Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An acoustic and statistical analysis of Spanish mid-vowel allophones

In 1918 Navarro Tomas claimed that Spanish mid vowels have open and close allophones. Whilst some acoustic studies have supported these claims, others have not. The conclusions in these studies were subjective since they failed to apply statistical analysis to the acoustic data. Statistical analysis is required to determine whether data with a range of values can be grouped into distinct categories. The present study investigates the production of Spanish /e/ and /o/ in several contexts in which Navarro Tomas claimed open and close allophones would be found. Recordings were made of a male and a female speaker of educated Madrid Spanish, the dialect which Navarro Tomas originally described. First and second formants were measured and statistically analysed. Formant frequencies did not cluster into two groups associated with the contexts in which Navarro Tomas claimed each allophone would occur. Other potential allophones were identified: fronted and retracted allophones for /o/; and close-fronted, central, and openretracted allophones for /e/.
A review and a proposal for optimal harmonic mitigation in single-phase pulse width modulation

This paper describes a novel space vector modulation method for single-phase inverters suitable for an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and other applications. This modulation method combines the flexibility of the wellknown unipolar PWM for single-phase inverters with the maximum harmonic mitigation. Six switching methods are presented, evaluated and classified for different single-phase applications, including deadband effects. Simulations using Matlab/Simulink confirm the validity of the proposed PWM. Mathematical analysis and comparison of SPWM with the proposed space vector modulation for single-phase inverter are presented.
Population genomics data supports introgression between Western Iberian 1 Squalius freshwater fish species from different drainages 2 3

Population genomics data supports introgression between Western Iberian 1 Squalius freshwater fish species from different drainages 2 3 Sofia L. Mendes, Maria M. Coelho, Vitor C. Sousa 4 1 cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Departamento de 5 Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 6 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal 7 † equal contribution 8
Comparison of Bosch and cryogenic processes for patterning high-aspect-ratio features in silicon

This paper compares the two leading techniques for etching deep into silicon, namely the `Bosch' process and a cryogenically cooled process. The Bosch process is introduced first. The process is described in some detail and details are given of particular hardware requirements. Finally, three classes of MEMS process are considered. For each application, relevant aspects of the Bosch process are discussed. Next, we more on to the `cryo' process. Again, this is described, together with hardware requirements. Three applications are presented for this process, with further comments relating to the process performance. Finally, in the conclusion, the two processes are compared and contrasted.
A Multi-Agent System for Power Plants Air Pollution Monitoring

Abstract Intelligent real time power plants air pollution monitoring is one of the current challenges for the research communities from the power industry, control engineering, electronics, environmental engineering and artificial intelligence fields. The use of distributed artificial intelligence approaches can provide efficient solutions to an intelligent monitoring. The paper presents a multi-agent system for monitoring urban air pollution due to power plants operation. A case study is discussed for the Ploiesti town area, where several refineries are located around it, some of them being thermal power providers. The multi-agent system was tested as a simulation.
Characterization, Exposure Measurement and Control for Nanoscale Particles in Workplaces and on the Road

The amount of engineered nanoparticles is increasing at a rapid rate and more concerns are being raised about the occupational health and safety of nanoparticles in the workplace, and implications of nanotechnology on the environment and living systems. At the same time, diesel engine emissions are one of the serious air pollution sources in urban area. Ultrafine particles on the road can result in harmful effects on the health of drivers and passengers. Research on characterization, exposure measurement and control is needed to address the environmental, health and safety issues of nanoscale particles. We present results of our studies on airborne particles in workplaces and on the road.
PROXIMATE COMPOSITION AND FATTY ACID PROFILES OF SELECTED FISH SPECIES FROM PAKISTAN

In present study, the economically most important fish species, namely Mahseer (Tor putitora), Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), Common carp (Cyprinus carpio), Thela fish (Catla catla) and Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from Pakistan, were evaluated for their proximate compositions and fatty acid profiles. All of the analyzed fish were collected from the Northwestern regions (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa) of Pakistan. Proximate analysis was done by using standard AOAC methods, whereas the detailed fatty acid composition was evaluated by using gas liquid chromatography. A significant difference (p< 0.05) was noticed for various proximate parameters and fatty acids profiles among fish species. Palmatic acid (C16:0) was the copious fatty acid of each fish species, with a range from 16.7% to 24.6%. Furthermore, all fish species were found as good sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) including alpha linolenic acids (ALA C18:3), arachidonic acids (AA C20:4), eicosapentaenoic (EPA C20:5) and docosahexaenoic acids (DHA C22:6) and protein. Whereas, Rainbow trout ranked highest in PUFAs while Mahseer proved to have highest
Universal and robust testing of stuck-open faults in Reed–Muller canonical CMOS circuits

Testability of stuck-open faults in CMOS implementation of the Reed–Muller canonical (RMC) form of a switching function is considered in this paper. It is shown that a slightly modified RMC expression can be used to synthesize an easily testable combinational logic circuit. The design admits a universal test sequence TS that robustly detects all single stuck-open faults in the CMOS transistors. For an n-variable switching function, TS consists of only (2n + 8) vectors and can be generated by a simple test pattern generator. All single stuck-at faults in the corresponding gate-level description of the network are also detected by the same test set.
A UWB bandpass filter with high performances using pair of multiple‐mode resonators

A microstrip line ultra‐wideband (UWB) bandpass filter with high performances using a pair of multiple‐mode resonators (MMRs) is proposed in this letter. A pair of MMRs and aperture on background are adopted in the filter to tighten the coupling strength of inter‐digital capacitor, and good impedance match is implemented by stepped impedance feeders so as to achieve high performances. Based on the design above, a UWB filter with high performances is simulated, fabricated, and measured. Simulated results show that the proposed filter has good UWB passband performances with insertion loss lower than 0.5 dB from 3.11 to 9.52 GHz and return loss higher than 20 dB from 3.28 to 10.36 GHz as well as group delay variation less than 0.1 ns. Good agreements are obtained between its measured and simulated results. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett, 54:289–292, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26547
Analytical model for organic thin-film transistors operating in the subthreshold region

In this letter, a mathematical model for the subthreshold current of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) is proposed. The model is based on the variable range hopping transport theory using the channel depletion approach as in the standard junction field-effect transistor theory. Furthermore, the model is generalized to account for the complete depletion of the organic film. It describes the OTFTs behavior in the whole subthreshold region and it is suitable for computer aided design applications.
Bit error rate floors in coherent optical systems with delay demodulation

We report the results of an accurate analysis of the effect of filtering on phase noise, appropriate to coherent optical receivers with delay demodulation. Based on a numerical solution of a Fokker–Planck equation, we show that the phase at the output of the IF filter is very closely a Gaussian random process. The variance of phase fluctuations over a time equal to the integration time of the filter is reduced by a factor of 0.363. We show that receivers with minimum IF bandwidth can therefore operate with about 1.36 times the laser linewidth predicted disregarding the filtering effect We outline a route to analysing the performance of receivers with broader than optimum IF filters.
Range-spread target detection in white Gaussian noise via two-dimensional non-linear shrinkage map and geometric average integration

In this study, a practically efficient method is proposed to detect range-spread targets of manoeuvring flight in white Gaussian noise. High-resolution range profiles (HRRPs) from multiple consecutive pulses are stacked into a two-dimensional (2D) greyscale range-pulse image along range cells and pulses. Based on the local statistics of the images, a 2D non-linear shrinkage map is designed for reducing noise while preserving target echoes before integration. Then, a geometric average (GA) integrator, operating on filtered HRRPs, is designed for target detection. The GA integration exploits the waveform similarity of the filtered target HRRPs. Finally, the experimental results of raw radar data and comparisons with other detectors are reported, showing that the proposed detector can efficiently detect range-spread targets of manoeuvring flight in white Gaussian noise.
Tornadoes Impacting Interstates: Service and Societal Considerations

Motorists traveling on Interstate highways are likely to have an increased vulnerability to weather hazards due to their unfamiliarity with nearby towns, limited methods to receive short-term weather information, and a general deficiency of a suitable shelter. To assess the threat, a database of 678 tornadoes, crossing primary and auxiliary Interstates across portions of the central and southeastern contiguous United States, was compiled for the period of 1990 to 2008. Approximately 17% of Interstate-crossing tornadoes impacted vehicles. Factors such as time of the day, EF-Scale rating, and travel density were examined to assess potential association with the probability of a tornado impact. This paper discusses current warning and preparedness activities in the operational meteorological community and state transportation departments, and recommends future actions and new technology to mitigate the loss of life and property from tornadoes that cross Interstate highways.
Fattori che influenzano la diffusione di risorse educative aperte = Factors affecting the release of open educational resources

