Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maximum and limit-power tracking algorithms in PV applications

MUHAMMAD AMMAR AHMED: Maximum and limit-power tracking algorithms in PV applications. Tampere University of Technology Master of Science Thesis, 58 pages, 4 Appendix pages June 2017 Master’s Degree Programme in Electrical Engineering Major: Smart Grids Examiner: Assist. Prof. Tuomas Messo
TiZrPdCuNi High-Entropy ( HE ) Alloy Developed through Ti 20 Zr 20 Pd 20 Cu 20 Ni 20 HE Glassy Alloy Comprising Inter-Transition Metals

An Al0.5TiZrPdCuNi high-entropy (H-E) alloy with a bcc single phase was found through a Ti20Zr20Pd20Cu20Ni20 H-E glassy alloy designed based on equi-atomicity inherent to H-E alloys. The constituent elements and the composition of the Ti20Zr20Pd20Cu20Ni20 alloy were determined by regarding a binary Cu64Zr36 bulk metallic glass as Cu60Zr40 alloy and subsequent replacements of the Cu and Zr atoms with other lateand early-transition metals, respectively. The Ti20Zr20Pd20Cu20Ni20 alloy in a ribbon shape forms into a glassy single phase. The addition of 0.5Al to the Ti20Zr20Pd20Cu20Ni20 H-E glassy alloy resulted in forming a bcc single phase for a rod specimen with a diameter of 1.5mm. The analysis revealed that the Al0.5TiZrPdCuNi H-E alloy is characterized by mixing enthalpy of 146.7 kJ·mol11 and Delta parameter of 8.8, which are considerably larger and negative for the former and larger for the latter against the conventional H-E alloys. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2012370]
Determinants of Inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Pakistan

The objective of this research paper is to examine the effects of various factors like violence, stock exchange performance and exchange rate on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow into Pakistan. For econometric analysis monthly secondary data ranging from 2003 to 2011 has been used. Regression and correlation are used as analytical tools for the empirical estimation. In addition, for time series data analysis Augmented Dickey Fuller test and Phillips-Perron test have been used. This study finds that the violence in the country and Karachi Stock Exchange- 100 Index are statistically significant factors with a positive sign. Moreover, the exchange rate has also been found to be statistically significant factor with negative sign. This study uses monthly time series data from 2003-2001, which enables a deeper understanding of FDI inflow in Pakistan. Results suggest that in order to enhance FDI inflow to a desirable level, the government should ensure the existence of a peaceful environment, efficient capital markets and a stable exchange rate in the country.
Plate heat exchanger design software for industrial and educational applications

Plate heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger that uses corrugated metal plates to transfer heat between two fluids. The plate corrugations are designed to achieve turbu­l­ence across the entire heat transfer area thus producing the highest possible heat transfer coefficients while allowing close temperature approaches. Subsequently, this leads to a smaller heat transfer area, smaller units and in some cases, fewer heat exchangers. In this work, an application for thermal and hydraulic computations of plate heat exchangers had been developed using Sharp Develop, an open source programming platform. During the development process, several literature methods and correlations for calculation of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in a plate heat exchanger have been tested and the selected four methods: Martin, VDI, Kumar and Coulson and Richardson have been incorporated into the software. The structure of the software is visually presented through several windows: a window for inserting input data, windows for showing the results of computation by each of the methods, a window for showing comparative analysis of the most important computation results obtained by all of the used methods and a help win­dow for demonstrating the working principle of plate heat exchanger.
New genera of Tephritidae (Diptera) from Brazil and Dominican Amber, with phylogenetic analysis of the tribe Ortalotrypetini

The tribe Ortalotrypetini (Trypetinae) is expanded to include four genera, whose phylogenetic relationships are analyzed. The following are recognized: Ortalotrypeta Hendel, Cyaforma Wang, Neortalotrypeta, n. gen., proposed for N. bicolor, n. sp. , from Brazil, and Protortalotrypeta, n. gen., proposed for P. grimaldii, n. sp. , which is described from a specimen in amber from the Dominican Republic. Ortalotrypeta ziae, n. sp. , from Taiwan, is described, and lectotypes are designated for O. gigas Hendel and O. idana Hendel. O. macula Wang and O. tonkinensis Zia are transferred to Cyaforma.
State of an innovation system: theoretical and empirical advance towards an innovation efficiency index. Or: Walking between ridicule and praise: measuring innovation systems effieciency with a single indicator

Innovation is currently seen as a cornerstone not only for economic development but also as an intrinsic human activity that could help to face the great challenges of human kind. Given the importance of innovation in the new European 2020 Strategy, measuring progress but also monitoring what drives innovation becomes crucial for policy development. Following upon this strategy the new European flag initiative “Innovation Union” called for a new “single” indicator on innovation. Currently the information infrastructure on innovation in Europe contains a number of indicators. Most of the current indicators at the national or sector levels use a performance theoretical framework based on an efficiency model of inputs and outputs. The last five editions of CIS have been a bastion of innovation policy research during the last decade. Despite this, CIS has been criticised for not having an umbrella framework that unifies its different underpinnings to explain what drives innovation to actual innovation and economic outcomes. In this paper we propose a framework that enables the theoretical and empirical linkages between the drivers of innovation to innovation performance via the integration of core features determining innovative behaviour in to a single composite. This index enables to assess the total propensity of firms to innovate and assess the relative innovation performance at the sector and country level. The approach adopted here to create the index overcomes long standing theoretical and methodological issues related to the reduction of complexity in a meaningful form, scope, aggregation, normalisation and validation of innovation composites. The empirical demonstration of the index was done using CIS4 data and the results validate the theoretical structure and robustness of the proposed model. This enables its replication for innovation policy analysis in different settings. The model underlying the proposed index provides not only a depiction of the efficiency of the innovation system but also a link to economic performance and to the factors that determine relative performance
Recovery of antioxidant gene expression in sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) embryonic axes enhances tolerance to extreme high temperature

Sacred lotus ( Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) seed is long-living and have various stress-resistance characteristics. We investigated the protecting mechanisms of lotus seeds against extreme high temperature by comparison of expression patterns of antioxidant genes in embryonic axes between exposure and non-exposure to extreme high temperature. It was shown that viability of seeds did not severely decline after exposure to 90°C for 24 h. Germination and growth were inhibited and H 2 O 2 was accumulated at high level in the lotus embryonic axes germinated after heat treatment. Transcriptional levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxidase (POD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and thioredoxin-dependent peroxidase (TPX) encoding genes were induced to rise at late germination stage. Transcriptional levels of APX, POD, GPX and alternative oxidase (AOX) encoding genes were also immediately stimulated and up-regulated after heat treatment. These results suggest that the embryonic axes of sacred lotus maintain a protective and recovery mechanism from heat damage during and after exposure to extreme high temperature. Furthermore, the recovery of antioxidant gene expression enhanced tolerance to extreme high-temperature stress in sacred lotus. Keywords: Antioxidant gene, high temperature, seed germination, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn
Sensitivity of natural vegetation to climate change in the Euro-Mediterranean area

This study explores the sensitivity to future climate change of natural vegetation patterns in the Euro-Mediterranean area under the IPCC-A1B emission scenario, using a dynamic vegetation model forced by fully coupled high resolution regional ocean-atmosphere model simula- tions. Our results indicate that a future warmer climate could not only affect the regional terrestrial carbon cycle, but also significantly impact vegetation dynamics. Specifically, by 2021-2050, temper- ate deciduous vegetation is projected to replace boreal and grass vegetation in parts of northeastern Europe, while in North Africa, simulations show a progressive desertification. The changes in domi- nant vegetation are mainly related to the increased drought stress on vegetation and the enhanced fire frequency. As for the carbon cycle, large increases in net primary production (NPP) are found in northern Europe resulting from higher temperature and precipitation, as well as higher atmospheric CO2 levels. In contrast, smaller NPP increases are found in the Mediterranean region, where reduced precipitation and increased temperature leads to an increase in drought years and, hence, water- stress for vegetation.
Social Capital: A Neglected Resource to create Viable and Sustainable Youth Economic Groups in Urban Tanzania

