Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated driving and autonomous functions on road vehicles

In recent years, road vehicle automation has become an important and popular topic for research and development in both academic and industrial spheres. New developments have received extensive coverage in the popular press, and it may be said that the topic has captured the public imagination. Indeed, the topic has generated interest across a wide range of academic, industry and governmental communities, well beyond vehicle engineering; these include computer science, transportation, urban planning, legal, social science and psychology. While this follows a similar surge of interest – and subsequent hiatus – of Automated Highway Systems in the 1990s, the current level of interest is substantially greater, and current expectations are high. It is common to frame the new technologies under the banner of ‘self-driving cars’ – robotic systems potentially taking over the entire role of the human driver, a capability that does not fully exist at present. However, this single vision leads one to ignore the existing range of automated systems that are both feasible and useful. Recent developments are underpinned by substantial and long-term trends in ‘computerisation’ of the automobile, with developments in sensors, actuators and control technologies to spur the new developments in both industry and academia. In this paper, we review the evolution of the intelligent vehicle and the supporting technologies with a focus on the progress and key challenges for vehicle system dynamics. A number of relevant themes around driving automation are explored in this article, with special focus on those most relevant to the underlying vehicle system dynamics. One conclusion is that increased precision is needed in sensing and controlling vehicle motions, a trend that can mimic that of the aerospace industry, and similarly benefit from increased use of redundant by-wire actuators.
Response to the referee's comments

Comment 1: The initial discontinuous sets play an important role for the happening of rock avalanches. The authors performed a series of mass flows with different initial configurations and with materials containing blocks and fine particles. This is an interesting experiment, in which the runout of these mass flows at different configurations showed both inhibiting and intensifying effects. However, there are still some points confused me, please clarify.
Vehicle tracking and speed estimation for traffic surveillance

Vehicle tracking is one of the critical applications of object detection and tracking. Traffic surveillance has become crucial in this day and age where the number of vehicles on the road has risen considerably. To preserve the safety of motorists, traffic law enforcement assign speed limits at different locations throughout the country. However, irresponsible motorists still exceed the speed limit since they know it is unlikely that they will get caught. In this paper, a system is developed which is capable of detecting moving vehicles in a video and display the vehicles speed as it goes. Should a vehicle exceed the allowed speed limit, it will be displayed in the video alongside the vehicle so that traffic law enforcers will be able to take necessary action based on the displayed speed. The system uses Matlab/Simulink as a simulation platform as it provides comprehensive tools for thresholding, filtering and blob analysis. Optical flow was the image processing technique used to determine the moving vehicles. A median filter was used to remove salt and pepper noise from the thresholded image. Combinations of several morphological operations were used to rectify whatever that is left. Blob analysis produces rectangles around the moving objects. The centroid of the rectangle is used to determine the location of each vehicle at a given frame. To make up for the absence of depth perception, the camera’s height and angle from the road is fixed so that the rate of which a vehicle approaches the camera can be determined. The results show that the system successfully detects vehicles and displays its speed, though there is a relatively small margin of error for the displayed speed. The displayed speed is set to only change once every couple of frames so that it would be easier to see.
Multi-Drug Resistant, Extended Spectrum β-Lactamase and Carbapenemase Producing Bacterial Isolates among Septicemia Suspected under Five Children in Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Background: Bloodstream infections due to bacterial pathogens are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among pediatric patients. Emergence of drug resistance in high classes of antibiotics among the bacterial pathogens is another issue of the public health concern. Objective: To determine Multi-drug resistant, extended spectrum β-lactamase and carbapenemase producing bacterial isolates among septicemia suspected under five Children in Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Methods: Across-sectional study was conducted from September 2017 to June 2018 among pediatric patients with febrile illness aged under five in Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital. 340 Blood samples were collected and processed following standard microbiological techniques and culture was performed using BacT/Alert machine in combination with conventional method. AST of the isolates was performed by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method and MIC technique Result: A total of 137(40.2%) bacterial pathogens were isolated from 340 pediatric patients suspected of BSI with febrile illness. Of these isolates 54% were Gram negative bacteria. Of the isolates 43 (31.4%) Klebsiella pneumonia Acinitobactor species were the most frequently isolated pathogens. Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were 95.6% MDR, 23.7% ESBL, and 27.1% CRE in children.Conclusion: In this study, Klebsiella pneumoniae and S. aureus are common pathogens associated with BSI in pediatrics with high antimicrobial resistance. The prevalence of MDR 51.1%, CRE 30.5% and ESBL 25.4% were alarmingly high in bacterial isolates. ESBL producing organisms were common in Klebsiella species and Escherichia coli isolates. Since most of isolates exhibit multidrug resistant, invitro- susceptibility of antimicrobials is mandatory. Strengthing antimicrobial surveillance system and antimicrobial stewardship are necessary for better management of antibiotics in addition to infection prevention practice in TASH settings.
Regulating Chlorophyll a to Control DBP Precursors in Water Supply Reservoirs

