Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Experimental Evaluation of Control Modes for Pneumatic Artificial Muscles Using Fast on/off Valves

Pnomatik Yapay Kaslar (PAM), yuksek kuvvet/agirlik orani, yumusak ve esnek yapi, insan icin asiri guvenli, bakim kolayligi ve dusuk maliyet gibi bircok avantaja sahip cok yonlu eyleyicilerdir. Ote yandan, dogrusal olmayan karakteristik ozellikleri, PAM’in yaygin kullanimini kisitlayan onemli bir faktor olarak, kontrol eylemlerinde zorluklar getirir. Literaturde kontrol sorununu cozmek icin cesitli calismalar vardir ve o calismalarin sonuclari hala basit ve etkili bir kontrol sistemine ihtiyac oldugunu gostermektedir. Bu calismada, kontrol hedefine ulasmanin ilk adimi olarak, literaturde yaygin kullanilan uc dogrusal olmayan kontrolor, deneysel bir degerlendirme icin secilmistir. Uygulanan kontrolorler, ‘Klasik PID denetleyici’, ‘Bulanik PID Denetleyici’ ve ‘Kayan Kipli Denetleyicidir’ (SMC). Performans degerlendirmesi, hizli on/off valfleri ile calistirilan Festo PAM’lar tarafindan surulen, 1-D robotik kol ortezi olan bir test techizati kullanilarak gerceklestirilmistir. Deney sonuclarina gore, model serbest bir Sugeno tipi kombine bulanik PID kontroloru, pnomatik yapay kaslarin (PAM) kontrol sorunu icin basit ve etkili bir cozum olabilecegini gostererek en basarili performansi vermistir.
Voltage-Frequency Control (v-f) of Islanded Microgrid Based on Battery and MPPT Control

With the development and increasing influence of the use of distributed generation resources, distribution networks have changed from passive networks to active networks. In these new networks, operation on an island will increase both the reliability of the network in the competitive market and the maximum utilization of distributed generation resources. But despite the various benefits, Microgrids with distributed generation resources also have disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is the increasing complexity of control systems, protection systems and operating systems of the global distribution network. In recent research, various methods have been proposed for controlling the Microgrids, especially voltage and frequency control. This paper presents a method for controlling a photovoltaic (PV) system with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller and battery storage to provide voltage-frequency (v-f) support in an islanded microgrid. It introduces a new algorithm for MPPT control that offers control strategies, effective coordinated between v-f control in inverter, MPPT control, and battery storage control. Finally, the proposed scheme is implemented on the IEEE 13-bus distribution feeder in islanded mode using MATLAB software, the results of which clearly demonstrate the efficiency of the control methods.
The Rise of HR Analytics: Exploring Its Implications from a Developing Country Perspective

Effectively managing human capital is critical to organizations today. This has strategic implications for businesses to gain competitive advantage. HR analytics has proven to increase HR’s contribution to the bottom line. The objective of the study is to investigate the implications of HR analytics in a developing country, Ghana. Adopting a qualitative approach to research and using a thematic analysis, Twenty (20) organizations were purposively sampled from public and private organizations in Greater Accra Region-Ghana. The study indicated that HR analytics makes employee sourcing meaningful towards employee performance and finally to increase productivity, and to retain talents for continuous growth and effectiveness. Most organizations do not use HR analytics and those that use it lack analytics competencies, management support, possess poor data and/or are unable to use analytical tools effectively. Though analytics is widely used in developed countries, developing countries are yet to glean the full benefits. It is recommended that educational and professional institutions review their course catalogues to include courses in HR analytics in training experts in the field. The great insights from the study will add up to existing literature on HR analytics and to provide a framework for organizations to design HR solutions to employee management challenges.
Characterizing Statin use among Prediabetic Patients with Predictive Analytics

