Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In‐air analysis of piezoelectric Tonpilz transducers in a wide frequency band using a mixed finite element–plane wave method

A detailed modal analysis of several axisymmetrical or fully three‐dimensional Tonpilz transducers is carried out, both with a plane wave approach and with the finite element method. It allows identification and classification of the modes in a broad frequency range (longitudinal modes of the ceramic stack, flexural modes of the head mass, and longitudinal modes of the stress rod) and demonstrates that the motion of the ceramic part of the structure remains essentially of plane wave type. Following this conclusion, a mixed finite element–plane wave method is proposed and described, which gives fairly good results and uses the computational resources efficiently. Moreover, it is likely to be applied to other types of projectors.
Structure of decision : the cognitive maps of political elites

This book outlines a new approach to the analysis of decision making based on "cognitive maps. " A cognitive map is a graphic representation intended to capture the structure of a decision maker's stated beliefs about a particular problem. Following introductory chapters that develop the theory and techniques of cognitive mapping, a set of five empirical studies applies these new techniques to five policy areas. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Invariant tracking control design via integrator backstepping

A tracking control problem for systems in state representation possessing a Lie symmetry group G is considered. By designing an invariant feedback control law based on invariant tracking errors the symmetry group G can be preserved under feedback. An extension of this approach to the popular integrator backstepping design method is presented. (© 2010 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Beam splitter and beam bends based on self-collimation effect in two-dimensional photonic crystals

Basing on the self-collimation effect of photonic crystals, one-to-two beam splitter, beam bend and one-to-three beam splitter are, respectively, designed by introducing a different line defect along the same direction. From the equal-frequency contour plot which is calculated by the plane wave expansion method, we obtain the frequency and the propagate direction of the self-collimated beam. The self-collimated beam propagation in photonic crystals with different line defects is simulated by the two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method with perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary conditions. The simulation results show that one-to-two beam splitter, beam bend and one-to-three beam splitter can be realized by appropriately arranging the line defect along the proper direction. Such devices can greatly enhance photonic crystals for use in high-density optical integrated circuits.
The Magellanic System's Interactive Formations

Abstract The interaction between the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds has resulted in several high-velocity complexes which are connected to the Clouds. The complexes are known as the Magellanic Bridge, an HI connection between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the Magellanic Stream, a 10° × 100° HI filament which trails the Clouds, and the Leading Arm, a diffuse HI filament which leads the Clouds. The mechanism responsible for these features formation remains under some debate, with the lack of detailed HI observations being one of the limiting factors in resolving the issue. Here I present several large mosaics of HI Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS) data which show the full extent of the three Magellanic complexes at almost twice the resolution of previous observations. These interactive features are connected, but unique in their spatial and velocity distribution. The differences may shed light on their origin and present environment. Dense clumps of HI along the sightline to the Sculptor Group, which may or may not be associated with the Magellanic complexes, are also discussed.
Stability and Stabilization of Discrete-time Markov Jump Piecewise-affine Systems

Abstract In this paper, the problems of stability and stabilization for a class of discrete-time Markov jump nonlinear systems are investigated, where the nonlinearities are approximated by piecewise-affine (PWA) dynamics. The proposed system is general as it can cover both the conventional Markov jump linear system and PWA systems as special cases. A concept of admissible adjacent switching paths (AASPs) set is proposed to reduce the conservatism of stability analysis, paralleling to the region switching pairs in the context of conventional PWA systems. A simultaneous mode-dependent and region-dependent affine controller is designed based on a S-procedure of using ellipsoidal outer approximation such that the closed-loop system is stochastically stable. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness and potential of the developed theoretical results.
Polynomial matrix solution to the standard H 2 optimal control problem

A solution to the ‘standard’ H 2 optimal control problem is presented. The solution is derived in both traditional Wiener transfer function form and in the more recent polynomial matrix form. The general formulation enables coloured measurement noise and dynamic cost weightings to be included in the system description. The results also apply when single or two degrees of freedom controller structures are employed. The feedforward control problem can also be represented within the general framework considered.
Edge and corner identification for tracking the line of sight

