Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diesel Injection System Modelling. Methodology and Application for a First-generation Common Rail System

Abstract This article details a method for modelling the most critical parts of an injection system. It focuses on the most important component of the system, the injector itself. As a clear example of this methodology, the modelling of a first-generation common rail injection system is carried out using a commercial code. The proposed methodology for modelling the injection system is based on two types of characterization: a detailed dimensional characterization and a hydraulic characterization of the different internal parts of the injector. The dimensional characterization is based on the use of a fine detail measuring technique applied to all the constituents of the injector. These include the passages and internal lines of the injector, internal volumes, calibrated orifices, nozzle springs, clearances between moving sections of pistons, etc. The second type of characterization makes reference mainly to the hydraulic characterization of the nozzle and injector control orifices, which together with dimensional information makes it possible to determine the discharge coe cient. In this case, special emphasis is placed on the detection of critical cavitation conditions and repercussions of this on the flow. This is a typical phenomenon in control orifices and also in nozzles subject to strong pressure gradients. Once the model is obtained, it is tested and validated. Following this, the values of the experimental injected mass and rate of injection at different operating points are compared with the model results.
New and Noteworthy Bryophyte Records from Croatia

ABSTRACT Within the course of a recent, extensive bryophyte survey across the whole country, eight moss taxa have been recorded for the first time in Croatia: Conardia compacta (Drumm. ex Müll. Hal.) H. Rob. , Cynodontium tenellum (Schimp.) Limpr. , Dichodontium flavescens (Dicks.) Lindb. , Fissidens fontanus (Bach. Pyl.) Steud. , Orthotrichum philibertii Venturi, Rhabdoweisia crispata (Dicks.) Lindb. , Schistidium trichodon (Brid.) Poelt var. trichodon and Tortella fasciculata (Culm.) Culm. In addition, new localities of five rare taxa are presented: Didymodon tophaceus subsp. sicculus (M.J. Cano, Ros, García-Zam. & J. Guerra) Jan Kučera, Ephemerum serratum (Hedw.) Hampe, Mannia triandra (Scop.) Grolle, Oxystegus tenuirostris (Hook. & Taylor) A.J.E. Sm. and Sphaerocarpos michelii Bellardi. Ecological and chorological data are provided for each of the reported taxa. Concluding, at the current state of knowledge, Croatian bryoflora includes 705 taxa, out of which 541 mosses, 162 liverworts and two hornworts.
Are we ready for virtual reality in K–12 classrooms?

ABSTRACT Virtual reality technology has existed since the late 1950s; however, its use in the educational sector has been limited because of the cost of the equipment, inaccessibility of the technology, issues of usability, and lack of appropriate educational content and educator training. New technological advances have resolved some of these limitations. Additionally, affordable virtual reality equipment that has been predominately used with adults shows compelling results, highlighting the potential of this technology when used with children for educational purposes. This article presents an overview of immersive virtual reality’s potential as a learning tool with children, highlighting its current uses, research with children for educational purposes, and the existing barriers for the applicability and implementation of immersive virtual reality in school settings.
Certified Lies: Detecting and Defeating Government Interception Attacks Against SSL

This paper introduces the compelled certificate creation attack, in which government agencies may compel a certificate authority to issue false SSL certificates that can be used by intelligence agencies to covertly intercept and hijack individuals' secure Web-based communications. Although we do not have direct evidence that this form of active surveillance is taking place in the wild, we show how products already on the market are geared and marketed towards this kind of use - suggesting such attacks may occur in the future, if they are not already occurring. Finally, we introduce a lightweight browser add-on that detects and thwarts such attacks.
Assessment of biodiesel scenarios for Midwest freight transport emission reduction

There are trade-offs when attempting to reduce both greenhouse gas and criteria air pollutants for freight transport, as the control strategies are not necessarily complimentary. While emission controls can remove ozone precursors and particulate from vehicle exhaust streams, greenhouse gas emission can only be mitigated by either reducing fuel consumption or switching to lower carbon-content fuel. One near-term alternative that can readily reduce fuel consumption is the reduction of freight vehicle speed. To lower the carbon-content of freight transportation fuel, the primary near-term alternative is to increase blending of biodiesel. The cost-effectiveness of the emission reduction strategy will be characterized from the freight carriers viewpoint, by comparing the direct costs to estimates of indirect costs and fuel savings. Multiple scenarios will be modeled using EPA’s MARKAL model to simulate implementation of the proposed measures. MARKAL will be used to quantify the system-wide effects of changes in resource supply, technology availability, and account for CO2, SO2, NOX, PM, and VOC emissions.
Reengineering Information Skills: Librarians' Progression Towards Collaborative Learning

