Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Light, Vision and the Welfare of Poultry

The visual system of domestic poultry evolved in natural light environments, which differ in many respects from the artificial light provided in poultry houses. Current lighting systems are designed mainly around human vision and poultry production, ignoring the requirements of poultry vision and the functional development of visual abilities during rearing. A poor correlation between the light provided and that required for effective vision may influence visually mediated behaviours such as feeding and social interaction, leading to distress and poor welfare. To understand fully the impact of the light environment on the behaviour and welfare of domestic poultry we need (i) to measure the physical properties of the light environment in a standard and relevant manner; (ii) to identify the limits of visual abilities in various light environments; (iii) to determine how light environments during rearing may disrupt the functional development of vision; and (iv) to resolve how visual abilities and lighting interact to affect visually mediated behaviour. Some conclusions can be drawn about the impact of current lighting regimes on bird welfare but there remains a pressing need to resolve various issues in this interaction. We propose, first, that dark periods should have a minimum duration of six hours; second, that bright light should be used in cases where pecking damage and cannibalism do not pose a problem; and third, that it is unlikely that the 100 Hz flicker associated with fluorescent light can be perceived by poultry. With less certainty, we can suggest that ultraviolet-supplemented lighting may have some welfare benefits, and that very dim lighting may adversely affect ocular development. We can only speculate on other issues, such as preferences and motivations for different coloured lighting or the ways in which lighting affects recognition of conspecifics. Several organisations and authorities have issued guidelines for poultry house lighting that strive to safeguard welfare and that are consistent with our current, but limited, understanding. One omission is a standard system for measuring light levels in poultry houses. Illumination with natural daylight would be an ideal solution to many lighting problems. Although some systems require artificial lighting for production purposes, we argue that it may be possible to rear birds humanely in artificial environments that contain some features of natural light. These features should be those for which poultry show some motivation, or whose exclusion would damage visual development.
A novel P‐shaped printed monopole antenna for RFID applications

In this article, a novel p‐shaped printed monopole antenna is first proposed to operate simultaneously at the 2.45 and 5.8 GHz bands for radio frequency identification tag. Printed on a standard 1.6 mm FR4 substrate material, the printed monopole antenna has been demonstrated to provide an ultra wide 10 dB return loss bandwidth with satisfactory gains and radiation properties. The parameters which affect the performance of the antenna in terms of its frequency domain characteristics are investigated. A good agreement is achieved between the simulation and the experiment. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 554–556, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24083
Οπτικά τηλεπικοινωνιακά συστήματα διασύνδεσης υψηλής φασματικής απόδοσης με πολυπλεξία μήκους κύματος και προηγμένες τεχνικές διαμόρφω...

Data rates are continuing to increase for box-to-box, rack-to-rack, board-to-board, and chip-to-chip interconnects for terabit switches and routers, multiprocessor computers and high-end servers. The increase in individual line rates and bandwidth drives the need to replace copper interconnects with optical interconnects. Fiber optics are advantageous for these applications because they allow for longer link lengths, increased bandwidth, smaller cables and connectors, less susceptibility to electromagnetic interference, and potentially lower power dissipation, depending on the data rate and link length. Towards this direction, this thesis aims to design and demonstrate low-cost, low-latency, high throughput, rack-to-rack optical interconnect architectures for exascale (i.e., performing 10^18 floating point operations per second) high-performance computing (HPC) systems and data centers. In particular, a novel, cost-effective, optical interconnect architecture for ultrafast optical switching, based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), is studied. The proposed design of a fast N×N all-optical, wavelength-space crossbar switch for optical interconnects uses a minimum number of ON/OFF gates. This thesis compares and proves the superiority of the proposed architecture with respect to its originally-proposed counterpart, both theoretically and experimentally. Additionally, in order to increase the capacity and to minimize the impact of transmission effects (especially self-gain modulation (SGM), cross-gain modulation (XGM), self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (XPM), and polarization dependent gain (PDG)), we investigate the performance of conventional binary intensity modulation (IM), in conjunction with direct detection, as well as of advanced, more resilient, spectrally-efficient modulation formats (e.g., Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Polarization Division Multiplexed Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (PDM-QPSK), Single (SP)- and PDM- 16-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16QAM) in conjunction with coherent detection). Finally, as a seperate research activity, we study the performance of point-to-point links based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and single- or multi- mode fibers, in conjuction with IM/DD, four-level Pulse Amplitude Modulation (4-PAM), and OFDM, to enable state-of-the-art, high-capacity, low-cost optical interconnects.
Using MILP to plan holidays and working hours under an annualised hours agreement

Annualising work hours (AH) is a means of achievement flexibility in the use of human resources to face the seasonal nature of demand. In Corominas et al. (1) two MILP models are used to solve the problem of planning staff working hours with annual horizon. The costs due to overtime and to the employment of temporary workers are minimised, and the distribution of working time over the course of the year for each worker and the distribution of working time provided by temporary workers are regularised. In the aforementioned paper, the following is assumed: (i) the holiday weeks are fixed a priori and (ii) the workers are from different categories who are able to perform specific type of task have se same efficiency; moreover, the values of the binary variables (and others) in the second model are fixed to those in the first model (thus, in the second model these will intervene as constants and not as variables, resulting in an LP model). In the present paper, these assumptions are relaxed and a more general problem is solved. The computational experiment leads to the conclusion that MILP is a technique suited to dealing with the problem.
Speed management on rural roads: the effect of pavement markings

Current New Zealand guidelines encourage the installation of painted centrelines and edgelines on rural roads. Though it is known that speed is directly proportional to both accident likelihood and severity, the effect of pavement markings on speed is unclear. This study looked at the effect of pavement markings (centrelines and edgelines) on speed. The study method involved speed surveys at matched pairs, to compare sites with an edgeline and centreline, to centreline only sites, and to compare a further set of centreline-only sites to sites with no markings. Sites within pairs were all on straight, flat, single-carriageway rural roads in country environments, with 100km/h posted speed limits. Pairs were matched for sealed carriageway width, with a tolerance 0.5m difference in width allowed within pairs. In addition, a before/after study compared speeds at one of the centreline-only sites before and after installation of an edgeline. Results showed that compared to the case of no markings, presence of a centreline increases the mean speed and lowers the coefficient of variation. For matched pair sites with significant results, the increase in mean speed observed within pairs comparing no centreline to centreline only was 12.1km/h, from 71.9km/h for sites with no markings, to 84.0km/h for sites with a centreline only. The increase in mean speed observed at pairs comparing centreline only to centreline plus edgeline was 11.3km/h, from 86.0km/h for sites with centreline only, to 97.3km/h for sites with a centreline and edgeline. A before/after study showed a significant increase in speed with addition of an edgeline to a centreline-only road of 7.8km/h. Overall, an increase in delineation generally leads to an increase in speed, and a lowering of the coefficient of variation across all observed speeds. As it is unlikely that drivers would admit to being consciously motivated by the presence or absence of a centreline or edgeline, it is likely that this effect is due to an unconscious process of some kind.
Optimizing Heat Sink Geometry for Electric Vehicle BLDC Motor Using CFD

Overheating in electrical motors results in detrimental effects such as degradation of the insulation materials, magnet demagnetization, increase in Joule losses and decreased motor efficiency and lifetime. Hence, it is important to find ways of optimizing performance and reliability of electric motors through effective cooling and consequently reduce operating and maintenance costs. This study describes 3D CFD simulations performed on a totally enclosed air over fan cooled brushless D.C. motor to identify the temperatures of the critical components of the motor. A finned casing is used as the heat sink and the effect of varying the fin geometry on the cooling performance is examined using three heat sink designs. The results show that the highest temperature occurs at the end windings and that this temperature can be reduced by up to 15% by introduction of a suitable finned housing. These results show that CFD can be effectively used to optimize the cooling performance of electric motors. Experimental tests are undergoing in order to validate the CFD results.
Bioremediation of nitrate-polluted groundwater using bioelectrochemical systems

