Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
System structure rendering iterative learning convergent

This paper attempts to give a mathematical and physical interpretation of practice-based learning (so-called "iterative learning control") from the viewpoint of input-output "passivity" of system dynamics. It is shown from an axiomatic argument that the passivity and dissipativity of a pair of input and output for a class of linear dynamical systems with positive real or strictly positive real transfer matrices play a crucial role in the ability of learning. This observation is extended to a class of nonlinear robot dynamics which naturally satisfy passivity and dissipativity. Ability of learning for a class of robotic tasks such as a tool-endpoint is in contact with an object and a soft fingertip presses a rigid object (i.e., impedance control) is also analyzed in detail. Finally relations between dissipativity and system invertibility are discussed.
Turbulent Mixing with Chemical Reaction in the Planetary Boundary Layer

Abstract Detailed statistics of the fluctuating concentration field produced by large-eddy simulations (LES) of the chemically reactive mixing of two species in a convectively driven mixed layer are presented. The effect of the turbulent mixing on the effective reaction rate between the species is analysed. The segregation between the species is shown to be significant for fast reactions, and therefore correct model predictions of the evolution of the species concentration requires an estimate of the segregation coefficient. Some simple modeling concepts for one-point second-order turbulence closure schemes are examined and compared with the LES results. The results are a promising indication that second-order closure schemes can be extended to provide a practical calculation of the turbulent mixing effects on fast chemical reactions.
Terahertz-wave absorption in liquids measured using the evanescent field of a silicon waveguide

A technique is presented for the measurement of the absorption properties of liquids in the terahertz wave range, based on the interaction between the liquid and the evanescent wave covering the surface of a cylindrical waveguide made of high-resistivity silicon. The terahertz wave propagates inside the waveguide as the fundamental EH11 mode. The presence of a medium around the silicon rod has a measurable effect on the overall end-to-end transmission of the waveguide. As demonstration, we report the measurements of a D-glucose aqueous solution with a concentration ranging from 0% to 45%, using a backward-wave oscillator as the terahertz wave source.
Power spectra from spotted accretion discs

Abstract Some aspects of power-spectral densities (PSD) of active galactic nuclei are similar to those of galactic black hole X-ray binary systems (McHardy et al. 2005). The signal originates near a black hole and its modulation by general-relativistic effects should be taken into account (Życki & Nedźwiecki 2005). We modified the previous calculations of these effects, assuming a model of spots which occur on the disc surface and decay with a certain lifetime.
A Marginal Additive Rates Model for Recurrent Event Data with a Terminal Event

Recurrent events data with a terminal event often arise in many longitudinal studies. Most of existing models assume multiplicative covariate effects and model the conditional recurrent event rate given survival. In this article, we propose a marginal additive rates model for recurrent events with a terminal event, and develop two procedures for estimating the model parameters. The asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established. In addition, some numerical procedures are presented for model checking. The finite-sample behavior of the proposed methods is examined through simulation studies, and an application to a bladder cancer study is also illustrated.
Frequency Equations of an Ultrasonic Vibrator for the Elastic Sensor Using a Contact Impedance Method

When an ultrasonic vibrator is forced to come into contact with a static load, it is known that the resonance frequency and quality factor of the vibrator are influenced by the reaction of the object. On the basic of this phenomenon, a study to measure the physical constants, such as the elastic modulus of materials, is under way. However no report concerning the accurate analysis of the relationship between the said change and the physical constants has been available. In this paper, we present the analytical result of the relationship equations. The resonance frequency is increased in the case that the body in contact is sufficiently hard, whereas it is decreased in the case that the body is soft. Frequency equations expressing both the phenomena referred to above were obtained in a unified manner. Furthermore, the appropriateness of the said equations was confirmed by experiments. It is concluded from the studied that the analytical results are in agreement with the experimental results.
A second‐order backward difference time‐stepping scheme for penalized Navier–Stokes equations modeling filtration through porous media

We investigate the stability and convergence of a fully implicit, linearly extrapolated second‐order backward difference time‐stepping scheme for the penalized Navier–Stokes equations modeling filtration through porous media. In the penalization approach, an extended Navier–Stokes equation is used in the entire computational domain with suitable resistance terms to mimic the presence of porous medium. It is widely used as an alternative to the heterogeneous approach in which different types of partial differential equations (PDEs) are used in fluid and porous subregions along with suitable continuity conditions at the interface. However, the introduction of extra resistance terms makes the penalized Navier–Stokes equations more nonlinear. We prove that the linearly extrapolated scheme is unconditionally stable and derive optimal order error estimates without any stability condition. To show feasibility and applicability of the approach, it is used to numerically solve a passive control problem in which flow around a solid body is controlled by adding porous layers on the surface. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 681–705, 2016
Auditory Processing Difficulties Influence on Perceptual Learning

Understanding spoken speech is a complex process that comes to most people easily, yet past research demonstrates that some people face difficulties with auditory processing. Listeners adjust to variations in speech by integrating auditory, visual, and other cues. However, people who have difficulties processing auditory information often rely less on visual cues, such as lip-reading. We investigated how listeners' reported difficulties in perceiving auditory information interact with their use of visual cues. This was a replication and extension of a study by Kraljic, Samuel, and Brennan (2008). Participants were divided into four groups based on which phoneme was changed (? S signifying [s] or ? SH signifying [∫]) and if listeners viewed the pen-in-hand (Characteristic) or the pen-in-mouth (Incidental) version of these words. The participants’ boundaries of these two phonemes were established in the category-identification task, in which participants categorized ambiguous sounds on the “SH” - “S” continuum as being more S-like or SH-like. We measured participants' perceptual learning—the way people restructure their phonemic boundaries to better understand speakers' variation—based on their categorization of the ambiguous sounds. After completing these tasks, participants responded to questions regarding their language background, and their auditory processing difficulties in daily experience. We did not replicate the findings of Kraljic and colleagues (2008), as we did not find an effect of visual context on perceptual learning. Contrary to our predictions, we also did not find an effect of individual differences in auditory processing on perceptual learning and no interaction with visual context. Given that the effect of visual context has been replicated before, our results are inconclusive. Individual differences' effect on perceptual learning should be explored further to gain insight into what affects perceptual learning and how to improve speech perception for those with difficulties.
The Impact of Number of Predictions on User Performance in a Dwell Keyboard

Word predictions in a text entry interface can help accelerate a user’s input. This may especially be true for users who have a slow input rate due to some form of motor-impairment. The choice of how many word predictions to offer in a text entry interface is an important design decision. In this work, we offered different number of word predictions in a keyboard where able-bodied users had to dwell on a key for one second to click it. We found participants’ text entry rate did not improve with increasing number of predictions.
Nanographite domains in carbon nanowalls

The nanostructure of carbon nanowalls (CNWs), composed of a stack of several graphite sheets, was investigated by transmission electron microscopy. Our detailed analysis revealed that numerous graphite regions with an average size of about 20 nm were formed in the CNWs. The formation of these regions originates from the introduction of lattice defects such as dislocations and the slight rotation of the graphite sheets. On this basis, it is concluded that the graphite regions, so-called “nanographite domains,” are the constitutional units of the CNWs.
A comprehensive radiation scheme for numerical weather prediction models with potential applications in climate simulations

Abstract A comprehensive scheme for the parameterization of radiative transfer in numerical weather Prediction (NWP) models has been developed. The scheme is based on the solution of the δ-two-stream version of the radiative transfer equation incorporating the effects of scattering, absorption, and emission by cloud droplets, aerosols, and gases in each part of the spectrum. An extremely flexible treatment of clouds is obtained by allowing partial cloud cover in any model layer and relating the cloud optical properties to the cloud liquid water content. The latter quantity may either be a prognostic or diagnostic variable of the host model or specified a priori depending on cloud type, height, or similar criteria. The treatment of overlapping cloud layers is based on realistic assumptions, but any different approach requires only minor modifications of the code. The scheme has been tested extensively in the framework of the intercomparison of radiation codes in climate models (ICRCCM, WMO 1984, 1990). Rad.
Gaudin magnet with boundary and generalized Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equation

We consider the boundary quantum inverse scattering method established by Sklyanin (1988). The Gaudin magnet with boundary is diagonalized by taking a quasi-classical limit of the inhomogeneous lattice. Using the method proposed by Babujian (1993), the integral representation for the solution of the B-type Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equation is explicitly constructed.
Use of Biogas as Energy Source: A Review

Anaerobic digestion is the process of decomposition of organic material by a microbial population that lives in an oxygen free environment. Biogas obtained as an end product of this process mostly consists of up to 65 % methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) 30 40% by volume with small quantities of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and hydrogen (H2) of potential energy source. Anaerobic digestion is carried out in four stages viz. hydrolysis, acedogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis; by a consortia of bacteria working together to convert organic matter into gas and inorganic constituents (O'Leary and Walsh 1995; Gerardi, 2003; Ostream, 2004; Mc-Carty, 1964).
On linear conversion in a magnetized plasma

The theory of linear conversion of high-frequency electromagnetic waves into electrostatic waves in a magnetized plasma is briefly reviewed, with emphasis on its possible role in experiments on the interaction between electromagnetic waves and plasmas, in the ionosphere as well as in laboratories. New results on the transition from magnetized to unmagnetized plasmas are given. 39 refs.
Characterization of trapping force in the presence of spherical aberration

