Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Configurable Tilt License Plate Correction Method Based on Parallel Lines

The tilt license plate correction is an important part of the license plate recognition system. Traditional correction methods are based on one theory. It is difficult to use the advantages of different approaches. We propose some methods to help improve the tile license plate correction: a bounding box selection method based on similar height and a mutual correction method based on fitted parallel straight lines. Moreover, we use wide bounding boxes to segment touched characters. If the method based on parallel lines fails, another method, such as PCA-based one, can be used for complement. Experimental results show the proposed method outperforms others.
Low energy, wind catcher assisted indirect-evaporative cooling system for building applications

Increased consciousness of the environmental problems has aroused people’s interest of renewable energy systems, especially the application of green features in buildings. The demand for air conditioning / cooling in domestic and non-domestic buildings is rising throughout the world; this increases the reliance on conventional fuels and the global warming effect from greenhouse gas emissions. Passive cooling and energy efficient design can substantially reduce reliance on fuel based heating and cooling. Passive and Hybrid Downdraught Cooling, in different forms, is now technically viable in many parts of the world. This has been established through a combination of research projects. In some hot arid regions, a major part of the energy consumed consists of air-conditioning requirements. Alternative methods, using passive cooling techniques, can assist in reducing the conventional energy consumption in buildings. Evaporative cooling, which can be tracked back several hundreds of years in ancient Egypt and Persia [1–3], is one of the most effective strategies, because of the enormous latent heat needed for evaporation of water. Green features are architectural features used to mitigate migration of various air-borne pollutants and transmission of air from outside to indoor environment in an advantageous way [9]. The reduction of fossil fuel consumption and the associated decrease in greenhouse gas emissions are vital to combat global warming and this can be accomplished, in part, by the use of natural ventilation. To assess the performance of several innovative cooling systems devices and to develop improved models for more established technology, quantitative measurement of output was necessary. This was achieved in this study by the development of simply constructed low energy cooling systems which were calibrated by the innovative use of wind and water as a source. These devices were found to be consistent and accurate in measuring the temperature and cooling load from a number of devices. There were some problems in the original evaporative units. Therefore, a number of modifications have to be made to enhance the systems performance. The novel Windcatcher – PEC cooling system was assessed and different cooling loads were achieved.
Light Quality Environment and Photomorphological Responses of Young Olive Trees

Tree densities have increased greatly in olive orchards over the last few decades. In many annual crop species, increased density reduces the horizontal red/far-red (R/FR) and blue/green (B/G) ratios during canopy development even before direct shading occurs, and such changes are known to alter plant morphology. This study with olive trees evaluated: (1) whether the leaf area index (LAI) of neighboring trees modifies the light quality environment prior to a tree being directly shaded and (2) the potential morphological responses of three olive cultivars to changes in light quality. Increasing LAI using different spatial arrangements of potted, three-year-old trees reduced the horizontal R/FR ratio more than that of the B/G ratio. Cultivar-specific responses to low R/FR ratio were observed for individual leaf area and aboveground/belowground biomass ratio using laterally positioned FR mirrors or green fences. No statistically significant responses were detected in response to green vegetation fences that reduced both horizontal R/FR and B/G ratios, but a cluster analysis grouped together the overall morphological responses to both FR mirrors and green fences. These results in olive trees suggest that cultivar differences in response to light quality may be relevant for understanding adaptation to dense orchards and identifying cultivars best suited to them.
A New Control Approach of Grid Interfaced Five Level Cascaded Multilevel Inverter

This This paper describes a modified control approach of the Proportional resonant controller for the grid intertie five level cascaded H bridge inverter(Chbi). As renewables energy demand increases rapidly, to cope with this the controller structure of inverter for intertie with grid has to meet the necessities, like, it should be fast in response, provide adequate stability and simple in operation. With new and improved technologies at hand, industrial, commercial and residential consumers require reliable and better quality of power for the wide range of applications. The Renewable Energy Source (RES) based grid tied Multilevel Voltage Source Inverter (MVSI) will able encounter consumer demand appropriately. To supply power to the utility grid from different renewable energy sources using MVSI, it is necessary to design a robust and simple controller which can operate accurately under different malfunction conditions like grid voltage fluctuation and frequency variation.
Dual HER-2 blockade therapy increases the risk of developing cardiac toxicities in HER-2 positive breast cancer: an up-to-date comprehensive meta-analysis

Background To investigate the incidence and risk of cardiac toxicities between dual HER-2 blockade and anti-HER-2 monotherapy.Materials and Methods We searched PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane library databases to identify relevant trials between January 1 1990 and October 31 2019. Statistical analyses were conducted to calculate the summary incidence, Petro odds radio (Peto ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by using either random-effects or fixed-effects models.Results A total of 16,375 patients from 15 randomized controlled trials were included for analysis; the pooled incidence of LVEF decline and CHF in dual HER-2 blocked were 4.6% and 0.9%, which was higher than that in anti-HER-2 monotherapy (3.2% and 0.7%, respectively). Dual HER-2 blockade therapy in breast cancer patients significantly increased the risk of developing LVEF decline (OR:1.19, 95%CI: 1.02-1.40, p=0.031) and CHF (OR:1.45, 95%CI: 1.00-2.11, p=0.049) when compared to anti-HER2 monotherapy. Sub-group analysis showed that addition of dual HER-2 blockade to adjuvant treatment for breast cancer significantly increased the risk of developing LVEF decline (p=0.048) and CHF (p=0.005). In addition, dual HER-2 blockade in breast cancer patients significantly increased the risk of developing LVEF decline (p=0.004) when compared to lapatinib alone, but not for CHF (p=0.11, respectively). Conclusion Dual HER-2 targeted therapy in HER-2 positive breast cancer significantly increase the risk of developing LVEF and CHF when compared to anti-HER-2 alone, though the overall incidence of cardiac toxicities is very low. Physicians should be aware of this risk and provide close monitoring during the administration of dual HER-2 targeted therapy.
Quality performance and organizational culture

For many years culture has been claimed as an important component of organizational success in general and TQM and quality improvement in particular. This study examined management culture and quality performance in a sample of New Zealand manufacturing organizations. The culture was measured using the Organizational Culture Inventory, and quality performance was measured using questions from Leading the Way: A Study of Best Manufacturing Practices in Australia and New Zealand. Different management cultures were found to have correlations with quality indicators such as: warranty claims, percent defectives, ratio of quality inspectors to direct production workers, and delivery in full on time. No significant correlations were found between the organizational cultures and cost of quality, or with supplier quality. We suggest that through understanding these relationships between culture and quality, managers may be able to develop more effective and competitive organizations.
The Influence of Zirconia Powder Dispersion Technique on Microstructure and Properties of Al2O3 – ZrO2 Ceramic

The results of microstructure and mechanical properties investigation for alumina and zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) with 20 wt. % 3Y-ZrO2 is presented. It was stated that the technique of preliminary treatment for zirconia suspension makes significant influence on sintered specimen microstructure. Introduction of the alloying additive treated with ball milling reduces Al2O3 grain size in ceramic from 2-5 μm to 0.2-1 μm. The reduction of grain size increases the bending strength of ceramic material from 270 MPa up to 350 MPa. However fracture toughness of alumina and ZTA is 3.4 and 2.5 MPa·m1/2, respectively. It was shown that the low level of mechanical properties is related to the occurrence of major defects in the form of granule boundaries preserved at the forming stage.
Relevance units machine based on Akaike's information criterion

The relevance vector machine (RVM) is a sparse regression kernel model. It not only generates a much sparser model but provides better generalization performance than the standard support vector machine (SVM). Relevance vectors and support vectors are both selected from the input vector set. This may limit model flexibility. Recently, we propose Relevance Units Machine (RUM). RUM treats relevance units (RUs) as part of the parameters of the model. However, the number of RUs must be selected before using RUM. In this paper, we use Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) to select the number of the RUs. The experiment results show that based on AIC RUM maintains all the advantages of RVM and offers superior sparsity.
The Harvest Season Changes the Organoleptic Properties of Onion during Storage

