Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Boron Carbide (B4C) Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composites (AMCs)

Aluminum matrix composites (AMCs) demonstrating a good combination of properties that are hard to acquire by a monolithic aluminum material. Since the last few decades, investigators have shown their keen interest to advance these materials for complex applications. Homogeneous reinforcement distribution, defect-free microstructure, and improved resultant properties depends on the fabrication method along with matrix and reinforcement materials and size. Two-step melt stirring technique and K2TiF6 flux enhanced the wettability and improve the particle distribution of boron carbide (B4C) in AMCs. The mechanical properties of the AMCs were enriched by either extrusion process or thermal treatment. Hybrid composites exhibited better characteristics than mono composites. Surface composites manufactured by incorporation of reinforcement in the surface layer; offer good surface properties without losing toughness and ductility. The B4C-Al interfacial reactions produce different precipitates in AMCs and damaged the composite's age-hardening ability. B4C reinforced friction stir processed surface composites exhibits refined structure and better properties compared to the aluminum matrix. The strength, hardness, and wear resistance of AMCs increased with rising fraction and reducing the size of B4C up to a certain level. Wear rate increases with rising applied load, sliding time and speed. A review of effect of B4C reinforcement on different properties of mono and hybrid AMCs with summarized results attained and concluded by different investigators is presented in this paper to help researchers in the field. At the end of this paper a position given to conclusions and future directions.
Pulse compression of negatively chirped pulses in silicon photonic nanowire

Pulse compression of initial negative frequency chirp pulses in silicon photonic nanowire has been analyzed numerically. The effects of the initial negative frequency chirp and core diameter variation on pulse compression have been numerically investigated. By analyzing the interaction of SPM, positive group-velocity dispersion and the initial negative frequency chirp, we find that the compression factor increases but the quality factor and the optimum fiber length decrease with the increasing initial negative chirp when the core diameter is specified. A compression factor of 8.02 can be achieved by a pulse with initial negative frequency chirp of -20 and initial FWHM duration of 30 fs in a 4.35 μm long silicon nanowire.
Optimizing pesticide spray application in tree crops

New instruments of chemical dose adjustment for spray application in tree orchards (deciduous fruits, vineyards and citrus) has been developed in a three year cooperative project (PULVEXACT) involving four R+D Spanish institutes and universities (Agriculture, Livestok and Fisheries Department of the Regional Government of Catalonia, University of Lleida, Catalunya Polytechnic University and Valencia Polytechnic University). A decision scheme (DOSA) for farmers and crop protection advisers on the basis of tree crop characteristics (crop, variety, training system, development stage, tree and row spacing, height, depth, geometry, LAI, .) and providing the optimal volume rates has been implemented to run in PCs. Additionally for measuring canopy size and leaf density variability, an electronic measurement system for detecting plants geometry and other shape parameters, by means of a terrestrial laser scanner (LIDAR) and ultrasonic sensors (US), has been implemented. A considerable computational and experimental effort has been carried out in order to analyze the electronic data and to transform it on structural information parameters to be used as valuable information for sprayer control. Finally the US system has been successfully used on dynamic regulation in real-time of spray flux providing an optimized pesticide application method. All this work will make possible a dose adjustment to match the real needs for chemical control of pests and diseases in the above-mentioned crops and therefore a significant reduction of the environmental impact of spray applications and a cut back of farming costs.
Elevated serum levels of cathelicidin and β-defensin 2 are associated with basal cell carcinoma