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and can cause severe impairments to those diagnosed. Prediabetes is a state when a patient has higher fasting plasma glucose levels than a non-diabetic person but is not quite high enough to be considered diabetes. Both diabetic and prediabetic patients are at higher risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which is the leading cause of death in the United States. The primary form for prevention and treatment of CVD is through statin therapy. Statins are a class of medications used to treat and prevent CVD by limiting cholesterol production in the liver and stabilizing plaque in arteries. However, substantial research has found an association between statin use and the development of Type 2 diabetes. This is an important association to investigate because both statin use and diabetes are prevalent in the United States. The association between statin use and the development of Type 2 diabetes poses a complicated risk for prediabetic patients. Because they are already at high risk for diabetes, taking a statin could further increase this risk. However, preventing CVD, which they are also at risk for, is critical as well. This research investigates the relationship between statin use and prediabetic subjects specifically. An adult, prediabetic subpopulation was obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which is made publicly available through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Several random forest classifiers were built using this subpopulation to predict statin use among prediabetic patients. Analysis of the models found age, cholesterol levels, blood pressure levels, waist size, body mass index (BMI), and annual household income to be the best predictors of statin use in prediabetic subjects. Access to health insurance, gender, family history of heart attacks, and overall health rating were found to be the least impactful predictors of statin use among prediabetic subjects in all models. It appears the risk of CVD outweighs the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, and doctors are continuing to prescribe statins for prediabetic patients despite the increased risk of developing diabetes.
Simultaneous carbon and sulphur substrates removal by Desulfobacter postgatei dominated biofilms in anaerobic packed reactors

Sulphate-reducing bioreactors may be promising alternative treatment schemes for a broad range of industrial wastewater where sulphate reduction, wastewater neutralisation, soluble metal species sequestering and easier sludge management may be simultaneously addressed and achieved. This study presents an extensive experimental work, aiming at the optimisation of the efficiency of such reactors in terms of simultaneous minimisation of sulphate and organic content in the effluent. This work involved the set-up and monitoring of batch upflow packed-bed sulphate-reducing bioreactors for the treatment of synthetic, acidic (pH 3-3.5) solutions containing divalent iron (100 mg/L), zinc (100 mg/L), copper (100 mg/L), nickel (100 mg/L) and sulphate (1,800 mg/L), using acetate, ethanol and lactate as sole electron donors at various carbon:sulphur ratios. The reactors were inoculated with an ethanol-grown microbial consortium, which was dominated by Desulfobacter postgatei, an acetate-utilising species. The results obtained are comparatively discussed in terms of sulphate reduction and organic substrate utilisation, focusing on the attainment of minimum sulphate and organic content in the effluent.
IJSRD-International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol. 2, Issue 04, 2014 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613

-The solar based Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) and Transmitting Extra power to Electricity Mains has several advantages over conventional energy transmission using wires and connectors, such as flexibility, convenience, safety, reliability and all-weather operation, etc. The development of this system will certainly promote the popularization and industrialization of EVs, and also an individual can earn by transmitting extra power to electricity mains. In this project we will be implementing a system for charging electric vehicles wirelessly by using the solar power. In order to design and implement we divide our project into two parts, in the first section we are trying to optimize the existing solar power system by transmitting extra power to electricity mains. In the second section we are designing the wireless power transmission system based on inductively coupled power transmission technology using the optimized solar power as input.
Mites Proctolaelaps superagui sp. nov. and Tropicoseius braziliensis on bromeliad Quesnelia arvensis in Brazil

ABSTRACT Two species of flower mites from the genera Proctolaelaps Berlese, 1923 and Tropicoseius Baker and Yunker, 1964 were recorded from inflorescence of the bromeliad Quesnelia arvensis (Vell.) Mez. on the Island of Superagüi, just off the Brazilian coast, municipality of Guaraqueçaba, State of Paraná. Female and male of Proctolaelaps superagui sp. n. are described and figured in detail. This species belongs to the P. belemensis group. Quesnelia arvensis is presumably a natural host plant for Proctolaelaps superagui sp. n. and Tropicoseius braziliensis Baker and Yunker, 1964, the second species found in this work.
IMPLEMENTATION OF A NON-SPLITTING FORMULATION OF PERFECT MATCHING LAYER IN A 3D – 4 ORDER STAGGERED- GRID VELOCITY-STRESS FINITE-DIFFERENCE SCHEME

One of the most usual and important problems in numerical methods is the truncation of the computational space by artificial boundaries, since such boundaries often produce spurious reflections, polluting the results with artificial noise. Among the various techniques, the Perfec Matching Layers (PML) approach seems to be the most efficient method for the implementation of artificial boundaries at the edges of the computational models. [Wang & Tang 2003] presented a Non-Splitting formulation of PML (NPML) based on the introduction of small perturbations in the wavefield and applied their approach for the cylindrical coordinate system. In this work the NPML technique in Cartesian coordinates and its implementation in a 3D 4-order staggered-grid finitedifference scheme is elaborated. The accuracy and the efficiency of NPML in simple models of media are numerically examined. The results of this PML implementation are compared with the corresponding results calculated with the same finite-difference scheme but with the use of alternative non-reflecting boundaries. Moreover, different tests are performed for examining the implication of the attenuating function and PML thickness relation in the overall PML performance. In general, PML performance is poorer, as expected, at grazing incidence angles bu the power of spurious reflections is significantly lower in comparison with the alternative nonreflecting boundaries examined in this work. Large attenuating function coefficient values can produce strong reflections, whereas small values may lead to insufficient attenuation of the impinging waves. An alternative is to use a thicker PML zone, which significantly improves their performance at the cost of increased memory and processing demand. The results show that in order to achieve an optimum memory usage while maintaining PML efficiency, the PML thickness and attenuating function coefficient values need to be optimized for each examined simulation and model.
THE CONSTRINTS FCED BY STAFF IN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICT ION IN KENYN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

