Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the Adaptative Strategy of Cirsium vulgare (Savi) Ten. in the Colonization of New Territories

The current situation of global environmental degradation as a result of anthropogenic activities makes it necessary to open new research lines focused on the causes and effects of the main alterations caused in the ecosystems. One of the most relevant is how the niche dynamics of invasive species change between different geographical areas, since its understanding is key to the early detection and control of future invasions. In this regard, we analyzed the distribution pattern of Cirsium vulgare (Savi) Ten. , a plant of the Asteraceae family originally from the Eurasian region that currently invades wide areas of the world. We estimated its niche shifts between continents using a combination of principal components analysis (PCA) and Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) on an extensive set of data on global presences of its native and invaded ranges from Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). A set of bioclimatic variables and the Human Footprint (HFP) with a resolution of 10 km were selected for this purpose. Our results showed that the species has a marked global trend to expand toward warmer climates with less seasonality, although in some regions its invasiveness appears to be less than in others. The models had a good statistical performance and high coherence in relation to the known distribution of the species and allowed us to establish the relative weight of the contribution of each variable used, with the annual temperature and seasonality being the determining factors in the establishment of the species. Likewise, the use of non-climatic variable HFP has provided relevant information to explain the colonizing behavior of the species. The combination of this methodology with an adequate selection of predictor variables represents a very useful tool when focusing efforts and resources for the management of invasive species.
Predicting the compressive strength of self‐compacting concrete containing Class F fly ash using metaheuristic radial basis function neural network

The use of Class F fly ash (CFFA) as a partial replacement of cement in the concrete mixture can provide a wide variety benefits such as improving the mechanical properties, reducing the construction costs, and enhancing the environmental conditions. Compressive strength as one of the most critical mechanical parameters used in many design codes can be obtained either through costly and time‐consuming experiments or non‐destructive methods such as predictive models. In this study, a hybrid model of the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) and firefly optimization algorithm (FOA) (RBFNN + FOA) was proposed for the prediction of the compressive strength of self‐compacting concrete (SCC) containing CFFA. For this purpose, a multi‐laboratory dataset containing 327 SCC samples made with CFFA was employed. The input parameters in the proposed models included the age of the specimen and the amounts of cement, water, CFFA, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, and superplasticizer, and the only output parameter was the compressive strength of SCC. For comparison purpose, the artificial neural network (ANN) was also used to model the compressive strength of SCC containing CFFA. The results show that the compressive strength estimated by the proposed and ANN models have good accuracies compared to the experimental results. Moreover, several performance metrics showed that the accuracy of the proposed model is higher than that of the model developed based on ANN algorithm.
Poisson Gompertz Distribution with Properties and Applications

Here, a new distribution using the Poisson generating family with Gompertz distribution as baseline distribution have been generated called Poisson Gompertz (PGZ) distribution. Some distributional features of the PGZ distribution are presented. For the parameter estimates of the presented model, Maximum likelihood Estimation (MLE) is applied along with Cramer-Von-Mises estimation (CVME) and least-square estimation (LSE) methods. We have constructed the asymptotic confidence intervals based on maximum likelihood estimates. R software platform was used to perform the computations. The application of the proposed model has been illustrated by considering the data set obtained from real life and investigated the goodness of fit attained by the observed model via different test statistics and graphical methods. We have found that the distribution that is introduced provides better fit to the dataset taken with more flexibility as compared to other models in consideration
Extended-State-Observer-Based Super Twisting Control for Pneumatic Muscle Actuators

This paper presents a tracking control method for pneumatic muscle actuators (PMAs). Considering that the PMA platform only feedbacks position, and the velocity and disturbances cannot be observed directly, we use the extended-state-observer (ESO) for simultaneously estimating the system states and disturbances by using measurable variables. Integrated with the ESO, a super twisting controller (STC) is design based on estimated states to realize the high-precision tracking. According to the Lyapunov theorem, the stability of the closed-loop system is ensured. Simulation and experimental studies are conducted, and the results show the convergence of the ESO and the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Effect of aging temperature on a thermoset-like novel acrylic thermoplastic composite for marine vessels

