Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Active terahertz imaging with high acquisition rates and its application for moisture sensing

In this paper we give a short introduction on THz imaging and exemplarily present possible applications in the paper fabrication and in the security sector. Then we describe a method for depth imaging with a frequency-swept continuous-wave (FMCW) electronic THz source. In the electromagnetic spectrum, the frequency range between microwaves and the infrared is often called the THz gap, because it has been rarely used in technology, because of a lack suitable sources and detectors. One can approach this gap from both sides, as from high-frequency electronics or longwavelength optics. Some properties make THz waves interesting for applications. First, due to the low photon energy, the risk of harm through ionization seems negligible. Many materials like paper, plastics and fabrics are transparent to THz radiation, while water absorbs and metals reflect the radiation. Due to its long wavelengths, the radiation is insensitve to surface roghness. Finally, many organic substances have characteristic spectroscopic signatures in the THz range. Several possible applications of THz radiation in imaging have been demonstrated, taking advantage of one or more of the properties mentioned in the paragraph above. Sections 2 and 3 give two examples, while Section 4 demonstrates a way for depth imaging.
Impairment-aware Survivable Routing and Regenerator Placement in WDM Networks

Optical networks employing the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology are promising solutions to the ever increasing demand for bandwidth. The use of WDM allows aggregation of many channels onto a single fibre without the need of high speed optoelectronic devices for end users. In WDM networks, as the optical signals traverse multiple links their quality deteriorates due to the physical impairments they encounter. This necessitates regeneration of the signals at the intermediate nodes so that the signals will reach the destination with an acceptable level of quality. In addition, due to the frequent occurrence of fiber cuts and the tremendous amount of data transported, survivability, which is the ability to reconfigure and reestablish communication upon failure, is indispensable in WDM networks. Survivability is of critical importance in high-speed optical communication networks. These days, network survivability along with impairment-aware routing is of great interest to telecommunication system vendors, service providers and end users. This thesis work focuses on solving impairment-aware survivable routing in WDM networks. We have proposed and implemented exact and heuristic algorithms that solve survivable regenerator placement and survivable impairment-aware routing problems in WDM networks.
MRI and MRV features of a patient with Heat Stroke: a case report

Background Heat stroke (HS) is a critical illness that can cause multiple organ dysfunction including damage to the central nervous system (CNS), which can be life-threatening in severe cases. The brain image lesions of HS patient with CNS damage has been rarely reported before and usually variable in different cases, causing confusing to doctors when encounter these patients in the clinic. Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare cause of stroke that mostly affects young people and children. The pathogenesis of brain damage caused by HS is complex, CVT may be involved in the pathogenesis of HS with CNS damage. In this manuscript, we report a case of HS with CVT with symmetrical lesions in the bilateral putamen,posterior limb of internal capsule,external capsule, insula lobe, and subcortical white matter inside the brain. Case presentation We introduced a 48-year-old man who suffered from HS in the hot summer. At the time of admission, he showed high body temperature, coma and shock. Later, he had laboratory evidence of rhabdomyolysis syndrome, acute kidney and liver damage, electrolyte imbalance, acid-base balance disorders, and high D-dimer levels. After several days of anti-shock treatment, his level of consciousness has improved but his vision has declined. The cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed symmetrical lesions of the bilateral posterior limb of internal capsule,putamen,external capsule and insula, and subcortical white matter, and cerebral magnetic resonance venography (MRV) showed the formation of deep cerebral venous thrombosis (DCVT). Therefore, the anti-coagulation treatment was given to patient. After timely clinical intervention, the symptom of the patient was gradually improved. Conclusions The case shows that HS can cause CVT. Therefore, we believe that when we need to identify the cerebral MRI findings of HS, early MRV can greatly help the diagnosis of the disease, and can effectively improve the prognosis.
Life cycle assessment of novel CCS technologies

CO2 emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels are the largest sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the better options to mitigate these emissions and thereby limit global warming even while continuing the use of fossil fuels for power generation. As CCS increases the energy consumption of the power plant itself, there will be an increased use of fuel and therefore also increased environmental impacts connected to this. To calculate these impacts it is important to include the entire supply chain and life cycle of the power plant. This thesis involves a tiered hybrid life cycle assessment of natural gas- and coal power plants with chilled ammonia process (CAP) and sorption enhanced water-gas shift (SEWGS) capture technologies. These novel capture technologies are two of the least studied when it comes to environmental assessments. The results from this assessment are compared to two of the more studied capture technologies, post-combustion capture by monoethanolamine (MEA) and oxyfuel combustion capture. Both the CAP capture alternative and the SEWGS alternative have been shown to decrease the global warming potential (GWP) in a natural gas plant by 70%. For the coal-fired power plants, the CAP technology managed a decrease in GWP of 77% while the SEWGS technology showed a decrease of 77.5%. This decrease comes at a cost of other impact categories where for example the freshwater ecotoxicity potential (FETP) has an increase of 87-88% for both the CAP and SEWGS capture technologies in NGCC plants. This impact category has an increase of 25 and 22% for the CAP and SEWGS technologies in the coal-fired power plants. Compared to post-combustion capture by MEA and oxyfuel combustion capture, the results were clear on MEA being the least preferable option in an environmental perspective for both coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. Oxyfuel combustion capture, on the other hand, was shown to be the most preferable option.
ZERO-IF AND NEAR-ZERO-IF QUADRATURE RECEIVERS FOR SDR

A multiple peripheral component interconnect (PCI) agent integrated circuit device for connecting to an external PCI bus. In one embodiment, the present multiple PCI agent integrated circuit device includes, an integrated circuit which is adapted to be coupled to an external PCI bus. The integrated circuit includes an internal PCI bus built in. The internal PCI bus is adapted to transmit data signals thereon, and is further adapted to couple to the external PCI bus via a connector. A plurality of PCI agents are built into the integrated circuit, wherein each of the plurality of PCI agents are capable of performing an independent function. Each of the plurality of PCI agents are coupled to the internal PCI bus. A predictive arbiter is built into the integrated circuit and is coupled to both the internal PCI bus and to the plurality of PCI agents. The predictive arbiter arbitrates between the PCI agents for ownership of the internal PCI bus.
A Goal Programming Approach for Optimal PMU Placement

This article proposes a multi-objective goal programming based approach with two objectives of maximizing the reliability and minimizing the placement cost of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) for full observability in power systems. The weighted sum goal programming formulation incorporates the reliability of individual PMUs and finds a placement to resolve the conflicting objectives of minimum number of PMUs cost-wise and maximum level of system-wide reliability. This multi-objective problem is formulated as a nonlinear goal programming model in which weights are associated with the objectives. The model is solved for several weight scenarios for the IEEE 14, 30, 57 and 118 bus test systems. The benefit of the proposed model has been demonstrated by comparing the results with the traditional optimal cost-wise only PMU placement and existing reliability based placement models. The system reliability is improved by ~45% compared to optimal PMU placement models. Also, the number of PMUs is reduced by ~40% compared to reliability based placement models with the proposed goal programming approach.
A Vector Quantization-Based Spike Compression Approach Dedicated to Multichannel Neural Recording Microsystems

Implantable high-density multichannel neural recording microsystems provide simultaneous recording of brain activities. Wireless transmission of the entire recorded data causes high bandwidth usage, which is not tolerable for implantable applications. As a result, a hardware-friendly compression module is required to reduce the amount of data before it is transmitted. This paper presents a novel compression approach that utilizes a spike extractor and a vector quantization (VQ)-based spike compressor. In this approach, extracted spikes are vector quantized using an unsupervised learning process providing a high spike compression ratio (CR) of 10-80. A combination of extracting and compressing neural spikes results in a significant data reduction as well as preserving the spike waveshapes. The compression performance of the proposed approach was evaluated under variant conditions. We also developed new architectures such that the hardware blocks of our approach can be implemented more efficiently. The compression module was implemented in a 180-nm standard CMOS process achieving a SNDR of 14.49[Formula: see text]dB and a classification accuracy (CA) of 99.62% at a CR of 20, while consuming 4[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]W power and 0.16[Formula: see text]mm2 chip area per channel.
Integrated water resources management for Egypt

Egypt is approaching the point where water demands are exceeding supplies. This situation will necessitate improved decision making for water resources planning. Integrated management represents a unique approach, incorporating both temporal and spatial variations of the problem. To achieve an integrated procedure, efforts are being made to resolve numerous issues ranging from loss of agricultural lands to farmer involvement in the decision-making process. The first part of the paper describes the application of integrated management to water planning and water quality. The second part describes the necessary changes made to the administration structure and the importance of communications in integrated management. The irrigation improvement programme instigated as a result of the integrated approach is already beginning to redress the shortfall in supply by reducing losses. Reorganisation of the operation and the inclusion of the population in the decision-making processes have produced a positive attitude towards water-saving policies. Technical and legal controls have been introduced leading to a significant improvement in system performance and productivity.
SPADA: a statistical program attack detection analysis

