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Moisture accumulates with the growing aging progress of oil-paper insulation and further shortens the remaining life of the transformer. The frequency-domain spectroscopy (FDS) technique can be used to realize the moisture estimation. However, the moisture estimation results would be unreliable once the aging effect on FDS was ignored. Given this issue, an alternative model including the aging effect is thus proposed using FDS and intelligent algorithm. In this work, the feature parameters of FDS data are used to build the databases for characterizing the aging degree and moisture. Then, the moisture estimation models are developed using the weighted K-nearest neighbor (K-NN) algorithm. The accuracy and applicability of the proposed models are finally discussed in laboratory and field conditions. In that respect, the findings reveal that the reported model is available for moisture estimation of transformer oil-paper insulation under various aging degrees and test temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, reliability of power system is of great importance. Therefore, the condition of transformers as the expensive and critical components of a power system should be monitored and assessed. The dominant factor that causes limitation in transformers lifetime is the paper insulation. This paper aims to investigate the conspicuous influence of moisture content, especially in low oxygen and temperature on lifetime estimation under constant conditions, based on the results of previous experiments. Degree of polymerization (DP) is employed to quantify the effects of detrimental parameters with respect to their time-varying nature. This paper proposes a novel lifetime estimation-approach considering a yearly moisture growth for transformers. The results indicate different trend of DP profiles, which lead to an accurate lifetime estimation in comparison with DP obtained through ideal conditions. Furthermore, oscillations in the hot-spot temperature of transformers are demonstrated to have a negative effect on the lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building and other construction assets constitute a significant part of a country's physical and economic infrastructure. According to several writers, the knowledge of reliable data of building and other construction assets of a specific country or region is a crucial element for the long-term management of these assets. Built capital stock statistics at the national or international levels have been available for most countries of the world, both developed and less developed ones, for some time, but construction infrastructure stock statistics at the disaggregated level are very scarce, even for most developed countries. Furthermore, the methodologies to produce the estimates of built capital stock, at the international level, do not consider countries' specificities. This paper discusses the methodologic issues for producing construction infrastructure stock statistics for Cape Verde, and makes estimates for the period 1980-2019. The paper outlines the Perpetual Inventory Method (PIM) used to produce capital estimation, data employed, and the assumptions made to estimate missing data. The paper analyses the level of the construction infrastructure stock estimates for Cape Verde, as well as their impact on the development pattern of the country's construction industry, and suggests how further studies can enhance our comprehension of the relationship between construction investment and economic growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an on-line closed-loop identification of mainly mass and inertia of an under-actuated aerial vehicle, namely a quadrotor acting as an aerial manipulator, is presented. Being treated as a rigid body, only one set of eighteen- or six tri-axial linear accelerometers is used to facilitate such estimation. Force and torque disturbances acting upon the vehicle during identification are also estimated which will refine the overall estimation quality of the unknown parameters. Namely, recursive linear and nonlinear least squares methods are used to obtain initial and refined estimations, respectively. Random disturbances are introduced to the closed-loop system to ensure enough excitation of the overall system. Issues related to identifiability, stability and performance are discussed. Since the proposed method depends on general kinematical and dynamical analyses of motion, it is claimed that the presented method will be also applicable to a wider range of, mainly, aerial vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When data exhibit a high frequency of small to medium values and a low frequency of large values, fitting a classical distribution might fail. This is why spliced models defined from different distributions on distinct intervals are proposed in the literature. In contrast to the intensive study of two-spliced distributions, the case with more than two components is scarcely approached. In this paper, we focus on three-spliced distributions and on their ability to improve the modeling of extreme data. For this purpose, we consider a popular insurance data set related to Danish fire losses, to which we fit several three-spliced distributions; moreover, the results are compared to the best-fitted two-spliced distributions from previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent paper introduced the interpolating family (IF) of distributions, and they also derived various mathematical properties of the family. Some of the most important properties discussed were the integer order moments of the IF distributions. The moments were expressed as an integral (which were not evaluated) or as finite sums of the beta function. In this paper, more general expressions for moments of any integer order or any real order are derived. Apart from being more general, our expressions converge for a wider range of parameter values. The expressions for entropies are also derived, the maximum likelihood estimation is considered and the finite sample performance of maximum likelihood estimates is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of life distributions has increased over the past decade, receiving particular attention in recent years, both from a practical and theoretical point of view. Life distributions can be used in a number of applied fields, such as medicine, biology, public health, epidemiology, engineering, economics, and demography. This paper presents and investigates a new life distribution. The proposed model shows favorable characteristics in terms of reliability theory, which makes it competitive against other commonly used life distributions, such as the exponential, gamma, and Weibull distributions. The methods of maximum likelihood and moments are used to estimate the parameters of the proposed model. Additionally, real-life data drawn from different fields are used to illustrate the usefulness of the new distribution. Further, the R programming language is used to perform all computations and produce all graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image processing is an important area to bring out the best in an image for human interpretation. This process has been widely used in various fields such as machine vision, remote sensing image analysis, medical diagnosis, image