Colorado recently adopted a chlorophyll a standard of 5 μg/L as an option for additional protection of direct‐use water supply reservoirs. Setting a limit on algal abundance by regulating chlorophyll a in these reservoirs is a preventive measure aimed at controlling or reducing algal‐derived precursors of disinfection by‐products (DBPs). Development of the chlorophyll a standard was based on field studies of Colorado reservoirs and compliance data from the associated water treatment systems. Controlling algal abundance in these reservoirs can supplement conventional treatment or serve as an alternative to additional treatment in situations in which algae contribute significantly to the organic precursors that can form DBPs during treatment. The focus on algae is important because algal‐derived precursors are difficult to remove during conventional water treatment and because algal abundance can be controlled via the nutrient supply.
Impact-echo : nondestructive evaluation of concrete and masonry

This book draws together all of the available knowledge and information about impact-echo and presents it in a concise and logical format. Descriptions of the applications of impact-echo are accompanied by case studies, which include photographs, drawings, and impact-echo results from field tests on a wide variety of concrete and masonry structures. This book is intended as a reference book for engineers and scientists who wish to understand the impact-echo method and its applications, as a source book for engineers and technicians who use impact-echo in field testings, and as a text for undergraduate and graduate courses on nondestructive testing and evaluation of structures.
Intelligent Fault Diagnosis and Prognosis for Engineering Systems

PREFACE. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. PROLOGUE. 1 INTRODUCTION. 1.1 Historical Perspective. 1.2 Diagnostic and Prognostic System Requirements. 1.3 Designing in Fault Diagnostic and Prognostic Systems. 1.4 Diagnostic and Prognostic Functional Layers. 1.5 Preface to Book Chapters. 1.6 References. 2 SYSTEMS APPROACH TO CBM/PHM. 2.1 Introduction. 2.2 Trade Studies. 2.3 Failure Modes and Effects Criticality Analysis (FMECA). 2.4 System CBM Test-Plan Design. 2.5 Performance Assessment. 2.6 CBM/PHM Impact on Maintenance and Operations: Case Studies. 2.7 CBM/PHM in Control and Contingency Management. 2.8 References. 3 SENSORS AND SENSING STRATEGIES. 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 Sensors. 3.3 Sensor Placement. 3.4 Wireless Sensor Networks. 3.5 Smart Sensors. 3.6 References. 4 SIGNAL PROCESSING AND DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Signal Processing in CBM/PHM. 4.3 Signal Preprocessing. 4.4 Signal Processing. 4.5 Vibration Monitoring and Data Analysis. 4.6 Real-Time Image Feature Extraction and Defect/Fault Classification. 4.7 The Virtual Sensor. 4.8 Fusion or Integration Technologies. 4.9 Usage-Pattern Tracking. 4.10 Database Management Methods. 4.11 References. 5 FAULT DIAGNOSIS. 5.1 Introduction. 5.2 The Diagnostic Framework. 5.3 Historical Data Diagnostic Methods. 5.4 Data-Driven Fault Classification and Decision Making. 5.5 Dynamic Systems Modeling. 5.6 Physical Model-Based Methods. 5.7 Model-Based Reasoning. 5.8 Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). 5.9 Other Methods for Fault Diagnosis. 5.10 A Diagnostic Framework for Electrical/Electronic Systems. 5.11 Case Study: Vibration-Based Fault Detection and Diagnosis for Engine Bearings. 5.12 References. 6 FAULT PROGNOSIS. 6.1 Introduction. 6.2 Model-Based Prognosis Techniques. 6.3 Probability-Based Prognosis Techniques. 6.4 Data-Driven Prediction Techniques. 6.5 Case Studies. 6.6 References. 7 FAULT DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS PERFORMANCE METRICS. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 CBM/PHM Requirements Definition. 7.3 Feature-Evaluation Metrics. 7.4 Fault Diagnosis Performance Metrics. 7.5 Prognosis Performance Metrics. 7.6 Diagnosis and Prognosis Effectiveness Metrics. 7.7 Complexity/Cost-Benefit Analysis of CBM/PHM Systems. 7.8 References. 8 LOGISTICS: SUPPORT OF THE SYSTEM IN OPERATION. 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Product-Support Architecture, Knowledge Base, and Methods for CBM. 8.3 Product Support without CBM. 8.4 Product Support with CBM. 8.5 Maintenance Scheduling Strategies. 8.6 A Simple Example. 8.7 References. APPENDIX. INDEX.
Analysis of Factors Influencing Accuracy of Speech Recognition