o Questo lavoro esamina i fattori chiave che influenzano la creazione e la pubblicazione di Risorse Educative Aperte. I dati su cui si basa l’analisi sono stati raccolti nell’ambito del processo di valutazione di un piano nazionale inglese finalizzato alla distribuzione di grandi quantita di risorse educative aperte: l’Open Educational Resources Programme del Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Nello specifico, tali dati riguardano progetti di 29 universita e college sparsi sull’intero territorio nazionale inglese e sono relativi all’analisi delle strategie di condivisione di risorse educative da parte di individui, istituzioni e centri disciplinari nazionali. L’analisi di questi dati ha evidenziato diversi fattori che influiscono sulla creazione e diffusione di risorse educative aperte fra cui le motivazioni alla base della condivisione di risorse, le problematiche legali, quelle relative alla qualita, il problema dell’hosting delle risorse e le questioni relative alla sostenibilita nel lungo periodo. This paper examines key factors influencing the creation and release of Open Educational Resources (OER). The data was collected as part of an evaluation of a national programme aiming to release large numbers of OER: the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Open Educational Resources Programme. Data was collected across projects in 29 universities and colleges nationwide, examining open release of educational resources by individuals, institutions and national subject centres. A range of factors impacting upon OER creation and release emerged including the underlying motivations to openly release resources, legal and quality issues, resource hosting and long-term sustainability issues.
Point design targets, specifications, and requirements for the 2010 ignition campaign on the National Ignition Facility

Point design targets have been specified for the initial ignition campaign on the National Ignition Facility [G. H. Miller, E. I. Moses, and C. R. Wuest, Opt. Eng. 443, 2841 (2004)]. The targets contain D-T fusion fuel in an ablator of either CH with Ge doping, or Be with Cu. These shells are imploded in a U or Au hohlraum with a peak radiation temperature set between 270 and 300 eV. Considerations determining the point design include laser-plasma interactions, hydrodynamic instabilities, laser operations, and target fabrication. Simulations were used to evaluate choices, and to define requirements and specifications. Simulation techniques and their experimental validation are summarized. Simulations were used to estimate the sensitivity of target performance to uncertainties and variations in experimental conditions. A formalism is described that evaluates margin for ignition, summarized in a parameter the Ignition Threshold Factor (ITF). Uncertainty and shot-to-shot variability in ITF are evaluated, and.
Throughput time control

All recent improvements of significance in manufacturing operations have involved substantial reductions in production cycle times. The outstanding successes of Just-In-Time strategies are due primarily to much quicker deliveries from suppliers, shorter fabrication and assembly times and faster shipments to customers. Accelerating rates of change in product design and process technologies, coupled with more rapid market fluctuations and shorter product life cycles have spelled doom for many manufacturing companies unable to react promptly. Giants in trouble like General Motors show that no one is immune. A principal fallacy limiting the success of many companies, even those with fine modern computer-based planning and control systems, has been the strong belief that such systems can work well with any lead times. This paper presents the beneficial effects of better control (meaning reduction) of throughput times in all phases of planning, execution and control of manufacturing and shows how well-run compa.
Comprehensive Monitoring Systems for Measuring Subgrade Moisture Conditions

Subgrade resilient modulus is highly dependent on water content, which can vary significantly with a number of environmental factors. Four sites across the state of Tennessee were instrumented with comprehensive monitoring systems that collect meteorologic, subgrade water content, infiltration, and temperature data. These data will be used to develop a rational method to account for environmental effects, such as seasonal changes in subgrade water content in flexible pavement design. Multiple-segment time domain reflectometry (TDR) probes were placed horizontally in the soil subgrade, in the stone subgrade, and in the asphalt stabilized base, and single-segment probes were placed in the asphaltic concrete of the roadway sections. Tension-free pan lysimeters were installed at three of the test sites to measure infiltration through the pavement layers. Temperature sensors were installed in the soil subgrade and in the stone base at the same elevations as the TDR probes, and at three elevations in the top 200 mm of the pavement. Each site was instrumented with a weather station that monitors relative humidity, air temperature, rainfall, wind speed, and solar radiation. The preliminary data indicate changes in water content in the stone base layer that correlate with rainfall, and a small seasonal change in subgrade water content. Data from a test site where the pavement surface layer is not in place indicate that the asphaltic layers below the surface layer are permeable during significant rainfall events and that water appears to move freely through the asphalt stabilized base layer.
Reflections on new directions for risk assessment of environmental chemical mixtures

Currently risk assessment of chemicals tackles them as single substances affecting individual health endpoints. In reality, human exposure occurs to mixtures of chemicals, as they are present in the environment and consumer products. Combining the information from environmental fate analysis, epidemiological data and toxicokinetic/dynamic models helps estimate internal exposure. Coupling these data with gene and protein expression profiles as signatures of exposure to classes of toxicants to derive biologically-based dose-response estimates may open the way towards adopting a biological connectivity approach to risk assessment. This work gives examples of applications of this approach on combined exposure to mixtures of volatile organic chemicals and estimation of body burden from chronic exposure to mixtures of chemicals and of the associated health risk. Conclusions are drawn as to the future scientific developments that will meet the requirements of integrated health risk assessment to protect public health from environmental and consumption-related stressors.
Failure Analysis of Miniature Solder Specimen