This article presents an edge-corner detector, implemented in the realm of the GEIST project (an Computer Aided Touristic Information System) to extract the information of straight edges and their intersections (image corners) from camera-captured (real world) and computer-generated images (from the database of Historical Monuments, using ob- server position and orientation data). Camera and computer-generated images are processed for reduction of detail, skeletonization and corner-edge detection. The corners surviving the detection and skeletonization process from both images are treated as landmarks and fed to a matching algorithm, which estimates the sampling errors which usually contaminate GPS and pose tracking data (fed to the computer-image generatator).
Deposition and Patterning Technique for Realization of Pb(Zr0.52, Ti0.48)O3 Thick Film Micro Actuator

The deposition technology for thin PZT (Pb(Zr0.52,Ti0.48)O3) layers has reached an advanced state in the application area of memory fabrication. On the other hand, the application of PZT layers for actuation of micro electromechanical system (MEMS) is not well established. A relatively thicker film is necessary for this application. Conventional preparation techniques provide poor deposition rates and the accumulated residual stress during deposition results in the deposited layer peeling off. Another difficulty lies in the low etching rate of the multilayered structure of SiO2/Ti/Pt/PZT. These are the reasons why we have studied thick PZT film preparation technology and efficient pattering processes. Thick film deposition processes include repeated multilayer coating by the sol-gel method, the excimer laser ablation deposition (ELAD), and the jet molding system (JMS). Pattering processes include RIE, ECR and deposition methods on a non-planar surface. The electrical properties of PZT layers were determined for microfabricated actuators.
Synthetic geomicrobiology: engineering microbe–mineral interactions for space exploration and settlement

Abstract Synthetic geomicrobiology is a potentially new branch of synthetic biology that seeks to achieve improvements in microbe–mineral interactions for practical applications. In this paper, laboratory and field data are provided on three geomicrobiology challenges in space: (1) soil formation from extraterrestrial regolith by biological rock weathering and/or the use of regolith as life support system feedstock, (2) biological extraction of economically important elements from rocks (biomining) and (3) biological solidification of surfaces and dust control on other planetary surfaces. The use of synthetic or engineered organisms in these three applications is discussed. These three examples are used to extract general common principles that might be applied to the design of organisms used in synthetic geomicrobiology.
Series expansion of functions with He's homotopy perturbation method

Finding a series expansion, such as Taylor series, of functions is an important mathematical concept with many applications. Homotopy perturbation method (HPM) is a new, easy to use and effective tool for solving a variety of mathematical problems. In this study, we present how to apply HPM to obtain a series expansion of functions. Consequently, this article presents an alternative approach, contrary to the traditional Taylor series method, for finding a series expansion of functions. The developed approach can be incorporated in an undergraduate course.
Radio continuum observations of IRAS sources associated with dense cores

Using the VLA, the continuum emission associated with IRAS sources embedded in dense cores was searched for at 6 cm. Two new sources, 04016 + 2610 in L1489 and 19243 + 2350 in L778, were detected. The embedded sources have low luminosity (L less than about 10 solar luminosities). As in other similar sources, if the emission is free-free, the stellar radiation cannot account for the observed ionization rate. Two models that have been proposed to explain the radio continuum emission from low-luminosity stars are those of (partially) ionized winds and shock-induced ionization. For the two new sources and a previously reported one (HL Tau), the associated molecular outflow is of modest power. It is shown that, under these conditions, these models, at least in their simplest versions, do not provide sufficient ionized gas. The nature of the radio continuum emission from low-luminosity young stars remains unexplained. 46 refs.
Enhanced absorption of intense short-pulse laser light by subwavelength nanolayered target

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation shows that a target with subwavelength nanolayered front can reduce the reflection and increase the absorption of the energy of an intense short laser pulse. The electrons within the skin depth on the surfaces of the nanolayers are accelerated by J × B heating to relativistic velocities and ejected into the narrow vacuum spaces between the layers. They then propagate forward with most of the absorbed laser energy along the surfaces of the layers. Conversion of the laser energy into electron energy can be enhanced by optimizing the vacuum spacing between the nanolayers since the phase structure of the laser field in the target is modified. The effects of the layer width, length, and spacing on the energy conversion efficiency are investigated.
Quantized conductance in quantum wires with gate-controlled width and electron density

We describe quantum wires and point contacts fabricated in GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs heterostructures that are free of the disorder introduced by modulation doping and in which the electron density and the confining potential are separately adjustable by lithographically defined gates. We observe conductance plateaus quantized near even multiples of e2/h in 2 μm wires and up to 15 conductance steps in 5 μm wires at temperatures below 1 K. Near the conductance threshold the quantum point contact and the 2 μm wire both show additional structure below 2e2/h.
A mathematics support programme for first-year engineering students

This article describes a mathematics support programme at the University of Queensland, targeted at first-year engineering students identified as having a high risk of failing a first-year mathematics course in calculus and linear algebra. It describes how students were identified for the programme and the main features of the programme. The success of the programme was evaluated using student feedback as well as a comparison of the performance of students who participated in the support programme with those of a similar background who briefly attended or did not attend the programme. The pass rate in the supported group of regular attendees was 79% compared with 43% and 46% in the briefly supported and unsupported groups, respectively. Both student feedback and statistical data indicate that the programme was highly successful in improving the performance of those who regularly engaged with it.
Some Models for Discretized Series of Events

A discretized series of events is a binary time series that indicates whether or not events of a point process in the line occur in successive intervals. Such data are common in environmental applications. We describe a class of models for them, based on an unobserved continuous-time discrete-state Markov process, which determines the rate of a doubly stochastic Poisson process, from which the binary time series is constructed by discretization. We discuss likelihood inference for these processes and their second-order properties and extend them to multiple series. An application involves modeling the times of exposures to air pollution at a number of receptors in Western Europe.
Patch Antenna Array Embedded on a High-impedance Ground Plane

In this paper, patch antenna array embedded on a high-impedance ground plane was studied. The metal plates of high impedance surface have same shape and almost equal dimension as patch of antenna. Due to the resonant effect, the gain of patch antenna array at = 0 increase about 4.25 dB. Especially, the first side-lobe level of antenna array was suppressed largely. Basic agreement between simulation and experiment was obtained.
A Noval MPPT Design Based on the Seagull ฀ ptimization Alg ο rithm for Ph ο tov ο ltaic Systems Operating Under Partial Shading

: The use of a maximum power point (MPP) tracking (MPPT) controller is required for photovoltaic (PV) systems to extract maximum power from PV panels. However, under partial shading conditions, the PV cells/panels do not receive uniform insolation due to several power maxima appear on the PV array's P-V characteristic, a global MPP (GMPP) and two or more local MPPs (LMPPs). In this scenerio, conventional MPPT methods, including pertub and observe (P& Օ ) and incremental conductance (INC), fail to differentiate between a GMPP and a LMPP, as they converge on the MPP that makes contact first, which in most cases is one of the LMPPs. This results in considerable energy loss. To address this issue, this paper introduces a new MPPT method based on the Seagull Optimization Algorithm (SOA) to operate PV systems at GMPP with high efficiency. The SOA is a new member of the bio-inspired algorithms. When compared to other evolutionary techniques, it uses fewer operators and modification parameters, which is advantageous when considering the rapid design process. In this paper, the SOA-based MPPT scheme is first proposed and then implemented for an 80 W PV system using the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The effectiveness of the SOA based MPPT method is verified by comparing its performance with P& Օ and PSO (particle swarm optimization) based MPPT methods under different shading scenarios. The results demonstrated that the SOA based MPPT method performs better in terms of tracking accuracy and efficiency
The influence of multipath on ship ATR performance

Based on measurements of a ship at 17 GHz and on several simulated ships at 35GHz it is demonstrated how multipath changes the range profiles that form a basis for the construction of ATR features for ship classification. The fluctuation of range profiles leads to a corresponding fluctuation of feature values that make it difficult to define stable test feature vectors, and reliable feature references in the training stage.
People, places, and time: a large-scale, longitudinal study of transformed avatars and environmental context in group interaction in the metaverse

As the metaverse expands, understanding how people use virtual reality to learn and connect is increasingly important. We used the Transformed Social Interaction paradigm (Bailenson, J. N., Beall, A. C., Loomis, J., Blascovich, J., & Turk, M. (2004). Transformed social interaction: Decoupling representation from behavior and form in collaborative virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments , 13 (4), 428–441) to examine different avatar identities and environments over time. In Study 1 ( n ¼ 81), entitativity, presence, enjoyment, and realism increased over 8 weeks. Avatars that resembled participants increased synchrony, similarities in moment-to-moment nonverbal behaviors between participants. Moreover, self-avatars increased self-presence and realism, but decreased enjoyment, compared to uniform avatars. In Study 2 ( n ¼ 137), participants cycled through 192 unique virtual environments. As visible space increased, so did nonverbal synchrony, per- ceived restorativeness, entitativity, pleasure, arousal, self- and spatial presence, enjoyment, and realism. Outdoor environments increased perceived restorativeness and enjoyment more than indoor environments. Self-presence and realism increased over time in both studies. We dis- cuss implications of avatar appearance and environmental context on social behavior in classroom contexts over time.
Translational Bounds for Factorial n and the Factorial Polynomial

