Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The staining of concrete by pyrite

Summary Concretes and mortars made with some Thames river gravels have, in recent years, been suffering from brown staining. This has been traced to the mineral pyrite, FeS2; not all specimens of the mineral are reactive and it is possible to distinguish between the two types, reactive and unreactive by a simple test: on immersion of the suspect pebble or grain in lime water, the reactive forms will produce a brown precipitate within a few minutes while the unreactive form is stable. It appears that the reactivity is associated with the “defect” structure of the mineral, the unreactive forms being “stabilized” by ions of some metal impurity.
The slope modeling method with GIS support for rockfall analysis using 3D DDA

Rockfall is the most frequent major hazard in mountainous areas. For hazard assessment and further countermeasure design, realistic and accurate prediction of rockfall trajectory is an important requirement. Thus, a modeling method to represent both geometrical parameters of slope and falling rock mass is required. This study, suggests taking the advantages of discontinues deformation analysis (DDA) and geographical information system (GIS). In this study, after developing a three dimensional (3D) DDA program, firstly a special element named contact face element (CFE) was introduced into 3D DDA; secondly, effectively modeling tools with GIS support were developed. The implementation of CFE also improves the efficiency of both the contact searching and solution process. Then a simple impact model was devised to compare the 3D DDA implemented directly with a sliding model with theoretical analysis to verify the reliability of the modified 3D DDA program and investigate the parameter settings. Finally, simulations concerning rock shapes and multi-rocks were carried out to show the applicable functions and advantages of the newly developed rockfall analysis code. It has been shown that the newly developed 3D DDA program with GIS support is applicable and effective.
Real-world Assessment of 2879 COVID-19 Patients Treated With Monoclonal Antibody Therapy: A Propensity Score–Matched Cohort Study

Abstract Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread globally and cause significant morbidity and mortality. Antispike protein monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy has been shown to prevent progression to severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The objective of this study was to report the outcomes of high-risk, SARS-CoV-2-positive patients infused with 1 of the 3 mAb therapies available through Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Methods A total of 4328 SARS-CoV-2-positive patients who satisfied EUA criteria for eligibility for receiving mAb therapy were infused with bamlanivimab or the combination therapies bamlanivimab-etesevimab or casirivimab-imdevimab from November 22, 2020, to May 31, 2021, at 6 infusion clinics and multiple emergency departments within the 8 Houston Methodist Hospitals in Houston, Texas. The primary outcome of hospital admission within 14 and 28 days postinfusion was assessed relative to a propensity score–matched cohort, matched based on age, race/ethnicity, median income by zip code, body mass index, comorbidities, and positive polymerase chain reaction date. Secondary outcomes included intensive care unit admission and mortality. Results A total of 2879 infused patients and matched controls were included in the analysis, including 1718 patients infused with bamlanivimab, 346 patients infused with bamlanivimab-etesevimab, and 815 patients infused with casirivimab-imdevimab. Hospital admission and mortality rates were significantly decreased overall in mAb-infused patients relative to matched controls. Among the infused cohort, those who received casirivimab-imdevimab had a significantly decreased rate of admission relative to the other 2 mAb therapy groups (adjusted risk ratio,0.51; P=.001). Conclusions Treatment with bamlanivimab, bamlanivimab-etesevimab, or casirivimab-imdevimab significantly decreased the number of patients who progressed to severe COVID-19 disease and required hospitalization.
Analysis of Ship Roll Gyrostabiliser Control

The use of dedicated spinning wheels that generate gyroscopic forces for reducing the roll motion of ships was considered and tested over 100 years ago. These devices, known as gyrostabilisers, presented a remarkable performance, but they fell into disuse due to their relatively large size and, primarily, due to the inability of the control systems to maintain performance over an extended envelope of sea states and sailing conditions (speed and heading relative to the waves). To date, advances in materials, mechanical design, electrical drives, and computer control systems have resulted in a revitalized interest in gyro-stabilisers for ships. This paper revisits the modelling of the coupled vessel-gyrostabiliser and delves into the associated gyrostabiliser control design problem. It also describes design trade-offs and potential performance limitations. A simulation study based on a navy patrol vessel is presented.
Ferrule-top cantilever optical fiber sensor for velocity measurements of low speed air flows

We present the application of a ferrule-top cantilever optical fiber sensor to measure the velocity of low speed air flows. The sensor is statically characterized against a Pitot tube in a small wind-tunnel and both probes are facing the flow in its laminar region. The ferrule-top sensor is equipped with a single-wavelength interferometric readout and it shows good sensitivity and short-term repeatability, despite the fact that the geometry and the read-out are not optimized.
Optimization of Engine Performance through different piston shapes by Taguchi Method

The world’s energy demand has increased drastically in the past and is likely to increase even more in the upcoming years. The fossil fuels are non-renewable energy, depleted at fast rate and this fact intensifies the need to look for alternative fuels to meet our day to day energy needs in all power sectors. The consumption rate of energy has increased tremendously and it necessitates increased supply of energy in all forms. The conventional energy resources like diesel, petroleum, gas and coal will soon be depleted. Hence there is a dire requirement to generate alternative sources of the fuel. Biodiesel is one of the best alternative and renewable fuel. It is oxygenate, Sulphur free and biodegradable. Oxygen content in biodiesel helps to improve the efficiency of the engine. Combustion chamber in compression ignition engine is one of the most important roles to enhance the fuel – air mixing rate (swirl) in short possible time. The turbulence is guided by the shape of the combustion chamber. The air swirl is created in combustion chamber, when the fuel air mixing rate increases. Hence the time duration of air fuel mixing rate decreases. The overall duration of the combustion process to shorten as swirl has leads to increases mechanical efficiency. In this work, in which biodiesel is prepared by transesterification process and engine performance is optimized by different parameters such as Piston shape, Load and Blend ratio and analyzed by Analysis of Variance.
Automatic Recognition of Basal Cisterns on Brain CT

Effacement of the basal cisterns (BC) and midline shift (MLS) are two most important features clinicians use to evaluate the severity of brain compression by various pathologies. Because of its complex shape, measuring the compression of the BC is not an easy task and its standardization has not been proposed until recently. Based on this standard method, we develop a method for automatic recognition of the BC on brain CT slices. Hypodense pixels of the brain area on each slice are found with a threshold derived from its own histogram. Hough transform is then applied to find the semicircular band containing largest number of hypodense pixels within the lower-central brain. This area was recognized as the normal or abnormal BC if it fits certain rules derived from human experts. Our system is tested on patient images. We found good inter-rater agreement between the results generated by our system and those evaluated by a board-certified neurosurgeon (kappa = 0.957).
Design and fabrication of meso-scale variable capacitance motor for miniature heat pumps

Miniaturization of the heat pump in the meso-scale power domain requires the development of the compressor integrated actuation units in the millimeter range. In this respect, a variable capacitance motor (VCM) is considered for compressor actuation. This work describes the design of a three-phase VCM. A microfabrication technique has been applied for the implementation of the motor using silicon technology. Some static electrical measurements have been conducted for the fabricated motor.
Reliability-Based Service-Life Assessment of Aging Concrete Structures

Concrete structures may be affected by aging or changes in strength and stiffness beyond the baseline conditions assumed for design. These changes may impair the safety and serviceability of the structure, and should be considered as part of the process by which a structure is evaluated for continued future service. Methods are being developed using structural reliability principles to evaluate time-dependent reliability of reinforced or prestressed concrete structures. These methods enable the impact on safety and serviceability of uncertainties in loading conditions, structural strength, and strength degradation due to aggressive environmental stressors to be assessed qualitatively. Parametric analyses show that the reliability is sensitive to the choice of initial component strength and strength degradation models. Less sensitivity is found to correlate component strengths within a system. Identification of the critical components before performing system reliability analysis is important in reducing the size of the analysis. The role of periodic inspection and maintenance in enabling a target reliability level to be met over a period of continued service also is considered.
Solar Maximum Repair Mission

The Solar Maximum Repair Mission was launched on April 6, 1984. The mission was made possible through a spacecraft designed for on-orbit repair, the availability of spacecraft repair hardware, and the availability of the Shuttle System. Repairs resulted in the return of significant new science data and a demonstration of the capability for on-orbit repair of spacecraft. Considerations of the capability to maintain and repair spacecraft on-orbit for the future will also be discussed.
Compact Modeling of 3D Stacked Die Inter-Tier Microfluidic Cooling Under Non-Uniform Heat Flux

Three-dimensional (3D) stacking is an emerging trend for future high performance microsystems. The stacking of chips increases the power density significantly, with associated thermal concerns. For interior tiers in a 3D stack, the surface area for the heat removal is further reduced. Also, realistic power maps on active tiers produce highly non-uniform patterns, with maximum heat fluxes 5–10 times the average values. Conventional air-cooled heat sinks cannot meet these thermal requirements. In this paper, a compact thermal model of a multi-layer chip stack subjected to the realistic power map was developed. Interlayer pin fins were modeled on the back of the chips, with water as the coolant. It was found that the compact model ran ten times faster than the full computational fluid dynamics/heat transfer (CFD/HT) model, with errors within 5%. The compact model was then used to analyze the thermal characteristics of 4 layer stacked dual core Penryn microprocessors, with a total power of 172.4 W. The non-uniform power map produced maximum heat flux of 300 W/cm2 in the hot spots. The results show that at a pressure drop of 20 kPa and inlet water temperature of 20 °C, the temperature of the bottom tier is higher than the other three tiers and the maximum temperature of the bottom layer is 56 °C. This is because the bottom layer thermal management only depends on one-sided pin fin cooling, while the other layers have double-sided cooling. A dual pass channel configuration reduced the maximum temperature to 50 °C. Overall, the interlayer pin fin cooling was found to be a very effective thermal management method for 3D stacked die packaging.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Time delay behavior of heterodyne acousto-optic systems

In this paper it is shown that the reference beam for true time delay operation of a heterodyne system must be carefully chosen to achieve proper signal time delay behavior. True time delay is defined here as an equivalent delay of the envelope and carrier frequency of a carrier-modulated waveform, resulting in no apparent phase shift of the envelope. For acousto-optic (AO) tapped delay lines, or more complex AO systems utilized for tapped delay line filters, signal excisors, or beamformers, the reference beam must be equivalent to the undiffracted beam exiting the AO device in order to achieve true time delay. Two examples are used to demonstrate the application of the time delay concepts described in the paper. The first example is a heterodyne transform architecture that uses an external reference beam to select a tap position within an AO cell. The second example is an AO tapped delay line filter that employs the undiffracted beam from the AO interaction as the reference beam.
Validation of a 3D macroscopic model for superconductors

Purpose – To provide a validation of a three‐dimensional (3D) macroscopic model for superconductors comparing numerical to experimental AC losses of a BSCCO‐2223 tape subject to an orthogonal magnetic field and a transport current.Design/methodology/approach – We solve in 3D geometries the eddy current problem in presence of superconductors, represented by a power‐law characteristic rewritten into a variational form. An integral formulation of the magneto‐quasistatic Maxwell's equations is used. The solution of the problem is found by an unconstrained minimization of a suitable functional. The numerical results on AC losses computation are compared to experimental data.Findings – The agreement between numerical and experimental data is good in a wide range of currents and magnetic fields.Research limitations/implications – The magnetic field is assumed to be orthogonal to the tape. Different incidence angles should be taken into account.Practical implications – It is possible to extend the range of validi.
Aperture field analysis of gain enhancement method for microstrip antennas

In this paper, the electric field distribution on the top surface of a layered microstrip antenna structure is investigated. A new explanation of the gain enhancement method is given using the aperture antenna theory. The superstrate rearranges the field distribution in the aperture. The gain increment comes from the rearranged aperture field phase. Quasi-circular contours are observed. A superstrate with limited size should thus be circular. The field declines very rapidly from the center. A circular superstrate with radius R=4/spl lambda//sub 0/ is big enough for a typical patch antenna to get the desired gain increment. Field oscillations are observed in x direction. When the limited superstrate is cut just at a local minimum field point, the edge diffraction can be minimized. Approximate formulas are given to describe the field decline and predict the local maximum field points and the local minimum field points.
RISK-COST DECISION FRAMEWORK FOR AQUIFER REMEDIATION DESIGN

The writers present a framework for increasing the effectiveness of remedial design decision-making at ground-water contamination sites where there is uncertainty in many parameters that affect remediation design. It is specifically designed for broad, “big picture” analyses, such as in the preliminary stages of remedial design. The presented framework is used to (1) select the best remedial design from a suite of possible ones; (2) estimate if additional data collection is cost-effective; and (3) determine the most important parameters to be sampled. The framework is developed by combining elements from Latin-Hypercube simulation of contaminant transport, economic risk-cost analysis, and regional sensitivity analysis (RSA). The framework is demonstrated using a hypothetical contamination problem where radionuclide strontium ( 90 Sr) is leaching from a trench into the ground water. Three remediation design alternatives are considered: monitoring only, isolating the source trench, and installing a plume co.
Reconciling Assumptions in Bottom‐Up and Top‐Down Approaches for Estimating Aerosol Emission Rates From Wildland Fires Using Observations From FIREX‐AQ

Accurate fire emissions inventories are crucial to predict the impacts of wildland fires on air quality and atmospheric composition. Two traditional approaches are widely used to calculate fire emissions: a satellite‐based top‐down approach and a fuels‐based bottom‐up approach. However, these methods often considerably disagree on the amount of particulate mass emitted from fires. Previously available observational datasets tended to be sparse, and lacked the statistics needed to resolve these methodological discrepancies. Here, we leverage the extensive and comprehensive airborne in situ and remote sensing measurements of smoke plumes from the recent Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX‐AQ) campaign to statistically assess the skill of the two traditional approaches. We use detailed campaign observations to calculate and compare emission rates at an exceptionally high‐resolution using three separate approaches: top‐down, bottom‐up, and a novel approach based entirely on integrated airborne in situ measurements. We then compute the daily average of these high‐resolution estimates and compare with estimates from lower resolution, global top‐down and bottom‐up inventories. We uncover strong, linear relationships between all of the high‐resolution emission rate estimates in aggregate, however no single approach is capable of capturing the emission characteristics of every fire. Global inventory emission rate estimates exhibited weaker correlations with the high‐resolution approaches and displayed evidence of systematic bias. The disparity between the low‐resolution global inventories and the high‐resolution approaches is likely caused by high levels of uncertainty in essential variables used in bottom‐up inventories and imperfect assumptions in top‐down inventories.
Penalty-free 10 Gbit/s single-channel co-pumped distributed Raman amplification using low RIN 14xx nm DFB pump

A penalty-free 10 Gbit/s single-channel transmission with co-pumped distributed Raman amplification using novel high power, low relative integrity noise (RIN), multimode 14xx nm distributed feedback pump is reported. No penalty from pump to signal RIN transfer was observed with co-pumped Raman gains up to 6 dB large effective area fibre (LEAF). In contrast, 0.5 dB penalty was observed with a fibre Bragg grating stabilised pump at 6 dB of Raman gain.
MPPa-PDT suppresses breast tumor migration/invasion through inhibiting AKT-NF-κB-dependent MMP-9 expressions via ROS

Background: breast cancer is the most commonly women cancer and most breast cancer deaths are related to tumor metastasis. Therefore, inhibiting metastasis may provide a therapeutic treatment for breast cancer. In the present study, pyropheophorbide-α methyl ester mediated photodynamic therapy (MPPa-PDT) was used to inhibit metastasis in breast cancer cells MCF-7. Methods: Uptake of MPPa was detected by fluorescence microscope. Cell viability was evaluated by CCK-8. Generation of ROS were detected by DCFH-DA. Migration of cells was assessed by wound healing assay and invasion ability was assessed by Matrigel invasion assay. Levels of MMP2 and MMP9 were measured by PCR. Akt, Phospho-Akt, Phospho-NF-kB p65 and NF-kB p65 were measured by western blotting. F-actin cytoskeleton was observed by immunofluorescence. Lung organs were stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin. Results: Following MPPa-PDT, migration and invasion were decreased in the MCF-7 cells. MPPa-PDT down-regulated expression of MMP2 and MMP9 which is responsible for metastasis. MPPa-PDT reduced the phosphorylation of AKT and NF-κB. MPPa-PDT also destroyed cytoskeleton F-actin in MCF-7 cells. These effects were blocked by the reactive oxygen scavenger NAC or AKT activator SC79 while PI3K inhibitor LY294002 or AKT inhibitor Triciribine increased these effects. Moreover, MPPa-PDT inhibited tumor metastasis and destroyed F-actin in vivo. Conclusion: taken together, these results demonstrated that MPPa-PDT inhibits metastasis of MCF-7 cells both in vitro and vivo, and that may involve in AKT-NF-κB-dependent MMP-9 signaling pathway. Thus, MPPa-PDT may be a promising therapeutic treatment to inhibit metastasis.
Active filter system implementation

Adjustable speed AC drives with low input current THD are becoming increasingly important in industry. This article has detailed the implementation of a parallel active filter, which is integrated within a 450 kW adjustable speed drive to provide an overall system which conforms to IEEE 519, and which provides significant benefits on a system level. The design of the active filter is seen to be driven by overall system specifications which include input current THD, efficiency, displacement power factor, a high level of integration with the load converter, and cost targets. Active filter operation and control has been analyzed at a detailed level, and fundamental issues relating to current regulator topology and operation, limits on compensation capability, DC bus control, switching frequency ripple suppression, etc., have all been addressed, and have all been shown to be very important in terms of helping the system meet its performance objectives. The overall drive system including the active filter, meets IEEE 519 by reducing the supply current THD from 26.8% without the active filter to 4.1% with the active filter operating. This is achieved in presence of supply voltage THD of 2.3% and filter terminal voltage V/sub f/ unbalance of 1.3% and, includes an ASD load induced subharmonic component at 33 Hz. Further, individual harmonic limits are met up to the 35th harmonic.
Knowledge management and its relationship with TQM

Abstract With product life-cycles shortening and technologies becoming increasingly imitable, organization knowledge emerges as a major source of competitive advantage. Although Knowledge Management (KM) has promised to provide superb benefits, studies have showed that many are failing to exploit it. One of the main reasons is that people have no clear understanding of KM and knowledge. Accordingly, we have explored different KM perspectives – the object view and the process view, the tacit view and the explicit view – to clarify it. The object and process views explain how knowledge is generated through the cyclic interaction between knowledge stock and knowledge process flow. The tacit and the explicit views explain that there is no objective explicit knowledge independent of an individual's tacit knowledge. This points out the crucial role of human in KM. Moreover, we also propose that the full benefits of KM come from the third generation, which focuses on innovation. The first and second generation can only bring partial benefits that focus on gains from efficiencies and synergies. Based on Kanji's business excellence model, we compare the similarities and differences between KM and TQM. The similarities include: results orientation, people-based management, teamwork, leadership and delighting the customer. The differences consist of continuous improvement and management by fact, because KM focuses more on building a culture to support knowledge generation and sharing. We argue that both can complement one another if properly planned.