Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining and quantifying the drivers behind alterations and extensions to commercial buildings in a central business district

The drive to undertake building adaptation has increased in momentum, the primary reason being adaptation can be less expensive than new build and conventionally result in faster project delivery times. The issue of sustainable development is another clear driver for adaptation and collectively buildings contribute around half of all greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time governments seek effective and efficient ways of reducing the contribution of cities to climate change and building adaptation appears to offer a practical means of reducing building-related emissions. One example is the ‘1200 building program’ which aims to increase adaptation rates with a target of 1200 city centre office adaptations by 2020 as part of the strategy to achieve carbon neutrality. Through a longitudinal examination of building adaptations it is possible to identify the nature and extent of typical levels of adaptation, as well as determining the inter-relationship between different types of adaptation and building attributes. Melbourne city centre was used for a case study which analysed 5290 building adaptation events between 1998 and 2008. The findings promote the adaptive reuse of buildings in specific circumstances and are directly applicable for increasing sustainability in the built environment. The case study focused on existing buildings in a global city to ensure relevance to urban centres where existing commercial buildings can become part of the solution to mitigate climate change.
Dynamic soil consolidation model using a nonlocal continuum poroelastic damage approach

We present a novel dynamic poroelastic model for soil consolidation in an isotropic homogeneous fluid saturated porous media. A nonlocal integral‐type continuum damage formulation is applied to describe the damage evolution under dynamic excitations, in which a bilinear damage law is assumed. The governing equations are obtained by considering the conservation of momentum and mass balance for the solid–fluid mixtures, in which the fluid flow obeys Darcy's seepage law in the entire domain. The numerical solution of the fully coupled problem is achieved via a mixed FEM displacement–pressure (u−p)$(u-p)$ element formulation. The mechanical equilibrium equations are evolved in time using a Newmark method and the resulting nonlinear system is solved via a Newton–Raphson method. Consistent linearization is then used to obtain the block Jacobian matrix analytically and the linear system is solved monolithically at each time step. Several numerical results are presented to study soil consolidation problems under harmonic excitations. We investigate the time‐dependence response of the skeleton displacement, pressure, and damage evolution. In addition, the examples demonstrate that the nonlocal integral‐type damage model can effectively overcome mesh dependence and yield smooth behavior.
BMI Data Collection and Communication Practices in a Multistate Sample of Head Start Programs.

Background: Although there is a federal mandate to collect anthropometric data in Head Start (HS), little is currently known about the processes used to collect the height and weight measurements across programs and how the results are communicated to parents/guardians. The goal of this study was to understand anthropometric data collection and dissemination procedures in a sample of HS programs serving children 3-5 years. Methods: A convenience sample of HS Health or Nutrition managers were recruited via personal contacts and HS state directors to complete an electronic survey. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations and frequencies). Open-ended questions were coded using thematic analysis. All protocols and procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board at Miami University. Results: Approximately half of the programs reported that they have a protocol in place to guide measurements (57.1%) and those measurements are primarily taken by HS staff (64.5%). Most programs explain measurements to parents (82.3%) and report that collecting height/weight data is helpful in supporting children's health (76.0%). Most programs (80.3%) provide resources to parents of children with overweight or obesity. Four themes emerged from open-ended responses: (1) Role of Community Partners (e.g., providing information that conflicts with others); (2) Communicating Children's Weight Status with Families (e.g., using sensitive communication methods); (3) Challenges Measuring Children's Weight Status (e.g., accuracy of data, children's awareness); and (4) Family Reaction to Weight Status Communication (e.g., positive or negative experiences). Conclusion: Opportunities for quality improvement include wider use of standardized, written protocols and policies on data collection and enhanced communication practices to share information with parents.
Directional structures detection using steerable pyramid

The object of the work described in this paper concerns directional structures detection for particular aspects of inspection, such as scratches and marbling defect detection in leather images. Because of the very specific geometry of these structures, we intend to apply a multiscale and orientation-shiftable method. Scratches and marbling have various shapes and sizes. Multiscale approaches using oriented filters have proved to be efficient to detect such curvilinear patterns. We first use the information given by the increase of gray levels in the image to locate suspicious regions. The detection is then based on steerable filters, which can be steered to any orientation fixed by the user, and are synthesized using a limited number of basic filters. These filters are used in a recursive multi-scale transform: the steerable pyramid. Then, the curvilinear structures are extracted from the directional images at different scales.
High voltage insulation diagnosis for lifetime management

