Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Active Harmonic Load-Pull With Realistic Wideband Communications Signals

A new wideband open-loop active harmonic load–pull measurement approach is presented. The proposed method is based on wideband data-acquisition and wideband signal-injection of the incident and device generated power waves at the frequencies of interest. The system provides full, user defined, in-band control of the source and load reflection coefficients presented to the device-under-test at baseband, fundamental and harmonic frequencies. The system's capability to completely eliminate electrical delay allows it to mimic realistic matching networks using their measured or simulated frequency response. This feature enables active devices to be evaluated for their actual in-circuit behavior, even on wafer. Moreover the proposed setup provides the unique feature of handling realistic wideband communication signals like multi-carrier wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA), making the setup perfectly suited for studying device performance in terms of efficiency, linearity and memory effects. In this work we describe the hardware and signal conditioning of the proposed setup. The high dynamic range, bandwidth and measurement speed of the system, together with its capability to engineer the large-signal operation of an active device, are demonstrated by measuring the improved RF performance of a multi-carrier W-CDMA driven laterally diffused metal–oxide–semiconductor device when the electrical delay in the setup is canceled.
Comparative investigations on fruit microcharacters of four species of Hieracium L. (Asteraceae) and their taxonomic significance

: In order to evaluate taxonomic implications of fruit or cypsela, detail macro as well as micro-morphology and anatomy in four species belonging to the genus Hieracium L. of the tribe Cichorieae, family Asteraceae have been investigated. Analysis revealed that in comparison to shape, size and colour of cypsela, surface features like markings, presence or absence of rib and their number along with carpopodium diversity were taxonomically more significant characters. Among anatomical features, mesocarpic characters, distribution of vascular trace and vallecular canal, and nature of testal layer were found to be diacritical for the studied species. These morphological and anatomical features of cypsela can be used as species determining characters in the genus Hieracium L. Finally, involving all these features of cypsela an artificial diagnostic key to the four studied species namely Hieracium neopinnatifidum Pugsley, H. pilosella L. , H. semigothiciforme Zahn and H. umbellatum L. is constructed. This can be used as reference key to identify taxa solely based on its fruit.
Sample size for measurement of root traits on common bean by image analysis

Evaluation of root traits may be facilitated if they are assessed on samples of the root system. The objective of this work was to determine the sample size of the root system in order to estimate root traits of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars by digital image analysis. One plant was grown per pot and harvested at pod setting, with 64 and 16 pots corresponding to two and four cultivars in the first and second experiments, respectively. Root samples were scanned up to the completeness of the root system and the root area and length were estimated. Scanning a root sample demanded 21 minutes, and scanning the entire root system demanded 4 hours and 53 minutes. In the first experiment, root area and length estimated with two samples showed, respectively, a correlation of 0.977 and 0.860, with these traits measured in the entire root. In the second experiment, the correlation was 0.889 and 0.915. The increase in the correlation with more than two samples was negligible. The two samples corresponded to 13.4% and 16.9% of total root mass (excluding taproot and nodules) in the first and second experiments. Taproot stands for a high proportion of root mass and must be deducted on root trait estimations. Samples with nearly 15% of total root mass produce reliable root trait estimates.
Reprint from the Proceedings of the 32nd Symposium on Engineering Geology and Geo- technical Engineering, March 26-28, 1997, Boise, ID. LITHOLOGIC, HYDROLOGIC AND PETROPHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF AN UNCONSOLIDATED COBBLE-AND-SAND AQUIFER CAPITAL STATION SITE, BOISE, IDAHO

The shallow unconfined aquifer in the Boise, Idaho area commonly consists of coarse, unconsolidated Quaternary braided-stream deposits (Qal) over unconsolidated late-Tertiary sands with a clay or tight silt zone (Tgf) forming a local base to the unconfined system. This shallow aquifer hosts numerous contaminant plumes so characterization of the variability of the system is applicable to site investigations, modeling and remediation designs. Subsurface information from conventional drilling methods tends to be generalized. However, analysis of natural gamma (G), epithermal neutron (N) and electromagnetically induced resistivity (IR) geophysical log data obtained in “deep” (~20 m) wells at the Capital Station site indicates that a high degree of vertical resolution of saturated units is possible, and that successions of units in Qal differ between wells only 6 m apart. Several lines of evidence (permeability profiling, core from one well, and FFT analysis) support the division of Qal and Tgf into fine-scale units (<0.3 to 1 m thickness) with log data. Also, N-G crossplots show distinctions between Qal and Tgf, and between sand and cobbledominated units within Qal. Principal component analysis (PCA) provides a way to analyze IR data with N and G data. PCA separates sand and cobble-dominated units, and also provides the means for differentiating cobble-dominated units. Measurements of hydraulic conductivity in individual wells with flowmeter and slug test methods yield similar results for units and wells tested: Tgf sands are more permeable than Qal cobble units. Estimates of porosity are generated from N data, and estimates of “shape-factor” are generated from these porosity logs with IR data. High-IR cobble units recognized with PCA also have high shape-factor values; sedimentologic and hydrologic implications of cobble-unit distinctions are being investigated.
To the Graduate Council:

