Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flow and Thermal Mechanisms in Receiver Tube of Parabolic Trough Collectors with Rings Axially Connected Together and Radially Connected to the Inner Tube Surface

: Artificial obstructions on the underside of receiver tubes can increase the heat transfer coefficient between the receiver tubes (Heat Exchanger, HX) of Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTCs) and water as a working fluid. In this study, we numerically and experimentally tested the behavior of laminar mixed convective heat transfer in HX tube installed with baffles. These baffles are rings that are connected together axially and connected radially to the inner tube surface. Using ANSYS fluent Version 15.0, we performed computation fluid dynamics modeling to achieve heat transfer enhancement in HX tubes equipped with turbulator baffles under laminar flow conditions. Moreover, the effects of Pitch ratio (P/D) = 3, 6 and 10 and Reynolds number Re # 480 were recorded. The novel application of the rings that are connected axially together and radially to the inner tube surface contributes to the long-term storage of thermal energy and promotes heat transfer via. conduction from the tube surface to the center line of the water flow within a short period. In the study, the baffles generated a vortex to increase the Nusselt number (Nu) inside the HX. To simulate heat flux, we calculated the constant wall heat flux of the receiver tube using an electric heater. Results indicated that using 20 rings as baffles instead of plain tubes improves heat transfer by up to 75%. As P/D decreased and re increased, the heat transfer rate, friction factor (f) and Thermal Enhancement Factor (TEF) increased.
Optimising the storage assignment and order-picking for the compact drive-in storage system

One of the most common systems in non-automated warehouses, is drive-in pallet racking with a shared storage policy (which is usually based on the duration-of-stay). Such scheme targets towards an efficient use of storage space, since its operation costs are directly related to the size and layout of the warehouse. In this paper, two mathematical programming models and two greedy-randomised based heuristics for finding (nearly) optimal storage and retrieval operation sequences for this type of storage system are proposed. The computational effectiveness of the proposed approaches is measured by considering two sets of synthetic instances. The obtained results show that the proposed heuristics are not only able to compute high-quality solutions (as observed when being compared with the optimal solutions attained by the mathematical programming models), but it is also capable of providing solutions in very short running times even for large instances for which the mathematical programming model failed to find feasible solutions. At the light of these results, the best heuristic is also tested using a rolling-horizon planning strategy in a real-world case study, obtained from a Chilean company. It turns out that the attained results are more effective than the company's current storage policy.
Carboplatin combined with the vascular-disrupting agent CYT997 for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme.

e13591 Background: The outcome in recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains poor although recent experience with regimens that include an anti-angiogenesis agent have shown some promise. We initiated a phase Ib trial of an alternative approach to vascular targeting, which evaluates the combination of the vascular-disrupting agent CYT997 with carboplatin. Methods: Patients with recurrent GBM after frontline radiation and temozolomide initially received carboplatin AUC=5 day 1 and etoposide 100 mg/m2 days 1-3, combined with CYT997 by 24-hour continuous IV infusion beginning day 2. Treatment was repeated every 3 weeks. Etoposide was deleted from the regimen after the first 4 patients due to excessive myelotoxicity. MRI scans were repeated every 2 cycles for response assessment and DCE-MRI scans were used to evaluate vascular disruption after the first cycle. Results: Eight patients have received at least one cycle of study therapy. The starting dose of CYT997 was 150 mg/m2. On day 5 of cycle 1, the fir.
Incorporating Applied Critical Thinking into Computer Information Systems Curriculum under a University-Wide Initiative

Information Systems (IS) educators have long recognized the importance of critical thinking (CT) as an essential element in the success of their curricula. Past research on CT in IS curricula mainly focused on individual courses. This paper discusses our experience in incorporating CT in our Computer Information Systems (CIS) curricula under a university-wide initiative. Our university adopted a formal process for approving Applied Critical Thinking (ACT) syllabi for courses. The approval process is based on incorporating selected CT elements into the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), identifying CT-enhancing activities, and setting up a CT assessment plan according to a university-wide evaluation guideline. Six required and four elective courses for CIS students have been approved as ACT courses. This paper reports our activities, experimentation, and preliminary results. It discusses five unique features of our approach of weaving CT into our IS curricula. Our experience indicates that incorporating CT in the program level, and not only in the individual course level, has a good potential to be cost effective. The approaches reported here may also be adopted in individual courses.
Optimization of a Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter for Electric Vehicle Applications Including Cost Consideration

This paper presents a method to find the optimal configuration for an electric vehicle energy storage system using a cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter. CHB multilevel inverters enable a better utilization of the battery pack, because cells/modules with manufacturing tolerances in terms of capacity can be selectively discharged instead of being passively balanced by discharging them over resistors. The balancing algorithms have been investigated in many studies for the CHB topology. However, it has not yet been investigated to which extend a conventional pack can be modularized in a CHB configuration. Therefore, this paper explores different configurations by simulating different switch models, switch configurations, and number of levels for a CHB inverter along with a reference load model to find the optimal design of the system. The configuration is also considered from an economically point of view, as the most efficient solution might not be cost-effective to be installed in a common production vehicle. It is found that four modules per phase give the best compromise between efficiency and costs. Paralleling smaller switches should be preferred over the usage of fewer, larger switches. Moreover, selecting specific existing components results in higher savings compared to theoretical optimal components.
Design of Zero-Sequence Current Controller for Open-End Winding PMSMs Considering Current Measurement Errors

Open-end winding permanent magnet synchronous machines (OW-PMSMs) supplied by dual inverters have gained increasing research focus due to its advantages in multilevel modulation, flexible control capability, and enhanced fault-tolerant performance. Zero-sequence current is one of the most concerned issues when the common dc bus configuration is adopted. Feedback control of zero-sequence current has been previously proved to be an effective solution to suppress zero-sequence current. However, due to the existence of current measurement errors, dc disturbance and periodic disturbances will inevitably occur in zero-sequence current, which may result in obvious deteriorations of the suppression performance of zero-sequence current. Zero-sequence current circulates in the OW-PMSM, which will lead to unexpected power losses and reduced efficiency. In addition, current measurement errors also cause increased periodic disturbances in the torque and the rotor speed, resulting in torque ripples and speed fluctuations. To address these problems, the exact closed-form hold-equivalent model of OW-PMSMs is derived, and the specific periodic disturbances introduced by current measurement errors are analyzed. Subsequently, zero-sequence current controller and speed controller are designed with enhanced mitigation capability of periodic disturbances resulting from current measurement errors. Its effectiveness under different operation conditions is confirmed experimentally on a 2.3-kW OW-PMSM setup.
The characterisation of key processes in sous vide meat cooking : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Engineering at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Figures 2-1, 2-5, 2-6, 2-7, 2-9, 2-14, 2-15, 2-16, 2-17, 2-18, 2-19, 2-20, 2-21, 2-22, 2-23, 2-24, 2-25, 2-28, 2-29, 2-30 & 2-31 have been removed for copyright reasons, but may be accessed via their sources in the References.
Structural health monitoring of timber buildings: a literature survey

ABSTRACT In recent years, multiple historic and contemporary timber buildings have been instrumented with sensors to monitor the performance of wood products and novel engineering systems. This paper presents the results of a literature survey focused on timber structural health monitoring (SHM) projects. This survey was aimed at investigating how the scopes of monitoring projects reported in the literature are technically addressed and who are the primary users of these data. The main contribution of this study is the definition of a general taxonomy to describe timber SHM projects, their scope, approaches and potential outcomes. This taxonomy aids readers in identifying ways of using information from SHM data. The results of this survey can be used to develop strategies allowing for data-supported decision-making for the preservation of historic buildings, the design of new structures and the service life management of built facilities.
A Novel Texture-Less Object Oriented Visual SLAM System

Traditional mapping modules in Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (i.e. Visual SLAM) systems can only estimate 3D information of isolated sparse or semi-dense feature points. But there are lots of object instances in the environments which geometric information can be utilized to enhance the quality of mapping and localization. Hence, it is required for the Visual SLAM system to utilize high-dimensional features like object instances or structural lines in mapping and localization. To meet the gap between the above requirements and the traditional implementation of Visual SLAM systems, we present in this paper a novel Visual SLAM method that can effectively utilize texture-less object instances for mapping and localization. The proposed Visual SLAM method includes newly designed feature extraction, matching, localization and mapping modules, which jointly use object features and point features to estimate camera 6-DOF poses and do richer map construction. A group of organized raster points is used to represent objects during feature matching and pose estimation process in the proposed Visual SLAM pipeline. Owing to the object feature fusion in the co-visibility graph it could conduct scale aware bundle adjustments to reduce accumulated error. The advantages of proposed Visual SLAM method are demonstrated through experiments conducted both on synthetic datasets and real-world datasets.
Modeling Intraday Markets under the New Advances of the Cross-Border Intraday Project (XBID): Evidence from the German Intraday Market

The intraday cross-border project (XBID) allows intraday market participants to trade based on a shared order book independent of countries or local energy exchanges. This theoretically leads to an efficient allocation of cross-border capacities and ensures maximum market liquidity across European intraday markets. If this postulation holds, the technical implementation of XBID might mark a regime switch in any intraday price series. We present a regression-based model for intraday markets with a particular focus on the German European Power Exchange (EPEX) intraday market and evaluate if the introduction of XBID influence prices, volume or volatility. We analyze partial volume-weighted average prices and standard deviations as well as cross-border volumes at different trading times. We are able to falsify our initial hypothesis assuming a measurable influence of changes caused by XBID. Thus, this paper contributes to the ongoing discussion on appropriate modeling of intraday markets and demonstrates that XBID does not necessarily need to be included in any model.
Recent progress on gas sensors based on graphene-like 2D/2D nanocomposites

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have demonstrated great potential in the field of flexible gas sensing due to their inherent high specific surface areas, unique electronic properties and flexibility property. However, numerous challenges including sensitivity, selectivity, response time, recovery time, and stability have to be addressed before their practical application in gas detection field. Development of graphene-like 2D/2D nanocomposites as an efficient strategy to achieve high-performance 2D gas sensor has been reported recently. This review aims to discuss the latest advancements in the 2D/2D nanocomposites for gas sensors. We first elaborate the gas-sensing mechanisms and the collective benefits of 2D/2D hybridization as sensor materials. Then, we systematically present the current gas-sensing applications based on different categories of 2D/2D nanocomposites. Finally, we conclude the future prospect of 2D/2D nanocomposites in gas sensing applications.
Spectrum Sensing Based on Higher Order Statistics for OFDM Systems over Multipath Fading Channels in Cognitive Radio

Spectrum sensing is an important issue in cognitive radio (CR) systems for solving spectrum scarcity problems in wireless communication systems. This paper presents a semiblind spectrum-sensing method utilizing higher order statistics including the skewness and kurtosis functions. The proposed method improves the detection performance while increasing its computational complexity, where an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-transmitted signal over multipath fading channels is considered. Through comprehensive evaluation by simulations, it is shown that the proposed spectrum-sensing method signiﬁcantly outperforms the conventional schemes for low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) cases.
Effects of Jiawei Xiaoqinglong Decoction on expressions of lung TLR4 mRNA in the rats with acute lung injury caused by lipopolysaccharide

Objective: To investigate the effects of Jiawei Xiaoqinglong Decoction on lung of expressions of TLR4mRNA in the rats with acute lung injury caused by lipopolysaccharide(LPS). Methods: Seventy-two male Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups including normal control,LPS model,dexamethasone and Jiawei Xiaoqinglong Decoction(Small,medium and large doses) groups.Each group had two subgroups,4h and 8h after LPS were injected.Each subgroup had six rats.The ALI rat model was established by LPS through intravenous tail injection(10mg/kg). The rats in dexamethasone group or Jiawei Xiaoqinglong Decoction group were pretreated by dexamethasone or Jiawei Xiaoqinglong Decoction(Small,medium and large doses) respectively for 3 days before LPS-induced ALI.The TLR4 mRNA was measured by real-time fluorescent Polymerase chain reaction(PCR) while the histopathology of the lung injury was observed by light microscope.Results: Compared with model group,the expression of TLR4 mRNA were obviously decreased in Jiawei Xiaoqinglong Decoction(small and large doses) groups at 8 hour(P0.01). Light microscope observation indicates that there were large areas of pulmonary hemorrhage and necrosis in model group,while in the Jiawei Xiaoqinglong Decoction group,the pathological manifestations were much more ameliorated than those of the model group.The lung bronchiole may inflammte sometimes,and the edema is lightly.PMN and RBC leak little.Conclusion: Jiawei Xiaoqinglong Decoction lessens the injury of lung tissue and has protective effects on rats with ALI induced by LPS,the mechanism is possibly related to the inhibition of the expressions of TLR4 mRNA in injured lung tissues.
Low complexity MIMO-RB-F-OFDM systems using antenna selection technique

The next generation of wireless communications prognosticates that communication should take place with a high degree of heterogeneity in terms of services and requirements. The emergence of new communication networks, especially between devices, such as internet of things networks and machine-type communications, makes the redesign of actual systems even more critical. The high data rate, efficient use of the spectrum, low latency, flexibility, scalability, energy efficiency, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) compatibility are in the vanguard of the challenging needs. In the present study, the authors highlight the necessity of overriding classical waveforms and of using new radio (NR) interfaces that best fit the requirements with reduced complexity. All proposed NRs add computational complexity compared to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), this one is even more weighty in a MIMO combination. To this end, they propose to employ antenna selection technique based on the pairwise error probability for the resource block filtered OFDM (RB-F-OFDM) systems to reduce complexity as well as bit error rate degradation.
Sensorless Control of Linear Flux-Switching Permanent Magnet Motor Based on Extended Kalman Filter

Linear flux-switching permanent magnet (LFSPM) motors have drawn extensive concern for rail transit drive systems because permanent magnets and armature windings are all located on the short primary, whereas the long secondary is made up of iron only. Thus, the LFSPM motor with low cost and high efficiency is an excellent choice for urban rail transportation system. However, the installation of linear encoders that are expensive and unreliable along with the long stator will bring about increased costs and reduced reliability. To overcome the shortcomings and fully exert the advantages of LFSPM motors, extended Kalman filter (EKF) is adopted to achieve sensorless control of LFSPMs for its better stability, robustness, and low requirements for working environment in this article. An improving tracking performance can be obtained using EKF considering the end effects of LFSPMs and the presence of noise. Both simulation and experimental results indicate that the motor can run reliably from standstill without position sensors, which is advantageous compared with other sensorless control methods based on electromotive force.
Breast tissue tumor detection using “S” parameter analysis with an UWB stacked aperture coupled microstrip patch antenna having a “ + ” shaped defected ground structure

Abstract Microwave imaging is an efficient technique that can be used for the early detection of breast cancer. Therefore the current research article presents the microwave imaging of two spherical tumors (radius 4 and 5 mm) in the breast phantom by using the monostatic radar-based technique. This is carried out by using an ultra-wideband (4.9–10.9 GHz), three-layered stacked aperture coupled microstrip antenna (SACMPA) with a defected ground structure to scan the breast phantom and make near field S parameter measurements from a breast phantom. The S parameter data from different locations and at different time intervals are noted and then used in a beam-forming algorithm; Delay and Sum to process it and form a 2D image of the tumor location in the breast phantom using MATLAB. The proposed SACMPA is a three-layered structure with overall dimensions of 37 × 43 × 4.85 mm3 that shows an impedance bandwidth of 6 GHz (4.9–10.9 GHz) and a simulated peak gain of 6.32 dB at a frequency of 9.1 GHz. The validation of S parameters and gain results are done using a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and an anechoic chamber. The experimental validation of the proposed microwave imaging procedure is done by allowing the SACMPA to radiate parallel to the breast phantom made from polythene (skin), petroleum jelly (fat), and wheat flour (with water as tumor) and record the S parameters on the VNA. The proposed microwave method is safe for human exposure as the antenna also shows simulated specific absorption rates of 0.271 and 1.115 W/Kg (on the breast phantom) at frequencies of 5.7 and 6.5 GHz, respectively (for 1 g of body tissue).
Effects of supporting facilities on memory loss among older people with dementia in care and attention homes

Supporting facilities (SF) including handrails, signage, finishes, furniture and recreational facilities facilitate the daily life of older persons. Memory loss is one of the most common signs of dementia affecting the daily life of older persons. Therefore, they may need special SF in residential homes. In order to improve the quality of daily life of older people with dementia, this study aims to investigate the effects of SF on the memory loss of those living in care and attention (C&A) homes. A questionnaire survey was conducted among elderly C&A home residents aged 65 and above in Hong Kong. A Supporting Facilities-Memory Loss model was established based on correlation and regression analyses. The model confirmed the following: (1) none of the SF items affects long-term memory loss; (2) satisfaction with signage, finishes and furniture leads to a reduction of short-term memory loss; (3) satisfaction with handrails, signage and finishes enhances spatial memory and (4) satisfaction with the location of signage reduces time confusion. Practical recommendations are proposed, including using large and well-placed signage with pictograms and icons, avoiding the removal and modification of furniture, enhancing colour contrasts between different functional rooms, installing handrails with a consideration for orientation strategies, and so on.
SWOT Analysis of Internet of Things in the Library and Information Science Environment

Internet of things (IoT) is emerging as a prominent phenomenon in every domain including library and information science. Thus, this study aims to define the internet of things (IoT) concept and further conducts the SWOT analysis of internet of things (IoT) in connection to the library and information science domain in order to know the different insights of the internet of things (IoT). This study may be useful for knowing the different aspects of the internet of things (IoT) phenomena.
Study on abilities of smoking cessation services and its associated factors among Chinese physicians.

Objective To understand the abilities of providing smoking cessation services among Chinese physicians and the associated factors. Methods The study was conducted in all the 31 provinces (autonomous region,municipality) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps form Apr 2008 to Aug 2008. 96 sites of different levels (province,city,and county) were selected as our project fields. Simple random sampling was used to sample health facilities,and then physicians were also chosen as our subjects by simple random sampling. Results Among the physicians,45.2% reported that they usually or oftenly asked patients about the smoking conditions. 94.8% of the physicians would provide smoking cessation suggestion to the smoking patients,only 2.4% provided smoking cessation medication to patients. The result of Logistic regression showed that factors associated with actively providing smoking cessation advices included city,the level of hospital and department that the physician working at,as well as the gender,their education,smoking conditions and the knowledge about tobacco harms. Conclusion The physicians' consciousness of controlling smoking are absent and the capabilities of providing smoking cessation services need to be improved.