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Simultaneous diagnosis of multiple cables is a new research topic that focuses on reducing the weight, volume and computing time of fault-locating devices. For condition monitoring of energised cables, Spread Spectrum Reflectometry (SSR) has been extensively used. SSR includes Sequence Time Domain Reflectometry (STDR) and Spread Spectrum Time Domain Reflectometry (SSTDR) techniques. Recent research works have proposed the use of STDR for the simultaneous diagnosis of multiple cables. However, noise and interference limit the system's ability to identify small faults. In this paper, we conduct a detailed analysis of the application of the SSR method to simultaneous diagnosis of noisy cable bundles. The system is evaluated using the Detection Error Rate (DER) as a function of Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), false alarm threshold, and fault location. To select the optimal spreading sequences' set for SSR, the performances of various sequences with good correlation properties were compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aesthetic techniques are increasingly used by marketeers to create enticing digital products. In this paper, I work with the aesthetic experiences of one audience group to consider the psychological impact of living in a culture where digital devices are deliberately designed to influence behaviour. I argue that aesthetic encounters can help with understanding the impact of the interplay between visual stimulus, affect and digital culture, in ways that may support situated understandings of mental distress in a digital age. I show how audiences respond to the artist-led research project Are We All Addicts Now? arguing that they generate ideas connected to submersion and being overwhelmed as a means of reporting on their own personal experiences of living in a digital culture that seeks to influence behaviour. The findings may have value for designers, curators and artists invested in understanding the experiential impact of digital devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technologies change users' existing social, cultural, and material practices by providing new opportunities for reflecting on and managing their lives. As technological advancements pervade our private and professional lives, users are tempted to see them as 'magic bullets' that can help them become more organized and efficient. In this paper, we introduce the term 'time hacking' to capture the various ways technologies mediate users' time perception and perspective. We will use the examples of virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa and the Quantified Self Movement to illustrate how people feel that they are capable of hacking time by using devices and programs. Imagining tools as neutral entities that help them better manage their lives in a world that seems increasingly sped up, users are often blind to the multifarious ways these technologies, and the companies that produce them, shape what they attend to and how they make sense of information. The concept of time hacking helps us examine what narratives users construct and share about timesaving tools and how users' perception of and perspective about time changes in response to emerging technologies. Most importantly, time hacking can help to explain the allure of timesaving technologies, why users might be enthusiastic about taking them up and integrating them into their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a flexible additive model that adequately describes complex reliability and survival data. The proposed methodology, referred to as the flexible exponential power-Gompertz (FEPG4) distribution, is able to characterize the behavior of a complex system whose failure times have bathtub-shaped, with clear burn-in and wear-out change points and a low, yet lengthy, flat middle segment as its underlying failure rate distribution. We discuss some properties of the model. Parameter inferences are proposed under maximum likelihood and Bayesian techniques. We determine the Bayes estimators of the FEPG4 parameters and used Hamiltonian Monte Carlo for posterior simulations. Extensive simulation experiments are performed to validate the proposed estimators. For assessing the potential of the FEPG4, the model is compared with other recent bathtub distributions constructed via the same approach on devices' failure and running times (censored and non-censored case) and failure times of some devices, each with the bathtub failure rate. Seven parametric and non-parametric selection criteria and other supporting plots are utilized for comparison purposes. Findings indicate that the FEPG4 model might be the best alternative for representing device failure times, particularly when the bathtub-shaped failure rate of the available data clearly illustrates its three phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method of identifying and positioning coal and gangue on mobile devices is provided to address the difficulties of high complexity and difficult deployment of existing machine vision algorithms. Combining CSPDarknet53 and the GhostNet embedded with efficient channel domain attention to build a lightweight feature extraction network and using the Meta-ACON activation function to adapt the network's nonlinearity at each layer. The detection head's expression capability is enhanced using a decoupled head. The actual position coordinate relationship equation of coal and gangue is deduced by borrowing the center point object box positioning principle. Build an experimental setup, collect and construct coal and gangue datasets, and use Mixup data augmentation to improve the network's ability to position coal and gangue for stacking cases. The models are trained, and tested for different lighting conditions, sizes, and stacking cases, then deployed on the mobile device. The results show that the model has the highest detection accuracy and can correctly identify and position both coal and gangue under complex conditions with a high confidence value. The FLOPs is 76.83% lower compared to the original network YOLOv5s. The mAP reaches 0.996 and the FPS is 40.11. The inference time on the mobile device is reduced to 228 ms, which basically meets the speed requirement of coal gangue identification and positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we investigate the mathematical properties of the Lehmann type II inverse Weibull distribution. We show that this model is a reparameterized version of the Kumaraswamy-inverse Weibull distribution without identifiability problems. Parameter estimation is discussed using maximum likelihood (ML) method under a right-censoring scheme. Furthermore, a bootstrap resampling approach is considered to reduce the bias of the ML estimates. In order to illustrate the proposed methodology, we consider a real data set related to the failure time of devices in an aircraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Peyronie's disease (PD) is a disorder of the tunica albuginea from disordered and excessive deposition of collagen resulting in a palpable scar, pain, erect penile deformity and erectile dysfunction that significantly impacts patients both physically and emotionally. Areas Covered: Several treatment options have been described for PD, including shockwave therapy, traction therapy, both oral and intralesional pharmacological options, and surgery. This review seeks to examine the data for different types of non-surgical treatments for PD. We review how various treatment modalities impact several relevant clinical endpoints for Peyronie's disease, including effects on pain, penile curvature, plaque formation, and erectile function. We performed a literature search using PubMed and SCOPUS while referencing AUA, EAU, and CUA guidelines for management of Peyronie's Disease for studies published 1980–2020. Expert opinion: Intralesional collagenase injections have the strongest evidence and are the only FDA approved intralesional treatment for PD. Penile traction therapy (PTT) is low risk and may be beneficial in patients willing to invest significant time using the devices. Furthermore, oral combination therapy with other modalities may provide some benefit. Further investigation is required to better understand pathophysiology of PD and clarify the therapeutic utility of existing treatments, potentially with a multimodal strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new four quadrant analogue divider circuit employing a 555 timer device is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]