I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Timothy Richard Grundman entitled “Design and Analysis of a Delta Sigma Modulator for a Fractional N Phase Locked Loop Frequency Synthesizer Operating at 2.4 GHz”. I have examined the final examination copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Electrical Engineering. __________________________ Syed K. Islam, Major Professor
Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Zambia - The Case of Chongwe District

The Zambian government and its cooperating partners have been trying to promote the use of conservation agriculture for improved food security and promotion of environmental sustainability. The methods used to promote conservation agriculture however are not adequately informed because no Zambia-specific studies have been done to explain adoption behaviour. This study aimed at explaining the factors that affect the adoption of conservation agriculture in Zambia using a case study. A cross section survey of 200 randomly selected small scale farmers in Chongwe district was conducted using a structured questionnaire. Information collected included demographic characteristics of participating households, economic, as well as social characteristics. Respondents also provided information on the farming practices they are currently using vis a vis conservation agriculture. A decision model was estimated using logistic regression and the results indicate that the adoption of conservation agriculture in the survey area is basically influenced by ownership of draft power, availability of labour, and the frequency of contact with the farmer support extension system. Potential to increase the adoption rate is plenty, but can only be tapped into if strategies and policies take into account the behavioural aspects of the adoption of the technology.
Accounting for the Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Total Factor Productivity: Towards an Endogenous Growth Approach

Economists now broadly agree on the fact that technical progress and technology dissemination constitute the ultimate source of sustained economic growth. In particular, economic analysis in the context of the so-called endogenous-growth (often termed "new growth theories") approach has shifted towards elements such as human capital (education and training) and R&D which could be both used to increase knowledge accumulation and technical progress. This paper provides a review of the literature on the impact of ICT on Economic Growth and Productivity and provides elements of discussion for extending the neoclassical growth framework to incorporate elements of the endogenous growth theories in order to consider the impact of ICT diffusion on growth and productivity. This study provides an overview of the traditional growth accounting framework rooted on Sollow's contributions and its extension considering the cases where situations of under-investment in growth-promoting items such as R&D, can be detected. Similarly to the R&D case, the resulting aggregate use of ICT maybe too low for pushing productivity up in a given economy given that private agents may under-invest in ICT if the private economic returns from these investments are too low. The overall macroeconomic outcome may therefore result in a situation where the growth potential of ICT investment is far from being fully realised. This outcome in particular would allow explaining why still many EU countries are lagging behind in terms of ICT investment and ICT impact on economic growth, in particular compared to the US. This present study provides a number of theoretical caveats to understand the main issues at stake.
Key-changing and Signature-updating for Cloud Data Auditing

Auditing has vital significance in cloud computing, because data owners are afraid that their outsourced data will be lost or tempered. In current auditing schemes, the data owner stores its data and signatures together into the cloud, while the cloud server provides aggregated proof to the third-party auditor or the data owner, in ensuring that it correctly stores data. However, once the private key expires, the data owner will have to generate a new key, download all its data blocks and signatures, verify them using the old key, re-sign data blocks using the new key, and upload data blocks/new signatures. This will lead to high computation cost on the data owner. To address it, this paper introduces a novel key-changing and signature-updating scheme that permits the cloud server updating the signatures instead of the data owner. Finally, we evaluate its efficiency. The results show that our scheme can reduce the computation cost.
Menon, Radhika and Di Caterina, Gaetano and Lakany, Heba and Petropoulakis, Lykourgos and Conway, Bernard and Soraghan, John (2015) Automatic misclassification rejection for LDA classifier using ROC curves. In: 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