This work aims at evaluating the durability of a carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite under different aging conditions. The absorption and desorption of deionised water in carbon fibre (CF) reinforced Elium composite material were measured gravimetrically over two different temperatures. Water uptake experimental data were fitted to a Langmuir type diffusion model in order to identify and compare diffusion parameters and kinetics and to evaluate their dependence to aging conditions. It was found that the temperature increase had a significant effect only on saturation water uptake. Water desorption after aging was modelled accurately using Fick’s law and slight differences were found between model parameters. The effect of hydrothermal aging conditions and their reversibility were then evaluated by static and vibratory mechanical analysis. Results showed a slight and quasi-reversible reduction of longitudinal properties compared to shear properties at moderate aging temperature. While for higher aging temperature, the impact was found to be more significant and permanent on mechanical in-plane properties. Furthermore, static and modal results are confirmed by dynamic mechanical analysis, where the behaviour of studied material is differently affected by aging temperature, with a considerable increase in dried materials glass transition temperature.
Ranking the Determinants for International Education Destination Decision of Indian Students: Application of Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process

Purpose: One of the emerging educational trends is an increase in global mobility of students to pursue higher education. This article attempts at ranking the determinants shaping the Indian students’ decisions in selecting an appropriate global destination. Method: The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, researchers conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to find the factors shaping Indian students’ decision-making process. During the second stage, fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (FAHP) method based on triangular fuzzy numbers was applied to rank the above factors. Findings: The findings reveal four primary factors, which have been ranked in the following order—quality of education, overall cost, environment and human interface and influencers’ role. Limitations: Most of the sample respondents were from the management discipline, drawn from six Indian states. Implications: The findings will be beneficial for both academic institutions and policymakers of host countries in shaping appropriate marketing mix including branding strategies for developing countries like India. Indian policymakers can use it for further augmenting the ecosystem for higher education. Originality: Globally, several researchers have identified the factors that influence the decisions of students in pursuing international education. However, the novelty of this research is that it is a first attempt in investigating and ranking of these factors using FAHP approach, especially in an Indian context.
Altimeter Observations of Tropical Cyclone-generated Sea States: Spatial Analysis and Operational Hindcast Evaluation

Tropical cyclones (TC) are some of the most intense weather systems on Earth and are responsible for generating hazardous waves on the sea surface that dominate the extreme wave climate in several regions, including the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. East Coast. Modeling these waves is crucial for engineering applications, yet it is notoriously difficult, due to TC’s compact structure and rapid evolution in space and time relative to other weather systems. To better understand the wave structure under TCs, we use satellite altimeter data paired with TC tracks. We parse the data by TC intensity and forward translation velocity, finding evidence of extended fetch. We use the altimeter data to evaluate operational hindcasts, including the US Army Corps of Engineer’s Wave Information Study, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction Production Hindcast, and the Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer (Ifremer) hindcast. The Ifremer hindcast (1990–2016) is examined in detail. Near the eye in the TC-centered reference frame, we find a pattern of model underestimation in the right sector and over estimation in the left and back sectors. This pattern holds, albeit modulated, across various intensities, forward translation velocities, and radii of maximum winds; the exceptions being the most intense and smallest storms, where underestimation is more severe and expands to all sectors near the TC eye.
Temporomandibular Joint Disorders: Current Concepts and Controversies in Diagnosis and Management

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) is a group of orofacial pain conditions which is the most common non-dental pain complaint in the maxillofacial region. Due to the complexity of the etiology and often cyclical nature of the disease, the diagnosis and management of TMD remain a challenge where consensus is still lacking in many aspects. While clinical examination is considered the most important process in the diagnosis of TMD, imaging may serve as a valuable adjunct in selected cases. Depending on the type of TMD, many treatment modalities have been proposed, ranging from conservative options to open surgical procedures. In this review, the authors discuss the present thinking in the etiology and classification of TMD, followed by the diagnostic approach and the current trend and controversies in management.
Source apportionment of atmospheric PM10 Oxidative Potential: synthesis of 15 year-round urban datasets in France

Abstract. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) carried or induced by particulate matter (PM) are suspected to induce oxidative stress in vivo, leading to adverse health impacts, such as respiratory or cardiovascular diseases. The oxidative potential (OP) of PM, displaying the ability of PM to oxidize the lung environment, is gaining a strong interest to examine health risks associated to PM exposure. In this study, OP was measured by two different acellular assays (dithiothreitol, DTT and ascorbic acid, AA) on PM10 filter samples from 15 yearly time series of filters collected at 14 different locations in France between 2013 and 2018, including urban, traffic and Alpine valley site typologies. A detailed chemical speciation was also performed on the same samples allowing the source-apportionment of PM using positive matrix factorization (PMF) for each series, for a total number of more than 1700 samples. This study provides then a large-scale synthesis on the source-apportionment of OP using coupled PMF and multiple linear regression (MLR) models. The primary road traffic, biomass burning, dust, MSA-rich, and primary biogenic sources had distinct positive redox-activity towards the OPDTT assay, whereas biomass burning and road traffic sources only display significant activity for the OPAA assay. The daily median source contribution to the total OPDTT highlighted the dominant influence of the primary road traffic source. Both the biomass burning and the road traffic sources contributed evenly to the observed OPAA. Therefore, it appears clearly that residential wood burning and road traffic are the two main target sources to prioritized in order to decrease significantly the OP in Western Europe and, would the OP being a good proxy of human health impact, to lower the health risks from PM exposure.
Industrial education competencies: Valuing students stakeholder’s role in the academe

Over the years, the Technological University of the Philippines sustains the rank as a highly performing State University in the Philippines in terms of the employability of the graduate students. This qualitative research aimed to explore the relevance of competencies of the graduates of Industrial Education from the school year 2013 to 2017. Convenience sampling techniques were employed in the selection of the respondents. A validated survey questionnaire was utilised to investigate the necessary educational competencies and their relevance to the current labour market. The gathered data were treated statistically using frequency counts, percentage, mean and ranking. Results revealed the relevance of the educational competencies to the current industrial curricula and the importance of academic–industry stakeholders. Hence, the results of the study can be utilised as a basis for the enhancement of collaboration among the academic-industry stakeholders and curriculum development in the aspect of the knowledge-based and competency-based academic performance for productivity. Keywords: Academic–industry stakeholders, collaboration, curriculum development, educational competency, industry competency.
Regional Ground Motion Prediction Equation Developed for the Korean Peninsula Using Recorded and Simulated Ground Motions

ABSTRACT The Korean peninsula is in a stable continental region with moderate seismicity. The first and second largest instrumented earthquakes occurred in the peninsula on September 12, 2016 and November 15, 2017, respectively, which inflicted major damage on structures in nearby populated cities. This study aims to propose a ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) for the peninsula using both ground motions recorded during earthquakes in Korean and those simulated using a regional ground motion simulation (GMS) model. The procedure used in this study can be applied to other low-to-moderate seismic regions with few strong ground motion records.
Mobile Forensic on Android-based IMO Messenger Services using Digital Forensic Research Workshop (DFRWS) Method

The development of mobile device technology is very rapid in this global era, This has an impact on the increase in cybercrime such as narcotics transactions using the Instant Messenger application. IMO Messenger is an Instant Messenger application that can be used as a medium for crime because it has increased the number of users every year. This study used three stages of the Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS) method, namely identification, preservation, collection. This study uses two smartphones with root and non-root conditions that have the IMO application installed. The case used in this research is narcotics transactions based on previous case scenarios. Evidence from the criminal case will be acquired using four forensic tools, namely, MOBILedit forensic express, DB Browser for SQLite, AccessData FTK Imager, and Belkasoft evidence center. This research produces digital evidence in the form of chat files, images, audio, video, perpetrator's accounts, and chat times that have been deleted from a smartphone device in root condition. Calculation of the percentage index number from the evidence obtained on a smartphone with root conditions using MOBILedit forensic express tools at 100%, DB Browser for SQLite at 33.33%, AccessData FTK Imager at 33.33% and Belkasoft evidence center at 83.33%, smartphones with non-root conditions, no digital evidence was found.
Characterization of a cylindrical ring-cusp ion source with electrically isolated magnet rings

A method is explored to increase the current available for beam extraction by way of increasing bulk plasma ion directed drift velocity in the direction of the ion optics. The enhanced ion drift velocity is achieved by spatially modifying the plasma potential through biasing the individual magnet rings in a four ring, magnetic cusp ion thruster. Actual plasma potential changes were tracked using an emissive probe. The modification of the ion drift velocity is observed using Mach probes. The accompanying increase in ion current at the grid was also observed. A retarding potential analyzer located just downstream of the extraction optics was used to observe the shift in energy of exiting ions. Plasma potential shifts up to 5 V were observed. Simulated beam current rose 15% and 20% for xenon and argon, respectively.
Optimization of an effective quick coupling valve for pressurized irrigation *

Quick coupling valves are commonly used to make an easy and quick connection/disconnection of a sprinkler to/from the supporting pipeline. However, significant headloss occurs during the operation of the irrigation system by this valve. In the present study, water flow through a standard quick coupling valve was numerically modelled by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In addition, different turbulence models were run to determine the effect of any component of the valve on flow characteristics. Comparison between numerical and observed data from the experiments on the prototype confirmed the validity of standard k‐ε as a high precision model. Three‐dimensional numerical simulation of the steady‐state flow under different rates of flow showed that the spring had the least negative effect among the installed components inside the quick coupling valve. On the other hand, the body length of the valve, especially the length of the inlet part of the valve, played the main role in the pressure drop. Unexpectedly, the installed sealing O‐ring reduced the headloss. Moreover, an effective modification was carried out on the components of an ordinary valve by increasing by 20 mm the length of the valve from the inlet side and modifications in trim elements. Finally, the findings revealed that 50% of headloss occurred in the developed valve compared to the ordinary type regardless of the flow rate.
Resilient Distributed Multiagent Control for AC Microgrid Networks Subject to Disturbances

In actual microgrids (MGs) networks, the information exchange between distributed energy resources (DERs) agents may be subject to various types of measurement noises and effected by communication time delays. This article proposes a resilient distributed multiagent control scheme for ac MG networks subject to additive noise and time-delay disturbances. The proposed multiagent control scheme is composed of three distributed consensus protocols, which is able to synchronize the output voltages and frequencies of inverter-based DERs to their reference values and achieve the optimal active power-sharing property by a low bandwidth communication network with noise and time-delay disturbances in almost sure convergence. By means of the stochastic analysis tools and algebraic graph theory, distributed consensus control protocols are designed to be employed for the secondary control level of MGs. On this basis, we deduce the stability criteria of the closed-loop MG system under noise and time-delay disturbances. As a result, the proposed consensus protocols can well restore the voltage and frequency’s derivation produced at the primary control level, meanwhile, can well achieve the optimal power sharing even though there exist communication disturbances. Several simulation scenarios on an islanded MG network are provided to verify the proposed control protocols’ performance.
A fully rotation invariant multi-camera finger vein recognition system

Finger vein recognition systems utilize the venous pattern within the fingers to recognize subjects. It has been shown that the alignment of the acquired samples has a major impact on the recognition accuracy of such systems. Although a lot of work has been done in this field, there is still no approach that solves all kind of finger misplacements. In particular, longitudinal finger rotation still causes major problems. As the capturing devices evolve towards contactless acquisition, solutions to alignment problems become more important. As an alternative to rotation detection and correction, the problem can also be addressed by acquiring the vein pattern from different perspectives. This article presents a novel multi ‐ camera finger vein recognition system that captures the vein pattern from multiple perspectives during enrolment and recognition. Contrary to existing multi ‐ camera solutions that use the same capturing device for enrolment and recognition, the capturing devices for the proposed system differ in the configuration of the acquired perspectives. The cameras of the devices are positioned so that the recognition rates around the finger are high and that the number of cameras needed is kept to a minimum. The experimental results confirm the rotation invariance of the proposed approach.
Modeling of Poly(methylmethacrylate) Viscous Thin Films by Spin-Coating

A predictive film thickness model based on an accepted equation of state is applied to the spin-coating of sub-micron poly(methylmethacrylate) viscous thin films from toluene. Concentration effects on density and dynamic viscosity of the spin-coating solution are closely examined. The film thickness model is calibrated with a system-specific film drying rate and was observed to scale with the square root of spin speed. Process mapping is used to generate a three-dimensional design space for the control of film thickness.
Cyclic Degradation Characteristics of Undisturbed Soft Clay considering Anisotropy

The stress-strain characteristics of soil depend primarily on the previous stress history and stress path, thus related to both the stress magnitude and direction. To have a better understanding of the response of soft clay under heart-shaped stress paths, 18 cyclic hollow cylinders tests were performed on undisturbed Hangzhou soft clay under different cyclic stress ratios, deviatoric consolidation ratios (K0), and loading frequencies. The result shows that as the vertical dynamic stress amplitude, K0 value, and loading frequency increase, the degradation index gradually decreases. Moreover, the degradation index of the soil under the cyclic torsion shear (CTS) test is always higher than that under the cyclic triaxial (CT) test. The increase in the amplitude of the cyclic stress ratio (CSR), K0 value, and the decrease in the loading frequency will promote the initial accumulative plastic strain and accelerate the failure rate of the soil sample; it shows that the effects of cyclic stress ratio amplitude, deviatoric consolidation ratios K0, and loading frequency on the accumulative plastic deformation of soil cannot be ignored. On the basis of the test results, a logarithmic relationship between the degradation index and the loading frequency is determined. A new empirical formula of accumulative plastic strain degradation of soft clay has been established, and its accuracy has been further verified by test data. The research results can provide theories for predicting and calculating the long-term settlement and deformation of clay foundation.