During the period 1729-1826 Bernoulli, Euler, Goldbach and Legendre developed expressions for defining and evaluating n! and the related gamma function. Expressions related to n! and the gamma function are a common feature in computer science and engineering applications. In the modern computer age we live in now, two common tests to determine improved power of new computers are finding new large prime numbers and calculating n! for larger values of n. Therefore it is useful to know how quickly n! grows and what tight bounds exist.
Neural processes for intermittent time series prediction

Prediction of high-dimensional intermittent count timeseries (TS) data is a frequent problem found both in the physical sciences, such as biology, but also in industrial settings, such as retail forecasting. For instance, in retail forecasting, one is interested in predicting the number of sold items of a category for a unit in time which often leads to high-dimensional data sets both on the time scale as well on the number of items to predict. Modern TS models, e.g. Salinas et al. [9] or Salinas et al. [10], rely on recurrent neural networks to jointly model the entire set of time series in contrast to fitting one TS model for each separately. This approach is computationally efficient but does not achieve high predictive accuracy for intermittent count data which are common in retail forecasting, nor does it quantify predictive uncertainty.
Enhanced Ultrafast Broadband Reverse Saturable Absorption in Twistacenes with Enlarged π-Conjugated Central Bridge

Optical nonlinearities of two all-carbon twistacenes, DPyA and DPyN, with the different π-conjugated central bridges were investigated. The nonlinear absorption properties of these compounds were measured using the femtosecond Z-scan with wavelengths between 650 and 900 nm. It has been found that the nonlinear absorption originated from two-photon absorption (TPA) and TPA-induced excited state absorption (ESA), wherein DPyA demonstrates higher performance than DPyN. The TPA cross section of DPyA (4300 GM) is nearly 4.3 times larger than that of DPyN at 650 nm. Moreover, the different central structures modulate the intensity of ESA at 532 nm, and DPyA exhibits an excellent ESA at 532 nm with multi-pulse excitation. Meanwhile, the result of data fitting and quantum chemistry calculation shows that the enhancement of nonlinear absorption in DPyA is due to the extended π- conjugated bridge and improved delocalization of π-electrons. These all-carbon twistacenes could yield potential applications in optical power limiting (OPL) technology.
De novo mapping of α-helix recognition sites on protein surfaces using unbiased libraries

Significance To target disease-causing proteins that are inaccessible to small-molecule or antibody therapies, we are exploring the use of a nature-inspired drug modality that exploits the intrinsically favorable properties of synthetically constrained α-helical polypeptides (Helicons). Here, we report a screening method that enables the de novo discovery of Helicons for protein targets without prior information on their α-helix binding properties, which has significantly limited the proteins and diseases for which Helicons could be discovered. We applied this method to six structurally diverse protein domains and found Helicons that block relevant protein–protein interactions, inhibit enzymatic activity, induce conformational rearrangements, and dimerize their targets, highlighting the strength of the approach in interrogating targets that have been considered “undruggable”.
Targeted Treatment against Lipoprotein (a): The Coming Breakthrough in Lipid Lowering Therapy

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD) are a very important cause of premature death. The most important risk factor for ASCVD is lipid disorders. The incidence of lipid disorders and ASCVD is constantly increasing, which means that new methods of prevention and treatment of these diseases are still being searched for. In the management of patients with lipid disorders, the primary goal of therapy is to lower the serum LDL-C concentration. Despite the available effective lipid-lowering therapies, the risk of ASCVD is still increased in some patients. A high level of serum lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)) is a risk factor for ASCVD independent of serum LDL-C concentration. About 20% of Europeans have elevated serum Lp(a) levels, requiring treatment to reduce serum Lp(a) concentrations in addition to LDL-C. Currently available lipid lowering drugs do not sufficiently reduce serum Lp(a) levels. Hence, drugs based on RNA technology, such as pelacarsen, olpasiran, SLN360 and LY3819469, are undergoing clinical trials. These drugs are very effective in lowering the serum Lp(a) concentration and have a satisfactory safety profile, which means that in the near future they will fill an important gap in the armamentarium of lipid-lowering drugs.