Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cauchy Theory for General Kinetic Vicsek Models in Collective Dynamics and Mean-Field Limit Approximations

In this paper we provide a local Cauchy theory both on the torus and in the whole space for general Vicsek dynamics at the kinetic level. We consider rather general interaction kernels, nonlinear viscosity and nonlinear friction. Particularly, we include normalised kernels which display a singularity when the flux of particles vanishes. Thus, in terms of the Cauchy theory for the kinetic equation, we extend to more general interactions and complete the program initiated in Gamba et. al. (2016) (where the authors assume that the singularity does not take place) and in Figalli et. al. (2017) (where the authors prove that the singularity does not happen in the space homogeneous case). Moreover, we derive an explicit lower time of existence as well as a global existence criterion that is applicable, among other cases, to obtain a long time theory for non-renormalised kernels and for the original Vicsek problem without any a priori assumptions. On the second part of the paper, we also establish the mean-field limit in the large particle limit for an approximated (regularized) system that coincides with the original one whenever the flux does not vanish. Based on the results proved for the limit kinetic equation, we prove that for short times, the probability that the dynamics of this approximated particle system coincides with the original singular dynamics tends to one in the many particle limit.
Engineering Geology: Fundamental Input or Random Variable?

Geologists and engineers view the world in complementary but different ways. Science seeks to explain all observed details, whereas engineering seeks to design with specific objectives and multiple constraints. National guidance in the United States calls for geotechnical site investigations to be performed by geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists. Site characterization should start with geologic models, which form the basis for ground models (geologic models with engineering parameters) and geotechnical models (ground models with predicted performance based on design parameters). If the geologic model is wrong, then neither the ground model nor the geotechnical model can be correct. Fundamental geologic variability makes some details unforeseeable. Insufficient geotechnical investigations, faulty interpretations, or failure to portray results understandably contribute to inappropriate designs or failures. If the geologist does not interpret the geology and explain it clearly, then the engineer will be forced to interpret it or ignore it. Incomplete or inaccurate geotechnical site characterization can lead to selection of incorrect models, geotechnical properties, and design values. Furthermore, project managers responsible only for design and construction may view geologic site characterization as extra cost if benefits result in improved life-cycle reliability or reduced maintenance costs but do not improve design or construction.
Single Particle Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry with Nanosecond Time Resolution

In this proof-of-principle study, we present our contribution to single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP­MS) developments with a novel in-house built data acquisition system with nanosecond time resolution (nsDAQ) and a matching data processing approach. The new system can continuously sample the secondary electron multiplier (SEM) detector signal and enables the detection of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) as small as 7 nm with a commercial single quadru-pole ICP­MS instrument. Recording of the SEM signal by the nsDAQ is performed with a dwell time of approximately 4 ns. A tailored method was developed to process this type of transient data, which is based on determining the temporal dis-tance between detector events that is denoted as event gap (EG). We found that the inverse logarithm of EG is proportional to the particle size and the number of detector events corresponding to a particle signal distribution can be used to calibrate and determine the particle number concentration of a nanoparticle dispersion. Due to the high data acquisition frequency, a statistically significant number of data points can be obtained in under 30 s and the main measurement time limitation for analyses is merely the sample uptake time and rinsing step between analyte solutions.
Extending the social category label effect to stigmatized groups: Lesbian and gay people’s reactions to “homosexual” as a label

The social category label effect describes how labels influence people’s perceptions of social groups. Though the label “homosexual” versus “lesbian/gay” decreases some heterosexual people’s support for sexual minorities, it is unknown how lesbian and gay (LG) people respond to “homosexual” as a label used to describe them. Across three experiments in a largely U.S. context (N=831), we examined how use of “homosexual” influenced people’s responses on psychological instruments, preferences for demographic questions, and evaluations of individuals who use “homosexual. ” The use of different labels in psychological measures did not influence LG people’s responses (Study 1). However, LG people reacted less positively to “homosexual” compared to “lesbian/gay” in demographic questions and in interpersonal exchanges (Studies 2-3), whereas heterosexual people’s reactions were largely unaffected. LG people’s more negative reactions to “homosexual” than “lesbian/gay” were partially explained by them perceiving the “homosexual” label user as less culturally competent (i.e., less inclusive, less engaged in LGBTQ activism). In this article, we make progress in new empirical territory (sexual orientation-based cues research), propose the notion of linguistic heterosexism, and discuss the sociopolitical implications of people’s language choices.
Analysis of Electronic Cinema Projection with the Texas Instruments Digital Micromirror Device™ Display System