This paper presents a technique to improve the performance of an LDA classifier by determining if the predicted classification output is a misclassification and thereby rejecting it. This is achieved by automatically computing a class specific threshold with the help of ROC curves. If the posterior probability of a prediction is below the threshold, the classification result is discarded. This method of minimizing false positives is beneficial in the control of electromyography (EMG) based upper-limb prosthetic devices. It is hypothesized that a unique EMG pattern is associated with a specific hand gesture. In reality, however, EMG signals are difficult to distinguish, particularly in the case of multiple finger motions, and hence classifiers are trained to recognize a set of individual gestures. However, it is imperative that misclassifications be avoided because they result in unwanted prosthetic arm motions which are detrimental to device controllability. This warrants the need for the proposed technique wherein a misclassified gesture prediction is rejected resulting in no motion of the prosthetic arm. The technique was tested using surface EMG data recorded from thirteen amputees performing seven hand gestures. Results show the number of misclassifications was effectively reduced, particularly in cases with low original classification accuracy.
Antioxidant and Polyphenol Oxidase Activity of Some Tunisian Pearl Millet ( Pennisetum glaucum ( L . ) R . Br . ) Ecotypes

Pearl millet is a rich source of various phytochemicals, including phenolic acids. Natural compounds in food are an important healthprotecting factor. In Tunisia, many autochthonous pearl millet ecotypes have generated interest because their nutritional qualities. In order to provide information on the composition of pearl millet grown under local conditions, seven ecotypes were analyzed to evaluate their nutraceutical and antioxidant properties. The nutraceutical properties were determined by evaluating the total phenolic while the antioxidant properties were studied using the DPPH free radical scavenging activity. The results showed that the total phenolic varied widely between ecotypes (from 198 to 323 mg GAE/100 g). The DPPH radical scavenging activity of all the ecotypes was relatively high. The antioxidant activity of pearl millet flour significantly varied among ecotypes and ranged from 62.5 to 86.4%. Fractionation of phenolic extracts by HPLC showed 3 major peaks and several minor peaks: Trans-cinnamic (486 to 677 μg/g of extract), protocatechic (127 to 452.4 μg/g of extract) and hydroxybenzoic (253.5 to 437.6 μg/g of extract) were the most important. Identifying ecotypes growing under local agricultural conditions with significant levels of beneficial factors could not only provide health benefit to consumers but also promote the value-added cultivation and stimulate industrial and economic growth. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Isolation and Molecular Identification of Campylobacter spp . from Vaginal Swab Sample Obtained from Sheep Herds with Abort History

Campylobacteriosis is a contagious and zoonotic infection characterized by abortion and infertility in cattle and sheep. The objective of this study was to investigate Campylobacter spp. cause to abortion in sheep herds in Kars province. For this purpose, a total of 350 vaginal swab samples obtained from sheep with abortion were examined by cultural and molecular methods. Swab samples were inoculated on Preston Campylobacter Selective Agar for isolation of Campylobacter species. Following the incubation, suspected colonies were subjected to Gram staining, mobility, oxidase and catalase tests for identification. Multiplex PCR (m-PCR) was used for the identification of Campylobacter isolates at species level. Campylobacter spp. was isolated in 8 (2.28%) of the 350 vaginal swab samples examined. Of 3 isolates were identified as Campylobacter jejuni and 5 were C. coli by m-PCR. According to the data obtained from this study, it was revealed that Campylobacter species should be taken into consideration in the abortion cases of sheep in this region. Considering the risk of this infection both in terms of animal health and human health, it is thought that more attention should be given to protection and control measures.
Automatic Underfrequency Load Shedding and Load Shedding Plans Reliability

1 16 U.S.C. 824o (2006). 2 16 U.S.C. 824o(e). 3 Rules Concerning Certification of the Electric Reliability Organization; and Procedures for the Establishment, Approval, and Enforcement of Electric Reliability Standards, Order No. 672, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,204, order on reh’g, Order No. 672–A, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,212 (2006). 4 North American Electric Reliability Corp., 116 FERC ¶ 61,062, order on reh’g and compliance, 117 FERC ¶ 61,126 (2006), aff’d sub nom. Alcoa, Inc. v. FERC, 564 F.3d 1342 (D.C. Cir. 2009). 5 Mandatory Reliability Standards for the BulkPower System, Order No. 693, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,242, at P 603, order on reh’g, Order No. 693– A, 120 FERC ¶ 61,053 (2007). 6 Id. P 1479. 7 Id. PP 1477, 1479. 8 The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this docket included a primer on UFLS programs generally. Automatic Underfrequency Load Shedding and Load Shedding Plans Reliability Standards, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 76 Fed. Reg. 66,220 (October 26, 2011), FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 32,682 (2011). For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Annette L. Vietti-Cook, Secretary of the Commission.
Relative nullity foliation of the screen distribution of lightlike Einstein hypersurfaces in Lorentzian spaces

This paper deals with results concerning the relative nullity foliation of the screen distribution of a lightlike Einstein hypersurface M in the Lorentzian space and gives a characterization theorem for the relative nullity spaces. Many differences from the Riemannian case are due to the fact that the metric in consideration is degenerate.
esponse and biophysical regulation of carbon dioxide fluxes to limate variability and anomaly in contrasting ecosystems in orthwestern Ohio , USA

