Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and Analysis of an On-Board Electric Vehicle Charger for Wide Battery Voltage Range

The scarcity of fossil fuel and the increased pollution leads the use of Electric Vehicles (EV) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) instead of conventional Internal Combustion (IC) engine vehicles. An Electric Vehicle requires an on-board charger (OBC) to charge the propulsion battery. The objective of the project work is to design a multifunctional on-board charger that can charge the propulsion battery when the Electric Vehicle (EV) connected to the grid. In this case, the OBC plays an AC-DC converter. The surplus energy of the propulsion battery can be supplied to the grid, in this case, the OBC plays as an inverter. The auxiliary battery can be charged via the propulsion battery when PEV is in driving stage. In this case, the OBC plays like a low voltage DC-DC converter (LDC). An OBC is designed with Boost PFC converter at the first stage to obtain unity power factor with low Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and a Bi-directional DC-DC converter to regulate the charging voltage and current of the propulsion battery. The battery is a Li-Ion battery with a nominal voltage of 360 V and can be charged from depleted voltage of 320 V to a fully charged condition of 420 V. The function of the second stage DC-DC converter is to charge the battery in a Constant Current and Constant Voltage manner. While in driving condition of the battery the OBC operates as an LDC to charge the Auxiliary battery of the vehicle whose voltage is around 12 V. In LDC operation the Bi-Directional DC-DC converter works in Vehicle to Grid (V2G) mode. A 1KW prototype of multifunctional OBC is designed and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. The power factor obtained at full load is 0.999 with a THD of 3.65 %. The Battery is charged in A CC mode from 320 V to 420 V with a constant battery current of 2.38 A and the charging is switched into CV mode until the battery current falls below 0.24 A. An LDC is designed to charge a 12 V auxiliary battery with CV mode from the high voltage propulsion battery
Flow and heat transfer over a trapezoidal cylinder: steady and unsteady regimes

Two-dimensional unconfined flow and heat transfer across a long tapered trapezoidal bluff body are investigated for the range Re = 1 to 150 (thereby covering both steady and unsteady periodic regimes) and Pr = 0.7 (air). A number of engineering parameters, e.g. drag and lift coefficients, Strouhal and Nusselt numbers, and others, is calculated for the above range of conditions. No flow separation occurs from the surface of the trapezoidal cylinder for the range Re ≤ 5; however, flow starts to separate from the rear surface of the cylinder at Re = 6. Therefore, the onset of flow separation exits between Re = 5 and 6. The critical value of the Reynolds number (i.e. transition from steady to unsteady) exists between Re = 46 and 47. The drag coefficient decreases with increasing Reynolds number in the steady regime; however, the drag increases with Reynolds number in the unsteady regime. The Strouhal number and the average Nusselt number increase with increasing value of the Reynolds number. Finally, the simple correlation for the average Nusselt number is obtained in the steady flow regime. © 2012 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pinning Synchronization of Switched Complex Dynamical Networks

Network topology and node dynamics play a key role in forming synchronization of complex networks. Unfortunately there is no effective synchronization criterion for pinning synchronization of complex dynamical networks with switching topology. In this paper, pinning synchronization of complex dynamical networks with switching topology is studied. Two basic problems are considered: one is pinning synchronization of switched complex networks under arbitrary switching; the other is pinning synchronization of switched complex networks by design of switching when synchronization cannot achieved by using any individual connection topology alone. For the two problems, common Lyapunov function method and single Lyapunov function method are used respectively, some global synchronization criteria are proposed and the designed switching law is given. Finally, simulation results verify the validity of the results.
The Muttering Robot: Improving Robot Transparency Though Vocalisation of Reactive Plan Execution

Transparency is an important design consideration for all intelligent autonomous systems. Previous work shows that a real-time visual display of a robot’s decision making produces significantly better understanding of that robot’s intelligence. We investigate vocalisation of behaviour selection as a possible alternative solution for situations where a visual display of decision making is either impractical or impossible. In initial experiments we find that vocalisation is associated with a significant improvement in understanding of the robot, comparable with the results obtained using a realtime display. We also find that vocalisation has no significant effect on participants emotional response, though it may slightly increase positive feelings about the robot.We discuss the relative merits of visual and vocalised transparency mechanisms, and suggest possible applications.
Minimal surfaces in finite volume non compact hyperbolic $3$-manifolds

We prove there exists a compact embedded minimal surface in a complete finite volume hyperbolic $3$-manifold $\mathcal{N}$. We also obtain a least area, incompressible, properly embedded, finite topology, $2$-sided surface. We prove a properly embedded minimal surface of bounded curvature has finite topology. This determines its asymptotic behavior. Some rigidity theorems are obtained.
RESPONSE OF WHEAT GENOTYPES TO SALINITY AT EARLY GROWTH STAGES

Investigations on screening of wheat genotypes under different salinity (NaCl) levels were carried out at Nuclear Institute of Agriculture (NIA) Tandojam, Pakistan during winter season of 2005-2006. The seeds of 8 different wheat genotypes viz., Sarsabz, Anmol-91, Kiran-95, Mehran-89, TJ-83, Moomal, Abadgar-94 and Marvi were sown in Petri dishes in NaCl concentrations of 50, 100, 150 and 200 mol -3 m in the laboratory condition. Results revealed that highly significant (p≤0.01) differences were observed among the genotypes and salinity levels for germination, shoot and root length, fresh and dry shoot weight. Studies further exhibited that wheat cv. Moomal was found leading genotype and recorded maximum seed germination (88.75%), shoot length (5.58 mm), root length (4.64 mm), fresh shoot weight (0.55 g) and dry shoot weight (0.07 g) even in the presence of NaCl concentrations of 50 to 200 mol -3 m as compared to other genotypes. In interaction, the genotypes Moomal and Marvi were found best performing cultivars even in salinity level of 50 mol -3 m and showed best performance. On average, the increased levels of salinity (NaCl) significantly reduced the seedling growth and its related parameters in all the wheat genotypes.
Winter/summer mesopause temperature transition at Davis (69°S) in 2011/2012

We present quasi‐continuous measurements of temperature profiles in the Southern Hemisphere mesopause region during the transition from winter to summer conditions in 2011/2012. In a period of 120 days around solstice, we have performed iron lidar observations at Davis (69°S), Antarctica, for a total of 736 h. The winter/summer transition is identified by a downward shift of the mesopause which occurs on 8 November 2011. Soon after transition, mesopause heights and temperatures are similar to the Northern Hemisphere (NH) colatitude summer (88 km, 130 K). Around solstice, the mesopause is elevated for several days by 4–5 km and is colder than typical NH temperatures by 10 K. In this period individual profiles show temperatures as low as 100 K. The occurrence of polar mesosphere summer echoes is closely connected to low temperatures. Below 88 to 90 km and in the main summer season of 2011/2012 temperatures at Davis are generally warmer compared to the NH by 5–15 K, whereas temperatures are generally colder above 90 km. The winter/summer transition and the first appearance of polar mesosphere summer echoes are strongly correlated to maximum zonal winds in the stratosphere which constrain gravity waves with eastward momentum reaching the mesosphere. At the breakdown of the stratospheric vortex around solstice, the mesopause is higher and, surprisingly, colder than normal.
Reverse Architecting: Automatic labelling of- Concerns in Reverse Engineered Software Systems

A significantly large fraction of time during development and maintenance is spent on understanding unfamiliar parts of software systems. The existence of software documentation, such as software architecture design documentation can significantly reduce the amount of time spent on this task. However in reality, few software systems have an up-to-date documentation because project time pressure makes it impractical to do so. During comprehension therefore, software engineers often try to recover these lost design documentation through reverse engineering. However, current reverse engineered diagrams show only one perspective of a software system; the components that exist in the system and the relationship between them. Often, software engineers require additional perspectives in order to understand how a system works. In this research, we aim to solve this problem by providing one such perspective on top of reverse engineered diagrams. We provide a framework and tool for automatically identifying common system concerns that are found in modern software systems, and then map them back to the software components in the system that implement them. An example of such system concerns are user interfaces, persistence, security etc. A regular question that comes up during comprehension is which software components in a system implement these concerns. We propose a taxonomy of these common concerns, and a framework and tool for automatically identifying and labelling system components that implement them. Our framework is based one lightweight static analysis. It calculates three metrics that are then used during identification. An evaluation of the Concern Detector tool (and in essence the framework) on 4 software systems showed that, authors of the systems agreed 65.5% 76.8% with the tool’s classification of components in their systems. This indicates that, the tool is useful for describing the roles of these components in terms of implementing these concerns. The current implementation is for the java programming language; however the approach is designed to be generalizable for most object oriented programming languages. Keywords—Reverse engineering, program comprehension, concern, static analysis, software metrics
Watermarking Techniques for Protecting Intellectual Properties in a Digital Environment

The protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights for digital media has become an important issue in many countries of the world. There is increase in the popularity and accessibility of the Internet to record, edit, replicate and broadcast multimedia content which has necessitated a high demand to protect digital information against illegal uses, manipulations and distributions. Digital watermarking technique which is the process used to embed proprietary information into multimedia digital signal provides a robust solution to this problem. This paper reviews different aspects and techniques of digital watermarking for protecting digital contents. It also explores different application areas of digital watermarking such as copyright protection, broadcast monitoring, integrity protection etc.
Fishes in high-CO 2 , acidified oceans

Research interest in CO2-driven ocean acidification has been centered on certain groups of calcifying marine organisms, but knowledge on the possible impacts of ocean acidification on fish is limited. Our survey of the existing literature on the effects of increased pCO2 on fish (total of 116 papers) revealed that few studies were conducted under pCO2 conditions relevant to the future scenarios of ocean acidification. Information is nearly absent on reproduction, early development, and behaviour of marine fish. The short experimental durations of these studies preclude forecasting of how mortality and growth of marine fish would be affected by future increases in seawater CO2. Fish have been shown to maintain their oxygen consumption under elevated pCO2 conditions, in contrast to declines seen in several marine invertebrates, in spite of possible additional energetic costs incurred by higher pCO2. Impacts of prolonged CO2 exposure on reproduction, early development, growth, and behaviour of marine fish are important areas that need urgent investigation. There is also a need to rapidly advance research into possible acclimation of marine fish to high pCO2 environments, endocrine responses to prolonged CO2 exposure, and indirect influences through food availability and quality on fish growth, survival and reproduction. Useful guidance could be gained from the rich literature on the effects of freshwater acidification.
DIGITAL STATE SPACE CONTROL OF THE QUADRUPLE-TANK PROCESS

The research represented in this thesis pertains to applying digital control to that of a Quadruple-Tank Process via implementation of State-Space theory. Having arranged the tank apparatus into the desired configurations of both the Coupled and Quadruple-Tank Processes, a mathematical model was applied that properly represented each systems’ dynamics. From these dynamical equations linearized state-space models were formed, which would be the basis for computer aided control and simulation. Through software application of a linear state feedback tracking system both tank processes were able to be successfully controlled. Complex control issues regarding plant saturation and integrator wind-up are addressed giving way to a more responsive system that is stable under a larger range of unanticipated modeling errors. Analysis of the systems performance has shown good results in both simulation and experimental application to the Quanser Lab Tank Systems.
S and C Bands Multilayer T-Slot Photonic Band gap Micro Strip Antenna

A design strategy using Photonic Band Gap (PBG) structure on patch to achieve wider bandwidth for patch antenna is presented in this paper. It is found that, the impedance bandwidth has improved from 30% to 50 % at centre frequency 2 GHz after adding PBG on the patch. The antenna has dual band operations at 2 and 6 GHz. Antenna’s whole geometry is consist of a three layer (glass epoxy – air – glass epoxy). We have also studied the effects of different parameters of antenna in finite ground plane. All results validated in IE3D TM Simulator. This proposed antenna is used for satellite, and wireless communication at, S Band and C Band.
Dark Internet Mail Environment

The current mail system is still very important for communcation today, but does not integrate End-to-End encryption and a lot of metadata is leaked during transit. This paper will have a look at Dark Internet Mail Environment (DIME) developed by Ladar Levison. DIME tries to address these issues by using a new encrypted mail format called D/MIME to provide End-to-End encryption and removing the identifiying information from the protocol conversations in order to reduce the visible metadata. We close with a comparision of DIME with other systems.
Isolation of an ATP synthase cDNA from Sinonovacula constricta and its mRNA expression by thermal stress

ATP synthase is a key enzyme in the cellular energy metabolism. In the present study, cDNA of ATP synthase subunit from Sinonovacula constricta (ScATPase) was isolated and characterized by cDNA library and RACE appraoaches. The full-length cDNA of ScATPase was of 737 bp, consisting of a 5'-untranslated region (UTR) of 48 bp, a 3'-UTR of 248 bp and a complete open-reading frame of 441 bp, encoding a polypeptide of 146 amino acid residues with preidicted molecular mass of 15.4 kDa and theoretical isoelectric point of 9.33. BLASTp and phylogenentic analysis revealed that, the deduced amino acid of ScATPase shared higher identity with the ATP synthase subunit C subunit from other species , indicating it should be a novel member of ATPase C family. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis indicated that, the expression of ScATPase could be induced by the thermal stress in three different tissues. These results strongly suggest that, ScATPase was an acute protein involved in temperature challenge in S. constricta .
Multinationals and institutional competitiveness

This article discusses how institutional competitiveness and multinationals are mutually enriching concepts. Multinationals transfer capital, technology, and knowledge into new settings. They allow subsidiaries access to new markets, new resources, and new processes. Potentially, therefore, institutional competitiveness can be increased by the presence of multinational corporations (MNCs) and their subsidiaries. However, this depends on the type of multinational and the type of institutional context. By differentiating two types of MNC in terms of short-term and long-term orientations to investment, and two types of host institutional setting in terms of strength of institutional complementarities and interconnectedness, we develop a typology of four types of interaction between MNCs and institutional settings. We then analyze how each type influences institutional competitiveness. We conclude that these outcomes, while structurally shaped, are still dependent on how actors (individuals, firms, collective organizations, and governments) strategize to develop institutional frameworks in the context of highly competitive global markets.
A Domotic System with Remote Access based on Web Services

Domotics systems are intelligent systems for houses and apartments to control several issues as security and light or climate devices. In this work we present the development of an economic domotic system to control different electrical devices in a private house. This is achieved either from inside the building or by remote control using a regular Internet connection. In order to provide this functionality, the system includes a server that provides web services to the controlling applications in the house. This server also offers an interface that uses AJAX to optimize device handling.
Are Securitizations in Substance Sales or Secured Borrowings? Capital-Market Evidence*

Two standardâ€ setting approaches have emerged globally to guide the choice of accounting for securitizations: the control and components approach (SFAS No. 125 and SFAS No. 140) and the risks and rewards transfer approach (IAS No. 39). A lack of consensus about derecognition accounting is a major impediment to achieving convergence in global standards that must be resolved. Thus, both SFAS No. 140 and IAS No. 39 will be reexamined, and evidence pertinent to the debate is timely and important. In this study, we present evidence consistent with the view of creditâ€ rating analysts, who view many securitizations as, in substance, secured borrowings. Specifically, for a sample of originators applying sale accounting guidance in SFAS No. 125 / 140 during the period 1997â€ 2003, we show that offâ€ balanceâ€ sheet debt related to securitizations has, on average, the same riskâ€ relevance for explaining market measures of risk (that is, CAPM beta) as onâ€ balanceâ€ sheet debt. We also find that, in a returns and earnings association framework, the pricing multiple on securitization gains declines as the amount of offâ€ balanceâ€ sheet debt increases, implying that investors take offâ€ balanceâ€ sheet debt into account when assessing the valuationâ€ relevance of such gains. For those who advocate the control and components approach to securitization accounting, our results suggest that, at least for frequent securitizers, the put option arising from implicit recourse is a â€œmissing pieceâ€ that is not currently accounted for when calculating securitization gains. Our results challenge the extant measurement standards in SFAS No. 140.
Match‐Fixing in a Monopoly Betting Market

A monopolist bookmaker may set betting odds on a fairly even contest to induce match-fixing by an influential corrupt punter. His loss to the corrupt punter is more than made up for by enticing enough ordinary punters to bet on the losing team. This result is in sharp contrast to competitive bookmaking, where even contests have been shown to be immune to fixing. The analysis also reveals a surprising result that the incidence of match-fixing can dramatically fall when match-fixing opportunities rise. This is shown by comparing two scenarios—when only one team is corruptible and when both are corruptible. For both teams corruptible, the bookmaker is uncertain about to which team the influential punter will have access, so carefully maneuvering the odds to induce match-fixing is too costly.
The Impact of Corporate Governance on Banks Performance and Loan Quality: Evidence From Italian Cooperative Banks

In the banking system, a context characterized by growing instability and by the speed of evolution of business dynamics, the system of corporate governance plays a key role, both for large banks and for banks with a smaller size. The paper aims to investigate the influence of corporate governance of the banks that operate in the cooperative credit system on performance and quality of loans, over the years 2010-2011-2012. In order to achieve this aim, the following research hypotheses have been formulated: There is a statistically significant relationship between the size and the structure of the board and banks performance operating in the cooperative credit system; there is a statistically significant relationship between the size and structure of the board and the credit quality of banks operating in the cooperative credit system. The analysis is conducted on a sample composed of 48 Italian banks, divided into 24 cooperative banks and 24 popular banks. The sample is made up of banks from all over Italy and very different in terms of dimension. For the sample construction, data relative to governance of banks were collected from the balance sheets in the period from June to August 2014. Financial-economic data were collected from the Financial Statements and from Bankscope database. The methodology of analysis is based on multivariate OLS (ordinary least squares) regression models. The main results refer to the presence of significant relationships between board dimension and the quality of loans and among the number of committees and performance and the quality of loans. The presence of a significant and negative relationship between the board dimension and the ratio of impaired loans to gross loans indicates the possibility that enlargement of board dimension allows a better quality of loans. The presence of a positive relationship between the number of committees and the ratio of impaired loans to gross loans signals the possibility that a greater number of committees can produce a worse quality of loans. The presence of a negative relationship between the number of committees and bank performance suggests to limit and manage the complexity of governance in banks operating in the cooperative credit system.