As audio and video applications make the transition from analog to digital signal representation, anticipation grows toward the age of the digital cinema, when motion pictures are recorded, distributed, and displayed as bits and pixels rather than as film. Electronic cinema will be digital cinema — and the Digital Micromirror Device(DMD) is well-suited to provide the motion picture experience to the digital cinema customer.
Visible Light Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue Using Polypyrrole-Coated Molybdenum-Based Magnetic Photocatalyst

In this study, Ppy@MoO3@Fe3O4 photocatalyst was used to degrade methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. The optimum catalyst loading, initial MB dye concentration, and solution pH was found to be 500 ppm, 40 ppm, and pH 5, respectively, and resulted to 94.1% MB dye degradation within 90 min irradiation. The mineralization of MB obtained 93% TOC removal. Pseudo-first order kinetic model governed the degradation of MB having a rate constant of 0.027 min-1. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that h+ and O2 species played a critical role in the visible light photocatalytic degradation of MB. The Ppy@MoO3@Fe3O4 photocatalyst also showed better photocatalytic performance on MB dye degradation compared to MoO3@Fe3O4 and controls. Finally, the Ppy@MoO3@Fe3O4 photocatalyst exhibited consistently high performance even after 4 cycles, proving that the as-prepared nanomaterial can be considered as a promising photocatalyst with good photocatalytic activity, stability, and reusability.
Rhizospheric soil metabarcoding analysis of Alnus nepalensis from Darjeeling hills reveals the abundance of nitrogen-fixing symbiotic microbes

ABSTRACT Actinorhizal plants are employed as successional plants for ecological restoration mainly due to their nitrogen-fixing ability. Alnus nepalensis or Nepali alder of Darjeeling hills is one of the potential plants used for agroforestry and known for its symbiotic association with an actinobacterium, Frankia. In this study, we performed a comparative16S rRNA amplicon analysis among six soil samples of Alnus rhizosphere and Non-rhizosphere of different altitudes of Darjeeling hills. Bioinformatics analyses were performed through the MG-RAST web server. Results revealed a set of 32 core bacterial genera among both rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere. Interestingly, Alnus rhizospheric soil samples were more populated with nitrogen-fixing taxa than non-rhizospheric or bulk soil. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria like Frankia and Cyanobacteria may play an important synergistic role in the proper growth and developmental stages of these plants. They are crucial for increasing the nitrogen amount of the soil through nitrogen fixation and gradually help in increasing the soil fertility and thus help in the proper progression of Alnus through the seral stages of succession. Nonrhizospheric soil samples were having a distinct population of other soil bacteria like Streptomyces, Rubrobacter, and Xanthomonas with higher Alpha diversity (54.14) than Alnus rhizospheric soil (42.18). This result was also validated by the rare fraction curve, which indicated more biodiversity in Non-rhizospheric soil rather than Alnus rhizosphere.
Multidimensional Trajectory Tracking for Numerically Stiff Independent Metering System

This paper presents a new approach for solving an optimal control problem in a hydraulic system, using a variational calculus method. It uses a path tracking method of two different states with different units and of different magnitude. To ensure the uniqueness of the solution, two regularization terms were introduced, whose influence is regulated by regularization parameters. The system of differential equations, obtained from the Euler-Lagrange equations of the variational problem, was solved by a mass matrix method and discretized with linear differential operators at the interstitial points for numerical stability. This enabled the calculation of the control variables, despite the stiffness of the numerical problem. The results obtained show an energy-efficient performance and no oscillations. Finally, a Simulink model of the hydraulic system was created in which the calculated control variables were inserted as feed-forward inputs, to verify the results.
New Way of Synthesis of Few-Layer Graphene Nanosheets by the Self Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis Method from Biopolymers

For the first time, few-layer graphene (FLG) nanosheets were synthesized by the method of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) from biopolymers (glucose, starch, and cellulose). We suggest that biopolymers and polysaccharides, particularly starch, could be an acceptable source of native cycles for the SHS process. The carbonization of biopolymers under the conditions of the SHS process was chosen as the basic method of synthesis. Under the conditions of the SHS process, chemical reactions proceed according to a specific mechanism of nonisothermal branched-chain processes, which are characterized by the joint action of two fundamentally different process-accelerating factors—avalanche reproduction of active intermediate particles and self-heating. The method of obtaining FLG nanosheets included the thermal destruction of hydrocarbons in a mixture with an oxidizing agent. We used biopolymers as hydrocarbons and ammonium nitrate as an oxidizing agent. Thermal destruction was carried out in SHS mode, heating the mixture in a vessel up to 150–200 °C at a heating speed of 20–30 °C/min and keeping at this temperature for 15–20 min with the discharge of excess gases into the atmosphere. A combination of spectrometric research methods, supplemented by electron microscopy data, has shown that the particles of the carbonated product powder in their morphometric and physical parameters correspond to FLG nanosheets. An X-ray diffraction analysis of the indicated FLG nanosheets was carried out, which showed the absence of formations with a graphite crystal structure in the final material. The surface morphology was also studied, and the IR absorption features of FLG nanosheets were analyzed. It is shown that the developed SHS method makes it possible to obtain FLG nanosheets with linear dimensions of tens of microns and a thickness of not more than 1–5 graphene layers (several graphene layers).
IDENTIFIKASI KEMATANGAN BUAH PISANG (Musa paradisiaca ) DENGAN TEKNIK JARINGAN SYARAF TIRUAN