The effects of specimen geometry size on the behavior of 63Sn-37Pb solder are investigated both experimentally in the laboratory and analytically with finite-element simulations. The simulations are achieved by developing a constitutive model for solder which couples viscoplasticity with a unified damage theory. The unified damage theory is characterized by a damage surface in strain space which separates fatigue damage from inelastic damage. The damage evolution equations are derived within the framework of irreversible thermodynamics. A series of uniaxial tension, tensile creep, and strain-controlled fatigue experiments are performed to obtain material parameters for the solder damage model. The solder damage model is then implemented into a finite element code and used to simulate a uniaxial tension test on a miniature specimen and on a standard ASTM specimen (ASTM standards, 1999). Predictions from these simulations are then compared with each other and with experimental results in order to examine specimen size effects.
ROBIHO – A Robot Companion for Elderly People’s Homes

In developed countries elderly people is gradually increasing. Society is abandoning their parents and/or gran-parents, and often are found dead at home without any aid or care. To reduce these problems, a robot was designed to assist the elderly in their homes. ROBIHO is an intelligent robot that has the ability to navigate in homes and monitor human daily routines. This robot is also a companion and enables communication with family, friends, health professionals and authorities. This paper presents the new social robotic system, ROBIHO and its technology.
A Tale of Two Synergies: An Institutional Analysis of the Expansionary Strategies of News Corporation and AOL-Time Warner

This paper undertakes an institutional analysis of the recent strategies for corporate expansion undertaken by News Corporation and AOL-Time Warner. It outlines the central elements of an institutional approach to media analysis, noting its relationship to critical political economy. Observing that the core proposition of such an approach is that corporations seek control over their external environment, but questioning the proposition that enterprise size is itself a guarantee of such control, it contrasts the recent strategies of News Corporation and AOL-Time Warner, in relation to globalisation, cross-media platform development and synergistic expansion. It argues that News Corporation is a global media enterprise in ways that AOL-Time Warner is not, and that the key to this expansion has been a willingness to let go of control through strategic partnerships and joint ventures. By contrast, AOL-Time Warner’s search for synergistic expansion through merger has largely proved illusory, whereas a ‘network enterprise’ strategy, that eschewed expansion and control in favour of strategic partnership, may have proved more successful.
Neural control of an aircraft load alleviation control system

The use of neural network controllers to obtain structural load alleviation of a large transport aircraft which exhibits a significant number of bending modes is novel in aircraft flight control systems. In this paper some details of a mathematical model of the aircraft dynamics which was used in the development of the controllers is presented first. Next, details relating to a linear, continuous optimal LQR controller (the baseline controller) are presented. The results obtained from a digital simulation of the optimal structural load alleviation control system (SLACS) then follow. These results and many others obtained from the same simulation were used as the training data required by the neural network controllers used in the design. Two different types of neural network were considered for use, and information about the corresponding training performance and control effectiveness is also presented. The dynamic performance achieved by using the preferred neural controller is compared with that obtained using the baseline LQR controller. A number of suggestions are made in the conclusions in respect of the choice of type of neural network for use as controllers in a SLACS.
New methods of fault projection for coalmine planning

SUMMARY Modern coal-winning techniques require identification of panels of coal in which seam geometry irregularities are minimal. The locations and throws of faults in unworked ground can often be determined by the projection of faults recorded in earlier workings. Successful projection requires a knowledge of the systematic geometry of faults in respect of throw variation on the fault surface and of the shape and dip of the fault surface. A simple geometrical model of an ideal single normal fault is described in which the throw varies systematically from a maximum at the centre of the elliptical fault surface to zero at the tip-line, or edge, of the fault surface. A fault surface ellipticity of 2, with a horizontal major axis, and a dip of 70° are recommended as approximations when no other data are available. Successful lateral projection of faults within a seam, or vertical projection from higher or lower seams, depends on the amount and type of data available from earlier workings and also on the accuracy of recorded throw values which are sometimes less than the total throw. Retrospective studies of vertical projection of faults using a Throw Profile Plot, at Royston colliery, Yorkshire, and of lateral projection of a fault at Markham colliery, Derbyshire, are described. Discontinuous fault traces are common and represent a systematic departure from the ideal single fault model. Discontinuous fault trace arrays can be treated as single faults if the throws on overlapping segments are summed. Examples of the summing of throws on overlapping fault trace segments are described from Nook colliery, Lancashire, and Cotgrave colliery, Nottinghamshire. The new projection methods are intended to increase the probability of successfully delineating economically workable panels of coal before significant development costs are incurred.