restoration, image pattern recognition, and video processing. During the acquisition and transmission of digital images, several random signals, known as noise, can affect image quality. To reduce or to remove efficiently the noise in the acquired or transmitted images, various image denoising techniques can be applied. The performance of denoising methods increases progressively when the noise parameters are taken into account as input parameters. Traditional denoising approaches adopt some assumptions to model noise, such noise is known as purely additive or multiplicative, pixel-independent, and channel-invariant. Usually, these assumptions limit the denoising effect due to inaccurate estimation of noise parameters in these algorithm models. However, the real noise model is signal-dependent and even device-dependent. In this paper, a new denoising method called signal-dependant noise-reducing anisotropic diffusion is developed, which is a version of the speckle reducing anisotropic diffusion (SRAD) filter. It differs from the standard SRAD filter approach by the insertion of a suitable noise parameters estimation framework. The new filter is designed to handle a variety of images corrupted by several common types of signal-dependent noises that are produced by charge-coupled device sensors. As well as it offers great potential for denoising with preserving textures and fine details. Extensive experiments demonstrate a significant increase in the image denoising performance in terms of SNR and RMSE. Qualitative (visual) results underline the efficacy of the proposed algorithm for filtering mixed signal-dependent noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 analysis from medical imaging is an important task that has been intensively studied in the last years due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, medical imaging has often been used as a complementary or main tool to recognize the infected persons. On the other hand, medical imaging has the ability to provide more details about COVID-19 infection, including its severity and spread, which makes it possible to evaluate the infection and follow-up the patient's state. CT scans are the most informative tool for COVID-19 infection, where the evaluation of COVID-19 infection is usually performed through infection segmentation. However, segmentation is a tedious task that requires much effort and time from expert radiologists. To deal with this limitation, an efficient framework for estimating COVID-19 infection as a regression task is proposed. The goal of the Per-COVID-19 challenge is to test the efficiency of modern deep learning methods on COVID-19 infection percentage estimation (CIPE) from CT scans. Participants had to develop an efficient deep learning approach that can learn from noisy data. In addition, participants had to cope with many challenges, including those related to COVID-19 infection complexity and crossdataset scenarios. This paper provides an overview of the COVID-19 infection percentage estimation challenge (Per-COVID-19) held at MIA-COVID-2022. Details of the competition data, challenges, and evaluation metrics are presented. The best performing approaches and their results are described and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wave energy generation methods have significant energy costs. The implementation of sophisticated control techniques in wave energy generators can lower the cost of power generation by optimizing the energy recovered from wave energy converters (WECs). To determine control inputs, most control systems rely on knowledge of the wave excitation force, including information on past, present, and future excitation forces. For the excitation of WEC devices, wave excitation force can only be inferred and predicted because it is an unmeasurable quantity. One of the more widely used observers in wave excitation estimates at the moment is the Kalman filter, but its use is primarily restricted to linear Kalman filtering. The mooring system is an integral component of floating wave energy producers. The mooring force of the device is actually nonlinear; however, the majority of current studies on excitation estimates for wave energy producers based on Kalman filter methods employ an ideal motion model based on the linearization of the mooring force. This paper, in an attempt to make things more realistic, creates a WEC system with highly nonlinear mooring forces, suggests a way to build a wave excitation force estimator for a nonlinear WEC system using the extended Kalman filtering method, and assesses the impact of various factors, such as measurement noise, random phase, and the number of equal-energy methods dividing the frequency, on the accuracy of the wave excitation force estimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INAR models have the great advantage of being able to capture the conditional distribution of a count time series based on their past observations, thus allowing it to be tailored to meet the unique characteristics of count data. This paper reviews the two-parameter Poisson extended exponential (PEE) distribution and its corresponding INAR(1) process. Then the INAR of order p (INAR(p)) model that incorporates PEE innovations is proposed, its statistical properties are presented, and its parameters are estimated using conditional least squares and conditional maximum likelihood estimation methods. Two practical data sets are analyzed and compared with competing INAR models in an effort to gauge the performance of the proposed model. It is found that the proposed model performs better than the competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a partially periodic oscillation model, which is motivated by time series modelling for COVID-19 daily confirmed cases, in particular, to represent more accurately the dynamic features of the 7-day periodicity. In order to express the phenomenon of the partial 7-day cycle in the COVID-19 data, some partial periodic part is added to a heterogeneous autoregression model. Estimation algorithm based on the least squares errors and regression analysis is provided and parameter estimation consistency is given along with its proof. A Monte-Carlo simulation study is carried out to investigate the finite-sample performance. The proposed model is applied to the COVID-19 daily confirmed cases of the most affected eight countries which posses the partially periodic oscillation. Model criteria such as RMSE, MAE, HMAE, AIC and BIC are compared with other existing models. Efficiency of the model, relative to the benchmark, is evaluated to reveal its better accuracy performance. Out-of-sample forecasting analysis is conducted as well. The novelty is that this work is a challenging trial to identify the partially periodic oscillation of COVID-19 data, without smoothing, as well as the proposed model outperforms the existing time series models in the empirical analysis of the worldwide COVID-19. • A partially periodic oscillation model combined with heterogeneous autoregression is proposed. • The model is applied to the COVID-19 daily confirmed cases in the top eight countries with partially periodic oscillation. • A simple and robust estimation method is developed. • Model criteria measures such as RMSE, MAE, HMAE, AIC and BIC are evaluated and compared with existing models. • Efficiency of the proposed