Identification of banana maturity is still done manually by the farmers. This leads to a lack of accuracy of identification in large amounts . This study was conducted to build a system capable of identifying ripeness of bananas using neural networks with image processing. The input images were bananas which were identified based on color histogram (RGB) and thent the program wasbuilt using visual basic. The system was trained with some banana image data that have different values in each classification in order to identify the level of maturity of the bananas with backpropagation method. From the identification that had been done it was found that the success rate was 100% for raw banana, almost ripe was 80%, ripe was 100% and over ripe was 100%. The identification results wass influenced by the way of taking pictures of fruit. Keyword : Artificial neural network, back propagation, banana, identification, Image processing,
Assessment of character strengths

Character strengths are among the most frequently studied research topics in positive psychology (Donaldson et al., 2015). This chapter briefly introduces the VIA classification of character strengths and virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) and discusses some general considerations when assessing character strengths. We then focus on reviewing different instruments that have been used to assess character strengths across different age groups and contexts. Overall, we aim to provide an overview of the instruments available and the challenges that go along with assessing character strengths.
Competing or Complimentary Actors in the Journalistic Field? An Analysis of the Mediation of the COVID-19 Pandemic by Mainstream and Peripheral Content Creators in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Unlike previous pandemics and epidemics, the ever-mutating coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) has attracted the attention of both the mainstream and peripheral journalistic actors across the globe. Similar to professional journalists, peripheral actors produced and circulated locally specific public health information on COVID-19 and challenged state media narratives. This article, which focuses on Zimbabwe, attempts to critically analyse the ways in which mainstream and peripheral journalistic actors complemented and competed against each other in their bid to produce and circulate credible and truthful information about the COVID-19. The article employs a mix of in-depth interviews with mainstream and peripheral journalistic actors as well as qualitative content analysis of news articles published by The Herald and Twitter posts published by peripheral actors (including public intellectuals, social media influencers, ordinary people) popularly known as Twimbos (Zimbabweans on Twitter). Although public health communication was centralised by the government bodies, this article provides new evidence of how peripheral journalistic actors played an instrumental role in educating and providing life-saving information about the pandemic as well as exposing multiple government failures in handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Application of IEC 61850 GOOSE Technology on Protective Relaying

An analysis is made of the GOOSE technology on the IEC 61850 standard,the hardware structure and software logic of the protection device based on the requirements on reliability and rapidity of protective relaying,the operation and maintenance,and the engineering design.This paper mainly studies and resolves such critical problems regarding the application of GOOSE technology of protective relaying as the structure of network in a digitalized substation,the application of the intelligent breaker and switch,the manipulation of GOOSE messages,isolated measurement for IED operation and maintenance,and the configuration and project design method.The scheme for the application of GOOSE technology to protective relaying has been effectively implemented in a certain project.
EVALUATION OF ADIABATIC TEMPERATURE RISE OF CONCRETE MEASURED WITH THE NEW TESTING APPARATUS

The influence of different types of cement, cement content per unit volume of concrete, and concreting temperatures on adiabatic temperature rise were evaluated during this study. The Adiabatic temperature rise was measured with a new testing apparatus, with high reliability that has been confirmed through comparison with time-dependent temperature changes in mass concrete structures. Before the evaluation, the most suitable equation for approximating the adiabatic temperature rise as a functional formula of time was selected based on the experimental results. Further, comparison of the above approximate values with standard values proposed by JSCE or JCI was done, and problems involved in these standard values were pointed out.
The Effect of the Operational Parameters on the Draft Requirement of Ripping in a Sandy Clay Soil

