Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flow and Transport in Porous Media and Fractured Rock: From Classical Methods to Modern Approaches

Part 1 Continuum versus discrete models: a hierarchy of heterogeneities and length scales long-range correlations, fractals and percolation continuum versus discrete models. Part 2 The equations of change: the equation of continuity the momentum equation the diffusion and convective-diffusion equations. Part 3 Fractal concepts and percolation theory: box-counting method and self-similar fractals self-affine fractals multifractal systems fractional Brownian motion and long-range correlations percolation processes a glance at history. Part 3 Diagenetic processes and formation of rock: diagenetic and metasomatic processes continuum models of diagenetic processes geometrical models of diagenetic processes in granular rock a geometrical model of carbonate rock diagenetic processes of fractured rock. Part 5 Morphology of porous media and fractured rock: porosity, specific surface area and tortuosity fluid saturation, capillary pressure and contact angle pore size distribution topological properties of porous media fractal properties of porous media porosity and pore size distribution of fractal porous media morphology of fractured rocks. Part 6 Models of porous media: models of macroscopic porous media models of pore surface roughness models of megascopic porous media interpolation schemes and conditional simulation. Part 7 Models of fractured rock: continuum approach - the multi-porosity models network models simulated annealing model synthetic fractal models mechanical fracture models. Part 8 Flow and transport in porous media: the volume-averaging method and derivation of Darcy's law the Brinkman and Forchheimer equations predicting the permeability, conductivity and diffusivity fractal transport and non-local formulation of diffusion derivation of Archie's law relation between permeability and electrical conductivity relation between permeability and nuclear magnetic resonance dynamic permeability. Part 9 Dispersion in porous media: the phenomenon of dispersion mechanisms of dispersion processes the convective-diffusion equation measurement of dispersion coefficients dispersion in simple systems dependence of dispersion coefficients on the Peclet number models of dispersion in macroscopic porous media long-time tails - dead-end pores versus disorder dispersion in short porous media dispersion in porous media with percolation disorder dispersion in megascopic porous media dispersion in stratified porous media. Part 10 Flow and dispersion in fractured rock: flow in a single fracture - continuum and discrete models flow in fractured rock dispersion in a single fracture dispersion in fractured rock. Part 11 Miscible displacements: factors affecting miscible displacement processes viscous fingering continuum models of miscible displacements in Hele-Shaw cells continuum models of miscible displacements in porous media. (Part contents).
Coping with Patients with Medically Unexplained Symptoms

General practitioners (GPs) often meet patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). From a patient perspective, MUS is a well-acknowledged problem within the primary health care services today, but less is known about the GPs’ perceptions. This study aims to elucidate GPs’ perceptions of patients with MUS, focusing on stressing situations, emotional reactions and coping strategies. Twenty-seven physicians participated in focus-group discussions. In the analysis, where a phenomenographic approach was used, six situations were identified as being especially stressful in the encounter with these patients. The GPs described how they used both problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies, but with emotion-focused strategies slightly dominating, indicating that the GPs had difficulties in managing their own stress when working with patients with MUS.
The Therapeutic Mode of Action of 4-Aminopyridine in Cerebellar Ataxia

Episodic ataxia type 2 (EA2) is a hereditary cerebellar ataxia associated with mutations in the P/Q-type voltage-gated calcium (Ca2+) channels. Therapeutic approaches for treatment of EA2 are very limited. Presently, the potassium (K+) channel blocker 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) constitutes the most promising treatment, although its mechanism of action is not understood. Here we show that, in contrast to what is commonly believed, therapeutic concentrations of 4-AP do not increase the inhibitory drive of cerebellar Purkinje cells. Instead, 4-AP restores the severely diminished precision of pacemaking in Purkinje cells of EA2 mutant mice by prolonging the action potential and increasing the action potential afterhyperpolarization. Consistent with this mode of action, the therapeutic efficacy of 4-AP was comparable, and not additive, to chlorzoxazone, an activator of Ca2+-dependent K+ channels that also restores the precision of Purkinje cell pacemaking. The likely target of 4-AP at the concentrations used are the Kv1 family of K+ channels, possibly the Kv1.5 subtype. Because at higher concentrations 4-AP blocks a large array of K+ channels and is a proconvulsant, use of selective Kv1 channel blockers is likely to be a safer substitute for treatment of cerebellar ataxia.
Effects of Air-Entraining Agent on Air Void Parameters of Concrete