There has been an alarming increase in the rate of unemployment among active urban population in Tanzania whereby the youth are severely affected. In this regard Youth Economic Groups (YEGs) program was formed as one among the best alternative strategies to address this perennial problem. Membership in YEGs act as a means to complement youth abilities and strengths to accomplish their common goal of addressing unemployment problem, through facilitating access of financial, human and physical capital from various sources. This paper argues that the arrangement, in which YEGs program has been implemented, overlooks the pivotal role of social capital resource to ensure that youth undertake Income Generation Activities (IGAs) amicably and effectively. Most of previous research works on youth unemployment were focused on challenges related to financial, human and physical capital. Hence, very little attention has been paid on fact that YEGs are constituted by members with different socio-economic background whose behaviour and interests need to be harmonised by appropriate relations to achieve their common objectives. The paper contributes in filling that gap by drawing empirical evidence of YEGs in Kinondoni Municipal Council (KMC) and suggests how various forms of social capital can be nurtured to create and sustain viable Income Generation Groups (IGGs) in urban Tanzania so as to address the perennial unemployment problem facing the urban youth. Keywords: Social Capital, Unemployment, Youth Economic Groups, Urban Tanzania.
An Efficient Pattern Search Method

Pattern search algorithms is one of most frequently used methods which were designed to solve the derivative-free optimization problems. Such methods get growing need with the development of science, engineering, economy and so on. Inspired by the idea of Hooke and Jeeves, we introduced an integer m in the algorithm which controls the number of steps of iteration update. We mean along the descent direction to allow the algorithm to go ahead m steps at most to explore whether we can get better solution further. The experiment proved the strategy’s efficiency.
The consumption-wealth ratio and asset returns: The Euro Area, the UK and the US

In this paper, I assess the forecasting power of the residuals of the trend relationship among consumption, aggregate wealth, and labour income for stock returns and government bond yields in the euro area, the UK and the US . I find that when stock returns are expected to be higher in the future, forward-looking investors will temporarily allow consumption to rise. As for bond returns, when government bonds are seen as a component of asset wealth, then investors react in the same manner. If, however, investors perceive the increase in bond returns as signalling a future rise in taxes or a deterioration of public finances, then they will let consumption fall temporarily below its equilibrium level.
Robust Assistive Reading Framework for Visually Challenged

The Main objective of this assistive framework is to communicate the textual Information in the image captured by the Visually Challenged person as Speech, So that the Visually Challenged person can acquire knowledge about the surrounding. This framework can help Visually Challenged person to read books, magazine, warnings, instructions and various displays as well by taking their image along with the surrounding. Then the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) extracts and recognizes the text in the image and generates the text file. This text file is further converted to Speech with the help of Text to Speech (TTS) Synthesis. The inherent problem with the previous approach was if the acquired image is affected with the issues of different lighting conditions, noise and issue of Skew and Blur, as the image is captured by Visually Challenged person. Then the overall accuracy of the system was at stake due to inefficient OCR leads to improper Speech output of TTS Synthesis. In this paper we have introduced two more processes that are deblurring using Blind Deconvolution method and Preprocessing operation to remove the effect of noise and blur. Thus it prepares the image for efficient result of the framework for Visually Challenged. The proposed approach is implemented in Matlab with the image captured manually and taken from the internet and the result along with the OCR text file and corresponding output Speech shows that our framework is better than the previous framework.
Computer Simulation Usage For Verification Of Deepened Shaft Artificial Bottom Construction

The paper presents the design verification methodology for so called artificial bottom of the mining shaft using computer simulation. Artificial bottom serves as the protection of the lower part of the shaft, in which works related to shaft deepening are carried out, against falling to the bottom of the shaft elements transported in its upper, active part. Model describing the phenomenon of artificial bottom stress is complex. In presented case it is a process of collision between object with a mass of 18 Mg model, falling into the shaft from a height of 800 m, and artificial bottom construction and inducted phenomenon of stress and strain wave propagation in various elements of construction. In this case load receiving elements are heavily deformed and many of them has to be destroyed. Therefore for construction verification computer simulation method has been chosen, conducted on the basis of subsequent crash tests, using the LS-DYNA program. The object of the research was an innovative solution of artificial bottom, developed by Central Mining Institute. A series of falling mass impact tests were performed, which had to prove the usefulness of applied solutions, as well as determine the influence of selected construction geometric parameters to effectiveness of transferring the impact load. This way, using the successive approximations method, the assumptions about the number of artificial bottom platforms and plate thickness used for additional coverage of one of the platforms were verified.
Alteration of rice growth and development via antisense expression of OsGA20ox2 gene

GA 20-oxidase is a key enzyme involved in gibberellin (GA) biosynthesis. To investigate the roles of OsGA20ox2 in regulating plant growth and development, we used reverse genomic approach to generate dwarf transgenic rice plants with antisense technology. OsGA20ox2 nucleic acid sequence includes three exons and two introns. We constructed three antisense vectors named pA1CK, pA2CK, pACK, respectively, major containing the first exon, the second exon, and the whole cDNA sequence of OsGA20ox2 gene. Through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of rice, six dwarf lines were obtained from antisense vector pACK. Three dwarf lines (5101 to 5103) in T1 generation displayed severe dwarf in height (12.31 cm, 11.4% of wild type plants), fewer tiller numbers (4.87, 35.3% of wild type plants), smaller dark green leaves, shorter internode length (7.05 cm, 10.9% of wild type plants), and seed abortion compared to the wild type plants. Other three dwarf lines in T2 generation (5104 to 5106) showed dwarf (56.18 to 60.64 cm, 52.0 to 56.1% of wild type plants), late flowering, few tiller numbers (11.60 to 12.60, 84.1 to 91.3% of wild type plants), short internode length (34.69 to 35.37 cm, 53.4 to 54.5% of wild type plants), 100-seed weight reduction (1.53 to 1.57 g, 74.9 to 75.8% of wild type plants), and reduced seeds reproductive. The results indicate that dwarf lines decreased expression of OsGA20ox2 gene in stem and panicle but no change in root. These results show that the antisense OsGA20ox2 gene restricted rice architecture, suggesting that OsGA20ox2 was required for panicles and stem development. We further showed that the antisense dwarf lines could be restored to normal plant height by applying exogenous GA3. Results also demonstrate that antisense expression of OsGA20ox2 affected plant stature and development. Keywords : OsGA20ox2 , antisense, dwarf, development African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(25), pp. 3898-3904
Interaction between biological and chemistry fungicides and tomato pollinators

The use of agrochemicals is harmful to bees visiting agricultural crops, reducing production gains from pollination, but the effect of fungicides on these bees is not known. The objective of this study was to verify the effect of bee visitation influenced by different fungicides on the tomato crop and on the deposition of pollen grains on the stigma, number of seeds, mass and fruit size. The experiment was conducted with 10 treatments: (T1) control treatment, without application of agrochemicals; (T2 and T3) Bacillus subtilis in different application frequencies; (T4) copper hydroxide; (T5) B. subtilis and copper hydroxide; (T6) acibenzolar-S-methyl; (T7) (trifloxystrobin+tebuconazole) and B. subtilis; (T8) copper hydroxide+Mancozeb; (T9) propineb+(trifloxystrobin+ tebuconazole); (T10) (trifloxystrobin+tebuconazole)+B. subtilis+copper hydroxide. The presence of the pollination mark on the flower, the pollen load of the stigmas, the number of seeds per fruit, and the size and mass of the fruits were determined in each treatment. Subsequently, the mortality rate of Melipona quadrifasciata (Hymenoptera, Apidae) exposed to four fungicides (trifloxystrobin+tebuconazole; manganese and zinc; copper hydroxide; Bacillus subtilis) was estimated. The mortality rate of M. quadrifasciata over 24 h of evaluation was higher in the treatments with copper hydroxide and trifloxystrobin+tebuconazole (75 and 50%, respectively). The mortality rate was lower in the treatments with manganese and zinc and Bacillus subtilis and in the control treatment. The treatments with trifloxystrobin+tebuconazole reduced the presence of bite marks on the flowers and of pollen grains on the flower stigma. The fruits of the control treatments and treatments with B. subtilis and copper hydroxide were larger and had greater mass, as compared to other agrochemicals. Thus, a higher number of pesticide applications on the tomatoes reduced bee visitation rates to the flowers and, consequently, reduced the amount of pollen grains deposited on the stigmas, also reducing the fruit production.
Adaptive resolution simulation of liquid water

Water plays a central role in biological systems and processes, and is equally relevant in a large range of industrial and technological applications. Being the most important natural solvent, its presence uniquely influences biological function as well as technical processes. Because of their importance, aqueous solutions are among the most experimentally and theoretically studied systems. However, many questions still remain open. Both experiments and theoretical models are usually restricted to specific cases. In particular all-atom simulations of biomolecules and materials in water are computationally very expensive and often not possible, mainly due to the computational effort to obtain water–water interactions in regions not relevant for the problem under consideration. In this paper we present a coarse-grained model that can reproduce the behaviour of liquid water at a standard temperature and pressure remarkably well. The model is then used in a multiscale simulation of liquid water, where a spatially adaptive molecular resolution procedure allows one to change from a coarse-grained to an all-atom representation on-the-fly. We show that this approach leads to the correct description of essential thermodynamic and structural properties of liquid water. Our adaptive multiscale scheme allows for significantly greater extensive simulations than existing approaches by taking explicit water into account only in the regions where the atomistic details are physically relevant.
qGOD IS BEYOND SEX/GENDERq MUSLIM FEMINIST HERMENEUTICAL METHOD TO THE QUR'AN

Muslim feminist hermeneutical methods to the Qur'an attempts to challenge conservative interpretations that tend to sustain hegemonic knowledge construction and the patriarchal reading of the texts. Implementation of this approach shows that the Qur'an is compatible with modernity and supports gender equality. They offer a new paradigm in reading the Qur'an from a gender-sensitive perspective and accommodate a woman's point of view. This article investigates analytical study of Asma Barlas' anti-patriarchal reading of the Qur'an. This article shows that Barlas challenges the patriarchal reading of the Qur'an and exposes the egalitarian voices of the Qur'anic text. She argues that the Qur'an is an egalitarian text that established the principle of the equality of the sexes.
Palaeogeographic consequences of conservational models in the South Atlantic Ocean

Abstract Conservational models, like simple shear, pure shear or polyphase models that exclude exchanges between the lower continental crust and upper mantle, are usually proposed to explain the lithospheric stretching and consequent crustal thinning of passive continental margins. These models need large amounts of horizontal movement, and have, therefore, important implications for plate kinematic reconstructions and intraplate deformation. In this paper we propose to show these implications in the Central Segment of the South Atlantic Ocean. In the Angola–Brazilian system, these models imply about 240 km of horizontal movement. This movement can be compensated by two end-member mechanisms: (1) an intraplate deformation located in Africa; and (2) an intraplate deformation located in South America. We detail for each solution the strong geological and geodynamical implications, and discuss the consequences for the genesis of passive continental margins.