Advanced partial discharge (PD) analysis methods have been evaluated on their availability as input for lifetime management systems in the field in order to obtain a better assessment of warning conditions for HVAC and HVDC components. It is shown that AC-PD detection by VHF/UHF measurements provide a practical way for identification and location of defects as well as recognition of ageing processes in several components. Utilization for the benefit of diagnostic maintenance or lifetime management becomes of practical interest in case of HV cable systems, turbogenerators and power transformers, while GIS needs further development. For HVDC equipment a new DC PD analysis technique on basis of the discharge sequence has been developed, which applies well in practice to check or monitor the condition in case of PD-induced ageing effects.
Built-in self test of digital decimators

This brief demonstrates a new built-in self test (BIST) scheme designated to improve a testability of digital decimators-commonly used building blocks in digital signal processing (DSP) environment. The proposed solution takes the advantage of operations offered by already existing functional blocks to perform basic testing functions. Thus it drastically reduces the need for an additional testing hardware as well as eliminating the performance degradation usually introduced by traditional BIST schemes. An easy to test implementation of the decimator based on a custom data-path architecture is also analyzed. >
An End-Cloud Collaborated Framework for Transferable Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) benefits both end users and utilities by perceiving the operation of individual appliances within a household merely based on analytical results of aggregated electrical data. Driven by diverse demands, a basic and practical NILM solution is on call to enable various downstream applications and strengthen the transfer ability to adapt to different real scenarios. Accordingly, an end-cloud collaborated framework for transferable NILM is proposed in this work. First, an end-to-end model with a multi-scale convolutional architecture is designed for identifying the activation of a specified target appliance using current waveform, which can be independently deployed according to actual needs. Furthermore, a transfer learning framework of NILM is established. Primarily, the model pretrained on the cloud is continuously fine tuned on the terminal side in a pseudo-supervised manner, where the group-weighted cross entropy (GWCE) is defined as the loss function. According to the experimental results based on two public datasets, the proposed model structure possesses prominent generalization ability across different appliances and scenarios, and the transfer learning procedure with GWCE can enhance the identification ability of the pretrained model, which is especially effective for unfamiliar scenarios. Provided with a NILM device eligible for terminal-side intelligence, our work is applicable with great prospects in practice.
Substantial Reduction of Power Loss in a 14kVA Inverter Using Paralleled SiC-MOSFETs and SiC-SBDs

For higher power application of SiC devices, we have designed and developed an inverter module with paralleled SiC-MOSFETs and SiC-SBDs.We have successfully completed the operation of the SiC inverter module at continuous rating of up to 11kW with carrier frequency of 20 kHz. The power loss during the operation was measured by calorimetric method and the results showed that the loss was considerably reduced by 30% of a similar rating commercialized IGBT power module at carrier frequency of 15 kHz.
Motorist Behavior and Opinions Toward High-Occupancy Vehicle Lanes at Ramp Meters

High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes at metered on-ramps are intended to provide incentives for people to carpool or use transit. However, violations of the minimum passenger occupancy requirements penalize metered vehicles with extra delay and undermine the effectiveness and integrity of bypass lanes. Additionally, the perception of high violation rates can erode public support for HOV facilities. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the design factors and behavioral characteristics that influence violation rates at HOV bypass lanes at metered on-ramps. An on-ramp in Seattle, Washington was selected for data collection. This on-ramp consists of one metered lane and one HOV bypass lane. The site has a number of characteristics believed to influence violation behavior, including a minimum three-person vehicle occupancy requirement (most local facilities have only a two-person requirement), frequent extensive queuing, and little area for police enforcement. During data collection, all users of the HOV bypass lane were observed, and vehicle passenger occupancies and vehicle license plates were recorded. A high-speed video camera was utilized to assist with data verification. Subsampling of vehicle license plates from the metered lane was also performed. A mail-back survey with questions on travel habits, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and opinions toward and understanding of HOV and ramp metering policies was sent to the registered owner of each sampled vehicle. Ordered probit and binomial logit modeling, as well as general descriptive statistic methods, were utilized for survey analysis. Additionally, comparisons were made of subjects’ observed behavior and their reported behavior. Findings from this study can help guide future policy on the implementation of HOV bypass lanes (and possibly other HOV facilities), identify appropriate methods to preserve the integrity of these facilities, and, in turn, maintain a positive public image.
A Flight-Path Control of Aircraft Based on Required Acceleration Vector

: This paper presents an automatic ﬂight-path control of aircraft. In the control, a desired ﬂight trajectory is ﬁrst determined as a sequence of straight lines, arcs and spirals in the three-dimensional space. Commands and command rates of heading and ﬂight-path (climb) angles are then obtained from the desired trajectory. A required acceleration vector of the aircraft is calculated based on the command rates and angle deviations. Desired roll, pitch and yaw rates are then obtained by acceleration controller and are fed to attitude control. The feedback control of acceleration employs conventional PID control technology, without using inverse dynamics of the aircraft, and the attitude control can employ any existing control technologies suitable for the aircraft to be controlled. These make the proposed control relatively simple and easy to implement. Numerical simulations illustrate the eﬀectiveness of the control.
Product modularity theory and practice: the benefits and difficulties in implementation within a company

The automotive industry has undergone considerable change, which has led to increased competition internally product life cycles have shortened and competition has become a worldwide phenomenon. In this new context, the "product lever" is becoming increasingly important and strategic in corporate marketing mixes. Ensuring increasingly higher quality products to fulfil the needs of the highest possible number of customers more satisfactorily and rapidly hinges on the product development process. Car manufacturers are required to combine increasingly specific market needs with corporate profit and value-related objectives to ensure success and thereby maintain or improve their position with regards to competitors. Therefore businesses are required to reconsider products and the methods used for dismantling in order to fulfil this kind of objective. The focus of the document is the concept of modularity applied specifically to product structure and relative documentation in order to improve the product development process. Modular product structures ensure real improvements and thereby lead to considerable benefits for the business, such as a reduction in Time To Market - by decreasing the lead times for product documentation; a reduction in Time To Order - by both decreasing the time required to reply to customer orders and increasing the flexibility of the production mix; an increase in the stability of production plans; an improvement in the quality of product information; a reduction in BOM (Bill Of Material) code management while offering the same range of final product variants and thereby reducing back office management costs.
QoE-Aware Bitrate Selection in Cooperation with In-Network Caching for Information-Centric Networking

Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) algorithms used in MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) can be applied to video streaming over Information-Centric Networks (ICNs). However, in-network cache, which is an inherent and important feature of ICN, might negatively affect the Quality of Experience (QoE) of streaming users due to misestimating download throughput when fetching from the in-network cache. A promising solution to this problem is to use a Server and Network Assisted DASH (SAND)-like approach: ICN routers in the network notify a user application of the available bandwidth. However, with a naive network-assisted approach, the user application cannot fully utilize the cached segments when high-quality video segments are accidentally stored in the router on the user side of the congestion. In this paper, we propose an intelligent QoE-aware ABR selection method that works in cooperation with in-network Caching functions, called QoE-ABC. It is suitable for video streaming over an ICN. In QoE-ABC, QoE-aware adaptation logic running on the user application selects a bitrate that matches the bandwidth of the bottleneck in the original server or of any intermediate router on the download path depending on the situation. Only when the user-perceived QoE is expected to be improved, the user application tries to aggressively download high-quality segments from the in-network cache. Simulation results show that QoE-ABC can obtain high-quality video segments from in-network caches compared with the conventional ABR representatives and achieve high-level QoE performance for users with various preferences.
Engineering a Pseudo-26-kDa Schistosoma Glutathione Transferase from bovis/haematobium for Structure, Kinetics, and Ligandin Studies

Glutathione transferases (GSTs) are the main detoxification enzymes in schistosomes. These parasitic enzymes tend to be upregulated during drug treatment, with Schistosoma haematobium being one of the species that mainly affect humans. There is a lack of complete sequence information on the closely related bovis and haematobium 26-kDa GST isoforms in any database. Consequently, we engineered a pseudo-26-kDa S. bovis/haematobium GST (Sbh26GST) to understand structure–function relations and ligandin activity towards selected potential ligands. Sbh26GST was overexpressed in Escherichia coli as an MBP-fusion protein, purified to homogeneity and catalyzed 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene-glutathione (CDNB-GSH) conjugation activity, with a specific activity of 13 μmol/min/mg. This activity decreased by ~95% in the presence of bromosulfophthalein (BSP), which showed an IC50 of 27 µM. Additionally, enzyme kinetics revealed that BSP acts as a non-competitive inhibitor relative to GSH. Spectroscopic studies affirmed that Sbh26GST adopts the canonical GST structure, which is predominantly α-helical. Further extrinsic 8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) spectroscopy illustrated that BSP, praziquantel (PZQ), and artemisinin (ART) might preferentially bind at the dimer interface or in proximity to the hydrophobic substrate-binding site of the enzyme. The Sbh26GST-BSP interaction is both enthalpically and entropically driven, with a stoichiometry of one BSP molecule per Sbh26GST dimer. Enzyme stability appeared enhanced in the presence of BSP and GSH. Induced fit ligand docking affirmed the spectroscopic, thermodynamic, and molecular modelling results. In conclusion, BSP is a potent inhibitor of Sbh26GST and could potentially be rationalized as a treatment for schistosomiasis.
Spiral inductors and transmission lines in silicon technology using copper-damascene interconnects and low-loss substrates

Spiral inductors and different types of transmission lines are fabricated by using copper (Cu)-damascene interconnects and high-resistivity silicon (HRS) or sapphire substrates. The fabrication process is compatible with the concepts of silicon device fabrication. Spiral inductors with 1.4-nH inductance have quality factors (Q) of 30 at 5.2 GHz and 40 at 5.8 GHz for the HRS and the sapphire substrates, respectively. 80-nH inductors have Q's as high as 13. The transmission-line losses are near 4 dB/cm at 10 GHz for microstrips, inverted microstrips, and coplanar lines, which are sufficiently small for maximum line lengths within typical silicon-chip areas. This paper shows that inductors with high Q's for lumped-element designs in the 1-10-GHz range and transmission lines with low losses for distributed-element designs beyond 10 GHz can be made available with the proposed adjustments to commercial silicon technology.
The Wrightcad: A Configural Flight Display

Despite the introduction of “glass” interfaces into the cockpit, there has been little change in how information is configured within flight displays. This is particularly true for general aviation. The WrightCAD design is introduced as a novel way to integrate information into a configural primary flight display. The goal of the WrightCAD design is to take advantage of the opportunity for innovation offered by the introduction of the “glass” cockpit while minimizing negative transfer that might result from a radical change in how information is presented to pilots.
Briefing: Regulations to improve construction health and safety

This briefing argues that the time is appropriate to reflect on a new way to improve the health and safety record of the UK construction industry. While research into discovering and addressing underlying causes of construction industry accidents and ill health continues to be commissioned, this article presents a set of regulations drawn up to address what the author believes is the best prospect for long-term improvement across the whole industry. The proposed regulations address the need to educate construction professionals in occupational health and safety matters during accredited first degree courses at university. The author describes what initiatives have taken place in the past and what certain professional institutions are doing at present.
PID Controller for Robotic Manipulator Nonlinear Model and Compare with Sliding Mode Controller

In this paper, the nonlinear model of the robotic manipulator has been chosen as the model to be studied. Nowadays, complicated controllers are commonly discussed in many researches. In this work, it will be shown that a simple, practical PID controller operates much better than a robust and nonlinear sliding mode controller in the aforesaid system. Simulation results and the comparison of these two controllers prove this claim to be true. Finally, a robust analysis has been done by which the resistance of these controllers is assessed.
Three-Port Power Electronic Interface With Decoupled Voltage Regulation and MPPT in Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting Systems

In conventional electromagnetic energy harvesting systems, a two-port ac–dc rectifier is utilized to process the harvested power. However, it is difficult to achieve voltage regulation and maximum-power-point-tracking (MPPT) simultaneously. To resolve this issue, this article proposes a three-port power-electronic-interface (PEI) dedicated to this application. A battery port is introduced to buffer the redundant energy. A bidirectional dc–dc converter is utilized to tightly regulate the load side voltage. To capture the maximum power for the harvester, a simple MPPT method is proposed for this PEI. The power tracking of ac source can be simplified by dealing with the power of the battery port. The regulations of power and output voltage are fully decoupled with different control degree-of-freedoms. Moreover, when the harvester is in idle mode, the load can be powered by the battery via the bidirectional dc–dc converter independently. A 24-mW rated laboratory prototype, which processes the power flow among a 0.6 V, 100 Hz ac source, a 1.2 V battery, and a 3.3 V constant voltage load is developed and tested. The proposed concept is validated by experimental results.
The APOE ε4 Allele Affects Cognitive Functions Differently in Carriers of APP Mutations Compared to Carriers of PSEN1 Mutations in Autosomal-Dominant Alzheimer’s Disease

Mounting evidence shows that the APOE ε4 allele interferes with cognition in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. Less is known about APOE in autosomal-dominant Alzheimer’s disease (adAD). The present study explored the effects on cognition associated with the gene–gene interactions between the APOE gene and the APP and PSEN1 genes in adAD. This study includes mutation carriers (MC) and non-carriers (NC) from adAD families with mutations in APP (n = 28 and n = 25; MC and NC, respectively) and PSEN1 (n = 12 and n = 15; MC and NC, respectively) that represent the complete spectrum of disease: AD dementia (n = 8) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 15 and presymptomatic AD, n = 17). NC represented unimpaired normal aging. There was no significant difference in the distribution of APOE ε4 (absence vs. presence) between the APP vs. PSEN1 adAD genes and mutation status (MC vs. NC). However, episodic memory was significantly affected by the interaction between APOE and the APP vs. PSEN1 genes in MC. This was explained by favorable performance in the absence of APOE ε4 in PSEN1 compared to APP MC. Similar trends were seen in other cognitive functions. No significant associations between APOE ε4 and cognitive performance were obtained in NC. In conclusion, cognitive effects of APOE–adAD gene interaction were differentiated between the PSEN1 and APP mutation carriers, indicating epistasis.