Abstract Transverse trapping force in laser tweezers is investigated in the presence of spherical aberration caused by the refractive-index mismatch between a cover slip and the water solution where particles are suspended. The transverse trapping efficiency is characterized in terms of the numerical aperture of a microscope objective and the thickness of a sample cell. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the spherical aberration can be compensated for by changing the effective tube length of an objective used for trapping. As a result, the transverse trapping efficiency can be improved by up to 20%. In principle, a further improvement in the trapping efficiency is possible if an objective of an infinitely-long tube length is used.
Effect of Substitutional Impurities on the Neutral-to-Ionic Phase Transition in TTF- p -Chloranil Crystal

In order to investigate the effect of doping on the neutral-to-ionic phase transition, reflection spectra due to the intramolecular excitations have been measured on TTF- p -chloranil single crystals doped with the substitutional weak acceptor, trichloro- p -benzoquinone, at various temperatures and dopant concentrations. The thermal shifts of the spectra are considerably blurred by doping in contrast with a sharp spectral change at T c =84 K in pure crystal. It is concluded that the phase transition in doped crystals occurs inhomogeneously due to a binary phase separation into quasi-ionic and quasi-neutral regions even below T c . On the basis of these results, a microscopic model is presented for the effect of impurities on the neutral-to-ionic phase transition in TTF-chloranil crystal.
On duality in robustness analysis

Frequency domain conditions involving multipliers is a powerful tool for robustness analysis. The resulting analysis problem is generally infinite dimensional and numerical solutions restricted to finite dimensional subspaces need to be considered. The finite dimensional problem can be transformed to a linear matrix inequality, which can be solved with efficient algorithms. This paper presents a format for the dual of the infinite dimensional problem. The dual can be used to investigate if the primal robustness problem is feasible. It can also be used to estimate the conservatism of a particular finite dimensional subspace of the primal.
Precipitation of radiation belt electrons by magnetospherically reflected whistlers

We use a test particle simulation model based on gyro-averaged equations of motion to study the influence of oblique magnetospherically reflected (MR) whistlers on the near-loss-cone distribution function of radiation belt electrons. We find that MR whistlers originating in lightning can resonantly interact with radiation belt electrons over a broad range of L-shells and precipitate higher energy electrons from lower L-shells. Electrons in the energy range of 1–2.6 MeV are precipitated from L=2, whereas from L=4 the precipitated electron energy range is 150–220 keV. The precipitated differential electron flux due to this interaction is higher for higher L-shells, and the maximum value ranges from\(\Phi _{E_{prec} } (1.11 MeV) = 5.2 \times 10^{ - 4} el/cm^2 \cdot s \cdot keV\) at\(L = 2 to \Phi _{E_{prec} } (173 keV) = 4.6 \times 10^{ - 1} el/cm^2 \cdot s \cdot keV\) at L=4. The lifetimes of radiation belt electrons in a given magnetic flux tube around the L-shell on which the interaction takes place are found to be of the order of several days, comparable to lifetimes corresponding to electron loss induced by hiss, which was heretofore assumed to be the dominant loss mechanism [1]. The minimum electron lifetimes vary from 2.47 days for E=1.11 MeV electrons at L=2 to 4.64 days for E=173 keV electrons at L=4.
Automatic Partial Extraction from the Modal Distribution

The Modal Distribution (MD) is a time-frequency distribution specifically designed to model the quasi-harmonic, multi-sinusoidal, nature of music signals and belongs to the Cohen general class of time-frequency distributions. The problem of signal synthesis from bilinear time-frequency representations such as the Wigner distribution has been investigated [1,14] us-ing methods which exploit an outer-product interpretation of these distributions. Methods of synthesis from the MD based on a sinusoidal-analysis-synthesis procedure using estimates of in-stantaneous frequency and amplitude values have relied on a heuristic search ‘by eye’ for peaks in the time-frequency domain [2,7,8]. An approach to detection of sinusoidal components with the Wigner Distribution has been investigated in [15] based on a comparison of peak magnitudes with the DFT and STFT. In this paper we propose an improved frequency smoothing kernel for use in MD partial tracking and adapt the McCauley-Quatieri sinusoidal analysis procedure to enable a sum of sinusoids synthe-sis. We demonstrate that the improved kernel enhances automatic partial extraction and that the MD estimates of instantaneous amplitude and frequency are preserved. Suggestions for future extensions to the synthesis procedure are given.
Dielectric Relaxation of (Ba, Sr)TiO3 Thin Films

