Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The real-time characterisation of dry machine element contacts using ultrasonic reflectometry

For two components to be in contact, they must be physically touching. If two solids are touching, the contact is by definition inaccessible. How do engineers develop an understanding about a contact if the interface is inaccessible? Load, geometry and material properties govern the contact pressures of touching components. As they move against one another, the result is often wear and this inherently changes the contact behaviour. By understanding how interfaces interact in terms of contact pressure, contact area and wear, components can be optimised to reduce cost and maximise efficiency. Ultrasonic reflectometry has been widely used in medical imaging and non-destructive testing. It is a non-invasive technique that has the ability to probe deep into solid structures and extract information regarding the material and the interface. Two methods have been developed to measure wear in real-time based on ultrasonic time-of-flight and the resonant frequency model. The ultrasonic technique has also been applied to learn more about the contacting parts of machine elements. By analogising the interface asperities as springs, ultrasonic reflectometry can be used to calculate the interfacial stiffness and from this, contact pressure of a tribosystem. Previous work has been limited to laboratory based static measurements. This work builds on this technology to characterise dynamic machine elements with the hopes of developing industrial condition monitoring tools. This thesis is aimed to be a guide for those who wish to use ultrasound as a tool to measure and monitor a dry dynamic tribosystem. More specifically, this work highlights a series of recommendations and pitfalls for ultrasonic measurements of contact pressure and wear in industrial applications.
ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL FIELD OPERATIONAL TEST

This report describes a field operational test which evaluated the performance of a newly developed adaptive cruise control (ACC) technology under real operating conditions. The project also included evaluating the public acceptance of this ACC system. The evaluation provides an understanding of utilization choices, the impact of ACC on an individual's driving tasks, the implied collective traffic impact system functionality reaction, and comfort and convenience reactions.
The religious background of the present environmental crisis

The damaging effects of the Industrial Revolution are discussed with particular reference to man's improvidence leading to the waste of irreplaceable natural resources and to the pollution of the environment. The role of the British Royal Society is then analysed in the context of technological advances and religious thought. It is claimed that monotheistic religions have removed the constraints on man's greed and have overthrown the traditional balance between man and nature. The present environmental crisis is ascribed to the rise of monotheism. The remedy may consist in reverting to pantheism and the religions of the East.
Study on the Consumption Speed of Forages and Consumption Indices of Forages in Romanian Black and White Cows

The aim of the paper was to determine the consumption speed of forages (g⁄min.) and consumption indices (quantity and consumption duration) of forages, administered in two portions, to Romanian Black and White cows. The administration order of forages (fibrous-succulents (O1) and succulents-fibrous (O2) order), the number of portion (P1 and P2) and number of feeding (F1 and F2) were the experimental variants. Data was computed by ANOVA/MANOVA. Results showed that the administration order of forages had an influence on the speed consumption, when was given before silage (O1), hay had a higher consumption speed (41.35 g/min) decreasing to 31.41 g/min when hay was fed after the silage (O2). For silage the consumption speed was 190.33 g/min in O1 and increased to 228.87 g/min when was given before hay (O2). Between portion 1 (P1) and portion 2 (P2), the significant difference (p<0.001) was for silage consumption speed in favour portion P2. Regarding the number of feedings per portion, always the consumption speed of the feedstuffs, as well as the amount consumed, was higher in the first feeding F1 than in the second feeding F2.
The assessment of trunk motor control in health and after stroke

This study investigated the static and dynamic function of trunk muscles in sitting after stroke. A new apparatus using a novel force-transducing system was developed that enables to study the time-course of development of trunk force magnitude and direction in sitting with or without the pelvis stabilised. In addition, reaction forces between the buttocks and the seat and between each foot and the ground are measured with three independent force plates. 24 healthy subjects were required to exert maximal forces in eight directions, with and without pelvis fixation. Accuracy of the trunk force measurement system was assessed without pelvis fixation by comparing trunk forces with reaction forces from the force plates. The agreement analysis showed a mean bias of the new system of only –3.0 N for force magnitude and 0.72 degree for force direction. The trunk force measurement system was sensitive enough to detect effects of movement direction and pelvis fixation on maximum force magnitude. When subjects repeated the test at a later date there were no significant differences between the two sessions. Trunk muscle strength in voluntary movements was then investigated in 9 stroke patients and 23 controls. Reaction forces were simultaneously recorded at the points of contact of the lower body. This is the first study that demonstrated the relationship between trunk and lower body movements affected by stroke. This was achieved by studying how the forces are transferred from trunk to pelvis and legs during trunk movements. This approach has shown that stroke impairs both prime mover and spine stabilizer trunk muscle function which is further compounded by weakness of pelvis muscles resulting in impairment of co-ordination between trunk and pelvis and deficient stabilization of the whole axis. These results contribute to our understanding of the physiological mechanisms that affect trunk movement and control after stroke.
Acousto-ultrasonic characterization of fiber reinforced composites

The acousto-ultrasonic technique combines advantageous aspects of acoustic emission and ultrasonic methodologies. Acousto-ultrasonics operates by introducing a repeating series of ultrasonic pulses into a material. The waves introduced simulate the spontaneous stress waves that would arise if the material were put under stress as in the case of acoustic emission measurements. These benign stress waves are detected by an acoustic emission sensor. The physical arrangement of the ultrasonic (input) transducer and acoustic emission (output) sensor is such that the resultant waveform carries an imprint of morphological factors that govern or contribute to material performance. The output waveform is quite complex, but it can be quantitized in terms of a 'stress wave factor'. The stress wave factor, which can be defined in a number of ways, is essentially a relative measure of the efficiency of energy dissipation in a material. If flaws or other material anomalies exist in the volume being examined, their combined effect will appear in the stress wave factor.
An organizational survey of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

At the request of the management of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), an Organizational Survey (OS), identical to the one that has been used prior to Tiger Team Assessments at other Department Energy facilities, was administered at SPR independent of a Tiger Team Assessment. The OS measured employees` opinions on subjects such as organizational culture, communication, commitment, group cohesion, coordination, safety, environmental issues, and job satisfaction. The result of this work was a quantitative measure of these variables at the SPR site. SPR management intends to utilize these results in their self-assessment process in preparation for an upcoming Tiger Team Assessment. This report presents these results and discusses their interpretation.
A simple fuzzy logic diagnosis system for control of internal combustion engines

Fuzzy logic (FL) systems are widely established as a technology offering an alternative system to tackle compound and ill defined problems. They can be trained from examples, are fault tolerant in the sense that they are capable to grip noisy and deficient data, are able to deal with non-linear problems, and once trained can perform prediction and generalization at high speed. in this paper a simple fuzzy logic control has been developed which is used for defining engine system faults and control and maintain them in a normal range without use any complicated mathematical equation and any fault sensor.
The Contribution of ICT to Production Efficiency in Italy: Firm-Level Evidence Using Data Envelopment Analysis and Econometric Estimations

This paper examines the impact of information and communications technologies (ICTs) on technical production efficiency in a wide range of Italian industries. Technical efficiency, defined as the firm’s distance from the production efficiency frontier, is one important component of productivity. Assessing the role of ICTs in the organisation and control of production processes may be of primary interest for those firms that are trying to rationalise their production organisation and techniques. The survey of firms examined, the Italian ISTAT SCI covering all firms with at least 20 employees, offers an opportunity to test the hypothesis that ICTs, in both hardware and software components, can positively influence production performance. The analysis is carried out within industries defined by the OECD STAN database, to ease international comparability of the empirical results. Technical efficiency of each individual firm is measured by means of data envelopment analysis, a . La contribution des TIC a l'efficience de la production en Italie : Elements au niveau de l'entreprise obtenus par analyse de l'enveloppement des donnees et estimations econometriques Ce rapport analyse l’incidence des technologies de l’information et des communications (TIC) sur l’efficience de la production technique dans un large eventail d’industries italiennes. L’efficience technique, definie comme l’eloignement de l’entreprise par rapport a la frontiere de l’efficience de la production, est une composante importante de la productivite. L’evaluation du role des TIC dans l’organisation et le controle des processus de production peut etre d’un interet majeur pour les enterprises qui s’efforcent de rationaliser leur organisation et leurs techniques de production. L’enquete aupres des entreprises sur laquelle porte l’etude, qui est l’enquete sur les comptes des entreprises (SCI) de l’ISTAT couvrant l’ensemble des entreprises d’au moins de 20 salaries, offre une possibilite de tester l’hypothese selon laquelle les TIC, qu’il s’agisse du materiel ou du logiciel, peuvent avoir une influence positive sur les performances de la production. L’analyse est realisee a .
The Unpredictable Certainty: Information Infrastructure Through 2000

We have available an impressive array of information technology. We can transmit literature, movies, music, and talk. Government, businesses, and individuals are eager to go on-line to buy, sell, teach, learn, and more. How, then, should we go about developing an infrastructure for on- line communication among everyone everywhere? The Unpredictable Certainty explores the national information infrastructure (NII) as the collection of all public and private information services. But how and when will the NII become a reality? How will more and better services reach the home, small businesses, and remote locations? The Unpredictable Certainty examines who will finance the NII, exploring how technology companies decide to invest in deployment and the the vain search for "killer apps" (applications that drive markets). It discusses who will pay for ongoing services and how they will pay, looking at past cost/price models relevant to the future. The Unpredictable Certainty discusses the underlying technologies, appliances, and services needed before the NII becomes a reality; reviews key features of important technologies; and analyzes current levels of deployment in telephone, cable and broadcast television, and wireless systems, and the difficulties in interconnection. The volume explores the challenge of open interfaces that stimulate new applications but also facilitate competition, the trend toward the separation of infrastructure from specific services, the tension between mature services and new contenders, the growth of the Internet, and more. The roles governments at different levels might play in fostering NII deployment are outlined, including R&D and the use of information infrastructure for better delivery of government services and information.
Antialias Filters and System Transient Response at High Sample Rates

Sample rates higher than 48 kHz allow freedom to tailor the audio response above 20 kHz in order to optimize the transient performance. A recording and reproduction chain may have pre- and postringing caused by brickwall band-limiting filters, but a single apodizing filter can substantially suppress the ringing and shorten the impulse response. The apodizing filter can be placed anywhere in the chain, but the mastering stage probably fits in best with current practice. The paper presents coefficients for a number of filters suitable for 96-kHz and 192-kHz sampled audio, and experimentation is encouraged. Some of the filters are symmetrical, but, taking into account the ear's sensitivity to preresponses, others have been optimized for a near-zero preresponse.
Chapter 1

The bacterial capsule is a hydrated polysaccharide structure that covers the outermost layer of the cell wall. It is an important virulence factor and acts as armor in shielding the bacteria from a variety of environmental pressures and host immune defenses. Considerable structural diversity exits not only between capsular polysaccharides of different bacterial species, but also within the same species. While most pathogenic bacteria are encapsulated, most encapsulated bacteria are not pathogenic. As a result, understanding the structural and immunological diversity of capsules together with cellular components and machinery involved in capsule biosynthesis is paramount in developing new therapeutics to fight deadly bacterial infections. This chapter presents an overview of the capsular polysaccharide of pathogenic bacteria. This overview includes the structural diversity of capsules among virulent bacteria, the organization of capsule genetic elements, the mechanisms of capsule biosynthesis and transport, along with current technologies employed in the preparation of glycoconjugate vaccines.
High step-up zero-voltage switching current-fed isolated pulse width modulation DC-DC converter

This study presents a new zero-voltage switching (ZVS) current-fed isolated pulse width modulation DC-DC converter. In this converter all switches turn on under zero-voltage zero-current switching and turn off under almost ZVS. Furthermore, the voltage spike across the main switch due to leakage inductance of isolating transformer is absorbed. Considering high efficiency and voltage gain of this converter, it is suitable for green generated systems such as fuel cells or photovoltaic systems. The proposed converter operating modes are analysed and theoretical waveforms are shown. The presented experimental results confirm the integrity of the proposed converter.
Table des Matières

Chapitre 1 – Introduction 1 1.1. Préambule . 1 1.2. À la rencontre de la turbulence aérodynamique . 1 1.3. Turbulence atmosphérique . 5 1.4. Turbulence hydrodynamique . 8 1.5. Turbulence océanique . 9 1.6. Géophysique interne . 10 1.7. Turbulence astrophysique . 11 1.8. Fluides du corps humain . 14 1.9. Turbulence, imprédictabilité et chaos . 15 1.9. 1. Imprédictabilité . 15 1.9. 2. À quoi les simulations numériques servent-elles ? 18 1.9. 3. Mélange . 20 1.10. En conclusion . 21
The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions: Process Tools to Support M&A Integration at Every Level

Ease the M&A process with a more effective integration plan The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions is the ultimate handbook for planning and managing post-merger integration. Packed full of "how to" guidance, tools, templates and resources that have been put to the test on numerous due diligence and integration efforts around the world, The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions has been the go-to guide for firms seeking to maximize the value of their deals since the release of the first edition in 1999. Poor integration management virtually ensures that a merger or acquisition will fail to meet financial and strategic goals. The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions provides the information that enables firms to quickly and prudently capture projected cost and revenue synergies, and to move the combined organization forward. The book addresses strategic deal considerations, due diligence, integration management, people dynamics and cultural integration, common integration mistakes, communications strategies, and provides actionable steps toward creating measurable, positive results throughout the integration process. The updated third edition contains new information and tools to help firms in any industry manage deals of all sizes, including: Results of The State of M&A Integration Effectiveness Survey, 2014 A new chapter on the M&A process deal stages, with an expanded Deal Flow Model Findings of substantial M&A research from various studies in multiple industries and organizations, supporting the concepts presented throughout the book New and revised tools and templates for due diligence, integration, and results measurement and reporting New case examples of recent transactions Highlighted 'Key Principles' throughout each chapter A summary of key points at the end of each chapter Discussion questions addressing the key themes of each chapter A 'rapid assessment' diagnostic regarding the key elements of each chapter, which can be completed for any organization A revised chapter on taking your M&A game to the next level – essential requirements for building M&A capabilities into a consistently successful enterprise competency Merger and acquisition activity across the globe continues to grow, and is also playing a major role in the development of expanding markets. A well-managed integration effort is essential to success, and failure means a tremendous waste in terms of time and money, as well as the rapid destruction of shareholder value. The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions: Process Tools to Support M&A Integration at Every Level, Third Edition is an invaluable resource to guide firms in managing M&A integration and maximize the value of their deals.
"Shadow Catcher": a vision based illumination condition sensor using ARToolKit

Computing the correct illumination of virtual scenes is a well-explored area today. Most commonly used 3D graphic libraries like OpenGL or DirectX/Direct3d contain functions for these tasks. The "Shadow Catcher" approach uses the shadows that a light source casts on a so-called "sensor geometry" to determine the position of the light source by analyzing the shape of those shadows. Position and shape of this geometry are known by the system. ARToolKit is currently used to track the position of the geometry, but the solution is independent of the underlying tracking system. The system uses computer vision methodologies to detect shadow silhouettes on the surface of this geometry. The knowledge about the geometry's shape, together with the information about the shadow silhouettes, is used to compute the position of the light source.
DEPLOYING WEATHER RESPONSIVE TRAFFIC SIGNAL OPERATIONS IN UTAH.

Proactive management of traffic signal operations during weather events remains a priority with the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). With the assistance of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program (RWMP), UDOT recently deployed an advanced concept of traffic signal operations during weather events (WX-SIG). The concept relies upon systems, tools, and technologies to measure and forecast roadway weather conditions and traffic signal performance during inclement weather to fine-tune traffic signal timing responses throughout the duration of the event. UDOT meteorologists and traffic signal operators use these systems to assess current traffic conditions and determine when and how to deploy special weather responsive traffic signal timing plans. UDOT traffic signal operators use system performance monitoring tools, such as Purdue Coordination Diagrams and real-time corridor speed measures, to assess the effectiveness of special weather responsive signal timing plans and to make fine-tuning adjustments in signal timing strategies. This paper provides a description of the tools and technologies developed and deployed by UDOT to assist in developing proactive traffic signal timing responses to weather events, the standard operating procedures used by UDOT operators to decide when, where, why, and how to implement weather traffic signal timing responses. This paper also provides some results of an assessment of the effectiveness of these initial responses during the winter of 2013. The paper also contains lessons learned from this initial deployment related to the deployment corridor itself as well as weather responsive traffic signal operations in general.
Joint intentions as a model of multi-agent cooperation in complex dynamic environments

Computer-based systems are being used to tackle increasingly complex problems in ever more demanding domains. The size and amount of knowledge needed by such systems means they are becoming unwieldy and difficult to engineer into reliable, consistent products. One paradigm for overcoming this barrier is to decompose the problem into smaller more manageable components which can communicate and cooperate at the level of sharing processing responsibilities and information. Until recently, research in multi-agent systems has been based on ad hoc models of action and interaction; however, the notion of intentions is beginning to emerge as a prime candidate upon which a sound theory could be based. This research develops a new model of joint intentions as a means of describing the activities of groups of agents working collaboratively. The model stresses the role of intentions in controlling agents? current and future actions; defining preconditions which must be satisfied before joint problem solving can commence and prescribing how individual agents should behave once it has been established. Such a model becomes especially important in dynamic environments in which agents may possess neither complete nor correct beliefs about their world or other agents, have changeable goals and fallible actions and be subject to interruption from external events. The theory has been implemented in a general purpose cooperation framework, called GRATE*, and applied to the real-world problem of electricity transportation management. In this application, individual problem solvers have to take decisions using partial, imprecise information and respond to an ever changing external world. This fertile environment enabled the quantitative benefits of the theory to be assessed and comparisons with other models of collaborative problem solving to be undertaken. These experiments highlighted the high degree of coherence attained by GRATE* problem solving groups, even in the most dynamic and unpredictable application contexts.