Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Programmable two-dimensional actuation of ferrofluid droplet using planar microcoils

This paper reports the concept and the device for two-dimensional magnetic actuation of a ferrofluid droplet. Four planar microcoils were etched on one side of a printed circuit board (PCB). The magnetic field was digitally controlled by adjusting the magnitude and the polarity of the driving current in the coils. A computer programme generates the control signals, which are conditioned by an external amplifier circuit and transferred to the coils. The ferrofluid droplet is attracted to the field maximum. With the controlled magnetic field, the location of the field maximum can be changed electronically allowing the droplet to move in a closed loop on the planar platform. The concept presented in this paper can have a variety of applications in digital microfluidics such as sample transport or mixing.
Economic Feasibility of Anaerobic Digestion To Produce Electricity on Florida Dairy Farms

This paper focuses on the economic feasibilities of using two digester designs suitable for Florida -- covered lagoons and fixed-film digesters to generate electricity for on-farm use or sales. A grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) was used to employ the services of two consulting firms that were familiar with the design and operation of fixed-film and covered lagoon digesters. The consultants visited three dairy farms located in Florida in the winter of 2005, calculated wastewater flows (including flushed manure, milking parlor wastewater, and recycled flush water), and determined the size and other necessary aspects of the potential systems specific to each dairy farm. Estimates were developed for the quantities of biogas and electricity that would be generated by each system. The consulting firms also projected initial capital investment costs and operating and maintenance costs for each system. Retired from EDIS public website March 30, 2021.
Kinetics of one-dimensional swelling and shrinking of polymer gels under mechanical constraint

The swelling and shrinking kinetics of thin-plate poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gels with rectangular surfaces under mechanical constraint was investigated. The top and bottom surfaces were chemically clamped on the glass plates, and the gel could swell and shrink only along the thickness direction between two swollen states by the temperature jumps. The time evolution of the thickness was well described by a single exponential except immediately after the temperature change. The characteristic time was found to depend on the lengths of the constrained surfaces and not on the thickness at the time of sample preparation. The swelling and shrinking kinetics of the one-dimensional thickness direction is essentially governed by the relaxation of the polymer network in the two-dimensional direction along the surface.
Incorporating Part-of-Speech Feature and Entity Embedding for Question Entity Discovery and Linking

Question entity discovery and linking (QEDL), which aims to extract the named entities associated with the given question. Typically, the name of an entity has a certain ambiguity, i.e. the same entity name may refer to multiple entities. In this paper, we propose a model which based on the part-of-speech (POS) feature and entity embedding to solve the QEDL task. The proposed model does not depend on much feature engineering. Our experiments show that the entity embedding can make full use of semantic information involved in an entity and its context word. In the evaluation of the CCKS 2017 shared task, our model achieves 0.5960 in the F1 score of mentions, and 0.3694 in the F1 score of entities for the opening test data.
Visualizing the HICANN Wafer

The mapping of neuronal networks implemented in PyNN onto the HICANN wafer scale system is done with the software Marocco[1]. Visualizing neuron placement and Layer 1 routing is useful for debugging purposes. Previous visualization tools developed within the group are hard to maintain and do not support dynamic interaction. In this internship, the groundwork was laid for a web-based software that visualizes the data stored in the marocco::results container. The web-based approach allows in principle running the software on a large variety of devices, including tablets. After loading the routing data, a graphical representation of the wafer is dynamically built using the JavaScript library PixiJS[2]. Basic pan&zoom input allows navigating through the software, mouse interaction with individual elements is supported. By default the level of detail is determined automatically based on the zoom-level, but the user can also control manually what elements to visualize. Throughout the project an emphasis was put on writing maintainable code, that could be easily extended to include more data and possibly feature dynamic visualization in future versions.
An Improved Efficiency of Integrated Inverter / Converter for Dual Mode EV/HEV Application

The objective of this paper is to improve the efficiency of EV/HEV under heavy load conditions. The proposed integrated circuit allows the permanent magnet synchronous motor to operate in motor mode or acts as boost inductors of the boost converter and thereby boosting the output torque coupled to the same transmission system or dc-link voltage of the inverter connected to the output of the integrated circuit. In motor mode, the proposed integrated circuit acts as an inverter and it becomes a boost-type boost converter, while using the motor windings as the boost inductors to boost the converter output voltage. The proposed control technique is to use interleaved control to significantly reduce the current ripple and thereby reducing the losses and thermal stress under heavy-load condition. The performance of the proposed circuit is available by using simulation of MATLAB/SIMULINK software
Half-Linear Cavity Multiwavelength Brillouin-Erbium Fiber Laser

Multiwavelength half-linear cavity Brillouin erbium fiber laser (BEFL) has been demonstrated. The half-linear cavity BEFL is formed by utilizing only two circulators: one circulator acts as input and output ports and the other circulator is used to form a physical mirror. This design exhibits low peak power difference between the adjacent channels, which is about 0.8 dB. At Brillouin pump (BP) power of 5 dBm and erbium doped fiber (EDF) pump power of 90 mW, up to 19 channels over a wide range of 40 nm (1529 nm to 1569 nm) have been obtained. These channels are free from self lasing cavity modes and for the first twelve Stokes lines, the optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) is approximately higher than 20 dB.
High-order multipole radiation from quantum Hall states in Dirac materials

Topological states can exhibit electronic coherence on macroscopic length scales. When the coherence length exceeds the wavelength of light, one can expect new phenomena to occur in the optical response of these states. We theoretically characterize this limit for integer quantum Hall states in two-dimensional Dirac materials. We find that the radiation from the bulk is dominated by dipole emission, whose spectral properties vary with the local disorder potential. On the other hand, the radiation from the edge is characterized by large multipole moments in the far-field associated with the efficient transfer of angular momentum from the electrons into the scattered light. These results demonstrate that high-order multipole transitions are a necessary component for the optical spectroscopy and control of quantum Hall and related topological states in electronic systems.
Better early or late? Examining the influence of age of exposure and language proficiency on executive function in early and late bilinguals

Previous research has shown that early and late bilinguals differ in their language learning experiences and linguistic outcomes. However, evidence of differences between these bilinguals on measures of executive function (EF) has been mixed. As a result, the current study sought to (1) determine whether early and late bilinguals vary from one another and (2) exhibit cognitive advantages in EF relative to monolinguals. One hundred and five participants (42 monolinguals, 40 early bilinguals and 23 late bilinguals) completed the study. Participants' EF skills were assessed using the Auditorily Cued Number Numeral Task. Overall, the results did not reveal clear advantages for the early bilinguals compared to the two other groups. In fact, early bilinguals and monolinguals were equivalent in their performance on the EF task, whereas the late bilinguals were less accurate, relative to the other two groups. The differences in the performance of early and late bilinguals are discussed in terms of the competition model of second-language learning proposed in previous research. Taken together, these findings indicate that individual differences in EF influence the observed differences found in EF across language groups.
Information is Power: Experimental Evidence on the Long-Run Impact of Community Based Monitoring

This paper presents the results of two field experiments on local accountability in primary health care in Uganda. Efforts to stimulate beneficiary control, coupled with the provision of report cards on staff performance, resulted in significant improvements in health care delivery and health outcomes in both the short and the longer run. Efforts to stimulate beneficiary control without providing information on performance had no impact on quality of care or health outcomes. The paper shows that informed users are more likely to identify and challenge (mis)behavior by providers and as a result turn their focus to issues that they can manage locally.
Rethinking Community‐Based Conservation

Abstract: Community‐based conservation (CBC) is based on the idea that if conservation and development could be simultaneously achieved, then the interests of both could be served. It has been controversial because community development objectives are not necessarily consistent with conservation objectives in a given case. I examined CBC from two angles. First, CBC can be seen in the context of paradigm shifts in ecology and applied ecology. I identified three conceptual shifts—toward a systems view, toward the inclusion of humans in the ecosystem, and toward participatory approaches to ecosystem management—that are interrelated and pertain to an understanding of ecosystems as complex adaptive systems in which humans are an integral part. Second, I investigated the feasibility of CBC, as informed by a number of emerging interdisciplinary fields that have been pursuing various aspects of coupled systems of humans and nature. These fields—common property, traditional ecological knowledge, environmental ethics, political ecology, and environmental history—provide insights for CBC. They may contribute to the development of an interdisciplinary conservation science with a more sophisticated understanding of social‐ecological interactions. The lessons from these fields include the importance of cross‐scale conservation, adaptive comanagement, the question of incentives and multiple stakeholders, the use of traditional ecological knowledge, and development of a cross‐cultural conservation ethic.
Tunable waveguide and cavity in a phononic crystal plate by controlling whispering-gallery modes in hollow pillars

We investigate the properties of a phononic crystal plate with hollow pillars and introduce the existence of whispering-gallery modes (WGMs). We show that by tuning the inner radius of the hollow pillar, these modes can merge inside both Bragg and low frequency band gaps, deserving phononic crystal and acoustic metamaterial applications. These modes can be used as narrow pass bands for which the quality factor can be greatly enhanced by the introduction of an additional cylinder between the hollow cylinder and the plate. We discuss some functionalities of these confined WGM in both Bragg and low frequency gaps for wavelength division in multiplexer devices using heteroradii pillars introduced into waveguide and cavity structures.
Usability Study of a Mobile Privacy Application

Usability is rapidly becoming a major concern for software developers due to increasing ubiquity of technology. Redmorph Inc. is a privacy and security company developing applications for the average user [6]. In this study we conducted a diary study to examine the usability of the Redmorph mobile application for Android. Since the application is advertised as easy to use, the user study compared metrics of learnability and user satisfaction over the course of a week when using the app. Our research will focus on whether the user can understand the technical jargon in Redmorph, whether they can configure the app, how well they can use various features and in which scenarios Redmorph breaks the functionality of existing apps. Our results suggest that even the ‘average’ user base includes many different levels of technological expertise. We provide various recommendations to improve the usability which hold true for other security apps.
Determination of nutrient uptake kinetic parameters: a comparison of methods

Three methods which have been used to determine nutrient uptake hnetic parameters were compared using steady-state NH,-limited cultures of the chrysophyte Pseudopedinella pyriforrnis. The first 2 methods involved a multiple flask incubation where different concentrations of substrate were added to each flask. Method 1 used a variable incubation time, while the incubation time of Method 2 was short and constant. The third method, the perturbation method, involved one large addition of the substrate to one culture and hence the nutritional past history varied throughout the experiment. This method was used also with the diatoms Skeletonema costatum and Chaetoceros debilis in Si-Limited chemostats. Results inhcate that, for nutrient-limited cultures, kinetic parameters are best estimated using multiple additions of the substrate and a short constant incubation time (Method 2). It appears that this method determines membrane transport, which is still not completely free of feedback inhibition even when the incubation time is very short (e.g. 2 min). The short incubation time is necessary because the maximal uptake velocity (V,) decreases with increasing incubation time especially for phosphate and ammonium. Method 3 provides valuable information on a third parameter, V,, the approximate assimilation rate of the limiting nutrient, that is not obtained by the other methods. Multlple sequential additions of the limiting nutrient to Nor Si-limited Skeletonema costaturn and Chaetoceros debilis revealed that if the additions were small (e.g. 2 pM NH,), there was no change in subsequently determined nutrient uptake kinetic parameters. If the sequential additions were larger (e.g. 6 PM) then the maximal uptake rate slowed with time.
AN ILLUSTRATION OF HARMONIC REGRESSION BASED ON THE RESULTS OF THE FAST FOURIER TRANSFORMATION

The well-known methodology of the Fourier analysis is put against the background in the 2nd half of the century parallel to the development of the time-domain approach in the analysis of mainly economical time series. However, from the author's point of view, the former possesses some hidden analytical advantages which deserve to be re-introduced to the toolbox of analysts. This paper, through several case studies, reports research results for computer algorithm providing a harmonic model for time series. The starting point of the particular method is a harmonic analysis (Fourier-analysis or Lomb-periodogram). The results are optimized in a multifold manner resulting in a model which is easy to handle and able to forecast the underlying data. The results provided are particularly free from limitations characteristic for that methods. Furthermore, the calculated results are easy to interpret and use for further decisions. Nevertheless, the author intends to enhance the procedure in several ways. The method shown seems to be very effective and useful in modeling time series consisting of periodic terms. An additional advantage is the easy interpretation of the obtained parameters.
Energy Efficient WSN using GPSR for Mobile Sink

In wireless sensor network (WSN) the use of mobile sink collector has been attracting more attention in recent times. The sensor nodes in WSN have small amount of power supply and storage hence: the mobile sink collectors are more effective way of balancing energy expenditure among sensors. In this paper, we consider applications, where sensing data are generally collected at a low rate and are not so delay sensitive that it can be collected into fixed-length data packets and uploaded once in a while. We propose a mobile data collector, which moves to the vicinity of the sensor nodes to collect data. A mobile collector will travel a sensing field periodically. When travelling through its transmission range, it polls each sensor. Thus it collects data from each sensor using one to one communication. As data packets are directly uploaded to the sink without relays, the energy consumed by the sensors will not be wasted in multi-hop relaying. In this paper, we discuss The Mobile sink which finds a route to the sensor node by using spanning tree covering algorithm. Sensor location information is collected using greedy perimeter stateless routing. We evaluated network performance by parameter energy consumption.
Limited Cross-Shelf Variation in the Growth of Three Branching Corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

Pronounced differences exist in the biodiversity and structure of coral reef assemblages with increasing distance from shore, which may be expected given marked cross-shelf gradients in environmental conditions. Cross-shelf variation in the abundance of coral reef organisms is likely to be caused, at least in part, by differences in demography (e.g., growth and survival), though this has rarely been tested. This study quantified growth of three distinct branching coral taxa (Acropora nasuta, Pocillopora spp. and Stylophora pistillata) at six locations on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR), encompassing inshore, mid-shelf and outer-shelf reefs. Replicate colonies (0–15 colonies per species, per reef) were stained using Alizarin Red in December 2015 and retrieved one year later to quantify linear extension on replicate branches for each colony. Annual linear extension varied within and among coral taxa, with pronounced differences among reefs. For A. nasuta. and S. pistillata, growth rates were highest at one of the inshore reefs, Orpheus Island. However, inter-reef differences in linear extension were not explained by shelf position. Based on differences in skeletal density, which did vary according to shelf position, branching corals at the inshore sites may actually have higher rates of calcification compared to conspecifics on mid-and outer-shelf reefs. This study shows that growth of branching corals is not lower at inshore sites (and perhaps even higher) compared to sites at mid-shelf and outer reefs, despite generally higher levels of sedimentation and turbidity.
Recommending Crowdsourced Travels on wOndary

Making recommendations for tourist trips is a challenging task due to the intrinsic complexity of the domain. The characterization of itineraries is non-trivial, because there is a lack of open destination databases such as regions, islands, cities or attractions that would help to understand the characteristics of destinations within a trip. For this purpose, we present wOndary, which supports the planning and sharing of worldwide trips based on crowdsourcing. We sidestep item discovery and routing challenges of the tourist trip design problem by performing content-based recommendation by facilitating a novel structured representation of itineraries. We share our experiences in the establishment of the core model for our travel recommender system and discuss future developments.
Oxidative Status and Myelin Basic Protein Levels in Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis

Purpose: Central nervous system (CNS) tissue is particularly vulnerable to oxidative damage, suggesting that this could be an important factor in the pathogenesis of CNS inflammation in multiple sclerosis (MS) and its model experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). Free radical production is thought to be involved in inflammatory processes, both exacerbating inflammation and effecting tissue damage. Nitric oxide (NO) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances mediated lipid peroxidation may be involved in myelin damage in EAE. We therefore examined indirect markers of oxidative stress in EAE. As an index of oxidative alteration, we measured malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in plasma as marker of lipid peroxidation and plasma levels of nitrite and nitrate, the end products of the L-arginine-NO pathway. Materials and Methods: This study was undertaken at Dokuz Eylül University, Medical School Multidisciplinary Laboratories. Nitrite was measured by using the Griess reaction and nitrate levels were determined by the method of Bories. As a marker of myelin degradation which indicate escape of this myelin component out of the brain, blood myelin basic protein (MBP) levels were determined by RIA method. Blood MDA levels were measured according to the methods of Stocks and Dormandy. Results: There was no statistically significant elevation in blood MDA or MBP in EAE. There were marked increases in nitrite and nitrate levels. Conclusion: The reasons for having insignificant results for blood MBP concentrations in EAE could be explained as a consequence of rapid clearance by kidney. These findings may be significant since in comparison to MDA, the end products of the L-arginine-NO pathway, nitrite and nitrate, could be a more important effector molecule in the immunopathogenesis and sistemic activity of MS.
Low-frequency fluctuation regime in a multimode semiconductor laser subject to a mode-selective optical feedback

We study numerically the dynamics of a multimode laser diode subject to a mode-selective optical feedback by using a generalization of the Lang-Kobayashi equations. In this configuration, only one longitudinal mode of the laser is reinjected into the laser cavity; the other modes are free. When the laser operates in the low-frequency fluctuation regime, our model predicts intensity bursts in the free modes simultaneously with dropouts in the selected mode, in good agreement with recent experiments. In the frame of our model, intensity bursts and dropouts are associated with collisions of the system trajectory in phase space with saddle-type antimodes.
AFRL-ML-WP-TM-2003-4099 NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION ( NDE ) TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES Delivery Order 0031 : Modeling of Eddy Current Array Sensor Sensitivities

Calculations have been performed to determine the response of a new eddy current probe for the detection of subsurface flaws in planar multilayered structures. The probe consists of a racetrack coil and a linear array of solid state sensors for detecting perturbations in the electromagnetic field due to defects. The sensor array allows field measurements to be made at a number of closely spaced locations without moving the probe and thereby accelerates the inspection process. A magnetic shell model of the probe is used for finding the electric field in the unflawed structure. The fields due to the linear “straights” and the semicircular “bends” are found separately and added to give the combined field of the racetrack coil. The flaw response is then computed using a volume element calculation. In order to validate the calculation, field predictions for a racetrack coil having straights of zero length are compared with results for a circular coil. The results are found to be consistent.