One of the main challenges in system security is the detection of vulnerability exploitation, especially valid control flow exploitation. The specificity of state-of-the-art methods, such as signature-based detection, becomes a limiting factor when detecting the latest exploits and attacks uncovered. We propose the detection of exploit executions by partitioning applications into phases, characterized by their Basic Block activity, and a phase behavior analysis. In contrast to previous works, our technique can detect exploits which use proper application control flows, such as Heartbleed. Moreover, our method identifies instances under attack using simple and statistically relevant phase features to profile control flow.
Antibiotic Resistance of Bacteria isolated in Urinary Tract Infections in Erbil City.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most unnoticed diseases worldwide. The resistant bacteria in UTI against commonly prescribed antimicrobials is coming forward with a daily demand for the management of antimicrobial treatment in health services. To estimate the resistance evolution of bacteria causing urinary tract infections to commonly used antimicrobials and to evaluate the options for treatment of UTIs. A total of 43 uropathogens of Gramnegative and Gram-positive bacteria were identified by using highly automated VITEK®2 System in Rizgare hospital; Erbil, Iraq; From January 2016 to December 2017. Four hundred eighty-two Urine samples from patients were cultured on appropriate bacteriological media and antibiotic sensitivity was determined by using disc diffusion method. From 482 urine specimens 80 % had positive results for bacterial cultures further more Among the 482 uropathogens, 184 samples tested for Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) which 94% was found to produce ESBLs. E-coli was the most common agent of UTIs (41.3 %) followed by Staphylococcus spp. (19.9%); Klebsiella spp. (11.6 %); Streptococcus spp. (7.3%); Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5%), Sphingomonas paucimobilis (4.1%); Enterococcus spp. (3.1%); Proteus mirabilis (2.9 %); other (4.8%). The disk diffusion assay proved that high degree of resistance among pathogens was to ampicillin; aztreonam; cephalothin; clindamycin; tetracycline. The lowest resistance was to amikacin; ciprofloxacin; imipenem and nitrofurantoin. Supervision for using favorable antibiotics and reducing the infection are very important.
OPTIMIZATION FOR INDUCTION MOTOR DESIGN BY IMPROVED GENETIC ALGORITHM

Optimization for induction motor design is one of the interested subjects by electrical engineers. This paper proposes an Improved Genetic Algorithm (IGA) for optimization of 3-phase induction motor design. The proposed IGA possesses the characteristics of real number encoding, stochastic crossover operator, self-adaptable mutation operator and annealing penalty function, and multiturns evolution strategy for solving nonlinear constrained multivariable optimization problems. A model for optimization of 3-phase induction motor design based on magnetic circuit analysis is established and discussed. The IGA, which was tested by a mathematical example, is applied to the optimization of the Y-series 3-phase induction motor design. The results are compared with the data of manufacturers and it is shown that the algorithm can reduce the active material costs and/or improve the efficiencies of the motors.
Interface and feedback factors in social bookmark usage : submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Information Sciences at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

1 Chapter 1: Introduction . 2 1.1 Background . 2 1.2 Social bookmarking . 2 1.3 Social bookmark buttons . 3 1.4 Purpose of the study . 4 Chapter 2: Literature Review . 5 2.
EFFECTS OF BICYCLE ACCOMMODATIONS ON BICYCLE/MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS

The report begins with an assessment of the Federal government's policy goal for bicycling and defines two basic types of design bicyclists. It concludes by setting forth specific recommendations for selecting roadway design treatments to accommodate the needs and desires of all types of bicyclists. The report describes the assumptions, principles, and approaches used to develop the recommendations; provides a model planning process for identifying a network of routes on which designated bicycle facilities should be provided to accommodate bicyclists of moderate ability (casual adult riders and children); and recommends design treatments and specifications for roadways to serve different types of bicyclists under various sets of traffic operational factors.
Rank pollution prevention and control options

Pollution from industrial processes is a direct result of inefficiencies in raw material conversion and energy utilization. Improvements in process efficiency should, therefore, lead to a reduction in pollution. Thus, compliance with statutory emissions requirements can, in many cases, be achieved through conservation measures that improve process yield and reduce energy consumption. An earlier article described how process integration methods could be used to identify options for reducing emissions in a systematic way. Here the authors address a related question--how to evaluate, compare, and rank the options that have been defined. The focus is on airborne NO[sub x] emissions, although similar methods are applicable to other airborne emissions and to emissions in other environmental media. The methodology presented here could be used for several purposes. A company could use it to identify the most cost-effective technical strategy for pollution prevention at its facilities. Businesses could use it as a tool to assist in the commercial trading of emissions offset (or credits). And regulators could use it to establish a basis for setting economically realistic standards of performance.
Palm vein authentication technology and its applications