The presence of nitrates (NO3-) in groundwater is a worldwide concern. The high energy demand and environmental impact of available technologies requires investigating new technologies. This thesis was focused on investigating the usage of bioelectrochemical systems (BES) for treating nitrate-polluted groundwater. BES uses microorganisms able to catalyze oxidation/reduction processes by delivering/obtaining electrons from an electrode. In this thesis, microorganisms able to use the electrode as an electron donor (biocathode) to reduce nitrates into dinitrogen gas (inert) were investigated. As a result, a process could be patented, in which BES are able to treat nitrates at high denitrification rates (up to 700 gN•m-3NCC•d-1), with a competitive energy demand (0.68•10-2 – 1.27•10-2 kWh•gN-1treated), without sludge generation nor chemical dosing. Moreover, the microorganisms were electrochemically characterized, and the key subcommunities of the process were elucidated. In summary, bioelectrochemical systems have the potential for becoming a competitive alternative for the treatment of nitrate-polluted groundwater La presencia de nitrats (NO3-) en aigues subterranies es una preocupacio global. L’alt cost energetic i ambiental de les tecnologies actuals requereixen la investigacio de noves estrategies. Aquesta tesi ha investigat la utilitzacio de sistemes bioelectroquimics (BES) pel tractament d’aigues subterranies contaminades per nitrats. Les BES es basen en microorganismes capacos de realitzar oxidacions/reduccions tot alliberant/captant electrons d’un electrode. Aquesta tesi ha investigat l’us de bacteries capaces d’utilitzar l’electrode com a donador d’electrons (biocatode) per reduir el nitrat a dinitrogen gas (compost inert). Com a resultat, s’ha patentat un proces que permet desnitrificar a altes velocitats (700 gN•m-3NCC•d-1), a un cost energetic competitiu (0.68•10-2 – 1.27•10-2 kWh•gN-1tractat), sense generar fangs ni addicionar substancies quimiques. Tambe s’ha caracteritzat electroquimicament els microorganismes i s’ha elucidat les subcomunitats microbianes responsables de la desnitrificacio. En definitiva, aquesta tesi demostra que els sistemes bioelectroquimics poden esdevenir una alternativa competitiva pel tractament d’aigues subterranies contaminades per nitrats
Macroscopic Review of Driver Gap Acceptance and Rejection Behavior at Rural Thru-Stop Intersections in the US - Data Collection Results in Eight States: CICAS-SSA Report #3

Crashes at rural thru-stop intersections arise primarily from a driver attempting to cross or enter the mainline traffic stream after failing to recognize an unsafe gap condition. Because the primary cause of these crashes is not failure to stop, but failure to recognize an unsafe condition, the US DOT FHWA, Mn/DOT, and the University of Minnesota ITS Institute undertook the CICAS-SSA program. CICAS-SSA uses roadside radar sensors, a computer processor and algorithms to determine unsafe conditions, and an active LED icon based sign to provide timely alerts and warnings which are designed to reduce the frequency of crashes at rural expressway intersections. These rural, thru-stop crashes are problems in many states. In conjunction with the CICAS-SSA program, Mn/DOT and the University of Minnesota led a nine-state (CA, GA, IA, MI, MN, NC, NH, NV, and WI) pooled-fund study whereby driver behavior data at rural thru-stop intersections was collected by the Minnesota Mobile Intersection Surveillance System (MMISS). The ultimate goal of the pooled fund study and the analysis of that data described here, was to identify whether drivers in different regions of the county exhibit different gap acceptance/rejection behavior, and if different driver behaviors are identified, determine whether they are different enough to inhibit the deployment of a common CICAS-SSA design throughout the US. The analysis of the data indicated that the system can indeed be deployed nationally.
Differentiation, Variation and Selection: Evolutionary Implications of Technical Change Among the Worldwide Population of Hard Disk Drive Makers, 1956-1998

This paper describes a dynamic analysis of technological advances among hard disk drive (HDD) manufacturers in the areal density of their products across the history of the industry. The study provides (additional) evidence supporting a view of technological racing with leap-frogging rather than with persistent leadership domination in the HDD context - like others, we find that technology leaders in one year are less likely to innovate in the next year than those firms right behind them in technology. We also uncover new evidence that technological laggards do not disappear as quickly as expected by technology racing metaphors where a winner-take-all outcome is expected. Our efforts to explain this pattern of persistent heterogeneity with the usual kind of strategic positioning stories and specifications were not notably successful. But we did find evidence that technological innovation in HDD follows a trajectory consistent with a proportionate random process (akin to a Gibrat process) that favors technology leaders but only stochastically. We demonstrate through simulation that evolution in a population with selection favoring a characteristic evolving as a proportionate random process generates increased variation. This contrasts with a common social science framework for viewing evolution that assumes a fixed characteristic and implies decreasing variation.
Dynamical aspects of multi-time scale unsupervised neural networks

Multi-time scale unsupervised neural networks (MTSUNN) represent an established technique in pattern recognition for feature extraction and cluster analysis. From the nonlinear systems analysis perspective, they implement a very complex coupled multi-mode dynamics. This paper gives a comprehensive overview of several neural architectures of a combined activity and weights dynamics. The global asymptotic and exponential stability of the equilibrium points of these continuous-time recurrent systems whose weights are adapted based on unsupervised learning laws are mathematically analyzed. The derived architectures can lead to hybrid implementations in VLSI techniques.
Large area, low cost space solar cells with optional wraparound contacts