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are one of the primary mechanisms used by the skin in the early stages of immune defense. AMPs have a broad antibacterial activity and also show antifungal and antiviral attributes. Various studies have also shown that levels of antimicrobial peptides change with the development of neoplasia. The aim of this paper is to assess the associations between the presence of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and the plasma concentrations of cathelicidin and β-defensins (HBD1-3). We examined 108 patients (56 women, 52 men). The BCC group consisted of 49 patients with mean age 69.8 ±12.3 and the control group consisted of 59 participants with mean age 62.1 ±11.1. A statistical analysis of data was performed. The median serum concentration of cathelicidin was almost 3 times higher and the median concentration of HBD-2 more than 6 times higher in BCC patients than in the control group (p < 0.001). The logistic regression model revealed in univariate analysis that patients who had a detected cathelicidin level above ~1500 pg/ml had 9.9× higher likelihood of having BCC identified in the histopathology in comparison with the control group. In patients who had a HBD-2 level above ~1.2 ng/ml the OR of having BCC identified in the histopathology was 12.6 (p < 0.001). Elevated concentrations of cathelicidin and β-defensin 2 are associated with the presence of basal cell carcinoma. Additionally, the specificity of cathelicidin and β-defensin 2 in detecting basal cell carcinoma is high. However, it should be remembered that these factors are not specific only to this condition and further studies are needed.
Regimes of feedback effects in 1.5-µm distributed feedback lasers

We have measured the effects of feedback on the spectra of 1.5-μm DFB lasers from feedback power ratios as low as -80 dB up to -8 dB. Five distinct regimes of effects are observed with well defined transitions between them. The dependence of these effects on the distance to the reflection is also investigated.
A Statewide Pavement Management System

A pavement management system was developed for the State of Arizona to produce optimal maintenance policies for each mile of the 7,400-mile network of highways. The heart of the system is a mathematical model which captures the dynamic and probabilistic aspects of pavement maintenance. The model integrates management policy decisions, budgetary policies, environmental factors, and engineering decisions. During the first year of implementation, fiscal year 1980--81, the system saved 14 million dollars (almost 1/3 of Arizona's preservation budget). The forecast savings over the next four years is 101 million dollars.
Confirmation Research on Robustness Speaker Based-on Normalized Autocorrelation Voice Selection

This paper gives a new algorithm that based on normalized autocorrelation robustness selection. Aiming at the situation that the voice was vitiated by noise and the difference of pollution extent between different parts of the voice, we recognized that preserving the polluted parts of voice will bring in negative affection to the confirmation system of speaker. Normalized autocorrelation not only shows the correlation of short-time voice frame, but also shows the polluted extent of voice. As a result, we can wipe off the deeply polluted voice through the normalized autocorrelation. Experiments have shown that through the procedure of normalized autocorrelation we can not only wipe off the polluted voice, but also improve confirmation ability of speaker in high noise environment.
P‐94: Recent Developments in the Immaterial Projection Screen Technology

The immaterial projection screen is an emerging display technology that enables high‐quality projected images in mid‐air. It is becoming more wide‐spread and can be extended to a pseudo‐3D display. In this paper we present an overview of the technical and commercial state‐of‐the‐art of the technology.
A comparison of Jabulani and Brazuca non-spin aerodynamics

Wind-tunnel experimental measurements of drag coefficients for non-spinning Jabulani and Brazuca balls are presented. The Brazuca ball’s critical drag speed is lower than that of the Jabulani ball, and the Brazuca ball’s super-critical drag coefficient is larger than that of the Jabulani ball. Compared to the Jabulani ball, the Brazuca ball suffers less instability due to knuckle-ball effects. Using drag data, numerically determined ball trajectories are created, and it is postulated that although power shots are too similar to note flight differences, goalkeepers are likely to note the differences between Jabulani and Brazuca ball trajectories for intermediate-speed ranges. This latter result may appear in the 2014 World Cup for goalkeepers used to the flight of the ball used in the 2010 World Cup.
Small projects/large changes: Participatory design as an open participated process

This paper examines the need for large-scale, sustainable changes, and the effects of citizens' active participation and design co-operating to realise such changes. Section 1, starting from Pelle Ehn's last contribution, deals with participatory design and how it can be extended from the traditional idea of participation as the integration of users in projects, to the concept of participation as the interaction of active groups of citizens with open and articulated processes in the direction of socio-technical changes. Section 2 introduces the idea of planning by projects strategy and presents five design projects. Section 3 discusses how participatory design can be extended to give a rationale for these large-scale projects and what designers did in practice: triggered citizens’ interest, aligned their motivations and empowered their capabilities. The idea emerging from this discussion is that when participatory design is intended as an approach aiming at broad and complex transformation processes its traditional notion must integrate the concept of social innovation (first step) and evolve towards the idea of an open process where a multiplicity of small, diverse, participated initiatives (or local projects) interact (second step) to achieve a larger vision.
Energy and emission analysis in the malaysian food industries

According to the source paper written in 2006, the Malaysian food industrial sector accounted for about 14% of the total manufacturing energy consumption. As energy costs rapidly increase, alternative energy sources and efficiency improvements become essential to energy planning, cost savings, resource optimization, and environmental protection in these industries. This article focuses on the energy savings, economic benefits, and emission reduction that can be obtained by applying various energy saving options. This study shows that significant power can be saved annually by utilizing energy efficient motors. The cost savings, payback period, and reduction in CO2 emissions are estimated for different motor loads. It is shown that sizeable amounts of energy can be saved using VSD, waste heat recovery, new efficiency lamps (T‐5), and repairing leakages. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 777–783, 2013
Does ENSO significantly affect rice production in Indonesia? A preliminary study using computational time-series approach

ENSO is a phenomenon that is suspected to influence rice production in Indonesia. In this study, we try to find a direct correlation between ENSO and rice production in this region by using various latest computational time series methods, such as Dynamic Time Warping, Wavelet Coherence, and Bayesian Structural Time Series to quantify the statistical relationship between the Multivariate ENSO Index on annual rice production in 1961 - 2019. We did not find a direct correlation between these two variables, which may be due to the local influence of ENSO on different rice production areas in Indonesia.
Design of Dielectric Grating Antennas for Millimeter-Wave Applications

At theoretical procedure well suited for generating design data on dielectric grating antennas for the millimeter-wave region is presented. The procedure utilizes the effective dielectric constant (EDC) method to determine the phase constant of the leaky modes supported by the antenna structure of finite lateral width. The radiation or leakage constant of these modes is obtained from the relatively simple boundary value problem of dielectric grating antennas of infinite width. For single-beam radiation, the practicably interesting case, the phase and leakage constants completely determine the field distribution in the antenna aperture, from which the directivity gain and radiation pattern are then calculated. The dependence of the antenna characteristics on the dimensions of the radiating structure is presented and discussed for epsilon = 12, the dielectric constant of typical millimeter-wave materials, such as silicon and GaAs.
Detection and active stabilization of beams position at a high-resolution laser interferometer

In metrology applications of laser interferometers like a scale calibration of capacitive or inductive sensors, strictly linear positioning of the measuring mirror of the interferometer is necessary. It is maintained usually by a stage, which is based on principle of linear guide ways with ball carrier bearings. But possible imperfection of guides of the travel stage can cause deviations of the mirror plane from the right angle to the axis of traveling. Mentioned angle deviations lead to distortion of interference fringes in the output of the interferometer and by other words it causes non-linearity of the interferometer scale. Because the phenomenon is very random for this type of the travel stage the uncertainty of calibration of sensors is higher. In the work we present a method, which eliminates this usual problem by two ways. The first of them utilizes a special configuration of the laser interferometer where possible angle deviation of the mirror plane is compensated by second pass of the laser beam in the measuring arm of the interferometer. The next way is based on continual monitoring of spatial position of laser beams in the interferometer when the measuring mirror is positioned. It works with condition that the mirror can be slightly tilted by piezoelectric actuators in servo-loop mode with respect to detected spatial position.
Child Sexual Abuse and Nation-Funded Child Sexual Abuse Protection Center (Sunflower Center)