This study was conducted at Masinde Muliro Universi ty of Science and Technology.It was designed to investigate the constraints faced b y Staff ineffective Communication in Kenyan public universities.The study specifically investig a ed the constraints faced by staff in effective communication in theKenyan Public Universities.Lite ra ure was reviewed in relation to the above stated objective. The study sample was drawn from MMUST and involved both academic and administrative staff. The sample size was one h undred and fifty two (152) which represents 77.6% of the target population. Stratified random s ampling techniques based on the respondents’ job descriptions were used. The instru ments for data collection involved use of questionnaires and information from secondary data materials for instance the University Act of 2007 and the employee survey findings of 2006. Data w s analyzed using descriptive statistics. The major findings revealed that MMUST staff had ex perienced constraints in effectively communicating to other members of staff. The study identified the constraints faced by the MMUST staff in conveying messages citing lack of ad equate working equipment and office space. The study therefore, recommended that MMSUT develops appropriate communication policies to curb the communication based problems a ffecting the university.
Utilizing Global High Speed Network Connections

Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observation technology applies the principles of interferometry to celestial radio signals received by multiple radio telescopes, enabling high-resolution imaging of celestial radio sources received by multiple radio telescopes and high-precision determination of the time delay between received signals. Figure 1 shows a photograph of a radio telescope with an aperture of 34 meters, located at the Kashima Space Research Center. Large radio telescopes of similar dimensions located around the world are linked to carry out international VLBI observations for a variety of purposes. Although each radio telescope features relatively coarse resolution, limiting its ability to obtain a brightness distribution for a given celestial radio source, the formation of an array of multiple telescopes spaced far apart can provide resolution corresponding to a telescope with an aperture comparable to the distance between two telescopes in the array. This allows for imaging of celestial bodies at resolutions surpassing those of the Hubble Space Telescope or large groundbased optical telescopes. Furthermore, it is possible to construct a terrestrial reference frame and a celestial reference frame and to make high-precision measurements of earth orientation parameters by 5-2 Research and Developments for e-VLBI Utilizing Global High Speed Network Connections
SHORT PULSE CHARACTERIZATION OF NONLINEARITIES IN P OWER ULTRASOUND TRANSDUCERS

Power ultrasonic transducers are commonly used in industrial applications, such as ultrasonic welding and ultrasonic cleaning. These transducers normally operate in continuous wave at the resonance frequency, generally around 20 kHz. The electronics used to drive the transducer, must follow the resonance frequency in order to obtain maximum efficiency. The resonance frequency can change with the mechanical load, temperature and also with the amplitude of the applied voltage. The dependency betwen the driving voltage and the resonance frequency is produced by the existence of the nonlinear behavior in the piezoceramics. Traditionally, the nonlinear behavior is measured using sinusoidal waves, making a sweeping in frequency around the resonance of the transducer. Recent works show improvements to characterize the transducer when using bursts of sinusoidal waves, which minimizes the temperature rising which produces changes in the transducer dynamics. This paper presents a novel technique based on a short pulse excitation for the characterization of nonlinear effects of ultrasonic power transducer. The short pulse excitation technique, uses a flat spectrum signal near the main resonance frequency. Each component of the input spectrum of the signal is equalized to have the same amplitude and zero phase. The signals are calculated in a computer and are sent to an arbitrary function generator, after the signals are amplified with a power amplifier using different amplitude levels to be used as an excitation of the transducer. It was also implemented the well known sinusoidal burst technique in order to compare the result. The analysis of the experimental results from both techniques, shows the differences between the two approaches. In this work is also proposed a simple nonlinear model relating the applied voltage and the displacement of the end surface. The model gives a very good result in the sinusoidal burst technique, and gives a first approach in order to use with short pulse signals. The temporal signal is obtained by measuring the displacement at the end surface of the transducer using an optical fiber vibrometer and a digital oscilloscope. The frequency response is obtained by performing the FFT of the signal corresponding to the mechanical displacement. The short pulse technique is very fast when compared to the tone burst analysis and the results are very repetitive. The two techniques are applied in the characterization of two samples of a 20 kHz, 1 kW ultrasonic power transducer.
Access to Formal Credit and Firm Performance – the Case of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Vietnam