Aims: The objective was to determine the influence of the onion harvest time "Baia Periforme" on post-harvest quality of the bulbs during storage. Study Design: The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design with three treatments, six replicates with two bulbs each. Place and Duration of Study: Departamento de Fitotecnia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, between June 2017 and July 2018. Methodology: Seedlings, 20 days old, were transplanted into 20 cm spacing between rows and 10 cm between plants. The bulbs were harvested 120 days after transplanting with manual tipping of the pseudo-stem (T1), with 50 (T2) or 75% (T3) of the bulbs popped. The soluble sugars (SS), non-reducing sugars (NRS), reducing sugars (RS), total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity of phenolic compounds and alinase activity was determined every 30 days for 90 days. Results: The content of SS, TSS, phenolic compounds and alinase activity increased in the onions of T2, resulting in more sweet and pungent bulbs due to the higher content of acidity and phenolic compounds. Conclusion: The post-harvest quality of onion bulbs "Baia Periforme" was maintained when they were harvested with 50% of bulbs popped.
An Enhancement of an Automatic Plant Watering System

We summarize of significant functions of the systems from previous works which are considered as automatic plant watering systems. As an example of an enhancement of the existing automatic plant watering systems, we design and implement a prototype of our proposed system based on these functions. Then we provide some discussions of the proposed system and its results. The system can demonstrate the enhancement of automatic plant watering systems and how the Internet of Things and cloud computing can benefit automatic plant watering systems. Thus the enhanced system can be useful in agricultural applications with plain design and implementation. The enhanced system can be guidelines for individuals who want to build their own automatic plant watering systems to grow plants, especially for food by themselves.
Influence of Zirconia Content and Grain Size on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Zirconia Toughened Alumina Ceramics

Physical and mechanical properties as well as microstructure of zirconia toughened alumina ceramics with different zirconia content were tested. The results show that the best physical and mechanical properties are obtained in sub-micron composite ceramic when zirconia content is 25%; while the physical and mechanical properties of nano-zirconia toughened alumina ceramics are far better than those of sub-micron zirconia toughened alumina ceramics. Therefore physical and mechanical properties of ceramics can be improved significantly by adding proper amount of zirconia into alumina matrix and refining zirconia particles.
Simplified description of asymmetric right‐handed composite right/left‐handed coupler in microstrip chip technology

The coupling frequency range of the asymmetric coupler composed of a conventional microstrip right‐handed (RH) transmission line and a composite right/left‐handed (CRLH) transmission line with lumped‐elements is investigated. It shows theoretically that the coupling frequency range can be explicitly determined by the given formulas. In the coupling frequency range, the effective permittivity and permeability of the CRLH transmission lines are both negative, at the same time the product of the average permittivity and the average permeability is negative, i.e., ϵL < 0, μL < 0, and $\bar{\varepsilon}$ · $\bar{\mu}$ < 0. Two types of RH‐CRLH couplers are designed, simulated, and measured. The coupling frequency range obtained from the simulated and the experimental results confirms the theoretical results. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 2063–2068, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22643
Optimal parameters for /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulator topologies

A systematic study of single-loop, cascaded, and multibit /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators of second to fourth order is presented, based on a combination of behavioral simulations and linear modeling. Constraints for optimal performance and precise guidelines for the choice of parameters are derived. Moreover, the optimal parameters and the corresponding performance are found and given in tables. A graph showing the maximal achievable performance of each topology as a function of the oversampling ratio is presented, offering a valuable help for the design of analog-to-digital converters.
Construcción de un índice de privación por zona básica de salud en Aragón a partir de datos de censo de 2011