model, relative to benchmark models, is reported as 126%-163% improvement in some countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most researchers focus on designing accurate crowd counting models with heavy parameters and computations but ignore the resource burden during the model deployment. A real-world scenario demands an efficient counting model with low-latency and high-performance. Knowledge distillation provides an elegant way to transfer knowledge from a complicated teacher model to a compact student model while maintaining accuracy. However, the student model receives the wrong guidance with the supervision of the teacher model due to the inaccurate information understood by the teacher in some cases. In this paper, we propose a dual-knowledge distillation (DKD) framework, which aims to reduce the side effects of the teacher model and transfer hierarchical knowledge to obtain a more efficient counting model. First, the student model is initialized with global information transferred by the teacher model via adaptive perspectives. Then, the self-knowledge distillation forces the student model to learn the knowledge by itself, based on intermediate feature maps and target map. Specifically, the optimal transport distance is utilized to measure the difference of feature maps between the teacher and the student to perform the distribution alignment of the counting area. Extensive experiments are conducted on four challenging datasets, demonstrating the superiority of DKD. When there are only approximately 6% of the parameters and computations from the original models, the student model achieves a faster and more accurate counting performance as the teacher model even surpasses it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of the paper is to assess the cognitive and functional status of a segment of the population for a senescent age group. These assessments can help develop intervention strategies to improve the cognitive and functional status of these individuals as well as promote a healthy and active lifestyle. The assessment of cognitive and functional status in a segment of the population during senescence can identify certain problems and deficiencies in cognitive and physical functioning and can help develop physical activities to optimize the cognitive and functional state of senescent people. Objectives: To identify the cognitive and functional profile of the studied age group; Pointing out risk factors for cognitive and functional deterioration; Suggesting physical activities to improve cognitive and functional status. Methods: The recorded data helps us develop personalized aquatic programs to improve health and physical performance, tailored to the individual needs of participants, to be used over 6 months in 2024. Results: The findings suggested by the collected data, recognises a significant link between subjects' body mass index and their physical test scores. Conclusions: Analysis of the data allows us to identify risk factors, including chronic conditions, adopted lifestyle, genetic influences or other environmental conditioning, that could contribute to cognitive and functional decline in the older population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning is used in various applications due to its advantages over traditional Machine Learning (ML) approaches in tasks encompassing complex pattern learning, automatic feature extraction, scalability, adaptability, and performance in general. This paper proposes an end-to-end (E2E) delay estimation method for 5G networks through deep learning (DL) techniques based on Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM). In the first step, the components of a GMM are estimated through the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm and are subsequently used as labeled data in a supervised deep learning stage. A multi-layer neural network model is trained using the labeled data and assuming different numbers of E2E delay observations for each training sample. The accuracy and computation time of the proposed deep learning estimator based on the Gaussian Mixture Model (DLEGMM) are evaluated for different 5G network scenarios. The simulation results show that the DLEGMM outperforms the GMM method based on the EM algorithm, in terms of the accuracy of the E2E delay estimates, although requiring a higher computation time. The estimation method is characterized for different 5G scenarios, and when compared to GMM, DLEGMM reduces the mean squared error (MSE) obtained with GMM between 1.7 to 2.6 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, interval observers are designed for linear dynamic systems described by continuous-time models with exogenous disturbances, measurement noises, and parametric uncertainties. Jordan canonical form-based relations are presented for an interval observer that estimates the set of admissible values of a given linear function of the system state vector. The theoretical results are illustrated by a practical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen energy has become an important way to solve energy crises owing to its non-pollution, high level of efficiency, and wide application. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have received wide attention as an energy conversion device for hydrogen energy. The hydrogen concentration in the PEMFC anode directly determines the output voltage of the stack. The performance of the PEMFC gradually decreases due to the accumulation of nitrogen. However, the continuous circulation of anode gas and the nitrogen accumulation at the anode due to transmembrane diffusion lead to difficulties in estimating the anode gas concentration. The relationship between anode nitrogen concentration and voltage variation characteristics was studied by increasing the anode hydrogen concentration through the method of increasing nitrogen concentration and conducting experiments on a 16-cell stack. In this paper, an estimation method for nitrogen concentration in the anode is proposed to evaluate the nitrogen concentration in the anode on the basis of voltage variation characteristics, and the method was recalibrated and validated using experimental data. Due to the inhomogeneity of the gas distribution within the PEMFC stack, the mean cell voltage can provide a more accurate estimation of the anode nitrogen concentration compared to a single cell voltage. It is shown that the proposed approach can offer a new method to estimate anode nitrogen concentration. Compared with the conventional method, the new method is simpler as it does not require additional equipment or complex algorithms. In this paper, the anode nitrogen concentration was estimated by applying this method with a maximum error of only 0.35%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the second-largest contributor to historical global warming, methane emissions must be controlled to slow down temperature increase and achieve climate benefits. Due to a lack of knowledge about the specific sources and processes, a quantitative approach will lead to inaccurate estimation. In this paper, a typical local distribution company with more than 100 years of operation history was chosen. Detailed procedures of pipeline constructions and accidents were investigated, and critical steps leading to methane emissions were clarified. Then emission quantification methodologies for all processes were proposed, including a new pipeline connection, new regulator connection, emergency repair and third-party damages. As a basis for emission estimation, the distribution of parameters, such as diameter, length and pressure, was counted. Then the emission rates of all projects were calculated, and emission factors were established. The average emission rates of the new pipeline connection, new regulator connection, emergency repair, third-party damage (medium pressure) and third-party damage (low pressure) were 234 kg, 147 kg, 217 kg, 17,282 kg and 62 kg, respectively. In addition, the total methane emission in China from these sources was estimated to be about 5 × 104 t, which is large enough to attract attention. The work in this paper aims to establish a reasonable framework to evaluate venting methane emissions from the distribution process of natural gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a coherent multi-dwell processing (CMDP) method for high velocity estimation and super-resolution in search and track, while search (TWS) radar modes use an un-conventional signal processing algorithm that exploits multi-dwell transmissions. The existence of the multi-dwell waveform is necessary for visibility needs by un-folding the target's velocity and range ambiguity and is proposed to be utilized for high velocity estimation and super-resolution. In this paper, the proposed scheme is shown to result in improved velocity estimation and doppler resolution performance for un-ambiguous targets in comparison to classical radar processing. The processing concept uses the same transmitted waveform (WF) and time duration without the need to increase the time on target (TOT) through sophisticated coherent concatenation of the received dwells with velocity compensation between the dwells. The phase compensation in receive mode is implemented for each target according to its characteristics, which means that target velocities are estimated in each dwell separately. The notable result of the CMDP is the linear doppler resolution improvement obtained with the given search resources and without knowing the target characteristics in advance or the dwell delay time. Other possible benefits of this process are the ability to achieve larger detection ranges and high-angle measurement precisions in search mode due to the higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the extended dwell and the ability to track more targets due to efficient time and resource management. An outstanding opportunity to exploit the CMDP is by combining missions in phased array (PA) radars, meeting the multi-objective needs of both high spatial scan rates for illuminating the target and high doppler estimation and resolution performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pareto Distribution has been found to be useful in describing socio-economic, physical, and biological phenomena. This paper explores different methods of estimating the shape parameter of the Pareto distribution and two of its functions (reliability and hazard functions), assuming the scale parameter is known. In particular, this paper shows that the Bayesian approach, using both the quadratic and entropy loss functions, can provide a general method for estimating the shape parameter and these two functions. These Bayesian estimators generalize the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and the uniformly most powerful unbiased estimator (UMVUE). Simulation results show that the general Bayesian method can perform better than the MLE and UMVUE, especially when the sample size is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the generalization performance of the Iterative Hard Thresholding (IHT) algorithm widely used for sparse recovery problems. The parameter estimation and sparsity recovery consistency of IHT has long been known in compressed sensing. From the perspective of statistical learning, another fundamental question is how well the IHT estimation would predict on unseen data. This paper makes progress towards answering this open question by introducing a novel sparse generalization theory for IHT under the notion of algorithmic stability. Our theory reveals that: 1) under natural conditions on the empirical risk function over $n$ samples of dimension $p$ , IHT with sparsity level $k$ enjoys an $\tilde {\mathcal {O}}(n^{-1/2}\sqrt {k\log (n)\log (p)})$ rate of convergence in sparse excess risk; 2) a tighter $\tilde {\mathcal {O}}(n^{-1/2}\sqrt {\log (n)})$ bound can be established by imposing an additional iteration stability condition on a hypothetical IHT procedure invoked to the population risk; and 3) a fast rate of order $\tilde {\mathcal {O}}\left ({n^{-1}k(\log ^{3}(n)+\log (p))}\right)$ can be derived for strongly convex risk function under proper strong-signal conditions. The results have been substantialized to sparse linear regression and sparse logistic regression models to demonstrate the applicability of our theory. Preliminary numerical evidence is provided to support our theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an online identification and compensation scheme for a distorted waveform's harmonic and interharmonic content in electrical circuits. The proposed novel identification scheme allows the simultaneous estimation of the harmonic components' frequency, amplitude, and phase. One of the main characteristics of the proposed online identification scheme is how the harmonics and interharmonics are estimated using a fast-convergent state estimator based on the state-space representation of the harmonic content. The proposed estimator has a decentralized approach that relies on efficient implementation, a relevant result for real-time feedback control applications, such as power conditioners control. The decentralized structure allows, if needed, selective harmonic suppression. The paper exposes a case study of identifying and suppressing the harmonic and interharmonic content produced by a three-phase load connected to the electrical power grid to demonstrate the proposed estimator's efficiency. Hardware-in-the-loop and simulation results validate the identifier effectiveness to determine in real time the harmonic content and how it can be used to reduce the total harmonic distortion through a nonlinear optimal tracking control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a statistical model for COVID-19 infection dynamics is described, using only the observed daily statistics of infected individuals. For this purpose, two special classes of branching processes without or with an immigration component are considered. These models are intended to estimate the main parameter of the infection and to give a prediction of the mean value of the non-observed population of the infected individuals. This is a serious advantage in comparison with other more complicated models where the officially reported data are not sufficient for estimation of the model parameters. The model is applied for different regions in the world and the corresponding parameters of the infection dynamics are estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Laplace distribution, also known as the double exponential distribution, is a continuous probability distribution that is often used for modelling the data having heavy tails. In this paper, we proposed the Neutrosophic Laplace distribution which is the extension of the classical Laplace Distribution. We derived various statistical properties of the Neutrosophic Laplace Distribution such as mean, variance, skewness, rth moment, quartiles, and moment-generating function. The expressions for the estimation of the parameters are also derived using the maximum likelihood function of the distribution. A simulation study has been done to evaluate the performance of estimates. An application of the Neutrosophic Laplace Distribution is discussed to study the daily return of the NIFTY50 from Indian Stock Market. The analysis shows that the neutrosophic Laplace Model is acceptable, effective, and adequate for dealing with uncertainty in an unpredictable context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal building design in terms of comfort and energy performance means designing and constructing a building that requires the minimum energy demand under the given conditions while also providing a good level of human comfort. This paper focuses on replacing the complex energy and comfort simulation procedure with fast regression model-based processes that encounter the building shape as input. Numerous building shape descriptors were applied as inputs to several regression models. After evaluating the results, it can be stated that, with careful selection of building geometry describing design input variables, complex energy and comfort simulations can be approximated. Six different models with five different building shape descriptors were tested. The worst results were around R2 = 0.75, and the generic results were around R2 = 0.92. The most accurate prediction models, with the highest level of accuracy (R2 > 0.97), were linear regressions using 3rd power and dense neural networks using 1st power of inputs; furthermore, averages of mean absolute percentage errors are 1% in the case of dense neural networks. For the best performance, the building configuration was described by a discrete functional point cloud. The proposed method can effectively aid future building energy and comfort optimization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a multi-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with specific features for Greece and the non-EU Rest of the World (RoW). The novelty of this work stems from the lack of energy-focused CGE models for Greece in the current literature. The study's objective is to determine how the Greek economy would react if a 30% import tariff and a quota of 67% on energy imports and 35% on remaining imports were implemented. Furthermore, if quotas and tariffs are in force, the Greek economy will initiate countermeasures by increasing investment in renewable energies through substitution and a 35% subsidy. To quantify this, the 2015 Input-Output (I-O) table for Greece and the non-EU RoW was used. To offer a better understanding, the 36 production sectors have been divided into Agriculture, Energy, Manufacturing, and Services. The quota scenario resulted in a reduction in all sectors in domestic production in terms of output and domestic uses, with some sectors experiencing around a 30% reduction. Renewable energy investments, on the other hand, have proven to be effective for domestic production, increasing output and domestic uses by (6.561%) and (7.886%), respectively. In terms of import tariffs, prices have increased, resulting in a significant decrease in household consumption that exceeds 30% in several sectors. Finally, policy recommendations for addressing these trade barriers and Greece's renewable energy opportunities are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel method for estimating the cyclic stress–strain curves of steels based on their monotonic properties and plastic strain amplitudes, utilizing artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANNs were trained on a substantial number of experimental data for steels, collected from relevant literature, and divided into subgroups according to alloying elements content (unalloyed, low-alloy, and high-alloy steels). Only monotonic properties that were proven to be relevant for the estimation of points on the stress–strain curve were used. The performance of the developed ANNs was assessed using an independent set of data, and the results were compared to experimental values, values obtained by existing empirical estimation methods, and by previously developed ANNs. The results showed that the new approach which combines relevant monotonic properties and plastic strain amplitudes as inputs to ANNs for cyclic stress–strain curve estimation is better than the previously used approach where ANNs estimate the parameters of the Ramberg–Osgood material model separately. This shows that a more favorable approach to the estimation of cyclic stress–strain behavior would be to directly estimate corresponding material curves using monotonic properties. Additionally, this may also reduce inaccuracies resulting from simplified representations of the actual material behavior inherent in the material model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-dimensional measurement error data are becoming more prevalent across various fields. Research on measurement error regression models has gained momentum due to the risk of drawing inaccurate conclusions if measurement errors are ignored. When the dimension p is larger than the sample size n, it is challenging to develop statistical inference methods for high-dimensional measurement error regression models due to the existence of bias, nonconvexity of the objective function, high computational cost and many other difficulties. Over the past few years, some works have overcome the aforementioned difficulties and proposed several novel statistical inference methods. This paper mainly reviews the current development on estimation, hypothesis testing and variable screening methods for high-dimensional measurement error regression models and shows the theoretical results of these methods with some directions worthy of exploring in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a tractable Kumaraswamy Bell exponential (KwBE) distribution as a submodel of the Kumaraswamy Bell-G family of distributions. Several well-established properties are obtained for the KwBE distribution, such as the linear functional representation, $r$ r th moment, incomplete moment, moment generating function using Wright generalized hyper-geometric function, conditional moment and Réyni entropy. Based on the KwBE model, a group acceptance sampling plan (GASP) for the truncated life test is presented using median life as a quality index. Moreover, the essential design parameters are derived by defining the consumer risk and the test termination duration. The comparative study of GASP with ordinary sampling plan (OSP) is performed. A simulation study is performed to highlight the behavior of the estimates. On the inferential side, the associated parameters are estimated using a well-established maximum likelihood estimation method. The detailed model's comparison analysis, graphical as well as numerical evidence to real-data applications, supports the theoretical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study macroscopic growth dynamics of social network link formation. Rather than focusing on one particular dataset, we find invariant behavior in regional social networks that are geographically concentrated. Empirical findings suggest that the startup phase of a regional network can be modeled by a self-exciting point process. After the startup phase ends, the growth of the links can be modeled by a non-homogeneous Poisson process with a constant rate across the day but varying rates from day to day, plus a nightly inactive period when local users are expected to be asleep. Conclusions are drawn based on analyzing four different datasets, three of which are regional and a non-regional one is included for contrast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we define a new generator to propose continuous as well as discrete families (or classes) of distributions. This generator is used for the DAL model (acronym of the last names of the authors, Dimitrakopoulou, Adamidis, and Loukas). This newly proposed family may be called the new odd DAL (NODAL) G-class or alternate odd DAL G-class of distributions. We developed both a continuous as well as discrete version of this new odd DAL G-class. Some mathematical and statistical properties of these new G-classes are listed. The estimation of the parameters is discussed. Some structural properties of two special models of these classes are described. The introduced generators can be effectively applied to discuss and analyze the different forms of failure rates including decreasing, increasing, bathtub, and J-shaped, among others. Moreover, the two generators can be used to discuss asymmetric and symmetric data under different forms of kurtosis. A Monte Carlo simulation study is reported to assess the performance of the maximum likelihood estimators of these new models. Some real-life data sets (air conditioning, flood discharges, kidney cysts) are analyzed to show that these newly proposed models perform better as compared to well-established competitive models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the problem of defending against spoofing attacks without a secret key. We address the problem using the Physical-Layer-Authentication (PLA) because of its high security, low overhead, and high compatibility. However, many PLA schemes have the following limitations: quantization errors, local optimums, and performance loss due to the change in the communication environment. In this paper, two phase-noise-based PLA schemes are proposed to address the limitations of the prior schemes. We denote the first scheme as the Multiple Phase Noises PLA (MPP) scheme, which realizes the PLA by using multiple phase noise innovations. Note that since the MPP scheme avoids using any quantization algorithm, it outperforms the prior schemes on the authentication performance. We denote the second scheme as the Enhanced Multiple Phase Noises PLA (EMPP) scheme, which introduces an artificial random phase to the transmitted symbols at the transmitter to further improve the authentication performance. The theoretical analyses of the proposed schemes over fading channels are provided, where the closed-form expressions are derived. Theoretical comparisons between the proposed schemes and prior schemes are provided. The theoretical analyses and simulation results demonstrated the superiority of the proposed schemes. In comparison with the prior schemes, the MPP scheme achieves 13% authentication-performance gain without demodulation-performance loss, while the EMPP scheme achieves 42% authentication-performance gain with merely 16% demodulation-performance loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the overview and rationale behind the Decoder-Side Depth Estimation (DSDE) mode of the MPEG Immersive Video (MIV) standard, using the Geometry Absent profile, for efficient compression of immersive multiview video. A MIV bitstream generated by an encoder operating in the DSDE mode does not include depth maps. It only contains the information required to reconstruct them in the client or in the cloud: decoded views and metadata. The paper explains the technical details and techniques supported by this novel MIV DSDE mode. The description additionally includes the specification on Geometry Assistance Supplemental Enhancement Information which helps to reduce the complexity of depth estimation, when performed in the cloud or at the decoder side. The depth estimation in MIV is a non-normative part of the decoding process, therefore, any method can be used to compute the depth maps. This paper lists a set of requirements for depth estimation, induced by the specific characteristics of the DSDE. The depth estimation reference software, continuously and collaboratively developed with MIV to meet these requirements, is presented in this paper. Several original experimental results are presented. The efficiency of the DSDE is compared to two MIV profiles. The combined non-transmission of depth maps and efficient coding of textures enabled by the DSDE leads to efficient compression and rendering quality improvement compared to the usual encoder-side depth estimation. Moreover, results of the first evaluation of state-of-the-art multiview depth estimators in the DSDE context, including machine learning techniques, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a data assimilation network is proposed to tackle the challenges of domain generalization for person re-identification (ReID). Most of the existing research efforts only focus on single-dataset issues, and the trained models are difficult to generalize to unseen scenarios. This paper presents a distinctive idea to improve the generality of the model by assimilating three types of images: style-variant images, misaligned images and unlabeled images. The latter two are often ignored in the previous domain generalization ReID studies. In this paper, a non-local convolutional block attention module is designed for assimilating the misaligned images, and an attention adversary network is introduced to correct it. A progressive augmented memory is designed for assimilating the unlabeled images by progressive learning. Moreover, we propose an attention adversary difference loss for attention correction, and a labeling-guide discriminative embedding loss for progressive learning. Rather than designing a specific feature extractor that is robust to style shift as in most previous domain generalization work, we propose a data assimilation meta-learning procedure to train the proposed network, so that it learns to assimilate style-variant images. It is worth mentioning that we add an unlabeled augmented dataset to the source domain to tackle the domain generalization ReID tasks. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art domain generalization methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A good quality stability model is a key factor for accurate power system operations.Inaccurate parameters of the stability models affect the decision making which paves the way for serious consequences. Thus, it is necessary to calibrate the stability model parameters in a regular manner. There are several calibration methods in the literature which are based on simultaneous estimation of the parameters and states. However, not all of the model parameters are well estimable simultaneously. Simultaneous estimation of parameters with high collinearity may result in biased calibration results. In this paper, the trajectory sensitivity method is used to detect the sensitive parameters and construct the sensitivity matrix. Then, parameters with high linear dependency are identified using the sensitivity matrix. It is shown that, despite the high sensitivity of a parameter, its estimability degrades as the collinearity with other parameters increase. In this paper an identifiability analysis that detects the collinearity among the sensitive parameters is proposed. The proposed method is validated using WSCC 9-Bus System. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bent line expectile regression model can describe the effect of a covariate on the response variable with two different straight lines, which intersect at an unknown change-point. Due to the existence of the change-point, the objective function of the model is not differentiable with respect to the change-point, so it cannot be solved by the method of the traditional linear expectile regression model. For this model, a new estimation method is proposed by a smoothing technique, that is, using Gaussian kernel function to approximate the indicator function in the objective function. It can not only estimate the regression coefficients and change-point location simultaneously, but also have better estimation effect, which compensates for the insufficiency of the previous estimation methods. Under the given regularity conditions, the theoretical proofs of the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators are derived. There are two parts of numerical simulations in this paper. Simulation 1 discusses various error distributions at different expectile levels under different conditions, the results show that the mean values of the biases of the estimation method in this paper, and other indicators, are very small, which indicates the robust property of the new method. Simulation 2 considers the symmetric and asymmetric bent lien expectile regression models, the results show that the estimated values of the estimation method in this paper are similar to the true values, which indicates the estimation effect and large sample performance of the proposed method are excellent. In the application research, the method in this paper is applied to the Arctic annual average temperature data and the Nile annual average flow data. The research shows that the standard errors of the estimation method in this paper are very similar to 0, indicating that the parameter estimation accuracy of the new method is very high, and the location of the change-point can be accurately estimated, which further confirms that the new method is effective and feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the detection and identification of errors in the parameters of three-phase transposed as well as untransposed transmission line (TL) models used by various network applications. Such detailed models are increasingly needed in particular by power system applications where loads may not be balanced and/or TLs may not be symmetrical, and a full detailed three-phase solution may have to be obtained. To address this problem, the paper proposes an efficient algorithm for detection, identification, and estimation of parameter errors using synchronized phasor measurements. The suspect TL is detected using the modal domain networks in the first stage. The developed algorithm extends the previously developed largest normalized Lagrange multiplier (NLM) test for positive sequence parameters to the full coupled three-phase lines. An estimation method is also proposed for estimating the erroneous parameters, which takes into account the correlation of the parameters. To illustrate the effectiveness of the method, several tests are performed on the IEEE 118-bus system and a large 3474-bus utility system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an opportunity in modern power systems to explore the demand flexibility by incentivizing consumers with dynamic prices. In this paper, we quantify demand flexibility using an efficient tool called time-varying elasticity, whose value may change depending on the prices and decision dynamics. This tool is particularly useful for evaluating the demand response potential and system reliability. Recent empirical evidences have highlighted some abnormal features when studying demand flexibility, such as delayed responses and vanishing elasticities after price spikes. Existing methods fail to capture these complicated features because they heavily rely on some predefined (often over-simplified) regression expressions. Instead, this paper proposes a model-free methodology to automatically and accurately derive the optimal estimation pattern. We further develop a two-stage estimation process with Siamese long short-term memory (LSTM) networks. Here, a LSTM network encodes the price response, while the other network estimates the time-varying elasticities. In the case study, the proposed framework and models are validated to achieve higher overall estimation accuracy and better description for various abnormal features when compared with the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating depth from RGB images is a long-standing ill-posed problem, which has been explored for decades by the computer vision, graphics, and machine learning communities. Among the existing techniques, stereo matching remains one of the most widely used in the literature due to its strong connection to the human binocular system. Traditionally, stereo-based depth estimation has been addressed through matching hand-crafted features across multiple images. Despite the extensive amount of research, these traditional techniques still suffer in the presence of highly textured areas, large uniform regions, and occlusions. Motivated by their growing success in solving various 2D and 3D vision problems, deep learning for stereo-based depth estimation has attracted a growing interest from the community, with more than 150 papers published in this area between 2014 and 2019. This new generation of methods has demonstrated a significant leap in performance, enabling applications such as autonomous driving and augmented reality. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of this new and continuously growing field of research, summarize the most commonly used pipelines, and discuss their benefits and limitations. In retrospect of what has been achieved so far, we also conjecture what the future may hold for deep learning-based stereo for depth estimation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on optimal time-of-arrival (TOA) sensor placement for multiple target localization simultaneously. In previous work, different solutions only using non-shared sensors to localize multiple targets have been developed. Those methods localize different targets one-by-one or use a large number of mobile sensors with many limitations, such as low effectiveness and high network complexity. In this paper, firstly, a novel optimization model for multi-target localization incorporating shared sensors is formulated. Secondly, the systematic theoretical results of the optimal sensor placement are derived and concluded using the A-optimality criterion, i.e., minimizing the trace of the inverse Fisher information matrix (FIM), based on rigorous geometrical derivations. The reachable optimal trace of Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) is also derived. It can provide optimal conditions for many cases and even closed form solutions for some special cases. Thirdly, a novel numerical optimization algorithm to quickly find and calculate the (sub-)optimal placement and achievable lower bound is explored, when the model becomes complicated with more practical constraints. Then, a hybrid method for solving the most general situation, integrating both the analytical and numerical solutions, is proposed. Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed theoretical and mathematical methods are demonstrated by several simulation examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a Kalman filter-based method to estimate the magnitude and phases of currents and voltages of a single-phase transmission line. Unlike common-place practices, in which phasors are estimated by using Fourier-based or least squares methods, the standard Kalman filter algorithm is used. We represent the transmission line by using a steady-state model in which the phasors of voltages and currents are considered to be in the complex d - q domain. We then show the estimation performance of the filter-based estimator by means of a numerical simulation of a medium-length transmission line and compare the proposed method to standard methods for phasor estimation. The results presented show that the filter is highly efficient and encourages future research on the estimation of the electric parameters of transmission lines by using the proposed method. We conclude the paper by reasoning that the proposed estimation method could be used in phasor measurement devices for improved monitoring and control capabilities of electrical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a four-parameter weighted Poisson distribution that includes and generalizes the weighted Poisson distribution proposed by Castillo and Pérez-Casany and the Conway-Maxwell-Poisson distribution, as well as other well-known distributions. It is a distribution that is a member of the exponential family and is an exponential combination formulation between the weighted Poisson distribution proposed by Castillo and Pérez-Casany and the Conway-Maxwell-Poisson distribution. This new distribution with an additional parameter of dispersion is more flexible, and the Fisher dispersion index can be greater than, equal to, or less than one. This last property allows it to model over-dispersed data as well as under-dispersed or equi-dispersed data. Many other properties of the new distribution are studied in this article. The parameters are estimated by two methods: the least squares and the maximum likelihood methods. The properties of the estimators are not studied because they follow directly. Two examples of application to real data, taking into account situations of overdispersion and underdispersion, are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a position sensorless operation of a brushless DC (BLDC) motor based on an efficient state estimation algorithm. In the proposed method, the speed and rotor position estimation is performed only by measuring the phase currents and line voltages. Estimated values are used to determine the commutation logic and speed controller. The line voltage difference is employed, which eliminates the need for neutral. The states estimation is based on the particle filter that doesn't have the limitations and drawbacks of the Extended Kalman Filter. First, there is no assumption for the probability density functions of the measurement and process noise, it works for Gaussian and non-Gaussian noises. Second, it is not based on any linearization and can efficiently estimate the states of nonlinear systems. Moreover, a suitable method is adopted for resampling step, which improves the estimation performance and does not increase the complexity. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed sensorless method. The proposed method is more robust than other common techniques like EKF at different sampling times. The experimental results show the possibility of the BLDC motor states estimation with appropriate accuracy in steady-state and dynamic operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we emphasize a new one-parameter distribution with support as [ 1 , + ∞) . It is constructed from the inverse method applied to an understudied one-parameter unit distribution, the unit Teissier distribution. Some properties are investigated, such as the mode, quantiles, stochastic dominance, heavy-tailed nature, moments, etc. Among the strengths of the distribution are the following: (i) the closed-form expressions and flexibility of the main functions, and in particular, the probability density function is unimodal and the hazard rate function is increasing or unimodal; (ii) the manageability of the moments; and, more importantly, (iii) it provides a real alternative to the famous Pareto distribution, also with support as [ 1 , + ∞) . Indeed, the proposed distribution has different functionalities but also benefits from the heavy-right-tailed nature, which is demanded in many applied fields (finance, the actuarial field, quality control, medicine, etc.). Furthermore, it can be used quite efficiently in a statistical setting. To support this claim, the maximum likelihood, Anderson–Darling, right-tailed Anderson–Darling, left-tailed Anderson–Darling, Cramér–Von Mises, least squares, weighted least-squares, maximum product of spacing, minimum spacing absolute distance, and minimum spacing absolute-log distance estimation methods are examined to estimate the unknown unique parameter. A Monte Carlo simulation is used to compare the performance of the obtained estimates. Additionally, the Bayesian estimation method using an informative gamma prior distribution under the squared error loss function is discussed. Data on the COVID mortality rate and the timing of pain relief after receiving an analgesic are considered to illustrate the applicability of the proposed distribution. Favorable results are highlighted, supporting the importance of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new lifetime distribution called compounded geometric-mixture exponential distribution is proposed by compounding the mixture exponential and geometric distributions. Some properties of the new distribution such as survival function, hazard function, moments, Lorenz and Bonferroni curves, etc. are obtained. The estimations of four parameters of the new model are studied by several methods. A Monte Carlo simulation study is performed to understand the behavior of estimators. Two real data applications are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The choice of an estimation method has received considerable attention in the Operations Research literature. In this paper we depart from the standard use of linex and double-linex loss functions which are widely used in parameter estimation and forecasting problems and we propose a non-standard use for them. Specifically, we propose to use the corresponding linex and double-linex error densities as models for the errors of a regression problem when more emphasis should be placed on over-estimation or under-estimation of errors. The new techniques are applied to synthetic as well real data concerning the role of management in production as well as to an application of forecasting volatility in intradaily data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]