Recent climate variability and anomaly in the Great Lakes region provided a valuable opportunity in examining the response and regulation of ecosystem carbon cycling across different ecosystems. A simple Bayesian hierarchical model was developed and fitted against three-year (2011–2013) net ecosystem CO2 exchange (FCO2 ) data observed at three eddy-covariance sites (i.e., a deciduous woodland, a cropland, and a marsh) in northwestern Ohio. The model was designed to partition the variation of gross ecosystem production (GEP), ecosystem respiration (ER) and FCO2 that resulted directly from the shortterm environmental forcing (i.e., direct effect) and indirectly from the changes of ecosystem functional traits (e.g., structural, physiological, and phenological traits) (i.e., indirect effect). Interannual variation of FCO2 was mainly driven by indirect effects, accounting for 54%, 89%, and 86% of the interannual variation at the woodland, cropland, and marsh sites, respectively. On the other hand, direct climatic effects accounted for 33% of interannual FCO2 variation at the woodland site and became irrelevant (<10%) at the cropland and marsh sites. In general, annual GEP and ER at each site tended to co-vary and dampen the interannual variability in FCO2 . Yet, year-to-year changes of GEP and ER were not spatially synchronous, suggesting that the ecosystem’s response to climate was strongly site-specific in terms of the annual net CO2 uptake. Future research should focus on the disparate response among ecosystems and develop a suitable framework to examine the mechanisms that drive differences in closely co-located ecosystems. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Relations between Semidefinite, Copositive, Semi-infinite and Integer Programming

Mathematical programming is a vast area of research in mathematics. On the basis of special structure this field can be further classified into many other, not necessarily completely distinct, classes. In this thesis we will focus on two classes, namely Cone Programming and Semi-infinite Programming. Semi-infinite programming represents optimization problems with infinite many constraints and finitely many variables. This field emerged in 1924, but the name semi-infinite programming was coined in 1965. Cone programming is the class of problems in which the variable should belong to a certain cone. The most interesting application of cone programming is cone programming relaxation which has numerous example in combinatorial optimization and other branches of science and mathematics. The most popular and well known cone programs are semidefinite programs. These programs got popularity due to there huge application in combinatorial optimization. Another class of cone programing is copositive programing. Copositive programming has recently gained attention of researchers for their application to solve hard combinatorial optimization problems. Our main focus in this thesis will be on copositive programming. Another problem of interest is to analyze the way how we can represent these different classes in terms of each other. We will consider the restrictions and benefits we will obtain for these kind of representations. Normally these kind of representations helps to use algorithms available for one class, for the solution/approximation or finding good bounds for other classes of problems. Eigenvalue optimization can be seen as the building block for the development of semidefinite programming. In this thesis we will investigate this relationship to answer the question whether one can solve semidefinite program by formulating it as an equivalent eigenvalue optimization with the aid of semi-infinite programming
Cognitive Flexibility as a Salient Predictor of Gambling Severity in Young Adults

Although gambling disorder (GD) is often characterized as a problem of impulsivity, compulsivity has recently been proposed as a potentially important feature of addictive disorders. The present analysis assessed the neurocognitive and clinical relationship between compulsivity on gambling behavior. A sample of 552 non-treatment seeking gamblers age 18-29 was recruited from the community for a study on gambling in young adults. Gambling severity levels included both casual and disordered gamblers. All participants completed the Intra/Extra-Dimensional Set Shift (IED) task, from which the total adjusted errors were correlated with gambling severity measures, and linear regression modeling was used to assess three error measures from the task. The present analysis found significant positive correlations between problems with cognitive flexibility and gambling severity (reflected by the number of DSM-5 criteria, gambling frequency, amount of money lost in the past year, and gambling urge/behavior severity). IDED errors also showed a positive correlation with self-reported compulsive behavior scores. A significant correlation was also found between IDED errors and non-planning impulsivity from the BIS. Linear regression models based on total IDED errors, extra-dimensional (ED) shift errors, or pre-ED shift errors indicated that these factors accounted for a significant portion of the variance noted in several variables. These findings suggest that cognitive flexibility may be an important consideration in the assessment of gamblers. Results from correlational and linear regression analyses support this possibility, but the exact contributions of both impulsivity and cognitive flexibility remain entangled. Future studies will ideally be able to assess the longitudinal relationships between gambling, compulsivity, and impulsivity, helping to clarify the relative contributions of both impulsive and compulsive features.