Fundamentos: La medicion de las desigualdades mediante indicadores compuestos facilita la priorizacion y puesta en marcha de acciones de salud publica. La fuente de informacion mas comunmente utilizada para ello ha sido el Censo de Poblacion y viviendas de 2011 (CPV_2011). El objetivo fue validar la utilizacion del CPV_2011 por Zona de Salud (ZBS) y construir un indice de privacion (IP) por ZBS asi como analizar su asociacion con la mortalidad en Aragon. Metodos: Estudio ecologico por ZBS. El CPV_2011, con diseno muestral, se valido mediante un test de homogeneidad de Chi_cuadrado y se calcularon 26 indicadores socioeconomicos. Se obtuvo el coeficiente de correlacion de Spearman entre indicadores socioeconomicos y Razones de Mortalidad Estandarizadas (REM). Se realizo un analisis de componentes principales (ACP) con los indicadores correlacionados significativamente, extrayendo los componentes con autovalores mayores a 1 y se obtuvo la matriz rotada (Varimax). Se realizaron ACP con las variables de cada componente extrayendo un unico factor. Se agruparon las ZBS en cuartiles, segun el factor calculando tasas de mortalidad ajustadas a poblacion estandar europea por edad, sexo y cuartil. El factor que mas discrimina por cuartiles se considero IP y se recalculo para ZBS urbanas con identicas variables. Resultados: La validacion de la muestra del CPV_2011, detecto cuatro ZBS infrarrepresentadas. 17 indicadores socioeconomicos se correlacionaron con REM. Del primer ACP se extrajeron 3 componentes, eligiendo como IP, el formado por %Desempleo, %Asalariados eventuales, %Instruccion Insuficiente 16-64 anos y %Extranjeros. Las varianzas explicadas fueron 59,7% y 73,8% en el IP urbano. En hombres, la mortalidad en el cuartil menos privado (544,7 por 105; IC95%:515,8-573,6), fue inferior a la del mas privado (618,7 por 105; IC95%:589,4,648,0). Conclusiones: El IP permite identificar ZBS desfavorecidas constituyendo una herramienta para evidenciar desigualdades y planificar intervenciones segun necesidades.
Physical Metallurgy Principles

Physical Metallurgy Principles is intended for use in an introductory course in physical metallurgy and is designed for all engineering students at the junior or senior level. The approach is largely theoretical, but covers all aspects of physical metallurgy and behavior of metals and alloys. The treatment used in this textbook is in harmony with a more fundamental approach to engineering education.
Friction Stir Welding And Processing

Advances in Welding Technologies for Process DevelopmentMetal Matrix Composites by Friction Stir ProcessingFriction Stir WeldingFriction Stir Welding and Processing XFriction Stir Welding and Processing VIFriction Stir Welding and Processing VIIIFriction Stir Welding of Dissimilar Alloys and MaterialsFriction Stir Welding and Processing IIFriction Stir Welding and ProcessingFriction Stir Welding of High Strength 7XXX Aluminum AlloysFriction Stir Welding and Processing VIIProceedings of the 1st International Joint Symposium on Joining and WeldingAdvances in Friction-Stir Welding and ProcessingFriction Stir Welding and Processing IXComposite Fabrication on Age-Hardened Alloy using Friction Stir ProcessingFriction Stir Welding and ProcessingFriction Stir Welding and Processing IVFriction Stir Welding and Processing IIIFriction Stir Welding and ProcessingResidual Stress Analysis on Welded Joints by Means of Numerical Simulation and ExperimentsFriction Stir Welding of 2XXX Aluminum Alloys including Al-Li AlloysFriction Stir Welding and Processing VIIFriction Stir Casting Modification for Enhanced Structural EfficiencyFriction Stir Welding and ProcessingFRICTION STIR WELDING AND PROCESSING.Fatigue in Friction Stir WeldingFriction Stir Welding and Processing in Alloy ManufacturingHandbook of Plastics JoiningFriction Stir Welding and Processing VIIAdvances in Friction-Stir Welding and ProcessingFriction Stir WeldingFriction Stir Processing for Enhanced Low Temperature FormabilityPowder Metallurgy Stainless SteelsFriction Stir Welding and Processing VIResidual Stresses in Friction Stir WeldingFriction Stir Welding and Processing XIFriction Stir Welding and ProcessingAluminium AlloysFriction-Stir Welding: Principles and ApplicationsSolid-State Welding: Friction and Friction Stir Welding Processes
Improving SAPO-34 performance for CO2/CH4 separation and optimization of adsorption conditions using central composite design