여성가족부의 여성정책 용어사전에 따르면, 성폭력은 ‘강 간뿐 아니라 성추행, 언어적 희롱, 음란 전화, 성기 노출, 어 린이 성추행 등 상대방의 의사에 반하여 가하는 성적 행위 로 모든 신체적·언어적·정신적 폭력을 포괄하는 광범위 한 개념’이다. ‘상대방의 의사에 반한다. ’는 것은 상대방이 원 치 않거나 거부하는 행위를 계속하거나 강요한다는 의미로 서 상대방에게 성폭력에 대한 막연한 불안감이나 공포감을 조성할 뿐만 아니라 그로 인한 행동 제약을 유발하는 것도 간접적인 성폭력이라 할 수 있다. <아동복지법> 제2조에 따 르면, ‘아동’은 18세 미만을 말하며 이들을 대상으로 하는 성 학대는 아동학대로 취급한다. 또한 <성폭력범죄의 처벌 및 피해자 보호등에 관한 법률> 제22조에서는 성폭력범죄의 신 고의무를 제시하는데, ‘18세 미만의 사람을 보호하거나 교육 또는 치료하는 시설의 책임자 및 관련 종사자는 자기의 보 호 또는 감독을 받는 사람이 성폭력범죄의 피해자인 사실을 안 때에는 즉시 수사기관에 신고하여야 한다. ’ 즉 모든 의료 인은 성폭력 범죄의 신고 의무자이다. 여성가족부 산하 한국여성인권진흥원의 연감에 따르면 2016년에 19세 미만의 성폭력 피해를 입은 아동청소년들의 수는 10083명으로 하루 평균 27명 이상의 적지 않은 피해자 가 발생하고 있다. 여성가족부는 2004년 서울해바라기아동 센터를 개소한 이후 현재까지 41개 해바라기센터를 점차적 으로 늘려 설치하여 운영하고 있다. 해바라기센터는 성폭력 피해자들을 평가하고 치료하며, 그들에게 의학적인 서비스 외에 사회심리적 지원과 법률적 지원을 제공하는 공공성 기 관이다. 성폭력 피해자들이 피해를 고소하고 법률적으로 지 SPECIAL ARTICLE
Research on Precision Measurement of Machine Part Based on Radiometric Calibration

In this paper, a precision measurement method of machine part based on radiometric calibration was proposed. According to radiometric calibration, the response function of our camera's CCD sensor was obtained, and the non-linear mapping relations between image gray value and the radiant energy of machine part was established. Based on this, the real size of machine part in image was restored. The experiments showed that this method could effectively improve the measurement accuracy, and it would be of great importance in non-contact measurement field of machine part.
Research on R&D Cooperation of Petrochemical Enterprise Based on Game Theory

In this paper, it is researched the cooperated R&D problem in new petrochemical product development for petrochemical enterprise. Based on game theory, a cooperated R&D game theory is established. Given the payoff matrix and the strategy set of this model, and it is analyzed the game process of the two players and the dominant strategy. For the reasons of high development costs, great failure loss, individual limited rationality and lack mutual trust, this dominant strategy cannot be achieved in practice. This paper also provides us a pattern for analyze the cooperated R&D between enterprises and institute.
Integrated Production Planning, Scheduling and Shop Floor Tracking System for High-Mix Low-Volume Manufacturing - A Consortium Approach

In Singapore, the Precision Engineering (PE) industry is the backbone of the manufacturing sector; it supports a large number of manufacturing industries such as Electronics, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Aerospace, Oil & Gas and Automotive. From our recent visits to companies in the PE industry, it was observed that given such a dynamic and stochastic manufacturing environment, most of these PE companies are still predominantly using Microsoft Excel as their planning & scheduling tool, shop floor tracking is normally performed manually through paper traveler, and production status is only updated at the end of the day or as and when demanded by customer. The common problems highlighted include inability to provide realistic delivery commitment, machine and manpower resources are not optimally utilized to fulfill customer orders, unacceptable order cycle time and lack of production visibility. Therefore, there is an increasing demand and impending need for a computerized integrated production planning/scheduling and shop floor tracking system. In this paper, a consortium approach for the development of an integrated production planning/scheduling and shop floor tracking system for the High-Mix Low-Volume (HMLV) PE environment is presented. An illustration through the implementation of the proposed system in a PE company is highlighted. With this system, companies would be able to improve their delivery performance through effective handling of ad-hoc customer orders and the ability to react to deviations or unplanned events in production.
Toward an activity-based costing system for product families and product platforms in the early stages of development