This study set out to investigate the effect of operational parameters (i.e. ripping depth and operational speed) during a ripping operation on the draft requirement during ripping in a sandy-clay soil. Field experiments, laboratory tests and numerical modelling techniques were utilised to observe how the draft force varied with changing values of the operational parameters. The discrete element method in the EDEM AcademicTM software platform was employed to model the soil en-masse to obtain a virtual experimentation platform on which different treatments combing different settings of the operational parameters were investigated. Statistical methods, including ANOVA, regression analysis and the student t-test were applied to establish the significance of the effect of the operational parameters on the draft requirement; statistical analysis revealed that the draft increased linearly with the ripping depth and operating speed suggesting that they are directly proportional. Lower values of the ripping depth and operating speed were found to give the minimum amount of the draft requirement.
Using haptics to address mobile interaction design challenges : prototyping and user evaluation with a handheld tactile display

Current user interfaces for mobile and handheld computing platforms principally offer user interaction through the visual and auditory modalities. However, mobile devices are often used in contexts where vision and hearing are impaired. At the same time, more and more functionality is being layered upon mobile devices, while the physical size of the display and keypad has remained small. This limits the rate of information that can be exchanged between the user and the system, and poses an interaction design challenge. Haptics offers a potential solution by providing an additional modality that is also especially well-suited to the demands of portable, personal devices that are in contact with the user’s skin. In this work we identify ways that interaction through the sense of touch can enhance mobile user interfaces. We describe the synergistic process of design of user interaction concepts and novel handheld tactile display hardware based on the principle of piezoelectric actuated lateral skin stretch. Following the realization of the prototype hardware, we performed perceptual characterization studies to determine the expressive capabilities of the new device in the hands of a human user. Informed by the results from the initial user studies, we built and tested a handheld browser application with tactile enhancement. The results of user testing with the browser
Efficient Malware Classification by Binary Sequences with One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Networks

The rapid increase of malware attacks has become one of the main threats to computer security. Finding the best way to detect malware has become a critical task in cybersecurity. Previous work shows that machine learning approaches could be a solution to address this problem. Many proposed methods convert malware executables into grayscale images and apply convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for malware classification. However, converting malware executables into images could twist the one-dimensional structure of binary codes. To address this problem, we explore the bit and byte-level sequences from malware executables and propose efficient one-dimensional (1D) CNNs for the malware classification. Our experiments evaluate our proposed 1D CNN models with two benchmark datasets. Our proposed 1D CNN models achieve better performance from the experimental results than the existing 2D CNNs malware classification models by providing smaller resizing bit/byte-level sequences with less computational cost.
PRiDAN: Person Re-identification from Drones with Adaptive Weights and Expanded Neighbourhood

There has been a growing interest in drone applications and many computer vision tasks were specifically adapted to drone scenarios such as SLAM, object detection, depth estimation, etc. Person re-identification is one of the tasks that can be effectively performed from drones and new datasets specifically geared towards aerial person imagery emerge. In addition to the common problems found in almost every person re-ID dataset, the most significant difference to static CCTV re-ID is the very different human pose across views from the top and similar appearance of different people but also motion blur, light conditions, low resolution and occlusions. To address these problems, we propose to combine a Part-based Convolutional Baseline (PCB), which exploits local features, with an adaptive weight distribution strategy, which assigns different weights to similar and dissimilar samples. The result shows that our method outperforms the state of the arts by a large margin. In addition, we propose a re-ranking method which aggregates Expanded Cross Neighborhood (ECN) distance and Jaccard distance to compute the final ranking. Compared to the existing methods, our re-ranking achieves 3.30% and 3.03% improvement on mAP and rank-1 accuracy, respectively.
Surface layer microstructure evolution during interdiffusion annealing of chromium electroplated iron substrates

Objective of the present study was the understanding of the interdiffusion behaviour of chromium in deposited layers on a pure iron substrate. For this purpose, the layer substrate systems were vacuum‐annealed for 6 h, 12 h and 24 h at temperatures between 970 °C and 1090 °C, respectively. After the interdiffusion treatment, samples were analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in combination with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy line analysis (EDX) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The results revealed that interdiffusion causes multimodal microstructure evolution. The applied chromium layer remained fine‐grained due to the formation of nano‐sized chromium oxides on grain boundaries during vacuum annealing. At the interface to the substrate some of those fine grains grew into the interdiffusion zone and caused stress relief during interdiffusion. Details of the microstructural changes, like a concentration step formation on account of a Cr concentration‐dependent shift of the fcc to bcc phase boundary and the formation of a pore network in the interface area, were discussed using the results of the microstructure analysis as well as phase diagrams and thus contributing to the development of interdiffusion coated plain carbon steels.