single slope for the design of the friction-welded connections subjected to axial load. It was also found that the fatigue performance of friction welds is sensitive to the stud preload. One unique feature of the fatigue failure mode of the connection, when the load is transferred through the stud into the plate, is that cracking takes place along the semi-circular heat-affected zone (HAZ) of the bond-line between the stud and the plate, and not through the hull plate thickness. As a result, failure of a stud connection does not compromise the structural integrity of the spar hull. © 2005 ASME
A novel charge equalization technique for electric vehicle battery system

Charge equalization is very important to reduce damage to battery cells and improve the life of battery as a whole. A new simple charge equalization technique is presented in this paper. The technique utilizes an inductor and a switch with each module to realize equalization of the whole batteries, the equalization processes control and the topology is very simple, as it can lead to an efficient and low-cost implementation.
Comparative efficacy of cucurbitacin phytonematicides and Velum on growth and fruit quality of watermelon cultivar ‘Congo’ and suppression of Meloidogyne enterolobii under field conditions

ABSTRACT Globally, the guava root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne enterolobii) is becoming an emerging threat of note in crops with or without Mi resistance genes. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) cultivars are highly susceptible to Meloidogyne species, with all cultivars without genotypes with resistance to the genus. In contrast, nematode management options for watermelon production had since the withdrawal of fumigant nematicides been constrained. The objective of this study was to investigate the comparative efficacy of the locally-developed cucurbitacin phytonematicides and commercially available synthetic chemical nematicide Velum on growth and fruit yield and quality of watermelon cv. ‘Congo’, along with its accumulation of foliar nutrient elements and suppression of M. enterolobii population densities under field conditions. Nemarioc-AL and Nemafric-BL phytonematicides were each applied biweekly at 2% per seedling using 500 ml solution, while Velum was applied once using 500 ml solution at 0.08 ml/15 L chlorine-free water. At 90 days after the treatments, relative to untreated control, the two phytonematicides and Velum (a.i. fluopyram) significantly increased plant growth, fruit yield and quality, although with the accumulation of phosphorus in leaf tissues, with efficacies of the three products being comparable. Similarly, relative to untreated control, the three products significantly reduced nematode eggs and juveniles in roots and juveniles in soil, with efficacies that were significantly comparable. In conclusion, the benefits of phytonematicides on the productivity of watermelon cv. ‘Congo’ and suppression of population densities of M. enterolobii were comparable.
An empirical investigation of the successful implementation of quality management in service organisations

A questionnaire was used to collect data from individuals who were involved in the implementation process of QM programs in a large number of organizations. Useable data were received from 211 individuals in 65 organizations and the response rate was 52%. Several statistical techniques, including Multiple Discriminant Analysis, and ANOVA, were used to test the hypotheses of the study. The results of the study point to the importance of the role of employees support and encouragement of departmental co-operation for the successful implementation of QM programs. These factors were found to be important not only initially, but also throughout the whole implementation period of QM programs.
Semi-Supervised Spatial Attention Method for Facial Attribute Editing

In recent years, facial attribute editing has been successfully used to effectively change face images of various attributes based on generative adversarial networks and encoder–decoder models. However, existing models have a limitation in that they may change an unintended part in the process of changing an attribute or may generate an unnatural result. In this paper, we propose a model that improves the learning of the attention mask by adding a spatial attention mechanism based on the unified selective transfer network (referred to as STGAN) using semi-supervised learning. The proposed model can edit multiple attributes while preserving details independent of the attributes being edited. This study makes two main contributions to the literature. First, we propose an encoder–decoder model structure that learns and edits multiple facial attributes and suppresses distortion using an attention mask. Second, we define guide masks and propose a method and an objective function that use the guide masks for multiple facial attribute editing through semi-supervised learning. Through qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the experimental results, the proposed method was proven to yield improved results that preserve the image details by suppressing unintended changes than existing methods.
Integrating deliberative planning in a robot architecture

The role of planning and reactive control in an architecture for autonomous agents is discussed. The postulated architecture seperates the general robot intelligence problem into three interacting pieces: (1) robot reactive skills, i.e., grasping, object tracking, etc.; (2) a sequencing capability to differentially ativate the reactive skills; and (3) a delibrative planning capability to reason in depth about goals, preconditions, resources, and timing constraints. Within the sequencing module, caching techniques are used for handling routine activities. The planning system then builds on these cached solutions to routine tasks to build larger grain sized primitives. This eliminates large numbers of essentially linear planning problems. The architecture will be used in the future to incorporate in robots cognitive capabilites normally associated with intelligent behavior.
SUCCESSFUL TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN DISTANCE LEARNING: A MOTIVATION PERSPECTIVE

Advances in information technology have explored avenues for today’s higher education to offer a quality curriculum while reducing costs. Many colleges and universities are tapping into the hot market of distance learning programs that allow students to seek college or advanced degrees without coming to campus. Due to its nature, distance learning relies heavily on technologies that enable students to communicate with their instructor and other participants in both synchronous and asynchronous formats. Since learning activities are mostly conducted online, successful application and implementation of online learning technologies is essential for the effectiveness of distance learning. Positive user attitude (or user acceptance) has been considered a critical factor that contributes to the successful application and implementation of any new information technologies including online learning technology (Barki and Huff 1985; Griffith 1996; Melone 1990; Rademacher 1989). Yet, empirical research examining factors that influence an individual's receptivity towards online learning technologies using a sample of potential users of distance learning has been relatively unexplored (Anakwe et al. 1999). This study examines the application of Expectancy Theory in explaining students’ motivation to adopt an online learning technology. Data gathered from 74 distance-learning students suggest that Expectancy Theory is appropriate for evaluating and understanding students’ motivation to adopt an online learning technology. On average, the students considered that improving competence in performing course work is the most attractive outcome of an online learning technology. This study also provides empirical evidence that technology adoption in distance learning is more likely to succeed when the technology is perceived by the students to be in their best interest and when successful adoption results from reasonable efforts.
Improvement of Deep Learning-based Human Detection using Dynamic Thresholding for Intelligent Surveillance System

Human detection plays an important role in many applications of the intelligent surveillance system (ISS), such as person re-identification, human tracking, people counting, etc. On the other hand, the use of deep learning in human detection has provided excellent accuracy. Unfortunately, the deeplearning method is sometimes unable to detect objects that are too far from the camera. It is because the threshold selection for confidence value is statically determined at the decision stage. This paper proposes a new strategy for using dynamic thresholding based on geometry in the images. The proposed method is evaluated using the dataset we created. The experiment found that the use of dynamic thresholding provides an increase in F-measure of 0.11 while reducing false positives by 0.18. This shows that the proposed strategy effectively detects human objects, which is applied to the ISS. Keywords—Human detection; YOLO; dynamic thresholding; intelligent surveillance system