As the marketplace has been changing so rapidly, it has been a key issue for companies to best meet customers’ diverse demands by providing a variety of products in a cost-effective and timely manner. In the meantime, an increasing variety of capability and functionality of products has made it more difficult for companies that develop only one product at a time to maintain competitive production cost and reclaim market share. By designing a product family based on a robust product platform, overall production cost can be more competitive than competitors selling one product at a time while delivering highly differentiated products. In order to design cost-effective product families and product platforms, a production cost estimation framework was presented in order that relevant costs are collected, estimated, and analysed. Since the framework is quite broad, this paper is dedicated to refining the estimation framework in a practical way by developing an activity-based costing (ABC) system in which activity costs are mapped to individual parts in the product family, which is called cost modularization, and the activity costs affected by product family design decisions are restructured to make the costs relevant to these decisions. A case study involving a family of power tools is used to demonstrate the proposed use of the ABC system.
Research Progress of Methanogens Methanogenic Metabolic Pathway and its Ecological Factors

Methanogens are important environmental microbial and play an important role in the nature of the carbon-cycling, its unique physiological characteristics and metabolic mechanisms make it play an indispensable role in environmental protection and energy field. At present, known methane biosynthesis has three pathways: acetic acid, H/CO2, methyl compound as the substrates generate methane through different reaction. Ecological factor affecting methanogens are mainly temperature, pH value, redox potential, etc. In this paper, we carry on analyzing the research progress of the methanogens species, its physiological characteristics, metabolic pathway, ecological factor and industrial application, and propose methods and the thinking of study to improve methane gas production by adjusting the ecological factor as the control factor.
Real-Time Multiple Points Tracking and Localization Using Wide Angle Cameras for Indoor Flying Robot

Using other visual information of object to compute its location is attracting lots of researchers and engineers in recent years. In this pager, a new real-time multiple points tracking and localization system is introduced while keeping the robustness in a certain degree. The ma¬j¬or contributions of our paper are: several infrared LEDs are used to avoid the interference of visible light, some wide-angle lens of the cameras are incorp¬orated to expand th¬e v¬isual field of cameras, and a real-time multiple points t¬r¬acking method is used to accelerate the points association among several ima¬g¬es captured from different cameras. In experiments, we mounted the points o¬n the flying robot to demonstrate that the real-time tracking is robust and the localization accuracy meets the application requirements.
Research on NLOS Mitigation Method for TOA Positioning

In Time of Arrival (TOA) positioning technology based on base station (BS), besides the measurement error caused by mobile station (MS), Non Line Of Sight (NLOS) propagation become the main factor of the positioning error. Aiming to solve this problem especially in indoor positioning, we introduced the differential calculus method to linearize the positioning equations, and Mirror Image Method (MMI) to turn the NLOS propagation into LOS propagation, then we collected a small amount of feature point information in the positioning region which include the received TOAs at this point, feature point coordinates and BS coordinates or the mirror image coordinates of BS. In the following 3D scenario simulation, we took use of the differential calculus as well as Least Square (LS) method to get the position of the MS. Simulation results show that by using the whole mechanism, we can achieve a high positioning precision.
Building maintenance strategy: a new management approach

Points out that increasing pressure to prolong the useful life of a building without compromising the objectives of maintenance has led to an increasing interest in methods of integrated maintenance management. As an alternative to budget‐driven maintenance strategies, develops a new approach to selecting an appropriate maintenance strategy which relies on determining the consequences of failure of every item in the building, and determining a suitable strategy for each one. Analyses the relative advantages and disadvantages of corrective, preventive and condition‐based strategies. Advocates a novel, systematic approach to the management of building maintenance. Suggests this method will help maintenance engineers and managers to reduce the cost of maintenance while preserving the safety, health and satisfaction of the user.