Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BIOLOGICAL AND PHOTO-PHYSIOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PHYTOPLANKTON FUNCTIONAL TYPES; A FIVE YEAR STUDY IN THE WESTERN ENGLISH CHANNEL

Biological and photo-physiological interactions between phytoplankton functional types; a five year study in the western English Channel. James Richard Fishwick Sampling at the western English Channel observatory dates back approximately 1 00 years, with a more complete sampling programme since 1988. The data set in this study was collected over a five year period between 2001 and 2005. The variables measured allow for a more complete understanding of the ecosystem, this is the only study to have reported the photo-physiology measurements over such time scales. The western English Channel is situated in a boundary zone between the oceanic waters of the Northern Atlantic and the coastal waters of the English Channel. This study has provided substantial evidence that the phytoplankton functional type (PFT) succession is governed by the environmental drivers (irradiance, surface water temperature and nutrient availability) and as the environmental conditions vary each year so does the phytoplankton seasonal succession. The relationships between the phytoplankton pigment assemblage, with particular interest to the ratios of chlorophyll a, photo-synthetic and photo-protective carotenoids to total pigment concentration, are investigated. The chlorophyll a to Total pigment ratio (Chla/TP) is reported to increase in conditions conducive for growth and decrease when conditions are less favourable, this is related to both PFTs synthesising Chla preferentially in periods of growth and a shift in the community structure. The photo-physiology of the PFT community indicated relatively high values of FviFm throughout the whole time series, adding further evidence of community shifts where PFTs adapted to the particular conditions. The crpsn was shown to be one of the mechanisms by which PFTs adapt to the environmental conditions. crpsn is high in low light regimes and is reduced when irradiance levels are high. The optical absorption by phytoplankton is shown to correlate with the pigment ratio (Chla/TP) and to a lesser extent
6.6.3 Lessons Learned from Implementing Configuration Management within Electrical/Electronic Development of an Automotive OEM

In the past decade the automotive domain has encountered significant changes within its competitive environment. Automotive OEMs are forced to offer an increased number of variant models, to satisfy individual customer needs as well as constantly introduce innovative features within their products. Electrical/electronic systems play a major role enabling OEMs to address these needs. Development processes for electrical/electronic systems are moving into the focus of automotive companies. However current development approaches for these type of systems within automotive industry are only partially able to cope with the mentioned challenges and yield the necessary, high‐quality systems. Thus automotive OEMs started to restructure their development approaches for electrical/electronic systems and introduce Systems Engineering.
A review of draw solutes in forward osmosis process and their use in modern applications

Abstract Forward osmosis (FO) is one of the emerging membrane technologies which has gained renewed interest recently as a low energy desalination process. The central to FO process is the draw solution (DS) and the membrane because both play a substantial role on its performance. Hence, the selection of an appropriate DS is crucial for the process efficiency. Many DS have been tested so far for a wide range of modern applications and this paper aims to review the various aspects of the DS in the process performance and provides valuable information regarding the selection criteria of suitable DS. Several general DS properties such as the osmotic pressure and the water solubility can affect the process performance. Other intrinsic properties to specific novel DS such as the emerging magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) can also have an impact on the process efficiency and have to be evaluated. Separation and recovery of the DS are one of the major challenges facing the development of FO process. The recovery pro.
Use of precracked Charpy and smaller specimens to establish the master curve

The current provisions used in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations for the determination of the fracture toughness of reactor pressure vessel steels employs an assumption that there is a direct correlation between K{sub Ic} lower-bound toughness and the Charpy V-notch transition curve. Such correlations are subject to scatter from both approaches which weakens the reliability of fracture mechanics-based analyses. In this study, precracked Charpy and smaller size specimens are used in three-point static bend testing to develop fracture mechanics based K{sub k} values. The testing is performed under carefully controlled conditions such that the values can be used to predict the fracture toughness performance of large specimens. The concept of a universal transition curve (master curve) is applied. Data scatter that is characteristic of commercial grade steels and their weldments is handled by Weibull statistical modeling. The master curve is developed to describe the median K{sub Jc} fracture toughness for 1T size compact specimens. Size effects are modeled using weakest-link theory and are studied for different specimen geometries. It is shown that precracked Charpy specimens when tested within their confined validity limits follow the weakest-link size-adjustment trend and predict the fracture toughness of larger specimens. Specimens of smaller thanmore » Charpy sizes (5 mm thick) exhibit some disparities in results relative to weakest-link size adjustment prediction suggesting that application of such adjustment to very small specimens may have some limitations. « less
Endocrine Conditions in Neurofibromatosis 1

Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) is an autosomal-dominant multisystemic neurocutaneous disorder primarily affecting the skin, bone and the nervous system. It has been long appreciated that NF1 is often associated with endocrine disorders. In this chapter, we will discuss the endocrine disorders associated with NF1. The most common endocrinological disorders in NF1 are short stature with or without growth hormone deficiency, central precocious puberty, growth hormone excess. Less common endocrine-related conditions in NF1 include gynecomastia, diencephalic syndrome and the presence of endocrine tumors like pheochromocytoma.
Ultrawideband microstrip integrated‐antenna‐filter

A new three‐port integrated‐antenna‐filter (IAF) module is proposed for ultrawideband applications.The IAF is designed by closely packing a slot antenna and a patch filter on a single substrate. The reflection coefficient, mutual coupling, input impedance, radiation pattern, and insertion loss of the proposed configuration are studied. Since it was found that the mutual coupling between antenna and filter parts of the IAF is very small across a very wide bandwidth, the two parts can be designed almost independently. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:32–34, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25665
Finite Element Analysis and Mechanical Testing of External Fixator Designs

Experimental and theoretical stress analysis methods are used to evaluate the mechanical behaviour of external fixation devices as load-bearing structures. For the experimental part, a modular assembly was fabricated from which unilateral and bilateral fixators of different design configurations were assembled and tested under various loading conditions. A reflective photoelasticity technique was used to study the effect of frame configuration on the stress patterns generated around the pin-bone interface. Finite element models of each design were also generated using three-dimensional beam and shell elements. Spring elements were used to model the pin/sidebar clamp. It is shown that close correspondence between the experimental and theoretical methods of investigation is obtained when the flexibility of the pin/side-bar clamp is taken into account. It is also shown that a unilateral design, modified by attaching a second side-bar to the first and connecting them by means of a semicircular component, can achieve some of the structural advantages of bilateral fixators without the clinical disadvantage of transfixing pins.
Nutritional intervention in childhood overweight – Efficacy of the motivational multidisciplinary individualized treatment

Background: The increase in prevalence of pre-obesity and childhood obesity in most European countries led to the need to develop effective interventions to reverse this situation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a behavioral protocol for the treatment of pediatric overweight. Methods: The study sample consisted of overweight children/adolescents between six and eighteen years old. The individuals who were intervened with the application of a behavioral contract belonged to Behavioral Group (BG) and those who received standard treatment belonged to the Standard Treatment Group (STG). The evolution of the Body Mass Index (BMI) z-score and body composition were evaluated. Results: The BG significantly decreased the Body Mass Index (BMI) z-score both in the middle and at the end of the intervention, but the STG only significantly decreased the BMI z-score at the end of the intervention. We were also found that the BG significantly decreased the fat mass index (p< 0,05) compared to the STG (p> 0,05) after twelve months. Conclusion: The use of a behavioral approach for the treatment of pediatric overweight showed an improvement in fat mass index and a decrease in BMI at twelve months when compared to a standard intervention. Thus, the behavioral approach seems to be more effective than a standard long-term nutritional approach . In summary, the child's accountability in its overweight treatment process seems to be effective.
Sensorfusion fuer Fahrerassistenzsysteme / Sensor fusion for driver-assistance-systems

Die Entlastung des Fahrers durch geeignete Assistenzsysteme gewinnt in zukuenftigen Fahrzeugen zunehmend an Bedeutung. Komplexe Fahrerassistenzfunktionen erfassen das Fahrzeugumfeld oder fuehren eigenstaendig Eingriffe in die Fahrzeugdynamik durch. Solche Systeme benoetigen eine umfangreiche, verschiedenartige Sensorik, um sowohl einen ausreichenden Erfassungsbereich um das Fahrzeug abzudecken als auch eine hohe Robustheit zu erzielen. Um ein konsistentes Abbild der Verkehrsumgebung zu erhalten, muessen die Sensordaten mit geeigneten Verfahren in einer zentralen Instanz fusioniert werden. In diesem Beitrag werden grundlegende Architekturen und Verfahren der Sensorfusion dargestellt. Die Gesamtfunktionalitaet der Assistenzsysteme kann durch die Fusion der einzelnen Systeme weiter gesteigert werden, wie anhand des Beispiels der Fusion einer Abstandsregelung mit einem Spurhalteassistent exemplarisch gezeigt wird. (A) ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH: Driver assistance systems are growing in meaning and importance in future vehicles. Complex systems monitor the whole environment of the vehicle and derive recommendations for the driver or take over partial control of vehicle dynamics by themselves. Diverse sensors are necessary in order to achieve the requested surveillance area as well as a the needed robustness. To compute a consistent image of the traffic environment, a central instance must fuse the sensor data using appropriate procedures. The overall functionality of assistance systems can be further extended by the fusion of different systems. This article presents basic architectures and procedures for sensor fusion. As an example the fusion of an ACC with a lane-departure-warning is described. (A) Beitrag zum Themenbereich "Fahrerassistenzsysteme" der Tagung "Elektronik im Kraftfahrzeug" der VDI-Gesellschaft Fahrzeug- und Verkehrstechnik, Baden-Baden, 27. und 28. September 2001.
Miniaturised microstrip bandpass filters based on Moore fractal geometry

This paper presents new microstrip bandpass filter design topologies that consist of dual edge-coupled resonators constructed in the form of Moore fractal geometries of second and third iteration levels. The space-filling property for proposed fractal filters has found to produce reduced size shapes in accordance with sequential iteration levels. These filters have been prepared for ISM band applications at a centre frequency of 2.4 GHz using a substrate with a dielectric coefficient of 10.8, dielectric thickness of 1.27 mm and metallisation thickness of 35 µm. The output responses of each fractal bandpass filter have been determined by a full-wave-based electromagnetic simulator Sonnet software package. Simulated and experimental results are approximately compatible with each other. These responses clarify that these fractal filters have good transmission and return loss characteristics with blocked higher harmonics in out-of-band regions.
Active Contour Model Coupling Local and Global Information

The local region term and global region term are combined for image segmentation. Intensity information in local regions is utilized by adding a kernel function in the data fitting term. Experiments have been done on different images to compare the effectiveness of our methods with that of the classic CV model, Li’s Local Binary Fitting (LBF) model. Experiment results show that the new model maintain more satisfactory segmentation results.
An Experimental Investigation of Solid-State Phase-Change Materials for Solar Thermal Storage

This paper reports that the goal of this study is to determine and produce the thermal properties of solid-state phase-change materials appropriate for solar system space heating storage (transition temperatures in the 40 to 60{degrees}C range). A major effort is directed toward improving the overall heat storage characteristics of solid-state phase-change materials by increasing the materials' thermal conductivities. The solid-state phase change materials focused on in this study are neopentyl glycol and pentaglylcerine. The results from testing various materials are reported as thermophysical property values. The results from a constant heat flux, thermal storage charging experiment are reported for both the solid-state materials and the enhanced conductivity materials. The storage system modeled is a tube bank with hot fluid inside the tubes transferring heat to the solid-solid phase-change material outside the tubes.
Transient Electromagnetic Waves in Nonlinear Media

This thesis is concerned with the propagation of transient electromagnetic waves in nonlinear media. It consists of a General Introduction and five scientific papers. The General Introduction gives a broad overview of nonlinear electromagnetic phenomena. The emphasis is on the representation of the constitutive functional modeling the material's response to electromagnetic excitation, and the methods employed to analyze the combination of the constitutive functional and the Maxwell equations. Some applications of nonlinear electromagnetics are also discussed. Paper I treats the inverse scattering problem for an isotropic, homogeneous, nonlinear slab, subjected to a normally incident field. It is shown that when both reflected and transmitted fields are measured, we can reconstruct both the nonlinear permittivity and permeability. When one of these functions is known, reflection data is sufficient to obtain the other. Paper II gives a formulation of transient electromagnetic fields, that can be used to analyze wave propagation in homogeneous media. The source free Maxwell equations are treated as an eigenvalue problem, from which we deduce the propagating waves and their wave speeds. The analysis is applied to the case of obliquely incident waves on a semi-infinite, bianisotropic, nonlinear medium. Paper III analyzes the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a waveguide filled with an isotropic, nonlinear material. The equations governing each waveguide mode are derived, and it is shown that the different modes couple to each other. This coupling is quantified, and a growth estimates is given for the induced modes. Paper IV deals with discontinuous electromagnetic waves, shock waves. It is shown that in order for these waves to be stable, they must satisfy a number of conditions, similar to Lax's classical shock conditions. These conditions permit us to classify electromagnetic shock waves as slow, fast or intermediate shock waves. Finally, Paper V investigates the uniqueness and continuous dependence on data for solutions of the quasi-linear Maxwell equations, when we also require them to satisfy an entropy condition. This condition is related to the second law of thermodynamics, that the energy that is not described by our model must be dissipated.
All-optical regenerator based on nonlinear fibre Sagnac interferometer

For the first time, all-optical regeneration using a nonlinear fibre Sagnac interferometer switch (NSIS) and pump-probe walk-off is demonstrated. In the NSIS, all-optical regeneration including timing and amplitude restoration is performed by switching clock pulses with amplified input signals. Timing restoration is evaluated by performing error-rate measurements at 5 Gbit/s. >
Research and Improvement about LEACH Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

In Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), unreasonable node clustering algorithm will inevitably lead to premature death, unawareness of regional information.To address problems of traditional LEACH algorithm, An improved LEACH multi-hop routing algorithm based on Energy Distance Threshold (EDT) is presented. It mainly improves from aspects of cluster number, cluster head selection and inter-cluster communication. The improved clustering hierarchy algorithm considers the nodes Energy Distance Threshold as an important factor in selection then chooses the best cluster head within the area. The selection of cluster head is based on re-select manner, which dynamically and effectively select cluster heads by control cluster number and combing with EDT. After cluster head completes local data fusion and processing, it look for adjacent cluster head as next hop closer to base station with larger EDT if the head is far away from station. The next hop repeats above process till the base station is arrived. Such manner of multi-hop among clusters enables communication among clusters and base stations so as to avoid direct communication between head and station. The method reduces energy consumption and also balances energy. Simulation results show the improved LEACH algorithm has higher energy utilizing rate, and it helps prolong network’s lifetime.
The influence of nitric oxide synthases inhibitor Т1023 on the development of radiation pneumofibrosis in rats

The purpose of the work was to study the ability of the NOS inhibitor T1023 to prevent late radiation injuries. Methods: the effects of T1023 (75 mg / kg, once i.p. 30 minutes before the irradiation) on the development of post-radiation pulmonitis and pneumofibrosis in rats with thoracic exposure to g-radiation at a dose of 12.5 Gy were studied histopathologically and morphometrically. The results of the studies showed that there wasn’t a significant objective effect of T1023 on the development of early radiation-induced lung injuries (9 weeks after irradiation). But it prevented late radiation induced lung injuaries (26 weeks after irradiation) – there were a significant lesser pathomorphological manifestations of post-radiation pulmonitis, proliferation of connective tissue and the development of fibrotic changes in the lung parenchyma. At this stage, the action of T1023 clearly contributed to the preservation of the normal histostructure of the lungs, reducing by 40% the content of compaction zones in the parenchyma. The ability of the NOS inhibitor T1023 to significantly limit the development of lungs late radiation reaction confirms the promise of further development of this compound as a means for prevention radiation therapy complications.
Mitigating Distributed Denial of Service Attacks with Multi-Protocol Label Switching-Traffic Engineering (MPLS-TE)

Abstract : A Denial of Service (DoS) occurs when legitimate users are prevented from using a service over a computer network. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a more serious form of DoS in which an attacker uses the combined power of many hosts to flood and exhaust the networking or computing resources of a target server. In recent years, DDoS attacks have become a major threat to both civilian and military networks. Multi-Protocol Label Switching with Traffic Engineering (MPLS-TE) is an emerging technology that allows explicit, bandwidth-guaranteed packet forwarding paths to be established for different traffic flows. It provides a means for diverting packets of a suspected DDoS attack for analysis and cleaning before forwarding them to the actual destination. The objective of this research was to implement and evaluate the performance of an MPLS-TE based solution against DDoS attacks on a realistic test-bed network consisting of Cisco routers. The test-bed has been integrated with Snort, an open source Intrusion Detection System (IDS), to achieve automatic detection and to mitigate DDoS attacks. The test-bed network was subject to a series of malicious traffic flows with varying degrees of intensity. The results demonstrated that MPLS-TE is very effective in mitigating such attacks. The overall system response time and the router CPU loads are comparable to those reported by two former NPS theses that examined alternative solutions based on BGP blackhole routing.
Characteristics of an electro-rheological fluid valve used in an inkjet printhead

The demand for non-impact printers has grown considerably with the advent of personal computers. For entry-level mass production, two drop-on-demand techniques have dominated the market - piezoelectric impulse and thermal-bubble types. However, the high cost of the piezoelectric printhead and the thermal problems encountered by the thermal-bubble jet printhead have restrained the use of these techniques in an array-type printhead. In this study, we propose a new design of printhead with an electro-rheological (ER) fluid acting as a control medium. The ER fluid valve controls the ink ejection. As a first step toward developing this new printhead, the characteristics of an ER fluid valve which controls the deflection of the elastic diaphragm are investigated. First, the response of a prototype is tested experimentally to prove the feasibility of using this ER valve for the inkjet printhead. Then, the discretized governing equation of the ER valve is derived. Finally, the prototype of the ER valve is fabricated. The experimental measurement based on the sinusoidal response verifies both the theoretical analysis and the controllability of the response of the ER valve by the applied electric field.