Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of frictional strength on plate coupling at the subduction interface

[1] At a subduction zone the amount of friction between the incoming plate and the forearc is an important factor in controlling the dip angle of subduction and the structure of the forearc. In this paper, we investigate the role of the frictional strength of sediments and of the serpentinized peridotite on the evolution of convergent margins. In numerical models, we vary thickness of a serpentinized layer in the mantle wedge (15 to 25 km) and the frictional strength of both the sediments and serpentinized mantle (friction angle 1 to 15 , or static friction coefficient 0.017 to 0.27) to control the amount of frictional coupling between the plates. With plastic strain weakening in the lithosphere, our numerical models can attain stable subduction geometry over millions of years. We find that the frictional strength of the sediments and serpentinized peridotite exerts the largest control on the dip angle of the subduction interface at seismogenic depths. In the case of low sediment and serpentinite friction, the subduction interface has a shallow dip, while the subduction zone develops an accretionary prism, a broad forearc high, a deep forearc basin, and a shallow trench. In the high friction case, the subduction interface is steep, the trench is deeper, and the accretionary prism, forearc high and basin are all absent. The resultant free-air gravity and topographic signature of these subduction zone models are consistent with observations. We believe that the low-friction model produces a geometry and forearc structure similar to that of accretionary margins. Conversely, models with high friction angles in sediments and serpentinite develop characteristics of an erosional convergent margin. We find that the strength of the subduction interface is critical in controlling the amount of coupling at the seismogenic zone and perhaps ultimately the size of the largest earthquakes at subduction zones.
An Introduction to Wavelet Analysis in Oceanography and Meteorology: With Application to the Dispersion of Yanai Waves

Abstract Wavelet analysis is a relatively new technique that is an important addition to standard signal analysis methods. Unlike Fourier analysis that yields an average amplitude and phase for each harmonic in a dataset, the wavelet transform produces an “instantaneous” estimate or local value for the amplitude and phase of each harmonic. This allows detailed study of nonstationary spatial or time-dependent signal characteristics. The wavelet transform is discussed, examples are given, and some methods for preprocessing data for wavelet analysis are compared. By studying the dispersion of Yanai waves in a reduced gravity equatorial model, the usefulness of the transform is demonstrated. The group velocity is measured directly over a finite range of wavenumbers by examining the time evolution of the transform. The results agree well with linear theory at higher wavenumber but the measured group velocity is reduced at lower wavenumber, possibly due to interaction with the basin boundaries.
Investigation of Active Vibration Suppression of a Flexible Satellite using Magnetic Attitude Control

Investigation of Active Vibration Suppression of a Flexible Satellite using Magnetic Attitude Control Everett Findlay Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Science University of Toronto 2011 The problem of attitude control of a flexible satellite using magnetic attitude control is investigated. The work is motivated by JC2Sat a joint Canadian Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission whose main purpose is a proof of concept of two satellites performing differential drag formation flying. The impact of additional flexible drag panels (of various sizes) on the attitude control is assessed. JC2Sat’s attitude control system consists of three perpendicular magnetorquers and one reaction/bias-momentum wheel. Four Linear Quadratic Regulator controllers are compared, ranging in complexity from being time-invariant and assuming a rigid satellite, to being periodic and actively suppressing panel vibrations. These include the first controllers which use magnetic attitude control to actively suppress vibrations, and where the periodic vibration suppression controller is able to guarantee asymptotic stability of the linearized system. It was found that for larger panels, the controllers which actively suppressed the vibrations outperformed those that did not.
Securing Node Identities and Route Identities Using Alert In MANETs

MANETs use various anonymous routing protocols for hiding node identities and/or route identities from the outside observers in order to provide anonymity protection. Perhaps, existing anonymous routing protocols generate high cost or cannot offer complete anonymity protection to sources, destination and routes. To suggest high anonymity protection at a low cost, one of the proposed system is ALERT. ALERT energetically partitions the network field into zones and arbitrarily chooses nodes in zones as intermediate relay nodes, which form a nontraceable anonymous route. This partition process is called as hierarchical zone partition. In addition ALERT hides the data initiator or receiver among many initiators or receiver to reinforce the source as well as destination anonymity protection. Thus, ALERT offers anonymity protection to sources, destinations, and routes. It also has strategies to effectively encounter the intersection and timing attacks. Experimental results display stability with the theoretical analysis, and show that ALERT achieves better route anonymity protection in a low cost which it is compared with the other anonymous routing protocols.
An inverse random source problem in a stochastic fractional diffusion equation

In this work the authors consider an inverse source problem the stochastic fractional diffusion equation. The interested inverse problem is to reconstruct the unknown spatial functions f and g (the latter up to the sign) in the source by the statistics of the final time data Some direct problem results are proved at first, such as the existence, uniqueness, representation and regularity of the solution. Then a reconstruction scheme for f and g up to the sign is given. To tackle the ill-posedness, Tikhonov regularization is adopted and some numerical results are displayed.
Design and evaluation of poly ( lactic-co-glyclic acid ) / poly ( vinyl alcohol ) / nano-hydroxyapatite hydrogels for cartilage tissue engineering in vitro

A major challenge in cartilage tissue engineering is the scaffold. Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel has great potential because of its structure and material properties. But it still has some deficiencies, such as its insufficient mechanical property and poor biocompatibility. Nano-hydroxyapatite (nano-HA), as a bone repair material, could improve the mechanical property of scaffolds, while poly (lactic-co-glyclic acid) (PLGA), a degradable polymer, could improve the biocompatibility. So far, their synergic effects on PVA hydrogels had not been studied yet. In this paper, through solvent extraction/evaporation technique and freeze-thaw cycling method, the PLGA/PVA/nano-HA composite hydrogels were prepared. It was found that the morphological characterization of the composites could be changed by altering the content of raw materials. When the concentration of PVA was on a scale from 5 wt% to 15 wt%, the moisture content of the composites was in the ranged 74-84%, average pore size 80-118 μm, porosity 57-64%. Then the human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were seeded in these composites to assess the biocompatibility and practicability in vitro by comparison to PVA/nano-HA hydrogels. The results of cell culture test showed that human MSCs were able to attach, grow and proliferate well in the composites. In addition, the composites could promote the proliferation and differentiation toward chondrocytes in vitro.
Intermittency of plasma edge fluctuation data: Multifractal analysis

Plasma edge fluctuations show a degree of intermittency similar to fluid turbulence. Using fluctuation measurements obtained with Langmuir probe data from two confinement devices, it is shown that plasma fluctuations have a multifractal character over the fluctuation range of scales with intermittency levels comparable to the levels measured in neutral fluid turbulence. In the mesoscale range, that is, for time scales between 10 times the turbulence decorrelation time and plasma confinement time, plasma fluctuations have a structure closer to a monofractal with very low intermittency.
DEA efficiency analysis with identifying efficient and full-inefficient frontier

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a mathematical programming technique for identifying relative efficiency scores of decision making units (DMUs). Recently, Amirteimoori (2007) Introduced an alternative efficiency measure based on efficient and anti-efficient frontiers. In this paper we introduce a new computational framework for identifying full-efficient and inefficient frontier of production possibility set (PPS) in DEA models with variable return to scale. This facets apply in finding full-efficient and inefficient DMUs, sensitivity and stability analysis, ranking, and etc.
Characterizing groundwater flow and heat transport in fractured rock using fiber‐optic distributed temperature sensing

We show how fully distributed space‐time measurements with Fiber‐Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (FO‐DTS) can be used to investigate groundwater flow and heat transport in fractured media. Heat injection experiments are combined with temperature measurements along fiber‐optic cables installed in boreholes. Thermal dilution tests are shown to enable detection of cross‐flowing fractures and quantification of the cross flow rate. A cross borehole thermal tracer test is then analyzed to identify fracture zones that are in hydraulic connection between boreholes and to estimate spatially distributed temperature breakthrough in each fracture zone. This provides a significant improvement compared to classical tracer tests, for which concentration data are usually integrated over the whole abstraction borehole. However, despite providing some complementary results, we find that the main contributive fracture for heat transport is different to that for a solute tracer.
Characterization of Medical Ultrasound Transducers

Optimal use of multi-element ultrasound transducers requires knowledge of the performance of their individual elements, for realistic simulation and optimized beamforming. When developing transducers, it is critical to characterize the performance of the transducer material itself, removing the effect of the transducer element size and geometry. To provide that level of knowledge, a measurement and characterization algorithm was developed and applied on several transducers. The individual elements were characterized consistently along the transducer length, and element spatial deviations were measured with $\mu \mathbf{m}$ precision, confirming the precision of the method.
A Comparison of Climate Prediction and Simulation over the Tropical Pacific

Abstract This study compares an ensemble of seasonal hindcasts with a multidecadal integration from the same global coupled climate model over the tropical Pacific Ocean. It is shown that the annual mean state of the SST and its variability are different over the tropical Pacific Ocean in the two operating modes of the model. These differences are symptoms of an inherent difference in the physics of coupled air–sea interactions and upper ocean variability. It is argued that in the presence of large coupled model errors and in the absence of coupled data assimilation, the competing and at times additive influence of the initialization and model errors can change the behavior of the air–sea interaction physics and upper ocean dynamics.
Distribution of hydrogen peroxide and formaldehyde over Central Europe during the HOOVER project

Abstract. In this study we report measurements of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), methyl hydroperoxide* (MHP* as a proxy of MHP based on an unspecific measurement of total organic peroxides) and formaldehyde (HCHO) from the HO x OVer EuRope (HOOVER) project (HO x = OH+HO 2 ). HOOVER included two airborne field campaigns, in October 2006 and July 2007. Measurement flights were conducted from the base of operation Hohn (Germany, 54° N, 9° E) towards the Mediterranean and to the subpolar regions over Norway. We find negative concentration gradients with increasing latitude throughout the troposphere for H 2 O 2 and CH 3 OOH*. In contrast, observed HCHO is almost homogeneously distributed over central and northern Europe and is elevated over the Mediterranean. In general, the measured gradients tend to be steepest entering the Mediterranean region, where we also find the highest abundances of the 3 species. Mixing ratios of these tracers generally decrease with altitude. H 2 O 2 and CH 3 OOH* show maxima above the boundary layer at 2–5 km, being more distinct over southern than over northern Europe. We also present a comparison of our data with simulations by two global 3-D-models, MATCH-MPIC and EMAC, and with the box model CAABA. The models realistically represent altitude and latitude gradients for both HCHO and hydroperoxides (ROOH). In contrast, the models have problems reproducing the absolute mixing ratios, in particular of H 2 O 2 . Large uncertainties about retention coefficients and cloud microphysical parameters suggest that cloud scavenging might be a large source of error for the simulation of H 2 O 2 . A sensitivity study with EMAC shows a strong influence of cloud and precipitation scavenging on the budget of H 2 O 2 as simulations improve significantly with this effect switched off.
Motion Planning and Task Assignment for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Cooperating with Unattended Ground Sensors

Abstract : In this research we focused on intertwined low-level motion planning and high-level task assignment for a cooperating team of heterogeneous unmanned assets. As a case study we are envisioning the scenario where a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has to query a set of unattended ground sensors (UGSs), positioned along a road network. In such a scenario the UAV team cooperates in searching and prosecuting ground target intruders, identified by the ground sensors. Of particular interest to us was the cooperation and coordination between the unmanned aerial vehicles in devising their assignments and trajectories. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase we have concentrated on the motion planning and task assignment aspects of the problem where a single UAV has to decide on the query ordering of the UGSs, given constraints on its motion. This problem was formalized as the Dubins travelling salesman problem (TSP). In the second phase of the research we have paid special attention to the coupled motion planning and task assignment problem for groups of UAVs and UGSs. The specific problem considered includes allocating the group of UAVs to a given set of UGSs while accounting for the vehicles kinematic constraints and avoiding collision with obstacles scattered in the vehicles environment.
A VLSI Design for Phase Synchronization of Two Globally Coupled Oscillators

Title of thesis: A VLSI Design for Phase Synchronization of Two Globally Coupled Oscillators Hua Luo, Master of Science, 2017 Thesis directed by: Professor Robert W. Newcomb Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Phase synchronization of globally coupled oscillators is a common phenomenon in almost every branch of science including chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, and electronics. It has various applications such as laser arrays, chemical and electrical oscillators, metronomes, pathological synchronization in Parkinson’s disease, and synchronized oscillation of neurons. In this thesis, we study and design globally coupled oscillators with a focus on biological applications. We mathematically analyze one of the most widely studied models of globally coupled oscillators proposed by Matthews et al. Based on this model, we design two globally coupled oscillator systems in Simulink. Simulation results show that our systems work perfectly as synchronized globally coupled oscillators. We then design a two-channel globally coupled oscillator system with integrated circuits using ON Semiconductor’s 0.5 μm CMOS technology and a ±5 V power supply. Simulation results in PSpice show that the two channels get synchronized in less than one cycle and they can oscillate at frequencies less than 1 Hz. A VLSI Design for Phase Synchronization of Two Globally Coupled Oscillators
On the Distributional Assumptions in the StoNED Model

In a recent paper Johnson and Kuosmanen (2011) propose a new, semi-parametric, general cost-frontier model, the stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED). The model is semi-parametric in the sense that the cost function is estimated nonparametrically, while the functional form of the distribution for the error term is parametrically specified. A common assumption for this distribution is that it is a convolution of a truncated normal distribution, representing inefficiency, and a normal distribution, representing noise. This parametric form has the drawback that a negative skewness implies a negative expected inefficiency. It can thus never capture a negatively skewed distribution with a positive expectation. In this paper we investigate this assumption and its consequences for an analysis of inefficiency. Furthermore, we propose a solution to the problem and investigate its performance by means of a Monte Carlo simulation.
Fourier Slice Photography

This paper contributes to the theory of photograph formation from light fields. The main result is a representation of (lens-based) photographic imaging in the Fourier domain: the 2D Fourier transform of a photograph is a 2D slice in the 4D Fourier spectrum of the light field. Photographs focused at different depths correspond to slices at different rotations in the 4D space. The paper demonstrates the utility of this theorem in two different ways. First, the theorem is used to analyze the performance of digital refocusing, where one computes photographs focused at different depths from a single light field. The analysis shows in closed form that the sharpness of refocused photographs increases linearly with directional resolution. Second, the theorem yields a Fourier-domain algorithm for digital refocusing, where we extract the appropriate 2D slice of the light field’s Fourier transform, and perform an inverse 2D Fourier transform. This method is faster than previous approaches.
Genomic and transcriptomic comparisons of closely related malaria parasites differing in virulence and sequestration pattern

Background: Malaria parasite species differ greatly in the harm they do to humans. While P. falciparum kills hundreds of thousands per year, P. vivax kills much less often and P. malariae is relatively benign. Strains of the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi show phenotypic variation in virulence during infections of laboratory mice. This make it an excellent species to study genes which may be responsible for this trait. By understanding the mechanisms which underlie differences in virulence we can learn how parasites adapt to their hosts and how we might prevent disease. Methods: Here we present a complete reference genome sequence for a more virulent P. chabaudi strain, PcCB, and perform a detailed comparison with the genome of the less virulent PcAS strain. Results: We found the greatest variation in the subtelomeric regions, in particular amongst the sequences of the pir gene family, which has been associated with virulence and establishment of chronic infection. Despite substantial variation at the sequence level, the repertoire of these genes has been largely maintained, highlighting the requirement for functional conservation as well as diversification in host-parasite interactions. However, a subset of pir genes, previously associated with increased virulence, were more highly expressed in PcCB, suggesting a role for this gene family in virulence differences between strains. We found that core genes involved in red blood cell invasion have been under positive selection and that the more virulent strain has a greater preference for reticulocytes, which has elsewhere been associated with increased virulence. Conclusions: These results provide the basis for a mechanistic understanding of the phenotypic differences between Plasmodium chabaudi strains, which might ultimately be translated into a better understanding of malaria parasites affecting humans.
Latent fingerprint matching

Latent fingerprint comparison evidences are used in the court of law for more than 100 years. Manual matching of latent fingerprints is challenged by subjectivity and inconsistency in terms of results and is not scalable for large scale applications. Automating the process of latent fingerprint matching will practically equip forensic examiners in criminal investigation. However, a “lights-out” automated latent fingerprint matching system is still nascent from being used in a real time environment. Several research challenges in the development of an automated matching system are identified as: (1) lack of public latent fingerprint databases available for research, (2) low information content and partial fingerprint availability in latent fingerprints, (3) presence of background noise and non-linear ridge distortion in latent fingerprints, and (4) need of an established scientific procedure for matching latent fingerprints. A comprehensive survey in the growth of latent fingerprint matching, from a computational and algorithms perspective, is provided in this report. The whole process of automated latent fingerprint matching is divided into five definite stages and the research gaps in each of the stages are individually analyzed. Also, the limitations in manual matching of latent fingerprints are studied to gain insights as well as to set a baseline for an automated system. The major discussions in this survey include: (1) encourage researchers to create and establish results in public latent fingerprint databases, (2) to focus on the individual stages of a latent fingerprint matching system and approach them independently, and (3) explore the scope for using some non-standard fingerprint features, when minutiae extraction becomes challenging.
The Role of Vitamin D 3 in Regulating Islet Neogenesis Associated Protein

ii RESUME iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS x CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1 1.1 The Pancreas 1 1.2 Islets of Langerhans 1 1.3 Diabetes Mellitus 4 1.4 Diabetes Treatment 5 1.4. 1 Insulin 5 1.4. 2 Oral Antidiabetic Agents 6 1.4. 2.1 Insulin Secretagogue 6 1.4. 2.2 Biguanides 6 1.4. 2.3 Alpha Glucosidase Inhibitors 7 1.4. 2.4 Thiazolidinediones 7 1.4. 3 Whole Organ Transplantation 7 1.4. 4 Islet Transplantation 8 1.5 Alternative β-cell Replacement Therapies 8 1.5. 1 De Novo Formation of β-cells In Vitro 9 1.5. 2 In Vivo Islet Regeneration 10 1.6 Reg Proteins 11 1.7 Islet Neogenesis Associated Protein (INGAP) 13 1.7. 1 Coding Region and Regulation of INGAP 13