This paper discusses the contactless palm vein authentication device that uses blood vessel patterns as a personal identifying factor. The vein information is hard to duplicate since veins are internal to the human body. The palm vein authentication technology offers a high level of accuracy, and delivers the following results: a false rejection rate (FRR) of 0.01%, and a false acceptance rate (FAR) of 0.00008% or lower, based on Fujitsu research using the data of 140,000 palms. Several banks in Japan have used the palm vein authentication technology for customer identification since July 2004. In addition, Fujitsu has integrated the technology into the access control of electronic door lock systems. Fujitsu plans to further expand applications for this technology by downsizing the sensor and improving the verification speed. 1. Palm vein authentication Palm vein authentication uses the vascular patterns of an individual’s palm as personal identification data. Compared with a finger [1] or the back of a hand, a palm has a broader and more complicated vascular pattern and thus contains a wealth of differentiating features for personal identification. The palm is an ideal part of the body for this technology; it normally does not have hair which can be an obstacle for photographing the blood vessel pattern, and it is less susceptible to a change in skin color, unlike a finger or the back of a hand. The deoxidized hemoglobin in the vein vessels absorb light having a wavelength of about 7.6 x 10 -4 mm within the near-infrared area [2]. When the infrared ray image is captured, unlike the image seen in Fig.1, only the blood vessel pattern containing the deoxidized hemoglobin is visible as a series of dark lines (Fig.2). Based on this feature, the vein authentication device translates the black lines of the infrared ray image as the blood vessel pattern of the palm (Fig. 3), and then matches it with the previously registered blood vessel pattern of the individual. 2. Implementation of contactless palm vein authentication The contactless palm vein authentication technology consists of image sensing and software technology. The palm vein sensor (Fig.4) captures an infrared ray image of the user’s palm. The lighting of the infrared ray is controlled depending on the illumination around the sensor, and the sensor is able to capture the palm image regardless of the position and movement of the palm. The software then matches the translated vein pattern with the registered pattern, while measuring the position and orientation of the palm by a pattern matching method.
Performance evaluation of DVB-S2X over satellite channels

Esposizione del funzionamento generale dello standard DVB-S2X, e delle componenti principali di un canale di comunicazione satellitare. Valutazione delle prestazioni dello standard DVB-S2X su modelli di canale satellitare. Analisi della probabilita d'errore sul pacchetto su diversi MODCOD, e della loro efficienza spettrale. Confronto delle prestazioni di due tipi di filtri per la trasmissione con diversi roll-off, quelli esaminati sono 20% e 5%
Static and dynamic pressure measurements on a NACA 0012 airfoil in the Ames High Reynolds Number Facility

The supercritical flows at high subsonic speeds over a NACA 0012 airfoil were studied to acquire aerodynamic data suitable for evaluating numerical-flow codes. The measurements consisted primarily of static and dynamic pressures on the airfoil and test-channel walls. Shadowgraphs were also taken of the flow field near the airfoil. The tests were performed at free-stream Mach numbers from approximately 0.7 to 0.8, at angles of attack sufficient to include the onset of buffet, and at Reynolds numbers from 1 million to 14 million. A test action was designed specifically to obtain two-dimensional airfoil data with a minimum of wall interference effects. Boundary-layer suction panels were used to minimize sidewall interference effects. Flexible upper and lower walls allow test-channel area-ruling to nullify Mach number changes induced by the mass removal, to correct for longitudinal boundary-layer growth, and to provide contouring compatible with the streamlines of the model in free air.
Discontinuities-induced phenomena in an industrial application: analysis and control solutions

Piecewise-smooth (PWS) systems are an interesting subclass of discontinuous dynamical systems. In these systems, trajectories evolve smoothly through the state space until some conditions are satisfied and an event is triggered inducing a change in the model characteristics. Due to the presence of discontinuous changes in system properties, PWS systems present a wide variety of complex dynamical behaviours. In this paper, an example of PWS system is presented: the model of a conventional vertical oilwell drillstring. Oilwell drillstrings exhibit a wide variety of complex phenomena and non-desired oscillations due to the presence of different types of friction. Special attention is paid to the effects of bitrock friction and torsional mechanical vibrations, mainly, stick-slip oscillations appearing at the bottom-hole assembly and other bit sticking phenomena which cause the bit to remain motionless. These phenomena are related to the existence of a sliding motion on the discontinuity surface when the bit velocity is zero. Some control solutions and system parameters selection are presented lest non-desired transitions appear
AGARD Flight Test Instrumentation Series. Volume 15. Gyroscopic Instruments and Their Application to Flight Testing

Abstract : This AGARDograph is the 15th of the AGARD Flight Test Instrumentation Series and discusses the use of gyroscopic instruments to support flight testing. Gyroscopic instruments are used in flight tests to measure the aircraft angular acelerations and rates, attitude and heading and - in combination with accelerometers - the linear acceleration, the ground velocity and the position. This volume describes the measuring principles, the technical lay-out and the error behaviour of the sensors and systems used for these measurements: Gyros, accelerometers, attitude and heading references and inertial navigation systems. Attention is also given to integrated and hybrid sensor systems, as they are in the modern instrumentation systems. Examples of actual flight instrumentation systems are described and the requirements for the gyroscopic sensors in these systems are discussed for applications in aircraft stability and control flight tests, in performance tests and in airborne and ground systems calibration and testing. (Author)