Design parameters for two large area, low cost solar cells are presented, and electron irradiation testing, thermal alpha testing, and cell processing are discussed. The devices are a 2 ohm-cm base resistivity silicon cell with an evaporated aluminum reflector produced in a dielectric wraparound cell, and a 10 ohm-cm silicon cell with the BSF/BSR combination and a conventional contact system. Both cells are 5.9 x 5.9 cm and require 200 micron thick silicon material due to mission weight constraints. Normalized values for open circuit voltage, short circuit current, and maximum power calculations derived from electron radiation testing are given. In addition, thermal alpha testing values of absorptivity and emittance are included. A pilot cell processing run produced cells averaging 14.4% efficiencies at AMO 28 C. Manufacturing for such cells will be on a mechanized process line, and the area of coverslide application technology must be considered in order to achieve cost effective production.
TOWARD HELICOPTER GEARBOX DIAGNOSTICS FROM A SMALL NUMBER OF EXAMPLES

Abstract The United States Navy funded Westland Helicopters LTD to carry out a series of tests on the CH-46E helicopter transmission for the purpose of generating a database that can be used to evaluate diagnostic tools in general, and neural networks in particular. The database is extensive in the number of accelerometers, load conditions and diversity of faults. However, only 1–4 instances (levels) of each fault were included. Thus, the number of examples that can be extracted to train any classification scheme is limited, and well below the minimum required. We argue that instead the database is best used to develop specific signal generation models for the CH-46E helicopter gearbox. Such models can then be used to suggest meaningful features and derive appropriate signal-processing tools. Specifically, we demonstrate that the meshing vibrations induced by the large collector gear located on the quill shaft are significant and may interact with the vibrations induced by other elements attached to the same shaft. An appropriate model is developed and the effect, termed cross-gear-pair interaction, is studied using different signal-processing tools.
Pixel-level pavement crack detection using enhanced high-resolution semantic network

ABSTRACT Pixel-level crack detection is crucial in pavement performance assessment. Current deep learning-based detection methods first encode input images by multi-scale feature maps, then decode them to the output that has the same size as input. This process will lose detailed crack information. To tackle this problem, this paper proposed a novel network architecture, Enhanced High-Resolution Semantic Network (EHRS-Net), to maintain and enhance detailed information of the feature maps through convolution procedure, thus, improving the overall crack detection accuracy. The contributions of this paper are: (1) Proposed Resolution Maintain Flow (RMF), which is featured by three different semantic representation extraction flows in parallel with semantic information exchange; (2) Proposed Stacked Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling (SASPP) module to enhance the output of the semantic features; (3) Developed a new hybrid loss function to fit proposed network architecture. The proposed methods are evaluated on two pavement crack datasets: an expanded public crack forest dataset (CFD-ex) and a new dataset called HRSD (high-resolution semantic dataset). Comprehensive comparative experiments proved the superiority of the proposed method for pavement crack detection (93.353 % mPA (mean pixel accuracy) and 78.328% mIoU (mean intersection over union) on CFD-ex; 77.159% mIoU on HRSD), especially for tiny cracks and noised pavement cracks.
Monitoring earthquake shaking in buildings to reduce loss of life and property

U.S. Geological Survey USGS Fact Sheet 068–03 2003 Monitoring Earthquake Shaking in Buildings to Reduce Loss of Life and Property Most loss of life and property in earthquakes is the result of damage to or collapse of buildings or other structures from strong shaking. Key to reducing such losses are recordings of structural response to damaging levels of shaking. Using these recordings, engineers can better design new buildings and strengthen existing buildings to survive future quakes. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and cooperators are engaged in a national effort to acquire these critically needed strong-motion measurements in earthquake-prone urban areas. The 1971 San Fernando, California, earthquake (magnitude 6.7) severely damaged the recently built Olive View Hospital. This building was not instrumented with seismic sensors. Accordingly, no data were obtained to understand how the damage initiated and progressed during the intense shaking. The building was razed and replaced with a stronger structure that survived the 1994 Northridge earthquake (see back page). Strong earthquake shaking can damage vulnerable buildings, dams, and other structures, causing catastrophic loss of life and property in densely urbanized areas. For example, the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake (magnitude 6.7) caused more than $20 billion in structural damage and killed 57 people in the greater Los Angeles region. Reducing such losses requires measurements of structural response to strong levels of earthquake shaking in structures likely to be damaged. Under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program enacted by Congress in 1977, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has responsibility for the Federal effort to acquire strong-motion measurements in structures throughout the United States. Engineers need these critical measurements so that they can better design new structures to survive future quakes. In pursuit of this goal, the USGS cooperates with other structural monitoring programs, such as those of the California Geological Survey, Army Corps of Engineers, General Services Administration, and University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez.