Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Constructing the Triple‐Phase Boundaries of Integrated Air Electrodes for High‐Performance Zn–Air Batteries

Rechargeable zinc (Zn)–air batteries receive research interest due to the high theoretical energy density, intrinsic safety, and excellent market competition. The design of the triple‐phase (solid/liquid/gas) boundaries of the air electrode is the key to excellent performance. Although integrated air electrodes ensure the large active sites, rapid electron and species transport, and good stability during the long‐term operation, the massive agglomeration of hydrophobic binder always leads to the reduction of triple‐phase boundaries using conventional fabrication strategies. To address this issue, a novel strategy for constructing the triple‐phase boundaries of an integrated Co3O4 electrode is proposed through hydrothermal treatment under a high temperature. The ultrasmall hydrophobic particles distribute extremely uniformly in Co3O4 nanowires, which do not cover the electrode surface and create good gas‐phase boundaries, leading to a high‐performance Zn–air battery with a high discharge voltage of 1.13 V and a low charge voltage of 2.06 V at even 10 mA cm−2, a high peak power density of 51.7 mW cm−2, and a small voltage gap increment of only 86 mV after 1000 cycles. This strategy greatly enhances the performance and durability of integrated air electrodes, raising the attention to boundary design for other electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices.
A Comparison of IPCC Guidelines and Allocation Methods to Estimate the Environmental Impact of Barley Production in the Basque Country through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

This study aimed to estimate the environmental impact of barley production in the Basque Country, Northern Spain, using cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, as well as to assess how methodological choices (i.e., the use of IPCC 2019 Guidelines versus allocation methods) can influence such estimation. The production of mineral fertiliser and the direct emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) resulting from the application of nitrogen (N) fertiliser were identified as the two main contributors (40% and 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions, respectively) to the environmental impact of barley production. Pertaining to GHG emissions themselves, the use of calcium ammonium nitrate fertiliser was found to be the main contributor. Therefore, the optimization of N fertiliser application was established as a key process to reduce the environmental impact of barley production. The fertiliser-related release of N and phosphorous (P) to the environment was the main contributor to particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification, and terrestrial and marine eutrophication. The incorporation of environmental data on NH3, NOx, NO3−, and PO43− to the LCA led to a more accurate estimation of barley production impact. A sensitivity analysis showed that the use of economic allocation, compared to mass allocation, increased the estimation of climate change-related impact by 80%. In turn, the application of the IPCC 2019 Refinement Guidelines increased this estimation by a factor of 1.12 and 0.86 in wet regions and decreased in dry regions, respectively. Our results emphasise the importance of the choice of methodology, adapted to the specific case under study, when estimating the environmental impact of food production systems.
Characterising brushless doubly fed machine rotors

The brushless doubly fed machine (BDFM) is a robust alternative to the doubly fed induction generator, currently widely used in wind turbines but prone to brush-gear and slip-ring failure. The rotor winding plays an important part in a BDFM, coupling the two stator windings. To date, nested-loop (NL) rotor windings have been exclusively used in practical BDFM. This approach may not be ideal for larger machines, in which form-wound series-loop rotor winding may be preferable to large section bars and end-rings. This study gives a comparative analytical and experimental study of two different brushless doubly fed 160 frame-size rotors, with NL or series-wound windings, mounted in identical rotor core laminations operating in the same stator tested at a limited voltage (200 V line). The rotors gave a performance which accords with theoretical predictions from two independent methods, giving insight into the design issues of the different rotor windings from both an electrical and manufacturing viewpoint.
Dimensions of digital competence and its assessment in basic school

Uuring keskendus digipädevuse empiiriliselt eristatavate dimensioonide kirjeldamisele ja nende hindamiseks sobivate küsimuste leidmisele, tuginedes EU Kids Online’i küsitluse ja Eesti katselise digipädevuse tasemetöö andmetele. Kahe andmestiku põhjal eristati üheksa digipädevuse dimensiooni: digivahenditega operatsioonide tegemine, digimaailmas suhtlemine, digimaterjalide loomine, digisisu programmeerimine, hinnang digikeskkondades toimetulekule, võrdlev hinnang digipädevusele, digimaailmas seaduslik toimetamine, digimaailmas enese ja teiste kaitsmine ning digihoiakud. Dimensioonide eristamiseks loodud faktormudeleid iseloomustavad head sobitusastme näitajad ja mõõdukad korrelatsioonid faktorite vahel. Iga dimensiooni kirjeldamiseks leiti vähemalt kolm küsimust, mis sobivad ka uute küsimuste koostamise aluseks. Edasistes uuringutes on vaja hinnata 1) dimensioone tasakaalustatud arvu küsimustega ning 2) iga küsimuse keerukust ja õpilaste eristamise võimet. Summary
Design Methods of Volute Casings for Turbocharger Turbine Applications

This paper discusses aerodynamic design methods of volute casings used in turbocharger turbines. A quasi-three-dimensional (Q-3D) design method is proposed in which a group of extended two-dimensional potential flow equations and the streamline equation are numerically solved to obtain the geometry of spiral volutes. A tongue loss model, based on the turbulence wake theory, is also presented, and good agreement with experimental data is shown.
Measuring youths’ perceptions of police: Evidence from the crossroads study.

The literature on perceptions of police is growing, yet the enthusiasm is outpacing methodological rigor. This study (a) examined the factor structure of items assessing procedural justice and legitimacy, (b) tested whether the factors were uniquely associated with youth self-reported offending (SRO), and (c) identi ﬁ ed whether effects on subsequent SRO operated through legitimacy. Using data derived from the 1,216 youth in the Crossroads Study, as well as supplemental models with Pathways to Desistance data, factor analyses established a factor structure, negative binomial regressions examined associations with SRO, and indirect effects analysis within a structural equation model framework identi ﬁ ed whether associations on SRO operated through legitimacy. A ﬁ ve-factor solution emerged: Voice, Neutrality/ Impartiality, Distributive Justice/Bias, Respect, and Legitimacy. In the adjusted model, only Distributive Justice/Bias and Legitimacy were directly associated with concurrent SRO. However, all procedural justice scales had indirect effects on subsequent offending through legitimacy. Implications for methodology and procedural justice theory are discussed.
Unmasking the effects of orthography, semantics, and phonology on 2AFC visual word perceptual identification

ABSTRACT In the two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) task, the target stimulus is presented very briefly, and participants must choose which of two options was the presented target. Some past research has assumed that the 2AFC task isolates orthographic effects, despite orthographic, semantic, and phonological differences between the options. If so, performance should not differ between word/nonword pairs and British/American word pairs, the latter of which only differ orthographically. In Experiment 1, accuracy and sensitivity were higher during word/nonword trials than British/American trials when participants did not guess, demonstrating that phonological/semantic processing contributes to performance. Experiment 2 showed that target visibility did not interact with pair type on RT, which suggests phonological/semantic processing did not feed back to orthographic encoding in this task. This study demonstrates the influence of phonological/semantic processing on word perceptual identification, and shows that using British/American word pairs provides a method to isolate orthography in the 2AFC task.
Soft-switched three level capacitor clamping inverter with clamping voltage stabilization

This paper proposes a zero voltage switching scheme for a three-level capacitor clamping inverter. The small rating auxiliary circuit proposed ensures not only zero voltage switching of the main switches and zero current switching of the auxiliary switches, the clamping voltage of the inverter is also stabilized. The scheme prevents any voltage or current spikes from occurring over the main or auxiliary switches and no modulation constraints are necessary. Operation, analysis, design and testing of the scheme are detailed.
Position tracking of mobiles in a cellular radio network using the constrained bootstrap filter

We propose a new method for tracking a mobile by monitoring the signal powers of the mobile transmitter measured at several base stations. The signal power measurement at a base station, which sometimes called a power map, is a nonlinear (empirical) function of the position of a mobile. We propose to use the Bayesian bootstrap filtering approach to cope with the nonlinearity, assuming that the mobile is vehicle-mounted so that the movement of the mobile is confined in a road.
Complementary two-port antennas with low mutual coupling

In this study the authors provide designs for two-port antennas with low mutual coupling by using complementary structures. The designs make use of the multi-port extension of Booker's relation which shows that the complement of a multi-port antenna with low mutual coupling will also exhibit low mutual coupling. The use of Bookers relation for array design has been used previously but its use in multiport antennas for communications also opens up new design possibilities. In particular in this study, the authors take the complement of two existing two-port antenna designs to form two new two-port antennas with low mutual coupling. It is then shown that the new antennas can be extended to other compact slot configurations constructed on finite substrates and ground planes. Single- and dual-frequency band operations are demonstrated to have isolation nulls at resonant frequencies.
Diversity in views as a resource for learning? Student perspectives on the interconnectedness of sustainable development dimensions

Abstract This study investigates the different arguments put forward by Swedish upper secondary students on the interconnectedness of the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development (SD). The aim is to study the diversity in views among students in order to find out whether this can be used as a resource in a holistic and pluralistic approach to ESD. The study design was based on a two-step process in which the first step was to identify students representing four different, broadly coherent, views on the interconnections between sustainability dimensions, with a specific focus on the role of the economy in SD. Thereafter, focus group interviews were undertaken with the selected groups of students representing the four different views. The findings indicate a diversity of arguments in discussions of SD and the potential that this plurality brings for perspective shifting. Moreover, the economic dimension appears as central to promoting discussions that aim to examine the overall interconnectedness of sustainability dimensions. A further conclusion is that omitting the economic dimension in ESD risks excluding the core of students’ ideas of how SD may be realized.
Fully Automated As-Built 3D Pipeline Extraction Method from Laser-Scanned Data Based on Curvature Computation

There has been a growing demand for the three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of as-built pipelines. The as-built 3D pipeline reconstruction process consists of the measurement of an industrial plant, identification of pipelines, and generation of 3D models of the pipelines. Although measurement is now efficiently performed using laser-scanning technology, and in spite of significant progress in 3D pipeline model generation, the identification of pipelines from large and complex sets of laser-scanned data continues to pose a challenge. The aim of this study is to propose a method to automatically extract 3D points corresponding to as-built pipelines that occupy large areas of industrial plants from laser-scanned data. The proposed extraction method consists of the following steps: preprocessing, segmentation of the 3D point cloud, feature extraction based on curvature computation, and pipeline classification. An experiment was performed at an operating industrial plant to validate the proposed method. The experimental result revealed that the proposed method can indeed contribute to the automation of as-built 3D pipeline reconstruction.
Using appliance signatures for monitoring residential loads at meter panel level

The author presents an initial approach to identifying electrical household appliances strictly by analyzing variations in current-voltage signals at the meter panel level. The study shows that local measurement of variations in active and reactive power is sufficient in most cases to identify an appliance. This measurement must be synchronized with the events. This necessitates a numerical measurement device which can monitor the signal and isolate the times when variations occur. In a second stage, a sorting algorithm identifies the appliance that has operated. An attempt is made to show the feasibility of this device. Test findings secured on site using a test prototype are presented. >
Employee Voice and Innovative Behavior in the Public Sector

ABSTRACT Many individuals have the ability to generate effective ideas but several times they find it hard to turn these ideas into practice. The difficulty is even greater for public servants, as they are often faced with several additional obstacles and challenges. Seeking to delineate employee innovative behavior (and idea realization in particular), this study examines the role of employee voice, taking also into consideration the moderating role of an organizational and a personal characteristic, namely organizational climate and overqualification respectively. Analyzing responses from 346 public servants, working in different public organizations in Greece, we found that employee voice does enhance their innovative behavior. Moreover, results showed that that only organizational climate independently moderates the above relationship. Interestingly, the joint test of double moderation - in which both moderators were taken into account - revealed a significant and positive combined effect.
A model of the assessment and optimisation of production process quality using the fuzzy sets and genetic algorithm approach

In this paper, the production process is decomposed for typical manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the metrics of the defined sub processes, based on the requirements of ISO 9001:2008, are developed. The weight values of production process performance indicators are defined, using the experience of decision makers from the analysed manufacturing SMEs, and calculated using the fuzzy set approach. Finally, the developed solution, based on the genetic algorithm approach, is presented and tested on data from 112 Serbian manufacturing SMEs. The presented solution enables quality assessment of a production process, the ranking of indicators, optimisation and provides the basis for successful improvement of the production process quality. [Received 13 April 2013; Revised 7 October 2013; Accepted 5 November 2013]
Computing Resource Allocation for Enterprise Information Management Based on Cloud Platform Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

The paper allocated a method to optimize the management pattern under cloud computing environment according to the current situation of Enterprise Information Management. The method used Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) as basic foundation to satisfy the property of Cloud Computing. CloudSim was also set up as the simulation to imitate the cloud environment and the test of computing. The algorithm prognosticated the capability of the potential available resource node when being allocated and analyzed the usage of bandwidth, the quality of networks and the response time. This algorithm met the needs of limitation of resource with better performance and has shorter response time.
RF and microwave solid-state power amplifiers design is a speciality

In the world of RF and microwave engineering, the design and development of solid-state amplifiers is a speciality. It has always required many years of specialised engineering experience and a suitable collection of test and measurement equipment. While these will always be necessary, to be successful in the marketplace today, it is also essential to use a combination of specialised and general CAD tools.
Reservoir Drought Prediction Using Two-Stage SVM

The support vector machine (SVM) has been applied to drought prediction and it typically yields good performance on overall accuracy. However, the prediction accuracy of the drought category is much lower than that of the non-drought and severe drought categories. In this study, a two-stage approach was used to improve the SVM to increase the drought prediction accuracy. Four features, (1) reservoir storage, (2) inflows, (3) critical limit of operation rule curves, and (4) the Nth ten-day in a year, were used as input data to predict reservoir drought. We used these features as input data because they are the most commonly kept records in all reservoir offices. Empirical results show that the two-stage SVM outperforms the original SVM and the three other approaches (artificial neural networks, maximum likelihood classifier, Bayes classifier) for drought prediction. Not surprisingly, the longer the prediction time period, the lower the prediction accuracy is. However, the accuracy of predicting conditions within the next 50 days was approximately 85% both in training and testing data set by the two-stage SVM. Drought prediction provides information for reservoir operation and decision making in terms of water allocation and water quality issues. The result shows the benefit of a two-stage approach of SVM for drought prediction, as the accuracy of drought prediction increased quite substantially.
Distributed energy resource systems towards carbon-neutral urban development : A review and application

The urban sustainability is a growing importance in the built environment research. Urban areas play a key role in planning for sustainable city development. Urbanization has implications for future energy systems and energy-related emissions. The new built environment requires systems that are cost-efficient and have more efficient utilization of energy with a low environmental impact. This can be analyzed and designed with efficient tools for current and future energy systems. The objectives of this dissertation are to examine and analyze the metabolic flows of urban areas, and to develop a methodology for optimization of energy systems and services for the urban district. The dissertation is comprised of two phases and eight appended publications.In the first phase of this dissertation, the research is emphasized on an in-depth understanding of the complex dynamics of energy utilization in large urban areas. An integrated approach applied in this phase includes the energetic urban metabolism, the long-term energy systems modeling using the Long-range Energy Alternative Planning (LEAP) system, and the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach. The urban metabolism approach has been employed to analyze the urban energy flows at macro level. The LEAP model and MCDM approach have been used to develop and evaluate energy scenarios in both demand and supply sides.In the second phase, the research recognizes the lack of tools that applicable for district energy systems analysis. This phase concentrates on the important role of the district level in urban energy systems. Research methods include the Multi-Objective Optimization using Genetic Algorithms, the carbon budget approach, and the case study method. Research in the second phase is mainly focused on the development of tool for energy systems and services at the district level.
Fully-Printable Soft Actuator with Variable Stiffness by Phase Transition and Hydraulic Regulations

Actuators with variable stiffness have vast potential in the field of compliant robotics. Morphological shape changes in the actuators are possible, while they retain their structural strength. They can shift between a rigid load-carrying state and a soft flexible state in a short transition period. This work presents a hydraulically actuated soft actuator fabricated by a fully 3D printing of shape memory polymer (SMP). The actuator shows a stiffness of 519 mN/mm at 20 ∘C and 45 mN/mm at 50 ∘C at the same pressure (0.2 MPa). This actuator demonstrates a high stiffness variation of 474 mN/mm (10 times the baseline stiffness) for a temperature change of 30 ∘C and a large variation (≈1150%) in average stiffness. A combined variation of both temperature (20–50 ∘C) and pressure (0–0.2 MPa) displays a stiffness variation of 501 mN/mm. The pressure variation (0–0.2 MPa) in the actuator also shows a large variation in the output force (1.46 N) at 50 ∘C compared to the output force variation (0.16 N) at 20 ∘C. The pressure variation is further utilized for bending the actuator. Varying the pressure (0–0.2 MPa) at 20 ∘C displayed no bending in the actuator. In contrast, the same variation of pressure at 50 ∘C displayed a bending angle of 80∘. A combined variation of both temperature (20–50 ∘C) and pressure (0–0.2 MPa) shows the ability to bend 80∘. At the same time, an additional weight (300 g) suspended to the actuator could increase its bending capability to 160∘. We demonstrated a soft robotic gripper varying its stiffness to carry objects (≈100 g) using two individual actuators.
Geographic Routing Scheme For Resource And Communication Efficiency In the IoT Ecosystem using Swarm Intelligence-based BFO Algorithm

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are the sensor nodes that are generally interconnected and these nodes communicate wirelessly to collect the data from the environment around them. Sensor nodes are low-powered and distributed in an ADHOC manner and in a decentralized mode. WSNs setup comes with some limitations such as energy constraints and the cooperative demands essential to perform multi-hop geographic routing for Internet of things (IoT) applications. Quality of Service (QoS) depends to a great extent on offering participating nodes an incentive for collaborating. The real-time applications of WSNs have potential design limitations such as energy and other QoS constraints in the context of IoT. This work basically formulates two different re-transmission strategies for optimized cross-layer design and also integrates the framework with a swarm intelligence technique assisted Bacteria Foraging Optimization (BFO) for efficient Cluster Head (CH) selection. The proposed work designs analytical modeling to realize the formulated concept and also simulates the computational design in a numerical computing tool. Finally, an extensive simulation is carried out using the MATLAB simulation tool. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of delay is reduced by 12%, throughput is increased to 10%, remaining energy of the network is increased to 11%, and packet delivery ratio of the proposed work in increased to 7-9% in comparison with the existing system.