The dielectric relaxation of (Ba0.5Sr0.5)TiO3 thin films with high electric resistivity is investigated. The films are deposited by an rf-magnetron sputtering method in an atmosphere of argon and oxygen. The dielectric dispersion of the films is measured in the frequency range of 10-2-106 Hz. It is found that the dielectric constant ε slightly decreases with frequency, following the relationship of dε/d(log 10 f)∼-0. 01ε, and the dielectric loss is almost constant at less than 1% in the measured frequency range. This type of dielectric relaxation causes absorption current which is inversely proportional to time, as the result of the dielectric aftereffect. In a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) operation, the dielectric relaxation would result in less than 10% loss of storage charge during the refresh cycle, and the film's DC leakage less affects the device operation.
Periodic Solutions of a Periodic Nonlinear Delay Differential Equation

In this paper the scalar delay-differential equation $y'( t ) = b( t )y( {t - T} )[ {1 - y( t )} ] - cy( t )$, is studied, where c and T are positive constants and b is a positive periodic function of minimal period $\omega > 0$. This equation models the proportion of infectious persons with a communicable disease carried by a vector; hence, interest is centered on the solutions which obey $0 \leqq y( t ) \leqq 1$. It is shown that, if b is nonconstant, a positive periodic solution exists provided that c is less than a certain threshold value $c_T $. If c is greater or equal to $c_T $ no positive periodic solution exists. The stability of the positive periodic as well as of the zero solution are discussed and bounds are obtained for the critical value $c_T $. The main methods of analysis that are used are fixed point theorems for operators on cones and Lyapunov functions for delay-differential equations.
Perception of Intensive Care Unit Nurses toward Family Engagement in Patients' Care

: Family engagement means active partnerships between health care providers' families. Family engagement in ICU takes different forms depending on the needs of critically ill patients. Families could be engaged in the tangible and the intangible aspects of critically ill patients' care. Family engagement can improve patients' outcomes, reduce family anxiety and enhance family members' satisfaction in addition to reducing patient's stress and anxiety, lowering delirium prevalence, reducing length of hospital stay, enhancing patients' satisfaction and experience with care. Many research studies focus on the intangible aspect of family participation in patient care. There is a remarkably little research that investigate family members' contribution to care in the ICU. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine perception of ICU nurses toward family engagement in patients' care. Methods: a cross-sectional, descriptive research design was used in this study in which one instrument was used to assess the perception of ICU nurses toward family engagement in patients' care. The subjects were comprised of all ICU nurses who had previous experience for at least one year from 8 ICUs in 2 selected university hospitals. Results: patients' hygiene is the top reported aspect of engagement followed by oral feeding, distraction activities and assisting with ambulation. These are reported respectively by 62.05%, 60.33%, 56.89%, and 49.13% of the studied nurses in all ICUs. The least reported aspect of family engagement in all ICUs (2.58%) is the oral care. Conclusion: Families are involved in the tangible and the intangible aspects of patients care in ICUs but they are involved more in the intangible aspects of patients care. Recommendations: There is a need to establish polices, procedure, and protocols for family engagement in ICUs. An assessment tool to determine family willingness to be actively participating in their patients' care and the aspects of care they can be engaged in should be available.
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE APPLIED PROBABILITY TRUST

In this article we study a biased version of the naming game in which players are located on a connected graph and interact through successive conversations in order to select a common name for a given object. Initially, all the players use the same word B except for one bilingual individual who also uses word A. Both words are attributed a fitness, which measures how often players speak depending on the words they use and how often each word is spoken by bilingual individuals. The limiting behavior depends on a single parameter, φ, denoting the ratio of the fitness of word A to the fitness of word B. The main objective is to determine whether word A can invade the system and become the new linguistic convention. From the point of view of the mean-field approximation, invasion of word A is successful if and only if φ > 3, a result that we also prove for the process on complete graphs relying on the optimal stopping theorem for supermartingales and random walk estimates. In contrast, for the process on the one-dimensional lattice, word A can invade the system whenever φ > 1.053, indicating that the probability of invasion and the critical value for φ strongly depend on the degree of the graph. The system on regular lattices in higher dimensions is also studied by comparing the process with percolation models.
Unsupervised morphological classification of QRS complexes

Compares different strategies for nonsupervised classification of QRS complexes and reports results on the MIT/BIH arrhythmia database in respect to discriminatory power and computational demand. One approach is based on a hierarchical cluster analysis procedure with three different feature sets consisting of coefficients of orthogonal series expansions. The second method uses a two step correlation technique. For several reasons, our results suggest a preferability of the second method as long as a moderate signal quality can be guaranteed.