The Liaison Librarians at the Dorothy Hill Physical Sciences and Engineering (DHPSE) Library at The University of Queensland (UQ) have a long and established history of delivering information skills to first year engineering students. This year saw the librarians use The University of Queensland's Collaborative Learning Centre (CLC) for the first time. Previously it had been problematic to engage and involve the large numbers of students enrolled in the course. The use of the CLC was seen as an opportunity to accommodate and deliver to students in a new and different way. Students were able to participate in hands on activities which had not been possible in previous years. As the first librarians at UQ to utilise the centre, this initiated the emergence of original techniques to engage students in information skills. The CLC is a state-of-the-art facility which provides an online collaborative learning environment. The delivery of the session in this environment allowed the Librarians to make use of an array of learning technologies that engaged the students and provided for different learning styles. The facilities provided encourage individual and group activity using computers, document cameras, pod mode learning and verbal interaction. The pod mode activities were shared with the entire room through the projection facilities. The information skills session conducted in this interactive and collaborative learning environment was beneficial to trainers and students alike. The evolving nature of the information skills component of the course and the impact of the CLC, and future developments will be discussed.
Development of An Intelligent Flight Propulsion Control System

The initial design and demonstration of an Intelligent Flight Propulsion and Control System (IFPCS) is documented. The design is based on the implementation of a nonlinear adaptive flight control architecture. This initial design of the IFPCS enhances flight safety by using propulsion sources to provide redundancy in flight control. The IFPCS enhances the conventional gain scheduled approach in significant ways: (1) The IFPCS provides a back up flight control system that results in consistent responses over a wide range of unanticipated failures. (2) The IFPCS is applicable to a variety of aircraft models without redesign and,(3) significantly reduces the laborious research and design necessary in a gain scheduled approach. The control augmentation is detailed within an approximate Input-Output Linearization setting. The availability of propulsion only provides two control inputs, symmetric and differential thrust. Earlier Propulsion Control Augmentation (PCA) work performed by NASA provided for a trajectory controller with pilot command input of glidepath and heading. This work is aimed at demonstrating the flexibility of the IFPCS in providing consistency in flying qualities under a variety of failure scenarios. This report documents the initial design phase where propulsion only is used. Results confirm that the engine dynamics and associated hard nonlineaaities result in poor handling qualities at best. However, as demonstrated in simulation, the IFPCS is capable of results similar to the gain scheduled designs of the NASA PCA work. The IFPCS design uses crude estimates of aircraft behaviour. The adaptive control architecture demonstrates robust stability and provides robust performance. In this work, robust stability means that all states, errors, and adaptive parameters remain bounded under a wide class of uncertainties and input and output disturbances. Robust performance is measured in the quality of the tracking. The results demonstrate the flexibility of the IFPCS architecture and the ability to provide robust performance under a broad range of uncertainty. Robust stability is proved using Lyapunov like analysis. Future development of the IFPCS will include integration of conventional control surfaces with the use of propulsion augmentation, and utilization of available lift and drag devices, to demonstrate adaptive control capability under a greater variety of failure scenarios. Further work will specifically address the effects of actuator saturation.
Rapid Prototyping:Principles and Applications

Rapid prototyping (RP) has revolutionized how prototypes are made and small batch manufacturing is carried out. With rapid prototyping, the strategies used to produce a part change a number of important considerations and limitations previously faced by tool designers and engineers. Now in its third edition, this textbook is still the definitive text on RP. It covers the key RP processes, the available models and specifications, and their principles, materials, advantages and disadvantages. Examples of application areas in design, planning, manufacturing, biomedical engineering, art and architecture are also given. The book includes several related problems so that the reader can test his or her understanding of the topics. New to this edition, the included DVD-ROM presents animated illustrations of the working principles of today's key RP processes.
Designing decision-making system for providing mutual aid during disasters

Title of Document: DESIGNING A DECISION-MAKING SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MUTUAL AID DURING DISASTERS Sana Tabrez Shaikh, MS in Systems Engineering, 2007 Directed By: Dr. Jeffrey W. Herrmann, Mechanical Engineering Department and Institute of Systems Research Routine organizational decision-making is a complex process, but organizations have procedures in place to support decision-making for routine situations. However, when an organization faces a crisis, the standard processes in place may not be enough to react appropriately to the crisis. Sometimes, due to the scale of the crisis and the resources needed, organizations may need to collaborate with other organizations to ensure success. This thesis addresses the design of such a mutual aid system as a type of a decision-making system. Our approach is based on the Operational Procedure Model used in avionics for specifying the dynamic behavior of operationally embedded reactive software-based systems. Using this approach, we designed and tested a mutual aid system to be used by five hospitals in Montgomery County, Maryland. Based on this experience, we propose a revised methodology for designing crisis decision-making systems. DESIGNING DECISION-MAKING SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MUTUAL AID DURING DISASTERS
A New Strategy for Decoupling Direct and Quadrature Currents in a Rotating Frame Current Regulator. Application to a Single-Phase Three-Level Boost Rectifier

A new Direct and Quadrature current decoupling strategy is presented which uses a filtering block placed between the current regulation and the modulation stages. This decoupling system is very easy to implement and it represents a clear improvement over the conventional feedforward method in relation to the closed loop system stability, the achieved current decoupling degree and the transient response speed. Simulation and experimental results have been obtained in the case of a single-phase three-level Neutral Point Clamped ac-dc converter which validate the effectiveness of this new technique.
Modes of Compositional Engagement

In this paper I will present some perspectives on compositional engagement which have arisen from my PhD study into composition processes with computers. I believe that while the specific tasks and outcomes of making music with computers might be different from another medium, such as paper or piano, the composer’s engagement is fundamentally similar. The main point I wish to make is that compositional engagement is multifaceted. There are a range of ways in which composers interact with musical materials and mediums. I refer to these as modes of compositional engagement. A composer works in different modes depending upon the stage the composition is at, the type of material they are working with, the compositional methods they are using, and the medium in which they are working. A composer might work predominantly in one particular mode of compositional engagement, change between modes quickly, or display features of different modes concurrently
ANALISIS MAINTENANCE RELIABILITY TERHADAP MTBF (MEAN TIME BETWEEN FAILURES) FACILITIES PADA INDUSTRI PULP & PAPER

Penelitian ini dilakukan pada Fasilitas Mesin Robotyer sector Pulp Machine PT.Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper dan Bleaching Sector Pulp MAKING-9 PT. IndahKiat Pulp & Paper, bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh MaintenanceReliability yang terdiri dari Preventive Maintenance dan Corrective Maintenanceterhadap Mean Time Between Failures.Metode analisis yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah regressi bergandadengan uji parsial dan simultan dan juga didukung dengan analisis deskriptifterhadap kedua fasilitas tersebut. Penelitian hanya menggunakan populasi sajayaitu data sekunder pada Mesin Robotyer sektor pulp machine PT. Riau AndalanPulp & Paper dan Bleaching Sector Pulp MAKING-9 PT. Indah Kiat Pulp &Paper.Dari hasil penelitian yang telah dilakukan, uji regresi parsial menunjukkanbahwa variabel preventive maintenance & corrective maintenance memilikipengaruh signifikan terhadap variabel Mean Time Between Failures. Sedangkanuji regresi simultan menunjukkan bahwa seluruh variabel bebas yang ditelitimemiliki pengaruh signifikan terhadap variabel Mean Time Between Failures.Besarnya pengaruh yang ditimbulkan oleh kedua variabel ini secara bersama-sama terhadap variabel terikatnya adalah sebanyak 50,30 %, sedangkan sisanyasebesar 49,70 % dipengaruhi oleh variabel-variabel lainnya yang tidak diteliti didalam penelitian ini. Kata Kunci : Preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, dan Mean TimeBetween Failures.
Review of Quasi-Analytical and Cavity Expansion Methods for Projectile Penetration of Concrete Targets

This paper presents state-of-the art review on the development of quasi-analytical and cavity expansion methods that are used to determine projectile penetration of targets, dating back to the middle of the 20th century. The paper briefly describes the three general approaches used in determining the impact mechanics of targets subjected to projectiles; quasi-analytical, analytical and numerical approaches. Then, the paper provides detailed review of quasi-analytical and analytical methods because they are quite important in characterizing small-scale or large-scale experimental data; developing a basic understanding of the penetration mechanics; and making faster predictions of global parameters such as penetration depth within the limits of applicability of the methods. Quasi-analytical methods are employed when the physical phenomenon being described is highly complex and dependent upon variables that are difficult to isolate and control. These methods often have, at their core, fundamental basis in physics such as Newton's second law of motion. A list of well-known quasi-analytical equations used for determining depth of penetration into concrete targets is provided. The Sandia National Laboratory equations are provided as an example because they are developed from comprehensive database of tests. Analytical methods attempt to provide a correlation between many of the variables in the phenomenon being modeled. They are typically based on solving differential equations of continuum mechanics. However, these methods typically rely on assuming material properties which are necessary to arrive at closed-form solutions. A detailed review of analytical equations that are based on the cavity expansion method, supplemented with experimental data obtained from penetration experiments, is provided. Although the majority of the review includes analytical equations used for concrete targets, these equations trace their origin in the earlier works of penetration of metal and soil targets, which are included in cavity expansion method chronology provided in the paper.
Necessary Feasibility Analysis for Mixed-Criticality Real-Time Embedded Systems

As multiple software components with different safety-criticality levels are integrated on a shared computing platform, a real-time embedded system becomes a mixed-criticality (MC) system, which should provide timing guarantees at all different levels of assurance to software components with different criticality levels. In the real-time systems community, the concept of an MC system is regarded as a promising, emerging solution to solve an inherent challenge of real-time systems: pessimistic reservation of computing resources, which yields a low resource-utilization for the sake of guaranteeing timing requirements. Since a timing guarantee should be provided before a real-time system starts to operate, its feasibility has been extensively studied for single-criticality systems; however, the same cannot be said for MC systems. In this paper, we develop necessary feasibility tests for MC real-time embedded systems, which is the first study that yields non-trivial results for MC necessary feasibility on both uniprocessor and multiprocessor platforms. To this end, we investigate characteristics of MC necessary feasibility conditions, and identify new challenges posed by the characteristics. By addressing those challenges, we develop two collective necessary feasibility tests and their simplified versions, which are able to exploit a tradeoff between capability in finding infeasible task sets and time-complexity. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed tests find a number of additional infeasible task sets for both uniprocessor and multiprocessor platforms, which have been proven neither feasible nor infeasible by any existing studies.
Real-time stability in power systems : techniques for early detection of the risk of blackout

Relationships between Power System Dynamic Equilibrium, Load-Flow, and Operating Point Stability. - Fast Assessment of the Distance to Stability. - Accuracy Testing and Real-Time Implementation of Dimo's Stability Analysis Technique. - Emergency Monitoring and Corrective Control of Voltage Instability. - On-Line Voltage Security Assessment. - Critical Issues for Successful On-Line Security Assessment. - The Case for Using Wide-Area Control Techniques to Improve the Reliability of the Electric Power Grid. - Preventive and Emergency Control of Power Systems. - Sensitivity Analysis of Dynamic Stability Indicators in Power Systems. - Model Predictive Control of Electric Power Systems under Emergency Conditions. - The Role of Power System Visualization in Enhancing Power System Security. - Comprehensive approach to Real-Time Stability. - Transient Stability in Real-Time Implementations.
Design of a current-mode continuous-time Sigma-Delta modulator with exponential feedback for improved jitter rejection

In this article a current-mode, second-order, CT Sigma-Delta modulator operating at a sampling frequency of 25 MHz and with an oversampling ratio of 64 has been designed. The modulator consists of current-mode, differential integrators based on a single-stage folded cascode topology and switched capacitors DACs cells generating exponential feedback waveforms. The modulator was analysed in detail from both a system- and a circuit-level point of view. A ‘short’ exponential DAC pulse, namely, an exponential pulse whose time constant is lower than the pulse width, was used to improve jitter rejection. Modulator feedback coefficients were analytically derived for an exponential feedback waveform. Jitter considerations paying special attention to its impact on CT Sigma-Delta modulators were presented, and two different contributions distinguished: independent jitter and accumulated jitter. Finally, functional- and transistor-level simulations have been accomplished to obtain significant features of the modulator performance.
Acceleration Strategies for Speech Recognition Based on Deep Neural Networks

The Context-Dependent Deep-Neural-Network HMM, or CD-DNN-HMM, is a powerful acoustic modeling technique for HMM-based speech recognition systems. The CD-DNN-HMM can greatly outperform against the conventional Gaussian-mixture HMMs. Therefore, we build a CD-DNN-HMM LVCSR system by modifying a mature GMM-HMM system. The baseline CD-DNN-HMM system achieve word-error rate of 18.6% that is far better than 24.9% achieved by the GMM-HMM system. However, the speed of the baseline CD-DNN-HMM system becomes a major roadblock for its real-time rate reaches 0.72 on the standard NIST 2000 Hub5 evaluation set. In this paper, we realize several optimization algorithms in our baseline system to accelerate the recognition speed. Testing the optimized system on the same evaluation set, we achieve real-time rate of 0.39, a relative reduction of 45.8%.
Digital Signal Processing and Real Time Statistical Analysis in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Xbee and Java

 Abstract: Objective of this paper is how Digital Signal Processing can be implemented in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) using Java. Digital Signal Processing enables the application of digital filters and algorithms. These filters have a great advantage over analog filters. Further, we have performed statistical analysis on the received dataset in real time. Statistical analysis gives us valuable information about the data and how it is distributed. The statistical analysis results will be logged in real time using the Java application.