Formal credit has been recognized as an important factor of firms, especially small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs normally have a problem of credit constraints and thereby firms with access to credit may experience quicker development and higher profit than the nonborrowing firms. The main purpose of this study is to examine the role of formal (bank) credit on performance of the SMEs in Vietnam. This study applied propensity score matching (PSM) method to investigate the impact of formal credit on firm performance. The results showed that formal credit improves performance of SMEs in Vietnam via increasing revenue and profit.
Conditioning Stratigraphic, Rule-Based Models with Generative Adversarial Networks: A Deepwater Lobe, Deep Learning Example

A stratigraphic, rule-based reservoir modeling method simulates sedimentary dynamics to generate numerical descriptions of reservoir architecture while capturing geological processes informed features. However, robust conditioning of these models to local data (i.e., well log interpretation, core data, and seismic constraints) remains a significant obstacle to a broad application for subsurface modeling. A novel deep learning-based method is proposed for the fast and flexible conditioning in this study. This study includes a recently designed rule-based modeling method for a deepwater lobe reservoir, controlled by three geological parameters: 1) the compositional exponent, 2) the lobe geometry, and 3) the distribution of petrophysical properties within the lobes. The compositional exponent tunes the placement rule of lobe elements based on the elevation of the previous composite surface. The geometries of the lobe elements are characterized by parameters representing their radius and thickness. After building the reservoir structure, the rule-based method allocates petrophysical properties (i.e., porosity and permeability) bounded by surfaces with a hierarchical trend model, parameterized by gradients, orientations, mean, and standard deviation. Our deep learning-based, local data conditioning workflow consists of four steps: 1) training Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) with the rule-based models, 2) making voids in a rule-based model near well locations, 3) assigning local data at the well locations, and 4)
Extending Visual Object Tracking for Long Time Horizons

Visual object tracking is a fundamental task in computer vision and is a key component in wide range of applications like surveillance, autonomous navigation, video analysis and editing, augmented reality etc. Given a target object with bounding box in the first frame, the goal in visual object tracking is to track the given target in the subsequent frames. Although significant progress has been made in this domain to address various challenges like occlusion, scale change etc., we observe that tracking on a large number of short sequences as done in previous benchmarks does not clearly bring out the competence or potential of a tracking algorithm. Moreover, even if a tracking algorithm works well on challenging small sequences and fails on moderately difficult long sequences, it will be of limited practical importance since many tracking applications rely on precise long-term tracking. Thus, we extend the problem of visual object tracking for long time horizons systematically in this thesis. First, we first introduce a long-term visual object tracking benchmark. We propose a novel largescale dataset, specifically tailored for long-term tracking. Our dataset consists of high resolution, densely annotated sequences, encompassing a duration of over 400 minutes (676K frames), making it more than 20 folds larger in average duration per sequence and more than 8 folds larger in terms of total covered duration, compared to existing generic datasets for visual tracking. The proposed dataset paves a way to suitably assess long term tracking performance and train better deep learning architectures (avoiding/reducing augmentation, which may not reflect real world behaviour). We also propose a novel metric for long-term tracking which captures the ability of a tracker to track consistently for long duration. We benchmark 17 state of the art trackers on our dataset and rank them according to several evaluation metrics and run time speeds. Next, we analyze the long-term tracking performance of state of the art trackers in depth. We focus on the three key aspects of long-term tracking: Re-detection, Recovery and Reliability. Specifically, we (a) test re-detection capability of the trackers in the wild by simulating virtual cuts, (b) investigate the role of chance in recovery of tracker post failure and (c) propose a novel metric allowing visual inference on the contiguous and consistent aspect of tracking. We present several insights derived from an extensive set of quantitative and qualitative experiments. Lastly, we present a novel fully convolutional anchor free siamese framework for visual object tracking. Previous works utilized anchor based region proposal networks to improve the performance of siamese correlation based trackers while maintaining real-time speed. However, we show that enumerating multiple boxes at each keypoint location in the search region is inefficient and unsuitable for the task of single object tracking, where we just need to locate one target object. Thus, we take an alternate