ABSTRACT SAPO-34 molecular sieves have a high adsorption capacity in separation of CO2 from CO2/CH4 mixture. In this study, SAPO-34 was modified by different solutions at various operating conditions to enhance the removal of carbon dioxide from the methane gas. Modifications can change pore size and also Si/Al ratio in SAPO-34 and make changes in the acidity of the adsorbent via the ion exchange process. The effects of temperature and pressure on the separation were studied using the design of experiments. Finally, based on the results of the experimental optimization process applying central composite design (CCD) method, the highest yield of CO2 separation from the methane gas (95%) was obtained when using P-SAPO-34 sample at 17.4°C and 4.6 bar.
Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in Turkish children with celiac disease and its effect on clinical, histopathological, and laboratory parameters

Introduction The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (HP) in children with celiac disease (CD) and its relationship with clinical, histopathological, and laboratory parameters. Material and methods Two hundred and fifty-six patients with serologically and histopathologically diagnosed CD at the Pediatric Gastroenterology Department, Turkey, from January 2012 to March 2017, were included in the study, as well as 1012 patients with dyspeptic complaints. Biopsies of the duodenum and antrum were taken; the existence of HP and the histological level of damage were studied. HP (+) and HP (–) cases were compared according to age, sex, noted complaints, and clinical and laboratory features. Results Seventy (27.4%) CD patients and 270 (26.7%) patients with dyspeptic complaints were HP (+). The diagnostic age was higher in HP (+) cases, and diarrhea and abdominal distension were significantly higher. Although hemoglobin, ferritin, vitamin B12, and transferrin saturation were lower in HP (+) cases, the differences were not statistically significant. The serum folate level in the HP (+) group was significantly lower compared to the HP (–) group. Conclusions The prevalence of HP was not increased in cases of CD. The CD was diagnosed later in HP (+) cases, distension and diarrhea complaints were more frequent, and folate deficiency was significant.
Why Companies Decide to Participate in Mergers and Acquisition Transactions

The article describes the most common motives for companies’ decision to participate in mergers and acquisitions’ transactions. It underlines the importance of the growth factor, whereas the following factors – namely, synergy, diversification and so on – just support the growth motive. Since mergers and acquisitions involve two different parties – the buyer and the seller – the examples of reasons from both perspectives are provided too. Article in English
The 'Rootkit Debacle': The Latest Chapter in the Story of the Recording Industry and the War on Music Piracy

In the age of digital music, illicit copying or burning of CDs is a rampant problem that undermines the rights of copyright holders, record labels, and artists alike. The recording industry has attempted to address this problem by manufacturing and releasing CDs with various types of digital rights management (DRM) technologies. Most recently, Sony BMG introduced CDs containing DRM software that was intended, among other things, to limit the number of copies of the CD the user could make, and prevent the user from sharing the content of the CD on peer-to-peer networks. However, the manner in which this software operated was highly controversial, for example because it collected information from the user's computer and installed a “rootkit” on the user's hard drive that made the computer susceptible to viruses. This latest effort to copy-protect CDs, which has come to be known as the “rootkit debacle,” has raised numerous legal issues that are examined in this article, including Sony BMG's potential liability under certain federal and state laws, as well as the potential liability of consumers and security researchers under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The article also proposes a solution for striking a balance between the recording industry's right to protect its intellectual property and music fans' right to enjoy their CDs.