Factors influencing accuracy of speech recognitions is investigated. The main attention was given to environment, training conditions and features . The results of the influence of the factors to the accuracy of speech recognition are presented. The analysis of experimental results proved that the biggest influence on recognition accuracy has environments’ in which speech commands’ recognition are used and size set of etalons of speech commands used for training.
Offshore Wind Turbines: Reliability, availability and maintenance

The development of offshore wind power has become a pressing modern energy issue in which the UK is taking a major part, driven by the need to find new electrical power sources, avoiding the use of fossil fuels, in the knowledge of the extensive wind resource available around our islands and the fact that the environmental impact of offshore wind farms is likely to be low. However, there are major problems to solve if offshore wind power is to be realised and these problems revolve around the need to capture energy at a cost per kWh which is competitive with other sources. This depends upon the longevity of the wind turbines which make up offshore wind farms. Their availability, reliability and the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the maintenance needed to achieve that availability, are essential to improve offshore wind life-cycle costs and the future of this emerging industry. This book intends to address these issues head-on and demonstrate clearly to manufacturers, developers and operators the facts and figures of wind turbine operation and maintenance in the inclement offshore environment, recommending how maintenance should be done to achieve low life-cycle costs.
An AHP integrated QFD approach for mitigating upstream supply chain barriers: A study on Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry of Bangladesh

The complexity of supply chain network and its activities are increasing gradually with the globalization and increased outsourcing by the companies. The increased complexities create different problems and barriers in supply chain operations which need to be mitigated to remain competitive. The barriers adversely affect both revenue and cost of the whole supply chain. A number of research works have been conducted on supply chain barriers and complexities but research on upstream supply chain barrier is not substantial in number especially in the context of RMG industry. Identifying upstream supply chain barriers and finding corresponding mitigation approach in the context of RMG industry is even unexplored. Therefore, this study aims at identifying upstream supply chain barriers in RMG industry of Bangladesh and corresponding mitigation design requirements by applying an AHP integrated QFD approach. Study finds that upstream supply barrier specifically longer lead time is the most important barrier in comparison to five other barriers. Corresponding to the upstream supply barrier efficient planning, commitment to meet on time delivery and quick response are highly important mitigation design requirements.
A Study on Warning Timing for Lane Change Decision Aid Systems Based on Driver's Lane Change Maneuver

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the suitable warning timing of “Lane Change Decision Aid Systems (LCDAS)” for a driver’s lane change maneuver. The relationship between lane-change tasks and closing vehicles in the passing lane was investigated by field experiments on the Chuo expressway in Japan. The driver’s steering during the lane change was simulated using a linear prediction model. Based on these results, the system requirements of warning timing and sensing area for LCDAS are proposed.
A NEW MICROSCOPIC MODEL FOR CAR-FOLLOWING BEHAVIOUR IN URBAN TRAFFIC

Traffic simulation is a powerful tool for developing and testing traffic control algorithms. Existing microscopic models are compared with measurements of the car-following behaviour under real-life conditions. It turns out that these models, originally designed for highway traffic, oversimplify the urban traffic dynamics. To overcome these shortcomings the new T3-model is proposed and its parameters are fitted to the measurements. First results show that this model is well suited to simulate urban traffic dynamics and to study the effects of new traffic control strategies. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 490001.
Reconstruction Test of Turbulence Power Spectra in 3D Wavenumber Space with at Most 9 Virtual Spacecraft Measurements

The k‐filtering/wave telescope method has been successfully applied to the 4‐spacecraft measurements from Cluster II and MMS, revealing the four‐dimensional power spectral density (PSD, ω, k). As the number of spacecraft within a constellation increases, the geometry becomes more complicated, and it is harder to find the first‐Brillouin‐like zone, since we cannot use known formulas to calculate the geometry of the zone. To our knowledge, a quantitative study on the aliasing effects as well as the geometry of the first‐Brillouin‐like zone for the constellation with more than 4 spacecraft has not been proposed yet. Herewith we provide a method to estimate and compare the geometry of the first‐Brillouin‐like zone in multispacecraft constellations. The corresponding array of reciprocal lattice in the wavevector space forms the Brillouin zone. We set the preset PSDs conforming to the “slab‐only” and “slab + 2D” patterns as the benchmark, and compare them with the reconstructed PSDs using 4, 5, and 9 virtual spacecraft. Our results validate the estimation of the Brillouin‐like zones. The method may provide a constraint of aliasing effects. Our proposed method may be useful for the design and analysis of future exploration sessions with multispacecraft constellation.
Technical Solutions to Overcrowded Park and Ride Facilities

This report presents the results on potential techniques to more efficiently utilize existing park and ride technologies and plan for future changes to the park and ride facilities. It presents: (1) A summary of parking monitoring and parking guidance systems and recommendations that includes a cost analysis using three technologies: magnetometer, video image processing and inductive loop detectors for a typical parking installation; (2) A prototype parking information and reservation system through the web and cell phone that includes a parking reservation algorithm and solution methodology, a web-based parking reservation system and a cell-phone based parking reservation and information system. The establishment of a web and cell phone based parking information and reservation system is recommended as the main technology to efficiently allocate the parking spaces from overcrowded to underutilized park and ride facilities; and (3) A prototype park and ride intermodal transportation planning model and a case study implementation, with the model recommended to be expanded as a real-time traffic and park and ride forecasting system to enhance the operations and planning of park and ride facilities.
Energy saving in the process of gas pipeline overhaul

The problem of energy saving during overhaul of a linear part of gas trunkline is regarded in this paper. This issue has been analyzed from different perspectives.Thermodynamic analysis of gas evacuation from a string that is off operation for the overhaul to a parallel or adjacent string with the use of mobile compressor systems was made. Economical attractiveness of mobile compressor systems applications was proved.Various methods of gas trunklines linear parts overhaul have been considered. For each of the methods problems of minimization of necessary for the overhaul amount of energy consuming machines have been solved.The results can be used in the development of overhaul projects of the gas trunklines linear parts.
CODEX: Stochastic Encoding Method to Relax Resistive Crossbar Accelerator Design Requirements

A stochastic input encoding scheme (CODEX) is presented that aims to relax the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) design requirements in memristor crossbar systems. CODEX reduces the ADC input range by encoding the input bits using Bernoulli statistics so that the bit-line current distribution becomes a narrow Gaussian. By reducing ADC input range, CODEX can be used to reduce ADC power and area or increase ADC resolution to reduce the number of epochs required for in-situ training. Besides input data encoding, CODEX includes probability thresholding for sparse input data as well as a random re-sampling method for dealing with ADC overflow. CODEX is evaluated on CIFAR-10 dataset image classification and reconstruction, sentiment classification, and audio classification. The results show an averaged 68.5% reduction in ADC power, 35.5% reduction in ADC area, and 25.8% reduction in training epochs required for in-situ training when applied to the state-of-the-art ISAAC and PUMA accelerators.
Top 10 tips for better agile