Air void parameters of concrete added with six types of air entraining agents £¨AEA£© were studied. The results show that there is no relationship between air content in fresh concrete and that in hardened concrete except concrete with SJ AEA, nor is there a necessary relationship between air content in fresh concrete and spacing factor of hardened concrete. There are substantial differences in spacing factor and air void size distribution between concretes with different AEAs and it is still so even when there is even with same air content in fresh concrete. Air void parameter of concrete with SJ AEA is better than that of concrete with other AEAs. With the increase of air content in fresh concrete with the same AEA, spacing factor first decreases and then increases to some extent. Overrun air entraining would result in poor air void parameters. Air content is not reliable for the evaluation of frost-resistance of concrete with different AEAs.
Algorithm 743: WAPR--a Fortran routine for calculating real values of the W-function

We implement <italic>W</italic>-function approximation scheme described by Barry et al. A range of tests of the approximations is included so that the code can be assessed on any given machine. Users can calculate <italic>W(x)</italic> by specifying <italic>x</italic> itself or by specifying an offset from −exp(−1), the latter option necessitated by rounding errors that can arise for <italic>x</italic> close to −exp(−1). Results of running the code on a <italic>SUN</italic> workstation are included.
Building a disk failure injection framework for Fault-Tolerant systems research

Storage is one of the most common problematic subsystems in a cloud platform. Disks are getting bigger as storage requirements continues to grow everyday. Building highly fault tolerant system requires the ability to recognize and handle various disk errors. Today’s cloud platforms are built with many systems which are composed of heterogeneous storage disks differing in speed and capacity. Infrastructures providing such diversified environment would be ideal for system designers to experiment and test their systems. Such an environment is provided by Emulab testbed. Emulab is a network testbed, giving researchers a wide range of environments in which to develop, debug, and evaluate their systems. Emulab already offers the ability to intentionally degrade hosts and links by turning off the hosts and imposing traffic shaping and drops on the link. In this work, we extend these features to disks. We present a controllable and repeatable disk failure framework for an entire cluster testbed. Device mapper [4] which is a linux driver for creating virtual disk is being used for this purpose. This is still a work in progress.
Fuzzy cognitive maps in business analysis and performance-driven change

Business process reengineering (BPR) has made a significant impact on managers and academics. Despite the rhetoric surrounding BPR, articulated mechanisms, which support reasoning on the effect of the redesign activities to the performance of the business model, are still emerging. This paper describes an attempt to build and operate such a reasoning mechanism as a novel supplement to performance-driven change (PDC) exercises. This new approach proposes the utilization of the fuzzy causal characteristics of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) as the underlying methodology in order to generate a hierarchical and dynamic network of interconnected performance indicators. By using FCMs, the proposed mechanism aims at simulating the operational efficiency of complex process models with imprecise relationships to quantify the impact of performance-driven reengineering activities. This research also establishes generic maps that supplement the strategic planning and business analysis phases of typical redesign projects in order to implement the integration of hierarchical FCMs into PDC activities. Finally, this paper discusses experiments with the proposed mechanism and comments on its usability.
Modeling the delamination process during shear premixing of nanoclay/thermoset polymer nanocomposites

As shear premixing is an important process for the dispersion of nanoclays in polymeric resins, this article studies the effect of temperature, duration, speed of premixing, and also the interlamellar spacing of clay platelets on the dispersion of organoclay in epoxy by using a high speed premixing technique which can generate high shear. The quality of dispersion and intercalation/exfoliation of organoclay in epoxy after premixing (before adding hardener) was analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and rheological measurement. The dispersion and intercalation/exfoliation of organoclay in the epoxy nanocomposites (ENCs) after curing were characterized by TEM. The results illustrate that the intercalation/exfoliation of organoclay in epoxy at the premixing step is very much depending on the premixing parameters. This article also presents a model which takes into account the parameters such as the interlamellar spacing of clay platelets, the viscosity of the epoxy-clay mixtures, and the velocity of the mixer to explain their effect on the dispersion of clay in epoxy resin. The study focuses on the flow of epoxy clay in the high shear mixer to describe a model for predicting the processing conditions necessary for achieving delamination of the clay layers. Experimental results on the dispersion of clay are also provided to validate the model. The model provides a guide for the premixing parameters necessary to separate the clay layers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011
Recent Advances in Polyolefins/Natural Polymer Blends Used for Packaging Application

This article reviews the recent advances made in polyolefin and natural polymer blends used for packaging applications, with a focus on their degradation. Nondegradable polymers are now considered as a serious environmental problem, and they have become an enormous challenge to waste management. Hence, the degradable polymers are practical solutions to reduce the municipal solid waste (MSW) caused by the use of nondegradable polymers. These degradable options can be produced from three kinds of natural sources:- (1) polysaccharides—starch, cellulose, chitin and chitosan; (2) proteins—soya, wheat gluten, collagen/gelatine; and (3) speciality polymers—such as lignin, natural rubber. One major challenge to producing a degradable blend with the desired properties is merging the hydrophilic characteristics of natural polymers with the hydrophobic characteristics of polyolefin. The aim of this review is to offer a complete overview of polyolefin/natural polymer blends researched for packaging applications.
Selective Influences of Precision and Power Grips on Speech Categorization

Recent studies have shown that articulatory gestures are systematically associated with specific manual grip actions. Here we show that executing such actions can influence performance on a speech-categorization task. Participants watched and/or listened to speech stimuli while executing either a power or a precision grip. Grip performance influenced the syllable categorization by increasing the proportion of responses of the syllable congruent with the executed grip (power grip—[ke] and precision grip—[te]). Two follow-up experiments indicated that the effect was based on action-induced bias in selecting the syllable.
Clarissa Spoken Dialogue System for Procedure Reading and Navigation

Speech is the most natural modality for humans use to communicate with other people, agents and complex systems. A spoken dialogue system must be robust to noise and able to mimic human conversational behavior, like correcting misunderstandings, answering simple questions about the task and understanding most well formed inquiries or commands. The system aims to understand the meaning of the human utterance, and if it does not, then it discards the utterance as being meant for someone else. The first operational system is Clarissa, a conversational procedure reader and navigator, which will be used in a System Development Test Objective (SDTO) on the International Space Station (ISS) during Expedition 10. In the present environment one astronaut reads the procedure on a Manual Procedure Viewer (MPV) or paper, and has to stop to read or turn pages, shifting focus from the task. Clarissa is designed to read and navigate ISS procedures entirely with speech, while the astronaut has his eyes and hands engaged in performing the task. The system also provides an MPV like graphical interface so the procedure can be read visually. A demo of the system will be given.
Field-of-view extension for VR viewers

We present a prototype of a smartphone-based virtual reality (VR) viewer, which can cover nearly the full human field-of-view (FOV). The prototype suggests that such extensions are feasible ways to significantly expand the FOV of standard VR viewers. The concept can be employed for future VR viewers or it can even be retrofitted to some existing ones.
Spatiotemporal Annotation on Top of an Existing Treebank

In this paper we discuss a spatiotemporal layer of annotation to be added to an existing (syntactic) treebank. Although our system, called MiniSTEx, was developed for Dutch, it will also work for other EU-languages. This may, however, ask for some adaptations to the database which is the centre of our system. Next to adaptations for other languages, we may need adaptations for specific situations, even when only one language is covered.
Combining Transport Layer and Link Layer Mechanism for Transparent QoS Support of IP based Applications

Providing IP services with QoS support in heterogeneous networks involving wired and wireless sections has been identi ed as a challenging task [6]. The goal of this paper is to show how link level mechanisms can be enhanced by transport layer information in order to meet transport layer reliability and delay requirements within wireless scenarios. Error control mechanisms in Layer 2, Layer 4, and a combination of them are compared. The bene t for TCP-based and RTP/UDP-based applications of using a CDMA based MAC protocol that employs "Simultaneous MAC Packet Transmission" (SMPT) are demonstrated. It is investigated how the capability of SMPT to use one or several wireless channels can be exploited to stabilize jitter and reduce losses caused by wireless error control. Schemes are presented that allow to control the number of channels used by SMPT depending on Layer 4 timing information.
1 Line-space Representation and Compression for Image-based Rendering

In image-based rendering applications, images of a scene are captured along a specific camera trajectory and are then used to render new views of the scene. In this paper, we first study several possible camera trajectories and analyze their pros and cons. Then we introduce the line space which is a representation of light rays and use it to analyze a number of implementation issues in image-based rendering. We propose a novel sprite-based compression scheme in this application. The performance of the image compression under this scheme is examined.
Temporal Dependency of Yield and Quality Estimation through Spectral Vegetation Indices in Pear Orchards

Abstract: Yield and quality estimations provide vital information to fruit growers, yet require accurate monitoring throughout the growing season. To this end, the temporal dependency of fruit yield and quality estimations through spectral vegetation indices was investigated in irrigated and rainfed pear orchards. Both orchards were monitored throughout three consecutive growing seasons, including spectral measurements ( i.e. , hyperspectral canopy reflectance measurements) as well as yield determination ( i.e. , total yield and number of fruits per tree) and quality assessment ( i.e ., fruit firmness, total soluble solids and fruit color). The results illustrated a clear association between spectral vegetation indices and both fruit yield and fruit quality (|r| > 0.75; p < 0.001). However, the correlations between vegetation indices and production variables varied throughout the growing season, depending on the phenological stage of fruit development. In the irrigated orchard, index values showed a strong association with production variables near time of
Testing of sensor observation services: a performance evaluation

Recently, sensor webs have been increasingly used to monitor and sense a multitude of observations for various applications, from simple phenomena, such as air pollution measurements, to complex events, for instance perimeter security, or effluent tracking. Therefore, the performance of sensor data delivery mechanisms is becoming more and more important to ensure that services dependent upon sensor web technology perform satisfactorily. In the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework, Sensor Observation Service (SOS) is a standard web service interface responsible for requesting, filtering, and retrieving sensor observations. In this paper, we present initial results from a quantitative analysis of SOS servers' performance. To do this, we measured the response time and transferred data volume, the response size, of three SOS servers -- 52North, MapServer, and Deegree -- based on different test scenarios. The results are illustrated and discussed. Our findings can be helpful: (i) to understand how different parameters affect the SOS servers; (ii) to help SOS developers identify areas for improvement of their SOS; and (iii) to help application developers and users make informed decisions about their choice of SOS server.
Estimation of Building Density with the Integrated Use of GF-1 PMS and Radarsat-2 Data

Building density, as a component of impervious surface fraction, is a significant indicator of population distribution as essentially all humans live and conduct activities in buildings. Because population spatialization usually occurs over large areas, large-scale building density estimation through a proper, time-efficient, and relatively precise way is urgently required. Therefore, this study constructed a decision tree by the Classification and Regression Tree (CART) algorithm combining synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with optical images. The input features included four spectral bands (B1–4) of GF-1 PMS imagery; Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), and Ratio Built-up Index (RBI) derived from them; and backscatter intensity (BI) of Radarsat-2 SAR data. In addition, a new index called amended backscatter intensity (ABI), which takes the influence created by different spatial patterns into account, was introduced and calculated through fractal dimension and lacunarity. Result showed that before the integration use of multisource data, a model using B1–4, NDVI, NDWI, and RBI had the highest accuracy, with RMSE of 10.28 and R2 of 0.63 for Jizhou and RMSE of 20.34 and R2 of 0.36 for Beijing. In Comparison, the best model after combining two data sources (i.e., the model employing B1–4, NDVI, NDWI, RBI and ABI) reduced the RMSE to 8.93 and 16.21 raised the R2 to 0.80 and 0.64, respectively. The result indicated that the synergistic use of optical and SAR data has the potential to improve the building density estimation performance and the addition of ABI has a better capacity for improving the model than other input features.
Coalignment of plasma membrane channels and protrusions (fibripositors) specifies the parallelism of tendon

The functional properties of tendon require an extracellular matrix (ECM) rich in elongated collagen fibrils in parallel register. We sought to understand how embryonic fibroblasts elaborate this exquisite arrangement of fibrils. We show that procollagen processing and collagen fibrillogenesis are initiated in Golgi to plasma membrane carriers (GPCs). These carriers and their cargo of 28-nm-diam fibrils are targeted to previously unidentified plasma membrane (PM) protrusions (here designated “fibripositors”) that are parallel to the tendon axis and project into parallel channels between cells. The base of the fibripositor lumen (buried several microns within the cell) is a nucleation site of collagen fibrillogenesis. The tip of the fibripositor is the site of fibril deposition to the ECM. Fibripositors are absent at postnatal stages when fibrils increase in diameter by accretion of extracellular collagen, thereby maintaining parallelism of the tendon. Thus, we show that the parallelism of tendon is determined by the late secretory pathway and interaction of adjacent PMs to form extracellular channels.
3-D Motion Estimation in Model-Based Facial Image Coding

An approach to estimating the motion of the head and facial expressions in model-based facial image coding is presented. An affine nonrigid motion model is set up. The specific knowledge about facial shape and facial expression is formulated in this model in the form of parameters. A direct method of estimating the two-view motion parameters that is based on the affine method is discussed. Based on the reasonable assumption that the 3-D motion of the face is almost smooth in the time domain, several approaches to predicting the motion of the next frame are proposed. Using a 3-D model, the approach is characterized by a feedback loop connecting computer vision and computer graphics. Embedding the synthesis techniques into the analysis phase greatly improves the performance of motion estimation. Simulations with long image sequences of real-world scenes indicate that the method not only greatly reduces computational complexity but also substantially improves estimation accuracy. >
Advanced interferometric SAR techniques with TanDEM-X

TanDEM-X is an innovative mission with a TerraSAR-X add-on satellite for high-resolution single-pass SAR interferometry. The TanDEM-X mission has the primary objective of generating a consistent, global DEM with an unprecedented accuracy according to the HRTI-3 specifications (2 m height accuracy, 12 m posting). Beyond that, TanDEM-X provides a configurable SAR interferometric platform for demonstrating new SAR techniques and applications. The launch of TanDEM-X is planned for 2009. This paper gives a short overview of the TanDEM-X mission concept, summarizes the basic products and gives several examples of new interferometric techniques that will be demonstrated with TanDEM-X.