Agile is a conceptual framework for tackling software engineering projects. Many individuals - and many organisations - can't believe that agile works in the real world, or that it would prove tenable when exposed to their organisational culture. These same organisations are often failing to deliver and support high-quality software to their business users and customers; but rather than change what doesn't work they simply try and do more of it - more documentation, checkpoints, metrics, meetings, sign-offs, and so on. Agile methods are easy to understand; but attempting to put the simple principles into practice is where it gets hard. In this article, we unpick some of the common problems: (1) team dynamics are paramount, (2) maintain honesty and transparency, (3) focus on business value, (4) quality is king, (5) get the business involved, (6) get the user group involved, (7) release value early, (8) fixed scope trap, (9) don't do 'mini waterfalls', (10) evolve the architecture.
Wavelets: A Primer

The Wavelet Transform has stimulated research that is unparalleled since the invention of the Fast Fourier Transform and has opened new avenues of applications in signal processing, image compression, radiology, cardiology, and many other areas. This book grew out of a short course for mathematics students at the ETH in Zurich; it provides a solid mathematical foundation for the broad range of applications enjoyed by the wavelet transform. Numerous illustrations and fully worked out examples enhance the book.
Synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation mode based on deep sedation combined with nerve block improve postoperative pulmonary function in elderly patients undergoing hip arthroplasty:a randomized controlled trial

Background: Hip arthroplasty is currently the gold standard for the treatment of femoral neck fractures in elderly patients. General anesthesia is common in hip arthroplasty and usually requires mechanical ventilation. Elderly patients are prone to various complications, notably pulmonary complications that occur due to poor cardiac-pulmonary function following surgery.Methods: The anesthesia method used in the patients undergoing hip arthroplasty in the present study was mainly based on nerve blocks combined with deep sedation. Patients were randomly divided into two groups according to the different ventilation modes. Subsequently, the differences between the two groups were evaluated by observing the intraoperative airway pressure, the perioperative blood gas analysis, the pulmonary function and the postoperative pulmonary infection score.Results: A total of 63 patients were finally enrolled and analyzed, of which 31 were with Volume-controlled ventilation (VCV) and 32 with Synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation (SIMV). The airway pressure at the 0.5h and 1h after the insertion of laryngeal mask airway (LMA) and clinical pulmonary infection scores at the time of postoperative day3 and day5 in the SIMV group were significantly lower than that of the VCV group（P<0.05）. In spite of the results indicated that both groups of patients underwent a decline in pulmonary function an blood gas postoperatively, the mean values of the parameters of pulmonary function and blood gas analysis in the SIMV group from the time periods T1 to T3 were better than those of the VCV group(P<0.05). Conclusions: The SIMV mode can improve postoperative pulmonary function and reduce postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs), such as pulmonary infection compared with the VCV group. This leads to lung-protective ventilation. This mode should be used to optimize anesthesia-related strategies and to accelerate the rapid postoperative recovery of the patients.
Polyclonal Antibody

Gene Summary: Voltage-gated sodium channels are essential for the generation and propagation of action potentials in striated muscle and neuronal tissues. Biochemically, they consist of a large alpha subunit and 1 or 2 smaller beta subunits, such as SCN1B. The alpha subunit alone can exhibit all the functional attributes of a voltage-gated Na+ channel, but requires a beta-1 subunit for normal inactivation kinetics. [supplied by OMIM]
Stochastic Dynamics of Cascading Failures in Electric-Cyber Infrastructures

This work was made possible by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency grant No. HDTRA1-13 1-0020 and contract No. DTRA01-03-D 0009-0026, and by NPRP 5 - 137 - 2 - 045 grant from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation).